June 1995
Old Mrs. Luo flipped through the photo album in the room and found the photo of Zeng Xiang being promoted to inspector last year. She took it out and looked at it again and again under the window.
Sister Hong brought her a glass of ginger milk and said with a smile, "Are you still looking? The eldest master and his wife will be back for dinner today, so you will be able to see them later."
Old Lady Luo said, "Shen'er is too busy with his work. I can hardly see him once every half a month."
Sister Hong: "Let the eldest young lady give birth to a little great-grandson to accompany you."
Old Mrs. Luo didn't say anything. She was also very depressed about the matter of having a child. What would be the surname of Ye Zhao's child in the future? Zeng or Luo
According to tradition, her surname should be Luo, but she was afraid that Zeng Erqiao would interfere.
She didn't feel comfortable bringing up the matter, and there was no one she could discuss it with, so she could only keep it to herself.
Seeing that Mrs. Luo didn't say anything, Sister Hong hurriedly changed the subject: "Madam, isn't Miss Guo coming back from Australia? When will she come back?"
Old Mrs. Luo put down the photo album and said, "I told her not to come back if she's okay."
Coming back was troublesome, Ye Zhao was unhappy, and Guo Xuyan probably wasn't in a much better mood either, and in the end everyone was unhappy.
Sister Hong couldn't help but tease: "Old lady, you are also partial to the eldest young lady."
Old Mrs. Luo picked up the spoon and drank the milk, and said softly: "Isn't it right?"
Sister Hong didn't dare to say it directly. Everyone understood that Ye Zhao was her granddaughter-in-law and her own family, while Guo Xuyan was just a goddaughter. There were many layers of separation. But as a servant, she shouldn't comment on this matter, even if Old Lady Luo trusted her.
In the evening, Ye Zhao and Zeng Xiang took the rare time to come back and have dinner with Old Mrs. Luo.
The Luo family's house is big. Although the owners are only Old Lady Luo and the second young master, it doesn't seem particularly deserted because every day there are company employees coming to report their work to Old Lady Luo, and other relatives, friends and younger generations come to pay their respects.
The three of them had dinner in Mrs. Luo's room and talked about their recent investments. Mrs. Luo asked Ye Zhao, "Why hasn't your real estate company been active recently? Are you not acquiring land?"
Ye Zhao ate salt-baked chicken and said, "There is no plan to acquire land next."
Old Mrs. Luo was puzzled: "Why? With the current real estate boom, aren't you taking the opportunity to expand the market?"
Ye Zhao: "I think the real estate market will soon be oversaturated in the next two years, and the market may not always be so good in the future. It is better to turn around and do something else as soon as possible."
Old Mrs. Luo nodded and said, "We at Luo's also develop real estate projects. It should be said that most of the wealthy people in Hong Kong started out in real estate..."
Ye Zhao smiled modestly and said, "I can't compare with the Luo family. I develop small real estate projects, unlike the Luo family, which are large projects worth tens of billions or even hundreds of billions."
Old Lady Luo loved to hear Ye Zhao say nice things, but she also knew that Ye Zhao was being modest. She said, "Now everyone is developing small real estate projects. There are no large plots of land. It's like this. Our Luo family was the first to taste the sweetness and was also the first to diversify the business. What are you going to invest in next?"
Zeng Xiang said: "Her dream since she was a child was to become a landlady."
Ye Zhao didn't want too many people to know about her investment. She smiled and said, "How plain and simple."
How could Old Lady Luo believe it? But since the couple didn't say anything, she didn't ask any more questions. Instead, she took the opportunity to say, "Why don't you come back and take over Luo's? Start learning now and try to let Grandma retire when she's 80."
Zeng Xiang and Ye Zhao looked at each other. This was an old story, but grandma was old after all. As long as there was no one to take over the Luo family, she would not be able to retire.
They all knew that Ye Zhao was unwilling, and Zeng Xiang didn't want Ye Zhao to work so hard, so it was his grandmother who indirectly forced Zeng Xiang to compromise.
Even though he knew it was a trap, he still jumped into it.
"Grandma, please hold on for a few more years. Once I get the senior inspector's armband, I will resign and come back to manage Luo's."
When Mrs. Luo heard this, she became more alert. "Really? You are not allowed to lie to me."
"Really. I promise you. I'll stick to my word."
