Chapter 291: The Sucker Punch

Even though he had known the specific figures in advance, Luotuo was still filled with shock at this moment.

That was four point five billion!

How many pills would East Star have to sell to raise their turnover to such a height?

He felt his mouth go dry, and licking his parched lips, he asked, "If East Star follows suit, would you have any objections, Mr. Jiang?"

The words sounded pleasant enough, but the ferocity in his eyes said everything.

If Jiang Tiansheng dared to step in and stop him, East Star would likely have a massive showdown with Hung Hing.

One side would have to completely cave in before it would end!

In the face of such staggering profits, everything else was just fleeting clouds.

"Heh, if Mr. Luotuo wants to do something, could I possibly stop you?"

Jiang Tiansheng sneered, "If I truly had that kind of influence and prestige, the Hong Kong underworld would have been unified long ago!"

"In other words, Mr. Jiang will not step in to stop me!"

A look of satisfaction appeared on Luotuo's face, and his tone softened considerably: "After all, the lucky draw event was pioneered by Hung Hing, so only Hung Hing understands the ins and outs!"

"What ins and outs could there be?"

Jiang Tiansheng said self-deprecatingly, "It's a matter that is clear at a glance; Mr. Luotuo didn't need to specifically come and ask me!"

Ignoring Luotuo's somewhat suspicious gaze, he did not stay long, finished a glass of red wine, and stood up to take his leave.

Once he was out the door and in his car, Jiang Tiansheng's expression turned incomparably gloomy in an instant.

Although he had long prepared himself mentally, now that the day had truly arrived, he still found it hard to accept.

The lucky draw event was truly a cash cow in every sense of the word!

If they could pull it off once a year, everyone in Hung Hing would be well-fed and satisfied.

Unfortunately, Wu Feng had already analyzed the pros and cons for him!

As long as the Hong Kong British Government did not issue a decree to ban it, they could naturally continue to stir things up.

However, they would just have to share more of the profits.

He was still observing the situation, and yet Luotuo of East Star wanted to stick his oar in!

If not for Wu Feng's earlier warning, he really might not have been able to hold back from having a real fight with East Star to see who would break first.

Luotuo really is a piece of work!

To force him to state his position on such a matter was simply cruel and malicious.

Unfortunately, Jiang Tiansheng had underestimated the fanatical pursuit of staggering profits by the various triad bosses.

Before the luxury car he was riding in could return to the villa with the pool, he received another call from Deng Bo of Wo Shing.

The content of the call was almost identical to that of Luotuo from East Star: inviting him over for a chat.

They weren't even that close, so what was there to talk about?

Jiang Tiansheng wanted to smash the mobile phone in his hand right then and there, but in the end, he suppressed his temper and accepted the invitation from Deng Bo of Wo Shing.

In fact, it was quite normal for such a situation to arise!

Wu Feng had analyzed it with him in private: not only should he not stop them, but he should let all the major triads get fully involved.

Compared to fighting to the death for territory or engaging in various shady businesses to make money.

Clearly, running a lucky draw event was much easier and simpler.

The top-tier triads in Hong Kong possessed considerable power.

Just like Hung Hing, they could connect with the upper echelons of the police force, and even reach the more core, powerful foreigners through those police connections.

The triads had already infiltrated every aspect of Hong Kong, so they naturally would not lack government connections.

It was just that it was usually invisible, only coming into play at critical moments.

But the interest relationships built on that kind of gray income were somewhat unreliable.

Clearly, the lucky draw event was much safer.

Wu Feng's meaning was simple: as long as these triads could successfully run their own lucky draw events, then Hung Hing would certainly have no problem continuing to run theirs in the future.

In this regard, apart from Sai Kung and Tuen Mun, Hung Hing, whose territory was almost entirely on Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, held a natural advantage.

If nothing else, if it really came to running lucky draws, no other triad could compare to Hung Hing's geographical advantage.

Especially East Star; they were completely incomparable!

As the second-ranked triad in Hong Kong, East Star actually did not have much stable territory.

Their main business was selling pills, so they couldn't have stable territory to manage, and the police station wouldn't easily agree to it anyway.

Instead, they divided it by districts, with each Hall Master responsible for the pill supply in their own area!

Then, they used the sale of pills to link their interests, which was how they gathered such a massive group of Underlings.

This time, as they wanted to run a lottery draw, the problems and shortcomings were very obvious.

Without stable territory on Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, the risks of running a lucky draw event were very high.

Other triads only needed to organize their low-level Scum to cause a little trouble, and it would be enough to give East Star a real headache, or even directly affect the sale of lottery tickets.

Speaking of which, East Star couldn't even compare to the declining Wo Shing!

Whether these triads could successfully run their lucky draw events was what Wu Feng cared about most.

There is a saying: "The law does not punish the masses"!

If only Hung Hing ran a lucky draw event, it would be far too conspicuous.

But if many top-tier triads were all doing it, Hung Hing would not stand out among them.

However, this laissez-faire approach clearly affected Jiang Tiansheng's mood.

This Big Brother, who had already washed his hands of the underworld, didn't even have the heart to ride the wave of the Guangdong-Hong Kong Cup football tournament, focusing instead on the movements of those top-tier triads.

