Days in Hong Kong variety shows

1983 10 Month 15 Day.

A travel-worn Cao Tai walked out of the Kai Tak Airport terminal on Hong Kong Island. After looking around, a brand-new Mercedes-Benz W126 slowly drove up and stopped in front of him. This was the new car that Da Sha had provided for Cao Tai.

He casually opened the back door and got in, then slowly started the car from the driver's seat.

"Brother Tai, should we go back and rest first, or...?" Xiao Fu asked without turning around.

"I'm going to find Hu Zhiyong. I asked him to do something for me before going to Amei's house. He told me a few days ago that it was all done. Now I'm going to the law firm to get the documents from him!"

"Okay! You take a nap first, I'll wake you up when we get there!"

"Hmm!" Cao Tai leaned back in the boss's seat and closed his eyes to rest.

Luxury cars are indeed different from ordinary sedans. The comfort of riding in them is many times better than the previous Accord 2. The top-notch suspension and tuning make the vehicle almost smooth and bouncy during driving.

......

The private office of "Huang & Chen Law Firm" is less than 30 square meters. A huge filing cabinet takes up an entire wall, and the desk is a miniature version of Chen Tianyi's upstairs desk.

Fortunately, there is a small waiting area.

After inviting Cao Tai and Xiao Fu to sit down in the reception area, Hu Zhiyong first instructed his secretary to bring over several cups of coffee before saying to Cao Tai, "Mr. Cao, please wait a moment!"

He turned around and walked to the huge filing cabinet, skillfully opened one of the doors, and took out a thick stack of documents.

"Mr. Cao, here are the transfer agreements for eight newspapers and a printing plant, as well as their financial status investigations, employee personal information investigations, and so on!" Hu Zhiyong explained, placing the documents on the coffee table.

"The best-selling newspaper here is the Kowloon Daily, with a daily circulation of around 2 copies. The others are tabloids with extremely small circulations, only a few thousand copies per issue. In other words, their sales regions almost never overlap!"

Hu Zhiyong carefully separated the stack of documents, placing each one separately so that Cao Tai could take them.

"The acquisition price of Kowloon Daily was slightly higher because we paid HK$360 million for the 6-story, 10200-square-foot property where their offices were located, which was also acquired together."

Although industrial land prices plummeted by 80-90% last year, they have risen considerably this year, to about 300 dollars per square foot.

Another thing is the small printing factory in Lai Chi Kok, a two-story property of 3200 square feet. The most important thing is their two second-hand Heidelberg Speedmaster 72V printing presses, which are still the most advanced printing machines in the world today. So the printing factory was bought for HK$153 million.

Because those two machines are quite important, after the acquisition was completed, Mr. Wang Weiguo, as you instructed, has already sent four security guards to be stationed there to ensure the safety of our machines.

The other seven newspapers were cheaper, costing less than 60 yuan in total. Adding the acquisition team's expenses, the total came to 590 million yuan.

Hu Zhiyong handed each document to Cao Tai, and finally handed him a detailed list of expenses.

Cao Tai casually glanced at the documents in his hand and ordered, "There's no need to leave those seven tabloids outside. Move all offices back to the tenement building of the Kowloon Daily on Cheung Sha Wan Road!"

"Should we integrate them into the Kowloon Daily?" Hu Zhiyong asked.

"No, although the offices are in the same location, they are still separate independent newspapers. All printing is handled by our printing plant, and sales are still done in their original locations."

"Should we do something? Right now, the combined sales of the eight newspapers are less than 80,000 copies. Should we hire a good journalist to coordinate things and see if we can boost sales? Also, should we change the names of the newspapers and the printing plant?"

"There's no need, and the name 'New Island Printing Factory' is quite nice."

"Okay, I understand! Mr. Cao, please sign first, and then arrange for the remaining payment to be transferred before the specified date. I will send the signed documents to the Administration for Industry and Commerce for registration and transfer later."

Under Hu Zhiyong's guidance, Cao Tai quickly signed his name on multiple contracts.

"OK, Mr. Cao, from now on you are the big boss of eight newspapers and a printing plant. When will you have time to take over the properties?" Hu Zhiyong put away the documents and then asked respectfully.

"First, find someone to move those seven small newspapers to the site, and make sure the offices are properly allocated! Also, what you just said about hiring a journalist to coordinate several newspapers is a good idea. Keep an eye out for any newspaper professionals who are currently unemployed! I'll check on them after that; I have some other things to take care of recently."

"Okay! I'll see you out!" Hu Zhiyong saw Cao Tai get up to leave and quickly went to open the door.

......

"Xiao Fu, how's Hong Tai doing?" Cao Tai, sitting in the back seat, suddenly realized that he hadn't heard any news about the two gangs, He Yi and Hong Tai, for many days.

"Ning Wei and I followed them several times, but Chen Mei and his son haven't made any moves. However, by tracking one of Chen Yongtai's men named Wu Jiawei, we initially suspect that their flour warehouse is in Lai Chi Kok, but the exact location hasn't been confirmed yet!"

"That's quite a gain! Now that we have a general location, we can set up observation points nearby. If we follow that Wu Jiawei to that area again, even if he has some means of cover to shake off the trackers, the observation points should be able to pinpoint the exact location."

"Ning Wei has already gone there. There are only a few industrial buildings around there where he can hide. We can find him by searching each unit one by one, but it may take a while."

"It doesn't matter if we go slowly, the most important thing is to be careful! The Nine-Dragon Gang and the Yi are less than 1000 people now. If they want to fight Hong Tai in a real battle, even if they win, they will suffer heavy losses. In the end, they will be like the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind them, which will be a loss for them."

After pausing for a few seconds, Cao Tai continued, "Yau Tsim Mong can be said to be the essence of the entire Kowloon Peninsula. Everyone wants to get a piece of the action. If you're not careful, a thriving triad can become a thing of the past in the blink of an eye."

Police now prohibit large-scale private fights between gangs involving thousands of people, as the impact is too great. So, if you want to take over a drug store's territory, you have to raid its warehouse. Although they may have someone protecting them, once the sale of drugs is exposed and there is solid evidence, no one will openly stand up for them regardless of the consequences.

If anyone dares to pull any dirty tricks behind my back, I've brought back some cuties this time. If we're not going to play dirty, we'll see who can't take it first!

"What little cutie?" Xiao Fu actually turned around to ask this time, though he quickly turned back again.

"Driving recklessly will bring tears to your loved ones' eyes!" Cao Tai warned against the bad behavior of turning around to talk to the back seat while driving.

"It's that thing where you press a button, make a 'whoosh' sound, and then a 'BOM' sound." He then explained it to Xiao Fu.

"Type 69? Isn't it the trigger-operated type?" Xiao Fu asked, shifting his position in the driver's seat, sounding a bit excited.

"M72, a cheap, low-powered weapon. It's a bit weaker than the Type 69, but that's not a big deal. They're basically in the same class." Cao Tai mentioned the short-barreled version, then thought that he'd save the long-barreled version for when he had the chance to use it.

"That's great too. When I was in the army, Jianjun was really good at using the Type 69 rifle. He could take down Japanese fortifications and armored vehicles with a single shot!" Xiao Fu couldn't help but reminisce about his glorious past.

"Brother Tai, the road ahead is blocked!" The Mercedes turned onto Yabinuo Road, where a large crowd had gathered, blocking the entire road.