Chapter 78 Take Control of Your Wife
Between New Year's Day and the Spring Festival, Nan Wah Group of Hospitals held one charity event after another.
Sir Fang was resting in the backstage guest room after attending the event.
Ye Baoxin arrived as promised, carrying a large designer handbag.
He glanced at the door, and his personal attendant tactfully withdrew.
Sir Fang looked at the elegantly dressed girl with a playful expression.
Ye Baoxin wasn't particularly beautiful, but she was young, knew how to dress, was a well-educated and reasonable overseas student, and had a sense of humor—she was his type.
He asked, "Still unwilling to give up?"
Ye Baoxin explained in a low voice, "Shanxing took the initiative to make up with me."
Sir Fang: "What do you think?"
Ye Baoxin stepped forward and asked in a low voice, "What can you give me?"
“I told you last time, I can give you what good deeds can’t. I can make you the head of the charitable foundation under the South China Group Hospitals, starting as vice-chairman. When the time is right and you have experience, I’ll promote you to chairman. This job is respectable, high-paying, easy, and you’ll be surrounded by influential people. It’s prestigious and lucrative, and you can even choose a suitable man to marry. On the surface, you’ll be someone else’s wife, but in reality, you’ll be my woman. I’ll give you pocket money every month. And when I die, I’ll leave you an inheritance.” Sir Fang’s plan was very clear.
He knew Ye Baoxin's current predicament and was also very clear about how tempting the bait he offered was.
Money is secondary; the position of chairman of a charitable foundation guarantees a lifetime of comfort and success in high society.
Ye Baoxin looked out the window, a hint of longing barely perceptible on her face. She asked, "If I go to Nan Wah Group of Hospitals Charitable Foundation as the person in charge, how will you explain it to Shanxing?"
Sir Fang laughed and said, "That's easy. I told you, in order to break you up, I offered you the position of head of the charity foundation, and you, for your own benefit, chose to abandon him. That way, he will finally give up."
Ye Baoxin nodded slightly: "Okay. Grandpa Fang, please give me some time. I hope that I can make up with Shanxing amicably."
Sir Fang smiled with satisfaction upon hearing her agree.
But he wasn't too happy about being called Grandpa Fang.
He is over seventy years old, but he takes good care of himself and looks much younger than Ye Qizu.
He gently placed his hand on Ye Baoxin's hand. "Don't call me Grandpa. Call me Dingkun. Everyone likes to call me Sir Fang. It's been many years since anyone called me by my name."
Ye Baoxin forced herself to stay awake and pulled her hand away. "Don't do anything inappropriate to me before you break up with Shanxing."
Sir Fang glanced at her; having rules was a good thing.
He didn't press the matter.
*
Ye Baoling discussed the investment plan for the coming year with Liu Haonan in Qiyuan's office.
After the stock market crash, they left more than 200 million in US stocks and leveraged it five times to go long on US stocks. In two months, the 200 million turned into 500 million.
They transferred some funds back to Hong Kong stocks, but Ye Qingtang's shares in the secondary market are no longer available, so they can no longer continue to buy at the bottom.
Ye Baoling's strategy is to buy Hong Kong Connect Industries shares on dips.
After completing the layout, she returned to the Yulong Building and held a meeting for Ye Qingtang herbal tea in the morning.
The production of the second batch of jasmine iced tea is proceeding smoothly.
Two versions of the iced tea have been released and are ready for production. One is the American version of iced tea with increased sweetness, based on L&D's suggestion; the other is the Hong Kong version of iced tea with moderate sweetness.
As for opening a factory in Shenzhen, Ye Baoling asked Qu Zhengming to take people to conduct research first. It didn't matter that her grandfather disagreed with building the factory; they should do a solid preliminary job first, and then figure out how to achieve their goal later.
After finishing up here and having lunch, we'll continue with the strategic meeting for Suman Jewelry in the afternoon.
Yan Youli, the purchasing director, said, "The Little Bieber gold mine in Australia has been signed, but we may not be able to use the gold produced by our own mine until the second half of the year. We still need to continue to purchase gold raw materials from Phyllis."
