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

October 20, 1983.

While Hong Kong's financial world was still reveling in the massive profits orchestrated by "Central Bay Crocodile" Ma Chi-wah, a private jet manufactured by Gulfstream, with the word "Landing" painted on its wings, was cutting through the cool morning mist over eastern longitude and smoothly landing on the private runway of Narita International Airport.

The cabin door slowly opened, and a cold wind, carrying the distinctive scent of late autumn in Japan, with a faint smell of the sea and industrial exhaust, rushed in.

Upon arriving in Japan, Lu Chen decided to adapt to local customs, changing out of the custom-made suit he wore in Hong Kong and into a dark brown cashmere coat over a black turtleneck sweater. This attire made him appear less flamboyant as a Hong Kong tycoon and more profound and somber, like a Japanese conglomerate.

Below the gangway, a row of black Toyota Century cars stood in a line. These cars, known as the "Rolls-Royces of the East," stood silently, like warriors guarding the emperor.

The woman standing at the very front stood out in the cold rain. She wore a pure black, fitted kimono, with a glimpse of her porcelain-white neck peeking out from the neckline. Her black hair was neatly styled into a high bun, with a cold silver hairpin inserted diagonally in the hair.

Ishii Goren.

She had come to welcome Lu Chen, so she didn't carry the intimidating katana at her waist. However, her icy, cold eyes alone were enough to make the people at Narita Airport around her feel breathless. As Ruan Wen's agent in the Japanese underworld, Ishii Oren had now essentially wiped out the yakuza forces in the East, becoming the undisputed leader of "Takamagahara."

Given her remarkable efforts, last month, Nguyen Van personally vouched for her, allowing Ishii to become a member of the brewery, codenamed "Sake".

"Mr. Lu, welcome back to East China University of Economics."

Ishii Oren bowed slightly, his tone revealing a kind of fanaticism, the heartfelt submission of the Japanese to the strong.

Lu Chen nodded, and without further pleasantries, got into the lead car, which had the highest bulletproof rating.

Led by Toyota SUVs, the convoy quickly drove away from the airport.

Half an hour later, the convoy entered Shibuya Ward.

In this restless era, Shibuya is gradually replacing Ginza as the meeting point for Japan's younger generation and emerging wealth. Not far from Shibuya Station, a colossal building, rising from the ground like an obelisk, arrogantly overlooks the surrounding neighborhood.

This is Takamagahara.

Since the massive influx of US dollars across the globe, Nguyen Van has been flush with cash, allowing him to renovate the hotel once again. Its ground floor houses the most luxurious five-star hotel in Eastern Europe and the largest bar and nightclub in Asia. A standard suite costs 200,000 yen, and a booth has a minimum charge of 100,000 yen, making it a dream destination for countless young men and women in Eastern Europe.

As for the first to third basement levels, these are giant casinos and underground financial derivatives exchanges protected by illicit capital and not open to the general public. Countless middle-class or wealthy people indulge in debauchery here, and countless gray incomes gather here.

The top floor of the building is a secluded sky garden, filled with both Showa-era style and cyberpunk aesthetics; it is Lu Chen's power center in Japan.

The elevator went straight to the top floor, and the metal door opened silently.

Nguyen Van Chinh stood quietly in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window. She wore a semi-transparent white silk robe, her bare feet were on the thick wool carpet, and she held a glass of Romanée-Conti from the 1960s in her hand.

When Lu Chen entered, a gentle ripple of tenderness flickered in Ruan Wen's cold eyes.

Lu Chen stepped forward and gently embraced her slender, boneless waist from behind.

Ruan Wen leaned into his arms, the fragrance of her long hair instantly filling the air.

After being separated for so long, their desire was naturally ignited, but I'll skip the details...

After their passionate encounter, Lu Chen, his sweat still damp, leaned against the specially made mahogany headboard, shirtless, and casually lit a cigar. Ruan Wen lay on his side on Lu Chen's chest, her fingers unconsciously tracing the powerful lines of his muscles.

"Has the money arrived?" Lu Chen's voice was slightly hoarse, yet it conveyed a sense of complete control.

Ruan Wen straightened up, his eyes regaining the composure befitting Vermouth. "The $100 million from Huo Daheng and the $100 million from Bao Ship Magnates were transferred in batches yesterday through Jiahe International's shell company in the Cayman Islands to our secret account at Nikko Securities, plus..."

