Xia Hongxia didn’t want to be a bootlicker anymore; she wanted to be her person.
Though she agonized over the choice beforehand, once she made the decision, her heart felt lighter.
When Xia Hongbing heard she was cutting ties with Xia Ziyu, he was anxious. Xia Hongxia put her hands on her hips and scolded him: “If you can’t bear it, go find her to take care of you in your old age. See if Xia Ziyu will even acknowledge you!”
Xia Hongbing cursed back.
Father and daughter had a huge argument.
A few days later, Xia Ziyu’s assistant came to see Xia Hongxia, asking if she had considered the offer.
The assistant felt Xia Hongxia wasn’t even worthy of being a presentable puppet, but when Xia Hongxia refused, the assistant was still surprised:
“Are you sure? You haven’t even heard Director Xia’s compensation package—”
“I’m sure, sure! How annoying. I don’t want it. I just want to run my restaurant. Tell your Mrs. Du not to look for me anymore. Since she’s not my cousin, we’re not even close!”
Xia Hongxia drove them away. The assistant’s gaze at her spelled out “beyond salvation.” Although they didn’t understand why Mrs. Du wanted to elevate this mud, for the mud to put on airs and refuse Mrs. Du’s help… it was truly bizarre.
When the assistant returned and faithfully reported Xia Hongxia’s words, Xia Ziyu’s eyebrows twitched.
“She said that?”
“Yes, Director Xia.”
Xia Ziyu was genuinely surprised.
How could she not know what kind of person Xia Hongxia was?
A person’s character doesn’t easily change, and Xia Hongxia’s refusal was beyond Xia Ziyu’s expectations.
It wasn’t that she cared about someone as insignificant as Xia Hongxia. When she asked for Xia Hongxia’s help, she hadn’t intended for her to manage the investment company—Xia Hongxia couldn’t handle that. Xia Ziyu had other plans, other things she needed Xia Hongxia to do—Xia Hongxia not taking the bait made her very unhappy.
Again, that feeling of things slipping out of control was terrible!
There was another matter: Du Zhaohui had been gathering funds recently. What was he planning?
Several million, no less!
Did Du Zhaohui find another investment opportunity?
“Have someone investigate what the eldest young master has been up to lately.”
After helping Yu Shihua buy Elegance, losing over two million yuan, Xia Ziyu didn’t dare invest the remaining money recklessly. Although Du Chengrong hadn’t said anything, he was observing her actions. Xia Ziyu needed to make him believe in her capabilities—
Xia Ziyu hadn’t dealt with investment companies before, but as she had described to Xia Hongxia, Hong Kong was full of highly educated, experienced investment talents. Xia Ziyu wasn’t alone at CR Investment; people gave her advice to invest in the stock market.
In 1987, the Hang Seng Index performed excellently, from around 2,800 points in February to breaking 3,000 points by early June!
CR Investment’s advisors believed that buying some stocks was a good choice at this time. Since Xia Ziyu hadn’t found better investment channels anyway, keeping money in the bank earning interest couldn’t outpace inflation or rising property prices. Both stocks and real estate were good choices.
Real estate?
That was just simple property speculation.
Anyone could do that—it was a foolproof investment that wouldn’t show her capabilities.
But stocks… that she could try.
Xia Ziyu didn’t understand the stock market, so she tentatively invested 10 million Hong Kong dollars, letting experts handle the operations since she lacked knowledge.
In just over a month of entering the market, she had recovered the 2.5 million yuan lost on Elegance.
The Hang Seng Index’s upward trend hadn’t stopped, and Xia Ziyu had increased her stock market investment to 20 million Hong Kong dollars.
Du Chengrong teased her about becoming Hong Kong’s female stock market goddess:
“If you’d said you wanted to play the stock market, why bother opening an investment company? A few million would have been enough for you to experiment with.”
Xia Ziyu acted coy, “How is that the same! I’m still being cautious about what to invest in. How can using money to make money be wrong? Mr. Du, your money didn’t fall from the sky—I know how hard you worked for it. I want to help you! I’m very optimistic about real estate, both in Hong Kong and the mainland. Look at the stocks I had people buy; they’re mostly listed property companies.”
Du Chengrong didn’t interfere; after all, for now, Xia Ziyu’s stock market investments weren’t losing money.
This year, Hong Kong’s stock market was all positive. Unless you encountered misfortune like Yuhua, it wasn’t easy to lose money in the stock market.
Xia Ziyu felt that making money from property speculation wouldn’t show her abilities, but actually, her making money in the stock market didn’t show Du Chengrong any great ability either… it was still money that even a fool could make.
Fortunately, Xia Ziyu was just his concubine. If it had been his two sons using the stock market to determine the winner of their competition last year, Du Chengrong would have been furious.
With Xia Ziyu, it didn’t matter.
His expectations for women and sons were naturally different.
But Xia Ziyu didn’t know this. Since Du Chengrong didn’t object, she continued operating this way.
While making money in the stock market, she kept watching Du Zhaohui’s movements.
Du Zhaohui was raising money!
He did it secretly, but Xia Ziyu still found out.
Not just Xia Ziyu, even Du Jiaji heard about it.
They both thought Du Zhaohui had a new project, and Du Zhaohui’s new project might be Xia Xiaolan’s project!
Xia Ziyu had people closely monitor Du Zhaohui, and sure enough, the several million he had scraped together from various sources was for Xia Xiaolan.
What did Xia Xiaolan want to do with this money?
They didn’t know yet.
But Xia Ziyu was very tempted.
Perhaps Liu Fen had told Xia Xiaolan something again.
Xia Ziyu gritted her teeth.
In her previous life, Liu Fen had been a downtrodden woman, spineless and unsuccessful. Who would have thought that while appearing weak, she was quite cunning? Who knew how many paths to wealth Liu Fen remembered?
Xia Ziyu was very jealous.
At this time in her previous life, Xia Xiaolan had already gone to Beijing with Wang Jianhua, becoming the Wang family’s future daughter-in-law.
As soon as Wang Jianhua graduated, they got their marriage certificate.
After Xia Xiaolan had a child, her status in Wang Jianhua’s family rose, and by 1990, she had brought Liu Fen and Xia Dajun to live in Beijing.
Liu Fen had been a city dweller for many years, so it wasn’t strange that she knew more about certain things than her.
…
“Xia Ziyu is playing the stock market?”
Xia Xiaolan had received the 50 million she borrowed from Du Zhaohui, and she had given him an IOU.
She had planned to set a trap for Xia Ziyu in Hainan Island with this 50 million, but hearing about Xia Ziyu playing the stock market reminded her of something else.
“What does she know about stocks? The old man assigned her some people, and she just buys whatever they tell her to buy… though she hasn’t lost money.”
It wasn’t clear whether Du Zhaohui was unhappy that Xia Ziyu hadn’t lost money or that Du Chengrong had assigned capable employees to CR Investment.
Perhaps both.
“Nonsense, if you lose money buying stocks in Hong Kong this year, you might as well buy a rope and hang yourself!”
The hot property market, hot stock market—that was Hong Kong’s current situation.
Even the crisis caused by Tang Jinyun’s death from illness and the Tang family’s troubles, which had caused Yuhua’s stock to fall, had been weathered under favorable stock market conditions… Not only had Tang Yuanyue and He Zhitong announced their re-engagement, but they had also set their wedding date for next month.
He Zhitong had even sent Xia Xiaolan a wedding invitation.
Setting aside whether to attend Tang Yuanyue’s wedding, Xia Ziyu’s stock market activities reminded Xia Xiaolan of another “classic case”—the 1987 Hong Kong stock market crash!