Ye Baoling asked, "I see that Phyllis's wholesale price is not cheap. Is there any room for negotiation on this price?"
Yan Youli glanced at Ye Kaishen, then smiled and said, "We've been cooperating with Phyllis for many years, so this is actually a pretty reasonable price. Gold bought on the London Gold Exchange is much more expensive."
Ye Kaishen nodded slightly: "Yes, the old man personally negotiated with this supplier."
Ye Baoling glanced at them and could tell they were hiding something, but she pretended not to know and insisted, "If we can't reach an agreement, we'll switch suppliers. I've inquired and found out that Zou Shengsheng and Gezhi Jewelry have direct procurement contracts with mining companies in South Africa. Their cost price is at least 0.5% lower than ours."
Yan Youli glanced at Ye Kaishen again before nodding: "Then let's go and communicate with him."
Lin Meijuan asked, "Will the promotion we originally planned to do start after the New Year?"
Ye Baoling: "Of course. We can't wait until the second half of the year to make a concerted effort; we need to get the promotion going in the first half of the year."
After the senior management meeting, Ye Baoling personally participated in the discussion of the work plan of Suman Jewelry's brand department.
The brand department has completed the first phase of the plan.
In addition to increasing publicity for "Creator of the 999 Gold Standard", a series of in-store promotional activities will also be carried out.
"Firstly, there's a discount per gram. Customers who purchase 20 grams or more of gold can receive a 1% discount, or no discount at all, but a reduction of 2 yuan per gram..."
"Secondly, there's a gift with purchase of gold. Newlyweds who purchase gold at Suman Jewelry and buy 10 grams or more will receive a small gold bean as a gift..."
"Thirdly, there are discounts on labor costs..."
After listening to their plan, Ye Baoling asked, "Did you do these kinds of activities last year?"
"Yes, but not as much as this time."
Therefore, the effect was only so-so.
Ye Baoling and He Jiayi had brainstormed beforehand and had already written a plan.
He Jiayi said, "We'll offer a few suggestions for your reference. Currently, the biggest demand for gold in the market is for weddings, so cooperating with wedding photography studios is a great entry point. Anyone who's taking wedding photos and preparing for their wedding will definitely need to buy gold. By cooperating with photography studios and offering them appropriate discounts, it's also a way for them to attract customers. You have more experience in how to do it, so you can come up with the plan."
"Secondly, we'll organize a 'Golden Twelve Dragon Balls' event. For every gram of gold jewelry purchased for a wedding—including a gold pig pendant and a dragon and phoenix bracelet—we'll give away a golden dragon ball, like the little gold beans you mentioned earlier. But these twelve dragon balls feature the twelve zodiac animals. Once you collect all twelve, we can give you a small gold bar. When newlyweds get married, relatives and elders will give the bride gold jewelry, and they'll recommend Suman Jewelry to each other because they can collect the golden dragon balls."
No sooner had I said that than someone questioned, "Isn't this giving away way too much?"
"With current technology, 0.2g of gold can be used to make a hollow dragon ball, which costs about 20 yuan; 2g of gold can be used to make a small gold bar, which costs more than 200 yuan."
Some people said, "Isn't a 2g gold bar too small?"
“Even a small amount of free gold will attract attention. If we want to attract more customers, we can be more generous and give away more. That’s what we need to discuss internally…”
Someone else wanted to speak, but Ye Baoling stopped them: "Don't interrupt, let He Jiayi finish explaining our ideas."
The brand director quickly stated, "The Twelve Gold Dragon Balls event is very interesting; we can discuss the details later."
No one dared to interrupt again. He Jiayi continued, "Thirdly, we need to connect and interact with fashion and trends. For example, we can sponsor the Hong Kong Film Awards trophy. The current Hong Kong Film Awards trophy is made of copper plated with gold. We can make the bead in the hand of the Hong Kong Film Goddess into real gold."
This immediately piqued everyone's interest.
Even people within the company need topics that generate buzz to truly capture their interest.
"That's great! The Hong Kong Film Awards trophy will be made of real gold, and male and female stars from all walks of life will fight tooth and nail for it. You can get featured in all sorts of entertainment gossip magazines without spending a penny."
