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

November 1982, early winter.

Central, Hong Kong Island.

A cold wind swept across Victoria Harbour, whipping up layers of murky waves that crashed against the reclaimed land's embankment. The sky was so overcast it resembled an old rag soaked with dirty water, the oppressive atmosphere suffocating.

Kang Le Building

This 52-story skyscraper, with its iconic round windows, was once the tallest building in Asia and a symbol of British conglomerate power in the Far East. Those 1,748 round windows, like 1,748 eyes, arrogantly overlook this former British colony.

However, today, an apocalyptic atmosphere permeates the interior of this seemingly impregnable fortress.

Top floor, Landsea Group's No. 1 conference room.

The heavy velvet curtains were drawn tightly shut, blocking out the dim sunlight from outside, but unable to block out the suffocatingly low pressure inside the room.

The air was thick with the acrid smell of tobacco, the sour smell of cold coffee, and a sweaty odor of fear. A dozen or so blond, blue-eyed British executives in suits sat around a long mahogany conference table, looking as if they had lost their parents.

"F**k! F**k! F**k!!"

A string of angry British-accented profanities broke the silence.

The man sitting in the head seat suddenly smashed the crystal ashtray in his hand onto the ground.

"Snapped!"

With a sharp crack, glass shards flew everywhere, startling the board members who instinctively shrank back.

The angry man was David Newbigging, chairman of Hongkong Land Group and taipan of Jardine Matheson.

This Scottish tycoon, who had wielded considerable influence in the business world for many years, was now completely devoid of his usual gentlemanly demeanor. His typical Onsatian face had turned a deep purplish-red, and his tie, roughly ripped loose, hung around his neck like a noose.

He pointed to the stock market chart projected on the wall, his fingers trembling violently, his roar echoing in the closed conference room:

"Can any of you tell me, what the hell is going on?!"

"The Hang Seng Index has fallen below 600 points! Stocks across Hong Kong are falling! Hongkong Land is falling! Jardine Matheson is falling! Even HSBC is falling! The whole market is bleeding!" Newbikin's spittle sprayed onto the face of the executive closest to him, and the pointer in his hand slammed hard against the red curve on the screen.

"Only this one! Only Hongkong Electric is rising! And it's bucking the trend with a huge surge! Trading volume has increased for three consecutive days! Is this normal? Huh? Don't any of you million-dollar-a-year bums notice something's wrong?!"

On the screen, HK Electric's stock price chart looked like a proud middle finger, standing out conspicuously and ironically amidst a sea of ​​green in the market.

Faced with the chairman's thunderous rage, the conference room fell into a deathly silence.

After a long pause, a vice president in charge of market analysis wiped the cold sweat from his brow and stood up tremblingly to explain: "T-Tai-Pan, we did notice. But...but HK Electric is a public utility stock with stable cash flow and a franchise. In a bear market, such stocks are usually considered defensive assets, the so-called 'safe haven'."

Another executive chimed in, his voice barely audible: "Yes, Chairman, we thought it was just market funds rotating through sectors, with everyone selling off real estate stocks and buying utilities as a safe haven... In fact, we were quite pleased to see HK Electric rise a couple of days ago, thinking it reflected the preservation of HKD's assets..."

"Happy? You're actually secretly pleased?!"

Niu Bijian was so angry that he laughed, feeling as if his blood vessels were about to burst.

"Idiots! A bunch of idiots!"

He placed his hands on the table, his gaze fixed on the crowd with a sinister intensity. "If it were normal safe-haven buying, the stock price would rise moderately. But look at this! The angle of that surge yesterday afternoon! That was an aggressive buy at a 45-degree angle! Someone was frantically buying!"

In fact, until last night, Newbikin himself hadn't realized the seriousness of the problem. He was also overwhelmed by this bear market and was busy selling off non-core assets under Hongkong Land to raise funds.

He received that phone call late last night.

The call came from 79 Deep Water Bay, and the caller was Li Chengjia, a leading figure in the Chinese-owned real estate industry.

