Hong Kong Island is About to Return

Things at Dragon Ascending Technology had basically been smoothed out, so all that was left was to focus on steady development.

Whenever there was nothing pressing to do, Wang Yan would take a few of his underlings and wander all over Hong Kong Island.

Because the forces in Hong Kong Island had been so chaotic before, and Wang Yan had been the target of a coordinated campaign to surround and suppress him, he had kept a low profile and focused on self-cultivation.

Now that Dragon Ascending had completely cleared out the influence on Hong Kong Island, it was fair to say that there was basically no one left on this land who could threaten Wang Yan. He finally had the opportunity to properly take in the sights of Hong Kong Island.

As for the matter of Chen Yongren, Wang Yan had long since stopped caring. Whatever happens, happens; he had given up on it.

Quite a few people had seen Wang Yan, and there were photos of him in public. If it weren't for his status, no one would have bothered to look twice at his ordinary face. People only took a second look out of curiosity about what the big boss who dominated Hong Kong Island and changed their lives actually looked like, but that was all—they would forget him immediately after.

It wasn't that no one paid attention to Wang Yan, but they had to have the guts to report on him. In fact, Wang Yan's net worth was no less than those on the rich lists, yet none of those rankings had ever included any information about him.

Therefore, Wang Yan walked around outside with great peace of mind. If it weren't for the few underlings following behind him, no one would have spared him a second glance.

Wang Yan strolled down the street with his men, aimless and idle. He would buy whatever caught his eye, taste a bit of whatever food was being sold, and stare at and critique any beautiful women who walked by.

Counting his time across two worlds, this was the most relaxed Wang Yan had ever been in over thirty years.

This was also the life Wang Yan had dreamed of.

When he was young, he was always full of ambition, but as he grew older and experienced more, he stopped talking about his past glories.

In the end, he just wanted a plain and simple life, without having to worry about making a living.

Fortunately, Wang Yan had hit the jackpot. With his current set of abilities, he had enough to live a stable life in the real world without having to deal with all that petty, sordid nonsense.

After a moment of reflection, Wang Yan continued to pace the streets, eating, drinking, and watching the beauties.

Nowadays, Wang Yan only looked at beautiful women for the sake of visual pleasure.

Wang Yan himself was never a saint; even when there was nothing going on in the real world, he would indulge in some pampering, let alone now.

Over these past four years, even though Wang Yan kept a low profile, given his status and position, his life was naturally filled with luxury and indulgence. If his underlings found someone with good conditions, they would rush to present her to him. Then there were those he encountered in his daily life—people with a certain status who were lonely and waiting. Everything just fell into place; it was all very normal.

In the past, Wang Yan looked at women with certain intentions. After all, as an ordinary person, it was inevitable that he would have some lewd thoughts when seeing particularly attractive women.

Now, Wang Yan had made a leap in progress. With more energy, he naturally looked at them with a purely appreciative attitude.

Happy times are always short-lived.

Not long after, news came from Dragon Ascending Technology that the mobile phone had been successfully developed and was ready for production.

Although he couldn't take the money with him, no one would ever complain about having too much, and the sense of achievement this brought was incomparable.

Wang Yan immediately took his engineers to the mainland to calibrate the production lines and start manufacturing.

It was the same routine: mail the finished products to his "good brothers" and launch a massive, worldwide advertising campaign.

These "good brothers" had made a fortune with Wang Yan over the past few years. Wang Yan never hogged the profits and always left them plenty of room to make money. Just from the VCD and disc industry alone, these people had earned more than they usually would in a year or two of hard work.

It wasn't that Wang Yan didn't want to use a direct-sales model, but he couldn't stay in this world forever. As long as he could make money, why bother with all that extra effort? It was actually more cost-effective to let everyone make money together. At the very least, Wang Yan had a lot of clout on the world stage. And it wasn't the kind of clout built on mutual flattery; when Wang Yan had something to say, these people would actually step up.

Regardless of the organization, in order to make a living with Wang Yan, they would surely give him a bit of face.

After all, the things in Wang Yan's hands were basically monopolies. Don't look at how the VCD had just been successfully imitated and sold for only a few months; Wang Yan had already brought out the DVD, leaving those who had spent huge sums to imitate the VCD bankrupt.

Every financial group saw such a good business in the hands of Dragon Ascending and naturally wanted to grab it for themselves.

Wang Yan reckoned that if it really reached that point, the mainland would step in to protect its own. He wasn't some wandering ghost; he had a "father" behind him, and he wasn't someone who could be easily manipulated.

Therefore, both sides were very restrained, trying their best to play the game within the rules. Occasional overstepping was trivial; if you cross the line, I'll just follow suit.

