Old Huang was seriously injured and hanging by a thread!
Upon receiving this news, Li Yi was completely thrown off balance.
Old Huang was now his business partner and his representative in Hong Kong; if anything happened to him, it would undoubtedly have a significant impact on Starry Sky Company.
More importantly, Li Yi had always considered Old Huang a friend. Now that his friend was in trouble, he was naturally deeply concerned.
“Director Zhou, do you know what happened? How did Old Huang get injured out of the blue?” Li Yi asked, looking at Zhou Rui.
It was Zhou Rui who had brought the news of Old Huang’s injury; according to him, Yang Qian had relayed the information from Hong Kong Island an hour ago.
Originally, Li Yi had some reservations about Yang Qian joining Starry Sky, but now he felt that every cloud has a silver lining.
With her there, he could find out about any urgent news from Hong Kong the moment it happened.
Unlike last time, when a message had passed through eight hundred hands before he was dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to return a call—that was pure torture.
“I’m not entirely sure of the specifics yet. After all, Comrade Yang Qian’s primary task is to keep an eye on that money; everything else is just a side job!”
But Zhou Rui changed the subject and added, “Don’t worry, though. I’ve already sent someone to investigate, and I expect we’ll have news soon.”
“Do me a favor!” Li Yi suddenly said.
“Go ahead!”
“Originally, I planned to have my brother-in-law round up some of his retired comrades-in-arms to set up a security firm in Hong Kong to support the investment company’s growth. But since those guys are scattered all over the place, it’d be too slow to rely on my brother-in-law alone to track them down…”
Before he could finish, Zhou Rui said in a deep voice, “You want to contact those people through our channels?”
“Right. Or, to put it more directly, you could select a group of officers and soldiers about to retire from the military and have them go with my brother-in-law to Hong Kong Island!” Li Yi said.
“But what about these people? What’s their connection to the state?”
“It doesn’t matter. They’re just going through normal retirement and reemployment procedures. On the surface, they have absolutely no connection to the state, but as for how you arrange things for them behind the scenes—well, that’s not my concern!”
Hearing this, Zhou Rui immediately understood Li Yi’s plan.
“Aren’t you worried these people might cause you trouble?”
“What trouble? I’m just hiring them to work at the security company, paying them a monthly salary. All they need to do is perform their duties diligently. As for what they do outside of work, what does that have to do with our security company?”
Zhou Rui thought it over carefully, then said, “I’ll talk to your brother-in-law first, then help him get in touch with his comrades. As for the rest, I’ll need to report to my superiors before I can give you an answer!”
“No problem, but you have to move fast!”
“Alright!”
“Also, I plan to head to Hong Kong as soon as possible. Please help me make the arrangements—it’ll take too long if I try to handle it myself!”
Li Yi continued, “I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something fishy about Old Huang’s situation this time. The other side is likely targeting Starry Sky Company!”
“Alright, when do you plan to leave?”
“Preferably tomorrow!” Li Yi said.
“Alright, I’ll get in touch with you once everything’s arranged!”
“Alright…”
……
After seeing Zhou Rui off, Li Yi fell deep in thought.
In fact, even before returning this time, he had anticipated that things wouldn’t be peaceful on Hong Kong Island, especially regarding Old Huang—there was a high likelihood of danger.
That was why, before he left, he had sought out Li Futao and asked him to keep an eye on Old Huang.
The reason Li Yi had come to this conclusion was mainly because he knew full well that although his previous trip to Hong Kong had seemed to be a resounding success, it had actually threatened the interests of far too many people there.
Take the British-owned conglomerates, for instance, or the Governor’s Office and their lackeys.
After all, when he shorted the Hang Seng Index, he was essentially plundering the money of those very powers.
They say cutting off someone’s livelihood is like killing their parents; now that he was directly fleecing these people, it was no longer a matter of merely killing their parents.
That’s why Li Yi didn’t dare to go all out while he was in Hong Kong; he pulled back when the Hang Seng Index hit 1,200 points.
At the same time, he spared no effort to befriend the Li family and other powerful Chinese-owned conglomerates, pulling them onto his side—all to make those British-owned companies that had suffered silent losses think twice.
Some even whispered behind his back that he was a civilian representative sent from the mainland, and he didn’t deny it—he simply wanted to give himself an extra layer of protection.
