Hong Kong: Rise of the Kings.

Chapter 925 0913 [Hong Kong's Hardest Bone]

HSBC--
"Mr. Cha, the loan application you submitted half an hour ago has received a response. Please take a look!"

In the bank's VIP waiting area, a HSBC executive walked in and handed Jin Yong a loan application.

Jin Yong took it and smiled at the other party: "Thank you, thank you for your trouble! Originally, I had no choice but to borrow money this time, but I have been dealing with HSBC for so long, I believe I can get help..."

His smile froze, because when he opened the last page of the loan application, the HSBC manager did not sign his consent, but rather that due to special reasons, the loan would be postponed until the borrower's information and other information were complete.

"I'm sorry, is there something wrong here?" Jin Yong asked the supervisor in front of him while holding the application form, "Why was it not approved? No, you guys took the initiative to ask me if I wanted to borrow money before, but I didn't respond at that time because I had sufficient funds. Why is it that now..."

The bank manager also showed an embarrassed expression: "I'm very sorry about this, but these are the conclusions given after approval from above. Although I am the manager, I don't know the specific content."

"No way, you work in a bank, how could you not know? I have been waiting here for most of the day, and the result is like this?" Jin Yong seemed a little agitated and questioned while holding the application form.

"Mr. Cha, please calm down," the bank manager consoled him. "There's no rush for this kind of thing, right? Although you were a high-quality customer of our bank before, recently..."

The supervisor was about to explain——
"Ring ring ring..."

The phone rang.

The bank manager said, "Sorry!"

He went to the side and picked up the telephone receiver on the table. On the other end of the line was Davis, secretary of HSBC boss Shen Bi: "Hello, Mr. Shen Bi invites Mr. Cha Liangyong to his office."

"Okay, I'll inform Mr. Cha right away." The supervisor hung up the phone and turned to Jin Yong and said, "Mr. Cha, our boss invites you to sit in his office. Maybe he can give you a reasonable explanation."

"Really? It seems that Mr. Shen is more considerate. He and I are old friends." Jin Yong stood up, straightened his suit, took a deep breath, adjusted his mood, then left the waiting room and took the elevator to the office of HSBC Chairman Shen Bi.

HSBC boss Shen Bi is 48 years old this year, just one year older than Hong Kong tycoon Li Jiacheng.

Today, HSBC's market value has reached 1.5 trillion Hong Kong dollars, with annual revenue of hundreds of billions, making it one of the largest banks in the world. All of this is thanks to Shen Bi.

It can be said that the Shen Bi in front of us is the most successful and legendary tycoon in the history of HSBC.

However, this bank boss has been troubled by one thing recently, which is the feng shui problem of HSBC.

Feng Shui can be said to be a kind of metaphysics. People in Hong Kong still believe in Feng Shui. According to the author's understanding, many Hong Kong residents will look at the Feng Shui pattern of a house before buying and moving in. Some houses with good Feng Shui patterns can even be immediately priced high.

Looking at the Feng Shui pattern of Hong Kong, many people believe that Hong Kong has two dragon veins, one is from the edge of Kowloon Peninsula, and the other is from Kowloon Peninsula through Victoria Harbour to Pingdingshan. The intersection of the two dragon veins is at the HSBC Building, so the best place for Feng Shui in Hong Kong is at the HSBC Building.

People believe that HSBC's business has always been good because it occupies a good feng shui location.

However, there is one thing about the construction of the HSBC Bank that goes against common sense. Most buildings are built with their backs to mountains and face water, but the HSBC Building faces mountains with its back to water.

In order to solve this problem, the HSBC Building took a series of measures, such as erecting two big lions in front of the door, building a large staircase on the first floor, leaving the lobby empty, etc.

Until recently, the construction of the Bank of China Building opposite HSBC destroyed the feng shui pattern of the HSBC Building.

The architectural style of the Bank of China Tower is also unique. It is composed of several large triangles. From a distance, it looks like a sharp sword rising from the ground, and one of the blades of the sword of the Bank of China Tower points directly at the HSBC Tower.

Not long after the Bank of China Tower was completed, HSBC's stock price began to plummet and the bank lost a lot of money.

