Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 493: Light of Hong Kong
Not only did Lin Chaoyang forget to bring his food coupons, he even forgot to bring his RMB.

He really wanted to show off his face, but he thought his face might not be worth a bowl of fried liver and two buns, so he took out a 2 franc coin.

"Bill, please!"

Lin Chaoyang handed over the coin and said, "Don't give me the change."

"Eh!"

The waiter stopped him and said, "Give me the money!"

"Isn't this given to you? This is my foreign exchange!"

The waiter waved the coin in front of his eyes and said, "No, we will accept RMB and food coupons now."

Lin Chaoyang said in embarrassment: "Why don't you keep the foreign exchange yourself and just help me pay for breakfast."

The waiter looked at him suspiciously, then held the coin in front of his eyes and examined it carefully for a long time without saying anything.

Lin Chaoyang took out a 20-yuan Debussy note from his pocket and said, "Look, it's really a French franc."

It would have been fine if he didn't take the "Debussy", but once he took it out, the waiter was even more unconvinced. Whose banknote printing quality is so poor?

Seeing that the waiter was almost thinking he was a liar, Lin Chaoyang felt helpless.

"Hey, Chaoyang?" A surprised voice sounded.

Lin Chaoyang turned his head and said, "Wang Shuo? Are you here for breakfast?"

"Well, bring them some food."

We had a party in the West Courtyard yesterday. Most people left by the evening, but there were still a few diehards who stayed up until midnight and slept in the West Courtyard that night.

"What are you..."

Lin Chaoyang smiled bitterly, "I forgot to bring my food coupons!"

Wang Shuo couldn't help but smile, and teased the waiter, "This is a great writer who just returned home with honor after winning glory for his country abroad!"

"Writers can't eat for free!" said the waiter righteously.

"Don't talk nonsense, help me settle the bill."

As Wang Shuo was holding the cymbals, Lin Chaoyang said something unhappily to him, stuffed the Debussy into his hand, and walked out the door.

Wang Shuo took a look at the coins in the waiter's hand, took the money, and said unforgivingly: "Look at you, you don't know how to make money, you let me pick up half a month's salary for nothing."

After he finished speaking, he paid for Lin Chaoyang. The waiter looked at the foreign currency in his hand again and this time he felt a little regretful.

I shouldn't have stuck to my principles!

It was less than 6:30 when Lin Chaoyang came out of the breakfast shop. He went home for a while and then Zhu Wei came to find him from the west yard.

"You haven't left yet? That's great, let's get a ride."

At almost eight o'clock, Lin Chaoyang drove with Zhu Wei towards the East Third Ring Road.

On the East Third Ring Road, located at the northeast corner of Changhong Bridge in later generations, there are two buildings standing side by side, square and well-behaved, like a pair of twins.

The sixteen-story building may not be noticeable in later generations, but in 87, it was enough to look down on the low buildings in Tuanjiehu Community across the street.

These two buildings belong to different units. The one on the east is Tongguang Building, and the one on the west is the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Building. The address is "No. 10, Agricultural Exhibition Hall South Lane".

The China Federation of Literary and Art Circles building is named after the Federation, but it was actually jointly built by the Federation and the Literary Association.

After the humanitarian flood ended, the National Federation of Literary and Art Circles was forced to live in the compound at No. 2 Shatan North Street, which was not a long-term solution.

So they joined hands with the Federation of Literary and Art Circles to submit a report on the construction of the building. At the end of last year, the building was finally completed at No. 10, South Lane, Agricultural Exhibition Hall.

In addition to a 16-story main building, a theater-style auditorium and a five-story building used as a guesthouse and cafeteria were built on the north and northeast sides of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles building respectively.

Lin Chaoyang's Crown drove into the courtyard of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles building. Zhu Wei got out of the car and said to Lin Chaoyang:

"It's still early, why don't you come over to our place and sit with us?"

"Okay!"

The two of them went straight to the fifth floor.

After the Federation of Literary and Art Circles building was completed, the Federation and its headquarters did not move in directly. Instead, the Federation allowed several smaller associations under its jurisdiction, such as the Music Association, the Artists Association, the Folk Arts Association, and the Chinese Music Association to move in.

The Writers Association then moved in its subordinate Writers Publishing House, Literary Gazette, People's Literature Publishing House and others.

The reason why the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Association of Literary and Art Circles do this is mainly because over the past decade of reform and opening up, the domestic literary and artistic undertakings have developed greatly and the literary and artistic teams have also grown rapidly.

The newly built Federation of Literary and Art Circles building could no longer accommodate all the staff of the two units before it was even put into use.

At this time, everyone has to have some dignity. Which leader would have the nerve to move into a magnificent building and leave the second-level units and subordinates to live in earthquake-resistant shelters? Aren't they afraid of being criticized?

Going up to the fifth floor, this is now the place shared by People's Literature and Poetry Magazine.

Standing at the stairs, Lin Chaoyang joked, "Great! Your People's Literature has really upgraded its arsenal!"

When Tao Yushu was still working at People's Literature, they were still working at Dongsi 8th Street, and the conditions were difficult.

"The times are developing, society is progressing, and we can't stand still, right?"

Zhu Wei joked and led Lin Chaoyang into the office.

In less than two minutes, the whole floor became lively, as everyone wanted to see the "new winner of the French Renaudot Literature Award."

This is of course a joke, but everyone is really here to watch the fun.

Because of Tao Yushu, Lin Chaoyang had a very good relationship with People's Literature. He chatted and laughed with everyone when he met them, and it was very lively.

"I was wondering who came to make People's Literature so lively? It turns out to be today's protagonist!"

As everyone was talking, a hearty laugh came from the door. It turned out to be Tang Dacheng.

He is now the head of the Literary Association and has dealt with Lin Chaoyang many times.

The reason why he said Lin Chaoyang was "the protagonist of today" was because the Cultural Association was going to hold a commendation meeting for Lin Chaoyang in the auditorium.

Lin Chaoyang chatted with him for a while, and when he saw that it was almost time, he went downstairs to the auditorium.

The huge banner with red background and yellow characters at the commendation meeting was hung directly behind the podium in the auditorium, demonstrating an invisible momentum.

When Lin Chaoyang and Tang Dacheng entered the auditorium, there were already quite a few people sitting inside.

Most of them are people from the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Association of Literary and Art Circles, as well as people from subordinate second-level units.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the commendation meeting officially began. Tang Dacheng, as the head of the Literary Association, delivered an enthusiastic speech, praising Lin Chaoyang for winning the French Renaudot Literature Prize:
"...Comrade Chaoyang's award has effectively expanded the boundaries and artistic realm of our contemporary Chinese literature, and has also set an excellent example for the development of contemporary Chinese literature overseas. He deserves his own place in the history of contemporary Chinese literature."

After Tang Dacheng finished speaking, Lin Chaoyang spoke next.

Tang Dacheng had praised him highly before, so Lin Chaoyang naturally had to be modest and low-key. He briefly recounted the events before and after winning the award and expressed his feelings. After his speech, there was warm applause from the audience.

As for the commendation meeting, the content is really unremarkable. What is important is the form and the affirmation of the Literary Association.

In the National Federation of Literary and Art Circles, summary and commendation conferences are held every year, but it is very rare to hold a commendation conference specifically for writers.

Writers who win domestic literary awards do not receive this treatment. They basically have to win more prestigious awards overseas or be recognized by some authoritative international organizations.

Over the years, few domestic writers have won awards overseas.

Therefore, the commendation meeting held by the Literary Association for Lin Chaoyang is naturally of great significance.

Just as Tang Dacheng said in his speech, receiving the Renaudot Prize has allowed Lin Chaoyang to shed the label of a "young writer" and has enabled him to truly possess his own status and voice in the contemporary literary world.

The commendation meeting ended in an hour, after which Lin Chaoyang accepted an interview with the Literary Gazette.

When he finished his meal outside and returned to Xiaoliubukou Hutong, he found that there were several guests at home.

After chatting, I found out that these people were from the Youth League Committee or Student Union of several universities in Yenching University. They came to invite Lin Chaoyang to give a report at the school. Lin Chaoyang gladly agreed.

In the following days, Lin Chaoyang traveled around various universities in Yenching.

Wherever he went, there were crowds of people, and thousands of students came to welcome him as if he were an idol.

The welcome he received was even warmer than that of the poets in previous years.

Readers' enthusiastic pursuit is certainly pleasing, but what makes Lin Chaoyang even happier is that since the news of the Renaudot Literature Prize spread back to China, many of his previously published works have ushered in a wave of hot sales.

Among them, the increase in sales of "The Truman Show" was the most exaggerated. According to rough statistics from Huacheng Publishing House, "The Truman Show" sold nearly 50 copies within ten days after the news of the award was reported back to China.

Originally, bookstores in various places certainly did not have so much inventory. It was only after Lin Chaoyang won the award that he informed the cooperating publishing houses of the news, which prevented these publishing houses from being caught off guard by the sudden surge in sales.

After all, "The Truman Show" is an award-winning work, so it is understandable that it has achieved such outstanding results.

In addition, his new work "Big Times" also performed very well, and its reputation among critics quickly recovered, which is related to his winning of the award.

But the more important reason is that many media in Guangdong have recently reported on the stock market crash in Hong Kong last month.

Throughout October, not only the Hong Kong stock market, but also major stock exchanges around the world including New York, London, Sydney and Toronto experienced index plunges to varying degrees.

Among them, the London stock market was far ahead with a drop of 45.8%, followed by the US stock market with a drop of 41.8%.

The Hong Kong stock market is highly correlated with the U.S. and British stock markets, so it was naturally not immune to this stock market crash.

After experiencing a sharp drop in the first week or so, the Hang Seng Index has shown no signs of recovery. It has continued to fall in recent days and has now fallen below the 2000 point mark.

It took more than a year for the Hang Seng Index to rise from more than 1,000 points to more than 3,000 points, but it only took half a month to return to its original level. This can be regarded as one of the biggest tragedies in the Asian stock market in recent years.

Hong Kong society was in mourning, and the media's follow-up reports further fueled the pessimism of citizens and stock investors. Public opinion was constantly heated, and all kinds of strange stories about the stock market crash emerged one after another.

Among them, one news wave particularly attracted attention, that is, the claim that "Big Times" "accurately predicted" the current stock market crash.

After many days of reporting by the Hong Kong media, this statement has long been known to the people of Hong Kong, and even triggered a rush to buy and read the novel.

In just over half a month, the Ming Pao Publishing edition of "The Big Times" sold over 80 copies in Hong Kong.

This figure created a sales record for serious literary works in Hong Kong's history. Even if popular literary works are compared together, it is still among the few that can be counted on one's fingers.

After all, Hong Kong is just a city with a population of four or five million.

Lin Chaoyang had become a hot topic in the domestic news media these days because he won the French Renaudot Literature Prize.

Now, news suddenly spreads from Hong Kong that his new work actually has the power to influence the Hong Kong stock market, so of course these domestic media will publicize it widely.

As Guangdong media took the lead in paying attention to the Hong Kong stock market crash, the relationship between "The Greed of Man" and the stock market crash also attracted the attention of more mainland media.

Less than a week after Guangdong media began reporting on The Great Times and the Hong Kong stock market crash, several domestic media outlets reprinted the related content.

In addition, many media outlets fully exerted their subjective initiative and obtained a lot of seemingly true information through various channels, which they published in newspapers without any verification.

The outrageousness of these reports is simply outrageous - outrageous to the extreme.

For example, there are reports that:
On the day when the novel "Big Times" was released in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index plummeted 1100 points, causing the worst stock market tragedy in Hong Kong in decades.

For example, some newspapers reprinted the content of Hong Kong newspapers, saying that the predictions about the stock market in "The Greed of Man" led to panic selling in the Hong Kong securities market, which was the direct cause of the stock market crash.

At this time, there was no Internet, and newspapers were the most authoritative way to release news. People believed in the content of newspapers without a doubt. Most of the media in the 1980s still had a conscience, but the corruption of many media and journalists had already begun to show signs.

