Chapter Fourteen: The Three Kinds of Poisonous Drugs

  The stock price plummeted below the 10-yuan mark, and after careful consideration, Longbiao resolutely ordered the investment company to temporarily abandon its defense of the stock price. Instead, in the name of the Group's Board of Directors, an application was submitted to the Stock Exchange, and upon approval, a public announcement would be made declaring that trading of the group's shares would be suspended pending internal reorganization before being relisted.

  This has led to a public opinion that is even more unfavorable to Longbiao and the group. Rumors on the streets are getting more and more out of hand, with increasing doubts about the legitimacy of Longbiao's identity. Qian Suxue also seized the opportunity to ask the court to re-examine Qian Lao's will, almost all members of the Qian family participated, which has attracted a lot of attention from citizens. Some gossip magazines have also grasped this news value and sent paparazzi to Chang'an who are ruthless in digging up news.

  On the afternoon of October 5th, Sunday, Long Bao summoned Duan Pingchun, Zhao Siwen, Li Xiubai, Wu Telie and Ahui from the investment company to his confidential conference room at headquarters for a special meeting. At the meeting, Long Bao decided to immediately dispatch Zhao Siwen, the new president of Liheng Heavy Industry, to Germany to conduct on-site inspections and negotiations with KraussMaffei, striving to reach an agreement and inject a strong stimulus into the group's stock.

  When Ng Tung Ho expressed concern over the sharp decline in the group's share price, Loong Yoke Phin explained: "The group has so many assets, the decline in share price is only temporary, and the actual value of the shares will not be devalued just because of the share price."

  When Du Pingchun asked about the Qian sisters' lawsuit, Long Bao smiled and said: "Qian Suxue doesn't want to stay in the group anymore. The lawsuit is just a farce. She wants to use her shares to coerce me into using the investment company's funds to buy back her shares at a high price. Now her shares have shrunk by one-third, she wants to force me through the lawsuit. As for Qian Yuhui... hmm, let's talk about it later."

  When Ah Hui asked how the investment company would respond to stock fluctuations, Long Bao said: "The investment company has limited funds, and simply pouring water to put out a fire cannot stop the stock from falling. If not handled properly, it may even be taken advantage of by those with ulterior motives to devour the investment company's funds. The investment company's funds cannot be thrown into this bottomless pit of supporting the stock price anymore. I still say the same old thing: our group has so many industries and such a strong financial foundation, if you don't believe in Li Heng's stockholders, then you lack vision. Li Heng doesn't need anything else, it needs loyalty, it needs loyal talent. What Li Heng will give to the group in the future is Li Heng's ability, Li Heng's unique philosophy."

  "Director Wu, especially your electronics company, your predecessor Mr. Potter was a hidden nail bought by others, causing the group to fall far behind in the field of electronics, so your responsibility is much heavier than the other few!"

  Long Bao finally said to them: "This is medicine, the most effective treatment for Li Heng's illness. The medicine has three parts poison, there's no other way. Don't think I'm being paranoid, paranoia isn't a mistake. Andy Grove once said 'Only the paranoid survive', Bill Gates also said 'Microsoft is always only 18 months away from bankruptcy'. If I weren't paranoid, I wouldn't have a sense of crisis, if I weren't paranoid, I would be complacent!

  For more than a year, I have hardly slept soundly for several times. Especially since May this year, I have almost never had more than three hours of sleep per day. Even in my sleep, I often wake up suddenly and the first thought that comes to mind is whether Liheng Group has been attacked or if there are any hidden dangers that have not been detected. If I lose this paranoia, I think I will lose my sensitivity to group affairs, I will become numb, and my numbness will soon spread to you, making you also lose your fighting spirit.

  "After this reform, the group will regain its vitality and you can work hard with ease. Being persistent is about adhering to one's own beliefs and I hope you can all become the group's persistent enthusiasts along with me!"

  Long Wenyi's bravery and strategy completely conquered them.

