Reborn in 1970, I thrived in Hong Kong.

Today is New Year's Day holiday, and the racecourse was packed with a record-breaking 6 people. The racecourse was teeming with people, and everyone seemed to be on a high, determined to win all the money from the horse racing club.

However, the vast majority of people are still rational, and most of them still believe that gambling in moderation is harmless fun.

Most people are actually thinking like "using a small knife to cut down a big tree," betting tens or hundreds of yuan, dreaming of winning back hundreds or thousands of yuan.

These days, a bowl of wontons costs 5 cents at a Hong Kong street stall, 1 dollar at a tea restaurant, and 2 dollars at a high-end restaurant. An average worker's daily wage is about 8 dollars, while a Jockey Club ticket costs 3 dollars, which is half a day's wages for many people.

Therefore, ordinary people who buy tickets are not going to waste half a day's wages watching horse racing; almost everyone is queuing up to place bets.

Those in the private rooms naturally didn't need to queue; the horse racing club staff would help them place their bets.

Li Huai-ren followed Zhu You-zai to Lei Luo's private room. Lei Luo, Limpy Hao, and others had already arrived and were having the Jockey Club staff help them place their bets.

Not wanting to disturb them, Li Huai-ren politely nodded to them as a greeting, since the original owner of this body was fairly familiar with these people anyway.

Just then, a tall, thin man entered the private room, leaned close to Limpy Ho's ear, and whispered a few words. Limpy Ho immediately said to Lei Luo:

"Brother Luo, change your bet for the fourth game. Buy 'Golden Jade Hall' as the winner!"

After saying that, he winked at Lei Luo.

Lei Luo understood immediately and said to the horse racing club staff:

"Since Ah Hao already told me to bet on 'Golden Jade Hall' as the winner, then please place a bet of 100,000 on 'Golden Jade Hall'!"

Upon seeing this, Li Huai-ren's heart stirred. He knew that the withdrawal of "Eastern Overlord" from the race was about to happen, and at this time, the odds for Jin Yu Man Tang to win alone were still 1:15!

In other words, the final odds of 1:8.5 for Jin Yu Man Tang were only adjusted after "Eastern Overlord" withdrew from the competition.

Just then, a staff member from the horse racing association walked past him, and Li Huai-ren immediately called him over:

"Hey handsome, do me a favor. Since Brother Luo has already placed a bet on 'Golden Fortune,' I have to join in and bet HK$20,000 on the winner of 'Golden Fortune'!"

The horse racing club employee was overjoyed. Li Huai-ren had bet 20,000, and his commission would be substantial. He immediately accepted the money from Li Huai-ren with both hands and said respectfully:

"Mr. Li, no problem, I'll place the order for you right now!"

He turned to leave the private room to place a bet for Li Huai-ren, but Piggy called him back, giving him another surprise:

"Hey handsome, wait a minute, while you're at it, also place a bet of 20,000 on the fourth race's 'Golden Fortune' to win!"

After the Jockey Club staff left the private room with HK$40,000 to place their bets, Piggy came over, patted Li Huai-ren's arm, and said:

"Ah Ren, this morning Mr. Shao's mistress called me and asked me to ask you if you would sell the Pearl Theatre to Shaw Brothers for 800 million."

Ah Ren, this price is about right. You bought those dozen or so theaters in 1967 for only about six million dollars. Now the value has increased almost tenfold. You've made a fortune..."

Li Huai-ren smiled and said to Zhu Youzai:

"Brother Zai, that's not how you do it. Why don't you mention how badly the property market had fallen by the end of 67?"

Back then, who dared to buy land and buildings in Hong Kong? Hehe, I remember that besides Li Ka-shing, I was the second person to dare to spend big money on buying buildings and cinemas.

Oh, ever since the North said it wouldn't take Hong Kong back immediately, and seeing how sharply Hong Kong's property and land prices have risen, is Mr. Shaw now eyeing my dozen or so cinemas again?

Heh heh, dream on! Isn't he just taking advantage of the fact that I'm an orphan, young and naive, and easy to bully?

Not for sale! Please pass on a message to Old Man Shao: even though my parents are gone, the Li family still has members.

If he insists on targeting my dozen or so theaters, then I'll have no choice but to ask my fourth uncle, Li Zhaoji, to talk to him...

Who is Li Zhaoji? Piggy knows very well, and has heard about some of Li Zhaoji's methods. He also knows that none of the wealthy people in Hong Kong are kind-hearted or soft-hearted.

When Li Huai-ren brought up Li Zhao-ji, Zhu You-zai immediately knew that he wouldn't be able to earn Shao Lao-kou's commission. A hard-earned fee of several hundred thousand yuan was just going to slip away, which broke his heart.

Seeing the uncertain expression on his face, Li Huai-ren knew exactly what was going on.

He immediately conceived a plan to use this incident as an opportunity to gradually sever ties with the original owner's cronies, especially Lei Luo, Piggy, and Crippled Hao.

Next year, Murray MacLehose will become the 25th Governor of Hong Kong. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will be established soon, and taxation will become more and more standardized. I need to completely sever ties with them before then.

At this point, he was completely speechless at the original owner of this body. For the past few years, he had been hanging out with Piggy, Crippled Ho and others. How brainless could someone be to do such a thing?

At the same time, he had already realized something:

In his previous life in the 1980s, Mr. Shao owned more than 20 theaters under the Shaw Brothers cinema chain. It is estimated that most of them were acquired from the original owner. It is just unknown what methods he used.

In a flash, Li Huai-ren figured things out and made some decisions.

Just then, the Jockey Club staff had already placed his and Piggy's bets and given them the betting slips.

The two had just received their betting slips when the racetrack's loudspeakers immediately announced that the horse king, "Eastern Overlord," had been injured and withdrawn from the race.

Horse King "Eastern Overlord" withdrew from the first official race of the afternoon due to injury, which is also the fourth race of the day.

In this race, the odds for all horses were readjusted, with the odds for "Golden Jade Hall" quickly climbing from 1:15 to 1:8.5!

Inside the private room, upon hearing the news, Lei Luo immediately reached out and patted Limpy Ho on the shoulder:

"Good brother, that's thoughtful of you!"

I'll talk to the eldest son of the Ma family later and ask him to let you use their dock to import flour!

Upon hearing this, Limpy Ho was overjoyed. He immediately took a cigar, cut it, and handed it to Lei Luo with both hands, lighting it for him and laughing heartily.

"Haha, Brother Luo, we're all family, no need to be so polite!"

I buy flour from the wharf, and the money I save, I know how to do, I'll give to Lard Boy on time.

Lei Luo smiled happily, raised his wine glass, clinked it against his, and said:

"That's right, we're family, no need to be polite! Let's all cook and eat together!"

The retirement of the champion horse "Eastern Overlord" has made not only Raylor and his box crew happy, but also many foreigners who were overjoyed, having received the news and bought "Golden Abundance" in advance.

The people who passed the message to them were naturally Limpy Ho and his gang from the lottery stall.

This is a classic case of the problem: "If Commissioner Geng doesn't take it, how can the people below him take it?"

Since Hong Kong was opened to foreign trade, it has always been like this: the foreigners have always been the high and mighty "Commissioner Geng," taking the fattest, most, and biggest share, and using the rest to feed the birds and beasts they keep. To this day—New Year's Day, 1970—nothing has changed.

The difference is that during the opium-selling period, families like the You family were at the forefront as distributors, but after the 1950s, a large group of scoundrels fled from the north.

These scoundrels formed various gangs and arrogantly shouted out a slogan:

"Hong Kong is under the Governor's control during the day, but under the control of triads at night!"