And his actions certainly paid off; at the very least, everything remained peaceful and uneventful during his time on Hong Kong Island.
But once he left, that was a different story.
Those people might not dare to lay a finger on him, but they might not hesitate to go after Old Huang.
After all, everyone on Hong Kong Island now knew that Old Huang was his closest confidant and one of the two sole shareholders of Starry Sky Company.
Taking Old Huang down would be a direct slap in the face to Li Yi, and could even throw Starry Sky Company into chaos.
Most importantly, Old Huang’s business not only operated in a gray area but was also tied to organized crime. No matter how well such a person might be doing, there are always vulnerabilities, making him relatively easy to deal with.
That’s why Li Yi was so eager to send his brother-in-law and the others over—after all, as long as they possessed a force that others feared, no one would dare to mess with him.
But what Li Yi hadn’t anticipated was that those bastards would strike less than two weeks after his return—they really couldn’t wait!
In Li Yi’s view, these people were declaring war on him!
With a knife already pressed against his throat, how could he possibly hold back?
He had come back hoping to live a few days of peace, but since some people weren’t having it, Li Yi wasn’t going to let them get away with it.
Immediately, Li Yi ordered his men to summon all the executives at the TV factory, including the beaten-up plant manager.
Li Yi held a brief meeting with them, instructing them to follow his arrangements: those responsible for production should focus on production, those handling loans should secure the loans, those building distribution channels should establish them, and those serving as “mascots” should continue in that role.
In short, the tasks had been clearly communicated to everyone—and anyone who failed to complete them would have to answer to him when he returned!
After settling these matters, Li Yi left the TV factory with Zhang Ziqiang.
Since this had happened so suddenly, he still had a lot of matters to take care of, such as Jiang Xue and the children.
Jiang Xue was supposed to go back to school tomorrow, and his mother-in-law was planning to return to work at the university, so Li Yi had originally intended to bring Yunrui and Yunjin to the TV factory to look after them.
Not to mention the factory-run daycare center—he could even leave them in his office.
After all, there were plenty of female employees at the office; he could easily find someone to watch them for a while.
But now that he had to go to Hong Kong and his older sister hadn’t arrived yet, Li Yi had no choice but to come up with another plan.
Besides, he still needed to let Jiang Xue know about his trip to Hong Kong Island.
When Li Yi got home, Jiang Xue and his mother-in-law were both there. The two were chatting in the bedroom while watching the two children roll around and play on the kang.
Seeing Li Yi push the door open, Jiang Xue asked in surprise, “Why are you back so early today?”
“Aren’t you supposed to go to school for a class meeting later? I was planning to drive you there!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“No need, I’ll just take the bus,” Jiang Xue replied.
“Taking the bus is such a hassle. Let me drive you!”
Ye Lingyun was quite pleased to see how much Li Yi doted on her daughter.
But realizing her son-in-law was quite busy, she immediately said, “Xiao Yi, you should let Xue’er go on her own. You can drive her once or twice, but you can’t do it every day—you have your own things to take care of!”
“Mom, it’s no big deal. I’ll give her a ride whenever I have time!”
After that, not wanting to dwell on the matter, Li Yi added, “Xue’er, there’s something else I’d like to talk to you about!”
“What is it?”
“I have to go to Hong Kong tomorrow. Why don’t we drop Yunrui and Yunjin off at the old family home first, so Grandpa can look after them for a couple of days?” Li Yi said.
“Why do you suddenly have to go to Hong Kong out of the blue?” Jiang Xue asked in surprise.
“Something came up at the company, and I need to go handle it!”
“Alright, then go take care of that first. Don’t worry about the kids. Mom and I just talked it over—if you’re busy, we’ll take them to the school’s daycare and have the staff there look after them!” Jiang Xue said.
“Will that work?”
Ye Lingyun immediately chimed in, “It should be fine. Most of the teachers’ children at the school are looked after by the daycare staff!”
“That’ll work, then. We’ll bring them back once my older sister arrives in a little while!”
“Alright!”
Then, Li Yi glanced at his watch—it was already five o’clock, and there was only an hour left before the class meeting was set to begin.
He immediately told Jiang Xue to get changed, then took her straight to Beijing University!