Chapter 268: All of You Learn to Speak Mandarin for Me

Li Ye took Wang Jianqiang and Li Dayong across the Luohu Port and received a warm welcome from Pei Wencong.

"Mr. Li, I've finally waited for you to come. This time you must stay in Hong Kong for a few more days and let me entertain you properly."

Pei Wencong shook Li Ye's hand with both hands, as if he had grabbed a money tree and wanted to shake down a rain of money.

Actually, that was indeed the case.

The reason why Pei Wencong used the respectful term "you" for Li Ye was because some time ago, the Hang Seng Index finally fell to around 700 points, and there were violent fluctuations.

Luo Runbo asked for Li Ye's opinion. Li Ye analyzed it and told Luo Runbo that he could gradually settle and harvest. Pei Wencong, who had placed a heavy bet behind him, firmly rubbed against Li Ye's "luck."

Li Ye didn't know how much money Pei Wencong had invested, but he himself had earned more than 70 million Hong Kong dollars. No matter how cautious Pei Wencong was, he must have earned at least tens of millions.

Li Ye finally ended the handshake with Pei Wencong and teased, "Why, you bought a big villa on the mountaintop, are you trying to show off by letting me stay for a few more days?"

Hearing Li Ye's teasing, Pei Wencong didn't get angry, but instead smiled like a flower.

"Oh my, in front of Mr. Li, how would I dare to show off? It's purely to fulfill the duties of a host properly, the duties of a host."

"Then let's go! Take me to see your sea-view mansion on the mountaintop."

"Please, please, please."

Pei Wencong hurriedly took Li Ye to the car and opened the door himself to let Li Ye and the two little brothers in.

After Li Ye got in the car, he said, "This Mercedes-Benz of yours is a bit inconsistent with your status. Why, hasn't the Rolls-Royce application been approved yet?"

Pei Wencong, sitting in the front passenger seat, turned around and smiled, "Mr. Li understands Hong Kong. Rolls-Royce isn't something you can buy just because you have money. However, by the time Mr. Li comes next time, I will definitely drive a Rolls-Royce to pick you up."

Rolls-Royce, before being taken over by BMW, was very "pretentious." They demanded "celebrities and gentlemen" from their customers, taking the art of handling customers to the extreme.

Pei Wencong had his own publishing house, later invested in the Hong Kong Fenghua Clothing under the Central Plains, and was a graduate of the University of Hong Kong. Now that he had money, after settling down for a while, he should be qualified enough.

However, Li Ye waved his hand and said, "I don't care about Mercedes-Benz or Rolls-Royce. I'm actually a bit interested in mountaintop mansions and Ferraris."

"See if you can help me look around. Next time I come, I want to drive around and take a look myself."

Pei Wencong was stunned, then said pleasantly, "Mr. Li, are you planning to invest in property in Hong Kong? Are you planning to live in Hong Kong permanently in the future?"

Li Ye glanced at Pei Wencong, waved his hand noncommittally, and didn't answer.

Of course, he wouldn't move his home to Hong Kong. After all, in the next forty years, the Central Plains would be the soaring dragon, and Hong Kong would at most be a scale on the dragon's tail.

It's just that Hong Kong's housing prices were at their lowest between '83 and '85. Mr. Jin Yong bought a mansion at No. 1 Mountaintop Road, which only cost 12.5 million Hong Kong dollars.

But after living there for eleven years, he sold it for 190 million Hong Kong dollars, an annual return rate of over 150%.

Although with Li Ye's ability to open hacks, the return rate for these eleven years might be even higher, it was still necessary to buy a set of fixed assets like a mountaintop mansion, of which there were only a few hundred units.

Ah Min drove the Mercedes-Benz up the mountain along a small two-way, two-lane road.

In '83, there was no cable car on Victoria Peak. It wasn't that convenient for ordinary people to go up the mountain, so the surrounding environment was very private and quiet, with almost no tourists or idlers to be seen.

Li Dayong and Wang Jianqiang sat in the back seat of the Mercedes-Benz, looking at the villa residences passing by one after another, feeling as if they had walked into the Hong Kong movies they had seen before, both excited and yearning.

Li Ye smiled and whispered in the Qingshui dialect, "What's wrong? Do you like what you see?"

Li Dayong and Wang Jianqiang immediately sat up straight and moved their eyes away from the window.

