Hong Kong: Rise of the Kings.

Chapter 931 0919 [Man proposes, God disposes]

"I heard that you've been fighting with that Du guy recently?"

At the Li family dinner, the head of the Li family, Li Xiaohe, asked his son Li Zhaoheng.

The eldest brother Li Zhaoyuan and the third brother Li Zhaozhen immediately turned their eyes to the second brother Li Zhaoheng.

Li Zhaoheng calmly put down his chopsticks and said with a smile: "It is true, father."

"As the saying goes, the people should not fight against the officials. That Du is the Commissioner of Police after all. What good will it do you to anger him?" Li Xiaohe took the towel handed over by the Filipino maid next to him and wiped his mouth, but his eyes were looking at his son Li Zhaoheng.

"For the thousands of acres of land in Tsuen Wan," Li Zhaoheng explained, "I am a businessman and I will consider the gains and losses. Since I dare to go against the Du family, it means that the profit of the thousand acres of land is large enough."

Li Xiaohe nodded, "So you used Ming Pao to spread rumors about that Du guy?"

Li Zhaoheng's expression remained unchanged. "This is what you taught me. Success or failure depends on the support of the people. The Du family has always been a good person. This time, I am using Ming Pao to throw some dirty water on him to win over some people."

"But now Ming Pao has been taken over by him." Li Xiaohe continued to ask, "What should you do?"

Upon hearing this, the eldest brother Li Zhaoyuan and the third brother Li Zhaozhen looked at Li Zhaoheng with gloating eyes.

Li Zhaoheng didn't even look at them, but looked directly at his father Li Xiaohe, and said firmly: "This is a good thing, but also a bad thing."

"What do you mean?" Li Xiaohe was obviously testing his son.

"The bad thing is that from now on, the Du family controls the three major media outlets in Hong Kong, Oriental Daily, Sing Tao Daily and now Ming Pao. In the future, we will be limited in our efforts to fight against him in the war of public opinion."

"The good news is that Du's takeover of Ming Pao was without a good reason. Many people think that he is bullying others and abusing his power for personal gain. And I have spread the word that Du Yongxiao has gone to great lengths to take over Ming Pao, using despicable means, such as extortion, arson and threats..."

Without waiting for his son to finish, Li Xiaohe said, "That's what you call a despicable move, isn't it?"

Li Zhaoheng smiled: "You can do whatever it takes to achieve your goal. This is what you taught me, father. Have you forgotten it?"

Li Xiaohe stopped talking.

A moment——
"I'm very curious, how will Du deal with this next move?"

"I'm curious too." Li Zhaoheng said, and looked at his eldest brother Li Zhaoyuan and third brother Li Zhaozhen, "Do you have any questions?" with a provocative look.

"What do you mean--" Li Zhaozhen stood up and said angrily.

Li Zhaoyuan coughed twice and said, "Calm down! Third brother, sit down quickly! We are all brothers, how can this be disrespectful?"

"Hmph!" Li Zhaozhen then sat down indignantly.

Li Zhaoyuan continued, "As for my second brother, we are just caring about you! As long as you are well, the Li family is well, and as long as the Li family is well, we are well!"

"Haha, big brother is right!" Li Zhaoheng said with a smile, "We are all brothers. My success is your success. What's the difference between us?"

Li Zhaoyuan looked embarrassed when he heard this.

Li Zhaozhen became angry again.

Li Xiaohe said calmly: "Okay, let's eat!"

……

Dinner is over.

Li Xiaohe took his three sons to burn incense and recite scriptures for their father, then taught them a few words before returning to his and his wife's bedroom on the second floor.

Li Xiaohe's wife, Lu Yanqun, was a lady from a prominent family.

When the first generation head of the Li family, Li Xizhen, was shot to death, the entire Li family was leaderless, causing the Li Group's stock price to fall and its business to be snatched away.

At that time, Li Xiaohe was already engaged to Lu Yanqun, but the Lu family, faced with a major change in the Li family, wanted to oppose this marriage to avoid being implicated by the Li family.

But Lu Yanqun was stubborn and thought that since she had already made an engagement with Li Xiaohe, she should not break the contract, especially not when the Li family was in financial difficulty. This was immoral and against trust.

For this reason, Lu Yanqun was willing to sever ties with the Lu family and marry Li Xiaohe according to the engagement.

The Lu family had no choice but to follow their daughter Lu Yanqun's wishes. Not only did they not ask for much dowry from the Li family, but they also compensated the Li family with a lot of dowry. This money also indirectly helped the Li family tide over the difficulties.

