Chapter 920
is finished; buying at the bottom halfway up the mountain.
"boom--!"
The heavy mahogany study door was suddenly pushed open by an undeniable force, slamming against the wall with a dull thud that instantly shattered the oppressive roar and the lingering sound of shattering porcelain in the room.
At the entrance, the true head of the Li family in the port city, an elderly man known as "Superman," sat upright in a low-key yet luxurious electric wheelchair.
He wore a dark Chinese silk shirt, his face calm and composed, but deep within his eyes, which had seen the ups and downs of the business world, lay a storm powerful enough to shake the entire financial circle of Hong Kong Island. Time had etched deep marks on his face, but it had not diminished his domineering aura of authority.
The person pushing the wheelchair was his eldest son, Li Zeju, the future successor of the Li Group.
Li Zeju looked solemnly at the mess in the room and his younger brother, whose face was ashen and who was still panting heavily. He didn't say anything, but steadily controlled the wheelchair.
Behind the wheelchair stood a woman in her early forties, with a capable demeanor and still retaining her charm.
She is Zhou Kaiwei, Li Ka-shing's confidante, and also the powerful figure in his vast business empire who manages a family investment fund worth tens of billions of dollars.
At this moment, her delicate brows furrowed slightly, her gaze sweeping over the shards of blue and white porcelain on the ground and the damp carpet, finally settling on Li Zekai with a hint of barely perceptible worry and scrutiny.
The study was deathly silent, save for Li Zekai’s heavy breathing and the faint hum of Li Chaoren’s wheelchair motor.
The rage and resentment on Li Zekai's face froze instantly, as if he had been doused with a bucket of ice water. In its place was an instinctive panic and astonishment in the face of his father's authority.
He subconsciously straightened his slightly hunched back, his voice a little hoarse: "Daddy? Big brother? Aunt Kaiwei? You... why are you here?"
As he spoke, he tried to force a smile, but it appeared incredibly stiff.
Li Ka-shing did not answer. His gaze, like a cold searchlight, slowly swept over the lingering anger on his son's face, over his clenched fists, and finally settled on the deep-seated resentment and schadenfreude in his eyes.
The air seemed to freeze for a few seconds, so heavy it was suffocating.
"You worthless bastard!" Li Ka-shing's deep voice boomed like thunder in the study, breaking the silence. "Kneel down now!"
The rebuke carried an undeniable pressure, like an invisible whip lashing Li Zekai. His body trembled violently, and all color drained from his face. But the pride he had long held under the halo of "Little Superman," coupled with the unwillingness of being forced into a corner, made him stubbornly protest: "Daddy! Why should I kneel? Why should I kneel? What did I do wrong?!"
His voice carried suppressed grievances and a final act of stubbornness.
"Why should I?" Li Ka-shing's lips curled into a cold smile, a smile devoid of any genuine joy, only filled with utter disappointment and anger.
He didn't look at Li Zekai again, but turned his head slightly and reached out his hand to Li Zeju behind him. His voice was calm but contained a storm brewing: "Give me the cane."
Without the slightest hesitation, Li Zeju immediately handed his father a sandalwood cane that was polished smooth and warm, with ivory inlaid at the top.
This cane, which is usually a source of support, has now become a symbol of family discipline.
Li Ka-shing gripped his cane, raised his arm sharply, and with a sharp whistling sound, slammed it down mercilessly onto his young son standing by the desk!
"Smack!" A crisp sound rang out as the whip struck Li Zekai's arm squarely.
"Ah!" The sudden, sharp pain made Li Zekai cry out, and he staggered, almost falling over.
He clutched his burning arm, staring incredulously at his father in the wheelchair, his eyes filled with shock, humiliation, and even deeper bewilderment.
"I'm beating up a brat like you who doesn't know his place!" Li Ka-shing's voice suddenly rose, like a thunderous roar. "I've only been in the hospital for a few days? Huh?! I just broke my leg playing golf, I need a few days of rest! Those common folk outside are gossiping that I'm dying, and you really think the Li family is about to change hands? You think you've grown wings and dare to disobey your old man?!"
He raised his cane again, and although it didn't fall, the tip pointing at Li Zekai was more intimidating than any beating: "Who told you to provoke the Century Group of capital from the mainland?! Didn't I warn you that Lu Yang, that dragon crossing the river, isn't so easy to deal with?! Did you take my words as a joke?!"
Li Ka-shing's chest heaved slightly, clearly enraged. He pointed at Li Zekai's nose, each word like a nail hardened with ice: "And what are you doing now?! You idiot! Are you planning to gamble away your entire fortune, and even my old face, in one fell swoop? To drag my whole Li family down with you?! Is that it?!"
