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

Seven o'clock in the morning, Wan Chai.

Jiajia was forcibly pulled out of bed by her mother, Han Xiulan. The little girl's eyes were not yet open, her soft hair was messy like a bird's nest, and she was mumbling in her sleep.

However, when Jiajia was carried to the dining table and sat down, she immediately woke up—because she saw a figure that she rarely saw on ordinary days.

I saw my father, Zhao Mengsheng, sitting across from me at the dining table, holding a cup of soy milk and flipping through a newspaper. In front of him were scallion pancakes and a plate of radish.

"Daddy!" Jiajia screamed with delight, jumping off the chair and rushing to him. "Why are you home today?!"

Zhao Mengsheng put down the newspaper, caught his daughter who rushed towards him, and kissed her twice on the cheek: "I don't have to leave early today. I missed you, so I'm having breakfast with you."

He smiled and carried Jiajia back to the chair, then pushed the soy milk in front of her, "Eat up, and Daddy will take you to kindergarten after you finish."

Han Xiulan came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of fried eggs. She glanced at her husband and smiled slightly. She knew that Zhao Mengsheng had worked overtime until midnight last night and could have slept in a little longer this morning, but he got up early and made scallion pancakes himself, just to have breakfast with his daughter.

She reached out and straightened Jiajia's collar, then tidied up her chopsticks for her.

Jiajia picked up a piece of scallion pancake that was still steaming hot and started chattering as she ate it.

She speaks like a little lark, jumping from one topic to another before finishing one, her mouth full of food making her speech unclear, but her expressions are incredibly rich.

"Yesterday, the teacher taught us to draw. I drew a tree—not a regular tree, but a pink one. Then in the afternoon, during games class, we played hide-and-seek. I hid behind the slide, and nobody found me..."

Han Xiulan patted her little head. Zhao Mengsheng put down his newspaper, watched his daughter's excited gestures, and smiled slightly. "Has anyone bullied you at kindergarten?"

There was a reason why Zhao Mengsheng asked that question.

After all, due to his job change, Jiajia followed him from Beijing to Hong Kong Island. She was unfamiliar with the place and the people there. In addition, at that time, many people in Hong Kong society had a deep-rooted arrogance and prejudice against people from the mainland. He was always worried that his precious daughter would be mistreated at school.

Upon hearing this, Jiajia paused, first nodding, then shaking her head.

Han Xiulan and Zhao Mengsheng exchanged a glance.

"Is it there or not?" Han Xiulan frowned slightly and put down her chopsticks.

"There was one," Jiajia said softly, poking at the fried egg on her plate, "It was that Wang Jiahao. He always pulls my pigtails, and he says I'm from the North, that my family came here illegally, and that my dad sells newspapers..."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Mengsheng's fingers tightened slightly as he held the milk cup.

"Northern girl" is a derogatory term for women from mainland China in Hong Kong. He never expected that a kindergarten child would use this term.

"But it's okay now!" Jiajia looked up, her expression changing from dejected to excited. "Brother Lu Qian already taught him a lesson! He made Wang Jiahao fall flat on his face and then made him apologize to the whole class. Wang Jiahao cried really loudly, but he actually apologized and even promised to buy me a strawberry cake."

Upon hearing the first part of the sentence, Zhao Mengsheng's face darkened. His daughter was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and had been pampered since she was a child. Even the wild boys in the military compound didn't dare to bully her. He never expected that she would be ridden on by a little fat boy after coming to Hong Kong.

However, after hearing that Jiajia hadn't suffered any real injustice, his expression gradually relaxed. He reached out and patted his daughter's fluffy little head.

"Next time something like this happens, tell your dad right away, or tell your Uncle Li," Zhao Mengsheng said in a deep voice.

The "Uncle Li" he mentioned was his secretary, whom he brought from the military. Nominally, he was a branch office employee on Hong Kong Island, but in reality, he was responsible for protecting him and his family.

"Okay." Jiajia nodded obediently.

"By the way, what does Lu Qian's family do?"

"I don't know," Jiajia mumbled, stuffing bread into her mouth. "I only know that his family has a lot of cars. He said he has two dogs, one named Cola and the other Sprite, and they're very smart. He also said his dad can ride horses, and he wants to learn to ride horses when he grows up."

Han Xiulan chuckled, "That's quite an interesting kid."

Hearing this, Zhao Mengsheng nodded thoughtfully.

After dinner, Zhao Mengsheng drove his daughter to kindergarten. Jiajia sat in the back seat, humming Cantonese nursery rhymes she had learned at kindergarten. Her singing was completely off-key, but she seemed quite absorbed in it.