After marrying into the Li family, Lu Yanqun assisted her husband in running the Li family business. Relying on her mother's family's connections in the British Hong Kong government, she helped the Li family set up a soft drink factory, a large hotel, and founded a radio station, etc., allowing the Li family to smoothly transform from a family that made its fortune by selling Y-films to a Hong Kong industrialist.

Therefore, Lu Yanqun also became a famous "virtuous wife" in Hong Kong. After Li Xiaohe's death, she led the Li family to new glory.

It turns out that Lu Yanqun and her husband Li Xiaohe are very different.

Li Xiaohe likes to start his own business. Since the 50s, he has founded one business after another: United Soda, Lee Garden Hotel, and founded a radio station. However, Lu Yanqun has no interest in doing business. She does not want to be a "slave of business" and only wants business to be her "tool for making money."

Her "alchemy" is: since she knows that she cannot manage the businesses that "cannot make money without her own strength", she might as well sell those businesses and then invest the money in projects that she can control - and she believes that the assets she can control are cash, stocks, foreign exchange and real estate.

Facts have proved that she is indeed a master at "making money from money": when the US dollar was at its low point in 1981 (1 US dollar was only worth more than 5 Hong Kong dollars), she invested the cash she got from selling United Soda in US dollars. A year later, the US dollar appreciated to 1 Hong Kong dollar against 1985 or Hong Kong dollars, and she made a fortune. In , she made a fortune by buying and selling Japanese yen.

She once said: "I have never done business myself, nor do I know how to do business. If I like a certain business, wouldn't it be good to buy its shares? If I am optimistic about Chinese real estate, I don't have to go to Shenzhen to look at the site. It's not necessary to go so hard. What's wrong with buying high-quality shares of this business and having others pay for it?"

This is what she said and this is what she did.

In her previous life, Lu Yanqun's investments involved the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong and other places. Her investments were mostly successful with very few mistakes. The reason for this was that she was good at brainstorming and listening to and adopting the opinions of financial advisors. At most, she had 10 professional financial advisors providing her with investment advice.

Regarding property investment, she believes: "The most important thing is to buy a good location. If the location is good, even if it is a little expensive when you buy it, it will definitely appreciate in value. Just like buying antiques, you should buy official goods. Official goods will definitely appreciate in value, while civilian goods cannot appreciate in value. Therefore, for properties in good locations, even if you buy them at a higher price, it is a matter of sooner or later that you will make money, and it is inevitable."

However, since real estate is immovable property, she only puts 30% of her wealth in real estate, and uses the rest to invest in stocks, bonds, foreign exchange and more liquid assets.

Her assets are in the form of 30% real estate and 70% liquid assets. In terms of distribution, 70% is in Hong Kong and 30% is overseas. She has assets in the United States, Britain, Canada and other places.

At this moment in the bedroom——
"Have you finished the meeting with your sons? I've prepared some water for you to wash your feet. It's still hot!" Seeing her man come in, Lu Yanqun walked over to help Li Xiaohe take off his coat and hang it in the closet in the corner.

Li Xiaohe sat down on the edge of the narrow double bed and reached out to take off his shoes and socks. Lu Yanqun had already walked over and squatted down to help Li Xiaohe take off his shoes and socks, and then placed the slippers next to the foot basin.

"I can do it myself. You're tired after a day's work, so go to bed early." Li Xiaohe said to his wife, "You used to live a life of luxury in your Lu family, but after you married me, you have to work hard. To be honest, I feel really bad."

"What's there to feel guilty about? On the contrary, I would not be happy if another woman washed your feet. I will not allow other women to touch my man." Lu Yanqun rolled her eyes at her husband.

"Haha, I like your jealous look the most." Li Xiaohe reached out and pinched his wife's face, just like a pair of lovers.

"Oh, by the way, go get my coat, I have something to give you." Li Xiaohe said mysteriously.

"what?"

"You'll know when you take it."

Lu Yanqun turned around to help Li Xiaohe get his suit. Li Xiaohe took out a handkerchief wrapped in something from his suit pocket. When he opened it, he found it was wrapped in another layer of oil paper. When he peeled off the oil paper, he saw a roasted sweet potato inside.

Li Xiaohe handed the roasted sweet potato to his wife and lowered his voice like a thief: "Today I went to Wan Chai Pier for inspection and happened to see that sweet potato shop. I remember that you liked to eat his sweet potatoes the most when we were in love. Try it and see if the taste has changed?"

Lu Yanqun held the roasted sweet potato in her hand and said sweetly in her heart: "Do you still remember? I remember the old man who roasted the sweet potato was almost 80 years old. Is he still there?"

"It's gone. It seems he died. He was replaced by a young man in his fifties. He should be his son. That's why I asked you to taste it to see if it tastes the same..."

"He's gone..." Lu Yanqun's expression darkened as he broke open a sweet potato and took a small bite. "The taste hasn't changed, but something is missing."

