Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 743: The Treasure House Became Popular

Chu Xiangqian thought for a moment and whispered to Sha Yutong, "50 pounds, and I'll help him get a fellow medal. From now on, when he attends a meeting at the Jockey Club, the other directors will have to call him Sir."

Shark Tong immediately understood why Bridge had such a miserable look on his face.

The look in Chu Xiangqian's eyes was full of the meaning of "You are really a dark guy".

Chu Xiangqian smiled indifferently. This was a matter of "one willing to fight and the other willing to be beaten". It was consensual, so no one should accuse the other of taking advantage.

To put it bluntly, if you don't have any connections, don't expect Philip to help you put in a good word for Elizabeth even if you offer 100 million pounds.

And this is just the first step to success.

The second condition is that if the person who pays the money has no identity or status, and has not made any contribution to society, even if Philips has secured Elizabeth, he will not be able to award you a medal.

To put it bluntly, the royal family is just the largest noble family. Some things cannot be decided by the king alone.

The awarding of honors must be notified to Downing Street. Politicians, other nobles and the media are not fools.

If you give a person who has made no contribution and has no social status or knighthood to someone, even a fool would know that there is something wrong.

Bridges is just right. He is the executive director of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. During his tenure, the 'Champion Knight' broke the Hong Kong Island horse racing record.

After that, he won the Triple Crown in Yingguo and broke the record in three consecutive games.

In the end, this horse nominally belonged to Margaret. The royal family remembered Bridget's kindness, and the outside world would not say anything.

In the past two years, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has held three horse racing auctions, greatly increasing the club's popularity.

And in the past two years, with "Champion Knight" and "Black Horse" both winning the English Triple Crown, more and more horses have come to Hong Kong Island to compete, including those from Hong Kong Island, Southeast Asia, and island countries such as South Korea.

These are all achievements that are worth bragging about and are real.

Otherwise, Chu Xiangqian would not be the first one to tell him about the title.

If it were Nelson from the Land Department or Hader from the Civil Service Department, Chu Xiangqian believed that they would both ask for the Officer's Medal worth 80 pounds.

Unfortunately, Nelson and Hader were purely officials after all, and there were too many officials of this kind waiting in line to be awarded a medal by the royal family.

The difficulty of operation is much more difficult than that of celebrities in society.

Moreover, many politicians in Downing Street hope to be awarded honors, and officials from overseas enclaves like Hong Kong Island are even less qualified.

But it is also possible to operate here, and there is a lot of room for operation.

Chu Xiangqian also hopes that those who receive honors in Hong Kong Island every year will all be British people, rather than local celebrities or prominent families.

This is definitely good news for British people working and doing business in Hong Kong Island.

He will definitely stand on Chu Xiangqian's side.

The number of Hong Kong people being awarded honors has decreased, which means that there are fewer local people loyal to Britain.

This is the result that both Chu Xiangqian and the Tianchao hope to see.

Therefore, Chu Xiangqian couldn't help but think that he would get at least one honorary award for a British person in Hong Kong every year in the future.

If the British in Hong Kong really have no justifiable contributions, then the blame should be put on the local people who have been awarded honors.

There are many extremely selfish British people who don't care at all about Downing Street's strategies to unite the locals.
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Chu Xiangqian ignored Zheng Yutong's teasing, took a wine glass, took a sip of champagne, and immediately felt that the taste seemed not as good as the Russian sweet white wine.

Of course, Champagne and sweet white are different.

The former is a sparkling wine made from the second fermentation of black grapes, and only the French one can be called champagne. All others are called sparkling wines.

The latter is wine made from white grapes.

Chu Xiangqian smiled and muttered to himself, it seems that because he bought the wine from the Russians and resold it to dwarves and elves and made ten times the profit, he has psychologically leaned towards the Russians.

I always want to help the Russians export more goods and make more money at the same time.

He took another sip of the champagne and felt that the taste was indeed not to his liking, so he put the glass on the table.

Zheng Yutong was stunned by what she saw. She glanced at the brand of champagne and wondered if Chu Xiangqian had such a picky taste.

Chu Xiangqian didn't care what Zheng Yutong was thinking. He looked at him and said, "Although I also think that the British have declined and will become weaker and weaker. But in Hong Kong Island, the title of nobility is still useful."

After he finished speaking, he glanced at Bridge and saw that he was standing there in a daze, so he continued, "Believe it or not, when Bridge gets the medal, his voice in the Jockey Club's board of directors will increase significantly in the future.

What you earn in the future will be several times, or even 50 times, the 10 pounds you spend today.”

After hearing this, Zheng Yutong thought for a few seconds and nodded in agreement.

Although the Jockey Club is a non-profit organization, it has also set up a charitable fund to manage the funds held by the Club. Who the money in the fund will be donated to and how much to donate is subject to review by the board of directors.

It seems that the supervision is indeed very strict.

But it’s not impossible to make some profit from this. The most basic method is that even if you donate money to a welfare organization, the money will enter the organization’s account.

There are many ways to manipulate how to purchase, who to purchase from, and how much the purchase price will be in the future.

Just like the "Chu's" charity fund established by Chu Xiangqian, which donated money to children's welfare homes and institutions for widows and orphans.

In name, the donation was 100 million Hong Kong dollars, but the money could be asked for privately by finding businessmen who had a good relationship with Chu Xiangqian to purchase food and other things needed by the welfare home.

As long as the price is not outrageous, exceeding the market price by 15% or 30%, you can make an excuse that the food is specially ordered to ensure the nutrition of the children.

A more advanced way is to borrow the 1 million from an institution, promising to pay an interest rate of 3% or 5% which is lower than the market rate, but promising to guarantee the safety of the principal and interest, and borrow the money for investment.

In this day and age, interest rates of 3% or 5% are one or two times lower than bank interest rates.

For someone like Bridge, just putting the money in the bank and earning interest would amount to tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars a year.

If the scale of donations reaches 1 million or even 10 billion, it would be a profit of several million or tens of millions.

And legal and compliant.

Those who want to play it more deeply can donate money and take advantage of some of the preferential treatment allowed by welfare agencies to buy land.

After three, five, seven or eight years, you can exchange a piece of land that is much larger but a little remote for another piece of land and make a profit of several percent, or even one or two times as much.

Chu Xiangqian had read reports about Hong Kong Island in his previous life and knew the ins and outs of it, but he didn't need to make a living from it.
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Zheng Yutong had no interest in medals, and many people of his generation had suffered from the difficulties and hardships caused by the British people.

In addition, high-profit businesses have always been controlled by the British, so the British are not well-received.

So I don’t want to talk about this topic anymore.

Not long after he took the initiative to change the topic to the business of diamonds, pearls and bald eagle watches, He Zanyuan and He Chaosheng walked in together.

Chu Xiangqian smiled and glanced at Zheng Yutong. Old Zheng also greeted him with a smile, but said something quickly.

"A while ago, Ah Sheng wanted to get a few people together to buy the shares of the Zhenbaofang under Baifanyu's name, which was about to be built. With a little modification and renovation, it can become a sea-based 'gambling' place integrating catering and gambling."

After hearing this, Chu Xiangqian understood that He Chaosheng wanted to borrow money from Hang Seng Bank managed by He Zanyuan, so he followed He Zanyuan here.

When Bai Fanyu thought about how he had worked hard for two and a half years and that Zhenbaofang was about to be completed, the wealthy shareholders he had previously found to be his backers now wanted to kick him out.

Chu Xiangqian knew that Bai Fanyu’s mood recently was probably not very good.

But as long as the wealthy shareholders of Zhenbaofang abide by the rules, it is just a business behavior.

Even Lei Luo couldn't stand up for his father-in-law Bai Fanyu.

Not to mention, the wealthy families in Hong Kong Island and Macau don’t care about Lei Luo, the Chief Chinese Detective.

To put it bluntly, Lei Luo's power still comes from the Ying people.

Even if the British people need Lei Luo as their white glove to help them make money, it is not difficult to replace him.

Now Lan Gang and Fei Bo have become the Chief Chinese Detectives of Kowloon and the New Territories, which means they have taken away most of Lei Luo's jurisdiction and power.

No matter how angry Baifanyu was, he couldn't do anything to He Chaosheng.

But for Chu Xiangqian, just one sentence was enough to force Zhenbaofang to continue doing seafood business honestly.

Gambling requires a franchise, and more than 9% of Treasure House’s customers are from Hong Kong Island. The authorities have too many reasons to make trouble for Treasure House.

If I say you violated the rules, you violated the rules.

Even if He Chaosheng wanted to sail the Treasure House to the sea to avoid supervision, this ship is not a cruise ship and it is impossible for it to go far away from the coastline into the high seas.

Otherwise, once a storm occurs, even without a force 7 or 8 gale, a little bit of turbulence might capsize the boat.

Therefore, after Ho Chaosheng took over the Treasure House, he would definitely only sail on the sea between Hong Kong Island and Macau.

If there is no coast guard on board, gambling will begin.

If there is a coast guard inspection, there is a high probability that someone will notify He Chaosheng in advance.

The distance between the two places is 45 nautical miles, and the speedboat can reach the shore in about 40 minutes.

Even if you take the hydrofoil that specifically takes guests from Hong Kong Island to Macau, it only takes 1 hour and minutes to arrive.

But for Zhenbaofang, these 45 nautical miles can be driven leisurely.