Following Luotuo of East Star and Deng Bo of Wo Shing, the Blue Whale of United and the boss of the Water Room all called to invite Jiang Tiansheng, which disgusted him to no end.

Dong Xing moved very quickly, setting up several lottery ticket sales points directly in the Causeway Bay territory occupied by Ben Shu, and also brought in quite a few prizes to attract attention.

Wo Shing followed up immediately; they set up lottery ticket sales points in places like Jordan, Mong Kok, and Yau Ma Tei.

The other societies were not to be outdone, and one after another, they brought out their own lottery sales points.

Basically, they were all in the prosperous Kowloon Peninsula region, wanting nothing but a rolling source of wealth.

Unfortunately, what awaited them was the Hong Kong British Government's legislative ban!

At this time, Wu Feng had just finished the final of the Guangdong-Hong Kong Cup championship football tournament and had won the final championship, and he was still staying over in Yangcheng in the Mainland and had not returned.

It can only be said that this time, the Hong Kong British Government's decree to legally ban lottery activities came out quite rapidly.

Consequently, the lucky draw activity platforms that the major first-class societies had just set up were directly scrapped.

This time, the police moved very quickly and simply did not give the major societies any chance to exploit loopholes.

This matter caused quite a large stir in Hong Kong.

It could not be said that the major first-class societies suffered heavy losses, but having lost a business that could easily make big money, the Big Brothers all felt a pain in their hearts so great they could not breathe.

That was a cash flow measured in the billions every year, and the profits were at least over 500 million Hong Kong Dollars.

The key was that this was all clean money!

With such a large loss in one go, how could it not make the Big Brothers feel a pain so great they could not breathe?

As the saying goes, cutting off a person's path to wealth is like killing their parents!

The first-class societies of Hong Kong, except for Hung Hing which had not yet had time to act, were all fiercely wiped out in one go.

Naturally, they had to figure out exactly who was making trouble behind the scenes!

Are you kidding me!

Is a new decree from the Hong Kong British Government something that can be introduced so quickly?

Expecting the Hong Kong British Government to be single-mindedly for the people is just a joke.

Anyone with some insight and information channels knows that as the handover date approaches, the Hong Kong British Government is trying every possible way to transport benefits to the Mainland.

Every single ghost guy is also trying every way to rake in money; they wouldn't care about any bullshit like people's livelihood.

At most, they would just put on a show and use public opinion propaganda to buy a wave of popular support.

If it were just a lucky draw activity, it would be fine if one couldn't connect with the high-level ghost guys.

But many first-class societies still had some power; at the very least, there were quite a few voices in government units that could help speak for them.

At this time, to quickly initiate legislation to ban lottery lucky draw activities, it should at least take a few months of dragging things out, right?

As a result, the first month of the lunar year had just passed, and the Hong Kong British Government demonstrated to the first-class societies a wave of what is called swift and decisive action.

If there were no big capital and big figures pushing it forcefully, how could it be so rapid?

Then, Li Bancheng surfaced!

Upon further careful inquiry, it also had an inseparable connection with the fact that Hong Kong Electric was occasionally giving Hung Hing a hard time.

Mainly, the formation Hung Hing created before the new year left the Li family's supermarket chain group with lingering fears, and they did not want such troublesome things to appear again.

When they saw many first-class societies taking action one after another to engage in large-scale lucky draw activities, they were startled.

They even thought that along with the lucky draw activities, those damned 'benefit-the-people promotional activities' would also be launched together.

Then it would be better to just crush them all together; Li Bancheng had such energy and strength.

As a result, many of Hong Kong's first-class societies acted as the heroes who stepped on the landmines and were left completely stunned.

How would they know that Li Bancheng would absolutely not allow his cash cow to have problems.

Don't look at how this number one Chinese tycoon in Hong Kong surpassed those old-school Chinese tycoons to reach the top through the 1987 stock market crash; his own pressure was also quite great.

Buying Hong Kong Electric, buying port land to build wharves—the capital consumption was like flowing water.

Not only that, this person also liked to hold a large amount of capital in his hands.

As for whether it was to be prepared for any eventuality, or to guard against HSBC eating him alive, that is a matter for another time.

But regardless, this time Li Bancheng personally pushed it.

As a result, the decree to ban lucky draw activities was passed so quickly.

Now, it was the turn of the group of society Big Brothers to be at a loss.

"Damn it, is it easy for me to earn some honest money?"

Privately, the Big Brothers of several first-class societies in Hong Kong gathered together, and Dong Xing's Luotuo cursed directly: "It just started, and they did this to me!"

"Not to mention anything else, how should those prizes be handled?"

"Damn it, these prizes were all bought with money!"

"Who's to say it isn't?"

Deng Bo also had a gloomy face and said depressedly: "On my side, I had already discussed with some old partners how to distribute the big money when we earned it, but now it's all gone down the drain!"

"No, this matter cannot just end like this!"

Wo Shing Dragon Head Lan Jing said unhappily: "I didn't take this sucker punch lightly!"

"If there isn't even a reaction, I can't swallow this breath; no matter what, this matter cannot end so sloppily!"

The society Big Brothers present nodded in unison to show their agreement.

(End of this chapter)