Li Zekai was overwhelmed by his father's anger and a barrage of questions, his mind reeling. The pain in his arm was nothing compared to the turmoil in his heart.
He instinctively glanced at his silent older brother, as if finding an outlet for his emotions, and hissed, "I didn't! Daddy! Is it... is it because my older brother has been gossiping about me to you again, slandering me? I..."
"You bastard! Still trying to argue!" Li Ka-shing interrupted sharply, his cane slamming heavily on the floor with a dull thud that sent shivers down everyone's spines. "Before I came here, Kevin had already thoroughly investigated your little schemes! The Wall Street accounts, the funds you moved, those 'friends' you contacted, and your so-called 'bottom-fishing' plan! Did you really think I was senile and didn't know anything while lying in the hospital?!"
He took a deep breath, suppressing his surging anger, and pointed his cane at the telephone on his desk, his command like a cold, ironclad rule: "Pick up your phone! Now! Immediately! Connect me to your people on Wall Street! Tell them to dump! Dump all your Little Prodigy shares! Not a single one! Do you understand?!"
"Why?!" Li Zekai exploded like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice was shrill and cracked with excitement. "Daddy! He's just a bumpkin from the mainland! He made his fortune by luck with VCDs and DVDs! How can their Century Group compare to our Li family's century-old foundation? Are you that afraid of him?! Where is the courage you had when you started from scratch? Now a rising star has made you cower?!"
"Who told you to get up?! Kneel properly!" Li Ka-shing roared, his voice like a thunderclap.
Li Zeju immediately pushed the wheelchair forward, and the invisible pressure forced Li Zekai's knees to buckle, causing him to kneel heavily on the cold floor with a "thud," facing his father's icy gaze.
Looking at his youngest son kneeling on the ground, still with his neck stiff and his eyes burning with anger, jealousy, and resentment, Li Ka-shing's last trace of warmth vanished, replaced by deep weariness and a knowing disappointment.
"Do you know why you lost?" Li Ka-shing's voice suddenly became unusually calm, yet it was more chilling than his previous rage. It was a coldness that saw through the essence of things. "It wasn't that your opponent was too strong. No matter how powerful your opponent was, they weren't invincible. It was the fire in your heart, that evil fire called 'anger' and 'jealousy,' that confused you and blinded you!"
He leaned forward slightly, his gaze sharp as a knife, each word etched clearly into the depths of Li Zekai's soul: "Let me tell you, anger is the only original sin in business. Greed will only lead you astray, taking detours, but ultimately there might still be room for maneuver. But anger will make you jump off a cliff! Because once you're angry, your eyes go blind; you can't see the situation clearly, you can't distinguish between advantages and disadvantages; your calculations will crumble, your schemes will all become impulsive actions; your enemies will laugh, they've been waiting for this moment when you lose your mind! What right does someone who can't even control their own emotions have to be jealous of your elder brother? What right do they have to covet greater power? Look at you now, impulsive, reckless, and disregarding the consequences. Do you think I'd dare let you truly interfere in the family's core business? Letting you go would be planting the seeds of disaster for the Li family!"
"Daddy?!" Li Zekai was struck dumb. His father's words were like sharp knives, piercing the most hidden corner of his heart.
The anger in his eyes was replaced by immense shock and a hint of embarrassment at being exposed, but his deep-seated defiance still stubbornly burned, leaving him speechless despite his bloodshot eyes.
Looking at him like this, Li Ka-shing closed his eyes wearily, as if he had exhausted all his strength. His voice carried a hint of desolation: "Forget it, it's no use explaining it to you. You're too deeply blinded by your own inner demons. Get up."
He opened his eyes, his gaze sharp and resolute once more, and pointed at the phone again: "Pick up the phone on your desk, and call now! Execute it immediately! This is an order! There's still time; at least we can prevent your Yingke Digital from going bankrupt and being liquidated! Otherwise..."
Li Ka-shing didn't finish his sentence, but the unspoken meaning weighed heavily on Li Zekai, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
This elderly man, who has been in the business world for half a century, has already sensed the global panic permeating the air with his extraordinary keen sense of smell.
The unprecedented crash of Nasdaq was no accident; he sensed that a global financial storm was likely brewing, or had even already begun.
In this turbulent time, the youngest son, deeply embroiled in the crisis, is doing something extremely dangerous—buying at the bottom against the trend, and it's a near-mad gamble, risking his entire fortune!
This is tantamount to dancing on the edge of a collapsing cliff.
Once he manages to get halfway up the mountain, or even just above the mountainside, the towering waves will instantly engulf him, along with the reputation of the Li family that he is trying to attach himself to, leaving no trace of his remains!
The Li family has been able to stand tall in Hong Kong for decades, firmly holding the top position among the four major families. This is not due to aggressive gambling, but rather to the word "prudence," the ancestral motto of "avoiding risks," and the wisdom of proceeding step by step as if walking on thin ice!
Li Zekai desperately crawled up from the cold floor like a puppet on a string.
The pain in his knees and the burning sensation in his arms reminded him of what had just happened.
He staggered to the desk, his trembling fingers tracing the cold telephone as if it were a red-hot branding iron. He picked up the receiver, his fingertips shaking as he dialed. He hesitated, glancing at his father in the wheelchair, seemingly unshakeable as a mountain, making a final, futile struggle. His voice trembled with a sob and pleading: "Daddy... I still have a chance... I haven't lost yet... the market panic will pass... Why... why can't you give me a chance to prove myself? I can..."
“Opportunity?” Li Ka-shing interrupted him, his voice eerily calm yet carrying immense force. “Is the opportunity you’re looking for one where you’re gambling with the entire Li family?”
He slightly raised his eyelids, his gaze as deep and cold as a still pool, and stared directly at his son: "Because what you're betting now isn't just your shares in PCCW, it's my name, Li Ka-shing, and the reputation that the entire Li family has built up over decades! If you win, you might prove that your title of 'Little Superman' is well-deserved, but what if you lose?"
Li Ka-shing paused, each word like a hammer blow to Richard Li's heart: "Your PCCW Digital may not escape bankruptcy liquidation, and that's your own fault! But what about those foreign institutions and business 'friends' who followed you in, trusted your 'vision,' and cooperated with you to buy up shares of Little Prodigy because of your 'Second Young Master Li's' reputation and the brand behind you? Their losses, their emptied pockets—who will ultimately bear the blame? They will curse you, Li Zekai, for being incompetent, but they will also criticize me, Li Ka-shing, saying that my Li family has betrayed its allies and ruined its reputation! Can you bear this consequence? Are you satisfied with this answer?"
“But I clearly… I achieved this through my own efforts…” Li Zekai’s face was ashen, his lips trembling, as he tried to make a final defense, his voice so weak it was almost inaudible. His pride in his “independence” seemed so pale and powerless in the face of his father’s cold-blooded overall perspective and the interests of the family.
His so-called "face" stems from the powerful Li family behind him.
"Alright, Second Young Master." A gentle yet authoritative female voice rang out, breaking the suffocating tension between father and son.
Zhou Kaiwei stepped forward at the opportune moment, standing beside Li Ka-shing's wheelchair. He looked at Li Zekai with a complex expression, a hint of pity from an elder, and a calm admonition from a professional manager: "Second Young Master, stop talking. Listen to your father. He won't harm you. Cut your losses now. It will hurt, but your company's foundation is still intact, and... you still have the capital to make a comeback. If you hesitate any longer, it will truly be a disaster."
Li Zekai shuddered, as if his last bit of strength had been drained away.
He looked into his father's cold and disappointed eyes, into his elder brother's silent complexity, and into Zhou Kaiwei's admonitory pity... He understood that the tide had turned, his father's will was insurmountable, and all his ambitions, all his meticulous plans, all his anger and resentment had vanished in an instant.
He closed his eyes in anguish, and two streams of hot tears uncontrollably slid down his cheeks.
He stopped arguing and, with trembling fingers, pressed the redial button heavily.
"Beep...beep...beep..."
The sound of the phone connecting seemed particularly jarring in the deathly silent study.
“It’s me.” Li Zekai’s voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping, filled with endless exhaustion and despair. “The plan… is canceled. Let… let it go.”
Every word seemed to be forcibly ripped from his throat, smeared with blood and foam.
"Boss? What...what did you say?" On the other end of the phone, the trusted trader in the Wall Street trading room clearly thought he had misheard, his voice filled with astonishment and disbelief.
Just a few hours ago, the boss was still yelling that "eat as much as you can!"
"I said sell! Sell it all! Didn't you hear me?!" Li Zekai's bloodshot eyes snapped open as he roared into the microphone like a wild beast, as if unleashing all his anger, humiliation, and resentment. "Immediately! Right now! Not a single share left! Sell everything!!!"
After shouting that last sentence, it was as if all the bones in his body had been removed. The phone receiver slipped from his hand with a "thud" and fell onto the thick carpet with a dull thud.
He felt as if he had lost all support, and slumped down the desk, collapsing into the mess—broken porcelain, tea, and his shattered "Little Superman" fantasy.
Preliminary estimates suggest that the loss from this aborted deal, combined with the various costs incurred in setting up the plan, will be no less than $4 million!
This is almost equivalent to nearly half of his net worth at PCCW Digital!
This was not just a financial loss, but also the complete collapse of his ambition to prove himself and escape the shadow of his father and brother.
