Offshore Companies

After hearing his father say that they had already transferred his grandmother to Huaxi Hospital, Huang Xiuyuan finally let out a sigh of relief.

Father and son chatted for a few more minutes before he hung up.

He locked the third-floor laboratory door and went downstairs. It was a chilly February night in Lingnan. A gust of cold wind swept past, carrying a faint metallic smell—the scent of rusting scrap.

Huang Xiuyuan was a bit of a neat freak and didn't particularly like the recycling plant's surroundings. In the sorting area not far away, several employees were hard at work.

They would probably be taking time off in the next couple of days, so they were working overtime to process some of the scrap. Huang Sixiao was driving a forklift, stacking the bundled cardboard in an open area nearby.

Another employee was pulling a large tarpaulin over the cardboard and compressed iron blocks, to keep the cardboard from getting soaked in the rain and the iron from rusting.

Huang Xiuyuan called out a greeting, then left the recycling plant through the back gate and went home. After taking a hot shower, he went to bed to adjust to the time difference.

The morning sunlight filtered through the beige curtains, falling softly across his face.

He rubbed his bleary eyes. When he woke, he realized it was already past nine. He hurried to brush his teeth and wash his face; he had other things to take care of today.

He called Uncle Xiao's son over. At 1.87 meters tall, he was built like a bear, with bronze skin and narrow eyes. Put him in a black suit, and he'd look every bit the bodyguard.

"Brother Chang, have you had breakfast?" Huang Xiuyuan asked, tossing him a car key.

Quick as a flash, Huang Weichang caught it in his large hand. "I have. Where are we going?"

"Downtown. Let's start at Gaowen Fish Soup, across from Wansheng."

"Okay."

Under the metal shelter beside the house sat an old Nissan pickup. Huang Weichang had learned to drive in the army and often drove this truck.

The pickup passed a hillside called Hebaoling and entered downtown Shanmei. They stopped at Gaowen Fish Soup on Tengfei Road and had breakfast.

Then he and Huang Weichang drove together toward Shanmei Avenue.

After passing through three traffic lights, they stopped in front of an office building. Huang Xiuyuan took out his phone and called someone he had asked Huang Sixiao to find: the property manager of the building.

"Hello, who is this?"

Huang Xiuyuan got straight to the point. "Hello, Manager Cai. I'm Huang Sixiao's nephew. We arranged a few days ago for me to come look at some office space."

"Oh, Mr. Huang! Hello! Where are you? I'll come over."

"I'm downstairs, on the Shanmei Avenue side."

"Please wait a moment. I'll be right there."

The main reason for the other man's enthusiasm was Shanmei's business climate. Before 2012, the local business environment had been poor.

There were naturally many reasons for that. The lines between the underworld, the authorities, and everything in between were blurred, and outside investors stood a good chance of losing everything. Unless you were a powerful outsider who could keep the local forces in check, it was better to wait for that man to come to power.

As a result, most of Shanmei's office buildings stood empty.

The buildings' permitted uses had already been established. The first and second floors could perhaps be rented out as shopping centers or storefronts; floors above the third could only be used as offices, or at most as warehouses.

This particular building was practically on its last legs.

A moment later, a slightly breathless, middle-aged man came around the corner. He had pale skin and a barely noticeable potbelly—the look of a seasoned office worker.

"Manager Cai?"

Manager Cai quickly held out his hand. "Ha, hello, Mr. Huang."

They shook hands briefly. Huang Xiuyuan had no time for small talk and asked directly, "Manager Cai, which floors in Huashang Building are available for rent?"

Huang Xiuyuan's unorthodox approach caught Manager Cai off guard, but he didn't dwell on it and promptly began his introduction. "Our building currently has the fourth floor, the fifth floor..."

After hearing him out, Huang Xiuyuan considered the options and asked him to show the way so he could inspect the premises in person.

Aside from the first and second floors, which were rented out, four small companies occupied space on the third and fourth floors. The other twelve floors were vacant.

The seventh floor, unlike the empty floors they'd seen earlier, still had quite a bit of office equipment, though no one was there.

Huang Xiuyuan turned to him. "What's the story with this floor?"

Still a little out of breath, Manager Cai explained in detail. "Mr. Huang, it used to be rented by a company that sold electronic products. The owner went to prison four months ago, and their deposit wasn't enough to cover what they owed, so they had to use this office equipment to pay part of it."

"Has the lease been terminated?" Huang Xiuyuan asked, motioning for Huang Weichang to take a look around.

"It has. The floor is available for rent now. You'd just have to pay a little extra for the office equipment."

After inspecting it for more than half an hour, Huang Xiuyuan found that the office equipment was in excellent condition, and even the fiber-optic internet lines were in place. They only needed to change the sign and buy some office supplies before they could start operating.

After some haggling, he rented the floor at six yuan per square meter per month. The total area was 3,200 square meters, bringing the monthly rent to 19,200 yuan. He also paid a one-time fee of 50,000 yuan for the office equipment.

The lease was for three years, with a deposit equal to three months' rent.

After renting the office floor, Huang Xiuyuan began thinking about what else he needed. He needed a professional manager to help him deal with all the miscellaneous matters.

A professional manager was extremely important to Huang Xiuyuan. With one, he could free himself up and focus only on the big picture.

Otherwise, the paperwork required to start a company and a factory would keep him busy enough. He'd have no time for research.

He grabbed a quick lunch, then asked Huang Weichang to buy some computers, printers, fax machines, and the like. He also asked Huashang Building's management to help arrange broadband service with the telecom company, along with a number of other miscellaneous tasks.

He didn't get back to Pubian Town until evening.

At the desk in his room, he worked with two laptops. One was dedicated to managing the zombie computers and the puppet accounts he had set up around the world.

He had created these puppet accounts by exploiting administrative loopholes in less developed regions and taking advantage of chaotic social conditions. Using the identities of some missing or deceased people, he had fabricated false identities.

He then used those identities to set up complicated companies and foundations in various offshore jurisdictions.

After layer upon layer of cross-shareholding, everything ultimately led back to Xiangjiang. The company he had previously asked an agency to establish had now been approved.

On paper, Huang Xiuyuan now owned three offshore companies in Xiangjiang: Huang's International Investment Fund Company, New World Financial Investment Company, and Carmen International Financial Investment Company.

Huang's Fund was specifically for sending money into China. It was also the parent company of the other two.

New World and Carmen had different roles. New World invested directly in financial markets, trading stocks, futures, foreign exchange, and the like. Carmen, meanwhile, invested in financial markets indirectly through puppet offshore companies.

He used one public and one covert operation mainly to avoid becoming a target for Wall Street and international financial tycoons.

He had already begun operating in secret, putting 20 million US dollars into Carmen and quietly shorting stocks and indexes in the financial markets of Western countries.

This year, the subprime mortgage crisis and a number of major events he remembered were all set to have an impact. Before the storm of the butterfly effect broke, he needed to make a quick profit in the financial markets and build up his initial capital. It was an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss.