"Chao, I just spoke with Mr. Lu over the phone. He asked me to take you on a tour of the company."

Xu Jiawei’s face was full of enthusiasm as he led Wen Chao around, introducing each department of the company.

The two men, with their tall statures and tailored suits, both boasting an average height of 1.8 meters, walked side by side like the CEO characters that step out of TV dramas into real life.

Especially Wen Chao, with his graceful and refined demeanor, always carrying a slight smile at the corner of his mouth, sparking discussions among the company employees wherever he went.

"I’ve heard that our President Chao is only 29 years old this year?"

"So young, a governor under thirty."

"In retrospect, it makes sense. Our Mr. Lu is only 33, and President Chao was Mr. Lu’s first secretary."

"It feels like Mr. Lu has a major move brewing, otherwise he wouldn’t have called President Chao over."

Wen Chao’s arrival was like a gust of wind, swiftly spreading across Xiangjiang from the Tianxing Quantitative office area.

Xingheng as a company,

Is an important deployment by Lu Liang in East Asia.

Normally, there’s no intentional concealment of its existence, but in daily affairs, it operates discreetly, neither showing off nor standing out.

Since its establishment, it participated only in Bitcoin market investments, and this information was exposed only afterward.

It wasn’t until its involvement in the acquisition battle for Huazhi that people learned Lu Liang actually had an investment company in Tokyo.

Moreover, apart from Lu Liang, the company’s two shareholders are famous conglomerates from Japan and Korea — one is Mitsui Sumitomo from Neon, the other is Hyundai from Korea.

Managing over a hundred billion US dollars in assets and holding a large amount of Bitcoin, it is one of the market makers in the Bitcoin market.

Tianxing and HSBC are openly contesting each other, with both sides engaging in an offense and defense battle surrounding New World.

This period, Wen Chao’s presence in Xiangjiang naturally fuels a lot of speculation.

Once the news broke, the odds for the Zheng Family successfully defending New World surged by 0.06.

"Xiaochao, still truly influential." Lu Liang smiled with squinted eyes as he browsed a gambling website in Macau.

Red represents the home team Zheng Family, successful defense at odds of 1.88 to 1, blue represents the visiting team Hengtai, successful entry at odds of 1.92 to 1.

Previously, the odds were 1.82 to 1.98 for both sides.

With Wen Chao’s arrival, Hengtai directly increased their chances by 6 points; the shift is a total of 12 points.

Wen Chao froze, suddenly finding it amusing: "Mr. Lu, you actually have the time to pay attention to this."

"Don’t you think it’s quite interesting?"

Lu Liang smiled softly, and Wen Chao glanced over to see Lu Liang had also placed a bet, albeit a small one of fifty thousand, on the blue team Hengtai successfully entering New World. He chuckled, "Indeed, it’s quite interesting."

"Don’t be so nervous, like you’re facing a major enemy, relax; it’s not such a big deal."

Lu Liang put away the tablet and patted Wen Chao’s shoulder.

The two came to the coffee table, where Lu Liang brewed tea and asked, "How has Miyuki been performing lately?"

"Miss Sakurada is both diligent and smart. Recently, with the acquisition of the Fuji project reaching a critical stage, she practically wants to stay at the company 24 hours a day. Zhong Daozhi, the project leader, even praised her to me."

Wen Chao’s eyes were full of admiration, unreserved in his praise.

Lu Liang chuckled, "I suppose Zhong Daozhi noticed your attitude towards her."

"There’s that possibility, but Miss Miyuki’s execution ability is indeed among the best of this batch of interns."

Wen Chao smiled without denying it.

After all, the company also has rumors that he is pursuing Sakurada Miyuki, which is why he’s unyielding in his efforts to send Sato Yuuya to jail.

"Is he going to be imprisoned?" Lu Liang asked in surprise.

Sato Yuuya, Miyuki’s direct supervisor, had persistently harassed her and abused his power as section chief by enforcing unspoken rules on two interns from Miyuki’s batch.

Lu Liang felt merely firing him was too lenient.

