Traveling Through the Tokyo Bubble Era

Chapter 689: The Following Mercedes

"Please rest assured that I will be there."

October 4th, noon.

At the mansion in Kadoorie Hill, Hideki Hanyu personally escorted a middle-aged white man to the door.

The reason why Hideki Hanyu attached so much importance to the middle-aged man was not because of the person himself, but because of the person he represented.

The person standing behind the other person was none other than His Royal Highness the Prince of England.

The other party came to visit Hanyu Hideki this time to formally send the invitation to Hanyu Hideki on behalf of the prince.

As the end of the year approaches, the Prince and Princess begin their global tour as usual.

The original destination of their visit to Asia was Japan, but because of the locusts vomiting blood and serious illness, and the general public was celebrating, the two had to change their itinerary temporarily.

Then the destination of the visit in Asia was changed to Hong Kong.

Then the other party contacted Hideki Hanyu, hoping that Hideki Hanyu could attend their welcome dinner in Hong Kong.

The middle-aged white man came to see Hideki Hanyu today specifically to confirm the invitation.

This is also the reason why Hideki Hanyu said that when the other party was leaving.

After seeing the white man off, Hanyu Hideki returned to the house where he was alone because Li Jiaxin went to Taiwan to pick up her "good sister". He smiled and talked to himself.

"It seems that the prince values ​​me as his partner very much."

This is of course a self-deprecating statement.

How could Hideki Hanyu not know that what the prince valued was not him, but his ability to make money for the funds under the name of environmental protection.

As Vigorous convenience stores develop better and better, the organic brand revenue that can be "donated" to the Prince Foundation every quarter is also rising.

In another time and space, the prince started his own organic brand, and after working hard for so many years, he only earned a few hundred thousand pounds a year.

But now, with the means of Hanyu Hideki, after more than a year of entrepreneurship, the revenue of Vigorous' organic brand is about to catch up with the height of the prince's lifelong efforts in another time and space.

Although this so-called organic brand claims to be non-profit and all its revenue is invested in environmental protection, in reality the money goes into the prince's fund and he can spend it however he wants.

It is no secret in the industry that of the so-called 100 yuan charity fund, 95 is operating expenses and only 5 yuan is used for charity.

And being able to take out five dollars is already considered conscientious.

Some are even unwilling to pay five dollars, and some, even if they do, will use various means to transfer the five dollars back.

In fact, in addition to the prince, the princess also treats Hanyu Hideki very well.

why?
Of course, Hanyu Hideki is handsome and good at living...

Cough!

Just kidding, of course it was the scumbag’s money that worked.

When it comes to doing things, Hideki Hanyu never likes to favor one over another and always treats everyone equally.

Although the princess's fund can only get a portion of Vigorous' organic brand profits, this little problem is unlikely to stump Hideki Hanyu.

With so many industries under his control, could he still be short of donations to the princess for charity?
In order to ensure that the source of the donations is clean, the donation companies arranged by Hideki Hanyu are basically his investments in the UK.

Once he makes a move, he will arrange more than just funds, but also opportunities for these two people to show up for charity, as well as cooperate with Yunshang’s media channels for publicity.

Nature is bustling with people, all for the sake of profit; the world is in turmoil, all for the sake of profit.

The princes and princesses who seem tall and mighty in the eyes of ordinary people still have their own little plans and calculate their own gains and losses in their hearts.

It’s just that many times, their interests are related to money, but not directly related, so they just need to be covered with a high-sounding shell.

What's more, in Hanyu Hideki's opinion, this couple is not really a smart person. There is no need for any conspiracy or trickery to deal with them. An open and honest strategy is enough.

As for his agreement this time, it was simply to support the two of them and he had no intention of doing anything with this matter.

As for the prince and princess, this level of "relationship" is enough for now. After all, this family has a lot of bad things, and Hanyu Hideki has no plans to have a deeper relationship with them.

After considering all this, Hanyu Hideki put aside the matter of the prince and princess visiting Hong Kong, after all, it was still a long time before November.

