Hong Kong films: From street thugs to Hong Kong financial tycoons

It was one o'clock in the morning, the night was dark and the wind was strong, and the autumn rain was continuous.

At Kwai Chung Pier in Hong Kong, Warehouse No. 3, the sea breeze, carrying a strong smell of salt and diesel, howled through the mountains of containers.

Inside the warehouse, under the dim incandescent light, dozens of burly gang members, dressed in black raincoats and with menacing faces, were busily working. They held crowbars in their hands and watched their surroundings warily.

"Hurry up, you idiot! Haven't you eaten yet?!"

A bald, burly man stood beside a modified bulletproof truck, a half-smoked cigar in his hand, anxiously giving orders. He was Zheng Jianguo's top henchman, known in the underworld as Big Head Biao.

"Brother Biao, it's the middle of the night, and the rain is pouring down like a torrent. Why does Chairman Zheng insist on moving this batch of high-value goods tonight? Wouldn't it be safer to use a private yacht tomorrow morning?"

A younger brother came over, wiping the rain off his face while muttering complaints.

"Snapped!"

Big Head Biao swung a big punch, sending the underling spinning halfway around.

"Who are you to tell the boss how to do things? Just move things when I tell you to!"

Big Head Biao glared fiercely, but his heart was pounding. Chairman Zheng's voice on the phone was trembling as if he were having an epileptic seizure. His intuition told him that this batch of African blood diamonds worth 300 million was definitely a hot potato.

"Is the cargo loaded? Lock that safe in the truck yourself! If even one diamond is missing, I'll chop you all up and make a bag of barbecued pork buns!"

"Brother Biao, all packed. We're ready to head out to international waters for rendezvous!"

Several men worked together to push an extremely heavy stainless steel briefcase onto the car and slammed the door shut.

"Okay, get in the car, let's get out!"

Big Head Biao flicked his cigar into the puddle, opened the car door and was about to climb into the passenger seat, but just as his foot touched the pedal...

"Buzz—!!!"

Suddenly, more than a dozen blinding searchlights, like sharp swords, lit up all around the once pitch-black dock.

The terrifyingly bright light instantly illuminated the entire Warehouse No. 3 as if it were daytime. Dozens of gang members were blinded by the light and screamed in terror as they covered their eyes.

Immediately afterwards, an extremely deafening roar of propellers came from the night sky above. Big Head Biao endured the blinding light and looked up, and immediately gasped in shock, almost scared out of his wits.

Two Black Hawk helicopters painted with the Royal Hong Kong Police insignia were hovering above the warehouse.

Ropes were thrown down, and fully armed Flying Tigers members, wearing black hoods and carrying MP5 submachine guns, descended like gods, rappelling down the ropes at lightning speed and instantly taking over all the high points and exits.

At the same time, the piercing sound of sirens tore through the night sky, and dozens of police cars flashing red and blue lights rushed in from all directions like a steel torrent, blocking all escape routes.

"Listen up, everyone inside! This is a joint operation between the Royal Hong Kong Police Anti-Triad Unit and the Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau!"

In a command vehicle, a senior inspector from the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB) held a megaphone, his voice cold and authoritative.

"You are surrounded! Drop your weapons immediately, put your hands behind your heads, and crouch down, or we will use force to suppress you!"

"Damn it!!!"

Big Head Biao's scalp instantly blew open, and his blood ran cold.

Flying Tigers, Organized Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB), Customs?!

Did they bring in all of Hong Kong's elite troops for an exercise? Even when they arrested Crippled Ho, it wasn't this big of a show!

"Biao, Brother Biao, what do we do? How did the cops get here so fast?!"

The henchman next to him was so frightened that his legs went weak, and the machete in his hand clattered to the ground.

"Run! Split up and run!"

Big Head Biao was a ruthless man. He knew that once he was caught, the crime of 300 million blood diamonds would be enough to send him to Stanley Prison for life. He suddenly pulled out the Black Star pistol from his waist and fired a shot randomly into the sky.

But he clearly underestimated the strength of the Hong Kong police.

"Bang!"

A sniper rifle bullet pierced the Black Star pistol in his hand with extreme precision, and the huge impact caused his right hand to bleed profusely from the tiger's mouth.

"ah--!"

Big Head Biao screamed and knelt down in the mud, clutching his hand.

"Go! Take them all!"

At the inspector's command, dozens of fully armed Flying Tigers and Organized Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB) agents pounced on them like wolves.

This group of thugs who usually bullied others on the streets didn't even last three seconds in front of real special police officers. They were all pinned down in the mud and put on cold handcuffs.

