Chapter 397: Trapped in the Mud
"Grandma, it is thanks to you that our Li family has been able to preserve the huge fortune left by our father."

Li Mingze said slowly: "But, Grandma, you have also seen that it has only been a few decades, and our Li family is no longer the same as before."

"It's not just our Li family. The Ho family, Zhou family, and Li family are still in Hong Kong's upper class society, but they are getting worse and worse. We have to be careful."

“Not to mention the distant past, even the five real estate giants that went public last year have surpassed us.”

"Yes, our Li family owns the best land in Causeway Bay and collects rent from it, but after decades, we have only accumulated such a small amount of wealth. What about those families?"

"It will only take a few years for them to surpass us. If our Li family doesn't make progress, I'm afraid..."

What Li Mingze said today was the same as what he had said before to persuade the fourth branch of his family to invest in the land.

All of this is to help the Li family move to a higher level.

Especially in the past two years, the Hong Kong stock market has skyrocketed, and their Li family has often been used as an example.

It describes them as begging with a golden bowl in hand, but in such a good era they are like dead bones in a grave, with no desire to make progress.

But it worked well last time, but it doesn’t work this time!

As the saying goes, good fortune is hard to part with. Immediately, a member of the Li family from the third branch jumped out and said, "Brother, you have been in charge of our Li family for decades. Even if you have no merits, you have worked hard."

"But, our Li family's decades of wealth was lost overnight with just one decision by you, big brother."

The third branch of the Li family was first promoted but then declined, and the matter was immediately linked to the last cooperation with the Jardine Matheson Group.

"In addition to owning a large number of Hong Kong Land shares, the current price of one share is only around 7 yuan, which is too hard to use as toilet paper. Last year, we used stocks as dividends. Why don't we continue to use stocks as dividends this year?"

"Unless our Li family continues to spend a lot of money to buy shares in Hong Kong Land, our shares in Hong Kong Land will be divided up sooner or later."

"The British devils are famous for their brutality. Our Li family has been fighting for so many years, but they just swallowed us up. How can we fight against the British devils on their territory?"

"That's right, that's right!" As soon as the third branch of the Li family spoke, the fourth branch of the Li family immediately agreed and went a step further, "Brother, our Li family has only a little wealth left, do you still want to fill this bottomless pit?"

"The cash we can receive now is the rent from the Lee Theatre and the remaining two streets, which is much worse than before."

"It has affected our daily lives. Brother, you have been the head of the family for so many years, you are already too tired."

"That's right!" Even the second branch of the Li family stood up to object, "Brother, we are not against you!"

"But don't mention the controlled areas anymore. We are afraid that we will lose the last bit of our assets."

"Jindi is the lifeblood of the British devils. How could they let it go so easily?"

"It's a secret acquisition. It's possible that this is another trap set by the company for outsiders."

"Brother, you are the one who gave up your position in the UK!"

"Sit down!" Old lady Huang Lanfang was as majestic as ever. "You have been living like dogs all these years!"

"The reason why our Li family has been able to survive for so many years is because of the unity of the family and the warmth of each other."

"Our Li family has long been targeted by others. If it weren't for the boss's efforts to maintain it, would it have survived until today?"

"When we first invested in Hong Kong Land, everyone agreed to cooperate with Hong Kong Land to develop our land. Why are you putting the blame on the boss now that we have failed?"

Although old lady Huang Lanfang does not care about things, as Li Hiu-shen's original wife, she can say nothing if she doesn't want to, but once she speaks, it is the final word.

The old lady looked at the rooms of the Li family with a hawk-like gaze, and even her own son lowered his head under this gaze.

Huang Lanfang sighed and said slowly: "As the saying goes, a harmonious family brings prosperity. In the early years of our Li family, it was your father who sold opium and accumulated such a fortune."

"But selling opium is detrimental to one's virtue, so your father suffered misfortune and died a miserable death." "Now our Li family has been passed down for three generations, enjoying three generations of wealth and prosperity. What did we rely on?"

"One is your father's accumulation of money, the land in Causeway Bay, and the other is our careful management of the household."

The old lady looked at Li Mingze and advised again: "We have suffered a loss once by cooperating with Jardine Matheson, do you want to suffer a second time?"

"We must not forget our duty as the family manager, Mingze. Don't cooperate with the Zhou family this time."

"If the Zhou family wants to continue fighting with Jardine Matheson, let them continue. Our Li family can live in peace."

"The continuation of a family does not rely on opportunism, but on the long term. Remember this!"

Li Mingze looked at the dissatisfaction of the other families towards him. Either the eldest mother would support him again, or the head of the Li family would be replaced.

Either the Li family will split up and fall apart.

Therefore, no matter how much he thought, he could only sigh and say, "Okay, since no one agrees to join hands with the Zhou family to acquire the land, then let it go. When the stock price of the land rises again, our Li family will find an opportunity to sell it out."

"What Grandma said is right. We, the Li family, need to plan for the long term. There may be a turnaround in the future for this cooperation with Hong Kong Land."

"Swire Properties owns a large portion of the land in Central, plus my family's half of the land in Causeway Bay. After building commercial buildings, the annual rent will be more than 10 billion Hong Kong dollars."

"We will eventually earn back the money we put into our family business, so we don't have to fight for a moment."

The meeting among the four branches of the Li family ended in vain.

Zhou Xinian originally thought that the Li family would do the same as him, so that they would have a chance of winning against the country. However, he never expected that at the critical moment, the Li family actually backed down.

But the arrow has already been drawn on the string and has to be shot. He can only continue to secretly acquire the shares of Jardine Matheson.

So in November of 73, the stock price of Swire Properties had a strange rebound and rose to 11 yuan.

Driven by Hutchison Whampoa's shares, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index also rebounded slightly to 600 points.

But the good times did not last long. After only about a week, the Hang Seng Index fell to 400 points and Hutchison Whampoa's stock price fell back below 7 yuan.

The 2 million Hong Kong dollars that the Zhou family had worked so hard to earn were trapped in Hutchison Whampoa shares.

At this time, Niu Bijian was reporting the matter to Wang Deming on the ninth floor of Gloucester Building.

"Mr. Wang, Zhou Xinian is blinded by greed," he said with a disdainful smile, "He doesn't even think about the fact that the tens of billions of assets in the real estate industry are beyond the reach of a small Zhou family like him."

"So what if he found foreign aid from Singapore?"

"We just make a move and let the stock fluctuate a few points, and then we can take away all the 2 million he collected."

"It just gives the Rothschild family a bargain, letting them have the best of both worlds."

The Rothschild family's style of doing things was looked down upon by Niu Bijian, who was also a Jew. He had used this trick before to hide it from Zhou Xinian, and this time he used the same trick again.

Wang Deming threw him a cigar and said, "Don't cooperate with the Rothschild family in the future."

"Otherwise, there's no telling when they'll find an opportunity to stab us."

"Yes, Mr. Wang." Niu Bijian nodded and then asked, "Mr. Wang, now the Zhou family and the Li family have achieved their goals."

“What do we do next?”

(End of this chapter)