Chapter 290: Adrenaline Rush (Seeking Monthly Votes)

In the newspapers of Hong Kong, many topics regarding power outages appeared!

At the very beginning, they were only reports from some inconspicuous small newspapers.

Later, for some reason, major newspapers gradually followed up.

The main point was that such power outages were too disgusting, belonging to truly essential matters of people's livelihood.

If one lived in the countryside, it would be one thing; even if there were no electricity, while still inconvenient, it would not reach the point of being unable to survive.

But in a bustling, busy area, having no electricity is truly fatal.

The temperature in Hong Kong is not low!

Whether it is electric fans, refrigerators, or appliances like air conditioners, they are all needed by normal households. There are also washing machines and rice cookers, which are all very common.

Once the power goes out, one cannot even eat a hot meal.

Life is greatly disturbed, and even survival can become a problem.

This is just for normal households; for those shops and office buildings, the impact is even greater once the power goes out.

Especially for fresh food shops, if the power suddenly goes out, there is no telling if the fresh goods in the store will quickly rot, and then the loss would be truly huge.

As for power outages in office buildings, it is very likely to affect normal company operations, and even potentially important collaborations; the losses then would be truly incalculable.

Some things, when there is no special attention, people do not care much about.

But once newspapers and television stations take the initiative to report and attract a large amount of attention, many messy affairs hidden beneath the water's surface can no longer be concealed at all.

As a monopolistic resource enterprise, Hong Kong Electric almost covers the living and production electricity for the most prosperous areas of Hong Kong, so there must have been many lapses.

In the past, even if they were reported, it was very easy to suppress them.

But this time, with top-tier newspapers like Mong Kok News and Asia Television following up, the influence created by the publicity and reporting was very significant.

They did not report on other things, but mainly targeted the various industries under Hung Hing.

The office buildings and shops under Jiang Tiansheng, the newspaper office and associated publishing units under Wu Feng, and even printing factories and several movie theaters, all encountered the torment of intermittent power outages.

According to Wu Feng's words, if Hong Kong Electric dares to torment like this, then I naturally dare to report it out.

These are all quite legitimate companies and enterprises!

In addition, the Qiankun Film Company under Liang Gan, as well as the numerous nightclubs and nightlife venues in the territory, were all affected, which was very disgusting.

Just reporting these matters alone attracted a considerable degree of attention from readers.

Those who did not know would think that Hong Kong Electric had a major problem; otherwise, how could there be so many power outage situations?

At this time, the influence of television stations and top-tier newspapers is immense!

As soon as such reports appeared, the stock price of Hong Kong Electric was affected and fell slightly.

In this way, it became impossible to keep it from Li Bancheng.

As for how he would think after knowing the situation, or how he would handle the problem, Wu Feng here did not know.

But the relevant reports continued, and the influence of public opinion expanded further.

Afterwards, what the television stations and newspapers reported was that numerous nightclubs on Shanghai Street, many shops on Garden Street, and some shops on Tongcai Street were all disturbed by power outages.

At the same time, the industries of Hung Hing in the Yau Tsim Mong District were all affected.

Now, the Yau Tsim Mong District Government and the District Councilor could not sit still.

Damn it, for Hong Kong Electric to so actively torment the nightclubs, shops, stores, and office buildings in the Yau Tsim Mong area, do they think the Yau Tsim Mong area is developing too well?

If they have the ability, Hong Kong Electric should go to Central to cause trouble.

The reports from Asia Television and Mong Kok News were still quite standard, just reporting the facts, without adding fuel to the fire or guiding the readers' emotions.

But the newspaper industry in Hong Kong is too developed; other newspapers, for the sake of sales and fame, could not care about whether they would offend Li Bancheng.

This is not a secret!

Hung Hing, for its part, did not intend to hide it, and it was very easy to figure out the truth.

Consequently, many Hong Kong newspapers reported on the retaliatory measures of Hong Kong Electric.

For a time, the citizens of Hong Kong were in an uproar!

The stock price of Hong Kong Electric fell in response, and its reputation showed signs of stinking to high heaven!

As the dignified Li Bancheng, the richest Chinese in Hong Kong, is he really such a sore loser?

Others just held an event before the New Year that affected the business of the Li family's supermarkets, and he turned around and kept tormenting them through power outages; it is simply inexplicable.

At the same time, it also made readers deeply feel the overbearing nature of the richest Chinese in Hong Kong.

With matters having reached this point, only the Yau Tsim Mong District Government and the District Councilor expressed dissatisfaction and protest; none of the other high-ranking officials of the Hong Kong British Government were willing to take the initiative to express their stance.

Some newspapers even sharply asked: in the future, whoever dares to oppose the Li family's industries can just be threatened with power outages; no business Big Brother can stand that.

Thus, the status of the Li family as the number one Chinese family in Hong Kong remained unshakable.

As a result, this newspaper sold well, but it disappeared not long after.

In short, after a wave of public opinion and propaganda offensives, the reputation of Hong Kong Electric was ruined, and even the core industries of the Li family were affected, suffering a certain degree of damage to their reputation.

Hong Kong Electric is quite stubborn!