On the phone, Li Chengjia's voice carried a deep sense of concern:

"Hey boss, still awake? I've noticed HK Electric's stock performance has been quite erratic lately. Is some friend eyeing this lucrative stock? Be careful, there are plenty of hungry wolves in the world these days."

At that moment, Niu Bijian felt as if he had been struck by lightning.

Who is Li Chengjia? He's the most astute fox in Hong Kong! Even he made a special call to "remind" us, which means things have reached a point where we can't afford to take them seriously.

But as the head of Jardine Matheson, Newbikin would never admit to his subordinates that he was slow to realize things.

"If it weren't for Mr. Li's reminder, I'd still be completely in the dark!" Newbie roared, skillfully shifting the blame. "As the securities department, your responsibility is to monitor the market! How could you not report such a huge anomaly? Are you waiting until someone bursts into this conference room with a gun and kicks us all out before you realize what's happening?!"

The executives lowered their heads, not daring to utter a sound. Although they felt wronged, none of them dared to provoke them.

"Have you found out yet?!"

Newbijian took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the panic in his heart. "Who exactly is making the acquisition? Is it that old fox from the Huo family? Or Li Zhaoji? Or...?"

At this point, a deep sense of dread flashed in Newbighan's eyes. "Or perhaps it's that damned red capital?"

"Preschool..."

At this moment, the securities affairs director in charge of intelligence gathering, who had been sitting at the last seat, stood up. He was pale, and the folder in his hand was trembling slightly.

"After our urgent investigation and thorough tracking of several suspicious accounts..." The director swallowed, feeling his throat dry, "Although the other party used dozens of offshore accounts in Panama and the Cayman Islands as cover, and their methods were very covert,... that style is all too familiar."

"Speak quickly! Who is it!" Newbegian urged impatiently.

"It's...it's Golden Harvest International."

The director uttered the name with difficulty, a name that sent a chill down the spines of everyone present.

"What?!"

"Jiahe?!"

Niu Bijian's pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints, and he slumped heavily against the back of the chair as if all his strength had been drained away.

He gritted his teeth and forced out two words, filled with a deep-seated hatred:

"Lu Chen...it's Lu Chen again!"

"boom--"

The meeting room erupted in chaos. The British gentlemen, who had just maintained their last shred of composure, were now completely flustered.

"God, it's that hungry wolf again?"

"These barbarians! They're utterly lawless!"

An elderly director took off his glasses, his hand trembling as he wiped the lenses: "A while ago, they practically devoured Standard Chartered Bank! They even tore down that century-old signboard and burned it for firewood! They're a bunch of greedy pirates! And now... now they dare to target us again? Aren't they afraid of choking themselves to death?"

As a company established for less than two years, Golden Harvest International was not a normal business organization in the eyes of these traditional British-funded conglomerates, but a complete freak, a ghost haunting Central.

No matter how bad the market environment is, they always make money; no matter how strong their competitors are, they are always willing to go all out.

For those in the Jardine Matheson Group, Golden Harvest was an even greater "arch-enemy."

In the previous battle for Wharf Holdings, it was Lu Chen's interference that not only caused Jardine Matheson to lose control of Wharf Holdings, but also dealt a heavy blow to Hongkong Land in the stock market, a blow that Newbikin still feels painful to this day.

Now, this bloodthirsty monster has set its sights on the last bastion of purity within the Hong Kong Land Group – Hong Kong Island Electric.

"What is he trying to do?!" one director anxiously analyzed. "A hostile takeover? Or Greenmail (green extortion/stock market manipulation)?"

"If it's a sniper attack, he wants to drive up the stock price by accumulating a large number of shares, then force us to buy back his shares at a high price in order to maintain control, so he can make a fortune and leave."

"If it's an acquisition..." the director's voice trembled even more, not from excitement, but from a change in tone, "then he wants control of HK Electric! He wants to oust us from the board! He wants to tear the British flag down from the power plant!"

Fear spread like a plague among these arrogant, Japanese gentlemen.

"Quiet! All of you shut up!"

Newbigian slammed his hand on the table, making the coffee cups on it jump.

"What's the panic! Look at yourselves! Do you have even a shred of the composure expected of the Empire's elite?!"