Ruan Wen paused, his tone becoming somewhat mysterious, "The first batch of illicit funds you took back from Guanchaiba and Luo Lie in Southeast Asia has been laundered. The $500 million was perfectly transferred to the Japanese branch of a Swiss bank through DOA. Now, we have a full $700 million in legitimate funds on the surface."

"But that's not enough." Lu Chen exhaled a smoke ring. "You have other surprises for me, right?"

A proud smile curved Ruan Wen's lips. He knew this man's appetite, so he continued, "There's also a brand-new batch of 500 million 'super dollars,' which has all been transported to Takamagahara. My team is currently performing the final micro-engraving on this batch of super dollars. Once everything is ready, this 500 million 'worthless pieces of paper' will be transformed into real Japanese yen checks amidst the turbulent waves of the Japanese stock market."

Lu Chen nodded.

Seven hundred million in legitimate funds, plus five hundred million in "super dollars" that are indistinguishable from real ones.

A total of 1.2 billion US dollars.

"That's enough..." Lu Chen looked out the window at the dazzlingly bright night sky of East Asia, his tone exuding an air of absolute dominance. "This month, I'm going to turn this 1.2 billion into 2 billion. I'm going to quietly hitch a ride on the wave of the Japanese people's revelry."

……

The Japanese stock market in 1983.

That was the most bizarre and exciting prelude in the history of human finance.

Although the famous Plaza Accord was still two years away, and the peak of that insane bubble was still a long way off, in that year, with the Nakasone Yasuhiro government's "neoliberal" economic reforms and the explosive growth of Japanese semiconductor and home appliance exports to the United States, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) had already become a frenzied melting pot.

That year, the Nikkei 225 index was on a springboard for a leap forward.

Lu Chen sat in front of the wall in front of Gao Tianyuan, which was covered with thirty-six high-definition display screens. Behind him was the violent machine controlled by Gao Tianyuan, which was capable of mobilizing tens of thousands of yakuza members to carry out gray-scale operations, and the art team led by Ruan Wen, which possessed the world's most advanced counterfeiting and money laundering technology.

"Boss, the Nikkei 225 index is currently hovering around 225 points," the trading manager asked, his eyes gleaming with a fanatical devotion. "Where should we start?"

Lu Chen stared at the fluctuating K-line on the screen, tapping his fingertip lightly on the table: "Since we want to make quick money, we naturally won't touch those traditional bank stocks. Japanese banks are still too rigid. We need to start with the 'future'."

"The first step is to dispel the poison."

Lu Chen issued the first instruction.

The "super dollar" of five hundred million US dollars must not be put into the banking system all at once.

Under the operation of Ishii Oren, thousands of Takamagahara members, dressed in suits and looking no different from office workers, began to use these US dollars to frequent major gambling dens, underground casinos, and large-scale but poorly regulated currency exchange offices throughout Japan.

They are not just exchanging assets, but using these US dollars to purchase large amounts of physical assets and gold in Japan, and then quickly pledging them to Japanese geopolitical banks that crave US dollar reserves.

In just one week, five hundred million US dollars disappeared into Japan's gray market, replaced by hundreds of billions of Japanese yen lying in Takamagahara's account.

"The second step is to create a god."

October 25th.

Lu Chen didn't rush into the fray. He leveraged the influence of Golden Harvest and the High Table Group in Asia and Europe to begin releasing smokescreens in major global financial media outlets.

Mainstream media outlets such as Asia News, The Wall Street Journal, The Times, and ATV simultaneously published or reprinted a signed opinion piece titled: "The End of Silicon Valley? Japanese Semiconductors Are About to Dominate the World."

The article went to great lengths to praise the Japanese giants, listing in detail their technological advantages in 64K DRAM memory chips. Meanwhile, Liang Guangbo, president of Longteng Technology, opportunely announced that Longteng would only purchase memory chips from Japan in the future, as Dongying's DRAM was already unparalleled in the world.

This praise from "top-tier external capital" instantly ignited the investment enthusiasm of Japanese stock market investors, which was extremely inflated due to their national pride.

"Enter."

