RBCT Chapter 39 Hong Kong in Turmoil, Li Xiaohe Makes a Big Mistake
Chapter 39 Hong Kong in Turmoil, Li Xiaohe Makes a Big Mistake
Lee Gardens. This 035-story shopping mall boasts spacious shopping areas and a grand, classic interior design. The two-story entrance lobby features a transparent glass curtain wall, inlaid with granite and glass panels. The mall's roof is covered with a neoclassical glass canopy, allowing sunlight to filter in naturally and creating a comfortable and pleasant atmosphere.
In addition, there is a famous place here called Lee Stage. Lee Hysan built Lee Stage on part of Lee Garden Hill so that his mother could enjoy Cantonese opera.
The building is constructed of marble, with a small tower atop the main entrance, eaves on the front and sides, and a round arched dome on top decorated with nine golden dragons in gold leaf. The top of the stage features a carving of a phoenix facing the sun, while the lower level features a carving of two dragons vying for a pearl. A couplet hangs on either side of the stage: "Benefiting the southeast, the people of all nations, adorned in their finery, arrive at this scenic spot; the imperial edicts and decrees protect the stage, and the flutes and pipes play in the heavens."
The stage could rotate 360 degrees and automatically change scenery, making it the only theater in Hong Kong at the time with this equipment. The entire stage was mainly used for Cantonese opera performances. Later, the famous Miss Hong Kong pageant was basically held at this Lee Theatre, which has become a landmark of Hong Kong.
When Gu Yuhan arrived, she was accompanied by a number of bodyguards.
To be honest, although my family rose through the ranks of gangs, the Li family started by selling opium. If we're really talking about who's the toughest, they're far more ruthless than my family.
When Gu Yuhan arrived, she found that Shao Yifu was also there.
"Oh, Sixth Uncle, you're here too!" Gu Yuhan smiled, appearing completely harmless. "How are you feeling? Are you feeling better?"
Shao Yifu also gave Gu Yuhan a deep look. Today, Li Xiaohe and Shao Yifu actually wanted to meet with Gu Zhenguo so that Gu Zhenguo could persuade Gu Yuhan not to be so arrogant.
However, Gu Zhen felt that Shao Yifu was not qualified to discuss the issue of being on equal footing with him, so he didn't pay much attention to him and sent Gu Yuhan instead.
Hearing Gu Yuhan ask if he was feeling better, Shao Yifu's face twitched. "Yuhan, I'm very grateful that you came today; it's an honor for me!" Li Xiaohe said slowly from the side, "Come, come, watch the show!"
On stage, Cantonese opera has already begun to play.
Gu Yuhan couldn't help but grit his teeth after listening; he couldn't understand a word of it. He glanced at Shao Yifu and then at Li Xiaohe, who seemed to be enjoying the conversation, while to Gu Yuhan it felt like a shackle.
Unfortunately, as a young man of the new era, he simply couldn't muster any interest in these things. However, compared to listening to the opera, Gu Yuhan was quite interested in the food on the table.
"If Lin Xiangru hadn't died, the State of Zhao probably wouldn't have been so easily crippled by the State of Qin, and Bai Qi wouldn't have had the chance to destroy the State of Zhao forty years."
If Sima Xiangru had not died,
"Yun Chunyi's army suffered heavy losses, and Bai Qi had no chance to defeat the 10,000-strong army!" Li Xiaohe couldn't help but exclaim.
"Mr. Li!"
Gu Yuhan couldn't help but say, "Don't you know that Lin Xiangru earnestly advised King Xiaocheng of Zhao not to appoint Zhao Kuo?" Li Xiaohe was stunned. Gu Yuhan continued, "He told the King that appointing Zhao Kuo based solely on reputation was like gluing the tuning pegs to a stringed instrument before playing it—inflexible and lacking adaptability. Zhao Kuo only knew how to read the books left by his father; he didn't understand how to be flexible." The King didn't listen and still appointed Zhao Kuo as general. Later, Zhao Kuo indeed suffered a disastrous defeat; 400,000 Zhao soldiers were buried alive, and the state of Zhao was almost destroyed!"
Gu Yuhan took out a toothpick, examined his teeth, and said with a smile, "Alright, Mr. Li, let's get down to business!" Li Xiaohe also disliked Gu Yuhan. While they were watching the show, Gu Yuhan was enjoying his meal, seemingly showing no respect for his elders. He let out a slight breath and slowly said, "Yuhan, regarding your matter with the Shao family, I hope both of you will take a step back!"
