Sha Zhu's Rebirth in the Courtyard: Starting with Hitting Someone in the Head

Chapter 427 Tracing the Origins of the Undercurrents, A God-like Figure Within the Circle

After the historic low on March 9th, stock markets in Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea halted their two-year decline and climbed out of the mire of despair.

The Federal Reserve initiated quantitative easing and loosened monetary policy to rescue the market. Central banks around the world followed suit and expanded liquidity. Market panic gradually subsided, and indices began a steady rebound from historical lows.

The unemployment rate in the United States has soared to 10%, a large number of small and medium-sized companies have gone bankrupt, many families have had their homes repossessed by banks, it is extremely difficult to find a job, and many people can only make a living by doing odd jobs.

Western media only focus on the rise and fall of the stock market and favorable policies, marveling at the market recovery and the end of the crisis. Who cares about the lives of ordinary people?

From the Federal Reserve's risk control department and the New York clearinghouse to top Wall Street investment banks, leading global asset management institutions, and multinational hedge funds, they are all busy with one thing.

The entire subprime mortgage crisis in 08 resulted in widespread margin calls across the market, the evaporation of trillions of dollars in assets, and the downfall of countless giants.

But in this disaster where everyone suffered huge losses, there was a hidden fund that precisely timed every step of the process from beginning to end.

Starting in April of this year, the Federal Reserve's risk control department took the lead in launching a comprehensive review.

To understand the flow of funds, the transmission path of risks, and large, unusual transactions during this financial crisis, the Federal Reserve, in conjunction with major global clearing institutions, retrieved records of all large cross-border transactions, offshore channel flows, and cross-border fund positions from the past two years.

This review was of high standard, broad scope, and top-level quality, with only one purpose: to identify the biggest beneficiaries of this round of subprime mortgage crisis.

Wall Street's top investment banks and established asset management giants have also launched self-inspections and source tracing.

Everyone harbored a deep sense of doubt.

These established financial institutions, with a century of experience, suffered heavy losses in this crisis, with most of them perishing or being severely damaged. Those that barely survived were also badly wounded and exhausted.

However, there is a mysterious force of capital that managed to avoid any pitfalls, avoid being trapped, and accurately capture two rounds of super dividends during the world's most severe financial crisis.

Everyone dissected the transaction records, funding channels, and offshore SPV structure layer by layer.

The first thing discovered was countless offshore accounts scattered around the world, multi-layered transaction channels, and secret operating entities operating in neutral financial harbors overseas.

The initial market data was chaotic, with funds split into extremely small amounts and transactions extremely dispersed. There were no large-scale anomalies, no high-profile sweeps, and every operation was hidden within the normal transactions of a large number of retail investors and institutions.

Conventional investigation methods cannot reveal any connection whatsoever.

However, as the major families joined forces and used top-tier deep penetration techniques to peel away the layers of disguise, everyone discovered a terrifying commonality.

All hedging positions, bottom-building positions, and cross-border transaction flows ultimately point to the same secret financial group as the source of profits and the control of funds.

On St. James's Street in London, in a gray-white building without a sign, the curtains of a meeting room are drawn. Two people sit at a table, each with a newly received analysis report spread out in front of them. One is older, with gray hair, while the other is relatively younger and is giving his presentation.

The gray-haired man put down his teacup. "Have you verified the source of this data?"

The younger man nodded: "Confirmed. The data is consistent after cross-verification through three independent channels."

"The other party started building their position in the first quarter of 2007, possibly even earlier. And they steadily increased their position throughout 2007, holding it until Lehman Brothers went bankrupt last September before they started closing their positions. The most crucial point is..." He paused, not wanting to be too blunt.

"Our assessment of the subprime mortgage market was based on decades of data and team analysis. We tried to escape early, but ultimately we jumped in and got trapped. But the other side's strategy and returns are now on a completely different level."

The older man wasn't particularly displeased after hearing this; he simply sighed and asked, "How much does the outside world know about this?"

