Chapter 932: The Iron Lady Is Coming!

Upon returning to the capital, Li Yi’s life suddenly picked up pace.

Back in the village, he had lived a carefree and leisurely life, minding his own business and staying out of trouble.

But now, in addition to managing company and store affairs, he also had to drive Jiang Xue and the children to and from school every day.

On top of that, he occasionally had to deal with the two old men. So, although Li Yi didn’t have any specific work projects during this period, he was exceptionally busy, with his schedule packed every day.

Amidst all this busyness, time flew by, and before he knew it, it was already late September.

Over the past month and a half, quite a few things have happened in both Hong Kong and Beijing.

Starting with Hong Kong, the most significant event was undoubtedly the investigation into Jianing Group.

Originally, Li Yi hadn’t intended to get deeply involved in the matter. He simply wanted to short their stock before the Jianing Group’s sinking ship went down, making a small profit—essentially turning a loss into a gain.

But unexpectedly, Cheng Qingsong and the financial backers behind him actually tried to pin the blame for Jianing Group’s bankruptcy on him and Star Investment. How could Li Yi possibly tolerate that?

Immediately, while continuing to short Jianing Group’s stock, Li Yi filed a complaint alleging defamation, demanding a formal investigation into the individuals and companies involved.

At the same time, Li Yi mobilized members of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to pressure the British Hong Kong government and the police department, insisting they not brush the matter aside.

Consequently, the police had no choice but to launch an investigation into Cheng Qingsong, Jianing Group, and the various unscrupulous tabloids, large and small.

They didn’t know until they looked into it, but once they did, they uncovered a shocking secret behind Cheng Qingsong’s 20-billion-yuan business empire.

Through the police investigation, authorities discovered that the renowned billionaire Cheng Qingsong was nothing but a shell—his bank deposits and assets were pitifully meager, nowhere near the 10 billion widely rumored.

What alarmed the police even more was that Jianing Group, with a market value of 7 billion Hong Kong dollars, was in a similar situation to Cheng Qingsong himself—the massive company actually held very few assets.

Furthermore, the company was actually saddled with massive debts owed to banks and other companies, and was already insolvent.

This discovery sent shockwaves through the police force and the British Hong Kong government. After all, in the preceding years, Jianing Group had been considered one of the fastest-growing companies on Hong Kong Island with the strongest financial reports—it was the last fig leaf for the island’s economy, and hundreds of thousands of people had purchased shares in the company to varying degrees.

However, the company was now essentially a shell. If this were to be exposed, it would not only send shockwaves through Hong Kong’s business community but could also spark public protests and destabilize the political landscape.

Consequently, the Governor personally ordered the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) to form a special task force to investigate both the Jianing Group and Cheng Qingsong himself.

At this point, the case has shifted from a routine civil tort dispute to an investigation into economic crimes, completely altering its nature.

Hong Kong is a place where secrets rarely stay hidden. With the establishment of the task force and the initiation of investigations into Cheng Qingsong and the Jianing Group, news of the matter quietly leaked out.

The quickest to react were the companies doing business with Jianing Group, especially its creditors.

They rushed to pursue debt collection from Jianing Group, instantly causing the company’s already precarious cash flow to collapse completely.

Immediately afterward, the Hong Kong stock market reacted as well, and Jianing’s stock price—which had been on a downward trend—plummeted instantly.

Before the incident came to light, Jianing Group’s stock price stood at HK$25.60 per share. After Star Investment liquidated its holdings, the price plummeted directly to HK$21.

After Star Investment shorted Jianing’s stock, the price plummeted again to a low of HK$17, a drop of nearly 30%.

Investors had initially believed this was the bottom, but once the investigation was made public, Jianing’s stock price plummeted from HK$17 per share to HK$9, nearly returning to its initial public offering price.

But it didn’t end there. Over the next two weeks, as the task force’s investigation deepened, a flood of negative news emerged, driving Jianing’s stock price all the way down to HK$3 per share.

On September 20, feeling that the time was right, Li Yi gave Pang Feiyan the order to close the net.

