C33

Bonus Chapter: Ty for the kofi!!

 “Sorry Mr Li Zheng, there is no news about Lingjie yet.” In the coffee shop on the ground of the Central Building, Li Zheng and Cheng Xianfeng sat face to face, two cups of hot coffee on the short round wooden table.

Li Zheng rubbed his temples with a bitter smile, he and Zhou Sitian had been out of touch for more than half a month, when he fell into the sea, it was the time when Zhou Sitian was at her weakest psychologically, she didn’t know anyone in Hong Kong, even though Zhang Bingkun was taking care of her, she still couldn’t let go of her heart. Even if only he could let Zhou Sitian know that he was still alive ……

“Then I’ll trouble Lawyer Cheng to keep looking, and if you need to spend some money, just ask.” Li Zheng could only comfort himself, no news was the best news.

He composed himself and then said, “The reason for asking Lawyer Cheng to come out today, I’ve already told you on the phone. I wonder if it’s convenient for Lawyer Cheng to make a connection?”

He only had seven days. If he wasn’t really satisfied with the land at Jing Garden, he wouldn’t have spent so much time on it.

Cheng Xianfeng deliberated and spoke, “To tell you the truth, the Liang family is not at peace lately. I will try to deliver a message to Mr. Liang, but success or failure, I can’t guarantee it.”

Although Liang Zhe had safely returned to the Liang family, the aftermath of this kidnapping case had yet to die down. A rare concerted effort by the Hong Kong gentry had kept the Hong Kong Police Department busy, catching kidnappers, cracking down on illegal immigrants, and holding press conferences one after another.

At the end of the year, the Liang’s report for this year also came out, could be described as disastrous. Because of the collapse of the real estate industry and property market in 1982, the Liang family, known as the largest landlord in Hong Kong, had its assets shrunk by half in no time. The financial journals had already described the Liang family as “a business empire in the dwindling sun”.

The Liang’s elder sister-in-law, Liang Huiying, was using this to encourage the board to expel Xu’s team. Xu Yuandong was not an easy man to mess with, and had directly exposed the inaction of Liang Huiying, Liang Huitung, and Liang Huize in the Liang Zhe kidnapping case. The evidence in his hands clearly showed that the kidnappers had called Liang Huiying for ransom after the kidnapping of Liang Zhe, but the three siblings of the Liang family not only did not pay the ransom but also covered up the matter, which was why Mr. Liang was almost buried in the sea.

There was a public outcry.

Recently, the Liang family had become the laughing stock of the Hong Kong people after dinner. The shares of several listed subsidiaries of the Liang family had been falling. Cheng Xianfeng was really understating it when he said that the Liang family was not at peace.

“Mr. Liang? Liang Zhe?” Half Mountain 3, the Liang family, Li Zheng was dumb, what a coincidence. He hadn’t been thinking deeply about the relationship between this Liang family and the other Liang family, Cheng Xianfeng had connected the two with a little mention, he seemed to have some friendship with that Mr. Liang.

“Then please ask Lawyer Cheng to deliver a message to Mr. Little Liang and ask him if he would like to meet Li Zheng.” Li Zheng said smilingly, he was half his savior, he had to give him face at some point.

Cheng Xianfeng was stunned, “Mr. Li Zheng, you know Mr Liang?”

The Liang family was the Liang family, and Liang Zhe alone had more shares in his hands than everyone on the board of directors put together. The old men of the board of directors took turns to go to the Liang family to cry after the financial statements came out, and although Liang Zhe was indifferent, the cultivation of the family still allowed him to patiently listen to the whining of these old-timers, and after one day, two days …… seven days, Mr. Liang finally loosened his mouth to remove all duties of the Xu Yuandong team.

The board of directors was overjoyed, if they had known that crying could get the management who rode on their heads to make things worse, why would they have put up with those people for so long!

After the dismissal of Xu Yuandong’s team, Liang Huiying’s siblings were completely isolated from the power center of the Liang Clan for their inaction in the kidnapping case and plotting to kill the first blood heir of the Liang Clan. Mr. Liang Zhe, the youngest member of the family, became the real power in the Liang Clan.

Now was a sensitive time, and this kind of decision to buy land under a borrowed name was really something only Mr. Liang could do.

“A bit.” Li Zheng felt that Mr. Little Liang, who didn’t talk much, would give him face.

Cheng Xianfeng visibly relaxed, “That would be perfect.” He took a sip of coffee, then took out a document from his briefcase, “This is the patent valuation report you wanted.”

Li Zheng took it and flipped through it, but the Catalyst patent was valued at thirty-eight million dollars. Although this valuation report obviously underestimated the value of the catalyst’s patent compared to the quotes from Roche and Pfizer, these valuation companies were inherently conservative in issuing reports, and with him now being penniless, this valuation was still within a reasonable range.

Li Zheng didn’t have enough money to buy the land, so naturally, he had to find a way to come up with the money. His Dannodin catalyst patent right was only sold for a five-year license, after which it could be bought and sold again. So he planned to mortgage the catalyst patent right to the Hong Kong Yuehua Bank to get a loan. This was the fastest way for him to get money at the moment.

“Thanks a lot.” Li Zheng put the report away, “Please also ask Attorney Cheng to arrange for me to meet with Mr. Liang as soon as possible.”

Cheng Xianfeng smiled and agreed.

After separating from Cheng Xianfeng, Li Zheng rushed to the Hong Kong Bank without stopping. Xu Mingsheng had already contacted Ma Zhendong Ma, the president of the Yuehua Bank of Hong Kong for him.

