Chapter 283: Pioneer Fund! The First Blade to London

The meeting ended, Li Fuying and Guo Dongying and the others clustered together as they left, and each of them, when passing Lu Qingshan, had eyes full of complex emotions—reverence, submission, and a decisive resolve to entrust their fortunes and lives. Guo Dongying reached the doorway, turned back, gave Lu Qingshan a thumbs‑up, grinned silently and muttered, "Dammit!"

When the heavy mahogany door of the conference room slowly closed, cutting off everything outside, the earlier fervor hot enough to melt steel also dissipated. Inside, only Lu Qingshan and Ye Ning, Li Zhi'an, Lu Qingjun and a few other absolute core members of Xinghan Capital remained.

The air seemed to solidify in an instant, the temperature dropped sharply. The clamor that moments before had set blood racing now turned into an invisible, heavy pressure bearing down on everyone's hearts. It was no longer numbers on paper, but the top tier of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce betting the entire future of their families. The "Pioneer Fund" dagger forged from four billion Hong Kong dollars hung silently above everyone's heads, chilling.

Lu Qingshan sat back in the head seat, watching the still‑shaken expressions of those who had been completely stunned by the previous scene, his demeanor remained calm. He stood, walked slowly to the massive floor‑to‑ceiling window, looked down at the bustling traffic and glittering Hong Kong Island, stayed silent for a moment as if admiring the hunting ground he was about to conquer. Then he turned and issued the final, most reckless order.

"Ye Ning."

"Boss." Ye Ning's voice still carried a trace of unsettled excitement and tremor; she had already prepared to go to London and make a big move.

"Take inventory of our final ammunition." Lu Qingshan's voice was clear and calm, each word like ice beads striking the ground.

Ye Ning inhaled deeply, forced herself into the most professional state, opened the notebook before her, and in a crisp voice began the report, stacking huge sums layer by layer until they formed a financial torrent capable of suffocating anyone:

"Boss, the capital plus profit of Xinghan Capital's joint investment vehicle with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce is currently twenty billion Hong Kong dollars."

"Your personally available funds amount to forty billion Hong Kong dollars."

"The 'Pioneer Fund' just raised, the total contribution from all the uncles, is thirty billion Hong Kong dollars."

Ye Ning paused, lifted her head, her eyes filled with awe and horror she could not control, she swallowed, then announced the final, city‑shaking figure:

"Adding the three items, subtracting the banks' reserve funds, the cash we can actually mobilize is… ninety billion Hong Kong dollars."

Ninety billion!

Ye Ning's and Li Zhi'an's hearts pounded uncontrollably, as if seized by an invisible giant hand. Even Lu Qingjun, who had been standing nearby trying to appear composed, felt his throat dry, his palm gripping the pen slick with cold sweat.

Lu Qingshan paused, his gaze like lightning, swept over everyone, and uttered the earth‑shaking second half of his sentence.

"Convert this ninety billion Hong Kong dollars, through the channels of London Financial City, into US Dollars in the shortest time possible, with no regard to cost, all of it."

"It must be fast. Use every relationship we can, I want to see results within three days."

The words triggered even the usually cool‑headed Ye Ning; her pupils contracted sharply, her complexion turned ashen, she instinctively stepped back half a step, the steel pen in her hand "clack" dropped to the floor, producing a crisp sound that rang painfully in the dead‑silent conference room. Beside her, Li Zhi'an grabbed the chair back hard, his knuckles blanching as if trying to crush the mahogany.

All of it?

Ninety billion Hong Kong dollars cash flow! It's their entire capital! It's the whole stake the elite of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce have wagered on the future! To gamble it all, converting everything into another currency?

In Ye Ning's mind a "boom" erupted, countless risk models representing "destruction" flashed instantly. She inhaled again, almost by the instinct of a top trader, using all her strength to keep her voice from trembling, stepped forward, her voice dry, sharp with fear: "Boss! No! Absolutely not!"

She ignored rank, speaking so fast it sounded like a machine‑gun: "Ninety billion Hong Kong dollars! That's not just a number, it's many times the daily turnover of the Hong Kong offshore FX market! What we're doing isn't a sell‑off, it's an indiscriminate attack on the market! The linked HK‑USD rate hasn't been established; our action will instantly pierce market confidence, causing a stampede sell‑off! The Hong Kong government's foreign‑exchange fund, HSBC, Standard Chartered, they will treat us as terrorists launching a financial war, using every means, sparing no cost to crush us! This will trigger a real financial storm! Moreover, we are betting our entire fortune on a single currency, with no hedge, no risk management! This violates every basic principle of investing! This… this isn't adventure, it's using ourselves, using all the fortunes and lives of the uncles who trust us, to gamble a doomed high‑stakes bet! It's self‑destruction!"

"Yes, all of it."

Lu Qingshan did not turn back, his voice calm yet carrying the decisive cut‑off of any retreat and unquestionable authority.

Ye Ning watched his mountain‑like silhouette; the inner doubt and professional risk alert that had touched his seemingly future‑piercing confidence evaporated instantly. All her professionalism, rationality, logic appeared pale and powerless at that moment.

She no longer hesitated, nodded heavily, her voice ringing with infected madness: "Yes! I'll handle it right now!"

Watching Ye Ning and Li Zhi'an stride away, Lu Qingshan walked slowly to the World Map. Standing behind him, Lu Qingjun, exhilarated, palms sweating, blood boiling, looked at the sword on the map pointing to London, and finally could not help but ask in a trembling voice: "Brother, I understand we're going to London to hard‑hit the Sashun Family. But… why convert all the money into US Dollars? That's exposing our whole hand, the risk… isn't it too great?"

Lu Qingshan did not look at London, nor at Hong Kong Island.

His finger, crossing the Atlantic Ocean, slowly, as if caressing a work of art, rested on the lower‑left corner of the map, that lonely dot far away near the South American continent named "Malvinas Islands".

Only Lu Qingshan knows.

He looked at that almost forgotten corner, a cold, slightly pitying smile curling at his mouth.

He turned, looked at his bewildered younger brother, eyes full of worship and confusion, and softly said: "Qingjun, what do you think an aged Lion fears most? Not another tiger breaking into its den, but its own body rotting from within."

Exchange‑rate risk?

Lu Qingshan smiled coldly in his heart.

Soon, one of the world's toughest currencies will acquire a new name.

It will be called Wastepaper.

He patted his brother's shoulder, gazed deep at that dot, as if he could pierce time and see the war flames about to ignite over that icy sea.

"A war fought over a few broken stones, over saving face, enough to crush an empire's spine. And we are not the hunters who meet it head‑on. We are the Vulture circling above the battlefield, whose job is to drain its last blood before it falls."

The South Atlantic Ocean wind has already begun to moan, a global financial storm is about to be swept forth because of it.