While Li Jiaxin has not returned yet, Hanyu Hideki decided to deal with other things first.

For example, yesterday’s bidding for the land lease in Shanghai ended very smoothly, and Hanyu Real Estate finally won the bid with 30 million US dollars.

When this price was announced, it even alarmed many real estate companies in Hong Kong.

After all, before this, many real estate companies in Hong Kong had adopted a wait-and-see attitude towards the land leasing in Shanghai.

Even among the small number of companies that participated in the bidding, the prices they offered were very low, with three or four million being the highest.

They never imagined that Hideki Hanyu would invest such a huge sum of money for a 50-year lease of this small piece of land.

This was 1988, and million US dollars was an astronomical figure.

Even early in the morning, Mr. Zhao San called Hanyu Hideki about this matter.

His words showed how much he admired the gentleman's courage.

However, this guy called, ostensibly to discuss the land leasing in Shanghai, but in fact, at the end of the conversation, he was talking about Hideki Hanyu's previous promise to help the Zhuoneng Group develop overseas.

After all, Mr. Zhao San has helped Hanyu Hideki take over the family logistics company, so Hanyu Hideki should naturally fulfill his promise.

But their cooperation has not even started yet, but Hanyu Hideki has invested 30 million US dollars in Modou first, which makes Mr. Zhao San a little worried.

After all, as a wealthy man, Mr. Zhao San naturally understands the relationship between net worth and liquid funds.

Hideki Hanyu is rich, but he invested the money in Shanghai in a short period of time. What if he runs out of money and cooperates with his Zhuoneng Group?
Mr. Zhao San, who did not know Hanyu Hideki's true strength, naturally had such concerns, which led to that phone call in the morning.

In fact, Mr. Zhao San was just overthinking it. Not to mention that 30 million US dollars was just a tiny part of Hanyu Hideki's working capital.

Even if Hideki Hanyu really doesn't have much liquid funds, he wouldn't be stupid enough to use his own liquid funds to invest in such a real estate project.

In this day and age, of course the only way to spend money is to use a loan from a Japanese bank.

So facing the worried Mr. Zhao San, Hanyu Hideki naturally advised him not to worry, saying that taking over the leased land in Shanghai would definitely not affect the overseas cooperation with Zhuo Neng.

Thinking of this, in order to prevent Mr. Zhao San from continuing to worry, Hanyu Hideki immediately called his assistant Chiba Kaoru.

He instructed, "Have Hanyu Investment contact Zhuoneng and confirm overseas investment cooperation as soon as possible."

"Yes, Mr. Hanyu." Chiba Kaoru immediately wrote it down.

Hanyu Hideki then said, "Did you ask what I asked you to ask yesterday?"

After winning the bid for land lease, although the relevant procedures are still in progress, the relevant construction work can be started in advance, such as contacting the design company, etc.

Since he wanted to build the tallest building in the country within five or six years, he naturally had to find an excellent designer.

His first choice was naturally the famous I.M. Pei, so yesterday he asked Chiba Kaoru to contact I.M. Pei's office for business consultation in advance.

Qianye Xun replied, "I have already asked, but their reply is that Pei's short-term work is already fully booked, and if you want to cooperate, you have to wait at least half a year."

"Half a year?"

Hideki Hanyu frowned. If we really have to wait for half a year, plus the design and construction time, it might take two or three years before there is any result.

But Hideki Hanyu just doesn't want to wait that long.

So after a little consideration, he ordered, "No need to contact them anymore. Let Hanyu Real Estate arrange the design bidding. I will personally formulate the design requirements, and it must be done quickly."

"Yes, Hanyu-sensei."

After Chiba Xun finished speaking, he reported another matter to Hanyu Hideki, "The latest news just came from Tokyo this morning. The new program 'Band's Heaven' of Cloud Satellite TV has passed the review and will be broadcast on the 20th of this month."

Hanyu Hideki nodded and said, "Not bad, at least my work was not in vain."

