Chapter 180: Shanghai Fantasy
For example, the current competition for the title of the richest person in China is a good case in point. In the past year or two, the title has alternated between Alibaba’s Ma and Wanda’s Wang Jianlin. Whenever one of their companies goes public, the other’s net worth immediately surpasses by tens of billions of dollars, making them the new richest person in China.
However, these so-called world billionaires are just the visible richest individuals. Their assets are entirely public and cannot be hidden; the value of their companies is easily accessible. Even if they wanted to hide it, they couldn’t.
Yet, the wealth held by some secretive conglomerates is so concealed that media focused on wealth rankings cannot investigate it. Thus, the true world’s richest person remains a mystery.
In a luxurious nightclub in Hong Kong, a group is gathered discussing something. “Asen, what do you think about this?” A middle-aged man holding a cigar, exhaling smoke rings, asks a subordinate in his thirties.
“Boss, I think it’s feasible. I’ve just received news that someone has started shorting the Zhou Group’s stock. It seems someone wants to completely crush the Zhou Group. Although they’ve shared information about the Zhou Group’s underworld connections with us, intending for us to eliminate their hidden forces, it doesn’t harm us. On the contrary, removing the Zhou family will only expand our territory.”
It turns out that while the brain Zero is shorting the Zhou Group’s stock, it has also informed the Zhou Group’s competitors in Hong Kong. The Zhou Group, originally founded on illegal activities, had started to clean up after 1997, moving away from criminal enterprises. However, this was only on the surface; in reality, the Zhou Group still supports these activities, just in a different form.
In fact, all major gangs in Hong Kong have close ties with big corporations, which is no secret to those in the know.
“Indeed, it looks like the Zhou Group has antagonized a force they can’t handle. Unless something unexpected happens, the Zhou family will be eliminated from Hong Kong. Asen, you handle this matter!” The sudden turn of events for the Zhou Group clearly indicates targeted sabotage by a powerful entity, not a local Hong Kong force. Local families, though powerful, couldn’t mobilize such force to dismantle a long-established family so quickly.