186: Chapter 187: A 600 Billion Yuan IPO, Su Chi's Defection and the Bloodbath in Hong Kong Begin

At the end of December, the courtyard house was gripped by the north wind, which carried a bone-chilling cold that made the withered branches in the courtyard rattle.

With a loud "bang," the heavy rosewood study door was pushed open.

Young Master Su Chi strode into the room, tossing his cold-dampened cashmere coat onto the sofa.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his entire being exuded the exhaustion of someone who had been working non-stop for half a month.

Yet, those eyes were as bright as a wolf waiting for its prey in the dark night.

For the past half month, he had been like a ghostly assassin, flying to five provinces and twelve cities.

From the top-tier teahouses in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to private yachts in South China, Young Master Su Chi had visited them one by one—the old acquaintances and old rivals who had deep-seated grudges against the Eight Giants of Shanghai.

At those drinking parties where glasses clinked, Young Master Su Chi lowered his posture, echoing everyone's sentiments that "Shanghai Merchants are doomed" and "Shen Du is at a dead end."

Those local tycoons, who had been suppressed for so long, were also fueled by alcohol, arrogantly clamoring to tear the entire Shanghai Merchants circle to pieces on the Hong Kong market.

However, now that he was back in his absolutely safe and private territory, the fawning fake smile on Young Master Su Chi's face vanished.

He walked straight to the huge whiteboard in the center of the study, tore off his tie, picked up a black marker, and drew a dozen chaotic lines on the board.

"Young Master, this is the monitoring report on the flow of funds from all parties that you requested." A trusted assistant walked in quickly and handed over a thick, top-secret document with both hands.

Young Master Su Chi grabbed the document, flipped directly to the core data summary page, and scanned the dense numbers like a radar.

"What a bunch of full-of-it old foxes..." Young Master Su Chi sneered, throwing the report onto the desk. "They shout about going to Hong Kong to crash the market, screaming louder than anyone else. But look at their main capital pools! They are all using multi-level accounts to hedge risks; no one dares to bet their real trump cards on the short-selling market all at once!"

Young Master Su Chi rested his hands on the desk, his brain spinning wildly. Back when he was fighting for the domestic internet foundation, his pride-and-joy business prediction model had lost miserably to that madman Shen Du, who never played by the rules. But today, when he applied this model to predict these traditional capital tycoons who were superstitious about empiricism, the data obtained was terrifyingly accurate!

If the Eight Giants of Shanghai were truly suffering from a broken capital chain, these hungry wolves smelling blood would definitely show a one-sided, unreserved capital flow. But now, their funds were not only dispersed, but even hinted at a subtle... probing and fear!

Young Master Su Chi suddenly raised his head, staring fixedly at the big words "Jiyuan Entertainment" on the whiteboard. Combining the intelligence he gathered on the ground with the extremely incongruous capital movements of these old foxes, the logical chain in his mind closed instantly.

"Eighty percent probability!" Young Master Su Chi's voice trembled slightly with excitement and lingering fear. "Shen Du making such a big scene is not about seeking help at all! He thinks the domestic market is too small. He is preparing to dig a shocking trap in the bottomless deep water of Hong Kong that can bury hundreds of billions in funds!"

Looking at the "death trap" conclusion deduced on the whiteboard, a layer of fine, cold sweat broke out on Young Master Su Chi's back, instantly soaking the fabric of his high-end shirt until it felt icy. He knew Shen Du's unscrupulous, madman style too well. If this was truly a slaughterhouse designed to lure them in, then those elders in the Beijing Circle who were clamoring to go to Hong Kong to eat meat were simply fat pigs lining up to be sent into Shen Du's meat grinder!

"Young Master, then the funds we prepared to follow the chamber of commerce to crash the market..." The trusted assistant stood aside, watching Young Master Su Chi's changing expression, and asked tentatively.

"Withdraw them! Not a single cent is allowed to follow them into the short-selling market!" Young Master Su Chi turned around abruptly, his voice hoarse from extreme suppression. "Immediately cut off all joint accounts with the Beijing Circle's main short-selling funds! If anyone dares to expose my base position to Shen Du at this juncture, I will cripple them myself!"

The assistant shuddered in fear, nodded repeatedly, and turned to execute the order.

"Wait!" Just as the assistant was about to step out of the study, Young Master Su Chi suddenly called him back sharply.

As a top-tier hunter who had carved a bloody path in this man-eating circle, the words "return empty-handed" never existed in Young Master Su Chi's dictionary. Since he had seen through Shen Du's trump card, just running away and avoiding it would be a huge insult to his frantic investigation over the past half month.

