"Yunzhi, come into the kitchen and help."
"Oh." Feng Yunzhi playfully stuck out her tongue at her mother, then followed Song Tianyao into the kitchen.
Song Tianyao took out the two prepared abalones and rinsed them with water. His voice was inscrutable as he asked, "..."
"The Uncle Kang you just mentioned, is it Lin Xiaokang? Tell me how he angered Third Aunt."
"Do you know the difference between Shanghai people and locals?" It was already nine o'clock at night. In the office of Wealth-Through Securities in St. George's Building, Luo Zhuankun asked a dozen men and women in suits in front of him.
These people had almost the same experiences as Luo Zhuankun. They all came to Hong Kong from Shanghai in 1949. When Shanghai speculators launched a gold speculation frenzy, these people basically helped the tycoons speculate on gold. Then, as the gold speculation craze was extinguished by the Hong Kong Colonial Government, many Shanghai speculator tycoons declared bankruptcy, and they all began their impoverished lives in Hong Kong.
Any one of these people had experience buying and selling on the Shanghai Global Exchange and the Shanghai Commodity Exchange. Even the three worst women were telephone stock clerks at the Shanghai Commodity Exchange, and some of them were even licensed members of the Shanghai Securities and Commodities Exchange Brokers' Union. Unfortunately, Hong Kong at this time was not the same as Shanghai Bund at that time. Especially after the gold speculation craze caused a large number of Shanghai speculators to go bankrupt, the identities of these brokers from the Mainland became awkward.
The Shanghai speculative tycoons who went to Hong Kong either suffered a crushing defeat and declared bankruptcy in the gold rush, or they managed to escape but were terrified and had no intention of stirring up trouble in Hong Kong's Gold and Silver Exchange and stock markets in the short term. Therefore, these traders were of little use to them.
In Hong Kong, both the stock exchange and the Hong Kong the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society treated these traders who were helping Shanghai tycoons speculate in gold and trying to destroy their businesses as if they were facing a formidable enemy. The thirty council members of the Hong Kong the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society even held a private meeting and agreed that each member gold shop should not employ Shanghai people, and if they discovered Shanghai people engaging in off-exchange gold trading, they would all take action together.
The Shanghai people abandoned them, and the Hong Kong despised them, so these people lived very hard lives. When Luo Zhuankun went to Hong Kong to find them one by one, some of the men had already switched to working as pawnbrokers at the docks, doing jobs that were only slightly better than manual labor. The crystal-gilded glasses and diamond watches that used to show off their status had all been pawned to earn money to survive. Two of the women had even become hostesses on the dance floor because they knew how to dance ballroom dances.
Back in Shanghai Bund, everyone was dressed in a suit and tie, men wearing expensive watches and women wearing diamond jewelry, and they were the kind of people who managed the stock trading business for the wealthy.
It was Luo Zhuankun who brought them over one by one. The seven licensed securities companies that Song Tianyao had bought needed manpower to fill them.
These dozen or so Shanghai people, who had fallen to rock bottom and didn't want to experience that kind of life at the bottom again, accompanied Luo Zhuankun in organizing stock indices and keeping a close eye on stock market prices.
"Lots of money." A middle-aged man in his thirties was the first to utter those two words when Luo Zhuankun asked the question.
A woman, still quite attractive, then spoke up, saying, "Having seen the world, her horizons are broader than those of the locals."
"The main problem is that they clearly don't understand the stock market, yet they think they know a lot about stocks. At least they're slightly better than the locals who think the stock market is a scam. They know you can make money in the stock market, but they don't know the real principles, and they like to pretend to know in front of people like us. It's easiest to make money off these people who only pretend to know." Luo Zhuankun continued, twirling a pen in his hand, "In the 1930s, the Hong Kong stock market fluctuated wildly. More than 300 of the 800 factories in Hong Kong went bankrupt within six months. All the money that the factory owners had worked so hard to earn and invested in the stock market was made by the Britain who manipulated the market. From then on, the locals in Hong Kong, even the big Chinese merchants, lost interest in the Hong Kong stock market and left it to the Britain to amuse themselves."
"The Britain are now thinking of shifting their focus away from Hong Kong, and the locals don't have the guts to put money into the stock market, so..."
"So, it's the money of the Shanghai people." Luo Zhuankun swiveled his chair to face the man who had spoken. "Mr. Song needs that money in the hands of the Shanghai people. They are very rich. We don't need those Shanghai tycoons with hundreds of millions in assets; they are too smart. Nor do we need those Mainland refugees who are no different from the local poor; they are too poor. Remove these two classes, and the remaining Shanghai people are all our targets. During this period, I will use the capital patterns I have at hand to continuously drive up the stock price of Xizhen Properties. You are responsible for letting the Shanghai people understand what it means to make money while lying at home. For these people who only half understand, we don't need to explain the rules of the stock market to them, nor do we need to let them choose stocks themselves. Just take the data we have compiled and tell them that there are only two stocks in the Hong Kong stock market that are rising against the market trend. One is Hutchison Whampoa Textiles in the textile sector, and the other is Xizhen Properties in the real estate sector. If they are going to choose Hutchison Whampoa Textiles, then tell them that textile processing companies have unions. Union workers are difficult to deal with, and negative news can break out at any time, affecting the stock price. Hearing the word 'union,' those who have seen union workers strike and demonstrate in Shanghai will give up the idea on their own."
"Brother Kun, we... we're actually from Shanghai people too, but we're in Hong Kong now, helping the locals rip off their money..." A slightly younger man hesitated for a moment before speaking softly.
Luo Zhuankun stared sharply at the other man. "When you went to work as a waiter in a nightclub, did the Shanghai people give you an extra penny in tips? When you Shanghai Gang Zheng Yukui speculate on cotton and land in Shanghai, you were ripping off the Shanghai people. After you earned your commissions, did you ever think about giving them back? It was Mr. Song took out money to help you buy a suit again, so you could eat your fill and no longer had to stand in a nightclub smiling obsequiously at people! Don't think too highly of yourself. You, like me, and everyone else in this room, are just tools. Tools don't need independent thought!"
Seeing the other party silently lower their head, Luo Zhuankun paused for a moment before speaking again, his tone resolute and his voice like metal. "Mr. Song told me that he would give us a foothold in Hong Kong, and the opportunity to openly declare our existence to the Britain and the locals. You will find out later. Until that day comes, do as I say and bring that Shanghai people money into the stock market! Make it a useful tool!"