RBCT Chapter 419: Almost a Death
Chapter 419: Almost a Death
As soon as the mother and daughter left, Huang Xiaochuan looked around and then called the housekeeper over.
"What's your name?"
"Mr. Huang, I am Li Xianyao, the butler here!"
"Butler Li, could you please take me to my room? I'm a little tired and want to rest early. If your young lady asks later, just tell her this. Oh, and don't call me for dinner; I already ate a lot on the plane!"
"Yes, Mr. Huang! Your room is ready, please follow me!"
As Huang Xiaochuan walked, he asked, "Have my people been settled in?"
"Mr. Huang, please rest assured, everything has been arranged!"
Huang Xiaochuan nodded to indicate that he understood.
The main building has an area of about 2,000 square meters and two floors. There are twelve bedrooms on the second floor. The room that Huang Xiaochuan stayed in was not the largest, but it was still more than 80 square meters.
The study and walk-in closet were fully equipped, but the bedroom was too big, which made Huang Xiaochuan a little uncomfortable, although the bed looked pretty good.
Huang Xiaochuan looked around the room and then nodded.
"Thank you for your trouble, Butler Li. You can go back to your work. I want to rest now. Please tell your young lady that we'll meet at the restaurant at nine o'clock tomorrow morning."
"Okay!" The butler bowed slightly, turned and left the room, making sure to close the door behind him.
When Zhang Yun returned inside and found Huang Xiaochuan gone, she asked, "Where is Mr. Huang?"
"Miss, Mr. Huang asked me to tell you that he is a little tired and needs to rest early to adjust to the time difference. You don't need to call him for dinner. He said he will have breakfast with you at nine o'clock tomorrow morning."
"knew!"
Huang Xiaochuan was awakened by birdsong in the early morning. He got out of bed sleepily, walked to the window, and pulled back the curtains. The morning sunlight immediately shone in, and the sudden bright light made Huang Xiaochuan's eyes extremely uncomfortable. He shielded his eyes with his hand, and after adjusting for a while, he squinted and looked out the window again.
After admiring the beautiful scenery outside the window for a while, Huang Xiaochuan changed into a short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts, put on a pair of running shoes, and planned to go for a run around the manor. He had already observed the manor when he entered it yesterday. The manor has forest trails and lakeside paths, which are very suitable for running.
When they went out, they met Zhou Wei and his friends who were exercising in the garden. After exchanging greetings, the group followed Huang Xiaochuan to go for a run.
"How did you sleep last night?"
Zhou Wei replied, "I slept very well. There were even frogs croaking by the lake at night. I haven't heard that in a long time since I lived in the city."
"Yes! It's been a long time since I've heard it!" Reminded by Zhou Wei, Huang Xiaochuan also realized that he hadn't heard frogs croaking in a long time. He often heard them in the summer when he was in a small town in Suzhou, but he didn't hear them in the city.
Hearing the croaking of frogs gives me a feeling of returning to the countryside.
After the sun rose, the temperature rose quickly. Huang Xiaochuan hadn't even finished the five-kilometer run when he felt the temperature had risen significantly. Combined with the exercise, he was sweating profusely.
At 8:55, Huang Xiaochuan, who had taken a shower and changed his clothes, appeared at the restaurant.
"Good morning!" Huang Xiaochuan greeted Zhang Yun.
"You look great! I saw you went for a run this morning. It's a pity I haven't been feeling well these past few days, otherwise I would have gone for a run with you."
"Hehe!" Huang Xiaochuan didn't respond.
Huang Xiaochuan sat down to enjoy his breakfast, but not seeing Zhang Yun's mother, he politely asked her a question.
"Where's Auntie?"
Zhang Yun replied casually, "Oh! She went to New York this morning."
Huang Xiaochuan nodded. No wonder he saw two cars driving out of the manor when he was jogging this morning.
After breakfast, Huang Xiaochuan said, "Let's sit in the pavilion for a while. I have something to tell you."
Zhang Yun glanced at Huang Xiaochuan. She knew that Huang Xiaochuan wouldn't come to America unless something serious happened. The two walked side by side to the pavilion in the garden. On the way, they encountered a pair of wild ducks with more than a dozen ducklings. They weren't afraid of people at all and swaggered past Huang Xiaochuan, heading straight for the lake.
Huang Xiaochuan turned back to look at the family that had just passed by him and asked, "Are those ducks domesticated?"