Looking at his second son, who was slumped on the ground, looking utterly lost, Li Ka-shing felt a fleeting, indescribable pain in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a deeper resolve.
He didn't look at his young son again, but simply raised his hand slightly to signal Li Zeju.
Li Zeju understood and silently pushed the wheelchair around.
Zhou Kaiwei took one last look at Li Zekai, who was lying on the ground, sighed softly, and followed him.
Just before he left, Li Ka-shing's voice drifted over, not loud, but clearly echoing in the empty study, like a final verdict: "Remember this lesson. If you make any big moves again, as long as you still need the benefits of being called 'Second Young Master of the Li Family,' as long as you still need the resources and connections of the Li family to back you up..."
The wheelchair paused for a moment at the doorway. Li Ka-shing slightly turned his head, his cold gaze sweeping over the defeated figure on the ground:
"...Please inform this old man when you return. Otherwise, you will bear the consequences yourself. Do you understand?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the study door was gently closed, separating the two worlds.
Inside the door was Li Zekai, slumped on the ground, his heart filled with despair; outside the door stood the figure representing the absolute authority and future of the Li family.
The Li family business empire is the culmination of Li Ka-shing's nearly fifty years of painstaking and meticulous work.
He would not tolerate anyone sabotaging him, not even his son, whom he had placed the most hope in but who had also disappointed him the most.
On Li "Wolong's" side, due to the violent intervention of his father Li Ka-shing, the ambitious "Memorial on Dispatching the Troops," which aimed to annex the child prodigy and seize control of the Century Series, was forced to "hastily stop writing" before it was even finished. He could only helplessly burn it to ashes.
Let's switch the focus back to Shenzhen, to Mr. Xiao, who calls himself "Phoenix Chick".
March 17, North American time.
The Nasdaq index continues to struggle in the quagmire of panic, steadily declining.
The prodigy's stock trading page, with its glaring green color, seemed like a black hole that devoured all hope.
Xiao Jun has been working through the night for the third consecutive time.
His once luxurious and spacious CEO office at the headquarters of Little Prodigy in Shenzhen was now filled with the heavy smell of smoke, sweat, and the greasy aroma of fast food. Sitting in his expensive Italian leather chair, he was like a bloodshot sculpture, staring intently at the huge screen in front of him.
On the screen, the stock price chart of Little Prodigy resembled a dying python, with each slight upward struggle accompanied by an even more violent downward plunge.
Just as he was bracing himself and preparing to call his trader to initiate the fourth "bottom-fishing" attempt—he firmly believed that things wouldn't happen more than three times, and if it happened three times, it definitely wouldn't happen four times, and this must be the real bottom!
—But the situation on the market suddenly changed dramatically!
A massive, ferocious selling pressure emerged without warning!
Thousands upon thousands of sell orders poured down like a flood bursting its banks!
The buy orders were instantly wiped out, leaving not a trace!
The stock price didn't just fall, it collapsed!
It directly broke through all technical support levels and psychological defenses!
The $50 mark was as fragile as paper, breaking through it instantly!
$49… $48… $47…
The numbers flashing on the screen, each refresh, felt like a heavy hammer slamming into Xiao Jun's heart!
"What's going on?! What the hell is going on?! Who's dumping the shares?! Who?!!" Xiao Jun suddenly jumped up from his chair, his hands on the table, his body leaning forward, his bloodshot eyes almost popping out of their sockets, staring intently at the wildly fluctuating sell orders, letting out a beast-like roar.
The spot he originally planned to buy at the bottom suddenly became an unreachable mountaintop!
And once again, he copied the design halfway up the mountain!
No, this time it was even worse than the previous two times. He was clinging to a cliff edge and watching the rocks beneath his feet collapse madly!
Panic, like a cold, venomous snake, instantly coiled around his heart, tightening its grip ever tighter! He immediately thought of Li Zekai!
Only the Li family, and only the second young master Li who had a grudge against him, had the power and motive to deliver a fatal blow to him at this critical juncture!
"It's over...it's all over..." Xiao Jun slumped back into his chair, utterly dejected. The immense fear had drained all his strength, making even breathing difficult.
He watched the rapidly shrinking numbers in his account, representing yet another huge loss and stocks that were firmly locked up and worthless.
The nearly $2 million invested in the first three attempts to buy at the bottom has now shrunk significantly, and the tens of millions of dollars invested in the fourth attempt to "buy at the bottom" have been buried instantly!
He felt his blood freeze, and his vision blurred.
"I've stumbled upon this again halfway up the mountain... What should I do? What am I supposed to do now?!"
Despair washed over him like a tidal wave, threatening to completely engulf him. (End of Chapter)