Chapter 610: Walking into a Trap

Although the Lin family had sent people to the Li Family Gold Shop to buy back gold in secret, they couldn’t hide it from Li Jiuying.

After all, it was clearly unusual for so many people to suddenly flood into the shop buying gold by the kilogram.

These days, most ordinary people who buy gold either purchase jewelry or small gold bars weighing one or two taels, typically for investment or to preserve their wealth.

Big clients who came in asking for several kilograms right off the bat were truly few and far between.

Moreover, Hong Kong Island is only so big. While there are plenty of wealthy people, the truly wealthy wouldn’t need to buy gold at a jewelry store even if they wanted to invest in it—wouldn’t it be better to buy gold financial products at a bank or securities firm?

So, Lai Jiuying immediately had his people look into those individuals’ backgrounds.

It didn’t take long to discover that they all belonged to a triad organization based in Causeway Bay—one with deep, intricate ties to the Lam family.

After a brief analysis, the truth became crystal clear!

Without delay, Li Jiuying reported the situation to Li Yi.

Upon receiving Li Jiuying’s report, Li Yi reacted immediately. He instructed Li Jiuying to adjust their strategy right away, limiting daily shipments to no more than 100 kilograms.

At the same time, he instructed him to continue contacting their existing sales channels, feigning an urgent need for gold, and spreading the word that they were willing to purchase gold at a price higher than the market rate.

Although Li Jiuying didn’t quite understand why Li Yi wasn’t seizing this opportunity to sell large quantities of gold to the Lin family through their Li Family Gold Shop, but instead was limiting the shipment volume,

However, he knew his business acumen was no match for Li Yi’s. Realizing Li Yi likely had other considerations, he didn’t press the matter and simply followed the instructions to the letter.

As soon as the Li family’s revised announcement was released, Lin Zhengrong—who believed he had struck at the Li family’s weak spot—was instantly energized.

Especially upon learning that Li Jiuying was actively buying up gold through various channels and offering a high price of $2,200 per ton, Lin Zhengrong became even more convinced that his strategy of cutting off the supply chain and massively repurchasing Li Family gold was working.

At that moment, while ordering his men to continue buying back gold sold by the Li family’s shops, he simultaneously sought to take credit with the bigwigs of the British-funded conglomerate.

Taking credit was only part of it; more importantly, he was requesting financial assistance from Smith and the others.

The Lin family’s business was not particularly large to begin with; their total assets amounted to less than 1 billion Hong Kong dollars, and that included fixed assets.

At current exchange rates, this amounted to a mere 150 million US dollars.

After having just acquired 1.5 tons of gold from the “Zhou family,” the Lin family’s liquid assets were running low. To mount a full-scale counterattack against the Lai family, they needed support from the British-funded conglomerate.

Of course, Lin Zhengrong’s decision wasn’t solely due to the Lin family’s lack of strength; more importantly, he needed to guard against Smith and his associates by dragging them into the fray.

The Li family had previously charged ahead on their own, only to be discarded as expendable pawns when trouble arose. Had Li Jiuying enlisted the British Capital Group’s financial and operational support back then, they likely wouldn’t have been abandoned so easily.

So, although the Lin family is serving as the vanguard this time, they won’t be fighting this battle alone.

Whether it’s Smith or the Duke, if you’re afraid of getting your hands dirty and refuse to get personally involved, that’s fine—just put up the money!

As long as everyone becomes a true community of shared interests, Lin Zhengrong won’t worry about becoming the next Li Jiuying.

Sure enough, after receiving Lin Zhengrong’s call, HSBC executive Smith immediately stated that they were willing to provide the Lin family with a low-interest loan of 200 million Hong Kong dollars.

However, before the Lin family could even finalize the loan, they received another piece of news: the Ho family, a long-established Hong Kong elite clan, had a batch of gold they needed to liquidate and were looking for buyers.

More importantly, just as Lin Zhengrong received this news, his informant planted within the Lai family called him.

According to the informant’s report, Lai Jiuying had suddenly withdrawn all funds from the company’s accounts and had prepared a lavish gift, intending to pay a visit that evening to Ho Man-tung, the head of the Ho family.

Upon hearing the news, Lin Zhengrong wasted no time and immediately called Smith to report the situation.

If this were any other family, Lin Zhengrong would have gone there immediately, determined not to let that gold fall into Li Jiuying’s hands.

But this time, he was dealing with the Ho family, and he felt somewhat out of his depth.

As a renowned, long-established family on Hong Kong Island, the He family had been on the decline in recent years, yet even a starving camel is bigger than a horse.

