Chapter 92: I Want to Become the Bottom-Fishing King
"Honey, what exactly is going on?" Cao Shaoling's voice trembled slightly.
Having been watching the news more attentively, she understood more about the situation and felt a flood of mixed emotions.
"Dammit, I'm just as confused!" Lin Haoning replied, anger and helplessness written all over his face, looking as disheveled as if a sudden storm had drenched him.
He never could have imagined that his own younger brother would suddenly transform into the Chairman of Qingzhou Cement.
It was like a punch to the gut for all the strategic plans he had carefully laid out for the family succession.
"Haoran's now the head of Qingzhou Cement? How am I supposed to compete against that?"
Lin Haoning's heart filled with bitterness and resentment.
Originally, he thought that with the backing of the Cao family, he was close to securing the heir's position.
But this sudden change turned all his efforts into dust.
Remembering all the schemes and strategies he had put together, Lin Haoning felt even more conflicted.
He had thought the booming performance of Wanfeng Fan Factory, driven by Middle Eastern orders, would be a major advantage in the family contest.
But now, compared to the valuation of Qingzhou Cement, the success of Wanfeng seemed utterly insignificant.
Lin Haoran's net worth had already surpassed even their father Lin Wanan's — how could he even talk about competition now?
Seeing his devastated look, Cao Shaoling tried hard to calm herself.
Panic would accomplish nothing.
"Haoning, we need to calmly analyze this.
How could Lin Haoran possibly have raised enough capital to acquire Qingzhou Cement?
Even if your father and my Cao family combined forces, we wouldn't have been able to pull that off.
Call Dad. Maybe he can give us some insight."
Ten minutes later, Lin Haoning hung up the phone after speaking with his father — and fell into deep contemplation.
His father had explained that Lin Haoran had pulled this off entirely on his own — even Lin Wanan had only found out recently.
Those words hit Lin Haoning like a hammer, pounding relentlessly at his heart.
Faced with such a monstrous little brother, he suddenly felt that all his efforts were meaningless and weak.
"Maybe… maybe I really should give up," Lin Haoning thought with unprecedented despair.
Even with the full support of the Cao family, he realized he could no longer match Lin Haoran.
In this family power struggle, he had effectively lost before it even truly began.
After the press conference ended, Lin Haoran completed the formal handover with Halier Centurion — a clean and complete transition.
After finishing up Qingzhou Cement affairs, Halier couldn't wait to leave the company.
He had no intention of staying in Hong Kong any longer.
His next move would be to liquidate all his assets in Hong Kong as quickly as possible.
To him, the once vibrant city had completely lost its charm.
Ziegler and the three other key executives naturally followed Halier back to Britain — after all, they were his loyal men.
Qingzhou Cement operated on two shifts:
7 a.m. and 7 p.m. were the official shift changes.
But tonight, there was no shift change for middle and lower management.
Instead, all of them gathered in a large meeting room at Qingzhou Tower.
Every manager — from General Manager down to team leaders — was present.
Lin Haoran sat at the head of the table, surveying the managers to his left and right with complex emotions.
"Chairman, all administrators are present:
12 senior managers, 48 mid-level managers, 186 lower-level supervisors — no absences," Burton respectfully reported, handing over a printed list.
Lin Haoran nodded, flipping through the list before setting it aside.
Of the 12 senior managers, 11 were foreigners — only 1 was Chinese, recently promoted by Lin Haoran.
That Chinese senior manager was none other than Liu Zhenxing, who had previously provided Lin Haoran with valuable information.
Originally just the quality control supervisor, Lin Haoran had promoted him to Quality Control Director.
The previous director was demoted to deputy.
Among the 48 mid-level managers, 41 were foreigners, only 7 were local Hong Kong Chinese.
From this, it was obvious just how hard it was for Chinese workers to climb the ranks in a British company.
Lin Haoran had deliberately visited many lower-level employees.
They all spoke highly of the seven Chinese mid-level managers.