Chiba Kaoru continued, "Also approved was Ms. Nakamori Akina's final retirement performance in Tokyo."

Hearing this news, Hanyu Hideki said helplessly, "It seems that we have no choice but to go back, so let's shorten the time to go to America after leaving South Korea."

Hideki Hanyu will definitely attend Akina Nakamori's retirement performance.

So even if he didn't want to go back to Tokyo and didn't want to be a victim of a certain locust, he had to go back.

At this time, Chiba Xun took out another page of faxed documents and handed it to Hanyu Hideki, "Teacher Hanyu, this is the latest North American box office data just sent over from America."

Hideki Hanyu took it and looked at it, and found that it was the North American box office data from last week.

The name that topped last week's box office was an unexpected one, but one that did not surprise Hideki Hanyu.

"A Fish Called Wanda" produced by Yunshang Films.

The film grossed $3.7 million last week, bringing its cumulative box office to $57 million.

This box office figure is quite normal considering the off-season before Halloween.

But what is abnormal is that the winner of this box office champion is an "old" movie that has been released for almost three months.

"A Fish Called Wanda" was released in early July.

Jogging for three months to become the champion will probably surprise many people in Hollywood, except for Hideki Hanyu who already knew the result.

I still remember that in the first few weeks after the release of this movie, the poor box office numbers not only caused the media to ridicule it, but even caused the project leader Fred Weber to personally apologize to Hideki Hanyu.

But who could have thought that such a movie, which was considered a flop by everyone, would take such a slow path to become the weekly box office champion.

All I can say is that in this day and age, correspondence and transportation are very slow, and everyone is willing to give patience to a truly excellent movie.

Instead of being like in later generations, where all distribution companies were pursuing short-term bursts, long-term screenings were almost extinct in North America.

"Interesting. It took three months for it to top the box office. This should set a new record."

After saying that, he casually put down the box office data.

The news was good, but nowadays, such a small matter could only make him smile happily.

He then asked, "Anything else?"

Chiba Xun took out a few letters and handed them to Hanyu Hideki, "The job is gone. These are letters from Tokyo. You need to reply to them personally, Mr. Hanyu."

Hanyu Hideki took the letter and said, "Okay, let me take a look, you go ahead and do your work."

"Yes, Hanyu-sensei."

After Chiba Kaoru finished speaking, she said goodbye and left, leaving Hanyu Hideki alone in the study reading the letter.

Maybe it was because he had been outside for too long, so Chiba Xun did send him quite a few letters this time.

Those who need him to reply personally are basically those who have greeted him in advance.

For example, the first letter was from his sister Yui Hanyu.

Although Hideki Hanyu and Yui Hanyu have only spent a short time together, the younger sister loves to tell him her true feelings and would write him a letter from time to time.

The content of this letter is nothing more than the various things that Yui Hanyu encountered at school after she officially entered the university in Tokyo in the new semester.

There were trivial matters in life, the discomfort of dealing with unfamiliar classmates, and some little thoughts of little girls, all of which were confided to Hanyu Hideki.

After reading it, Hideki Hanyu also wrote a reply carefully based on the content.

Next, there was a letter from my good friend Haruki Murakami, a writer. The content was simple, telling Hanyu Hideki that he had published a new book, "Dance! Dance! Dance!", and also talking about his travel experience in Europe.

Although Hanyu Hideki has not read "Dance! Dance! Dance!" in this time and space, he briefly flipped through it in his previous life and knew that it was the "sequel" to "A Wild Sheep Chase" released by Haruki Murakami six years ago.

He picked up his pen and began to write a reply, talking about his views on the new work, his travel experiences in various parts of Europe, etc.

Next, there were some letters from other people, and Hanyu Hideki confidently read them and replied seriously.

For him, returning to the 1980s and experiencing this "primitive" letter exchange is a very "meaningful" and "interesting" behavior.

Especially this slow-paced but sincere way of communication, which made him feel a sense of plain reality, which was difficult to experience in later network communication. Just when he had just finished writing the last letter, the door of the study was suddenly pushed open, and Li Jiaxin's familiar voice came.

