1977: The beginning of the blind date with the daughter of the king

Chapter 696 Gong Xue is watching the drama unfold!

[Breaking news: Bao Zeyang, the eldest son of Hong Kong's richest family, is suspected of getting engaged]

Breaking news: Xiao Baosheng's fiancée is rumored to have moved into a villa in Deep Water Bay and has already gained the approval of the shipping magnate's family.

[The dream of marrying into a wealthy family shattered; the beautiful Rosamund Kwan will not be able to marry into the Bao family.]

[Exclusive reveal: What makes the woman who can capture Xiao Baosheng's heart so special?]

In July, a shocking piece of news suddenly spread like wildfire across Hong Kong Island.

The famous Xiao Baosheng actually has a fiancée.

Most importantly, this wasn't just one media outlet reporting on it; many media outlets started reporting on it simultaneously.

Even when some media outlets contacted Hongkong Land for verification, the response was simply that they were unaware and had no comment.

This lack of denial, to some extent, represents tacit acceptance.

Countless Hong Kong citizens are curious about which wealthy family's daughter could capture the heart of this young man. Is she a princess from a European or American royal family? Or the daughter of a wealthy conglomerate? Or the legitimate daughter of a long-established Hong Kong tycoon?

However, to the dismay of many, the news was quickly extinguished after it gained traction.

It is said that people in Xiao Baosheng's office called major media outlets, hoping to handle the matter discreetly rather than with a big publicity campaign.

Although the media in Hong Kong Island are divided into many factions, often clashing with each other and showing no respect for many people, even daring to mock the Governor's House, they have all chosen to remain silent this time when it comes to Bao Zeyang.

For the Hong Kong media, Bao Zeyang was a mysterious and frightening figure.

He is not a simple businessman, and he rarely interacts with the Hong Kong media, but that doesn't mean he isn't scary.

In fact, the Hong Kong media are the ones who truly understand Bao Zeyang's ruthlessness, because they are well-informed and know that Bao Zeyang is never indecisive in dealing with his opponents.

Take the Wellcome Top 100 competition, for example. Those scoundrels who set fire to Wellcome all met with extremely tragic ends.

Back then, the Freedom Society targeted Planet Cinema. Not to mention the members of that organization, the person in charge of the Freedom Society also died suddenly. Although it was officially claimed that he died in a traffic accident, falling into the sea, everyone knew that it was impossible for it to be such a coincidence.

Not to mention the triads on Hong Kong Island, who all have a strange sense of awe towards this young man.

Moreover, when the people in Bao Zeyang's office spoke this time, they did not use their power to intimidate others, but simply tried to calm the situation gently.

So although the news spread, no one continued to dig deeper. Only a few fearless people were still making up stories to gain traffic, but they mostly wrote about Rosamund Kwan's story.

Fortunately, Li Changhe wasn't worried that Rosamund Kwan would be angry, because she wasn't in Hong Kong at all; she had gone on a trip to mainland China with the Planet Films team.

This time, Tsui Hark led the team for Planet Cinema, with Rosamund Kwan accompanying them. It was purely for fun, and of course, Tsui Hark and his team were also having fun.

The reason Tsui Hark was chosen to lead the team was because Li Changhe felt that, aside from other things, Tsui Hark was particularly skilled at shooting scenic scenes, something Wang Jing couldn't match.

Moreover, Tsui Hark excels at martial arts and fantasy films, which actually corresponds to the beautiful scenery in China. If he were to film an urban drama, these landscapes would be useless.

In the morning, Gong Xue woke up in her soft, comfortable bed in a luxury mansion in Deep Water Bay, still a little groggy.

Life here is incredibly luxurious.

Unfortunately, Li Changhe, who was standing next to him, was no longer there.

Unlike her leisurely life in mainland China, Gong Xue only realized how busy Li Changhe was when she arrived in Hong Kong.

They usually go out very early in the morning and don't come back until evening.

Of course, sometimes I would take her out for a stroll and to see different places.

But overall, Li Changhe is still very busy.

After getting up, taking a shower, and changing into her newly bought clothes, Gong Xue went downstairs.

"Madam, would you like breakfast now?"

"We've been keeping it warm in the kitchen for you. We have bird's nest and white fungus soup, as well as steamed buns, fried dough sticks, and soy milk."

As soon as I went downstairs, a cook from the kitchen came up to me and asked me respectfully.

"Give me a fried dough stick, two small steamed buns, and a bowl of white fungus soup."

Gong Xue thought for a moment, then gave instructions to the cook.

"By the way, what kind of filling do these little steamed buns have?"

People in Shanghai call steamed buns "mantou," so they usually call xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) "xiaolong mantou."