The inspector walked up to the armored truck, gave Big Head Biao a cold look, and waved his hand: "Open the safe!"

With a click, the stainless steel combination lock case was forcibly cut open by the demolition expert.

In that instant, even under the bright spotlight, bags of African blood diamonds, which had not been finely cut but still shimmered with a chilling dark red light, were completely exposed to everyone's sight.

Three large bags, worth 300 million, filled the place. The inspector gasped as he looked at the diamonds, then his eyes lit up with ecstatic joy.

This is absolutely the biggest smuggling case in Hong Kong in the past decade. The person who reported it was not lying; they really caught a prehistoric giant crocodile!

"Take all these social scum away and interrogate them overnight!"

The inspector waved his hand dismissively. "Report to the Commissioner of Police immediately and apply for an arrest warrant. The target is Zheng Jianguo, chairman of the Zheng Group!"

……

Three o'clock in the morning.

At Repulse Bay, in the Zheng family's hillside mansion, the wind and rain raged outside, but the heating inside the villa was running at full blast.

Zheng Jianguo was wearing a silk nightgown and holding a cup of premium Da Hong Pao tea, but he couldn't drink it. His eyelids twitched wildly, and his heart pounded violently in his chest. An ominous premonition of impending doom lingered in his mind.

"Ring ring—!"

The top-secret telephone line on the table suddenly rang sharply like a death knell. Zheng Jianguo shuddered and spilled water from his teacup onto his hand.

His hands trembled as he grabbed the microphone, his voice hoarse: "Feed?"

"Boss...it's all over, everything's finished!"

On the other end of the phone, a subordinate's voice came through, trembling with sobs, "Brother Biao has been arrested! The Flying Tigers, the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau, and Customs have all gone. The goods were seized on the spot. The police station issued your arrest warrant overnight, and the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau's car is already on its way to Repulse Bay!"

"Clang!"

The precious sandalwood teacup in Zheng Jianguo's hand fell straight to the ground and shattered. He was like a puppet whose soul had been taken away, collapsing onto the large armchair, his mind blank.

"Lin Yao... Lin Yao!!!"

After a full half-minute of stunned silence, Zheng Jianguo let out a desperate roar like a dying beast. That twenty-year-old gangster, that devil who sneered at him at the elevator entrance.

He wasn't bluffing; he genuinely called the police and was determined to destroy the Zheng family!

Once the 300 million blood diamond is exposed, the Zheng Group's financial chain will be completely broken, its reputation will be bankrupted overnight, and what's even more terrifying is that the Hong Kong stock market will open at 9:30 tomorrow morning.

At that time, it will be an unprecedented and frenzied sell-off!

"Someone, prepare the car, and contact my private lawyer immediately!"

Zheng Jianguo roared wildly, like a gambler who had lost everything, "Notify the group's CFO to withdraw all the working capital, reserves, and even my personal deposits in the Swiss bank."

"Tomorrow, as soon as the stock market opens, do everything in your power to prop up Zheng's Jewelry's stock price. If the stock price crashes, your whole family will have to jump off a building with me!"

That night, a fierce storm raged in Hong Kong, and for Zheng Jianguo, it was a sleepless night that felt longer than hell.

For Lin Yao, this was merely a beautiful lullaby before he ascended to the throne of financial emperor.

……

The following day, at 9:00 AM, on the 48th floor of the Far East Financial Center, the headquarters of Yaosheng Capital.

Although it hasn't been fully renovated yet, the core trading room has been set up overnight, with more than a dozen of the most advanced Bloomberg trading terminals on the market lined up, their screens flashing with a dazzling array of financial data.

Lin Yao was wearing a loose-fitting casual suit and holding a steaming hot pineapple bun, which he was leisurely munching on.

Thirteen Sister paced back and forth in the trading room, glancing out the window and then at the screen, so nervous that she almost crushed the watermelon knife in her hand.

Meanwhile, the chief trader, Chen Zheng, was sitting in front of the main control computer, his eyes bloodshot, clearly having been too excited to sleep all night.

In his account lay a nuclear weapon powerful enough to blow up the entire Central district.

With a principal of 25 million and leverage of 50 times, a total of HK$1.25 billion in short selling orders, the target is firmly locked onto Zheng's Jewelry!

"Boss..."

Chen Zheng swallowed hard, his voice hoarse.

"The pre-market auction results for Cheng's Jewelry are out. Instead of falling, it has risen slightly by 0.5%. There is currently no news about Kwai Chung Wharf in the market. The calm is a bit eerily quiet."