When they arrived at the kindergarten gate, Jiajia jumped off the bus with her little backpack on, ran a few steps, then turned back, stood on tiptoe, and kissed Zhao Mengsheng on the cheek.

Goodbye, Daddy!

Zhao Mengsheng smiled as he watched her run into the kindergarten gate, across the playground, and catch up with a little boy who was half a head taller than her. The boy was wearing a blue T-shirt with a picture of a warrior in armor. Hearing Jiajia's call, he turned around, grinned at her, and then the two children walked side by side toward the classroom.

Zhao Mengsheng stood there, watching the boy's back, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

Back in his car, he started the engine and drove toward the Hong Kong Island branch.

……

The Hong Kong Island branch of New X News Agency is located in a beige building near Hennessy Road in Wan Chai. The building is not tall, only a dozen stories high, with ordinary terrazzo exterior walls. Two signs hang at the entrance – one reads "New X News Agency Hong Kong Island Branch" and the other "New X News Agency Asia-Pacific Headquarters".

The guards at the gate, dressed in dark blue uniforms, stood ramrod straight and immediately saluted when they saw Zhao Mengsheng's car approaching.

Indeed, the Hong Kong Island branch is nominally called "New X Agency," but its functions actually extend far beyond news and publishing. After the signing of the Joint Declaration, this building became the highest representative agency of the mainland in Hong Kong. In addition to news gathering and editing, the branch's core functions include handling political liaison, united front work with various sectors, Taiwan-related affairs, and security matters.

In a few years, when the day of reunification approaches, its name will be changed to another more significant one: the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong.

The reason Zhao Mengsheng was transferred here was also due to a series of coincidences.

After the Sino-Japanese War, he spent his time honing his skills in the military, steadily climbing the ranks with a promising future. However, in the 1980s, his mother, Liu Yansheng, advised him not to rely solely on the military and to gain experience in other areas for a few years.

Just then, the Joint Declaration was signed, and preparations for Hong Kong's return to China began. Zhao Mengsheng, leveraging his previous experience in propaganda within the military, applied for a transfer to the Hong Kong branch of the New X News Agency, becoming its deputy director. Ostensibly responsible for news layout, he was actually in charge of liaison between police and defense departments.

Zhao Mengsheng's office is on the ninth floor. It is not large and the furnishings are very simple.

On the dark wood desk sat a white landline phone, a stack of documents awaiting review, and an enamel teacup with the faded characters "August 1st" printed on the bottom. Maps of mainland China and Hong Kong Island hung on the wall, and the window faced the banyan trees on Hennessy Road, their leaves yellowed from car exhaust fumes.

Since there was no routine meeting this morning, he sat behind his desk and went through all the documents he hadn't had time to look at that morning.

After turning the last page, Zhao Mengsheng thought for a moment, then picked up the landline and pressed the internal line.

"Xiao Li, help me investigate two people."

"President, please speak."

"Jiajia's classmates at kindergarten, one is named Lu Qian, and the other is a chubby boy named Jiahao. Check their backgrounds."

"Understood, I'll give it to you before I leave work today."

……

The Luk family manor atop Victoria Peak.

When Ba Wanghua entered the study, Lu Chen was sitting behind his desk flipping through a summary of shareholding progress that Cheng Yiyan had faxed from New York the day before.

As of now, IBM's shareholding has stabilized at 7.5%, and the 13D form with the China Securities Regulatory Commission was submitted through the legal department on Friday afternoon. Holdings in other core companies are also continuously increasing—mainly due to low-priced purchases made during the market's second dip.

"Honey, I found the information about Jiajia that you asked me to look up." In private, the nickname "Domineering Flower" became a little more casual as she handed Lu Chen a brown paper envelope.

"Okay." Lu Chen took the envelope and opened it.

The investigation was conducted solely for Lu Qian's mental and safety reasons. After all, as the heir of the Lu family, everyone he associated with, even if not all were extremely wealthy or powerful, had at least a clean background.

"However, Jiajia's family is quite unusual too~" The tyrant's expression was somewhat subtle, as if the envelope contained something interesting.

"Oh?" Lu Qian raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, and lowered his head to turn to the first page.

The photo on it was Jiajia's father's ID photo—a square face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, a typical military officer, with a scar on his cheek.

The accompanying biography reads: Zhao Mengsheng participated in the Sino-Xinjiang War, and was awarded the First-Class Merit Citation (both individually and collectively). After the war, he served in the military, rising to the rank of colonel. Last year, he was transferred to the Hong Kong Island branch of the New X Agency as deputy director, in charge of liaison work between police and defense agencies.

"It was him?"

Upon seeing this familiar figure, Lu Chen's lips curled into a smile.