Young Master Su Chi took a deep breath, and the trace of trembling fear in his eyes was quickly swallowed by the extreme madness of a gambler.

"Open my most secret private account in the Cayman Islands." Young Master Su Chi stared at the whiteboard and hammered out the instruction, word by word. "Take all ten billion US dollars of bridge funds in there and sneak them into the Hong Kong Stock Market pool in batches!"

The assistant's eyes widened in disbelief: "Young Master, you... you want to switch sides? We are going to go long on Jiyuan Entertainment?!"

"Since Shen Du dares to set up such a big scene to lure the enemy deep, he absolutely has a backup plan sufficient to overturn the entire Wall Street." Young Master Su Chi sneered and made this gambling decision to defect with extreme decisiveness. "Those old guys in the Beijing Circle want to be cannon fodder to fill the pit? Let them go! This time, I, Young Master Su Chi, will not only avoid this muddy water, but I will also step on their corpses and bet on that madman Shen Du to win!"

January 6th, Central, Hong Kong. As the data on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's big screen refreshed, a hundreds-of-pages-long "Jiyuan Entertainment Prospectus" and the final pricing details were sent to the desktops of major financial institutions around the world like a depth charge through the Bloomberg terminal.

In the trading hall of a top brokerage firm in Central, the originally noisy human voices were cut off by an invisible hand the second the data popped up.

A senior trader stared fixedly at the rows of scarlet numbers on the screen, not even noticing that the coffee cup in his hand had tilted and spilled onto his suit pants.

"Annual net profit of 12 billion RMB... equivalent to 15 billion HKD." He murmured the first line of data; the blood-making ability of this cash cow was indeed terrifying. But immediately after, when his gaze swept to the core pricing strategy in the next line, his pupils dilated instantly due to extreme shock.

"P/E ratio... 40 times?!" A shrill, off-key scream instantly broke the deathly silence of the trading hall.

A 40x P/E! At a time when the outside world generally believed that the Shanghai Business Alliance had "smashed the pots and sold the iron" and the parent company's capital chain was completely broken, Shen Du not only did not sell at a discount, but instead arrogantly offered an astronomically high valuation for Jiyuan Entertainment!

Before everyone could recover from the shock, the core market data on the screen exploded like a chain of mines, making all the traders' scalps tingle.

"Total share capital of 10 billion shares! The public issuance ratio not only did not apply for a large-cap exemption but directly released a massive 20% floating market!"

"Actual new shares issued to the public... a full 2 billion shares!"

"Price per share, 60 HKD!"

When the final total market value figure jumped out, the entire trading hall fell into a deathly silence of gasps.

15 billion HKD in net profit, multiplied by a crazy 40x P/E ratio. Shen Du had forcibly pushed the total market value of Jiyuan Entertainment's listing to an unprecedented 600 billion HKD (approximately 480 billion RMB)!

And that public issuance of 2 billion shares meant that Jiyuan Entertainment was greedily trying to rake in a massive 120 billion HKD in funds from the Hong Kong Stock Market this time!

This was not an IPO; this was simply using the liquidity of the entire Hong Kong Stock Market as an ATM!

For all the external capital eyeing this fat piece of meat, this prospectus was arrogant to the extreme. An isolated Jiyuan Entertainment, lacking the parent company's capital to protect the market, actually dared to throw out such a bubble-filled, sky-high price. This was undoubtedly the most lethal and tempting ultimate bait thrown by Shen Du, a gambler forced into a desperate situation, to the whole world!

Once the overall data was released, it was like a giant boulder crashing into rolling magma. The global capital circle instantly boiled over, setting off an unprecedented, violent tsunami!

In the headquarters building of a top hedge fund on Wall Street, the silver-haired Wall Street tycoon slammed his cigar onto his desk. Staring at the glaring "40x P/E" and "120 billion fundraising" data on the Bloomberg terminal, his entire face was twisted with greed and anger.

"That yellow-skinned monkey Shen Du is crazy! He is completely crazy!" He pounded the desk, roaring hysterically at the traders in the trading hall. "The foundation of those eight major conglomerates in the parent company has almost been drained by that bottomless pit of chips. How can an isolated Jiyuan Entertainment dare to issue at a 40x P/E ratio and an astronomical price of 60 HKD?! This 120 billion HKD fundraising is definitely him drinking poison to quench his thirst because he is at the end of his rope!"