Subsequently, Star Investment began aggressively buying up Jianing shares on the market, temporarily driving the price up from HK$3 to HK$5, sparking a brief flurry of excitement in the market.

Unfortunately, this was merely a last gasp for Jianing Group. Once Star Investment had acquired enough shares and returned them to the institutions, the sinking of the Jianing Group’s ship was only a matter of time.

As Jianing Group’s collapse unfolded, numerous companies on Hong Kong Island that had business dealings with it were dragged down. Stock prices plummeted, investor confidence evaporated, and some companies even went bankrupt before Jianing Group did.

The hardest-hit were the unlisted small and micro-enterprises. When Jianing Group previously partnered with these smaller firms, it frequently defaulted on payments, taking advantage of its dominant position in the partnerships.

Now that Jianing Group has suddenly collapsed, these small companies—already lacking resilience—are completely finished.

Given the way events have unfolded, Li Yi couldn’t help but wonder if Hengtai Xu Belts, decades later, had learned its tactics from these very people. The situations of the two companies were strikingly similar, except that Hengtai was far larger in scale than Jianing.

In just half a month, the bankruptcies of dozens, even hundreds, of small companies have had a massive impact. Hong Kong Island’s economy, which had shown slight signs of recovery, has now been knocked back to square one!

However, it wasn’t all bad news. Amid this chaos, because the police intervened early, a significant portion of Jianing Group’s assets—which should have been completely drained—had not yet been transferred.

Furthermore, some of the funds that had already been transferred were discovered and promptly frozen, raising hopes that they could be recovered.

Most importantly, because the police intervention was so sudden, Cheng Qingsong and his backers were completely caught off guard. As a result, much of the evidence of their irregularities—and even illegal activities—was not properly disposed of, introducing significant variables into this meticulously planned “perfect crime.”

Aside from the troubles involving Cheng Qingsong and Jianing Group, an event capturing the attention of the entire population unfolded on Hong Kong Island: Star Investment Company repaying principal and interest to investors and distributing dividends.

On the very same day that the investment team concluded its short-selling campaign against Jianing Group, Star Investment Company made a high-profile announcement that it would settle principal and interest for investors in the Dahai Private Equity Fund.

To the astonishment of Hong Kong residents, according to data released by Star Investment, the settlement involved 186,000 investors, with the total principal and interest reaching 128.8 billion Hong Kong dollars—an average of nearly 700,000 Hong Kong dollars per person.

Of this amount, 47.8 billion was principal, while the remaining 81 billion was entirely profit dividends, representing a staggering profit margin of 169%.

As soon as the news broke, the entire Hong Kong Island erupted in a frenzy. Television, newspapers, and other media outlets all rushed to provide comprehensive coverage of the story.

Overnight, Star Investment once again became the hottest topic of public discussion, even overshadowing the buzz surrounding the Jianing Group’s financial collapse.

Li Yi, who was far away in Beijing, was also paying close attention to these developments, as this settlement directly affected his own finances.

Although his financial struggles had been resolved after his trip to New York with Jiang Xue a few months prior, who would ever complain about having too much money in their wallet?

However, aside from the matter of dividing the money, what made Li Yi even happier was that the charitable foundation he had previously asked Lan Xinyi to look into had finally been established.

The foundation’s full name is the Ruijin Charitable Public Welfare Foundation, headed by Jiang Xue, with a total endowment of 103 million yuan.

One hundred million yuan came from Li Yi, while the remaining three million yuan was Jiang Xue’s personal savings.

In her own words, as the head of the foundation, she couldn’t just be a figurehead—she had to contribute some money herself.

Li Yi had no objection to this; his wife’s charitable spirit was certainly worth encouraging.

After the foundation was established, Li Yi recruited a professional team from Hong Kong to assist Jiang Xue with fund management, while also recruiting a group of people from the mainland to form a project review and evaluation team.

The two teams are currently in the process of integrating; once that’s complete, they’ll be ready to launch operations.

Just as Li Yi was helping Jiang Xue get acquainted with the charity foundation’s operations, he suddenly received a call from the Foreign Ministry—the Iron Lady was on her way…

……….