"The gentleman said you like crab roe filling, so today's dishes are all crab roe filling."

Gong Xue nodded: "Okay, then let's have two."

After Gong Xue finished speaking, she casually picked up the newspaper from the side.

She learned this from Li Changhe, who would read these newspapers whenever he had free time.

Li Changhe also suggested that she read more local newspapers, as this would help her get familiar with Hong Kong Island more quickly.

However, Gong Xue's favorite among them is still the Oriental Daily.

The main reason is that the newspaper has gossip about Li Changhe, especially his story with Rosamund Kwan.

Oriental Daily publicly agreed not to hype up Bao Zeyang's wedding, but privately they didn't want to miss out on this hot topic, so they played a game of substitution.

The protagonist is no longer Bao Zeyang, but Guan Zhilin, who begins writing "The Emotional Journey of Jade Beauty". Although the male protagonist in this story uses an alias, people in Hong Kong are not stupid and can tell at a glance that he is Bao Zeyang.

The publication of this novel-like emotional journey has cultivated a group of gossip enthusiasts in Hong Kong, of whom Gong Xue is one.

Although she couldn't discern much information about Hong Kong Island these past few days, she did see the title "Jade Beauty" for Rosamund Kwan, and upon closer inspection, she realized it was related to her story with Li Changhe.

That night she even went to Li Changhe to verify it.

When Li Changhe saw it, he just smiled and said it was half true and half false.

Oriental Daily wouldn't completely refute Bao Sheng's request, since they were more aware of Bao Zeyang's true intentions.

The Ma brothers, the owners of Oriental Daily News, made their fortune through involvement in organized crime and drug trafficking. However, after the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) was established, they began to whitewash their past.

Li Changhe also knew that later, the eldest son of the Ma brothers married Gigi Lai.

Although Oriental Daily is capitalizing on this traffic, it hasn't completely fabricated the story; it's basically seven parts truth and three parts fiction.

After all, given the interactions between Li Changhe and Rosamund Kwan, many Hong Kong newspapers have unearthed some gossip about their past, such as Li Changhe taking Rosamund Kwan to the hospital.

Li Changhe didn't care about this matter, but Gong Xue, out of curiosity, became a bystander, reading this gossip every day.

She was still very curious about Li Changhe's romantic experiences overseas.

While reading gossip and eating breakfast, Gong Xue finished eating, and then Lin Xi came over.

“Madam, how about we go out for a walk again today? I’ll take you for a stroll in the New Territories. The environment there is actually quite nice, with many municipal parks.”

These past few days, when Li Changhe couldn't spend time with Gong Xue, Lin Xi took her around to familiarize herself with all aspects of Hong Kong Island. They weren't exactly experts, but they at least knew which area people mentioned.

"Alright, you make the arrangements, I'll go with you!" Gong Xue had no objections. She would be bored staying at home anyway, so she might as well go out and have a look around.

Meanwhile, in Li Changhe's office in Central, he was reviewing the documents submitted by Wendy.

This is information about Hong Kong Island real estate, including the market value and potential of properties in various areas of Hong Kong Island.

Besides Wendy, Leila Chen was also sitting here at this moment.

Li Changhe glanced at the documents and then placed them on the table.

Hong Kong Island has many types of real estate, including residential real estate, commercial real estate, industrial real estate, and leisure real estate.

"Wendy, tell the agents below that when we acquire properties, the highest priority will be luxury homes, followed by industrial real estate, then commercial real estate, and finally ordinary residential properties."

Luxury mansions go without saying; those who can afford to live there are either extremely wealthy or powerful. The same applies to those who want to leave; among these people, there are either tycoons or elites.

Elites are undoubtedly Li Changhe's target for recruitment, and these wealthy people are also useful.

Those who are both capable and of good character can naturally be considered for recruitment.

As for those who have committed crimes and plan to flee, he will tell Scarface that they will become meat pigs overseas in the future, and Scarface will naturally find someone to harvest their wealth.

The second reason for targeting industrial real estate was that Li Changhe knew very well that industrial land was the type of land that had experienced the largest price drop.

Industrial buildings were very popular on Hong Kong Island before. To put it simply, they were multi-story buildings where a certain number of rooms were rented or sold to factories that produced goods inside.

This is a symbol of the glory of Hong Kong Island's manufacturing industry, but also a helpless choice due to the island's limited land.

The real estate crash of 1982 hit the industrial buildings the hardest, with prices plummeting by more than 90 percent, making them incredibly cheap.

However, industrial land can actually be converted into commercial or residential land; all that's needed is to make up the difference in land use.

Li Changhe wanted this loophole. The Hong Kong government calculated the price difference using a guideline price based on the average current market price, and then made the real estate developers make up the difference.