Ye Zhao laughed and teased: "I'm just worried that you won't pass the promotion exam to senior inspector."
Old Mrs. Luo was full of confidence in her grandson. She smiled and said, "No, as long as he wants to take the test, he will definitely pass. If he fails, it means he doesn't want to pass, and he is deceiving his grandmother."
Zeng Xiang: "Look, I can't pass the exam."
After having dinner and leaving Luo's house, when he was almost home, Ye Zhao received a call from Mrs. Xu. She said that she happened to pass by Chiwuju and asked if Ye Zhao was at home.
Ye Zhao said he was still outside and would be home late.
Mrs. Xu said she would come to visit later.
As soon as they got home, Mrs. Xu came.
Mrs. Xu brought some black truffles and said that they were given to them by someone else. Since they couldn’t finish them, she gave them some.
After Mrs. Xu sat down to drink tea, she got straight to the point and said, "I came here this time because I have a project and I want to invite you to work together."
"What project?"
"I'm different from many people. I'm optimistic about the development of Shenzhen. Maybe in the future the two cities will be seamlessly connected. Now the large piece of land in Yuanhua at the junction of Hong Kong and Shenzhen is lying there, which is a waste. I want to find someone to take it over. Are you interested?"
Ye Zhao smiled and said, "Mr. Xu, why did you think of me?"
"I heard that you haven't gotten any land recently, so you have to find a place to invest your spare money, right? And you are from Shenzhen. You are different from others. You must have more feelings for Shenzhen and more confidence. As long as Shenzhen can develop, it can bring prosperity to the place where the two cities meet."
Ye Zhao nodded: "I have confidence in the development of Shenzhen and the mainland, but I have no confidence in the people of Hong Kong. If Yuanhua wants to develop, the people of Hong Kong need to reach a consensus. They need to want to be closer to the mainland and be optimistic about the development on the other side. Only then will everyone go to Yuanhua to invest and buy houses. Otherwise, after we buy it, we will not be able to develop Yuanhua based on our own imagination alone."
"My main intention is to hoard the land, and hoard it for ten to eight years while it's cheap. Currently, I am not optimistic like you, but after ten to eight years, there will definitely be earth-shaking changes. Why am I so confident? Because I have watched Shenzhen change from a small town to what it is today. The mainland's infrastructure renovation capabilities are changing with each passing day. I believe that after ten to eight years, Yuanhua will have great development potential. I will offer you 1.5 billion, and you only need to take out 500 million. You can take over that large piece of cheap land that no one cares about now. It will definitely be worth tens of billions in the future!" Xu Tai is a visionary and daring person.
If Ye Zhao didn't know the future development trend, she would definitely be willing to take a chance with Xu Tai.
Unfortunately, after the return of Hong Kong, although the overall economic development was very good, the struggles among various factions were very fierce, and the issue of Yuanhua’s development was not resolved even after 30 years.
Not only was the problem not solved, but garbage dumps and cemeteries were also built around it. Apart from disgusting the people of Shenzhen, it also blocked the road to Yuanhua's development.
Before Ye Zhao became a vegetable, he finally saw some of Yuanhua's future vision, but it would take at least fifty years for it to really develop.
So the 500 million invested is basically buried there.
Who can wait fifty years
Ye Zhao advised: "Mr. Xu, whether the two cities can finally merge together may take dozens or even hundreds of years, and the time cost is too high. I am optimistic about the development of the two cities, but I am not optimistic that the two sides can merge smoothly in a short period of time. People in Hong Kong are used to looking down, and they will not be able to look at Shenzhen in the same direction in a short period of time. It is difficult to change this inertial thinking. I suggest that Mr. Xu consider it carefully. Your 1.5 billion is not a small amount."
Mrs. Xu was a little surprised. "You don't think it's good either?"
"I don't think it's a good idea. Do other people think it's a good idea too?"
Xu Tai said: "Other people are prejudiced against Shenzhen City and think it is not so easy to develop there."
Ye Zhao: "Actually, this has nothing to do with whether the mainland can develop. Regardless of whether the mainland can develop or not, prejudice is held by most people here, and it is difficult for us to change everyone's mind on our own."
Xu Tai understood, "You mean, I have money to invest in Yuanhua, why not invest directly in Shencheng, right?"
