"Uncle..." Tang Boqi seemed somewhat absent-minded. He interrupted Tang Wenbao perfunctorily, without directly pointing out the greed of the father and son opposite him. "I'll think about it seriously. Actually, I'd prefer to find a job on Wall Street. If I've made up my mind, leaving the whole company to Ah Yuan isn't out of the question. But as you know, if I transfer it to Ah Yuan, the price will be higher. I also need capital to go to Wall Street. Besides, it'll be easier to explain to my Dad if I make money there."
From the few days that Tang Jingyuan had subtly brought up this matter to him, Tang Boqi knew what the other party was thinking. He was simply after the power and profits of Kimei International Trading Company. The words Tang Boqi had just uttered were merely perfunctory. Who would be willing to generously relinquish power and money to someone else?
"Really?" Tang Wenbao was quite surprised that Tang Boqi actually had thoughts of returning to the United States. For a moment, he even forgot to say anything to hide his true feelings.
He let Tang Jingyuan invest in Kimei, naturally wanting the Tang family in Hong Kong to become Big Brother in the wig industry. That way, Tang Wenbao could live a mediocre life following in the footsteps of other major Chinese businessmen, and in his old age, he could experience what it felt like for the Chu Family, Cai Family, and other major Chinese businessmen to control an entire industry.
Once he uttered the word "truth," all his previous attempts to conceal it became useless.
After Tang Wenbao's thoughts were revealed by Tang Boqi's words, he had no intention of staying any longer and left Tang Boqi's office somewhat awkwardly with Tang Jingyuan.
Tang Boqi felt nothing but a cold laugh. China person value family and kinship, and his parents in United States were no exception. But to Tang Boqi, his uncle and cousin in Hong Kong were just strangers in photographs. Even after returning to Hong Kong, he didn't feel any blood ties. On the contrary, the behavior of the Tang family father and son made Tang Boqi feel like they were two burdens. When they were bystanders, they could barely tell him that Song Tianyao couldn't be ignored, but once they were involved and blinded by profit, their greed could no longer be hidden once their business started to improve.
"Want to invest in my company? Do you think you can beat Song Tianyao? You're overestimating yourselves." Tang Boqi picked up his lukewarm coffee, took a sip, and said disdainfully, glancing at the two empty seats.
"Wow, Boss Song, are you here to give me some pointers on my work?" Hong Lai-sau saw Song Tianyao walk in carrying two bottles of Wujiapi and some braised dishes. However, unlike in the library, he didn't put down his work and clear the table to drink. Instead, he smiled and greeted Song Tianyao, then immediately bent down to continue logging information.
The small, partitioned office was filled with smoke. The ashtray on Hong Lai-sau's desk was piled high with cigarette butts and ash, yet he still had a cigarette between his teeth.
Song Tianyao placed the food and wine on the table, then walked to the window, opened the curtains, and pushed open the window:
"Hey, Sister Jun specifically called me and told me that if you continue like this, she might not be able to attend your wedding, but your funeral is a possibility. Didn't we already make it clear that Hong Kong dollars 3,000 will be transferred to the newspaper's account every month? If the money isn't enough, just call and I'll send you more. Could you please hire more people?"
After finishing logging the last piece of information, Hong Lai-sau tossed his head, deftly spat out the cigarette butt, tossed aside the pen, and gently swiveled his chair to face Song Tianyao.
"It's free, if I don't save some money, even if you have a mountain of gold, you'll lose it all."
"It's just a weekly magazine, once a week, how much can I lose?" Song Tianyao pulled up a chair and sat down opposite the desk, opened the braised food, unscrewed two bottles of Wujiapi a type of herbal medicine), and handed one to the other person. "Besides, don't even mention a weekly magazine, I can afford to lose money on a bi-weekly or daily magazine. You know how profitable my wig business is right now."
Hong Lai-sau didn't accept the wine Song Tianyao offered. Instead, he took out several copies of "China Hong Kong Business Weekly" from a thick stack of documents on his desk and handed them to Song Tianyao: "The first issue had 2,000 copies distributed. We didn't dare to make a big fuss; we only gave one copy to some shops that had been in business for many years. The second issue had 5,000 copies. Many shops that weren't given copies in the first issue asked the newspaper distributors why the free newspaper was given to them and not to them. The third issue had 7,000 copies. Even the neighborhood aunties who were emptying their chamber pots on the street would reach out to the newspaper distributors and ask for a free copy. In their words, since it's a free newspaper, they could cut it up and use it as toilet paper. If I hadn't specifically asked not to give it to the neighborhood, the fourth issue wouldn't have only had 8,000 copies. It would have easily surpassed 10,000 copies long ago. If other newspapers had a circulation of over 10,000 copies, it would mean they were already major newspapers, well-known throughout Hong Kong, and their advertising could fetch a high price. But for this newspaper, a circulation of over 10,000 copies only means they are losing more and more money."
Song Tianyao took several copies of "China Hong Kong Business Weekly". At this time, newspapers were still printed with ink, especially tabloids like this. In order to save money, the cheapest paper was used, and they looked no different from tabloids such as "Stage Star Daily" and "Happy".
However, the text on the entire newspaper was clearer and the layout was neater than that of tabloids. There was no news at all; it only contained various notices, announcements, and other publications categorized and published this week.
"Just deliver them if someone wants them? Even if you deliver 10,000 copies a week, that's only 40,000 a month. 5,000 Hong Kong dollars should be enough. Hire a few more people to help with printing and plate making, and that should be enough too." Song Tianyao put the newspaper aside, handed the chopsticks to Hong Lai-sau, and said, "Why make yourself so miserable? If this continues, Sister Jun is going to report me, the newspaper owner, for exploiting my employees to the newspaper union."
If it weren't for Hong Lai-sau's girlfriend, Xu Minjun, finding Song Tianyao, Song Tianyao would never have known that Hong Lai-sau going to such lengths to save money. He rented a floor of a tenement building near the University of Hong Kong to run a newspaper office, hired four workers to deliver newspapers for free, and handled all the other work inside the newspaper office himself, such as printing, publishing, and even cleaning. Apart from the necessary courses at the university, Hong Lai-sau basically lived and ate in this shabby newspaper office.
Hong Lai-sau unscrewed the Wujiapi, took a sip, and breathed out, saying, "You didn't say this newspaper would only be published for six months or a year. If you want to run it long-term, of course you have to be frugal. Right now, you're losing money on the newspaper's monthly payments, but anything can happen. If you have a bad month and your business is slow, the money I've saved can help you get by, right? There's no harm in saving money."