So he had Wen Chao transfer him to the acquisition project group, a department with substantial perks.

"Sato Yuuya accepted 8 million yen in bribes to assist Fuji TV in falsifying actual assets, and an investigation has already been launched."

Wen Chao nodded with a smile, noting that he’s discussed it with his girlfriend, who is a lawyer, and according to Neon’s law, the minimum sentence for such a situation is three years.

Moreover, with Sato Yuuya being under investigation, it is beneficial for them regarding the Fuji TV acquisition.

Being aware of their wrongdoing, Fuji TV’s leadership is anxious about Xingheng abandoning this acquisition, making substantial concessions with the hopes of swiftly closing the deal to avoid future problems.

Compared to its estimated value of one billion dollars, Fuji TV is nearing bankruptcy and ensnared in a bribery scandal.

An expected 700 million dollars will suffice for a complete acquisition.

At most, within a month, Fuji TV, one of Neon’s six major TV stations, will become Xingheng’s subsidiary asset.

Lu Liang subtly nodded, treating it like a trivial side note, directly moving past the topic.

After a pause of a few seconds, he asked, "The Tianxing Financial Group plans to issue 300 billion US dollars in ABS. I’d like to hear your opinion."

Wen Chao pondered for a moment: "Depending solely on Xiangjiang, it’s difficult to raise so much capital. It’s best to involve several East Asian countries and some Western states."

Lu Liang nodded in agreement.

Wen Chao continued, "We can handle Xiangjiang ourselves. For Neon, we could consider Mitsui Sumitomo; for Korea, Hyundai Group; although in Singapore, would it be possible to enlist Mr. Li Zhikai?"

"Superman Li likely has matters needing my assistance, so Li Zhikai will be willing to help," Lu Liang said with a smile.

Whether Mitsui Sumitomo and Hyundai Group will assist is beyond Lu Liang’s concern as they surely will.

After all, Tianxing Finance’s ABS is backed by Xingheng’s capital and its substantial Bitcoin holdings.

The two firms hold shares of 33.4% and 33.3% respectively, leaving them no choice but to support without conditions.

"So the subscription channel in Europe and America will be handled by Delimei Bank?" Wen Chao said.

Lu Liang nodded, "Yes."

Wen Chao continued, "Next is the allocation of quotas. Although the bonds are initiated in Xiangjiang, backed by the mainland, it is also the region most influenced by Tianxing Finance. We can allocate a quota of 100 billion; the remaining 200 billion can be evenly split between Japan and Korea, Singapore, and Europe and America."

"But there’s no need to be rigidly limited; it’s just a general quota. A little more or less doesn’t matter."

Wen Chao actually trusts Lu Liang very much, but the 300 billion US Dollar ABS, this amount, is somewhat exaggerated.

Moreover, the subscription for New World starts on Friday, and counting everything, they only have two days left.

So even though they set up five fundraising channels, the sources of funds and subscription quotas from each place can be somewhat flexible.

Whether it’s black or white money, as long as it lands in their account, it’s recognized as funds. If it needs to be recovered in the future, it can only be done once the term is over.

The black industry in South Asia, the gray industry in Europe and America...

Those dark forces might be interested, after all, that group’s funds are abundant and can’t be seen in the light.

As long as they can evade regulatory scrutiny during subscription, by the time of settlement, the funds will have turned white.

"Private equity, quantitative funds, and Xingheng have some capital; they can raise funds for the issuance of the ABS and secure enough time."

Lu Liang smiled and said, for this foundational battle, they prepared 40 billion US Dollar in liquid funds in advance.

Acquiring Huazhi is effortless; only a total of 2.9 billion US Dollar was invested, and Liu Cixin contributed it.

Moreover, Huazhi still has 1.82 billion US Dollar lying in its accounts. If needed, a call to Liu Mingwei can mobilize it.

The acquisition of New World has so far only used 8.2 billion US Dollar, of which 3.2 billion was from Hengtai.

Currently, the three institutions under Tianxing Financial Group have 32.1 billion US Dollar available.

