Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

It was nearly dusk when I left St. Teresa's Hospital.

After settling Tornado down and leaving the two stubborn "bosses" who wouldn't leave no matter how much he tried to shoo them away at the hospital as doorkeepers, Lu Chen drove back to the villa alone.

The roar of the engine gradually subsided on the quiet mountain road. Pushing open the villa's gate, the fragrance of frangipani trees in the yard wafted out, washing away the oppressive smell of disinfectant in the hospital.

"call……"

Lu Chen loosened his tie, casually draped his suit jacket over the sofa, and sank into the soft leather.

The tornado, the threat from the big boss, the expansion of the Jiahe Group... a thousand and one things were tangled up in my mind like a mess of hemp.

"We still need to make money."

Lu Chen stood on the terrace, lit a cigarette, and looked at the lights gradually illuminating the Sham Shui Po area in the distance.

Although he now has tens of millions in hand, this amount is just a drop in the ocean compared to his grand business empire vision. Running a real business is a money pit, especially building a top luxury brand like "Garreau," where the initial investment is a bottomless pit.

Just as Lu Chen was pondering his future plans, a commotion suddenly broke out from the villa next door.

"Wow! Dad! Look at this huge terrace! I want to have a barbecue here!"

"What are you grilling for! This is an upscale residential area! Have some manners, okay?! We should learn to be high-class people!"

"Oh honey, look at this kitchen! It's so big! Now I can cook abalone noodles for you every day!"

The noise was loud and boisterous, full of the vulgarity of ordinary people, which was out of place in this quiet village, yet it also exuded a vibrant vitality.

Lu Chen walked curiously to the second-floor terrace and looked towards the next room.

A family was standing in the yard of the villa next door that had been vacant all along.

The leader was a slightly overweight middle-aged man with black-rimmed glasses, wearing an ill-fitting, inexpensive suit. He stood with his hands behind his back, pontificating as if he were giving orders. Beside him was a plump middle-aged woman with an afro; although she spoke somewhat harshly, she wasn't unpleasant. Behind them were three daughters with distinct personalities.

This family... why do they look so familiar?

"Uncle Piao? Aunt Piao?"

Lu Chen's hand holding the cigarette froze in mid-air, and the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

Isn't this the same family from the classic Hong Kong comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World"?

The Lei Da Piao family, who dream of getting rich and buy lottery tickets all day long, are full of warmth despite their petty-bourgeois mentality!

"I never expected to become neighbors with this lively family." Lu Chen chuckled. His somewhat heavy mood was somewhat lightened by the family's noisy chatter.

Just then, Uncle Piao seemed to notice Lu Chen's gaze and looked up.

Seeing Lu Chen standing on the second-floor terrace, exuding an air of nobility, with a luxuriously decorated villa behind him, Uncle Piao immediately put on a "close neighbor is worse than a distant relative" smile and waved his hand:

"Hey! Neighbor! How are you? From now on, we're neighbors, so please take care of me!"

Sister-in-law Piao chimed in, "Yeah, handsome! You live in such a big house all by yourself, do you have a girlfriend? My maid doesn't even have a boyfriend yet!"

A pretty girl behind her blushed immediately: "Mom! What nonsense are you talking about!"

Looking at this comical family, Lu Chen's lips curled into a playful smile. He raised his glass in a gesture of respect.

"Congratulations on your fortune! It seems you've struck it rich and are ready to move in and enjoy your newfound wealth?"

"Hehe, it's nothing, it's nothing! I have a little money, so I'm just browsing around!" Uncle Piao said modestly, but he couldn't hide the smugness on his face.

【Ding--】

[Classic character detected: Uncle Piao (Leda Piao)]

[Checking in at "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World"]

[Check-in successful!]

[Reward: +1 Free Attribute Point]

【Ding--】

[Key plot character detected: Aunt Piao]

[Checking in at "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World"]

[Check-in successful!]

[Reward: +1 Free Attribute Point]

Lu Chen raised an eyebrow, looking at the two extra free attribute points on the attribute panel.

His current Intelligence Lv7 is sufficient to handle business battles. There's no immediate crisis looming, so he decided to keep a little bit as a backup. In case of unforeseen circumstances, whether it's increasing Agility for escaping or Perception for avoiding danger, it could be a life-saving trump card. The remaining bit was added to Strength.