Lu Chen stared at the fluctuating curves on the screen, his eyes icy.

He split the $1.2 billion into 3,000 different overseas institutional accounts. These accounts were like a group of electric eels lurking in the deep sea, frantically devouring the shares of those heavyweight stocks during every minor market correction.

His primary targets were Sony, Toshiba, and semiconductor giant NEC, which were at the center of controversy at the time.

Late October 1983.

The entire Japanese stock market seemed to have been injected with an extremely strong dose of adrenaline.

The Nikkei index actually managed to pull up to a near-vertical angle during that week.

Lu Chen's operations were extremely ruthless and deceptive. He didn't simply buy and hold; instead, he used his intelligence advantage in Takamagahara to precisely manipulate the market across markets.

"Have Sofia publicly announce, in the name of the High Table Group, that she is bullish on Japanese tech stocks," Lu Chen instructed into the microphone. "I want those retail investors and small local conglomerates who were still hesitant to believe that Europe is leading the charge."

Ma Zhihua's bullish pronouncements in Hong Kong attracted Japanese capital that blindly worshipped "Europe and America." While these local investors poured in and drove up stock prices, Lu Chen's secret accounts in Takamagahara were using high-level wash trading to artificially inflate the price, pushing the average P/E ratio of ten to thirty or even fifty!

Crazy.

The entire East Asia region is going crazy.

Taxi drivers are discussing the rise and fall of Sony's stock, while housewives are selling their jewelry to buy NEC stock.

……

November 5th.

Only fifteen days have passed since Lu Chen landed in the east.

Inside Takamagahara's office, the risk control officer's voice was exceptionally excited:

"Mr. Lu! Based on current market prices, the total value of our holdings in technology stocks has exceeded 1.6 billion US dollars! Our unrealized profit has reached an astonishing 400 million US dollars!"

Lu Chen stared at the distorted candlestick chart on the screen, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table.

Sixteen billion? No, that's not enough.

"Ishii," Lu Chen suddenly spoke.

"Here." Ishii Oren's figure emerged from the shadows.

"Have your yakuza 'friends' cause some trouble for the unions of those semiconductor companies." Lu Chen's tone carried a devilish calmness. "I don't want these companies' good news to continue. I want a little... 'flaw'."

This is a seemingly low-level "market manipulation technique" that is incredibly effective in the capital market.

Over the next three days, Japanese media began reporting negative rumors about a strike on a core NEC production line and a Sony player being recalled in the United States.

The stock price immediately fell.

Japanese stock market investors were gripped by a brief period of panic.

At this moment, Lu Chen issued an even more reckless order: "Full position, leverage to the maximum, absorb all sell orders."

Using the yen position he laundered with those 500 million "super dollars," he carried out a "death harvest" that would go down in history at a pullback point that everyone feared.

Those retail investors who panicked and sold off their hard-earned money accumulated over many years were personally sent into the abyss set up by Lu Chen.

November 10th.

Japan has announced a major tax and profit subsidy to support the export of high-tech products.

This positive news became the final straw that broke the camel's back for short sellers, and also the last spark that fueled the euphoria.

The stock market is surging again!

The Nikkei index has broken its historical record.

Sony's stock price more than doubled in just one month, while NEC's stock price surged by a staggering 150 percent.

……

November 15th, midnight.

East longitude, Takamagahara headquarters.

Ruan Wen leaned back wearily in her chair, but her eyes were unusually bright. She stared at the final financial statements compiled on the computer screen, her breathing becoming rapid.

"Is the shipment complete?" Lu Chen stood behind her, his hand on her shoulder, feeling her slight tremor.

"All done." Ruan Wen turned around, his voice filled with amazement at witnessing a miracle. "Because our scattered order distribution operations were extremely discreet, and the current desire of Japanese local capital to take over is almost pathological... all the cash flow we withdrew has been transferred back to the safe account of a Swiss bank."

Ruan Wen's eyes lit up as he drew the final number.

2,034,000,000 USD.

Two billion thirty-four million US dollars.

From October 20th to November 20th, it was only a month.

Using the $700 million plus $500 million in "worthless paper," Lu Chen not only completed a perfect asset swap in Japan's financial hunting grounds, but also made a net profit of over $800 million by accurately predicting Japan's national fortune in 1983.