  Two days later, at 9:00 in the morning, Long Bao went to Jiao Siwei's office. As soon as he knocked on the door, it opened, and Jiao Siwei and Huang Qiuya were about to come out from inside.

  Qiu Ya's face turned bright red, then white again, and she trembled as she said: "Gao!... It's been half a month, I've come."

  "Director Long, I met Autumn Ya at the door when I went to work and brought her to my office for a chat. Seeing you were busy, I didn't go disturb you. Just about to look for you, but you delivered yourself to my doorstep, haha." Jiao Siwei said with a smile, warmly putting his arm around Autumn Ya's shoulder.

  Qiu Ya looked a bit plumper than when she was in Wuxi, and her complexion was also rosier. Long Bao's gaze lingered on Qiu Ya's face for a second before he shifted it away, saying bitterly: "......Oh, you're here, come in, sit down."

  ……

  Qiu Ya's arrival filled Long Bao with mixed thoughts. He picked up the stack of materials prepared for the press conference and began to revise them.

  Qiu Ya has come anyway, so she must face it, but this stubborn girl's timing couldn't be worse.

  Qiu Ya's arrival may not be the right time for Long Bao, but it is unknown whether this matter has come at the wrong time for Jiao Si Wei as well.

  Liao Ye successfully stole the dragon-patterned bronze treasure box that had been passed down through his family, and he successfully transported it back to his old home in Beijing where he hid it safely. That day, all he heard was Wen Li say that the bronze book with the family tree was placed inside this bronze box, which surprisingly required a key to open, in order to know what treasure was inside and take it out. Moreover, what also made him rack his brains was that in his memory, he didn't hear Wen Li mention anything about the key to the box that day, or did he miss it himself?

  He had taken a photo and asked an antique dealer to appraise the value of this bronze box, but the other party only quoted a price of 500,000 yuan at most, and also needed to see the real thing. He was unwilling to sell it cheaply, so the best way to buy it at a high price was to sell it to Longbiao's enemy family, they were the best buyers for this treasure.

  So how can we get hooked up with Longbiao's sworn enemy?

  Hu Zi De's father was already the vice magistrate of Shan Cheng, he had a vendetta with Long Bao that could not be bought off with money; it would not be suitable for Chang Cheng; Zheng Xue was still a labor reform prisoner and was not even considered.

  Liao Ye learned from newspapers that Long Bao's enemies now include Ye Ziheng, who has a grudge against Long Bao for the throne, the descendants of the Qian family who have a grudge against Long Bao for cheating and robbing them of their property, and those wealthy former shareholders and directors of Li Heng who are dissatisfied with Long Bao. However, these people are too cunning, and Liao Ye must also be very cautious around them.

  The most suitable one is Jiao Siwei, who has a vendetta against Long Bao for killing her father. She's a girl and the heir to billions of assets. Liao Ye is certain that she entered Li Heng Group to thoroughly investigate Long Bao's secrets in order to exact the cruelest revenge. She and Long Bao are sworn enemies, and she will definitely pay top dollar to buy this treasure. She is the ideal buyer!

  He managed to get in touch with Jiao Siwei through various means. At first, Jiao didn't believe him, but after he revealed his name as Liao Ye, Jiao thought it over and sent Louise to meet up with him.

  Long Wan was a bit of a headache for Qiu Ya's arrival, he thought the only effective way was to hire Qiu Ya as a group employee, so that he could use the rules and regulations to ask her, and also protect her from killing herself at every turn.

  How to arrange Akiya's accommodation? Akiya won't go to a hotel, and it's not suitable to arrange for her to stay in the staff dormitory. Akiya's identity is no longer a secret, nor can she be arranged to stay in Qian Lao's former villa, Akiya will say she's afraid, of course, she can't live with me either, otherwise, it would be too much!

  Jiao Siwei was even more unwilling to let Long Bao and Qiu Ya live together, so she took the initiative to suggest that Qiu Ya go to her house to live. Long Bao immediately agreed, and Qiu Ya had no choice but to follow Jiao Siwei to her home with a heavy heart.