In an era of real estate crash, industrial buildings that are converted into residential properties will be much cheaper.

Just like Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa, Li Changhe remembers that the other party took advantage of the real estate crash in 83. Originally, the Whampoa Shipyard needed to make up a difference of 28 billion, but in the end, only 3.9 million was paid to change the land use.

Therefore, in this wave of real estate price crash, industrial buildings are actually the most cost-effective, and many industrial buildings are located in very good locations, not all of them are in the suburbs.

As for commercial and residential real estate, Li Changhe did not focus on them for two reasons. First, he intended to leave them to Sun Hung Kai Properties and others. Second, these real estate units would be relatively scattered and difficult to form a cluster effect, so they would not be of much significance to Li Changhe.

"Understood, boss. I'll give them the instructions when I get back."

One of Wendy's strengths is that she never questions Li Changhe's decisions and executes them decisively.

"Also, you should communicate with Chen Lei to see which dental firms can arrange for our international intermediary personnel to provide guidance services."

"Also, Ella!"

"Give them a copy of our list of partner banks and have them assign each bank to a specific region so that our funds can be used more easily."

"Have the finance department coordinate with him on this, including the personnel arranged by the land company, and plan it all out together."

Ella nodded upon hearing Li Changhe's instructions.

"Understood, boss!"

After finishing the meeting with Wendy and the others in the morning, Li Changhe arrived at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the afternoon.

Here, the various forces he has united are in place, and today's discussion is about the division of power.

Li Changhe has gathered more than ten participants this time, including real estate developers such as Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Land Development, Nan Fung Group, and Sino Land, as well as large families such as the Kwok family in Southeast Asia, the Ho family in Macau, and the Cui family.

The funds raised by all parties involved exceeded HK$1.5 billion!

Although this was less than half of what Li Changhe himself had, it was still a lot in this era.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a portion of the real estate data for Hong Kong Island that I had prepared. I believe that you all have similar data in your hands."

"Everyone is gathered here because they trust my judgment and want to participate in this Hong Kong Island investment plan. But before that, I think we should make the necessary internal arrangements first."

"In this way, everyone can work together towards the same goal and maximize their own benefits."

Upon hearing Li Changhe's words, everyone nodded and then looked at him.

"Ah Yang, just tell us how you want to divide the profits this time. After all, this is an investment you initiated, and we'll all listen to you."

He Houzhao then took the initiative to speak up and handed over the allocation rights to Li Changhe. After all, these people were just small fry, mostly following Li Changhe to invest and watch the excitement.

"That's right, I think you should handle the distribution."

"We all listen to you."

Everyone present understood that the initiative was definitely in Bao Zeyang's hands and would not be handed over to anyone else, so no one competed for it.

"Then let me share my thoughts."

“There are many types of real estate on Hong Kong Island, including residential, commercial and industrial land. My goals this time are firstly high-end luxury homes and secondly industrial buildings. These are my targets.”

"As for the remaining commercial and residential real estate, I am willing to distribute them among everyone."

“Each company can discuss the areas they are interested in based on their capital and real estate sphere of influence.”

"Of course, I know that everyone is eyeing the real estate in Central and Kowloon. My suggestion is that these two areas be developed together and everyone can take over the projects. However, I hope you can still discuss and decide on a focus."

“For example, Sun Hung Kai Properties or Henderson Land Development, you focus on buying commercial real estate in Central or Kowloon, and leave the residential real estate to Nan Fung and Sino Land.”

"Let's discuss and agree on a direction first, so that there will be a general boundary in the future, so as not to hurt feelings when competing for the same unit."

Li Changhe then explained his thought process.

The people present were somewhat surprised to hear that Li Changhe had actually given up on the two most valuable real estate sectors: commercial and residential.

After all, while high-end luxury homes are in good locations, there are few buyers, not to mention industrial buildings, as the manufacturing industry on Hong Kong Island is shrinking.

Commercial properties and residential properties are the golden choices in the real estate market today. Commercial properties can be rented out, while residential properties can be rented out and have plenty of buyers, since ordinary people tend to buy residential properties.

Therefore, in the eyes of others, Li Changhe has given up the two most lucrative pieces of real estate.

"Brother Yang, you've really embarrassed us. Logically speaking, you have the strongest financial resources here, but you've given up the commercial and residential properties to us."

Li Jiajie then spoke up.

The others also looked at Li Changhe hesitantly.

Li Changhe smiled and said, "It's alright. Things like this can never be perfect."

"If you feel bad about it, just give me a little compensation later."

"But for now, let's discuss it as I said. Look at the map and divide the areas yourselves first."

(End of this chapter)