"Our biggest weakness is that we're not fashionable enough and lack trendy topics. This is something we can perfectly align with."
Everyone started discussing it amongst themselves.
Ye Baoling: "In addition to the small-scale marketing I just mentioned, we also need to do big-scale topic marketing. You need to set up a special team to be responsible for the specific work."
The meeting lasted until almost 5 p.m.
*
When it comes to big-topic marketing, Ye Baoling immediately gets to work after get off work.
She arranged to meet Gu Man'er and Fang Haiming at a quiet bar.
The three men sat in the private room, drinking and chatting.
Fang Haiming poured some foreign liquor for Ye Baoling: "Man'er told me that my cousin wants to cooperate with us?"
Ye Baoling smiled and nodded: "That's right, let's see if you have the guts to take my job."
Fang Haiming, who always enjoyed taking on challenging tasks, became interested: "What kind of job requires guts to take?"
Ye Baoling: "You might offend some people, such as the people from our third branch of the family. Didn't you collaborate with them on antique appraisal before?"
Fang Haiming laughed, "That's alright. If I offend my cousin-in-law's people, you'll definitely take care of it, cousin."
"Yes, so you don't need to worry. The artillery fire will be on my side."
The three of them first raised their glasses and gently clinked them together.
After taking a sip of his drink, Ye Baoling asked him, "What's your opinion on diamonds?"
“Diamonds? I know a little about diamonds, but I don’t usually encourage others to collect them, and I don’t collect them myself.”
If she doesn't like collecting diamonds, then she's right to have chosen the right person.
"Why?" Ye Baoling offered Man'er the dried squid she didn't like.
Fang Haiming continued, "Diamonds are essentially carbon, and their global reserves are relatively scarce, but not to the extent advertised. Why do people now perceive them as scarce and precious? It's because upstream suppliers have implemented strict production controls to inflate diamond prices. Furthermore, diamonds can be synthesized artificially. Some advanced synthetic diamonds are even purer and more brilliant than natural ones. Currently, the technology is too advanced to widely promote them, but it will definitely be in the future. In the future, it will be very difficult to distinguish between a real and fake diamond ring with the naked eye."
“Diamonds are so expensive now, but unlike gold, the small diamonds we can buy on the market depreciate as soon as we get them. Some of them are worth less than 30% of the original price. That means you lose 70% of the value as soon as you get them.”
So when Fang Haiming said he had done some research, he was just being modest; he knows quite a lot.
Most importantly, his ideas coincided with Ye Baoling's.
Ye Baoling nodded and asked, "What do you think is the difference between diamonds and gold?"
Fang Haiming: "The biggest difference between diamonds and gold is that diamonds are non-standard products, and their prices are highly random. Gold is a standardized product, and if it is recycled, there is a globally unified price. Moreover, even if gold may depreciate in the short term, in the long run, it is a store of value and appreciates. It's hard to say about diamonds. Large diamonds are better, but small diamonds have no value preservation ability."
Gu Man'er couldn't help but interject: "Shouldn't we ordinary citizens avoid diamonds altogether? If we're going to save, we should save gold instead?"
Fang Haiming: "For wealthy citizens like my cousin, she can have whatever she wants; she can have both the bear's paw and the fish. But for ordinary people like you, of course you should buy gold, which can appreciate in value. For weddings, a platinum ring is fine for everyday wear; whether it's set with diamonds or not doesn't matter. Not setting it with diamonds can save you money to buy gold."
"I see." Gu Man'er learned something new today.
What Fang Haiming said today is exactly what Ye Baoling wanted him to say to the public.
She explained her purpose in contacting Fang Haiming: "I want to short diamonds in the media."
Fang Haiming, who had seen the news, said: "Your family owns a diamond mine."
“The third branch of the family has it, but the eldest branch doesn’t,” Ye Baoling said truthfully. “We bought a gold mine in Australia, but we haven’t announced it to the public yet.”
Fang Haiming understood. "You want me to belittle diamonds on the show?"
