Chapter 46

"Gu Sheng, you're free to go."

"Right on time, too. You said twenty-four hours, and twenty-four hours it was."

"Sheng, are you all right? Did they hit you?" Kong Sang came forward, looking worried.

The truth was, she was terrified of cops, but she had brought a lawyer to the station specifically to pick him up.

"Hit me?" Gu Sheng sneered. "I'd sue them until they couldn't even afford underwear!"

"If Mr. Gu has experienced police brutality, I'd be willing to act as his lawyer and file charges," the lawyer beside Kong Sang said, pushing up his glasses.

"I appreciate that professional attitude." Gu Sheng gave him a thumbs-up.

The lawyer wore a suit and glasses and had a thoroughly shifty face. Clearly, he was a good man.

"My surname is Luo. If Mr. Gu is interested, we could sign a long-term retainer agreement," the lawyer said, adjusting his glasses.

"Call me tomorrow." He did need a lawyer, and legal counsel as well.

"Does your law firm have any lawyers who are a little hotter?" Gu Sheng traced a curve in the air.

"We're a professional, reputable law firm. We can resolve any problem for Mr. Gu." Lawyer Luo winked at Gu Sheng.

"Now that's professional!" With that level of shamelessness, Gu Sheng had every confidence in their law firm's professional standards.

"I shouldn't have come to get you. I should've left you locked up in there!" Kong Sang angrily kicked him from behind.

"This is a police station. Don't want to leave? Then we can hold you for another twenty-four hours." Officer Wei's voice came from behind them.

"Fuck, there isn't even a single chick here. Not even a dog would stick around!" Gu Sheng swore.

That earned him another round of angry glares from the officers, who could only watch him swagger out.

"He's too fucking cocky. We shouldn't have let him leave," one officer couldn't help saying.

"And what would we do if we kept him? Treat him to a late-night snack?" Officer Wei said grimly. He glared at the others. "Don't you have work to do?"

The others immediately scattered, but one approached Officer Wei. "Officer Wei, were Bigmouth Nine and Broken-Nose Man our men?"

Everyone nearby pricked up their ears, and several clenched their fists.

If Bigmouth Nine and Broken-Nose Man had been undercover officers who disappeared after rising through the ranks, it would send everyone's anger boiling over.

"No. Don't overthink it. It's something else, and you don't need to know." Officer Wei waved them away.

Over the next few days, Officer Wei kept his word, sending officers to raid the establishments in Causeway Bay every day. Plenty of customers stopped coming to its three streets.

It left plenty of people grumbling.

Fortunately, the cops pulled out after just five days.

There had been some losses, but those customers would return sooner or later.

After all that, GS's reputation had somehow grown considerably.

Partly because most people believed Bigmouth Nine and Broken-Nose Man really had been undercover cops, and partly because GS had acted so fearlessly right in front of the cops that day.

Gangsters wanted two things: money and prestige.

When the boss looked that tough, his underlings got to share in the glory.

Within a few days, GS had also sorted out the situation in Causeway Bay. He gave Shark Yan a hundred men and a stretch of streets, putting him in charge of all the establishments there. After paying GS and his men, he would have a hundred-odd thousand left each month.

It was a decent amount, but Shark Yan wasn't particularly impressed.

Still, he was in no hurry. He took his men around the streets every day and asked around about the neighboring Hongxing Society.

The Hongxing Society's leader was Flying Dragon. Over the past few years, he had gradually stepped back from gang affairs and moved into legitimate business.

His right-hand man was Leopard, who also handled things in Causeway Bay.

With Causeway Bay sorted out, Gu Sheng finally had the time to deal with Golden Harvest Properties.

He rented a floor of office space near Causeway Bay and finally moved the company headquarters over.

Kong Sang would no longer stay at the shop. Her main job would be managing the finances at headquarters, which was the real priority.

As the company expanded, Kong Sang began struggling to keep up. Every day, she pored over thick books to learn finance. She was even considering studying at the University of Hong Kong.