"Everyone will leave, and I will leave too, and I will probably leave before you." Li Xiaohe reached out and gently pulled his wife to sit next to him, then put his arm around her waist and said, "So you don't have to be sad, I just want you to be happy."

"You are not allowed to say that." Lu Yanqun looked at Li Xiaohe, covered his mouth and said, "You have to stay with me forever, even if you have to leave, we will leave together!"

Li Xiaohe laughed: "You are silly, I have a heart disease, you are much healthier than me! I don't want you to be the same as me, I will be sad. Promise me, even if I am gone one day, you will be strong, because the Li family can't live without you!"

"Yeah." Lu Yanqun nodded and leaned her head on Li Xiaohe's shoulder. "But don't we still have Yuan, Heng and Zhen? They are all big enough and can support the Li family..."

"Hey, you hit the point now." Li Xiaohe sighed, "As the saying goes, one monk carries water to eat, two monks carry water to eat, and three monks have no water to eat! These three sons you gave birth to are too outstanding, so outstanding that they look down on others and are not of the same mind!"

After a pause-——
"Now that I'm still here, I can still shock them. If I leave, I'm afraid the Li family will fall apart!"

"It's not that scary, is it?" Lu Yanqun asked, "After all, they are all your children. At least they have your excellent genes."

As if sensing his wife's doubts, Li Xiaohe gently touched her hair and said, "I'll analyze it for you. Although the eldest brother, Yuan, is very capable, he is weak and sickly. If he is allowed to manage the Li family in the future, he will become the second Tang Gaozong Li Zhi, and the power will be taken away by his wife's lineage sooner or later."

Li Xiaohe's concerns are not without reason.

At that time, the Li family was facing bankruptcy. In order to ensure the survival of the family, Li Xiaohe took the initiative to help his eldest son marry into the Tang family, a prominent family in Hong Kong.

The Tang family has extensive assets in Hong Kong and operates a number of businesses, such as shipping, real estate, hotels, and department stores.

The head of the Deng family had long been eyeing the companies under the Li family, and married his daughter off in order to use her to annex the Li family's assets. He wanted his daughter to learn from Wu Zetian, change the Tang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty, and become the head of the Li family.

"Ah! The third son, Azhen, is young and full of energy, and extremely conceited. It's okay to let him charge into battle, but it's not okay to let him help defend the city. If a general fails in a charge, he will at most be punished by military orders. If a king who defends the status quo fails, the country will be destroyed! So he is only a general, not a commander, let alone a crown prince!"

"Isn't there the second brother, Ah Heng? He's pretty good." said his wife Lu Yanqun.

"Don't worry, I was just about to talk about him." Li Xiaohe let out a long breath and hugged the woman in his arms tighter: "He is indeed very good. In terms of ability, he is better than his eldest brother and third brother. In terms of methods and strategies, he is also very similar to me, but there is one shortcoming--"

"What shortcomings?"

"He thinks highly of himself and looks down on everyone." Li Xiaohe said calmly, "For example, this time, he provoked someone he shouldn't have provoked!"

"You mean... Du Yongxiao?" Lu Yanqun also knew some inside information at home.

"Yes, it's this guy!" Li Xiaohe sighed, "Although I'm not familiar with him, I know a lot of his deeds through many channels. Fighting Yan Xiong, stepping on Lei Luo, and defeating Chen Zhichao are still the lowest level. Hong Kong real estate tycoon Li Zhaoji and Hong Kong industrial tycoon Li Jiacheng have suffered losses at his hands! There is also the judicial tycoon of the British Hong Kong government, Bai Liqu, and even the Governor of Hong Kong, Murray MacLehose, all of whom were defeated by him! Just ask, how can such a strong man win?"

After Li Xiaohe finished speaking, his expression became gloomy again.

It was the first time that Lu Yanqun saw her husband so melancholy, and it was for a young man she had never met.

"Hehe, you make him sound like a god, but he is still a human being after all. Besides, although our Ah Heng thinks highly of himself, he never underestimates his enemies. This time, he fought Du and was evenly matched. At least he didn't lose, right?"

Li Xiaohe nodded, "Maybe you are right, I am too old and worry too much."

"You're not worrying about nothing, you're just worrying too much." Lu Yanqun rubbed her face against her husband's chest, "Don't think too much! I think Ah Heng will definitely win, and that Du guy is not a supernatural being. Besides, he is younger than Ah Heng, and even if he has been practicing in the womb, it is impossible for him to surpass Ah Heng in every aspect!"

"Yeah!" Li Xiaohe hugged his wife tightly and closed his eyes: "Our Li family will not lose! Never!"

(End of this chapter)