Gu Man'er immediately corrected him: "It's not about belittling diamonds. My cousin means to tell the public the truth about diamonds."
Ye Baoling: "Your treasure appraisal show is so popular. I hope that you can tell the audience the truth about diamonds in a humorous and interesting way on the show."
Fang Haiming nodded slightly. He might not have been willing to help someone else.
But this is his girlfriend's cousin, and the people he offended are her husband's family, so obviously he doesn't need to take any risks.
His mind raced. "The reason some citizens are superstitious about diamonds is because a certain advertising slogan from a diamond company is so well-known."
Gu Man'er smiled and said, "I know. Diamonds are forever, a diamond is forever."
Ye Baoling: "You can adapt this sentence appropriately, make it more humorous, and if needed, we can have a brainstorming session with our company's brand department."
"Okay, I'll arrange a diamond appraisal next time."
"Hard."
Fang Haiming knew that Ye Baoling was now in charge of Suman Jewelry, so he suggested: "The most popular TV program in Hong Kong right now is the 7 pm sitcom. You could consider collaborating with a sitcom and doing an episode about a main character choosing gold jewelry before their wedding. Give them some money, and the TV station would definitely be happy to work with you."
Ye Baoling nodded vigorously after hearing this: "That's a great idea! Could you help me make some connections?"
“I’m good friends with the producer, I’ll help you communicate with him.”
"Thank you!" Ye Baoling gently clinked glasses with them, and said to Gu Man'er, "You've found the right boyfriend."
The male lead in the original drama, there's probably no task he can't accomplish if you ask him for a favor.
The next day, Ye Baoling called Bai Zhu to the company.
This time, they didn't have to meet secretly outside; instead, they openly and honestly discussed cooperation.
After hearing Ye Baoling's cooperation request, Bai Zhu roughly understood: "The day after 'Treasure Appraisal' ended, multiple media outlets reported on the truth about diamonds, is that right?"
Ye Baoling shook her head slightly: "Not entirely. This is what I think: instead of overly formal reports, we can take a funny line from an appraisal show and expand on it to point out that diamonds are not truly permanent, and that will be enough."
Bai Zhu said worriedly, "I need to communicate with them first. Most of the major media outlets on the market have business dealings with Hong Kong Tong Industrial. They are their big clients. They may not dare to write about it, nor dare to offend Hong Kong Tong."
Ye Baoling: "Don't try to communicate with media outlets you're not confident in, because doing so will only alert them. Find media outlets that don't have a strong connection with the Hong Kong Stock Connect; they'll definitely be more willing to go for it."
"Most of these are small media outlets."
"It's okay. Once the buzz starts, the major media outlets will follow up."
Tumbleweed Business Weekly has grown larger and larger, and is currently preparing to transform into a magazine, which presents an opportunity.
Bai Zhu said, "Other media outlets can be humorous and make jokes, but Tumbleweed needs to be different. It needs to be more systematic and standardized. Let's have a cover story for the inaugural issue and a large-scale report on it."
Ye Baoling agreed: "That's fine. We'll pay for the inaugural issue, so we can offer a 50% discount on the price and increase the circulation."
A few days later, the latest episode of the "Treasure Appraisal" program aired, featuring diamond appraisal.
Fang Haiming revealed on the show that he never collects diamonds.
He jokingly said that diamonds are: "A diamond is forever, but buying one will make you regret it to death."
They also said: Diamonds are not eternal, but marketing creates legends.
"This is a constraint imposed by diamond manufacturer De Beers on couples getting married around the world. The so-called 'a diamond is forever' can only be passed down, because no merchant is willing to buy it back once you take it out. Major jewelry brands buy back gold at a uniform price, without cheating anyone, but they almost never buy back diamonds from ordinary rings. Only very large diamonds of very high quality are they reluctant to buy back at a drastic discount."
The following day, newspapers and radio stations began reporting on Fang Haiming's remarks about diamonds made on the "Treasure Appraisal" program.
Some headlines read: "Exposing the Lies of Diamonds," "The Myth of Diamonds Collapses," and "Hong Kong Residents Trapped After Blindly Buying Diamonds"...