Ye Zhao smiled and said, "That's not what I meant, but you can understand it that way."
"Hey, Luo Shen, listen to what your wife says. It's full of contradictions, but it makes people feel that it makes sense. Ye Zhao, I want to learn your art of speaking. I want to learn it." Mrs. Xu is also very good at the art of speaking.
Ye Zhao: "Mrs. Xu, I wish I were half as good as you."
Mrs. Xu drank tea to moisten her throat. "I'll think about your words carefully when I get home. My husband didn't agree with the investment in Yuanhua either. It seems that he won this time."
Mrs. Xu chatted with them at their house until after ten o'clock before leaving. Before going to bed, Ye Zhao went to the study to surf the Internet.
She now opens her computer every day to read information from Wall Street and study various trends.
She found that many things after 1993 were different from what she remembered. For example, ANSD, the world's most powerful store platform, should have been established in 1994, but there is no information about ANSD on the Internet.
She tried to find information about the founder of ANSD but couldn't find any.
This most powerful platform of the future just disappeared out of thin air. It should not be said to have disappeared, but it has never existed.
The only thing that reassures her is that the US president has not changed, and the policies he has issued have not changed so far.
Starting from 1993, as long as the United States' "National Information Infrastructure Action Plan" or "Information Superhighway Plan" continues to be implemented and recommended, there will be two excellent investment opportunities in the future.
One was the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, and the other was the bursting of the Internet bubble in the early 21st century.
Every crisis represents an opportunity to make money.
Ye Zhao clocked in at the computer, clicked on the latest quotation sheet of Xiangli Shares, and after taking a look, she was stunned.
According to her memory, the price of Xiangli shares was around US$6 in 1996, which was basically the lowest price.
But after 1995, Xiangli shares had fallen to US$6.
Did the timeline move forward a year? Just like the WTO, which was established a year earlier.
Ye Zhao originally wanted to observe for a few more days, but he received a call from Qi Lianan at around eleven o'clock.
Qi Lianan said: "Boss Ye, the share price of Xiangli shares has triggered the buy line we set up earlier, and we have already started to build a position and buy."
“Has it started yet?”
"Yes." Qi Lian'an heard hesitation in Ye Zhao's tone and asked, "Do you want to terminate the plan?"
Ye Zhao thought about it and said, "No need. Let's just follow the plan."
"Then I will follow the plan and slowly invest all the funds I have collected here into buying Xiangli shares."
Ye Zhao reminded: "Be cautious and keep your position at around 60%, don't fill it up."
She still can't see clearly now.
“60% position?”
“Yes, 60% of the position.”
Qi Lian An said: "Okay! I understand."
The price of Xiangli stock was around six dollars. After fluctuating up and down for a week, it began to decline and soon fell below the 20-day moving average to $5.6.
According to Ye Zhao's memory, this was the highest stock price in the history of Xiangli Shares.
This world is indeed becoming more and more unpredictable.
Ye Zhao asked Qi Lian'an to adjust his position to 70% and bought a large amount of Xiangli stocks at a low price.
After 1996, Xiangli's stock price just climbed back to 5.5 yuan, but a week later it fell to 5 dollars again. This repeated fluctuation lasted for a month.
At this time, Ye Zhao’s properties in Gangcheng have basically been sold out. His funds are fully invested, but he is stuck in a slowly declining stock market, not knowing when the trend will be reversed.
However, both Ye Zhao and Qi Lian'an were still very calm in their hearts, and they always felt that after getting through this period, they would see the dawn.
That night, Ye Zhao did not go out of his home in Zizhulin. Aunt Qiao was playing mahjong and the nanny was on leave, so she went to the roof to water the flowers.
There is a large garden on the rooftop of her house, half of which is flowers and the other half is vegetables. Aunt Qiao’s long-cherished dream of growing her own vegetables has finally come true.
The night sky is full of stars, and Shenzhen's nightscape is becoming more and more beautiful. The surrounding area is gradually taking on the appearance of a big city.
Ye Zhao was watering the flowers with a kettle when her cell phone rang. She took it out of her pocket and answered it: "Hello, Uncle Qi."
Qi Lian'an said anxiously, "Boss Ye, Xiangli's stock price plummeted today, dropping to $4 in one go."
After a long period of fluctuations, the stock price does not go up but goes down directly. Once the trend is formed, it will be bad.