It takes four or five hours to sail to Macau, and then a whole day to return to Hong Kong Island.

Not only does it attract gamblers, but even tourists will treat this route and ship as a tourist attraction and go on board for a day.

Compared with the gambling industry in Macau, which has not even built the Lisboa Hotel, gamblers do not really have the need to stay in hotels, and very few people would gamble for several days and nights in a casino.

The casino naturally would not think of building a large hotel that integrates accommodation, catering, gambling, entertainment and internal shopping.

Therefore, Zhenbaofang was transformed into an offshore casino. Gamblers and tourists are both customers, and it can also make money from catering. In this era, it is indeed a very smart money-making project.
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Chu Xiangqian couldn't help but wonder whether he should cooperate with He Chaosheng in advance to build the Lisboa Hotel?
Is it even a mega hotel that is more modern and luxurious than the previous Lisboa, which was designed in 69 and built in 70?
Otherwise, once the Treasure House is operational, this guy's wealth will grow explosively in a few years.

If he wants to invest in the Lisboa Hotel again, he might have to start his own business and become a competitor of He Chaosheng.

At that time, they were competing with each other and even became enemies.

However, Chu Xiangqian had already worried that being in the gambling industry would be bad for his reputation.

But after Chu Jingrong was born, Chu Xiangqian's ideas changed as he looked forward to his beloved son entering the political arena of Hong Kong Island in the future.

People with money but no power are lambs, and violence alone will not last long. Chu Xiangqian also knows that no matter how good his relationship with the Yingguo people is, the Yingguo people will not hesitate when it is time to take action in the future.

So Chu Xiangqian slowly began to think about infiltrating various industries in Hong Kong Island.

As for reputation, it is entirely possible to hold shares in offshore companies.

Even given the increasingly profit-seeking nature of Hong Kong people, the gambling industry is also a business as long as it is legal.

Only when you have money can you be admired and respected.

Moreover, if I don't participate, the money will be earned by He Chaosheng's other partners, so it's better for me to do it myself.

Thinking of this, Chu Xiangqian no longer hesitated and recalled carefully for two seconds. It seemed that Lisboa spent 6 million Hong Kong dollars in the beginning.

As for Mr. He in his previous life, his net worth skyrocketed from just over 61 million Hong Kong dollars in 1 to over million in just five or six years.

Unfortunately, even though he is worth over 6 million Hong Kong dollars, he still cannot come up with million Hong Kong dollars in cash.

Moreover, the construction of Lisboa started in just over a year, and the pressure to pay in installments was also enormous.

After all, the construction time was too short and the capital turnover was not that fast.

If it were now, the actual purchasing power of 6 million Hong Kong dollars would definitely be equivalent to 69 million in 1.2.

Although Hong Kong experienced a banking crisis in 65 and a real estate crisis in 67, it recovered quickly. After all, Hong Kong's exports continued to rise in the 60s.

In addition, China had just survived a three-year drought and continued to export foreign exchange, and various raw materials were much cheaper than in Southeast Asia, island countries and South Korea.

After being purchased by Hong Kong businessmen, they are processed in Hong Kong Island and sold externally at a great price advantage.

In the 60s and 70s, many companies from England and Southeast Asia came to Hong Kong Island for inspection and then used Hong Kong Island as their OEM factories.

In just over a decade, a large amount of technology and capital flowed into Hong Kong Island, easily turning it into a potential financial center and light industrial distribution center.

The future decline of Hong Kong’s processing industry and light industry is also related to the skyrocketing costs.

Since the sooner the hotel construction starts, the higher the return will be for the same amount of money spent, Chu Xiangqian no longer hesitates.

He smiled and shook hands with He Zanyuan and He Chaosheng, "Long time no see, Mr. He, it looks like good things are coming?"

He Zanyuan and He Chaosheng were a little surprised, and even felt guilty, that Chu Xiangqian invited them to dinner as soon as he returned to Hong Kong Island.

After all, Chu Xiangqian and Bai Fanyu are very close, and it is no secret that they are popular in Hong Kong Island.

Now I heard the hidden meaning in his words, and my heart skipped a beat.

He Zanyuan couldn't help but regret and agreed to lend money to He Chaosheng to buy Bai Fanyu's shares in Zhenbaofang.

He smiled and said, "Mr. Chu, don't say that my business is nothing compared to yours. Even Hang Seng Bank doesn't have as much money as you do now.

I think it won’t be long before the bank’s shareholders unanimously elect you as chairman of the board of directors.

From now on, you can eat the lion's share and give us, the collaborators, some soup. We will be very grateful."

Chu Xiangqian understood immediately that this was a sign of weakness and a way to get closer to him. He couldn't help but look at He Chaosheng, who looked incredulous and felt betrayed.
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(End of this chapter)