Facing the aggressive propaganda attacks, they only stated to the outside world that certain lines were aging, which subsequently caused frequent power outages in certain places.

The group had already dispatched personnel to inspect and repair, and was replacing the aging circuits, and so on.

In short, it meant one thing: this power outage incident was not man-made, but purely an accident!

As for whether the outside world accepted it, Hong Kong Electric seemed not to care at all!

Anyway, the young Master Li did not express his stance on any occasion.

At the same time, the intermittent power outage measures of Hong Kong Electric did not end there.

It was as if the young Master Li could not swallow his anger and wanted to go all the way.

Regarding this, Jiang Tiansheng had a massive headache, not knowing how to proceed from here.

Since the other party did not care about public opinion and reputation, he naturally had no good way to deal with it.

Furthermore, the Spokespersons of the various Hongxing halls have complained quite a bit; Hong Kong Electric's occasional power cuts to their venues, and even their homes, have affected both their business and normal lives.

He now also understood that a purely public opinion offensive had limited effect.

As it happened, at this moment, Dongxing Dragon Head Luotuo, for reasons unknown, actually took the initiative to call and invite Jiang Tiansheng to drink tea and chat.

"That guy Luotuo is definitely up to no good!"

They were both old hands in the underworld. Jiang Tiansheng understood in an instant that Luotuo had ill intentions in calling.

Yet he went anyway; even just for a change of pace, it wouldn't be bad!

"Mr. Jiang, it looks like your days lately haven't been very easy!"

Once he arrived at the location and had just sat down before even starting to eat, Luotuo directly tried to make things difficult for Jiang Tiansheng.

"Mr. Luo, if you invited me here just to mock me, then there's nothing left to say!"

Jiang Tiansheng's expression was unpleasant, and he said with an unfriendly tone: "It's just a normal commercial confrontation!"

"If one wants to do legitimate business, it is inevitable to have conflicts of interest with those old-guard families; what I am experiencing now is merely child's play and counts for nothing at all!"

"Of course, this is also the pathetic aspect of us people who mix in the underworld!"

"If one wants to properly wash their hands and go ashore, those old-guard tycoons might not necessarily be happy about it!"

"I am still following the traditional old path, spending money to buy office buildings and shops to rent out, which actually has a lot of overlap with the businesses of those old-guard tycoons!"

"Whenever one shows the ability to affect their vital interests, isn't it normal to encounter suppression? There is really no need to use such things to ridicule and mock!"

Speaking of this, he chuckled: "Of course, Dongxing's main business is different from Hongxing's and cannot be completely washed clean to go ashore; it is understandable that Mr. Luo doesn't understand the ins and outs of this!"

"Heh heh, I don't know when you became so eloquent, Mr. Jiang!"

Luotuo's expression was somewhat ugly; he was angered by Jiang Tiansheng's rebuttal, yet he didn't know how to counterattack, as everything the other party said was the plain truth.

"No choice, when one is targeted by others and doesn't know how to counterattack, the mood is bound to be somewhat depressed!"

Jiang Tiansheng was very calm and said leisurely: "Mr. Luo, if you have something to say, just say it!"

"There is no need to beat around the bush; we probably won't have many opportunities to meet in the future anyway!"

These words were even more hurtful; they were practically a verbal execution.

Jiang Tiansheng's meaning was very clear: he had already successfully washed his hands and gone ashore, and in the future, he would not pay much attention to society and underworld affairs; he and Luotuo could already be considered existences from two different worlds.

In the future, his prospects would be bright and vast!

He could even learn from Wu Feng, run for councilor, and become a powerful figure in high society.

As for Luotuo, because of the nature of Dongxing's main business, it was hard to say whether he could die of old age in peace.

Among the Dongxing Five Tigers, only the Dragon-Capturing Tiger Situ Haonan was relatively pure; which of the other four tigers wasn't an ambitious person?

Luotuo could still suppress them now, but what about when he was old and frail in the future?

As the Dongxing Dragon Head, wanting to retire smoothly was an impossible thing.

Unless he ran away to the Netherlands to live as a retiree like some of the uncles in the future!

But even so, it wasn't necessarily truly safe; any kind of accident could happen in a foreign land.

Clearly, Luotuo understood the implication in Jiang Tiansheng's words.

His expression instantly became incomparably ugly, but in the end, he forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart and said coldly: "I heard that last year, the lottery event Hongxing held reached a revenue of 4.5 billion just from selling tickets?"

Even though there was anger in his heart, when he mentioned the number 4.5 billion, undisguised greed and longing still flashed across his face.

"Mr. Luo, how did you know?"

Although he knew this day would come sooner or later, Jiang Tiansheng's mood still couldn't get any better.

"Heh heh, with Dongxing's energy, it is still very easy to inquire about some things!"

Luotuo picked up his wine glass, forcibly suppressing the shock and astonishment rising in his heart.

Jiang Tiansheng's reaction indicated that this matter was actually true.

At this moment, Luotuo's aging heart beat wildly, and his wrinkled face instantly became flushed, as if he had been injected with chicken blood.

(End of this chapter)