The most typical example is the road to fame of Master Haideng, a Buddhist monk.

Master Haideng was originally just a monk who lived in seclusion in Sichuan. He was quite famous in the Buddhist community, but not well-known among the people.

In order to shoot the large-scale news documentary "Sichuan Curiosities", Emei Film Studio found out about Master Haideng.

The personal visit allowed Master Haideng to demonstrate his superb martial arts, which made him famous overnight. Everything was normal up to this point.

But after Master Haideng became famous, a reporter from the Yanjing Evening News wrote a half-true and half-false report in order to attract readers' attention, in which Master Haideng's identity was changed to the abbot of Shaolin Temple.

The common people believed it and thought that Master Haideng was the abbot of Shaolin Temple.

However, this angered the real abbot of Shaolin Temple, who filed a lawsuit with the China FJ Association, causing quite a stir.

Although the news about "The Greed of Man" and the Hong Kong stock market crash had been distorted when it reached China, it did not prevent ordinary people from believing it.

Moreover, humans are often unable to resist mysticism and conspiracy theories.

Statements like "The Greed of Man" caused the Hong Kong stock market to plummet" sound exciting and explosive. It's very topical and fun to chat about!

A lot of news about "The Greed of Man" and the Hong Kong stock market became popular in the country in a short period of time.

In addition to attracting the attention of many readers in the many media outlets that reported on this incident, the most direct impact was that the novel "Big Times" became more popular and its sales continued to rise.

On November 11, Lin Chaoyang returned to Beijing and in the week that followed, he participated in commendation meetings, interviews, reports, speeches... He attended all kinds of activities and completed the government's propaganda mission.

In a blink of an eye, he has been away from Hong Kong for more than half a month, and he has to go back to see his wife and children.

He flew back to Hong Kong and was teased by Tao Yumo as soon as he got home.

"Hey, isn't this the 'Light of Hong Kong'?"

"What is the light of Xiangjiang?"

Lin Chaoyang was completely confused when he heard this and had no idea what was going on.

"You don't know yet, do you? This is the name given to you by the Hong Kong media!"

Tao Yumo smiled brightly when talking about this.

More than half a month ago, the Hong Kong stock market crash broke out, and some newspapers linked "The Great Times" to the stock market crash.

The reporters wanted to dig up some news about the author Lin Chaoyang, but they couldn't find him after two days of searching. Tao Yumo told them that Lin Chaoyang had gone to France to receive an award.

These reporters were very disappointed that they could not dig out the inside story of "Big Times" and the stock market crash, but this regret was soon offset by Lin Chaoyang's winning of the award.

The stock market crash made The Greed of Man extremely popular in Hong Kong. Naturally, the author of the novel, Lin Chaoyang, also became the focus of public attention. He won an award abroad. Isn’t this also quite eye-catching news?
The reporters waited for two days and indeed found the news of Lin Chaoyang's winning the award in some international media, and then some media reprinted the news as soon as possible.

Lin Chaoyang has been receiving a lot of attention recently, and people love to read news about him.

After the news was reported, it immediately achieved good results.

Seeing this situation, some media began to exaggerate the greatness of the Copeland Prize for Literature to the public. The whole trend of the incident was exactly the same as what the mainland media did more than a week ago.

In the end, everyone was praising Lin Chaoyang so much that the public became numb and the media also felt it was a bit lackluster.

Therefore, Ming Pao made a big announcement and published an article saying: The Renaudot Prize is the crown of French literature, and Lin Chaoyang is the pride of Hong Kong for winning this honor.

Ming Pao is a major newspaper in Hong Kong with considerable influence, and the person it evaluated is Lin Chaoyang, a popular writer who has been dominating Hong Kong recently.

The title of "The Pride of Hong Kong" immediately won the recognition of many Hong Kong citizens. In addition to allowing Ming Pao to fight a beautiful battle for voice among media peers, it also gilded Lin Chaoyang with a layer of gilded image.