"Honey, I'm back, what are you doing?"

"write a letter."

Hanyu Hideki put away the letter and turned to look at Li Jiaxin with displeasure. "Remember, when I'm in the study next time, you must knock on the door when you come in."

Sensing Hanyu Hideki's displeasure, Li Jiaxin was so scared that she shrank her neck, the excitement on her face disappeared, and she apologized cautiously.

"I'm sorry, I'll remember this later."

Hanyu Hideki, who had already received the letter, did not continue to blame Li Jiaxin.

After all, for a canary who has not studied at a young age, is greedy for money and snobbish, and only wants to tie up rich people, his cultural level is worrying.

The only common language between them is money, brand names, and all superficial vanity. How could there be anything else?

Of course, Hideki Hanyu never expected Li Jiaxin to become his confidant.

The woman wants her money, he wants her beauty, they just get what they want.

Well... maybe women also want his body.

It's that simple.

After putting away the letter, he called Chiba Kaoru up and handed the reply to her. Then, Hanyu Hideki looked at Li Jiaxin, who was cautious and had not dared to speak.

"Have you picked up all your sisters?"

When Li Jiaxin heard Hanyu Hideki asking her a question, she realized that Hanyu Hideki was not really angry with her, so she immediately took advantage of the situation.

The girl walked up to the scumbag and intimately took his arm, then proudly talked about how she took the Yunshang to Taiwan to pick up her "good sister" today.

From the girl's words that could not hide her happiness, Hanyu Hideki could tell that the girl must have shown off enough along the way and her vanity was completely satisfied.

At the end, Li Jiaxin told Hanyu Hideki, "I have arranged for all the good sisters from Taiwan to rest in the hotel, and I will send a car to pick them up later."

While the two were talking, Hanyu Hideki, who had already walked out of the study, discovered that many people from service companies had already come inside and outside the mansion and were hurriedly setting up the party scene.

He, who didn't care much about the matter, said, "Since it's your party, you can arrange it yourself."

Hearing this, Li Jiaxin asked again, "Then when I pick someone up later, can I drive your car?"

"My car? Which one?" asked Hideki Hanyu.

In addition to the earliest Bentley Mulsanne, Mercedes-Benz G-Class and Ferrari, he has also bought many luxury cars in Hong Kong over the years, so it is not known which one Li Jiaxin is talking about.

"If I'm picking someone up, I'd like to use a Bentley or a Rolls-Royce, and I also want to drive that red Ferrari myself." Li Jiaxin looked expectant.

"The keys to the Ferrari are in the key cabinet in the living room. Be careful at first. As for the other cars, go talk to Marco."

Hideki Hanyu didn't care much about the car, so if Li Jiaxin wanted to show off, she let her do it.

However, since the Bentley and Rolls-Royce that picked up the people had some of Marco's "firepower" in the trunk, it was natural for Marco to deal with it.

"Honey, you are so kind."

After Li Jiaxin finished speaking, she hugged the scumbag and gave him a long passionate kiss, then went to find Marco happily.

And so, when the time came to the afternoon.

After the party at the Kadoorie Hill mansion was almost set off, Michelle Reis also set off.

She was leading the way in a red Ferrari, followed by a number of luxury cars, and wherever she passed, she attracted the attention of passers-by.

Li Jiaxin’s first stop was not the hotel where she settled down with her “good sister” in Wanwan, but the downstairs of a low-rent building in Kowloon.

This is the home of Gigi Lai, whom she met in Taiwan.

After instructing someone to go up and inform Gigi Lai, Li Jiaxin just leaned on the Ferrari, enjoying the envious looks of the people around her.

When she looked at the low-rent building where Gigi Lai lived, a smug and strange smile appeared on her face.

Li Jiaxin knows that even though Gigi Lai is now living with her family in a low-rent apartment of several hundred square feet.

But if we talk about Gigi Lai's background, she can definitely be considered to be from a wealthy family.

