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

Far East Financial Center, 48th floor, Yaosheng Capital headquarters. The first rays of morning sunlight stream through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the priceless Persian carpet.

"Hehehe...hehehe...it's all mine...anyone who dares to touch my money, I'll chop up their whole family..."

On the large, luxurious leather sofa, Thirteen Sister lay sprawled out, drooling, indulging in an extremely arrogant dream of getting rich overnight.

She was clutching a black briefcase tightly to her chest, which contained one million yuan in cash that Lin Yao had casually taken out the night before.

"Bang!"

A thick book of "Hong Kong Financial Law" landed squarely on Thirteen Sister's head.

"Oh my god, enemy attack! Protect my sister-in-law... oops, protect my brother!"

Thirteen Sister sprang up from the sofa like an electrocuted toad, her left hand holding the briefcase, her right hand already expertly pulling out the watermelon knife she never left behind, her big eyes wide with vigilance.

"Alright, stop making a fool of yourself here. Wipe your drool, you've never seen anything like this before."

Lin Yao, dressed in a pure white silk bathrobe, stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, holding a cup of hand-ground coffee.

Bathed in the morning light, he exuded an indescribable languor and nobility, looking exactly like a wealthy young master born in Rome. There was no trace of the street thug he had been a few days ago in Kowloon Walled City.

"Ah, Ah Yao..."

Thirteen Sister wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth, looked around at the super luxurious Grade A office that made her dizzy, and then looked at Lin Yao, still feeling a bit dazed.

"We...really made a billion?"

Thirteen Sister swallowed hard, feeling like those words were burning her tongue.

"To be precise, it's one billion twenty-five million."

Lin Yao took a sip of coffee, turned around, and tossed a thin financial statement onto the coffee table.

"However, this money is just a string of numbers sitting in the account right now. We can slow down a bit for the next thirty days."

Upon hearing the word "slow down," Thirteen Sister felt as if she had been granted a pardon, let out a long breath, and collapsed onto the sofa.

"Thank goodness, you're finally going to give me a few days' rest. These past few days you've been either causing trouble or shorting billionaire companies; you almost gave me a heart attack!"

"So, tell me, what are we going to do for these thirty days? Go on vacation to Hawaii or buy a few yachts and go out to sea to pick up girls?"

"Vacation?"

Lin Yao looked at Thirteen Sister as if she were an idiot. "Sister, once the gears of capital start turning, there's no reason for them to stop. A billion is an astronomical figure in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the upcoming global financial tsunami, it's at most just a slightly larger cannon fodder."

Lin Yao walked to the sofa and sat down, his eyes becoming deep and sharp.

"For the next thirty days, I will not touch the stock market. I will use this billion yuan to build an impregnable physical business empire."

"No matter how much money is in the stock market, without the support of real industries and the security of absolute military force, it is just a castle in the air, a piece of fat meat in other people's eyes."

"So, our first step today is to visit the film set!"

……

At 10 a.m., the dilapidated film set on the outskirts of Kowloon Walled City had undergone a complete transformation compared to when Lin Yao had visited two days prior.

With an initial investment of one million, Lin Zheng immediately upgraded his equipment, not only renting the most professional photography studio, but also replacing all the extras' costumes with high-quality custom-made ones.

The entire set was bustling with activity, everyone was working like crazy, as if they were on steroids.

"Cut! Okay, that's a good take. Qiusheng, you sprinkled that glutinous rice perfectly!"

Lin Zheng, beaming with excitement, shouted through a megaphone.

"Uncle Zheng, well done."

Lin Yao, with his hands in his pockets, strolled in with Thirteen Sister.

"Oh, boss, what brings you here!"

Lin Zheng turned around and saw the God of Wealth descending. He quickly put down the loudspeaker, jogged over to greet him, and his smile was even brighter than when he saw his own father.

"Boss, look how fast we're progressing! At this rate, we should be able to wrap up filming and move on to post-production in about twenty days!"

"Hmm, no need to rush, slow and steady wins the race."

Lin Yao smiled and patted Lin Zheng on the shoulder.

At the same time, Lin Yao silently chanted in his mind: "System, activate Lv2 permission, business simulation!"

[Ding! Lv2 permission activated, target locked: "Mr. Zombie" film project!]

[A business simulation for the next month is underway...]

The next second, a virtual high-tech panel that only he could see suddenly popped up on Lin Yao's retina.

On the panel, a dense stream of data began to jump wildly, eventually converging into several lines of large, glittering gold text:

Project Title: Mr. Zombie

[Expected opening month box office: HK$3200 million (An absolute phenomenon, breaking Hong Kong film history records!)]

[Profitability/Loss Conversion Rate: Invest 500 million, expect net profit of 2800 million, a return rate as high as 560%!]

Upon seeing this data, Lin Yao was overjoyed. 3200 million in box office revenue—in 87, when movie tickets cost only ten or so yuan, this was a terrifying figure worthy of being recorded in history. This investment was simply a huge win.

However, before Lin Yao could finish celebrating, a blinding red light suddenly flashed at the edge of the system panel.

[High-Risk Hidden Alert: Critical Business Risk Detected!]

[Analysis shows that due to the high-profile nature of the film's production, it has attracted the attention of Crow, a key member of the Tung Sing triad. Crow, coveting huge profits, plans to forcibly seize the master tapes on the day filming wraps, produce pirated videotapes, sell them through underground money exchanges throughout Hong Kong, and use the opportunity to extort money from Yiu Shing Film Company!]