After Tao Yumo finished explaining the origin of the title "The Light of Hong Kong", she asked Lin Chaoyang with a smile on her face: "How is it? Brother-in-law, does this title sound good?"

Lin Chaoyang smiled and said, "Of course it's good. How can I not be happy when someone praises me?"

"You have really become a celebrity in Hong Kong now. In the past few days, you have received endless interview invitations from various media, and some wealthy people have even invited you to their dinner parties."

Lin Chaoyang had expected the media interview invitation, but he was quite surprised by the invitation from the wealthy man.

"Rich man? Who?"

"Li Zhaofu, Zhuang Zhongwen."

After Tao Yumo called out these two names, Lin Chaoyang couldn't help but frown.

Zhuang Zhongwen is a patriotic businessman. When Lin Chaoyang visited Hong Kong with a group of mainland writers, he was entertained by him.

After moving to Hong Kong, Lin Chaoyang never contacted him on his own initiative.

After all, he is a very wealthy man, and Lin Chaoyang doesn't want others to think that he is trying to curry favor with him.

Zhuang Zhongwen had met Lin Chaoyang once before, so there was a reason for inviting him to the banquet, but what about Li Zhaofu?

In a society like Hong Kong, tycoons like Li Zhaofu, who are worth nearly 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, are at the top of society. Lin Chaoyang doesn't think there is anything about himself that is worthy of his winning over.

After thinking for a while, Lin Chaoyang could only attribute the reason to his operations in the stock market.

Thinking of this, he dialed the stock trading phone number of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

After understanding the situation and confirming what he was thinking, Lin Chaoyang hung up the phone.

When the stock market crash happened before, Maggie Cheung asked him if he bought any stocks. He indeed did not, but that does not mean he did not do anything.

It would be unreasonable for him not to make some pocket money from the unexpected opportunity of the 87 stock market crash.

Before the stock market crash, he targeted the stocks of Wong Yuk-long's Yuk-long Organization. He first sold out all the stocks of China Taicheng City, and then leveraged it 10 times, raising up to HK$1.4 million from the organization.

Then he used all the money to borrow shares of Yulang Group from a brokerage firm.

It is simply a fantasy to borrow such a huge amount of stocks through a brokerage firm.

But Wong Yuk-long's operation was too aggressive, giving Lin Chaoyang an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

Wong Yuk-long founded Yuk-long International in 1979. Last year, Yuk-long International was listed in Hong Kong under the name of "Yuk-long Organization Limited". Wong Yuk-long held a 75% stake with a market value of HK$2.4 million.

At that time, the Jade Long Organization published 14 comic books and a weekly magazine called "Jade Long Television", sweeping the Hong Kong comics industry.

After the listing, Wong Yuk-long's confidence grew and he took continuous actions.

First, it spent HK$1300 million to purchase the Chai Wan Hongmin Center as the factory building for the Yulang Printing Factory.

Later, it bought the 7000-storey King's Road News Building from Sing Tao Newspaper Group for HK$10 million as the administrative and production headquarters of the Yulang Group.

Next, he set his sights on Tiantian Daily.

This daily newspaper, founded by Wei Jize and Wei Jishun of the Wei family in 1960, was the world's first color newspaper and was acquired by Liu Tianjiu of the Millionaire Group in 1977.

The following year, the Hermès Group declared bankruptcy and was taken over by the Hong Kong British government's bankruptcy administration agency.

The domestic Jincheng Bank was its creditor, and the New H Company entrusted the patriotic Hong Kong businessman He Shizhu to host the "Tiantian Daily".

As a result, under the leadership of Ho Sai-chu, the Tian Tian Daily was revived and became the second largest daily newspaper in Hong Kong.

In April this year, Wong Yuk-long reached an agreement with Ho Sai-chu and acquired 4% of the shares of Tian Tian Daily and all the shares of its Tian Tian Color Printing Company for HK$7700 million.

In July, Wong Yuk-long once again spent HK$7 million to acquire Fresh Weekly.

In the same month, it acquired Youth magazine for HK$930 million.

In just over half a year, Wong Yuk-long made several moves and spent money like water.