[Strength: Lv4 (Fighting Elite)]

[Evaluation: Congratulations! Your physical abilities have surpassed those of most professional athletes. Your explosive power is now astonishing; while you might not be able to kill a tiger or lion, you can easily break a one-inch-thick wooden board. Combined with your intelligence, you've begun to show the potential to become an elegant "suit-wearing thug." Now you can finally hold your own against a typical police officer.]

Just then, a black convertible pulled up at the door, and a young man in a suit and slicked-back hair got out.

"Brother, sister-in-law! How is it? Are you satisfied with the house?"

The young man smiled enthusiastically, "Don't worry, I've worked at a bank for over ten years. I offer interest-free allowances for buying houses and cars. I'll also open a VIP account for you, and you can use that money to trade foreign exchange. The interest rates are incredibly high! You'll make over a million a year just from the interest alone!"

When Lu Chen, who was on the terrace, heard the words "Hengfeng Bank," his pupils suddenly contracted.

If I remember correctly, in the movie, after Uncle Piao's family won the lottery, they were persuaded by his younger brother, who worked at a bank, to deposit the huge sum of money into a large bank called "Hengfeng Bank." The very next day, the bank declared bankruptcy, and the 20 million vanished instantly, plunging the family from their zenith to rock bottom.

While the plot serves the film's purpose, and the screenwriter wrote it that way for dramatic effect, when applied to the world of Hong Kong variety shows, it becomes somewhat unsettling upon closer examination. Add to that the younger brother's desperate efforts to get people to deposit money, as if there were some kind of kickback involved…

"Hengfeng Bank..."

Lu Chen narrowed his eyes and stubbed out his cigarette hard on the railing.

Even though this world is a world of film fusion, the greed of capital is eternal.

The fact that a long-established British bank suddenly started aggressively attracting deposits at this critical juncture, with interest rates so high they defied market norms, was itself a huge signal—a death knell.

"I originally just wanted to make some slow money, but since you've stuck your necks out, don't blame me for being too quick with my knife."

Lu Chen turned and went inside, picked up the phone, and dialed Zeng Jianqiao's number.

……

"Feeding? Brother Lu? So late..."

Zeng Jianqiao's groggy voice came from the other end of the phone, and there seemed to be a woman's moans in the background.

"Wake up, Zeng Ge, get up and make money." Lu Chen's voice was calm and clear-headed. "I need you to investigate something right away."

"What's the rush?" Zeng Jianqiao instantly snapped out of his daze.

"Hengfeng Bank," Lu Chen said, "I need to know all their financial movements over the past month, especially their deposit-taking efforts and interest rate policies. Also, check their major shareholders; have all those foreigners left the country recently?"

"Hengfeng?" Zeng Jianqiao was taken aback. "That's an old brand, very powerful. Why are you investigating them, Brother Lu?"

"Don't ask questions yet, investigate. Use all your connections in the financial world. I need results before dawn."

"Okay, I'll go right now!"

After hanging up the phone, Lu Chen wasn't sleepy. He went to his study, lit a cigarette, and silently wrote a proposal.

He still has 20 million in his hands.

If Hang Seng is really going to go bankrupt, its stock price will experience a temporary surge before it collapses, or it may be artificially maintained at a stable level to deceive people.

Shorting now is practically like picking up free money.

……

Six o'clock in the morning.

As the first rays of sunlight streamed into the study, the telephone rang precisely on time.

"Brother Lu! You're amazing! Absolutely amazing!"

Zeng Jianqiao's voice was trembling with excitement, clearly from not having slept all night. "I contacted my friends at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and asked several traders at HSBC. Something's wrong! Something's very wrong!"

"explain."

"Hang Seng Bank has gone absolutely crazy this past month!" Zeng Jianqiao spoke rapidly. "They've launched several wealth management products with annualized returns as high as 20%! And it's open to all depositors, with no minimum investment required! It's practically giving away money! Rumors are circulating that Hang Seng might have lost some money on its overseas investments, and its cash flow is a bit tight, so it's urgently seeking funds to circulate cash. But everyone thinks that it's a big foreign bank with a solid foundation, so nothing serious should happen."

"Strong foundation?"