Compared to Qi Lian'an's anxiety, Ye Zhao was relatively calm, because she did not borrow money to invest in stocks, and there was no leverage. It was all her own money. If she lost, she lost. She could afford it.
Mr. Ye asked: "Why did it suddenly drop today?"
Qi Lianan said: "The business volume of Xiangli has dropped sharply in the latest season, and the market share is only 4%. It is rumored that there will be major changes in the management."
"What management changes?"
"The CEO resigned, and it is said that they are going to invite the original founder back to revive Xiangli."
The founder returns
Ye Zhao remembered that after the return of its founder, Xiangli Co., Ltd. began to rise against the trend and set sail!
No matter how the world changes, the trend will not change.
Mr. Ye put down the shower and ordered: "Adjust the position to 80%!" Qi Lianan worriedly said: "Add more positions now? I'm worried that it will fall again."
“If it falls further, below $3.5, continue to add to your position, and then the position line will be adjusted to 90%.”
Qi Lianan whispered: "Boss Ye, our losses are close to 1 billion."
In less than a year, the company lost nearly 1 billion. Anyone who is given this task would be nervous.
Qi Lianan is under psychological pressure.
Ye Zhao understood Qi Lian'an's worries very well. She said, "It's okay, Uncle Qi. Even if I lose, I will accept the loss. I am different from Zhong Limin and Xu Guangrong. I can afford the loss."
Qi Lian'an also thanked: "Yes, fortunately we didn't use leverage this time."
Otherwise, the account would have been liquidated long ago.
"Uncle Qi, just do as I said. I can afford to waste time with it. If it loses me, I can just ignore it and let it go on for decades..."
Qi Lian An smiled and said, "It would be better to buy Yuanhua land."
"They are different. One is a definite failure, and the other is very likely to succeed." Ye Zhao was willing to choose the latter. Besides, he could withdraw from the stocks at any time, unlike land. If he bought it but had no development prospects, it would be difficult to sell it.
Qi Lian'an followed Ye Zhao's command, and in the end his position was almost filled to 90%!
It was also in this year, 1996, when Hong Kong's housing prices were at their most insane, that Ye Zhao stayed quietly at the bottom of the U.S. stock market.
Every time she went to Hong Kong, the middle class and rich people around her seemed to be partying every night, while she was walking on the edge.
That day, Ye Zhao drove outside the police station and waited for Zeng Xiang to get off work. After get off work, Zeng Xiang went to eat hotpot with her.
The two of them sat in an affordable restaurant in the downtown area, and Ye Zhao ordered a serving of fried bean curd sheets and a serving of fish balls.
Zeng Xiang looked at it and laughed, "How much did you lose? You only eat this little?"
"You see your wife losing money, and you still laugh."
Zeng Xiang picked up the pen and ticked the boxes. "I get paid today, I'll pay the bill, I'll tick all the food you like."
Ye Zhao smiled and said, "Thank you, Boss Luo, for saving this poor little girl."
Zeng Xiang patted her head and said, "You are pretending to be poor! My monthly salary is not as high as the monthly rent of a small office in Zhaohua Building."
Ye Zhao certainly wasn't reluctant to eat, she just found that she seemed to have gained weight and wanted to eat less at night. She asked, "Am I a little fatter?"
Zeng Xiang shook his head: "No. You can't just eat a little bit because you're afraid of getting fat. You should learn from me, exercise more, and you won't gain weight."
Ye Zhao smiled and said, "What is my ideal? To lie down and be a landlady. I don't want to exercise."
"It's okay as long as you can resist not exercising." Zeng Xiang had seen through her long ago. Every time she gained two or three pounds, she would slow down her exercise and weight loss plan. Once she lost weight, she would lie flat again.
After eating hot pot, the two went to see a movie. In the cinema, she received a text message from Qi Lian'an that the stock price of Xiangli Co., Ltd. suddenly soared to US$4.5.
Although he was still losing money, Ye Zhao was still very excited as the reversal trend had finally started.
After that, Xiangli’s stock price rose from the bottom of US$3 to US$6.8. It only took two months for the company to go from a loss of more than one billion to a profit of more than one billion.
But $6.8 was still the bottom of Xiangli’s stock price. Ye Zhao increased his holdings after the stock price rose to $5.
Xiangli stock price fluctuated in the range of $7-8 for a while.