It seemed Zhang Yun was already used to it. She walked straight toward the pavilion: "Wild ones, sometimes there are one or two hundred."
"It must taste delicious roasted!" Huang Xiaochuan looked at the duck and immediately thought of roast duck.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Yun immediately stopped in her tracks and stared wide-eyed at Huang Xiaochuan.
Huang Xiaochuan said dismissively, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I think you're asking for trouble. Do you know why there are so many ducks in America? Because eating them can land you in jail. Don't believe me? Try it!"
"Oh, I see. Never mind then!"
Zhang Yun was amused by Huang Xiaochuan's regretful expression.
Huang Xiaochuan looked at the woman who kept laughing with displeasure. What was so funny?
"I plan to short the Thai baht."
Huang Xiaochuan's words exploded in Zhang Yun's ears like a nuclear bomb.
She stared at Huang Xiaochuan in shock, as if he were a monster.
Is this guy crazy?
If he dares to do that, it would be tantamount to going against a country's financial system. What's the difference between that and a mantis trying to stop a chariot?
He's insane! He actually fantasizes about confronting a sovereign nation!
Huang Xiaochuan didn't even look at Zhang Yun, because he knew without guessing what kind of expression Zhang Yun would have at that moment.
Huang Xiaochuan continued, "I recently completed a paper that mainly studies the economies of some rapidly developing countries in Southeast Asia. You should know that I asked you to send me a lot of journals and materials from some economic research institutions."
My research revealed that these countries have a large economic bubble, and they have adopted a fixed exchange rate pegged to the US dollar.
However, their financial regulation is practically non-existent, and a large amount of loans have flowed into the heavily inflated real estate sector, leading to a massive influx of hot money into these countries.
If someone pops this bubble, it will create a domino effect. With such a great opportunity presented to me, do you think I could just let it slip by?
"Do you want to be the one to pop the bubble?"
Huang Xiaochuan laughed nonchalantly: "I'm not the one who popped the bubble, but someone must have their eye on such a lamb to the slaughter. I'm just following behind and playing along, since we don't have many ammunition at our disposal."
Zhang Yun couldn't help but scoff, "Not bad, you do know how much you have left?"
Over the years, Changhong Investment has achieved exceptionally high returns in venture capital, bonds, stocks, and futures investments. The combined value of its equity, stocks, and bonds has exceeded four billion US dollars. The rapid increase in assets is due to the skyrocketing stock prices of several internet companies.
After 95 went public, Microsoft's stock skyrocketed, and Gaze's stock also surged. Changhong Investment held a large number of shares in both companies, so Zhang Yun found that the company's assets had increased significantly every day when she opened her eyes.
This doesn't even include the returns from other investments. Yuho also successfully went public in May of this year, with its market value reaching as high as $600 million on the first day of trading. Just over two months later, Yuho has grown into a technology company with a market value of over $1 billion, and Changhong Investment is its sole major shareholder.
Other investments have also yielded astonishingly high returns. According to the financial statements for the first two quarters of the first half of the year, Changhong Investment's assets have increased several dozen times and are still growing.
The equity of some startups with low returns was successively sold to other investment companies. These companies believed that Changhong Investment had a unique screening method in the venture capital field and that the success rate of the projects invested by this company was frighteningly high. Therefore, even projects rejected by Changhong Investment were taken over by a large number of small and medium-sized venture capital companies.
Therefore, Changhong Investment not only boasts high returns on investment, but also astonishingly high profits every year.
Huang Xiaochuan ignored Zhang Yun and directly issued an order: "I need you to do one thing, which is to gradually mortgage the assets under Changhong Investment according to the timetable I have set, and then purchase Thai baht and related financial derivatives from the offshore market. The reason I came here this time is to work with you to develop the timetable."
Seeing Huang Xiaochuan's very serious expression, Zhang Yun stopped questioning his ideas. She had known Huang Xiaochuan for quite some time and highly regarded his unique analytical abilities in the financial and economic fields.
Since Huang Xiaochuan dared to do this, he must have his reasons. This little fox is very cunning and won't put all his eggs in one basket, so Zhang Yun also took this matter seriously.
Over the next few days, the two worked together to devise a meticulous plan.
The reason for doing this is that it involves a great deal of risk.
Although the operational methods are complex, they are highly feasible. They involve purchasing Thai baht and related financial derivatives in the offshore market, as well as utilizing highly leveraged tools such as interest rate swaps.