The extensive coverage in Tumbleweed magazine had a tremendous impact.
After all, most of the readers who buy "Tumbleweed" are stock market investors.
Upon seeing such reports, many investors, seeking to mitigate risk, chose to temporarily sell their shares in Hong Kong Stock Connect Holdings.
So, before Gezhi Jewelry could even feel the chill, Gangtong Industrial's stock price began to fall.
Just then, with large capital backing the airport-connected industry and bribing major media outlets to fuel the hype, diamonds, which had been excessively mythologized, began to be excessively devalued, almost rendering them worthless.
Meanwhile, some media outlets hyped up the fact that Hong Kong Connect Industries' performance in 1987 was disastrous, and that the mainland government had reclaimed Hong Kong Connect's equity and construction rights in Dapeng Port, etc.
With Ye Huaizhang not in Hong Kong, Ye Jinsong and Ye Jinfeng were caught off guard.
The stock market is in complete chaos.
Liu Haonan urgently called Ye Baoling: "Hong Kong Tong Industrial is being shorted by large funds, and its stock price has plummeted. We've lost money on the shares we bought before. Should we sell them first and then buy them back later? To make a profit in this swing trading."
Ye Baoling wasn't going to make money off such a small amount: "We'll divert as much capital as we can. We'll also bring back some funds from the US stock market."
Liu Haonan cautioned: "Hong Kong Tong Industrial is too large a company. Even if we use our funds to buy up assets, we can't become a major shareholder."
"You don't need to become a major shareholder; being a minor shareholder is enough. Just listen to me."
During a market crash, time is money, so Liu Haonan quickly replied, "Okay, I'll get on it right away."
Liu Haonan had always thought that the boss simply wanted to seize market share from Gezhi Jewelry for Suman Jewelry, but he realized he was too naive.
So she was killing two birds with one stone.
She probably anticipated that a large amount of capital would be invested in the Airport Connect business.
That was a brilliant move!
It's good that they became shareholders of Hong Kong-Tong Holdings; they can receive dividends over the long term and make a lot of money.
Moreover, he suspected that her desires went beyond simply receiving dividends.
*
It was Fang Shanxing's younger sister's birthday, and Ye Baoxin and her sister made a cake at home.
Sir Fong was playing chess with his grandson in the tea room, while his son, Fong Suk-wah, watched from the side.
The birthday cake was ready, and Ye Baoxin smiled and called them out to eat it.
Sir Fong noticed that Ye Baoxin seemed particularly happy today. And it was true, she had promised to break up with Fong Shanxing after today and be with him.
Everything she wants will come true soon.
It's normal to be happy.
Light candles, sing birthday song, make a wish...
Before the little girl blew out the candles and cut the cake, Ye Baoxin said shyly, "I want to share some good news with everyone."
The innocent little girl raised her head: "Sister Baoxin, what's the good news?"
Ye Baoxin glanced at everyone, even making eye contact with Sir Fang for half a second, before finally fixing her gaze on the little girl's face.
"Qingqing, you're going to be an aunt soon."
"What aunt?" Qingqing didn't understand.
Fang Shanxing understood. He was clearly surprised as well. He looked at Ye Baoxin with delight and asked, "Am I going to be a father?"
Qingqing, realizing what was happening, gaped in surprise and immediately stood up. "Really?!"
Ye Baoxin nodded with a slight smile.
Fang Shanxing was so happy he almost picked Ye Baoxin up.
Fang Xuhua was also very happy, "It seems we're all going to be upgraded."
Only Sir Fang managed to force a smile; Ye Baoxin had actually tricked him!
"Given the current situation, you should put your marriage on the agenda as soon as possible." Fang Xuhua had a good impression of Bao Xin, and since she was the girl his son liked, there was no need to force him to meet other conditions.
Moreover, one can publicly claim that they married the granddaughter of the eldest son of the Ye family, which is quite prestigious.
After finishing the cake, Sir Fang did not hide it from others, but said openly, "Bao Xin, come to my study, I want to talk to you."
Still immersed in joy, Fang Shanxing worried that his grandfather would make things difficult for his girlfriend, so he hurriedly pleaded, "Grandpa."
