“Ding-ding-ding!!!”
“Come in!”
As Yang Qian pushed the door open and walked in, Li Yi immediately pointed to the chair across from his desk and said, “Sit down!”
Once Yang Qian had sat down, Li Yi said, “Comrade Yang Qian, I’d like to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?”
Seeing that Li Yi had addressed her as “Comrade,” Yang Qian knew he was definitely inquiring about the situation back home—and likely even about matters concerning their organization.
She replied immediately, “Sure, but I can’t guarantee I’ll answer—you know why!”
Li Yi nodded, indicating he understood.
After all, people like Yang Qian, Zhang Ziqiang, and Zhou Wen had all undergone special training and possessed a strong sense of confidentiality and strict adherence to security protocols.
“I’d like to know the current situation at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange!” Li Yi said.
“Which aspect are you interested in—reserve funds or…”
“Reserves!” Zhou Yang said.
“As far as I know, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange shouldn’t have any foreign exchange reserves left. Those 800 million dollars were the country’s last remaining foreign exchange reserves. To help the company weather this crisis, Old Chen personally approved the transfer of that money to us,” Yang Qian said.
“If there are no foreign exchange reserves, how do we settle trade transactions?”
“Gold, and some are settled directly with commodities like oil, rare earths, and iron ore!” Yang Qian replied.
“If that’s the case, then once the proceeds from this deal are settled, we should send the money back to the mainland first!”
Li Yi then added, “There’s actually another promising opportunity next year. I was thinking that if the country can hold out, we could keep these 1.8 billion US dollars here and send them back together with any additional profits we make then.”
Yang Qian shook her head and said with a hint of resignation, “That’s too long. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange won’t be able to hold out that long!”
“Then forget it. We still have a few months left; we’ll discuss it then!” Li Yi said.
“Hmm, I heard they’ve already closed the net overseas. I wonder what our return on investment is this time?” Yang Qian asked eagerly.
“140%!”
Whoa!
“So that means we turned 800 million USD into 1.12 billion USD?”
“Not quite that much—we have to pay taxes. The net profit is just over 1 billion,” Li Yi said.
“That’s still a lot. Making such a profit in such a short time is nothing short of a miracle. I’m sure Old Chen and Director Xu will be thrilled!”
Before Li Yi could speak, Yang Qian suddenly changed her tone and sighed again, saying, “We earn it fast, but we spend it just as fast back home. Even if we sent all 1.8 billion back, it probably wouldn’t last very long. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange is a bottomless pit!”
Li Yi smiled and said, “What does the State Administration of Foreign Exchange have to do with this? The main issue is that we’re at a significant disadvantage in foreign trade—the trade deficit is just too huge.”
“That’s right. We import a lot and export very little, so the Foreign Exchange Administration has to cover the shortfall. Sigh!”
Li Yi spoke again, “Stop sighing. I have an idea. If it works out, it might just bring in a huge amount of foreign exchange for the country!”
Yang Qian didn’t ask what the idea was, but said curiously, “When you say ‘a large amount,’ how much are we talking about?”
“10 billion US dollars!” Li Yi said, his words sending shockwaves through the room.
“That… that much?”
Yang Qian stared at Li Yi in shock; she simply couldn’t imagine the amount being that high.
“Mm-hmm!”
Li Yi continued, “Get in touch with our people in Beijing for me and gather information on our country’s infrastructure development—specifically transportation, hotels, shopping malls, and so on. I’d like to have the details in my hands within three days. I need them!”
“Yes!”
“Alright, go get to work!”
“Okay…”
………..
At 5:30 p.m., with half an hour left before the end of the workday, the sound of “knock-knock-knock” rang out once more outside Li Yi’s office.
“Come in!”
As the door swung open, Li Yi saw Zhao Xinlan walk in carrying a stack of documents.
“Boss, we’ve roughly calculated the returns on this investment…”
Before she could finish, Li Yi frowned and said, “Roughly?”