As the boss of HSBC Bank, Shen Bi did not believe in Feng Shui at first. Coming from Britain, he was a materialist. However, the falling stock price forced him to believe in it.

For this reason, he had to contact Du Yongxiao and ask Du Yongxiao to help find a Feng Shui master to help HSBC with its Feng Shui.

There are only a few Feng Shui masters in Hong Kong, the most famous of which are Cai Boli, the future Feng Shui master of Li Jiacheng, and Chen Bo. Chen Bo is a respectful name in the underworld. His original name is Chen Lang. He was born in 1925. His ancestral home is Sichuan. He settled in Hong Kong before liberation.

He once claimed that he came from a family of profound learning, that he was the grandson of Prince Gong of the Qing Dynasty, and that he was also a disciple of the famous Chinese painter Pu Xinyu.

When he was a child, he passed by a fortune-telling stall and developed a strong interest in fortune-telling, physiognomy, metaphysics and feng shui. His father then invited two masters to teach him this knowledge.

If Brother Hui had been interested in this kind of thing, his legs would have been broken by his parents long ago.

In 1958, 30-year-old Li Jiacheng and 33-year-old Chen Bo met by chance, and the two young men started joking with each other intentionally or unintentionally.

At that time, Li Jiacheng was not yet a superman, but just an unknown small businessman. He was somewhat resistant to quacks.

Uncle Chen: "How much wealth do you hope to have in the future to satisfy you?"

Li Jiacheng: "I would be very satisfied if I could have 30 million."

Uncle Chen, who had carefully observed Li Jiacheng, said without joking: "The wealth in your destiny is not flat, but overflowing. You will definitely become the richest man in Hong Kong in the future!"

As Chen Bo said, Li Jiacheng rose rapidly in the future. He accumulated huge wealth in several economic crises. It is unknown how many 3000 million he made. He has been ranked as the richest man in Asia for many years and is called "Superman".

Li Jiacheng moved into the hillside villa where he lived after asking Uncle Chen to look at its feng shui.

Uncle Chen once told He Li Jiacheng that he could live to at least 96 years old and that he should divide his property between his two sons so that they would not fight over property like other rich kids. This would also prevent future lawsuits among his family members.

As Li Jiacheng's wealth accumulated, he treated Uncle Chen as a guest of honor, asking for advice on everything. Uncle Chen became Li Jiacheng's personal Feng Shui master.

Uncle Chen became famous from then on.

Du Yongxiao had come into contact with both of these masters, and these two masters also suffered defeat for the first time in terms of "physiognomy".

Cai Boli and Du Yongxiao first met at Lei Luo's mansion.

That time, Lei Luo held a celebration party at the villa after his success, and invited Du Yongxiao to attend. Du Yongxiao ran into Master Cai Boli on the lawn in the garden.

Master Cai saw that Du Yongxiao had a strange face and immediately started to read his fortune. However, when he was trying to tell his fate by pinching his fingers, he almost went crazy and vomited blood.

In his opinion, Du Yongxiao was clearly short-lived and a typical "three-poverty fate". Logically, he should have lived in a slum like Shek Kip Mei and would not live past the age of 18. However, the Du Yongxiao in front of him was in a very high position as the first Chinese Police Commissioner in Hong Kong. His wealth was comparable to that of a country, which was completely contrary to the fate he had determined!

"How could this be?"

At that moment, Master Cai Boli almost doubted his life.

For the first time, he had deep doubts about his own numerology and felt that everything he had learned before was wrong. Otherwise, how could Du Yongxiao be standing here alive and overturning all his judgments?
It can be said that the blow Du Yongxiao dealt to Master Cai was so great that Master Cai went into seclusion for three months, saying that he wanted to think carefully about the true meaning of numerology. In fact, he was secretly reviewing his past to see where he had gone wrong.
Unfortunately, even after thirty years of seclusion, he still couldn't figure it out.

Compared with Master Cai Boli, Uncle Chen's skills are obviously slightly higher.

This time, the encounter between Uncle Chen and Du Yongxiao was a trap set by Li Jiacheng. At that time, Du Yongxiao was fighting with Li Jiacheng. Every time, Du Yongxiao could seize the initiative, making Li Jiacheng embarrassed.

