What's wrong with me?" Duan Chao said, lying uncomfortably on the bed.
It was 2022, and the concept of Earth's spiritual energy revival was accepted by many. As a freeloading homebody, Duan Chao naturally believed this and resolutely joined a team of cultivation enthusiasts. According to astronomical observations and legends, a dozen or so of them arrived at Mount Wangwu on September 9th, ready to embrace the baptism of spiritual energy.
The short and stout Duan Chao couldn't keep up, becoming the last person in the team. In a sudden flash of golden light, his vision abruptly went dark, and he lost consciousness. When he awoke again, his brain felt heavy and extremely uncomfortable.
"Cheng Zai, you're awake!" A slightly hoarse voice sounded in Duan Chao's ear. Despite the strange tone, he understood it.
"Cheng Zai?" Duan Chao murmured in confusion, then a headache shot up. He Zhengcheng? His current name was He Zhengcheng? Then he fainted once more!
When he woke up again, it was already night. Although the room was bright, it was not difficult to tell that it was nighttime.
Duan Chao, or rather He Zhengcheng, finally understood his current situation. Although he didn't know why or how it happened, somehow the memories of Duan Chao and He Zhengcheng had merged, indistinguishable from each other, and he had inexplicably returned to Hong Kong in 1998.
"Where am I? What happened to me?" He Zhengcheng tried to think hard, only to feel waves of headache, which was very uncomfortable.
Slowly, he recovered, but he still didn't know if the spiritual energy had revived. Just as he was pondering how to leave this place that looked like a hospital, a wave of unfamiliar memories suddenly flooded his brain, almost instantly causing him to crash.
"Who am I? Where am I?" He Zhengcheng's eyes were unfocused, and his voice and tone had changed dramatically.
"God is playing with me! Why isn't it a spiritual energy revival? My cultivation career is over just like that!" The sober He Zhengcheng finally realized that he had been reborn, not in the Mainland, but in Hong Kong in 1998. What was worse was that God hadn't given him a rich father; he was still from an ordinary family.
Even if it was an ordinary family, he was facing the threat of bankruptcy right after his rebirth.
It turned out that the father of this He Zhengcheng was He Wenxuan. He had worked hard for decades and finally opened his own hotel. A few years ago, he even bought an 800-square-foot apartment in Lakeside Villas, and the family lived a harmonious life.
He Wenxuan's hotel was actually called Haifeng Hotel, and the property rights originally didn't belong to them. The original landlord wanted to transfer the property rights of the hotel as part of a deal. He Wenxuan felt it was a rare opportunity and, despite the landlord's dissuasion, borrowed money to buy the hotel.
However, it was 1998, and He Zhengcheng was surprised to find that even in this timeline, Soros was still ravaging Southeast Asia, creating a financial crisis that affected the entire Asia-Pacific region.
As memories flowed back, He Zhengcheng recalled more.
Last year, international hot money led by Soros attacked Hong Kong, causing significant losses to the Hong Kong financial market. Fortunately, it was temporarily repelled by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's three-pronged attack, and Soros went to Japan and South Korea for plunder.
However, the impact of the financial crisis had already taken hold, leading directly to a sharp decline in both Hong Kong's stock market and housing prices, especially the housing prices that had surged before 1997.
He Wenxuan, of course, knew that housing prices were falling, but the landlord's transfer as part of a deal brought the price back to late 1996 levels. At this time, the market was full of propaganda that housing prices would not fall, and the Mainland would take over… He Wenxuan, who was courting disaster, believed it and borrowed a loan from the bank that exceeded his family's repayment capacity.
But the contract was signed last year, and Hong Kong's housing prices continued to fall until July of this year. Moreover, the financial crisis meant that the He Family's Haifeng Hotel was not as prosperous as before.
With decreasing income on one side, falling housing prices on another, and the bank demanding increased collateral, pressure mounted. Helpless, He Wenxuan thought of taking a shortcut.
He wouldn't resort to cheating or swindling, and while he bought many Mark Six tickets, his luck was clearly bad.
The tragic He Wenxuan then tried to make money by speculating in stocks, so he directly used several million from the hotel's cash flow to buy HSBC Holdings shares. Unfortunately, he bought them precisely at a temporary peak.
The Hang Seng Index also fell from 11,400 points when He Wenxuan bought the shares to the current 8,600-plus points. It dropped by a quarter, and HSBC Holdings' share price fell from 230 to 190 hong kong dollars. How could one describe this with just the word 'miserable'? He didn't make money; he lost a ton of it.
As for our protagonist, He Zhengcheng, he was a top student who had just graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, majoring in hotel and tourism management. His goal in this life was to develop and expand the He Family's small hotel. After graduating this year, the job market was sluggish. Although he found a job, the pay wasn't great. Just as his family encountered problems, he wanted to help his father overcome this crisis.
Ever since he learned in March or April that He Wenxuan was bottom-fishing in the stock market, He Zhengcheng had strong opinions. But he never expected that yesterday, or perhaps the day before yesterday, He Wenxuan would choose to increase his position in HSBC Holdings at 190 hong kong dollars, and even invest all three months of their hotel's cash flow into the stock market. This greatly escalated the conflict.
As a top student, He Zhengcheng naturally knew that Father He's counter-trend additional purchase was courting disaster. Soon, they started arguing. Under months of pressure, Father He, who was usually gentle, resorted to violence, and the two began to fight.
After Mother He separated the father and son, He Zhengcheng went out alone to drink away his sorrows. As luck would have it, he was ambushed and knocked unconscious at a street corner. It was at this moment that Duan Chao seized the opportunity!
"Damn it, the Asian Financial Crisis is almost over. Why did I arrive at this point in time? If only I had come a year earlier, with this family's foundation, I could have made a fortune and retired." In the darkness, it seemed that Duan Chao's consciousness was taking the lead. You wouldn't expect a freeloading homebody to have much fighting spirit. Eating well, being lazy, and waiting to die were their highest ideals.
"Good thing it's not 1999, or else I wouldn't even have the chance to become a nouveau riche!" After a while, He Zhengcheng said with some relief.
"That's not right, my family is about to go bankrupt. God wouldn't play me like this, would He? Without the first pot of gold, even if I'm reborn, I can only struggle at the bottom!" He Zhengcheng became anxious, pulling at his hair and trying hard to recall. He really did remember a lot of useful information.
Although it was mid-July 1998, the Asian Financial Crisis hadn't passed yet, had it? He Zhengcheng had seen the next part of the plot in a certain urban rebirth novel.
The Hong Kong Government began its counterattack on August 14th. Because the next day was a weekend, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority raised a large sum of money in advance, catching their opponents off guard. After gathering more funds over the weekend, they launched a full counter-offensive in the new week, continuously buying up shares on the Stock Exchange for several days, forcefully pushing the Hang Seng Index up to 8,000 points.
It seemed to be July 18th or 19th now; he still had time!
"But in my situation, is this rebirth, transmigration, or possession?" With his mind slightly relaxed, He Zhengcheng fell asleep while contemplating the meaning of the universe and life… The protagonist was a bit chuunibyou at first, not the kind of smart person who never makes mistakes. Initially, due to transmigration and rebirth, he was a bit erratic. His growth would require time and experience.