Using assets under Changhong Investment as collateral to obtain cash flow can quickly provide the necessary funds, but if the short selling fails, it will lead to a break in the company's cash flow and even bankruptcy.
Borrowing money incurs costs, and Huang Xiaochuan's loan isn't just a few million or tens of millions; it's in the hundreds of millions.
The daily interest generated is an astonishing figure, so how to borrow the money and for how long are all matters. Borrowing too early means paying more interest, which is not worthwhile. Borrowing too late means you can't use the money in time and can't do anything with it, just letting it sit in the account and losing interest for nothing.
Therefore, a strict timetable needs to be established, and assets will be mortgaged in succession to obtain a large amount of Thai baht according to this timetable. Once Thailand's foreign exchange reserves are exhausted, it will definitely announce the abandonment of the fixed exchange rate. At that time, the exchange rate will plummet.
The Thai baht borrowed back using the mortgaged assets had already been converted into US dollars. When the Thai baht depreciated to the point of being practically worthless, they would then use a small amount of US dollars to buy back the Thai baht and repay the Thai bank.
The difference in price is the profit from shorting the Thai baht, which is how Soros created the Southeast Asian financial crisis.
In her spare time, Zhang Yun would take Huang Xiaochuan horseback riding. Huang Xiaochuan wasn't interested in the sport and would always just watch from the sidelines because he was afraid of falling off the horse.
A week later, Huang Xiaochuan prepared to return to China according to his travel itinerary.
Zhang Yun, on the other hand, was about to implement Huang Xiaochuan's ideas according to his schedule. After a hasty farewell, Zhang Yun went to New York to contact various banks and obtain forward contracts for Thai baht and other financial derivatives from them.
After a flight of more than ten hours, Huang Xiaochuan returned to his home in Shanghai at the end of July. Strangely, no one was home, not even Da Gun and Xiao Gun. So Huang Xiaochuan made a phone call to Yu Xiang.
Only then did Huang Xiaochuan realize what had happened. He rushed to his uncle Zeng Jiahua's house, where his mother-in-law Zheng Aiying and his wife Yu Xiang were. However, he only saw Da Gun; Xiao Gun was not at home.
Only after asking did I learn that someone in the family had almost died.
This story begins a few days ago.
Mi San was a thief who broke into doors and picked locks. In Beijing dialect, he was called a "Buddha" (佛爷), which actually means a petty thief.
This time, he was asked by his acquaintance Lu Wenchun to steal something from a family in Shanghai. After arriving in Shanghai, he scouted the place beforehand and confirmed that no one was home during the day, which made things easier.
"Brother Chun, just relax! I'll get what you want out tomorrow. I'm not bragging, but no matter how well he hides it, it won't escape my eyes. This is what we do for a living."
In an unnamed hotel, Lu Wenchun and Mi San were drinking with a few cooked dishes.
Lu Wenchun picked up the teacup containing the wine and clinked it against Mi San's: "Okay, after it's done, I won't treat you unfairly, I'll add this amount to your salary."
As he spoke, he stretched out a hand.
Mi San grinned and downed the wine in his glass in one gulp.
"Master Chun is truly generous. I knew that as long as it's a task assigned by Master Chun, I wouldn't suffer any losses."
However, Mi San had a question: "Master Chun, this family is supposed to be quite wealthy, so why don't we see any dogs in the yard?"
Lu Wenchun picked up a piece of roasted gluten with his chopsticks, stuffed it into his mouth, frowned, chewed it, and swallowed it, still complaining.
"Why put so much sugar in the food? It's too sweet! Why do Southerners like sweet food so much?"
After complaining, Lu Wenchun voiced his guess.
"People in Shanghai are so petty! If they keep a dog, the constant barking will definitely bother the neighbors, and they'll naturally complain. Besides, how many families in Beijing can afford to keep large dogs? At most, they keep a few Pekingese or Chihuahuas as toys. Shanghai is probably the same, so don't worry!"
Mi San hadn't found this place to keep dogs even after scouting the area himself, but after hearing Lu Wenchun's explanation, he felt reassured and more confident about tomorrow's plans.
Mi San then asked, "Master Chun, this is the first time I've ever heard of silver dollars made of gold. Are those things valuable?"
"Why ask so many questions? Just get to the point. Gold is only a few dozen yuan per gram now. That piece of gold weighs at most twenty-odd grams. How much is it worth? Do the math."
Mi San certainly didn't believe Lu Wenchun's words, but considering how generous he was, he decided not to argue with him.