Chapter 38: This game is getting interesting

In the blink of an eye, time flew by, and October 6th arrived quietly—three days had already passed since he purchased the office.

The office had already been moved to the new premises, and clearly, the better working environment had brought them a better mood.

After relocating the workplace here, Lin Haoran simply made this his permanent residence, no longer returning to the villa in Deep Water Bay.

Although he had grown accustomed to the tranquility and serenity of Deep Water Bay, occasionally enjoying the prosperity and brilliance along the shores of Victoria Harbour felt like a different kind of charm, quite pleasant and relaxing.

Additionally, he registered a company name: Universal Investment Co., Ltd.

Two days ago, his third sister learned he was in Central and personally made a trip there to find him, forcefully handing him a check for two million.

Lin Haoran received the two-million-dollar check gifted by his third sister. Although the amount was slightly less than the gift from his second sister, he knew that every cent carried her deep love and expectations for him.

His heart was full of gratitude, yet tinged with a hint of helplessness; he could only silently accept this heavy kindness and engrave it in his heart.

The fluctuations of the stock market rose and fell like ocean waves, but in this unpredictable market, Lin Haoran and his team appeared exceptionally steady.

In particular, since Dai Shi joined, the team's collaborative efficiency and decision-making capabilities had significantly improved.

Whenever the melodious bell rang to signal the close of the market, it not only marked the end of a day's trading but also bore witness to every bit of progress and achievement made by Lin Haoran's team.

However, at this moment, Lin Haoran's mood was unusually heavy.

At the close of trading on Wednesday, he had keenly sensed the trading volume of Tsinghua Emporium quietly climbing. Initially, he thought it was merely a normal market fluctuation, as such phenomena were common.

However, after three consecutive days of meticulous observation and analysis, his mind was as clear as a mirror. He realized that another wise player was eyeing the same "fat piece of meat" that he was—and that person was most likely the business tycoon, Li Jia Cheng.

Even Su Zhixue and Dai Shi, two veteran traders with years of experience navigating the stock market, reached the same conclusion after in-depth discussion—someone indeed shared their thoughts and was aiming for Tsinghua Emporium.

Fortunately, thanks to Lin Haoran's careful positioning and active absorption of Tsinghua Emporium's low-priced shares over the past month, the amount of low-priced chips available in the market had greatly diminished. This undoubtedly built a solid line of defense for Lin Haoran's side, giving him a better chance of winning this invisible contest.

Over the past two days, Lin Haoran had been closely monitoring the opponent's movements. He could keenly sense that although the opponent possessed immense capital strength, they were being quite restrained in the speed of absorbing Tsinghua Emporium's shares. They seemed to be in a testing phase of absorption, or perhaps they were deliberately avoiding driving the stock price up too quickly.

This was entirely consistent with Li Jia Cheng's team's usual steady style. They were experts at laying out plans silently in the shadows, conducting long-term, low-profile stock accumulation to ensure the smooth progress of an acquisition plan.

Taking the Wharf Holdings acquisition as an example, Li Jia Cheng's team had demonstrated profound patience and strategy. They had silently absorbed nearly 20% of the shares, only being detected by Jardine Matheson at the final moment. This was enough to prove their sophistication and caution in the stock market, making one marvel at their "deep schemes" and their "cunning" way of operating.

In his memories of his past life, Li Jia Cheng had used his keen market insight to rapidly seize 25% of the shares of Tsinghua Emporium—a company that wasn't highly regarded at the time—within a very short period.

However, in this parallel world, the situation was vastly different.

Clearly, it would be difficult for Li Jia Cheng to repeat such a feat within this year. The reason was simple: Lin Haoran had positioned himself more than a month in advance, quietly accumulating a significant number of Tsinghua Emporium shares.

This meant that if Li Jia Cheng wanted to quickly and quietly acquire a large volume of Tsinghua Emporium shares through the secondary market, it had almost become an impossible task.

Unless they were willing to resort to extreme measures, buying at any cost regardless of the price, but that would clearly violate Li Jia Cheng's consistent principles of steady and meticulous investment.

Therefore, this change had invisibly created a favorable opportunity for Lin Haoran.

On the surface, it seemed as though Li Jia Cheng was plotting in the shadows, thinking no one knew of their actions.

But in reality, through his knowledge of Li Jia Cheng's past deeds and his own decisive actions, Lin Haoran had already quietly seized the initiative, leaving Li Jia Cheng in a passive position without even realizing it.

In this battle of the stock market, Lin Haoran was the one truly holding the initiative.

Facing the reality that Li Jia Cheng had already entered the fray, Lin Haoran sat in his office with a furrowed brow, lost in deep thought.

He knew his opponent was too powerful—so powerful that even if his father stepped in, there would be no chance of victory. He had to respond with caution.

To grasp the situation more clearly, Lin Haoran turned to review the data report that Su Zhixue had just submitted.

The report detailed their holdings in Tsinghua Emporium: as of now, their total holdings had reached 8.654 million shares, accounting for 17.3% of Tsinghua Emporium's total shares. To acquire these shares, they had invested as much as 43.96 million HKD, with an average cost per share of approximately 5.08 HKD.

Lin Haoran calculated privately that if not for the recent intervention of a third-party force, which had increased the difficulty of acquiring Tsinghua Emporium shares, they could have more easily broken the 18% ownership threshold.

But now, the situation had become complicated, and he had to readjust his strategy.

"Since Li Jia Cheng has entered the game, things have become much more interesting," Lin Haoran muttered to himself.

He began to think about how to break through this stock market game, ensuring both the maximization of his own interests and preventing himself from being outmaneuvered by a powerful opponent like Li Jia Cheng.

The trading of the other stock, Wharf Holdings, was progressing exceptionally smoothly. Currently, the company successfully held 957,000 shares with a total investment of 25.07 million HKD. Benefiting from the early low-priced absorption, the average cost per share was only around 26.2 HKD, which was acceptable.

However, behind the glory lay significant capital pressure.

According to statistics, in just this past month, Lin Haoran's total investment in the stock market had reached 69.03 million HKD, not including other team expenses.

Of his original 81 million HKD principal, 950,000 had been used to purchase the office. Combined with the massive stock market investments, his account balance had plummeted to 11.02 million HKD.

Fortunately, Lin Haoran had also received a generous gift of five million HKD from his two sisters, increasing his available funds to approximately 16 million HKD.

Although this figure sounded quite substantial, in the current complex stock market environment—especially in the battle for control of Tsinghua Emporium—these funds were still quite tight.

Even more critically, Lin Haoran knew there was an even more powerful opponent lurking in the shadows, which meant he had to plan the use of every single cent with even greater caution.

Even if he poured all his available funds into Tsinghua Emporium shares, he could not guarantee a certain victory, as the opponent's strength and strategy were equally not to be underestimated.

Faced with such a predicament, Lin Haoran had to re-examine his strategy once more, seeking a more efficient and risk-controllable way to increase his influence in Tsinghua Emporium while ensuring his overall interests in the stock market remained unharmed.

After a long period of deep deliberation, Lin Haoran finally made up his mind.

Please keep reading, please keep reading, please keep reading~

(End of Chapter)