Given Lin Zhengrong’s current status and standing, he had no access to a big shot like Ho Man-tung and could only turn to Smith and his associates for help.

The British-owned conglomerate, determined to destroy the Lai family, spared no effort. Upon receiving Lin Zhengrong’s plea for help, they immediately decided to have Smith take Lin Zhengrong to the Ho family.

At the same time, they reached an internal agreement: no matter how much gold the Ho family put on the table this time, as long as the gold was genuine, they would take it all.

After all, gold is a hard currency. Unlike stocks or bonds, as long as the source is reliable, there’s no need to worry about being swindled—unless the price of gold suddenly crashes.

But the probability of a gold price crash was extremely low, and even if it did happen suddenly, it would rebound after a while, making the likelihood of a loss negligible.

And even if they did lose money, so what? The British Capital Group was a massive enterprise; a small loss was nothing. As long as it brought down the Li family, any cost would be worth it.

The reason the British Capital Group hates Li Jiuying so much and is willing to destroy him at any cost is not merely because the Li family’s betrayal has left them looking bad.

More importantly, the Li family’s betrayal had derailed the plan the Yingzi Group had been plotting for years to crush the Chinese-owned banking sector.

This struck at the very heart of the British-owned conglomerate’s core interests!

As everyone knows, the most profitable sector on Hong Kong Island is neither transshipment trade nor manufacturing, but the financial industry.

And within the financial sector, banks are the foundation—an indispensable component.

Consequently, over the past several decades or even centuries, hundreds or even thousands of banks—both Chinese- and British-owned—have sprung up on Hong Kong Island, locked in fierce competition.

In order to gain complete control over Hong Kong’s financial sector—and to better fleece the public—British-owned conglomerates have, over the past two decades, continuously employed various tactics to suppress and take over Chinese-owned banks, including, but not limited to, having the British colonial government act as their enforcer.

After more than two decades of such efforts, nearly all Chinese-owned banks on Hong Kong Island have now been crushed. Without exception, the top ten major banks are all controlled by British-owned groups.

Even those Chinese-owned banks that haven’t gone bankrupt are merely small, struggling institutions scraping by on scraps, with little presence in the market.

Consequently, the British-owned conglomerates believe they have completely eradicated Chinese-owned banks on Hong Kong Island and will ultimately control the local financial sector.

Now, they not only control Hong Kong Island’s currency issuance but also dominate nearly all major banks and the financial sector. Whether it’s the stock market or the real estate market, they are nothing more than their own “cabbage patch”—to be harvested however they please.

The reason the British-owned conglomerate chose to kick the Lai family while they were down was not only out of sheer meanness, but more importantly, because they had their eyes on the 42% stake in Longheng Bank held by the Lai family.

Although they used underhanded tactics to prevent Lai Jiuying from becoming chairman of the board at Longheng Bank, this still fails to put Sir and his associates at ease.

We understand the principle that “those who are not of our kind have different intentions,” and the foreigners understand it too.

Consequently, they have repeatedly offered to acquire these shares—even at a premium—but Li Jiuying has consistently refused.

As a result, Longheng Bank remained the only major bank that the British-owned conglomerate had not fully taken control of.

Last month, when the Lai family faced a crisis, the British-owned conglomerate saw an opportunity to bring them to heel. But just as they were sharpening their knives, preparing to seize that 42% stake in Longheng Bank from the Lai family, the Lai family betrayed them.

What the British-owned conglomerate never expected was that the Lai family would sell the shares they had been drooling over at a bargain price to the Li family, thereby securing a reconciliation between the two sides.

And that scoundrel Li Futiao took advantage of the plunge in Longheng Bank’s stock price to quietly acquire a massive stake from other shareholders and on the open market. By the time they realized something was amiss, Li Jia had already secured 76% of Longheng Bank’s shares.

Subsequently, catching the British-owned group off guard, Li Futao suddenly arrived at Longheng Group. Waving his share certificates, he demanded an immediate shareholders’ meeting to reorganize the board of directors.

The incumbent chairman of Longheng Bank, holding a paltry 17% stake, was powerless against the formidable Li family and ultimately meekly relinquished the chairmanship.

This not only meant they had lost control of Longheng Bank, but also that their plan to dominate Hong Kong’s banking sector had suffered a major setback.

And all of this was because of the Lai family—specifically Lai Jiuying—which is why the British-owned conglomerate was so determined to wipe out the Lai family.

After reaching a consensus, Smith personally prepared the gifts and, accompanied by his henchman Lin Zhengrong, headed to the Ho family’s residence.

But what they didn’t know was that the Ho family’s gold sell-off was a trap set specifically for them; by rushing over now, they were simply walking right into a trap!

……..