It’s important to note that financial work demands extreme precision; often, data must be accurate to several decimal places. Words like “roughly,” “maybe,” “possibly,” or “approximately” are rarely heard from a qualified financial professional.
Zhao Xinlan naturally understood what Li Yi meant and hurriedly explained, “Boss, as you know, we still hold shares in several major companies, including 39% of Wharf Holdings, 27% of Ho Group, 33% of Hongniao Real Estate, and so on.”
“Originally, these shares were supposed to be part of our investment returns this time, and they account for a significant portion. However, since the stock prices of these companies are currently highly volatile, we are temporarily unable to estimate their actual value, so… so…”
Li Yi’s expression softened slightly, and he immediately said, “Don’t count those shares. Just count the cash returns!”
Zhao Xinlan immediately pulled a document from her briefcase and said, “From the recent stock market battle, we made a total profit of 230 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is equivalent to about 24 billion US dollars.”
“Yesterday, we spent 10 billion US dollars repurchasing shares in those companies, but when we sold our holdings, we recovered 13.7 billion US dollars. So our total profit from the Hong Kong stock market this time is roughly 27.8 billion US dollars.”
Her voice softened slightly as she continued, “In addition, we made a profit of 24.5 billion US dollars by shorting the parent companies of the six major conglomerates, bringing our total cash proceeds to 52.3 billion US dollars!”
Li Yi nodded and said, “Have you calculated Hong Kong Island’s return on investment here?”
“We have!”
“How much?”
“Excluding the value of those stocks, the overall return on investment is 158.8%!” Zhao Xinlan replied.
“Alright, then repay the Chinese Chamber of Commerce based on that rate of return!” Li Yi said.
“Yes!”
As she replied, Zhao Xinlan couldn’t help but swallow hard.
That’s outrageous. Based on this rate of return, the 50 billion Hong Kong dollars lent to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce would have generated a profit of 79.4 billion on its own.
Borrowing 50 billion and repaying 129.4 billion—that’s even more profitable than a loan shark’s “borrow nine, repay thirteen” scheme.
“Boss, a significant portion of this profit comes from your and Mr. Huang’s private investments. Once the funds are recovered, should we transfer them to your personal accounts?” Zhao Xinlan asked again.
Li Yi thought for a moment and replied immediately, “Alright, transfer it in. But before you do, make sure to convert all the funds into Hong Kong dollars!”
“Convert it to Hong Kong dollars? Aren’t you worried the Hong Kong dollar will continue to depreciate?” Zhao Xinlan asked in surprise.
“It’s already at 9.6 to 1. How much lower can it go?” Li Yi said with a smile.
“Are you saying the Hong Kong dollar has already hit rock bottom and might appreciate in the future?” Zhao Xinlan asked, looking at Li Yi.
“No one can be 100% certain about that, but go ahead and convert all the funds in the company’s accounts into Hong Kong dollars!” Li Yi said.
Zhao Xinlan was no fool; she understood exactly what he meant the moment she heard it. “Yes, I’ll handle it as soon as the funds are available!” she replied.
“Good!”
The appreciation of the Hong Kong dollar was a certainty, because starting next year, the British Hong Kong government would introduce new regulations to implement the “linked exchange rate system.”
Put simply, the Linked Exchange Rate System meant that the Hong Kong dollar’s exchange rate and supply would float in tandem with the U.S. dollar.
After the linked exchange rate system was implemented on October 17, 1983, the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate remained stable for decades within the range of 7.75 to 7.85 Hong Kong dollars to the US dollar.
In other words, the Hong Kong dollar is set to appreciate!
Li Yi figured that since he was returning home this time and wouldn’t be coming back here anytime soon—and since he wouldn’t be using this money in the near future—he might as well exchange the US dollars in his account for Hong Kong dollars in advance.
After all, this was nearly a 20% windfall—why pass it up?
“Alright, go ahead and get back to work…”
Just as the two were speaking, the sound of knocking came from outside the office again…
…………
PS: I rushed as fast as I could, but I’m still late. Please forgive me!