  The market's unfavorable rumors about Liheng Group are intensifying, with investors' inquiries and accusations pouring in like snowflakes via phone and email. The group's website has been under constant DDoS attacks, making it inaccessible. The human resources department has received hundreds of appeals from subordinate employees. Finished goods inventory has increased by 30%, while orders have decreased by 40%. Thirty-nine senior executives have been poached by headhunting companies. There are reports that many speculators plan to suppress the group's stock price to six yuan after its rebound!

  As for the rumors about Long Bao's identity background, some say that Long Bao is actually a national agent, and others even say that Long Bao has personal grievances with Jiao Siwei on the surface, but in fact, he was originally sent by Jiao Siwei as an undercover spy. The real purpose is to plot to divide Qian Lao's assets. Now that the goal has been achieved, it's natural to sweep away the old employees who are in the way and ruin the big deal.

  Facing these things, Long Bao's face showed a deep and helpless sorrow. That day in the office, he said to Jiao Siwei: "It's three points of medicine and seven points of poison. Vice Chairman Jiao, we must make the worst assumptions. I have to tell you that the group's stock price will only fall below five yuan before I will use funds to protect the disk. I hope you understand."

  Jiao Siwei stretched out his hand firmly towards Long Bao and said: "I believe in you, support all your decisions!"

  Long Bao's complex emotions grasped Jiao Siwei's hand, feeling her hand extremely soft and delicate, just like Jing'er, Qiu Ya, and Wen Li. The owner of this hand had a grudge against him, but at this moment when he needed help, she was the best partner.

  "When the grudges are settled, then the merits can be decided; on the day when the borders are in danger, the heroes will emerge" - this couplet suddenly appeared in his mind: isn't this a perfect portrayal of himself?

  Jiao Siwei saw Long Bao grasp her hand and not let go, but instead became stunned. She also remained motionless, allowing Long Bao to hold on, her eyes burning as she stared back at him.

  Just then, Qiuya and Louise knocked on the door and walked in. Long Wan was completely unaware, still holding Jiao Si's hand and thinking deeply. Long Wan did everything with great concentration, so much so that even when he was distracted, his mind was not elsewhere.

  Jiao Si Yu hastily shook off Long Bao's hand, and very timely a layer of shy blush rose to her face, and she somewhat awkwardly greeted Qiu Ya.

  Qiu Ya didn't expect to see this scene, his originally excited face suddenly turned pale, standing there motionless, only staring at Long Bao.

  Long Fan smiled and said to Qiu Ya, "Didn't you say you were going shopping? You're back so soon?"

  "Qiuya wanted to retort to Longbiao's sentence "Is it because I came back too early and ruined your good thing?", but she didn't dare, instead she forced a smile and walked in front of Longbiao, pulled him to sit on the sofa, tightly hugged his arm, and said with some bitterness: "I just strolled around the street with Louise, I bought you two shirts, try them on after work, okay?"

  Long Bao told Qiuya in a low voice that he still had many official duties to attend to, so Qiuya had no choice but to follow Louise back to Jiao Siwei's villa. After Long Bao returned to the office, Jiao Siwei called him: "Chairman Long, you must bring your Qiuya back tonight, I don't dare keep her and delay your romantic tryst."

  "Stop joking, I've told you before, in my life I don't want enemies or friends, let alone a girlfriend. The story between me and Miss Huang can't be explained in just a few words, she came to the group to work, not as my girlfriend."

  "Oh, it seems I misunderstood. In that case, why don't Miss Huang just work at the group office? Or I can make her your personal life assistant, so you two can see each other easily and the employees won't gossip. Hehe."

  Long Wan heard the sarcasm in Jiao Si's tone and said, "Miss Huang is a student of biological engineering, so let her go to Dr. Luo's place to help set up Liheng Biological Engineering Company. It will only take two days, after the formalities are completed, she can move into the employee dormitory. You go ask for her opinion."