[If the master tapes are stolen, box office revenue is expected to plummet to 300 million, and the project will go bankrupt!]

Lin Yao's smile froze instantly, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

Dongxing, Crow, the number one psychopath in Dongxing who likes to flip the table while eating and is quick to kill people?

I'm not going to cause trouble for your Tung Sing gang, but you bunch of thugs have the nerve to set your sights on my cash cow?!

"Ah Yao, what's wrong? It's so hot, why do you look at me like that?"

Thirteen Sister, who was standing nearby, keenly noticed the change in Lin Yao's aura and couldn't help but shudder.

"It's nothing, I just smelled some kind of stupid bedbug."

Lin Yao put away the system panel, turned to look at Lin Zheng, and asked in a calm but authoritative tone: "Uncle Zheng, have any idle people from outside the film set caused trouble during this time?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Zheng's expression changed slightly. After hesitating for a moment, he lowered his voice and said, "Boss, I can't hide it from your eyes... There has indeed been a group of people with dyed yellow hair, claiming to be from Tung Sing, loitering outside the film set these past two days."

"They not only demanded protection money, but they also inquired about the progress of our film and the location of the master tapes. Our brothers are just making a legitimate film, so they didn't dare to mess with them..."

"The crows of Dongxing, right?"

Lin Yao sneered.

"Yes, yes, yes, they're the henchmen of Crow, the Tiger of the Eastern Star Clan!"

Lin Zheng wiped away his cold sweat. "Boss, these guys don't follow the rules. Should we call the police?"

"Call the police? That's too pointless."

Lin Yao casually pulled out a Marlboro from his pocket, lit it, and exhaled a puff of smoke.

"Uncle Zheng, just focus on filming. I'll take care of everything, even if the sky falls. As for those vermin, I'll show them what the iron fist of capital is!"

After leaving the film set, Lin Yao did not go straight back to the company, but instead took Thirteen Sister to a private room in a high-end tea restaurant.

"Sister, what's your rank in Hung Hing right now?"

Lin Yao took a sip of his iced lemon tea and suddenly asked a question out of the blue.

Thirteen Sister was taken aback, scratching her head: "Rank? Well... just a small-time boss on Portland Street, with a few dozen brothers under him who collect protection money and keep watch over the place. What's wrong with that?"

"Too low."

Lin Yao shook his head. "Not worthy of your current status."

"ha?"

Thirteen Sister looked completely bewildered.

"The crows of Dongxing have their eyes on our movie master tapes."

Lin Yao tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "I can crush those in the business world with money, but the flies in the underworld are always buzzing around in the shadows. It's really annoying."

"Therefore, we need to support a leader within Hung Hing who can absolutely speak and control the situation!"

Lin Yao raised his head, his gaze fixed intently on Thirteen Sister: "Sister, do you want to be one of the twelve leaders of Hung Hing, the boss of Portland Street, or even... the future leader of Hung Hing?"

"puff--!"

Thirteen Sister spat out the half-mouthful of milk tea she had just drunk, her eyes nearly popping out of her head.

"Are you crazy? Become a gang leader? You'd have to make some huge contributions to the organization, hacking through several streets with a watermelon knife. I may be good at fighting, but I don't have the qualifications at all! Let alone a gang leader, Mr. Chiang could slap me to death!"

"Chopping people up? That's something from the old days."

Lin Yao curled his lips into an extremely disdainful and arrogant smile. He pulled a thick checkbook directly from his briefcase with a snap.

"Sister, times have changed. This is an era where capital reigns supreme. Why risk your life for something that can be solved with money?"

Lin Yao pulled out his pen, quickly signed a check, and pushed it in front of Thirteen Sister.

"This check has ten million in cash on it. Go see Mr. Chiang tonight and tell him that from now on, all the Hung Hing establishments on Portland Street that are under your protection, as long as they are owned by Sister Thirteen, will have their profits handed over to the triad tripled."

Thirteen Sister stared at the check for ten million dollars, her breath catching in her throat. Using ten million dollars to smash the head of Hung Hing? Wasn't that just buying a position?

"Not only that."

Lin Yao's eyes gleamed with a sinister light.

"Go tell the leaders of the other Hung Hing branches, like Brother B, Han Bin, Prince... if they're willing to nominate you, each of them will receive a one million dollar election bonus!"

"When you're out in the game, who isn't after money?"

Lin Yao leaned back in his chair, arms outstretched as if to embrace the whole world, his voice brimming with an arrogant, almost devastating, quality.

"What right do those thugs who earn tens of thousands of dollars a month in protection money have to fight us?"

"I'm going to use the purest, most brute force of money to smash you into the biggest powerhouse in Hung Hing!"

"When that brainless brute, Crow from Tung Sing, comes to steal the master tapes, I'll make him realize with despair that he's not facing a few extras, but the entire Hung Hing Society, fully armed and driving Mercedes and BMWs to work!"

This is Lin Yao's style. Even if he slows down, his methods of running businesses and organizations are still the extremely perverse and unscrupulous way of crushing capital.

Thirteen Sister looked at her domineering younger brother and then at the ten million dollar check on the table. She felt that the code of honor and values ​​she had built up in the first half of her life were collapsing rapidly.

but……

That's fucking awesome!

Overwhelming those once high and mighty gang leaders with money is a million times more satisfying than beating someone up!

"Let's do it!"

Thirteen Sister stuffed the check into her bosom and slammed her hand on the table with an air of grandeur.

"I'm going to Mr. Jiang's villa tonight. If I don't buy that position of hall master, I'm not a Cui!"