Gigi Lai's grandfather is Li Minwei, a pioneer of Chinese films, known as the father of Chinese films. Not only did he make Ruan Lingyu famous, he also owned his own theater and film company in Hong Kong.

Li Zi's grandmother is Lin Chuchu, a famous female star in the Republic of China. She liked Li Zi very much when Li Zi was a child and cultivated Li Zi to learn violin, dance, piano and other talents since he was a child.

But unfortunately, Lin Chuchu passed away in the late 1970s.

Li Zi's nine uncles and aunts came to fight for the family property. Li Zi's father was ill and could not compete with other brothers and sisters, so the family moved out of the mansion.

Later on, Li Zi's life fell into a state of decline, with his father working as a handyman in a gym and his mother driving a train.

I heard that he often complained to his father about this and didn't want to live in the shabby house he lives in now.

This is also why, when he met Sam Hui in the gym and learned that Cinema City was recruiting actors, Li Zi couldn't wait to sign up.

Thinking of this, Li Jiaxin couldn't help but curl her lips.

She had heard that there seemed to be a man pursuing Li Zi recently, and he seemed to be Huang Yulang, the famous comic artist.

If I remember correctly, Huang Yulang is more than 20 years older than Li Zi. With this age difference, he can be Li Zi's father.

Although Huang Yulang is famous and rich.

But compared with her man Hideki Hanyu, there is a world of difference between them in terms of appearance, wealth, and talent.

What's more, even when it comes to drawing comics, Huang Yulang is far inferior to Hanyu Hideki.

On the surface, Li Jiaxin and Li Zi are good sisters.

But it is normal for women to appear affectionate on the surface but to be jealous of each other and compare with each other secretly.

Moreover, when Li Jiaxin first met Li Zi, she often heard Li Zi bragging about her grandparents, and she had been feeling unhappy for a long time.

Therefore, at least one third of today's ostentatious housewarming party from beginning to end was prepared by Li Jiaxin for Li Zi.

In Li Jiaxin's opinion, so what if Li Zi came from a wealthy family?
Isn't it the case that you are in this state now, and you are still clinging to old men for wealth and fame?
When Li Jiaxin thought about this, the smugness on the corner of her mouth became more obvious.

And just at this moment, she happened to see Li Zi, who was wearing a floral dress, long hair draped over her shoulders, and had a light makeup, and looked pure and lovely, walking out of the building.

Seeing this, Li Jiaxin mocked Li Zi in her heart for pretending to be innocent, but she put away the smugness on her face and waved with enthusiasm, showing deep sisterly love.

"Tiaotiao, I'm here."

In fact, even if Li Jiaxin didn't greet him, Li Zi would have seen Li Jiaxin the first time.

After all, a beautiful woman in fashionable clothes was standing next to an eye-catching supercar, with several luxury cars following behind her. It was hard for Li Zi not to pay attention.

Li Zi's eyes flashed with complex colors, and he ran over and pointed at the red Ferrari in amazement and asked, "Xin, is this your car? It's so beautiful."

"It belongs to my boyfriend, so it belongs to me, too."

Li Jiaxin finished speaking with great pride, opened the car door and got in, then called out to Li Zi outside the car window, "Hurry up and get in the car, we still have to go to the hotel to pick up other people."

"Ok."

Li Zi responded and followed Li Jiaxin into the passenger seat of the Ferrari.

But just as Li Zi got into the car, a harsh sound of tires rubbing against the ground was heard nearby.

Looking in the direction of the sound, I saw a black Mercedes-Benz sedan suddenly braked and stopped in the distance.

The car door suddenly opened, and a middle-aged man wearing glasses and a beard on his upper lip got out of the car with an angry look on his face, and rushed towards the Ferrari.

The person hasn't arrived yet, but the angry questioning has arrived first.

"Li Zi, what are you going to do!"

The middle-aged man who was shouting and questioning was none other than Huang Yulang, the famous Hong Kong cartoonist and chairman of Yulang International, who had been madly pursuing Li Zi recently.