  That night, in bed, Qiu Ya heard Jiao Siwei's original words to Long Bao and was heartbroken, secretly shedding tears. She felt that things were far more complicated than she had imagined, even Jiao Siwei's everything was complicated and difficult to explain.

  Seeing Autumn Leaf not speaking, Jiao Si Rou turned over and hugged Autumn Leaf warmly, saying in a sincere tone: "Autumn Leaf, President Long is busy with many things now and can't spare his mind to take care of you. Moreover, he's currently in such a difficult situation and needs your help to share the workload."

  Qiu Ya suddenly felt that Jiao Si Wei was hypocritical, she intuitively felt that Jiao Si Wei must have fallen in love with Long Bao, but Long Bao was Jiao Si Wei's father's killer, how could Jiao Si Wei be so good to him? Qiu Ya could only follow along with Jiao Si Wei's words and agree.

  Lee Heng was only listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on October 23, in order to ensure that investors do not lose confidence in Lee Heng's shares, and to avoid being dumped by speculators, Tung Chee-hwa issued a statement and accepted a televised interview with financial journalists at 9:00 am on the same day.

  In an interview, the reporter asked: You are a mysterious figure in the eyes of ordinary people. They are full of doubts about how you gained the trust of Mr. Qian Zhengsheng in just one year. Can you explain it to everyone today?

  Long Bowen replied: Mr. Qian Zhengsheng, the founder of Liheng Group, told me that the times require Liheng to change its business concept, and I am the right person to help the group change its business concept with courage, so Mr. Qian chose me.

  The reporter asked persistently: Why did Mr. Qian choose you, when so many people didn't choose him, including his own son-in-law and son? What's the reason for this?

  Long Po An: Fate.

  The reporter immediately began discussing the previous group's drawbacks and hidden dangers with Long Bao, and asked sharply: This time you disregarded the opposition of other members of the board of directors, and even without going through high-level discussions or approval by the board of directors, you launched this large-scale reform, resulting in the group's stock price plummeting, production and operation becoming increasingly precarious, and the confidence of the vast number of shareholders being lost. How do you explain this?

  Longpo: The ultimate goal of Liheng is to build a high-tech conglomerate with more extensive survival and development space in the new economic era. Any reform is aimed at eliminating the drawbacks and hidden dangers in development. The previous Liheng Group was a traditional industrial group established on the concept of scarce resources, while the future Liheng will be positioned in the high-tech field, expanding into biotechnology, new pharmaceutical engineering, electronic engineering, new materials engineering, financial engineering, and marine industries to fully satisfy humanity's endless forward-looking needs. From a short-term perspective, it is true that this will have an adverse impact on the group's stock price, but if we analyze it from a future perspective, Liheng will create more and better products. Now is just a temporary painful stage that Liheng must go through during its reform, and we will soon prove ourselves to the broad masses of shareholders with our own potential and strength, and we have this confidence.

  Reporter: It seems Mr. Long is very confident, I wonder what reasons Mr. Long has for being so confident?

  Longbow: Li Heng has already established his own framework, we have a large number of high-quality talents as our think tank team, we have Li Heng Investment Company with HK$21 billion and US$4 billion as investment capital, my confidence comes from this.

  When the reporter asked: Recently, there is a rumor that Mr. Long has a strange curse on his body, and your ancestors have been single-handedly inherited for generations, and all males will die before the age of 30. It is even said that Mr. Long cannot get close to others, otherwise it will bring disaster to the other party. It is also said that Mr. Long has a congenital mark of a broken dragon head on his chest, is this true?

  Long Wan had to borrow the media's mouth to dispel those rumors that were detrimental to his own development and management group, so he replied: Having a birthmark is not something unusual at all, and the shape of the birthmark is not strange either. Birthmarks are not genetic characteristics inherited from one's ancestors, can you say they are likely to be passed down through generations? Moreover, this strange curse you mentioned, even I don't know if our ancestors were single-line descendants, how did he know? What evidence is there? Am I a broom star? Such unreasonable rumors that cannot withstand scrutiny can still spread, and I must say I admire those rumor-mongers.