Yulang Organization has just gone public and is only beginning to take shape. Where does it get so much money?

Even if his Yulang Organization was a golden goose, it would be impossible for it to draw such a huge amount of money in a short period of time.

This is no secret in the Hong Kong securities industry. The reason why Wong Yuk-long has so much money is that he was inspired by his fellow countryman and friend Liu Luanxiong and sold his company shares in exchange for massive funds.

Over the past six months, the more shares Wong Yuk-long issued, the richer he became. The richer he became, the more he invested, and the higher the share price rose.

As the snowball rolled bigger and bigger, the market value of Yulang Group soared from HK$2.4 million when it was first listed to HK$20 billion.

Wong Yuk-long raised a total of HK$4.5 million, and the company's shares he held also dropped sharply from 75% to 36.4%.

With hundreds of millions of funds in hand and a series of successful investments, Wong Yuk-long ushered in the highlight moment of his life. However, he never imagined that he was about to face the biggest failure of his life.

In fact, it was not just him, all Hong Kong securities practitioners and stock investors could not have thought of this.

Before the stock market crash, Wong Yuk-long once again followed the example of his fellow countryman Liu Luanxiong and invested HK$2.6 million to enter the market and speculate in futures.

At its peak, the floating profit was HK$2.1 million, but the bear market hit and the futures index plummeted by 2000 points. The futures contracts held by Wong Yuk-long directly turned from a floating profit of HK$2.1 million to a floating loss of HK$9000 million.

Yulang Organization’s main business is publishing, not securities investment.

Wong Yuk-long was not doing his job properly and suffered heavy losses in the stock market crash. Last week, he was attacked by the small shareholders of the Yuk-long Group.

Affected by the stock market crash, the share price of Yulang Group has been falling all the way.

As the news of small shareholders forcing the emperor to abdicate came out, the share price of Yulang Group plummeted, with its market value being less than HK$3 million, and the share price continued to decline as the market fell.

Two days ago, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission ordered Yulang Group to suspend trading for 6 days and undergo investigation, which was like adding insult to injury.

Although Yulang Group has been suspended from trading for now, everyone knows that the company's stock price may still have a lot of room to fall.

Lin Chaoyang just called the stockbroker to verify the current situation of Yulang Organization and Huang Yulang.

Possessing a God's vision, he was ruthless in shorting the Yulang Organization.

Now, the share price of Yulang Organization has fallen by 80% from its peak. Even after paying the handling fees and dividend compensation, Lin Chaoyang's conservative profit will exceed 1 million Hong Kong dollars.

All he needed to do next was to buy at a very low price after Yulang Institution resumed trading, and return the same number of stocks to the brokerage firm, and everything would be fine.

He must be happy with such a result.

Naturally, his predictive operation could not escape the eyes of Li Zhaofu, Chairman of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

So Lin Chaoyang guessed that this should be the reason why Li Zhaofu took the initiative to make friends with him.

Lin Chaoyang was not worried that the news of his shorting of Yulang Organization would become known and attract the covetousness of others.

Wong Yuk-long's investment style is inherently aggressive. Any negative news will cause the share price of Yuk-long Group to experience a roller coaster ride. It just so happens that he had issued too many shares before, so it is normal for some people to short sell.

Moreover, there were a lot of short sellers in the market, and Lin Chaoyang just happened to catch the stock market crash and made a lot of pocket money.

As for the media reports that "Big Times" predicted the stock market crash, the novel did write about the stock market crash, but the detailed content had already been changed by Lin Chaoyang and was very different from reality.

This incident was more of a far-fetched story by the media, and coupled with the anxiety and panic of society and investors, it had such a big impact.

I was thinking through all the details in my mind, but only a minute or two had passed.

Seeing that Lin Chaoyang had been silent in deep thought after the call, Tao Yumo couldn't help but ask:
"Brother-in-law, what are you thinking about?"

"Nothing, where's your sister?"

"My sister said she had something to discuss with Crown Prince Zhong and Crown Prince Chen tonight, so she'll be back late."

(End of this chapter)