The sugar-coated bullets of the evil society couldn't defeat these unyielding successors.

Li Ye patted his brother's arm and said, "No need to worry. If you like it, we can be neighbors here. It's not bad to bring your family over to spend the winter when it's winter."

Wang Jianqiang and Li Dayong immediately became interested.

Li Dayong asked in a low voice, "Brother, how much is a house here? Is it more expensive or cheaper than the courtyards in the capital?"

"This... it's definitely more expensive now."

Li Ye looked at the expectant eyes of the two little brothers and ruthlessly reported the housing price: "A set is about 10 million Hong Kong dollars now! You don't need to be too anxious; you can wait a few years."

Li Dayong: "..."

Wang Jianqiang: "..."

The light in the eyes of the two little partners instantly dimmed, and they looked at Li Ye with full resentment.

Brother, are you sure you aren't drawing a big cake?

A house for 10 million Hong Kong dollars, wow~

Are you sure the toilet inside isn't made of gold?

Li Dayong and Wang Jianqiang could now be considered to have some small wealth, and they were definitely among the small group of rich people in the Central Plains, but in front of a location like Victoria Peak, assets of over a million couldn't even sneeze.

Li Ye touched his nose and couldn't comfort the disappointed mood of the two brothers.

He couldn't say that this mountain head used to be popular for speaking English, and it would soon be popular for speaking Cantonese.

But in a few decades, no matter if your mother tongue is Cantonese or English, all of you learn to speak Mandarin for me.

This isn't because the Central Plains tycoons are marching into Victoria Peak, although there are indeed rumors of the SF Express boss leading his subordinates to sweep Victoria Peak in groups.

But this truly represents that the economic center of gravity has been shifting northward. As long as you don't want to fall behind, you must move closer to the north.

Pei Wencong's new home was at a high altitude. The Mercedes-Benz climbed almost to the top of the mountain before entering a villa.

This villa didn't look big, but it won because of its good location.

Li Ye asked Pei Wencong, "Is your house above the fog line?"

Pei Wencong praised, "Mr. Li has good eyes. If there is fog tomorrow morning, you will be able to see the scenery above the fog."

Li Ye smiled, "What kind of eyes is that? It's just common sense."

Mountaintop mansions are also divided into upper and lower classes. Those above the fog line, where you can see the scenery above the clouds in the morning, are called "upper mansions."

And if you look out the window in foggy weather and see nothing but fog, they are "lower mansions."

After entering Pei Wencong's home, Li Ye saw Ah Qiang.

Ah Qiang was dressed as a painter, focused on painting an old house in the courtyard.

"Hi, Qiangzai!"

Ah Qiang, who was on the ladder, heard the voice, turned his head, saw Li Ye, and almost fell off the ladder.

He threw away the paint, ran over in two or three steps, and asked nervously, "Mr. Li, why did you come to Hong Kong at this time?"

Li Ye asked strangely, "Why? Do I need to choose a time to come to Hong Kong?"

"No," Ah Qiang scratched his head and said, "Negotiations are currently underway. Those reporters have been chasing people like me who have been to the Central Plains to make trouble all day long."

"It just so happened that some time ago, reporters here found out about the short play 'The Wanderer Returns Home' in the Great Hall, and they are investigating who the Ah Qiang in it is."

"I don't know why I was suspected by them, so I'm hiding at the boss's place. Since you're here now, you must be careful about reporters."

Li Ye said unexpectedly, "Is the news so well-informed? But so what? Can they convict you?"

"That's definitely impossible. Hong Kong is a place that talks about law."

Ah Qiang shook his head constantly and said, "But I hate staying here more and more. Why don't you take me back to the capital when you go back this time, Mr. Li!"

Li Ye looked at Ah Qiang for several seconds before smiling and saying, "It's fake that you want to go back to the capital; it's true that you want to see reporter Pan Xiaoqing, right?"

Ah Qiang's face turned red, and he chuckled a few times, very embarrassed.

Li Ye thought for a while and said, "You've been writing to Pan Xiaoqing recently. Didn't she say whether she's willing to come to Hong Kong?"

Ah Qiang nodded and said, "She didn't say it directly, but I think she wants to come to Hong Kong to study. But you know the situation now, even I am being annoyed to death by reporters. I'm afraid she will regret it if she comes."