It’s just that this successful person in the eyes of ordinary people has been having a hard time recently.

Last year, due to the global stock market crash caused by the collapse of the American stock market, Hideki Hanyu took the opportunity to make a fortune around the world.

But where there are losers, there are winners. Huang Yulang's Yulang International suffered heavy losses in the stock market crash.

The dire situation of Yulang International attracted the attention of Paramount Group and Sing Tao Group, which planned to acquire Yulang International.

During this period, Huang Yulang had to resort to some unconventional means in order to protect his family business, and he was not in a good mood at all.

Today was a full day. After learning that Li Zi had returned from Taiwan after recording a program, he bought a gift and wanted to invite Li Zi, whom he was pursuing, to dinner and talk to the beauty about his troubles.

As a result, as soon as the person arrived downstairs of Li Zi's house, he saw Li Zi sitting in a red Ferrari.

Huang Yulang's first reaction was that the person who drove the Ferrari to pick up Li Zi must be a man.

Li Zi probably heard about his recent situation and planned to reject his pursuit and turn to the arms of other rich men.

Both his career and his relationship suffered a blow, and he felt a sense of anger at being betrayed by a woman, which made Huang Yulang, who was already arrogant and selfish, utter that angry question.

But what awaited Huang Yulang next was not Li Zi’s answer.

Instead, bodyguards who got out of several luxury cars behind stopped him far away.

At this moment, in the Ferrari, Li Zi seemed to hear something and asked doubtfully, "Is someone calling me?"

Li Jiaxin, who was anxious to pick someone up and show off her luxury car, said, "Really? Why didn't I hear it? Let's go pick him up quickly."

After saying that, Li Jiaxin stepped on the accelerator of the Ferrari, and before Li Zi had time to look back, the Ferrari rushed out with a low roar.

Looking at the Ferrari going away and Li Zi who did not respond to him from beginning to end, Huang Yulang became even angrier and shouted to the bodyguard who was holding him.

"Who are you? Let me go! If you do that again, I'll call the police."

At this time, the bodyguard saw that the Ferrari had already driven away, so there was naturally no need to stop Huang Yulang. He simply let Huang Yulang go and drove after Li Jiaxin's Ferrari.

In the back, Wong Yuk-lang looked at the row of luxury cars driving away and knew that the person who took Li Zi away was definitely not an ordinary person and was most likely someone he could not afford to offend.

But I just couldn't suppress the anger in my heart.

He was a little out of his mind, but finally he gritted his teeth and drove his Mercedes-Benz to follow.

Soon, the bodyguard leading the team noticed the Mercedes-Benz that was following them.

When the team members asked him, "Captain, the black Mercedes has been following us, what should we do?"

The captain looked back and replied, "Don't let the car get close."

……

Although the bodyguard noticed Huang Yulang following them, Li Jiaxin, who was driving in the front, had no idea what was going on.

After picking up Li Zi, she immediately went to the hotel where her "good sister" was staying.

At the hotel entrance, Li Jiaxin couldn't help but show off her luxury car again in front of her "good sisters", and then she picked everyone up and rushed to her home in Kadoorie Hill.

Huang Yulang, who had been following behind and was unable to drive closer because of the bodyguards' deliberate blocking, had no idea what was happening in front of him. He could only follow Li Jiaxin after she left.

Then he followed the convoy to the door of the mansion in Mount Kadoorie.

Huang Yulang, who had parked his car far away, hesitated as he watched the luxury cars drive into the gate one after another.

Although anger was burning in his heart, those luxury cars and the mansion in front of him proved that the person who brought Li Zi here must be no simple person.

But just as he was hesitating, recent career troubles came to his mind again, and he mistakenly thought that Li Zi had "betrayed" him, which directly led to his uncontrollable anger.

Coupled with his rebellious personality, Huang Yulang finally couldn't help but get out of the car, and strode towards the door of the mansion with a gloomy face.

(End of this chapter)