  The reporter nodded in agreement: Mr. Long is right, we are now in a scientific era, there's no reason to believe in these superstitious rumors anymore.

  Longbow finally said: Gossip news and these superstitious rumors can only be used as a joke after dinner, and should not affect the judgment of the group's true value. The old thinking and concepts have set, and the future benefits will no longer be a passive family business group, but an expert management group with new thinking and new concepts in the new era. We are confident, and I hope shareholders also have confidence.

  10:00 sharp, the stock market officially opens.

  The opening price of Liheng stock was 8.4, and it encountered a large number of sell-offs under the influence of many short-selling orders, causing the stock price to drop to 6.3 quickly. Longbin did not give up defending the disk, he had to create his own interview with a certain profit-making market reaction effect, so he ordered the investment company to put in 100 million Hong Kong dollars into the market and pull the price back to 7, followed by another sell-off from several big speculators, Longbin again invested 200 million Hong Kong dollars, and by the closing time in the afternoon, the stock price stabilized at 6.5.

  On the afternoon of that day, a stock evaluation expert made a comment on an interview with Li Heng and Long Bao. He acknowledged that what Long Bao said was reasonable, but with a sarcastic tone, he said that a listed company did not focus on production, but instead talked about reform and strategic concepts, which was probably a naive boastful talk, empty words, and nonsense. He determined that Li Heng's stock would continue to fall, and if Long Bao didn't use the investment company's funds to support the market, Li Heng might repeat the story of Yingke Digital Stock, falling from over 20 to 2-3 yuan. He said a famous quote: "If empty words could save the country, then what's the point of real action?" The implication was that Long Bao didn't understand business operations and only knew how to talk nonsense, hinting that Long Bao would lead Li Heng into the abyss!

  The next day, a newspaper used the phrase as the title of its commentary section and published an in-depth analysis of Li Heng's current situation. Long Bao had arranged for several stock commentators to write lengthy reviews on Li Heng's future potential. This marked the beginning of a heated debate among stock commentators that lasted for several days.

  On the fourth day, with only fifteen minutes left before closing, a mysterious fund suddenly poured into Li Heng's stock, which had been beaten down to 5.5 yuan, and quickly pulled the price up to 6.8 yuan at closing time. Rumors spread on the market that it was definitely Long Bao protecting the disk. On the fifth day, the stock directly opened higher at 7.8 yuan with a gap!

  Longbow was puzzled, he himself had invested HK$800 million in this tug-of-war game with these speculators, trying to figure out which speculators were targeting the group. He never thought that at this time someone would still come out to help him. Who is this person? Where did this funding come from?

  What was he thinking? It's impossible, her funds were all on the table, and she could take them away at any time; would Mo Gui Shan, who had owed him money before, help him out? Even more impossible, he had been severely injured in the last war against Jiao Rong Sen, and besides, it didn't make sense for him to lend a hand; was there someone else who saw potential in his group? No way, except for Old Man Qian, who would bet on this eighteen-year-old university dropout with no reputation?

  Qian Suxue has signed an agreement with himself to repurchase shares, and he will pay her HK$600 million in three installments before April 1, 2004. Qian Yuhui is also planning to follow her sister's example. It is said that Zeng Haichang has completely lost confidence in himself and plans to withdraw from the group. Among the seven shareholders of the group, except for Xue Zong and Qian Tongxia, as well as Jiao Siwei, the other three shareholders will split with him. Who is this outsider who supports him so much?

  It's a critical moment now, with no good opportunity for financial arbitrage and the need to ensure the safety of construction funds. As a result, the investment company's funds are extremely precious. Long Bo has made preparations and will invest 1 billion yuan to support the stock price once it breaks through 5 yuan. This way, he won't have to use those precious construction funds. He is eager to know who this person is that can help him out of his predicament.