Sir Fang glared at his grandson: "I can't eat her!"
Ye Baoxin grasped Fang Shanxing's hand: "It's nothing, Grandpa just wanted to have a chat with me."
Upon entering the study, Ye Baoxin maintained a distance of 2 meters from Sir Fang.
Sir Fang asked, "Are you really pregnant?"
She's really pregnant.
"You got pregnant on purpose, didn't you?"
"I did my homework very carefully." She specifically pestered Fang Shanxing several times during the days around her ovulation period.
She was lucky and actually got pregnant.
Fang Dingkun's eyes suddenly turned sharp: "Get an abortion! You're not worthy of bearing children for the Fang family."
Ye Baoxin swallowed hard. She had been planning this for so long, and she was still a little nervous.
“Shanxing told me that even if he falls out with you, he will stay with me.”
"Trying to blackmail me?"
“It’s not blackmail. If I wanted to blackmail you,” Ye Baoxin nervously picked at her fingers, “I would tell you that I recorded everything you said to me last time, Grandpa Fang.”
What did he say last time?
Fang Dingkun was stunned. No wonder she carried such a large handbag that day.
Having lived to such an old age, I've been outmaneuvered by a little girl.
This is absolutely outrageous!
Before the jazz imitation could speak, Ye Baoxin, her palms sweaty, mustered her courage and said, "Are you trying to tell me you don't know how to spell 'death'? Don't worry, if something happens to me, the tape recording of you talking to me will be sent to the TV station. If I die, you will be ruined too."
He really underestimated her!
Fang Dingkun was so angry that his heart was trembling, but he still had to maintain a basic level of calm on the surface.
"Who did you take the video to?"
Ye Baoxin didn't tell him: "A friend. Grandpa Fang, don't worry, I just want to be a good granddaughter-in-law of the Fang family. I will definitely fulfill my duties as a granddaughter-in-law."
Her words were double-edged; the implication was that Fang Dingkun should also do his job properly.
*
On the third branch of the family, Ye Jinsong and Ye Jinfeng were gathered in Old Madam Guan's room.
After discussion, they decided to repurchase shares of Gangtong Industrial for no less than 200 million yuan.
Grandma Guan said, "The large funds that shorted us this time took advantage of Huaizhang's absence to strike hard against us."
Ye Jinsong nodded: "Yes, we don't know where the big money is coming from to short us. If it's foreign capital, that's fine, they might just want to make a quick profit and leave. But if it's local Hong Kong capital, the only one with that capability is the Li family, then their purpose is not as simple as shorting."
Ye Jinfeng was furious. He snorted coldly and said, "No matter who it is, they're all our own people who handed us the knife. What's the point of having a daughter-in-law like Ye Baoling? She's ruined us like this for the sake of her eldest son's interests!"
Grandma Guan: "Didn't you always mock the eldest son's family for having no one? Now that you have someone, are you feeling bad?"
Ye Jinfeng: "But Ye Baoling is the daughter-in-law of our third branch of the family."
Grandma Guan: "Su Man Jewelry is in a legitimate business battle with us. Since we chose to enter the jewelry industry, we should be prepared that sooner or later, the eldest son's family will fight us. You can't blame them just because Bao Ling is our daughter-in-law. If Gezhi Jewelry is defeated this time, it means you are not as good as them."
Ye Jinfeng: "..."
The phone rang, and Ye Jinfeng, who was sitting next to it, picked it up. "Hello!"
Ye Huaizhang's voice came from the other end of the phone, and Ye Jinfeng immediately complained: "Huaizhang, when are you coming back? You'd better come back right now and keep a good eye on your wife."
Ye Huaizhang didn't want to talk to Ye Jinfeng: "Let my dad answer the phone."
Ye Jinfeng reluctantly handed the phone to his older brother.
After finishing the call, Ye Jinsong turned to his mother and said, "Huai Zhang told us to pool all our funds and compete with the big capital in the secondary market for goods."
-----------------------
Author's Note: Ye Qizu: Today is a good day [winking emoji]
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