Lu Chen sneered, "Brother Zeng, remember this: in the financial world, no foundation is too thick to be worn out. When a bank attracts deposits at high interest rates regardless of cost, it's not making money; it's preparing to run away."

"Running away?!" Zeng Jianqiao was startled. "Brother Lu, you mean Hengfeng is going bankrupt? No way! That's a well-established brand with over ten years of history, and the regulatory authorities haven't made a move..."

"The regulatory authorities are always the last to know."

Lu Chen stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the dazzling night view of Kowloon outside, his eyes flashing with a cold light.

"Anything else?"

"And another thing is that all of their major shareholders are no longer in Hong Kong or the UK, leaving only a few high-ranking Chinese executives to oversee things..." Zeng Jianqiao felt something was off as he spoke. He swallowed hard. "Brother, the more I talk about it, the more plausible it seems."

"Be more confident, and remove the word 'like'."

Lu Chen's lips curled into a cold smile. "They want to take every last screw with them before the ship sinks."

Hang Seng Bank, seemingly glamorous on the surface, has actually been emptied out by its foreign major shareholders and is preparing to abscond with the funds. On the eve of their bankruptcy, they frantically attracted depositors with high interest rates, all in preparation for one last round of fleecing!

He knew all too well what those foreigners were like.

In the early 80s, Hong Kong's banking sector was extremely fragile. Regulation was inadequate, and many foreign banks, operating under the guise of joint ventures, were internally chaotic, routinely misappropriating depositors' funds for property and foreign exchange speculation. Once their investments failed, they would exploit information asymmetry to make a final, pre-collapse plunder, then declare bankruptcy, leaving behind a mess.

Now that he knew the outcome, Lu Chen decided to be blunt.

"Listen, Brother Zeng."

Lu Chen's voice turned low, "Notify Cheng Yiyan to go to the company immediately. I will give him 20 million later."

Lu Chen looked at the rising sun outside the window, his eyes gleaming with a hunter's light.

"Brother, you wouldn't happen to be...?"

"Yes, I'm going to short Hang Seng Bank!" Lu Chen's tone became increasingly enthusiastic.

"Brother Zeng, this must be kept a secret. If you trust me, you can invest your money and give it a try. I want to take a big bite out of it before it goes bankrupt!"

……

Nine o'clock in the morning, Hong Kong Island Stock Exchange.

Cheng Yiyan sat in the newly renovated penthouse at Jiahe International, with five monitors in front of him. His tie hung loosely around his neck, and his eyes were bloodshot, but he was in a state of extreme excitement.

"Boss, the 20 million in funding has arrived."

Cheng Yiyan held the phone, her voice trembling slightly with excitement. "When the market opened just now, Hang Seng Bank's stock price was hovering around 15 yuan. It even rose slightly, probably because of the news about attracting deposits with high interest rates."

"Let's do it."

On the other end of the phone, Lu Chen's voice was concise and powerful: "Short it all at once! Use leverage to turn those 20 million into 100 million! Find brokerages in batches to buy large amounts of Hengfeng's stock. Since they want to push up the stock price, I'll give them a hand!"

In those days, the Hong Kong stock market was relatively loosely regulated, and while the short-selling mechanism was rudimentary, it was also far more aggressive. As long as you had margin, brokerages were willing to offer leverage of five or even ten times.

"Remember to be careful, like boiling a frog in lukewarm water, and then delivering the fatal blow at the last moment."

"Don't worry, I'm familiar with this trading technique!"

After hanging up the phone, Lu Chen downed his whiskey in one gulp. He figured that investing that money would probably tear a chunk of flesh off Hengfeng's corpse.

Lu Chen walked to the edge of the terrace and looked at the neighboring house again.

The Piao family was excitedly planning their future in the yard. Piao's wife was gesturing where to put a parasol, while Piao was fantasizing about placing a set of mahogany furniture in the living room.

Little did they know that the "Hengfeng Bank" they cherished would soon become a black hole that devoured all their wealth.

"To save them or not?"

The thought flashed through Lu Chen's mind.

According to the movie plot, although Uncle Piu's family is materialistic, they are not bad at heart and are full of the resilience and optimism of ordinary Hong Kong citizens.

"Fine, for the sake of being neighbors."

Lu Chen smiled.