"No, you're using your own private money, I have no right to interfere, and I don't think you've done anything wrong. However, I'm going to be doing business with United States recently, and to avoid trouble, there are some things I can't directly help with. So, there's another matter, Brother Xiu, your monthly salary of two hundred dollars is for supporting your family, and Sister Jun is waiting for you to marry her in style. I think how about this, from now on your monthly salary is one thousand two hundred dollars, one thousand dollars for drinking, that should be enough, right?" Song Tianyao, with a cigarette between his fingers, winked at Hong Lai-sau, giving him a knowing look. "Newspapers aren't politics. You just need to contribute some money and do your part, and maintain good relationships with those well-known figures in the newspaper industry. Don't get too involved, otherwise, if you're labeled as political, it will be hard to give people the impression of being fair and neutral."
Hong Lai-sau looked at Song Tianyao, then at his own pig-like face in the mirror, and pointed to his head at Song Tianyao: "You're willing to pay a monthly salary of 1200 yuan for this kind of pig-headed scumbag?"
Song Tianyao laughed heartily, "If I can get an idiot named Scribe Hui to own 50% of a company and manage my business, it's not surprising that another pig-headed person becomes the editor-in-chief of a newspaper. Today is perfect, I'll introduce you to a lousy licensed stockbroker, and he'll provide you with all the stock market news in the newspapers from now on."
"Hey, isn't it disrespectful to go out looking like this?" Hong Lai-sau asked Song Tianyao.
"It doesn't matter, that guy is ugly anyway," Song Tianyao said.
Hong Lai-sau grinned. "Idiots, pigheads, and scoundrels—if these three types of people work for you, it's hard for your business not to fail."
After the three got into the car, they first drove Xu Minjun back to the University of Hong Kong. Then, Song Tianyao took Hong Lai-sau to St. George's Building on Ice House Street in Central. Surprisingly, most of the men and women coming and going in the building seemed unfazed by Hong Lai-sau 'Hong Lai-sau appearance, which surprised him. After entering the elevator, he asked Song Tianyao:
"A-Yao, when did Hong Kong lose their curiosity? Nobody's even surprised by my pathetic state?"
"People in other parts of Hong Kong might be curious about your appearance, but most of the people in this building are licensed bond companies that trade stocks. Many traders have been beaten up because they lost money for their clients. People have seen it all before, so it's not surprising anymore. Maybe those guys who just came out were beaten up by their clients too." Song Tianyao said to Hong Lai-sau after Huang Liu pressed the button to close the elevator door.
The elevator reached the seventh floor, Song Tianyao, familiar with the place, led Hong Lai-sau into an office with a small sign for Wealth-Through Securities. He then spoke to the man inside who was hunched over his desk reviewing documents:
"Manager Luo."
With a long, thin face like a wolf's, and a stubble of beard hanging down his cheeks, Luo Zhuankun, who had once managed the gold business for Wang Yuanxi, a wealthy Shanghai businessman, but had ended up destitute on the streets, raised his head, saw Song Tianyao enter, and smiled, "Mr. Song."
He was taken aback when he saw Hong Lai-sau following behind Song Tianyao, then stood up knowingly and extended his hand to Hong Lai-sau: "I am Luo Zhuankun, sir. Are you also a stockbroker?"
"He is Hong Lai-sau, the editor-in-chief of the China Hong Kong Business Weekly," Song Tianyao introduced Luo Zhuankun from the side.
Luo Zhuankun looked Hong Lai-sau up and down a few times, then asked Song Tianyao uncertainly, "Now even the newspapers are being called liars? What exactly did the newspapers publish that caused Mr. Kang to be beaten so badly? Hong Kong are truly barbaric."
"Even a licensed broker who's failed wouldn't be this shabby, would he?" Hong Lai-sau was surprised by the simplicity of the environment. The room was at most ten square meters, with only a desk and chairs and a folding bed in the corner. It seemed that this broker, Luo, lived and worked here, which was even more shabby than his own newspaper office.
Song Tianyao chimed in from the side, "I own six more licensed securities firms like this, all rather shabby."
Chapter 304 The Wolf and the Jackal's Adulterous Encounter
Luo Zhuankun met Song Tianyao while smoking on the street, feeling depressed, after failing his interview for Hong Kong Government job.
With his appearance, if he were dressed in coolie clothes and standing on the dock, he would definitely be mistaken for a ruthless gangster. He is far from the image of a refined government employee, so it is understandable that he was rejected in the interview.
Originally, Song Tianyao wanted to arrange for this guy to work as an employee at Likang Company. However, Likang's development later spiraled out of control. What started as a simple drug trafficking operation was complicated by Shi Shek Chi-yik's downfall, eventually turning into a life-or-death struggle with the Zhang Family. Having racked his brains, Song Tianyao temporarily put aside the matter of arranging Luo Zhuankun and instead gave him two thousand Hong Kong dollars to make a living for this man who owned nothing but a suit. He would contact him again later.
Luo Zhuankun went to Hong Kong with Wang Yuanxi, a wealthy businessman from Shanghai. During the gold rush in 1949, he managed tens of thousands of taels of gold for Wang Yuanxi. Luo Zhuankun was smart to be trusted by a wealthy businessman, but he was unlucky. Wang Yuanxi had gambled his entire fortune and had no way out, so the gold speculation failed. The Wang family immediately lost tens of millions of dollars. Luo Zhuankun also lost money to Wang Yuanxi and could not even pay his commissions. He went from being a glamorous trader to being penniless. When he met Song Tianyao, he only had one hundred Hong Kong dollars left in his pocket after pawning his watch.
Having received the two thousand Hong Kong dollars from Song Tianyao, Luo Zhuankun initially wanted to continue colluding with a member of the Hong Kong the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society to engage in off-exchange trading and earn some commissions. However, the Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange was run by Guangdong people, and since the gold speculation frenzy, it had been strictly investigating off-exchange trading often conducted by Shanghai people. Luo Zhuankun had no opportunity to do so, so he turned his attention to the securities and stock market, which was his second best area of expertise besides spot gold trading.
However, he was a stockbroker without a license. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange Limited issued sixty membership licenses, which means that there are only sixty licensed stockbrokers in Hong Kong. Apart from these sixty licensed securities brokerage firms, other individuals or unlicensed brokers have no way to enter the exchange to complete transactions for their clients.
Luo Zhuankun was also a ruthless person to himself. Of the two thousand Hong Kong dollars that Song Tianyao gave him, he only used five dollars a day to maintain the most basic living. His three meals a day consisted of a bowl of white porridge and two fried dough sticks. He lived in a dormitory in a small hotel, with his personal clothes in a backpack.