"Mr. Li, are you hoping that I will stop causing trouble for Shaw Brothers?" Gu Yuhan smiled as he looked at Li Xuehe.
Li Xiaohe nodded: "Yes, Yu, no matter what, Uncle Liu is a senior, so we should give him some face, and give me some face too. Return all the artists who were forcibly signed to TVB to Uncle Liu, and stop causing trouble!" Gu Yuhan smiled and slowly said: "Mr. Li, I'm afraid this matter isn't so easy!"
Li Xiaohe was slightly taken aback: "What?"
"I've already signed contracts with them. Even if I release them, I'm afraid they won't agree!" Gu Yuhan spread his hands, speaking slowly.
He said, "They don't want to go back either, and besides, there are breach of contract penalties, which I've already paid quite a bit of!"
Shao Yifu's face was extremely ugly: "You haven't paid me the penalty for breach of contract, and now we're still in court!" "Then you should at least calculate the lawyer's fees!" Gu Yuhan spread his hands: "I've spent a lot on lawyer's fees!" Shao Yifu felt like he was having a stroke. Although Gu Yuhan had poached him, he was still dragging his feet on paying the penalty for breach of contract.
One artist after another is suing you, one artist after another is causing you trouble. Each artist pays a little compensation, and with Gu Yuhan's methods of causing trouble, it will be a long time before Shao Yifu fully receives the breach of contract damages.
Li Xiaohe slowly spoke, "Ayu, give me some face and return the person, okay?" "Mr. Li!"
Gu Yuhan smiled and said, "What did you just say? That we should both back down? You asked me to back down and return all these artists to Uncle Liu? Well, I'm just curious, what is Uncle Liu going to do by backing down?"
Li Xiaohe frowned, then said, "I'll make sure Sixth Uncle promises he won't cause you any more trouble!" "Ha!"
Gu Yuhan laughed: "Mr. Li, I'm young and don't understand things. Could you translate for me what 'each taking a step back' means?"
Li Xiaohe was stunned for a moment, then said, "You are the junior, and Sixth Uncle is the elder. Do you even know what it means to respect your elders!"
Gu Yuhan waited for Li Xiaohe: "You translate for me what 'each taking a step back' means!"
Li Xiaohe said, "Don't you know what it means to compromise? You poached Uncle Six's artists first, so are you not allowed to retaliate? Now that you've caused this mess, do you still expect Uncle Six to apologize to you?"
Gu Yuhan slammed his fist on the table and started cursing: "Damn it, I'm asking you to translate for me what 'each side takes a step back' means!"
Lee Hyo-wah was also furious: "I'm telling you to return all the artists to Uncle Six, and from now on, you two will each go your own way and leave each other alone!"
Gu Yuhan continued cursing: "Fine, I think I understand what you mean, Mr. Li. To put it simply, I poached people with high prices and paid breach of contract fees, which offended Uncle Liu. Uncle Liu broke my man's leg, and it's my fault?"
"I poach people, I poach them with high prices, that's market behavior. Shaw, don't try to act all aggrieved here. If you want to poach them back, fine, pay up. Otherwise, you can throw away your old face and see if anyone's willing to come back for you!"
Li Xiaohe stared at Gu Yuhan: "Yuhan, so you're saying the talks broke down?"
Gu Yuhan sized up Li Xiaohe, and said with a forced smile, "You keep telling me to back down, and you call that backing down?"
Li Xiaohe's eyes were like knives: "Young man, don't be too impetuous. If you really cause a huge mess, even your father won't be able to protect you."
"Alright!" Gu Yuhan laughed, standing up and supporting himself on the table. He said with a grin, "Your Li family is awesome, your Li family is amazing! I just want to know what your Li family can do to my Gu family. I'll be watching!"
Li Xiaohe was also furious, while Gu Yuhan had absolutely no intention of continuing the conversation. Originally, if he had simply given in, Gu Yuhan might have let it go. But since you're not going to talk to me properly and want me to spit out what I've already swallowed, do you really think I, Gu Yuhan, am someone to be trifled with?
Then, Gu Yuhan stood up straight, glanced at Li Xiaohe and Shao Yifu, and said with a smile, "Mr. Li, Sixth Uncle, you two keep up the good work. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can do to me!"
After saying that, Gu Yuhan turned and left.
boom!
Li Xiaohe angrily smashed the wine glass in his hand to pieces. To be honest, being scolded like this by a junior was indeed a strong sense of humiliation for Li Xiaohe. After all, the Li family was one of the four major families in Hong Kong. Even if they were not as glorious as they used to be, they were not someone that Gu Yuhan could deal with so easily.