The international situation was turbulent, and caught between internal and external pressures, the capitalists had to take a step back. They wanted to sell? Fine, but they had to impose tariffs. This trick was useless; Dragon Ascending didn't care at all. Since it was an exclusive product, if you raised the tax, I'd just raise the price, and in the end, it was the consumers who bore the cost. Dragon Ascending didn't indulge them either, directly adding fuel to the fire. Ignoring Dragon Ascending, they loudly criticized the capitalists for their ugly greed, their bone-gnawing exploitation, and their cold-blooded ruthlessness. They incited the European and American countries to start their favorite activity: large-scale strikes, marches, and protests.

The foreigners were all the same; once Dragon Ascending stirred them up, the protests didn't stay peaceful. Spending a little money to find a few ringleaders to incite the crowd turned the protests into large-scale riots, looting, and arson, and the scene quickly became a mess.

The incident continued to ferment and escalate. Even though it was capitalism and the capitalists called the shots, they still had to properly cater to the emotions of the lower classes—after all, the assets of the capitalists were these very people. So, there were various fake meetings, and in the end, the capitalists made concessions, improved employee benefits, and issued some minor policies. They even took the opportunity to cancel the tariffs previously imposed on Dragon Ascending and restored things to how they were.

In the end, everyone was happy. The lower classes cheered for freedom, and the capitalists drank wine, celebrating that they had fooled another group. Of course, while celebrating, they didn't forget to study how to deal with Dragon Ascending.

Wang Yan left the matter to his subordinates and stopped worrying about it. He didn't keep such a large think tank for nothing; let them handle it.

Next, Wang Yan began to visit masters of traditional Chinese culture in the mainland, asking for their guidance and learning to improve his own cultivation and state of mind.

These masters were scattered across the country, mostly working in universities, teaching and preaching. Wang Yan began his journey of spreading money; every time he arrived at a place, he would first offer ten million US dollars. Then, he would study with the master for a period of time before moving on to the next place to do the same.

Wang Yan was gone for more than two years. At the beginning, the pace was quite slow. Wang Yan's foundation in traditional culture was too shallow, and he couldn't understand many things. As he learned more, his understanding of traditional culture deepened. At first, it might take a month or two to visit one master, but later on, he could visit one every two or three weeks. The speed became faster and faster, and Wang Yan's level became higher and higher.

Two years later, Wang Yan had reached a proficient level. This stuff was simply too profound, and everyone had their own understanding. Wang Yan had visited so many masters, yet he had never heard the same answer to the same question.

It was in this process that Wang Yan constantly summarized and reflected, trying to find his own answers.

In those two years, DVDs and mobile phones were sold all over the world. Although major manufacturers launched their own products just three months after Dragon Ascending's mobile phone hit the market, they still couldn't compete with Dragon Ascending. As the saying goes, people always remember the first. Coupled with Wang Yan's guidance, Dragon Ascending's purposeful research and development meant that even though they didn't have products on the market, their internal product iteration was very fast—at the very least, they were a year or two ahead of other major manufacturers.

The war with the European and American financial groups continued, with neither side willing to stop until the other was dead. After fighting for more than two years, the two sides were still evenly matched, with each having their own victories and defeats. This was mainly because Wang Yan's advantage of foresight was too great; otherwise, he would have been finished off by them long ago.

Dragon Ascending's development on Hong Kong Island also gradually yielded results, and many of its employees moved into the thousand-square-foot luxury homes developed by the company itself.

Although Dragon Ascending also had many labor-intensive industries, that was to support the families of his employees and cultivate their loyalty. As long as they could remain self-sufficient, that was enough. Although the requirements were low, in fact, in this era, those businesses were very profitable; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to support so many people.

However, when it came to making big money, it was still the high-end industries they operated that brought in high profits, so the cash flow was very abundant.

The rules of the world have always been the survival of the fittest; whoever has the hardest fist has the final say, and when you have enough money, that can also be a fist.

There were huge sums of money in Dragon Ascending's accounts, and many financial talents, based on the information provided by Wang Yan, were constantly stirring up trouble in the world's financial markets. Coupled with the profits from various industries, as soon as one sum was spent, the next one would come in. The think tank was so worried about how to spend the money and how to deal with the coordinated attacks from the big financial groups that they were going bald.

Wang Yan had been in this world for almost seven years, and in one month, Hong Kong Island would return to the motherland.

Over the years, Dragon Ascending had vigorously developed various high-end industries in the mainland, continuously building up its industrial chain, driving employment, promoting regional economic development, constantly providing cutting-edge technology to the mainland, and continuously engaging in charity work.

Dragon Ascending's contribution to maintaining the social stability of Hong Kong Island could also be said to be indispensable.