Chen Zheng's heart pounded; that was a short order worth 1.25 billion!

If the market rebounds by even 2%, which is just a few cents, their accounts will trigger Peregrine Brokers' forced liquidation line, and 25 million will vanish instantly. It's like dancing ballet on a knife's edge!

"What's the panic? Have a pineapple bun to calm your nerves."

Lin Yao handed the remaining half of the pineapple bun to Chen Zheng and sneered.

"That old dog Zheng Jianguo is definitely suppressing the news like crazy and has mobilized a huge amount of funds to prepare to prop up the market. He wants to create a false impression of a peaceful and prosperous world so that retail investors will take over the losses."

"But you can't hide fire with paper."

Lin Yao walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down at the bustling steel jungle below.

"Once the market officially opens at 9:30, divide your short positions into one hundred sub-accounts and hide them in the shadows. As soon as the news breaks, immediately drive the price down. I want all of his market-stabilizing funds to become numbers in my accounts!"

At 9:25, at the Repulse Bay Villa, Zheng Jianguo had already been invited for tea by the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB).

But in the Zheng Group's war room, the CFO was leading dozens of traders, sweating profusely as they stared at the screen, holding the last two hundred million yuan in cash reserves that the Zheng family had pieced together.

"Listen up, no matter what fluctuations occur in the market today, if anyone dares to sell, we'll immediately buy them up. We must keep the stock price firmly above 15 yuan. This is the bottom line that the chairman risked his life for!"

The CFO roared.

"when--!"

At 9:30 a.m., the opening bell of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rang precisely on time, and in the very first second of trading, the Zheng Group's funds for supporting the market poured in.

"Raise the price, raise the price, create momentum for us!"

Driven by a substantial injection of 200 million yuan, Zheng's Jewelry's stock price rose against the market trend at the opening.

HK$15.2, HK$15.5, the increase reached an astonishing 3% in an instant!

In the trading room of the Far East Financial Center, Chen Zheng looked at the bright red rising candlestick on the screen, his face instantly turned pale, and he screamed shrilly.

"Boss, this is bad! Zheng's market-stabilizing funds are too aggressive. The stock price has risen by 3%, and our account has triggered a risk warning. Peregrine is about to force liquidation, and we're about to be wiped out!"

Thirteen Sister was so frightened that she sat down on the ground with a thud, her mind buzzing. It's over, twenty-five million, gone in less than ten minutes?

However, faced with this life-or-death crisis of margin call, Lin Yao calmly took out a Marlboro, lit it, took a deep drag, and exhaled a perfectly formed smoke ring.

He raised his wrist and looked at the million-dollar Rolex gold watch.

"At 9:31, let the bullets fly a little longer."

The moment Lin Yao finished speaking.

"Beep beep beep beep beep!!!"

Suddenly, the entire trading room, the whole of Hong Kong, and even the whole of Asia, Bloomberg financial terminals all simultaneously issued the highest level of red news alerts.

A breaking news story, bolded and highlighted in red, with an extremely sensational headline, crashed into Hong Kong's financial sector like a nuclear bomb with a yield of tens of millions of tons.

[Top Secret Breaking News: Hong Kong's Largest Smuggling Case in a Decade Cracked!]

Zheng Jianguo, chairman of the Zheng Group, was arrested in the early hours of the morning on suspicion of smuggling 300 million African blood diamonds and colluding with organized crime to transfer them!

The Commissioner of Police personally held a press conference to announce that all of the Cheng Group's accounts have been frozen and are under investigation!

Silence. At this moment, the entire Hong Kong Stock Exchange fell into a deathly silence, like that of a morgue.

Those retail investors, institutions, and speculative funds who had just bought into Zheng's Jewelry were so shocked by this news that their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and their blood seemed to freeze instantly.

One second later.

"Holy crap, run! Old dog Zheng's been caught!!!"

"Run! Sell quickly! Place sell orders at the daily limit down price! Sell at any cost!!!"

Fear, an extremely pure and overwhelming sense of panic, instantly engulfed the entire market.

"Old Chen."

Lin Yao, with a cigarette between his fingers, suddenly pointed at the teetering red candlestick on the screen. His eyes were like those of a god of war reigning supreme.

"Fire."

"Yes, boss!!!"

Chen Zheng's eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like he was going crazy. He slammed his hands on the Enter key.

The massive short-selling bomb, worth 1.25 billion, with its invincible destructive power, crashed into the already riddled Zheng's betting platform.

The first massacre in the history of the Hong Kong stock market has begun!