The trader suggested that Qi Lian An sell part of his shares for profit and buy them back when the stock price drops.
Qi Lian'an refused. He believed in his boss's vision. If they did these meaningless operations at this time, if the stock price suddenly took off again, they would probably miss out.
In January 1997, Xiangli shares took off again without warning, this time rising directly from US$7.6 to US$42.
In just one week, Ye Zhao's assets in the U.S. stock market have exceeded 20 billion.
Of course, the unit is Hong Kong dollars, not US dollars.
No one knew that she had made so much money in the U.S. stock market. Everyone thought that Ye Zhao was planning to liquidate her real estate development company and prepare to take over Luo’s.
But there has been no news about Ye Zhao, and some people speculated that she might be preparing for pregnancy. After all, giving birth to the next generation of heirs for the Luo family is her biggest responsibility as the granddaughter-in-law of a wealthy family.
In March 1997, Xiangli's stock price reached an all-time high of US$78.
At the same time, the Federal Reserve announced an interest rate hike, and a large amount of US dollars flowed back to the United States.
After repeated consideration, Ye Zhao asked Qi Lian'an to slowly sell the Xiangli shares within a month.
On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong returned.
The financial crisis that was supposed to begin in Thailand on July 2, 1997, did not occur.
Ye Zhao, who held nearly 5 billion U.S. dollars in his hands, was dumbfounded.
Hong Kong real estate and Hong Kong stocks are still booming. Fortunately, the share price of Xiangli Co., Ltd. did not go up, but fell a little.
Ye Zhao hesitated. Should he go back and lie down in Xiangli's warm embrace
After she had been thinking about it for a month, the financial crisis arrived late.
Thailand could not withstand the flight of US dollars, and its foreign exchange was gradually drained out. It had to change its fixed exchange rate monetary policy, which triggered a domino effect, and Southeast Asian countries fell one after another.
International hot money took the opportunity to intervene and short the currencies of Southeast Asian countries. This is an excellent opportunity to make a fortune.
To put it bluntly, this is a trap in which Americans use the international currency they control - the US dollar - to plunder the world.
Every time the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, it will cause dollars to flow back to the United States, thereby draining the foreign exchange of various countries.
Ye Zhao doesn't need to use his brain, he just needs to follow the hot money to short the currencies of various countries.
But this is blood-stained money, blood-stained chips, and the blood of countries that are not rich to begin with. She doesn't want to make money like this, lest she become the target of public criticism in the end.
So, she chose to do the opposite.
She wanted to work with the Hong Kong government to fight against international hot money, because during the Asian financial crisis, only Hong Kong, with the support of the central government, withstood the sharp claws of the big sharks and finally won a narrow victory.
Starting from October 1997, the financial crisis hit Hong Kong head-on and Hong Kong stocks plummeted.
However, due to the strong measures of the Hong Kong city government, the situation was temporarily stabilized.
By 1998, the financial crisis in neighboring countries was intensifying. After having eaten and drunk their fill elsewhere, the big sharks squatted at the gate of the port city.
In just two months, the Hong Kong stock market fell by nearly 50%, and housing prices were nearly halved!
The stock market and the housing market are in mourning!
Every day there are people who go bankrupt or jump off buildings because of leveraged stock and real estate speculation.
The Hong Kong government was unwilling to surrender and vowed to defend the exchange rate to the death. On the one hand, it requested national support, and on the other hand, it called on the wealthy businessmen in Hong Kong to protect the market and resist foreign enemies together.
Ye Zhao was the first to respond. At the critical moment, she anonymously sold US dollars and exchanged them for nearly 40 billion Hong Kong dollars, which she invested in the Hong Kong stock market.
Afterwards, the Luo family, the Li family, the Xu family, and others stood up and worked together with the government to resist the impact of the financial crisis.
After this storm is over, the wealthy people who stepped forward to increase their holdings in Hong Kong stocks at the bottom have all made money to a greater or lesser extent.
Including Ye Zhao, because she got involved early and bought stocks accurately and ruthlessly, although the profits were not as lucrative as Xiangli Shares, her total assets in Hong Kong stocks have reached nearly 70 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Become the real anonymous richest woman.
Of course, Ye Zhao's assets are dispersed among various investment companies, and no one knows how much she actually has.
(End of this chapter)