The younger ones answered honestly, "Currently, only our three major families have figured out the details, but it will spread sooner or later. The other party is too large to hide."

At the same time, on the Upper East Side of New York, at the Rockefeller family mansion.

An elder of the family sat in an old leather chair, staring at the traceability documents on the table, and slowly raised his eyes through his reading glasses.

"Is the ultimate source confirmed to be Zhonghuan Group?"

The assistant bowed and replied, "Confirmed. All offshore nested structures, after three layers of deep tracing, ultimately belong to the Zhonghuan system."

The elder remained silent for a long time, not uttering a word.

Having worked in the industry for decades and witnessed countless rises of capital and changes of giants, this was the first time he had encountered such an outrageous opponent.

"How exactly did they anticipate and plan ahead so precisely?"

The assistant stood there, speechless. No one could answer the question.

Previously, He Yuzhu's name was simply labeled "the world's richest man" in the elite circles of Europe and America. Everyone regarded him as a Chinese nouveau riche who had won the fortunes, and no one really took him seriously.

However, today, the other party's global assets, top-level planning, and strategic vision have far surpassed those of a century-old family like Rockefeller, making them an entity that the other party cannot reach.

The elder statesman picked up the whiskey on the table, took a sip, and found it bitter and hard to swallow. At that moment, the century-old pride of the established capital was utterly crushed.

On the same day, Morgan Stanley headquarters was doing the same thing. Who would have thought that a nouveau riche from China would surpass them in just a few years?

Two weeks later, in the conference room on the 36th floor of Goldman Sachs headquarters, Mark sat at the head of the conference table with a newly compiled analysis report spread out in front of him.

"These data have been checked four times?"

The analyst nodded: "Yes. All SPV entities have been traced independently, and each registered location, transaction time, and fund flow has been repeatedly verified. There are no abnormalities."

Mark didn't respond.

The analyst paused for a moment, then added, "The ultimate beneficiary of this funding is Zhonghuan Group, or more specifically, He Yuzhu."

Mark tapped his fingers on the table for a while before asking, "So how exactly did they manage to plan so precisely in advance?"

No one can answer this question.

In a conference room at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Richard sat before a printed report and asked the question that most vehemently concerned him: "Did they break the rules?"

The official's response disappointed him: "We've checked every possible channel, including the other party's clearinghouse and DTCC's CDS data warehouse. Every single transaction they made was compliant and completed within the regulatory framework, with no violations whatsoever. All SPV entities have completed legal compliance filings in their respective registered locations, and the flow of funds is clearly traceable."

Richard closed the report. "Compliant and legal, flawless execution throughout, accurate prediction of the overall market trend over two years... So tell me, how exactly did he do it?"

The meeting room was equally silent; no one could answer.

七月上旬，第一批举牌披露，出现在美国证监会的EDGAR系统上。苹果22%、微软18%、谷歌17%、可口可乐27%、宝洁24%、沃尔玛17%………

The following day, a report titled "Who Holds U.S. Shares?" appeared in a financial magazine. The article did not name names, but detailed the size, distribution, and registration structure of those shares.

A few days later, the Financial Times of London followed up with a report titled "The Ho Family: From Beijing Courtyard to Wall Street." On the same day, the German business daily Handelsblatt and the Japanese business daily Nikkei also published similar reports.

八月下旬，一篇更完整的溯源报告在华尔街私下流传。报告来自一家与美联储保持合作关係的独立研究机构，详细列出何家在全球範围内的持股分布：美国科技24%、消费27%、欧洲工业15-20%、日韩10-15%、澳洲资源12%。

The report concluded with a table comparing the Ho family's shareholdings with those of several other established families. The Rothschild family's financial network spans centuries, while the Rockefeller family's business empire covers the oil and banking industries.

However, the Ho family's size surpasses theirs, and its industrial reach far exceeds theirs. The report was not publicly released, but circulated only within a few top institutions.

Everyone who sees this report knows there will be no official response.