Dad left first.

Su Yehao could only take a car to the customs port and return to Hong Kong from the mainland.

He departed in the evening and arrived in Central at just after six o'clock. Along the way, he passed large tracts of wasteland, which he thought was a pity not to develop into houses. Hong Kong's housing prices shouldn't be so high in the first place.

The so-called reason of "scarce land and a large population" simply doesn't hold water.

When it comes to land scarcity, Singapore is truly scarce. With more than seven hundred square kilometers of land, it is home to four or five million people, yet its housing prices are not as high as those in Hong Kong.

The only explanation is that land utilization is not reasonable enough. If more money were invested in transportation and the supporting facilities were built up, expansion outwards would be easy.

Since his family is engaged in this kind of business, Su Yehao inevitably pays more attention to it.

However, in his eyes, the development potential of Hong Kong's real estate has already been overdrawn. Land acquisition costs are high, construction costs are high, but the consumption potential of users has been exhausted, making it not worth the effort to toss around anymore.

Therefore, despite being optimistic about the previous Cyberport development plan, Su Yehao did not jump in to stir things up.

Of course, there is also the factor of insufficient funds on hand, and this kind of thing, having money alone is not enough. Relationships in all aspects must be smoothed out. In this regard, he is far behind the old Li family of Cheung Kong and Hutchison.

Besides.

Hong Kong doesn't seem suitable for developing the technology industry. It has neither a supporting technology industry nor cost advantages. He has almost given up the plan to locate the company's headquarters in Hong Kong. Arranging things in the mainland and Silicon Valley, and registering the company in a tax haven, is more in line with his interests.

There are too many places where money will be needed in the future. Other internet companies are busy avoiding taxes. If he doesn't avoid taxes, adding a huge expense, he may win at the starting line, but lose during the rise.

Su Yehao hadn't been looking for Zheng Yongwen, but Zheng Yongwen, the vice-president, suddenly called him this afternoon and asked to meet him tonight.

The location was arranged at the rooftop open-air restaurant of the Harbour Garden Hotel. Su Yehao greeted Zheng Yongwen in advance and, after obtaining his consent, called Xiao Nizi (little girl) to join them, to avoid her nagging about him eating alone.

When Su Yehao arrived at the Harbour Garden Hotel, Nangong Tian had already arrived and was waiting for him downstairs.

It's a relatively short distance from Big Wave Bay to Central.

Xiao Nizi was wearing khaki overalls today, with a thin sweater on top. Her hair was braided into a thick single ponytail, her hair color slightly yellow, young and fashionable.

She hugged his arm.

While riding the elevator upstairs, Xiao Nizi asked, "Zheng Yongwen, the honorary vice-president of Hong Kong University, what is he looking for you for? Could it be that he wants to get money from you and jointly invest in stocks?"

"...I don't know, who knows what he's thinking, but that guy seems to have moved beyond the low-level pursuit of making money, otherwise he wouldn't have given up earning money back then, insisted on going to work for the Hong Kong government as a consultant, and ended up with nothing, resigning in the end."

Su Yehao was also guessing the purpose of Zheng Yongwen's contact with him.

To say that the other party gained nothing is not necessarily true. During his tenure as chief consultant, he did spar with foreign capital.

It's just a pity that he seemed to have disagreements with others on issues such as maintaining the stock market and exchange rates, and ended up breaking up unhappily, resigning last year.

The water here is a bit deep, involving a large amount of profit. It's not as simple as doing a good job honestly. There are hidden arrows that are hard to guard against. It's not surprising that Vice-President Zheng Yongwen was targeted, and even had mud slung at him in the newspapers, saying that he accepted money to do things for others.

A multinational capital attack and defense battle involving hundreds of billions, and a multi-party game, foolishly plunging into it, could lead to someone being thrown into the sea if they blocked someone's path to wealth.

Su Yehao admitted that his strength was not yet at that level, so he didn't get too involved, but just stood from an outsider's perspective and paid a little attention. Now the Southeast Asian financial crisis is basically over, and Hong Kong's real estate and stock markets are also rebounding slightly.

Amused by his statement, Xiao Nizi laughed and said, "Someone who has transcended low-level interests... sounds amazing. When will you become like him?"/

"...After I reach his age?"

Su Yehao smiled, pulled his arm out and put it around her shoulders, and continued, "I've been financially free for a long time. The process of doing business is still quite interesting, and it's rare to have a little hobby. I can't really just hold a teacup and bask in the sun every day, sitting in a rocking chair and living my retirement, can I?"

"That's true. My mom always says she wants to retire, but she's still running her Liren Huangting Club. She's used to the daily rhythm, and it's quite boring not to work."

————————————

They took the elevator to the top floor.

Looking around, at this time of day, there were quite a few guests in the rooftop open-air restaurant.

The weather was nice today, and sitting on the roof of the Harbour Garden Hotel, you could see the night view of Central.

In the shadows not far away was the International Finance Centre under construction. The first phase, a 210-meter building, had been completed, and the second phase, expected to be more than 400 meters high, was under construction.

Lights were on in the nearby office buildings, and you could see white-collar workers who hadn't left work yet were busy.

A middle-aged man was leaning against the railing of the terrace. Wasn't that Zheng Yongwen, blowing the evening breeze in a daze, wearing a shirt and jeans, so unremarkable that someone would believe he was a water carrier.

It was this ordinary-looking middle-aged man.

Relying on his talent, he had been in love with Su Yehao's aunt. Even Master Tang, who had high standards, had to praise him as "a talented person."

Back in '97, he also helped Su Yehao earn more than 100 million in just over ten days.

Now, the profit of more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars has been multiplied by investment appreciation to more than 1 billion Hong Kong dollars. Although Su Yehao earns more, he still thinks that elites like Zheng Yongwen who make a living by their brains are more powerful.

After all, Su Yehao had a cheat code, but the other party relied on real talent and hard work to earn a net worth of hundreds of millions.

It was precisely because he knew very well how the money was earned that whenever others praised him for being so great, Su Yehao couldn't get excited. Picking up money and earning money are ultimately different. You can fool others, but you can't fool yourself.

At this moment.

Seeing Su Yehao, Vice-President Zheng Yongwen nodded as a greeting, pointed to an inconspicuous building not far away, and asked, "Young Master Su, do you know what that is?"

"...The Hong Kong Stock Exchange? The sign is so big, I'm not blind."

Su Yehao replied calmly.

Zheng Yongwen continued, "Then do you think, if the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Futures Exchange, and the Central Clearing Company are merged together, how much would they be worth?"

"...A lot?"

Su Yehao rolled his eyes, thinking that he wasn't an all-knowing person, when suddenly his heart moved, he raised his eyebrows and asked, "Dean Zheng, do you mean that these three companies are going to merge?"

"There is movement in this direction. The Financial Secretary is planning it. He hopes to improve Hong Kong's competitiveness and take advantage of the fact that the various Southeast Asian exchanges have been severely damaged to further become a new Asian financial trading center. It is also likely to be listed for trading."

As soon as Zheng Yongwen finished speaking, Su Yehao said in surprise:

"Then if I put in more money, wouldn't I have the opportunity to become a major shareholder of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and all the profits from future stock trading would be mine?"

"Don't even think about that. How could we allow one company to dominate? Even if you are willing to pay, the major shareholders of those listed companies will be uneasy. But I hope that there can be a few more people on our side on the board of directors, to seriously improve the system of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, instead of just thinking about how to make money for themselves."

Looking at Su Yehao, Vice-President Zheng Yongwen said with a smile, "How about it, are you interested in participating?"