However, this is Gu Yuhan's attitude now. Afraid of you?
Since you're going to be my opponent, then I'll show you what I'm capable of. —Gu Jia
"The talks broke down?" Gu Zhenguo was slightly taken aback, but didn't seem to care at all. He just smiled and said, "The Li family is an old and established family, but unfortunately, they have no idea that times have changed!"
Gu Zhenguo spoke these words with a calm and composed demeanor.
There was no way around it; with 4.5 billion US dollars in hand, it was hard for Gu Zhenguo not to be calm and arrogant. Gu Yuhan smiled and continued, "Dad, I think the Li family is definitely going to make a move, either targeting Hutchison Whampoa or getting the triads involved. I think we should be more careful!"
Gu Zhenguo said, "Don't worry, I've already made all the arrangements. Whether it's the triads or Wo Kee, we have enough capital. They can't cause any trouble. The Li family will have to think twice before trying to mobilize the triads. After you offered a bounty of 100 million last time, what triad would dare to mess with us so easily?"
Gu Yuhan hesitated for a moment, then slowly said, "I'm considering another issue now!" Gu Zhenguo asked, "What issue?"
"How much are the Li family's properties worth?" Gu Yuhan narrowed his eyes slightly and slowly asked, "Isn't Li Hysan Properties listed on the stock exchange? Look, is it possible for us to acquire Li Hysan Properties?"
"I'll investigate!" Gu Zhenguo took a deep breath, then looked at Gu Yuhan with surprise: "You're planning to take advantage of them?" "It's not that I'm planning to take advantage of them!" Gu Yuhan slowly said, "We have nearly 20 billion Hong Kong dollars, and we have to spend it no matter what. The US dollar is appreciating now, but I think it won't be long before the US dollar interest rate drops. At that time, the US dollars we hold might not be worth much!"
Gu Yuhan continued, "So, my current view is that we need to quickly convert the money we have into assets, preferably mature ones. Right now, we have enough capital to take advantage of the situation and acquire as much as we can. And since the Li family has offended us, we'll use them as a scapegoat!"
"To be honest, I also want to know what the Li family is planning, what their plan is...!" Gu Zhenguo suddenly said.
Then he laughed: "I hope they won't let us down!"
Both Gu Zhenguo and Gu Yuhan were calm and composed at this moment.
Gu Zhenguo then asked, "By the way, how's the development of Tseung Kwan O going?"
"We haven't attracted any people yet!" Gu Yuhan chuckled. "We'll talk about it once they come. Once they've gathered, we can start speculating on real estate. In the short term, I'll arrange for some artists and celebrities to come here and turn it into a bar street. Let's liven up Tseung Kwan O first!"
Gu Zhenguo nodded: "Okay! I heard you're also planning to open a factory in Shenzhen!"
"Yes, I've acquired several television production lines from the US, mainly for color televisions. Labor costs are very cheap on the mainland. I plan to go to the mainland after the Spring Festival to make some arrangements. Then we can lower the price of our televisions and sell them to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan!"
Gu Zhenguo asked, "Aren't you afraid of losing out?"
"We definitely won't lose money, Dad. I've always told you, what we need is technological development, core technology!"
Gu Yuhan smiled and said, "In real estate, we're basically just landlords. This model is only suitable for Hong Kong. But if we have the technology, we'll have much more. The mainland is very important to us!" Gu Zhenguo was completely ignorant of these things and didn't say anything more. However, the father and son still talked a lot. Gu Yuhan's thinking and knowledge were naturally out of touch with this era, and Gu Zhenguo always made some unique discoveries every time he talked with his son.
Time passed day by day.
Two weeks before the Lunar New Year, news quickly spread that the ICAC was investigating a group of Hong Kong officials.
The news immediately sent shockwaves through the entire city of Hong Kong.
To be honest, the ICAC hadn't taken any action since dealing with Lui Lok and his gang, so this sudden move has shocked many Hong Kong citizens.
This investigation involved a total of thirty-five officials.
They all heard that these officials had all received bribes from the Gu family, which is why the Gu family was able to easily obtain the development rights for Tseung Kwan O.
The news caused an uproar in Hong Kong. Countless media outlets began reporting on it frantically. To be honest, the Gu family wasn't entirely without flaws; after all, they had a history with triads. This immediately created a significant impact on Hong Kong's public opinion, with countless people condemning them and demanding a thorough investigation to see if the Gu family had any shady secrets behind their actions.