In the eyes of these arrogant Wall Street oligarchs, Shen Du's move was simply an insult to their intelligence.

"Releasing that 20% floating market? Good! Since he doesn't know life from death and hands the chips to us, then short it to death for me!" The Wall Street tycoon's eyes erupted with bloodthirsty light. "From the first second of the opening, smash his market-protecting funds with massive short orders! I want to make this 600 billion market value bubble drop to scrap paper within a day!"

At the same time, the short-selling families and hot money bosses in the country who had been eager to try were all in an uproar after seeing this news.

"It seems the Eight Giants of Shanghai are really at the end of their road, actually daring to mark a 40x P/E to raise money to continue their lives? And daring to release 20% of the floating shares?" A Zhejiang merchant hot money boss sneered on his private yacht, directly issuing a kill order via satellite phone. "Borrow shares! Use leverage! Smash it hard as soon as the market opens! No one is allowed to run this time!"

Whether it was the arrogant Wall Street or the greedy domestic wolf pack, all short-selling institutions reached an unprecedented consensus at this moment: Short Jiyuan Entertainment and carve up the 120 billion HKD blood feast!

At this very moment, in the center of this capital storm capable of overturning the Asian financial landscape, in a dark and absolutely quiet top-tier trading room, Shen Du, the culprit of all this and the one who personally planted this destructive mine, sat calmly in a large leather chair.

He watched coldly at the abnormal data of external funds jumping wildly on the screen, looking at the overwhelming short-selling threats and bearish comments clamoring to tear Jiyuan Entertainment apart. Facing this global capital siege that was enough to make people shudder, Shen Du not only had no panic, but the corners of his mouth slowly curled into a cold, creepy smile.

"Finally, it has started." He picked up the cold black coffee on the table and took a sip. His eyes were like a beast lurking in the abyss, finally waiting for its prey to enter the trap.

January 8th, 9:30 AM. Accompanied by the crisp sound of a gong in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange hall, Jiyuan Entertainment (Stock Code: 09999) was officially listed.

In the first hour of trading, the entire market presented a very strange illusion of "prosperity." Under the frantic pursuit of some retail investors and the small amount of market-protecting funds intentionally released by Shen Du, Jiyuan Entertainment's stock price marched forward with 60 HKD as the base point. The time-sharing line drew a very beautiful angle of elevation.

Within a short forty minutes, the stock price once broke through the 68 HKD mark, approaching the daily limit red line! This kind of lure-the-enemy-deep rise was like a hard slap in the face of those greedy short-selling capitals on the periphery, instantly incinerating the last bit of their rational observation.

"It's now! His market-protecting funds are at the end of their tether, smash it for me!!!"

10:15 AM. The situation changed suddenly! As the Wall Street tycoon and the main traders of the domestic short-selling institutions pressed the enter key at the same time, a financial epic-level short-selling smash erupted like a doomsday tsunami!

The overwhelming volume of short orders poured out without regard for cost. The red line of the stock price, which was still climbing, was hit by a giant hammer the moment it touched this terrifying selling pressure, directly showing a 90-degree cliff-like plunge!

68 HKD... 60 HKD... 50 HKD... 45 HKD! The numbers on the trading screen dived wildly, and the green crash bars poured down like a waterfall.

The entire Hong Kong Stock Exchange hall fell into a suffocating silence. Those retail investors who were still celebrating just now, looking at their accounts that were instantly cut in half, had pale faces, as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.

"Smash! Keep smashing! Smash him into hell!" A hysterical roar erupted in the Wall Street trading room.

Just when everyone thought that Jiyuan Entertainment's defense line had completely collapsed and the stock price would be nailed to the bottom of the abyss forever, overseas, in a huge capital pool composed of hundreds of multi-level offshore accounts, Zhou Zhenghai sat in front of a dozen constantly flashing data screens.

Holding the hundreds of billions of US dollars drawn from the Eight Giants of Shanghai and lurking out of the country through secret channels, looking at the bloody chips on the screen that had fallen to a point that was even outrageous, the fierce light of a hungry wolf erupted in Zhou Zhenghai's usually calm eyes.

"Close the net!" Accompanied by Zhou Zhenghai's sharp shout, the thousand-billion capital pool hidden at the very bottom of the abyss finally opened its bloody mouth brutally. They didn't push the stock price up at all, but like a deep-sea giant whale, right there at the most desperate bottom, they greedily and madly devoured all the bloody chips thrown out by the short-selling institutions!