This amount is enough to last until next Monday.

"This way, there will be plenty of time."

Wen Chao immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, it’s Wednesday today, and preparing 300 billion US Dollar in two days is undoubtedly a hell-level difficulty.

He then said, "This year’s domestic five-year rate is 3.92%, and the rate for US Treasury bonds is 2.78%. If it’s a five-year term, the annual rate can’t be lower than 3%."

ABS, called asset securitization, essentially means a huge loan, and as long as it’s a loan, there will be interest.

Since the subscription currency is US Dollar, it has to be benchmarked to the US Treasury rate, and at least it can’t be lower than the Federal Reserve.

Lu Liang pondered, "A five-year term at 3.45%, 0.25% higher than BlackRock."

Even if it’s just 0.25% more, for 300 billion US Dollars, it means an additional 750 million US Dollar in interest annually.

A 3.45% annual rate, over five years, totals 51.75 billion US Dollar in interest, averaging 10.35 billion US Dollar per year.

"Mr. Xu’s wealth must be just over 300 billion, right?" Wen Chao felt startled, cracking a suitable joke.

Without calculating, you wouldn’t know, and once you do, it scares you. The interest Tianxing pays could create an East Country First Rich in five years.

"Over 40 billion US Dollar, I guess," Lu Liang chuckled, glancing at the wall clock, as it was time for the meeting with Chen Jiebin.

He got up from the coffee table, tidying his suit, "Come upstairs with me, let’s go meet Mr. Chen."

Whether Tianxing Financial Group can initiate ABS like Ant Group requires approval from the Xiangjiang Financial Management Office.

The reason for putting the meeting with Chen Jiebin last was just to let the public sentiment stir.

Let Old Chen know, in the face of HSBC, they are at a disadvantage; the rice is already cooked, showing their intention to force a hand.

If Tianxing Financial Group were to explode in the future, the 300 billion US Dollar debt would be enough to push the Xiangjiang economy back three to five years.

As the first reviewer of this project, both the Xiangjiang Financial Management Office and Chen Jiebin would be implicated.

At 4 p.m., after the Hong Kong stock market closed.

Huazhi’s decline was -11.24%, closing at 12.52 Yuan, exactly the average price over the past three months, not a dime more.

This indicates investors have no expectations for a high-premium buyback. Rather than risk suspension and locking up funds for months gambling on the capitalists’ conscience, they’d prefer to cash out early.

Compared to Huazhi, New World’s stock price steadily rose, closing at 89.5 Yuan with a market value of 210.2 billion Hong Kong Dollars.

The volume ratio of the day was only 0.01, with trading volume under 100 million, indicating the circulating shares are fully squeezed out.

Even those holding shares are unwilling to sell at this time, after all, next Monday marks the second outbreak, also the final stock hoarding battle.

Selling now is pure lunacy.

Xiangjiang’s local groups quietly continue to repurchase stocks, with the Hang Seng going steadily upward, and the three major indices of Hong Kong stocks officially entering a slow bull market.

Meanwhile, Lu Liang took Wen Chao to the office on the 88th floor of the building.

"Lu Liang, have you thought of how to deal with HSBC?"

Chen Jiebin looked at the Hong Kong stock market situation, joyful yet worried at the same time.

The Hong Kong stock market ended its pullback and entered a slow bull market. As the top financial player, he deserves the most credit.

However, Chen Jiebin has not forgotten who brought this achievement to him, which is why he is concerned.

He is the head of the financial department, and he knows better than anyone how strong HSBC is.

A reserve of 100 billion US Dollars for years is not just a rumor, adding the liquid funds would be even more.

Moreover, as a British-funded representative, HSBC is easier to attract foreign exchange funds than Bank of China.

Although the Financial Management Office is watching, under normal circumstances, HSBC wouldn’t dare misuse the pledged dollars required for currency issuance.

But their supervision of HSBC is not without blind spots; on the contrary, it’s riddled with loopholes like a sieve.

After all, HSBC was established before the Financial Management Office, and during the colonial period, HSBC was the absolute financial hegemony.