Niu Bijian stood up, placed his hands on the edge of the table, and scanned the entire room with eyes like a hawk.

"We are Jardine Matheson! We are the cornerstone of the British Empire in the Far East! We have survived the flames of World War II, the 67 riots, and countless financial crises! Do you think we'd be afraid of a nouveau riche who made his fortune through speculation?"

Although he spoke with great passion, Newbigen himself was also feeling uneasy.

But he knew he couldn't back down.

"No matter which one it is, we cannot sit idly by and wait to die!"

With bloodshot eyes, like a gambler who had lost everything, Newbikini's voice was hoarse and frantic: "HK Electric isn't an ordinary company! It's our cash cow! It's Hongkong Land's lifeline!"

The current Hongkong Land Group looks glamorous on the outside, but it is rotten to the core on the inside.

In the past few years, Newbikini, bullish on the real estate market, spearheaded a frenzied land-buying program through borrowing. However, it was hit by the Sino-British negotiations and the stock market crash, resulting in land prices being halved and leaving it with unfinished buildings and negative equity. Banks were pressing for repayment every day, and liquidity was almost completely exhausted.

Hong Kong Electric is their only high-quality asset that is still generating stable profits and providing hundreds of millions in cash dividends annually. It is precisely because of Hong Kong Electric's cash flow that Hongkong Land can barely pay bank interest and maintain a facade of prosperity.

If HK Electric were to fall, Hongkong Land's cash flow would instantly break, and even the entire Jardine Matheson Group's buildings would be on the verge of collapse.

"and……"

Newbigen had an even more secretive reason in mind.

If he absolutely had to sell, he would rather sell to a "good friend" like Li Chengjia, or to those designated "successors" after the British capital withdrew from Hong Kong Island, than sell to Lu Chen!

Within British business circles, Lu Chen has already been labeled as a "red capitalist." If Hong Kong Electric falls into Lu Chen's hands, it would be aiding the enemy!

Moreover, Newbikini knew very well that the Keswick family, the behind-the-scenes controllers of Jardine Matheson, had long been unhappy with his poor decisions. Henry Keswick had been looking for an opportunity to remove him and replace him with his own trusted confidants.

If he loses even Hong Kong Electric, a core asset, then he can pack his bags and go back to his hometown in Scotland to herd sheep. He might even be disgraced, framed, and imprisoned.

"This is war! Gentlemen, this is a war for survival!" Newbegian clenched his fist and made a crazy decision.

"Relay my orders!"

"Mobilize all available working capital within the group! Suspend payments for all ongoing construction projects! Freeze all executive bonuses!"

"If that's not enough, then borrow!" Newbigen's eyes were filled with madness. "Go to HSBC! Go to Citibank! Even if it's a loan shark's loan, you have to hold on!"

"We'll buy as much as Jiahe buys!"

"Lu Chen wants to wage a price war? Then I'll play along to the end! I refuse to believe that a company he's only been around for two years can compete with our century-old Jardine Matheson! As long as we hold onto our 35% controlling stake, or even increase it to 50%, they won't succeed!"

"Once we drive the stock price up, let's see how they get out of this mess! I'll make that Lu Chen pay back every penny he owed for buying at such a high price! I'll make those stocks he owns become his tombstone!"

"yes!"

Although the executives were uncertain about the outcome, they had no choice but to agree under the chairman's intimidating presence. They knew they had no other option; it was like racing along the edge of a cliff—win and they'd be in a brothel with young models, lose and they'd be smashed to pieces.

……

That afternoon.

Following Hongkong Land's announcement that it is "full of confidence in the future of Hong Kong Island Lighting" and has begun to increase its shareholding in the block trading market.

HK Electric's share price surged in response.

The already rising stock price then soared like a rocket, instantly breaking through to a new historical high.

In the various stock exchanges in Central, phones rang incessantly, and red-vested workers roared out bids.

A battle for control of Hong Kong's electricity market, a capital struggle worth billions of Hong Kong dollars, has begun in earnest under the watchful eyes of all Hong Kong stock market investors.