"It's just finance. What are you going to learn at the University of Hong Kong? Go straight to an accounting firm and hire someone to teach you. Pay them enough, and they'd teach a dog."

"You never have anything decent to say!" Kong Sang felt as though she had been getting angry with Gu Sheng every day lately. The man was just too infuriating.

Couldn't he say something nice for once?

"I can't keep up with everything at the company," Kong Sang said. She wasn't superhuman.

And truthfully, she hadn't had much schooling to begin with. Teaching herself finance was difficult, which was why she wanted to study at the University of Hong Kong.

"Then hire someone. Put out an ad and bring someone in. Leave the routine stuff to him, and come to me with anything you can't decide." He had never run a business in his previous life, but he'd seen enough to have some idea of how one should operate.

Even if he didn't know how to run it, someone certainly did.

Gu Sheng had one principle: let professionals handle professional work.

"Our ads came out today too. Take a look." Kong Sang brought out a stack of newspapers and magazines, all carrying advertisements for Golden Harvest Properties.

"Good enough." Gu Sheng glanced at them. Newspaper ads were all pretty much the same.

As long as the ads ran in the papers and on television every day, bombarding everyone with information until all of Hong Kong knew and recognized Golden Harvest Properties, that would do.

"Get a reporter to do some coverage later. Come up with an angle, then make it a series," Gu Sheng said after a moment's thought.

The real impact would have to come from television advertising. When he had time, he could put together a thirty-second mini-film. That should be enough for this era.

Once they had opened up the entire market, they could buy late-night airtime directly from a television station and make a show, following the approach those old Chinese medicine practitioners used. It would focus on exposing real estate scams and the various pitfalls people needed to watch out for.

Then they could hire a few plants to talk about how they had been scammed while buying a home.

Do that a few times, and Hong Kong people would come to trust Golden Harvest Properties.

"Speaking of which, why have you hired such an ugly bunch?" Sitting behind the desk, Gu Sheng looked over the employees passing by outside.

Not a single one was worth looking at.

"What do you think?" Kong Sang wrinkled her nose and answered fiercely.

Gu Sheng didn't care about such a minor thing anyway. There were plenty of hot girls outside who didn't ask for much. For a few hundred or a thousand dollars, they were happy to open their hearts.

"How's the company's income been lately?"

"The Causeway Bay flagship store has been open for over half a month. We've also opened six other branches: one in Causeway Bay, two in Tsim Sha Tsui, two in Mong Kok, and one in the Central and Western District.

"With the five in Yuen Long, we now have twelve shops in total. Our rental commissions average over two hundred and twenty thousand a day. The Causeway Bay flagship store alone accounts for half of that.

"Also, our income from property sales has picked up over the past few days.

"Over the past week, Causeway Bay closed over a dozen deals, with the properties worth nearly ten million in total. Our fees came to almost five hundred thousand."

"But for now, Causeway Bay is the only area doing particularly well in that line of business, apart from Yuen Long. Property prices there are lower, but the volume is much higher than in Causeway Bay. Over the past half month, they've closed nearly eighty deals totaling around eight million, earning us four hundred thousand in fees."

Gu Sheng did a quick calculation. The average property in Yuen Long was worth only a hundred thousand.

In Causeway Bay, a property cost seven or eight hundred thousand.

At this rate, even if sales commissions didn't bring in as much as rental commissions, they wouldn't fall far short.

Once all the branches were in place, annual income would reach at least a hundred million, possibly more.

Of course, the most profitable approach was still to buy low and list the properties for sale once prices rose.

"Pick out some good properties, ones that are cheap and have room to appreciate. We can buy a few, especially commercial units in Causeway Bay," Gu Sheng said.

Over the past few months, quite a few senior officials on Hong Kong Island had been selling off properties below market price, dragging down real estate prices across the island.

Within two years at most, those properties would soar in value.

"Once we buy them, mortgage them straight away and use the loans to keep buying. If you think a property's suitable, buy it. Don't worry about buying too many," Gu Sheng said bluntly. "Hong Kong Island property prices will go up within a year or two at most."

"Also, keep an eye out for land. See where any plots are up for sale."