Clearly, anyone who had managed to reach mid-management in Qingzhou Cement was extremely capable — and some could easily rise even higher.
At the lower levels, foreigners also occupied about half of the supervisory positions.
This meeting had two purposes:
First, to make it clear that from now on, Lin Haoran was the true master of Qingzhou Cement.
Second, to start familiarizing himself with the management team.
After the meeting ended, Lin Haoran asked Burton to stay behind.
"Mr. Burton, thank you for your hard work today," Lin Haoran said warmly.
"Not at all, Chairman.
I am deeply honored to be promoted to General Manager and fully motivated to give my best," Burton replied sincerely.
"After tonight's meeting, I have a clearer picture of our management structure," Lin Haoran said.
"I noticed a problem:
Hong Kong is a Chinese-majority city, and most of our clients are Chinese developers.
Yet almost all our management are British.
Mr. Burton, do you understand what I mean?"
Burton immediately nodded and smiled.
"I understand, Chairman.
There are many excellent Chinese managers out there.
I will actively identify and promote them to balance our leadership team."
"Very good.
We need a diverse and efficient management structure.
Those who are truly capable should stay, regardless of background.
But those who are incompetent yet occupy key positions must be replaced.
I want Chinese and Western senior managers to be roughly half and half.
If we can't find enough qualified candidates internally, we'll recruit externally.
Do you understand?" Lin Haoran asked.
"Fully understood, Chairman," Burton said firmly.
"Good.
You didn't sleep last night, and you worked all day today.
Go home and rest early.
Starting tomorrow, there will be a lot more work ahead," Lin Haoran said, patting him on the shoulder.
As Burton left, Lin Haoran sat alone at the head of the table, deep in thought.
Qingzhou Cement — conquered, fully under his control.
From now on, there was no more fear of anyone trying to steal it away.
Now it was time for the next phase:
Making money!
He still had HK$63 million in liquid funds — but it wasn't enough.
Owning just one Qingzhou Cement wasn't his dream.
He had no intention of slowly building businesses the traditional way.
The fastest method: aggressively acquire more quality companies.
In his past life, why had Li Jiacheng remained Hong Kong's wealthiest man for so many years?
Because he relentlessly bought undervalued assets — expanding and compounding his empire rapidly.
From buying cheap land in 1967, to snapping up property in 1972, to acquiring Wing On Company in 1977, to scooping up Wharf Holdings stock in 1978 and selling it to Bao Yugang, to acquiring Qingzhou Cement, to pulling off the legendary Hutchison Whampoa takeover in 1979, to acquiring Orange Telecommunications for HK$8.4 billion in 1993, to flipping Orange years later for tens of billions, to investing in Facebook stocks and making hundreds of times his investment — Li Jiacheng's path was clear.
The lesson was simple:
You couldn't reach the top by "honestly running a business" alone.
You had to seize opportunities, spot undervalued assets, and strike ruthlessly and decisively.
Thus, Lin Haoran resolved — he too would become a bottom-fishing king.
Of course, any companies he acquired would need to be well managed — otherwise, even great assets could rot.
Others might find bottom-fishing hard —
But Lin Haoran had a secret weapon: decades of future knowledge.
Even if he only remembered rough outlines, it was more than enough.
For example, during the recent Wharf battle, if he hadn't known better, he too might have believed Bao Yugang had no more funds after acquiring Li Jiacheng's shares.
Anyone else would have thought so.
But Lin Haoran knew better — Bao was fully committed and still flush with cash.
Though Lin Haoran lacked the power to compete for Wharf directly, he still seized a golden opportunity to ride the coattails of Bao's battle —
earning himself HK$70 million effortlessly.
Thus, bottom-fishing was a must.
Maybe, just maybe, if he kept it up, he could one day become the richest man in the world.
Of course, that goal was still far off.
The journey would be long.
But he wasn't worried —
He was only 24 years old, and he had all the time he needed.
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