So much so that Li Jiacheng thought Du Yongxiao was his "nemesis", so he found an opportunity to ask Uncle Chen to help Du Yongxiao read his fortune.

It was during the Chinese Chamber of Commerce's New Year party. Li Jiacheng invited Uncle Chen to the Chamber of Commerce under the pretext of helping him with feng shui. At that time, Du Yongxiao was about to replace Mr. Huo as the Chamber of Commerce's president, so Uncle Chen had to meet with the future president first. After the meeting, Uncle Chen followed Li Jiacheng's instructions and said in a playful manner that he would help Du Yongxiao with his fortune-telling "for free."

Du Yongxiao knew exactly what he and Li Jiacheng were thinking, so he agreed with a smile.

After asking Du Yongxiao about his birth date and eight characters, Uncle Chen was shocked at first, then said incredulously that he wanted to read Du Yongxiao's face. He also asked about Du Yongxiao's parents' birth date and other questions, and was shocked again. Then he said that his face reading skills were actually very superficial and that he was only good at touching bones, so Du Yongxiao let him touch them casually.

After Uncle Chen helped Du Yongxiao feel his bones, although he did not vomit three liters of blood in surprise, he was still so frightened that his soul was trembling.

Just like the conclusion reached by Master Cai Bolie, Du Yongxiao was supposed to have a "three-poverty fate", with no wealth, no power, and no blessings. He was short-lived and would not live past the age of eighteen. To live past the age of eighteen was already an act against heaven.

But Du Yongxiao in front of him is not only alive and well, but also in a high position, richest man in the world, this this this -——
This is incredible!

At that moment, Uncle Chen, who had remained calm even when faced with a catastrophe, was so shocked that he jumped three feet high and stared at Du Yongxiao with wide eyes as if he were looking at a monster.

That is to say, Du Yongxiao's several contacts with these two Feng Shui masters, although imperfect, were impressive.

The Feng Shui master that Du Yongxiao invited for Shen Bi this time was Uncle Chen.

After Uncle Chen helped to take a look, he gave HSBC an idea, which was to have HSBC place two cannons on the roof, and point the two cannons directly at the Bank of China Building.

You know what, this method actually worked mysteriously. As long as these two cannons were set up, HSBC was safe again.

Just after solving the Feng Shui problem, Shen Bi received another "loan application" from Louis Cha.

If Cha Liangyong was just an ordinary person, Shen Bi would have no need to care about it at all. However, this Mr. Cha was a famous martial arts master and newspaper tycoon, and his pen name "Jin Yong" was even more famous throughout the world.

Now he flatly rejected the other party's loan application and had to give the other party an explanation and appease him no matter what.

Due to years of hard work, Shen Bi in front of him looked older than other British elderly people. He was wearing a well-made dark suit, a tie of the same color as his suit, and his silver hair was combed neatly. He sat behind his desk with a walnut cane next to his chair, looking like the best template of an elderly British gentleman.

dong dong dong.

There was a knock on the door.

Then, Jin Yong came in from outside, led by his secretary.

"Sir, I brought Mr. Cha here," said the secretary.

Shen Bi was writing at his desk. Hearing this, he put the cap on the gold-plated fountain pen in his hand and put it aside. He then carefully put away the ink box. Then he looked up and said to the secretary, "Thank you. Please help me get two cups of coffee."

After the secretary left, Shen Bi looked at Jin Yong and said, "Hello, Mr. Cha, please find a seat and sit down."

Jin Yong sat down on a velvet chair, waiting for Shen Bi to speak with a straight posture.

Jin Yong had complicated feelings towards Shen Bi. It would be a lie for him to say that he had no good feelings towards this British banker who was extremely friendly to Chinese businessmen.

Even many Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong are "grateful" to Shen Bi because they have received help from Shen Bi on many occasions.

But Shen Bi just rejected Jin Yong's loan application, which made Jin Yong feel very unhappy.