【If you don't let her come, maybe she'll regret it even more!】

Li Ye didn't want to comment on Ah Qiang and Pan Xiaoqing's love. He thought for a while and said, "You don't need to worry. The environment in Hong Kong will stabilize soon. By then, reporters won't be interested in caring about such small things."

Li Ye knew that this month was the most tense time for negotiations between the Central Plains and Great Britain. The two sides had great differences, and Great Britain even played the "economic card," causing Hong Kong's stock market and exchange market to plummet, leading to the Hang Seng Index eventually falling to more than 600 points.

But in the face of the Central Plains' tough stance, the former Empire on which the sun never sets only had this one big card left. It only supported for two months and finally had to bow its head in the face of strength.

Ah Qiang sighed and said, "That would be the best. I hadn't been to the Central Plains before and thought Hong Kong was very powerful, but now it seems that some people are just wishful thinking."

Li Ye was very surprised. He didn't expect Ah Qiang to have such thoughts.

You have to know that most Hong Kong people now still have honey-flavored self-confidence, thinking that the Iron Lady who just won the Falklands War can create brilliance again!

"Beep beep beep~"

A car horn sounded outside the villa gate. Pei Wencong's maid opened the electric gate, and a small red BMW drove in.

After the small BMW parked, two women, one old and one young, got out of the car carrying several bottles of wine.

The old one was at least fifty years old. Although her hair was dark, the deep traces of time on her face revealed the vicissitudes of the first half of her life.

The girl driving was probably less than twenty years old. She was bird-like and her eyes were agile. As soon as she got out of the car, she kept looking at Li Ye, Li Dayong, and Wang Jianqiang.

When she saw Li Ye, her eyes were full of light, and when she saw Li Dayong, it was full of surprise.

Compared to the figure of Hong Kong people, Li Dayong, who was nearly 1.9 meters tall and weighed 180 or 190 jin, was really too tall and too strong.

The girl didn't rashly come over to greet Li Ye and the others, but shouted to Pei Wencong in the villa: "Brother, did you bring friends here?"

Pei Wencong walked out in two or three steps, brought the girl and the woman over, and introduced: "Mr. Li, this is my mother, and this is my younger sister, Pei Wenhui."

"Mom, this is that Mr. Li I told you about, this is Mr. Wang, and this... is also Mr. Li."

Pei's mother immediately greeted Li Ye in Cantonese, very enthusiastically, and Li Ye also felt a trace of nervousness.

And younger sister Pei Wenhui was more generous, bowing slightly to the three, saying, "Hello, welcome to my home as guests."

Pei's mother slapped Pei Wenhui on the arm and said unhappily, "What guests? This is Mr. Li's home. Why don't you take the guests in for tea."

Pei Wenhui stuck out her tongue and hurriedly led Li Ye and the others in for tea.

Pei's mother went into the kitchen and soon tidied up a large table of dinner. Obviously, it had been prepared long ago, and the two going out just now was estimated to be to buy wine.

Pei's mother poured wine for Li Ye herself, raised her glass, and said, "These two bottles of wine aren't good wine, but I buried them under the house in my hometown many years ago. They have been there for more than ten years."

"At that time, I said that I would only drink them when Ah Cong got married and held a happy event, but today I know that Mr. Li came to Hong Kong, and I feel that this is a great happy event. I hope Mr. Li won't mind."

Li Ye hurriedly raised his glass to return the toast, and then drank it down happily, making the three members of the Pei family greatly admire him.

Next, everyone started drinking, eating, and chatting about family matters, and Pei's mother's chat was very high, almost completely suppressing Pei Wencong's limelight.

It's just that Pei's mother could understand Mandarin, but could only speak Cantonese.

Li Ye could understand it, Wang Jianqiang, who had stayed in Yangcheng for a short time, needed to guess, and Li Dayong was completely confused.

"My mother said that we were also people from the Central Plains before. When she was very young, she came from Chaoshan. She has lived very bitterly for so many years."

"But my mother has never lost hope, because the master said that my brother will definitely fly high..."

Pei Wenhui's Mandarin was better than Pei Wencong's, so she acted as a translator, but this translator seemed to be only for Li Dayong alone.

The elderly at home were unwell today, and time was delayed at the hospital. Sorry.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 269 =====