Reborn in 1970, I thrived in Hong Kong.

Upon learning that the first print run of 50,000 copies of Phoenix Daily had sold out, Jin Yong lost his good mood and could no longer chat idly with Li Huai-ren as he had the previous days. Seeing that Li Huai-ren had agreed to go to Taiwan together, and after drinking a few more sips of tea, Jin Yong got up to say goodbye and returned to the Ming Pao newspaper office on the eighth floor.

Around noon, Liu Yizhuang printed another 5,000 copies of the newspaper, but they were quickly sold out. So far, Phoenix Daily has been reprinted several times, and a total of 78000 copies have been sold.

He wanted to print another 10,000 copies, but Li Huai-ren stopped him:

"Alright, that's enough. Too much of a good thing can be bad. Let's adjust the initial print run tomorrow. We can print 70,000 copies first."

By the way, I'm treating everyone to lunch. You call Yung Kee Roast Meat Shop and ask them to deliver roast meat platters to us per person, plus a braised chicken leg and two braised eggs for each order!

As for the reporters and other staff who were out on assignments and didn't return, let's just give them a cash refund for their lunch deliveries!

After Phoenix Daily officially went on sale, it sold 78,000 copies on the first day and 90,000 copies on the second day.

In the following days, sales stabilized between 80,000 and 90,000 units.

As a result, another major newspaper in Hong Kong was born. Seeing that Phoenix Daily's sales were stable at over 80,000 copies, GG merchants immediately flocked to discuss GG matters with them.

Liu Yizhuang was responsible for these matters, and Li Huai Ren did not inquire about them. He threw the copied novel and comic scripts to Liu Yizhuang, took a large pile of drawings to his brother-in-law Luo Jiazhuang, and asked Luo's law firm to help him apply for a global patent.

Luo Jiazhuang was taken aback. He had no idea where his unreliable brother-in-law had gotten so many patent applications.

But his brother-in-law's Phoenix Daily was already thriving and was now doing legitimate work, which was a good thing and should be supported! So he didn't ask any more questions and simply arranged for someone to carry it out.

On January 30, 1970, Phoenix Hardware & Plastics Factory, a subsidiary of Li Huai-ren's Phoenix Industrial Company, opened in Kwun Tong. There was no fanfare, only a string of 1 firecrackers.

Phoenix Hardware & Plastics Factory mainly produces and sells bags, nylon cable ties, and sticky notes.

Note that the bag is a trolley type, the sticky notes are naturally self-adhesive sticky notes, and the nylon cable ties are miniaturized versions weighing only a few grams each.

In his previous life, Li Huai-ren's father was one of the suppliers of Midea Group in Shunde and Huawei, producing hardware and plastic parts with an annual output value of over one billion yuan.

Li Huai-ren practically grew up in his father's factory, so he is naturally quite familiar with the production of hardware, plastics, and other electrical components.

Before his rebirth, Li Huai-ren had already planned to return home to inherit his father's business. However, on April 1, 2026, he was promoted to chief editor by the website. Overjoyed, he drank too much and was directly reverted to Li Huai-ren in Hong Kong in 1970.

Rolling suitcases, sticky notes, and miniaturized nylon cable ties are all inconspicuous products, yet they have ridiculously high profit margins.

Take nylon cable ties as an example. A single nylon cable tie weighs only a few grams, and with the current price of nylon plastic, the material cost is only five or six cents. However, when he wholesales it to construction companies, electrical appliance companies, and other companies, he charges three or eight Hong Kong dollars for a single nylon cable tie!

There are ten Chen Hsong injection molding machines in the workshop that specialize in producing nylon cable ties. The mold output is 48 per mold, which means that when the injection mold is opened and closed (i.e., one injection molding cycle), it produces 48 ties. At HK$0.38 per ties, that's HK$18.24!

One injection molding cycle is about 30 seconds, which means that the output value of one injection molding machine is HK$36.48 per minute and HK$2188.8 per hour.

What about ten injection molding machines? The output value per hour would be HK$21888!

After removing the negligible cost of plastic and the costs allocated to each product, such as mold fees, electricity fees, and management fees, Phoenix Hardware & Plastics Factory can make a profit of more than HK$21000 per hour just by producing nylon cable ties. If it only produces for 20 hours a day, that would be HK$420000!

This is practically robbery, the only difference being that Li Huai-ren's production and sale of nylon cable ties is legal!

This is why injection molding machines are called money printing machines by industry insiders, and it's also why Li Ka-shing was able to amass another huge fortune through his plastics factory.

Never, ever underestimate a plastics factory that can operate at full capacity. Hehehe, this industry is full of cases where "a straw covering a pearl" happens frequently, and it's incredibly low-key. If the owner of a plastics factory doesn't say anything, most people would think he's only earning a little bit of hard-earned money.

Closer to home.

As for rolling suitcases and sticky notes, based on Li Huai-ren's pricing for these two products, their profit margins are the same as those for producing nylon cable ties.

The factory is currently producing and stocking up, but sales will only begin after the patent application is approved.

Renting a factory, renovating an office, and buying injection molding machines and other machinery quickly depleted Li Huai-ren's HSBC bank savings account of over HK$2.1 million, and also spent all the GG fees that Phoenix Daily had just collected.

Fortunately, nylon cable ties began to bring Li Huai-ren a steady stream of huge cash flow.

As for the accounts of Phoenix Daily, Phoenix Industrial, Phoenix Hardware & Plastics Factory, and Li Huai-ren's own personal account, Li Huai-ren also changed them all to accounts at the Hong Kong branch of the Bank of China.

Because his father's factory had always been one of Huawei's suppliers, Li Huai-ren knew more about the inside story of the Huawei "Princess" incident than the average person. He was very clear about what HSBC had done back then. In Cantonese terms, it was like this:

"HSBC has forcibly seized upon Huawei's 'eldest princess's' raw pork!"

In other words, they fabricated a lot of information to frame someone...

In addition, he planned to invest his funds in the financial market. And why would Bao Bao, the richest man in Hong Kong, know that Li Ka-shing had acquired Wharf Holdings shares in his previous life? What many people don't know is that Bao Bao also held another position at the time—a director of HSBC!

Therefore, there are countless reasons to deposit money in HSBC, but Li Huai-ren's reason for not depositing it can be summed up in three words: "I don't trust him!"

He worried that if he deposited his money with HSBC, his financial situation would be completely transparent to the British companies when he acquired them in the future!

If one side in a conflict is completely transparent to the other, the implications are self-evident: the side that is made transparent will inevitably be directly and dimensionally defeated by the other side. They can choose to live or die at will!

Of course, if Li Huai-ren, like some of the city's wealthy tycoons, became a front man for the British and HSBC, then that's a different story.

However, this possibility is now completely impossible because of Li Huai-ren's parents.

The reason is simple: Li Huai-ren's parents were shot and killed by the British in a shooting incident in Kowloon in 1967.

Li Zhaoji was furious and demanded an explanation from the British, but the British dismissed it as accidental injury or death and offered to pay some money to settle the matter.

When you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head. Li Zhaoji had no choice but to hire a lawyer to fight the case. In the end, he made the British pay him one million Hong Kong dollars, and that was the end of the matter.

Therefore, Li Huai-ren and the British actually had a blood feud involving the murder of their father and mother, and it was impossible for them to be on the same page. He wanted to curry favor with the British and HSBC like Li Moumou, Bao Moumou, Shao Moumou, and others, but they didn't trust him.