"Mr. Cha, I know you have a lot of questions or confusions in your heart at the moment. Yes, not long ago, to be precise--" Shen Bi looked at his watch, "six minutes ago I read your loan application and signed the rejection. I think you must be very curious about this..."

Jin Yong put his hands on his knees: "Yes, sir, I am very curious, why was my loan application rejected by you? Both I and my Ming Pao Group are guaranteed in terms of credibility and reputation. Based on this alone, I should be able to borrow money from your bank without any obstacles..."

"You are right. Your personal reputation and the reputation of your company are both very good. However, there is one thing you should understand. Our bank is also doing business, and doing business requires assessing risks." Shen Bi smiled and continued, "The loan amount in the application form is 30 million Hong Kong dollars, and the Ming Pao Group and its holding printing company and transportation company are used as collateral. But you Chinese have a saying that when the nest is overturned, no egg is left intact! You know better than me what difficulties your Ming Pao is facing now. The Du Group is claiming 100 million Hong Kong dollars from you, which is not a small amount."

"It is precisely because it is not a small amount that I came here to seek your help." Jin Yong said to Shen Bi, "We don't have that much money right now..."

Shen Bi smiled, "What if? What if I give you money and your company still can't be saved, what should I do?"

"Isn't it a mortgage? You can rest assured!" Jin Yong sat there and said neither servilely nor arrogantly: "Although I am a businessman, I am also a scholar. Scholars still value integrity and will never default on their debts!"

Shen Bi stood up, put his thumbs in his vest pockets, and looked at Jin Yong with green eyes: "Excuse me, Mr. Cha, I'm curious, how much is integrity worth?"

"Uh, this--" Jin Yong was stunned.

Shen Bi continued, "So let's get back to the point. You can borrow money if you want! I can give you 30 million, but I don't want the subsidiaries you mortgaged, such as the printing factory and the transportation company. Our bank is not interested in these..."

"Then what do you want?"

"What do you want?" Shen Bi smiled, "You own 50% of Ming Pao, which is half of the shares!"

"Impossible!" Jin Yong refused loudly. "30 million is like taking away half of the shares? You HSBC are more ruthless than robbers!"

"Really? I just calculated it based on market fluctuations. If you can't get the money now, Ming Pao will go bankrupt, and it will be worthless by then! Not to mention half of the shares for 30 million, even 3,000 yuan won't be worth it!"

Jin Yong stood up and looked at Shen Bi: "Don't forget, this is Hong Kong. In addition to HSBC, I can also seek help from banks such as Citibank and Standard Chartered!"

Shen Bi shrugged: "Just go and ask for help! If I guess correctly, the conditions they put forward will be more stringent than mine. Do you know why? Because they are all authentic British, unlike me, who has green eyes and yellow hair, but has a Chinese heart to help the poor and the needy."

Shen Bi said this in a joking tone, but when Jin Yong heard it, it made him hesitate.

Because Shen Bi said a lot, whether it is Citibank or Standard Chartered, those foreign bosses are more greedy than Shen Bi. They are not very friendly to Chinese people. If you go to them to beg them, you will definitely be ripped off.

Hesitate for three seconds.

Jin Yong sat down again.

He was forced into a desperate situation this time.

He really didn't want to "beg for forgiveness" to that young man Du Yongxiao, so he came to HSBC for help.

What is Du Yongxiao?
Isn't it just about power and money?

He is Jin Yong, Jin Yong!

The first person in the literary world!
The most talented person in Hong Kong!

He is also well-known as the toughest guy in Hong Kong!
Ever since he founded Ming Pao with 30,000 yuan and dominated Hong Kong with his 36 martial arts novels, he has been making great strides. Although he encountered many difficulties, he was able to break through the shackles by overcoming them!
His reputation now resounds throughout Hong Kong. Who would not praise him as a "man of literati spirit" and a "role model of the times"?
He would never bow down to Du Yongxiao, give in to the powerful, and say, "I was wrong!"

"How about it, have you thought it through?" Shen Bi had a good grasp of people's hearts. As soon as he saw Jin Yong's expression, he knew that the opponent's defense had loosened.

"I..." Jin Yong moved his lips, and finally closed his eyes and said, "I promise you!"

(End of this chapter)