Yuehua Bank was one of the many private banks in Hong Kong, because Li Zheng needed funds in a short time, while big banks like Citibank and HSBC obviously didn’t have such a flexible mechanism, so Xu Mingsheng recommended Yuehua Bank to him.

Ma Zhendong of Yuehua Bank had a sharp eye and was bold in his work, and Xu Mingsheng spoke highly of him.

Li Zheng had never heard of Yuehua Bank in his later life, so there were two possibilities: first, Ma Zhendong had changed his profession to do something else; second, like many private banks in Hong Kong, Yuehua Bank had not survived the financial crisis in 1997.

After taking a few glances at Yuehua’s investment brochure at the front desk, Li Zheng felt that the latter was more likely.

“Hello, I have an appointment with President Ma Zhendong.” Li Zheng said to the bank’s front desk.

The receptionist looked up slightly at Li Zheng with a hint of apprehension in his eyes, clearly having rarely seen such a young teenager come to see Ma Zhendong.

“Just a moment, may I ask your name ……” the lady at the front desk asked politely.

“Li Zheng.”

The front desk lady found Li Zheng’s name in the reservation book, and her smile widened, “You can go up now.”

Li Zheng nodded and was about to go up.

The middle-aged man who had been standing next to him for a long time tugged on Li Zheng’s arm while yelling at the receptionist, “Didn’t you say that President Ma was in a meeting and was unavailable? Why can he go up there!”

The man looked agitated, his hair was a little greasy and the stubble near his mouth was very obvious, obviously, he hadn’t shaved for several days.

Li Zheng broke free of the man’s hand with a cold gaze and walked straight to the elevator.

The man also wanted to follow, but the receptionist asked the security guard to stop him.

The man tugged at his throat and hissed, “Just two million, just lend me two million and my factory will be brought back to life. Ma Zhendong! Ma Zhendong!”

Li Zheng stepped into the elevator, the elevator door closed, he didn’t take this episode to heart in the slightest. This kind of capital story played out everywhere every day, and that was why he didn’t like those who engaged in business, with big ups and downs and strange cold-bloodedness. There were contrasts to be happy about, and Li Zheng’s satisfaction with his career was once again on a higher level.

The elevator went up until it reached the ninth floor and stepped out of the elevator. The entire ninth floor was a busy scene, a few men kept answering the phone, and someone saw Li Zheng coming over and shouted, “Who’s the appointment?”

Li Zheng wasn’t used to shouting, he took two quick steps to the man, “I have an appointment with Ma Zhengdong.”

The man looked him up and down a few times in surprise and muttered, “What kind of kid.”

Li Zheng had already gotten used to the surprised and curious gazes, and his expression didn’t change at all as he followed the man through a corridor to a small door with a “President’s Office” sign on it.

“President, a man named Li Zheng is looking for you.” The man asked for Li Zheng’s name as he led the way.

A middle-aged baritone voice came from inside the room, “Let him in.”

Li Zheng pushed the door in.

It was an elaborately decorated office, with a thick layer of red carpet on the floor, brownish-red bookcases, desks, and office chairs, which were, according to later generations, log furniture.

Behind the spacious desk, a slightly bloated middle-aged man stood up and walked quickly towards Li Zheng, he reached out his hand and shook it warmly.

“The youngest millionaire in Hong Kong. Young indeed, young indeed.” They who were in finance naturally had their own sources of information, and after Xu Mingsheng mentioned Li Zheng’s basic situation to him, Ma Zhendong had someone investigate overnight and was secretly shocked when he heard the returns.

This young man was remarkable.

Xu Mingsheng had told him that Li Zheng was about 30 million Hong Kong Dollars short, and although this amount was a bit large, it wasn’t non-negotiable, after all, Li Zheng was taking the money to buy land, not to invest, and if he couldn’t pay it back, he could just auction the land and recover the cost.

Li Zheng was helpless, was Xu Mingsheng trying to advertise his title of “The Youngest Millionaire in Hong Kong” to all of Hong Kong?

“Hello, President Ma, I’m Li Zheng. Forget about the youngest millionaire in Hong Kong, after buying the land, not only will I be penniless, you’ll also be my debtor.” Li Zheng laughed bitterly.

Ma Zhendong harrumphed.

“Mr. Li Zheng, sit down.”

Ma Zhendong was indeed a person, from the time Li Zheng entered the door until now, he didn’t show the slightest hint of surprise or contempt because of Li Zheng’s age and completely treated Li Zheng as an ordinary customer.

“Bank President Ma, I’m sure Teacher has already told you about my intentions, I wonder if you can lend me this amount.” Li Zheng said straight to the point.

Ma Zhendong poured a cup of tea for Li Zheng, then sat back behind his desk, he looked towards Li Zheng with a smiling face and said, “A special loan of 20 million yuan, the amount can only be used to buy land, with a two-year limit and an annual interest rate of 8%. What does Mr. Li Zheng think?”

Li Zheng’s eyes narrowed, he was starting to miss the times when pharmaceutical companies lined up to send money to his door, dealing with these merchants was really troublesome.

“President Ma probably misunderstood what Teacher meant, if I only needed twenty million Hong Kong dollars, I wouldn’t come to trouble you.” He handed over the prepared patent valuation documents.

“I’m going to run a mortgage loan, the patent valuation is thirty-eight million US dollars, and I’m going to borrow thirty million US dollars at a 20% interest on the mortgage according to the market. The interest rate is based on ordinary mortgages.”

When he was in Cold Spring Harbor, a pharmaceutical company’s sponsorship was more than that, and when he returned to China, it was a special scientific research fund, which reimbursed him on a real basis, never shortchanging him a cent. To be honest, Li Zheng’s concept of money was much vaguer than the average person.

Ma Zhendong’s mouth grew big, thirty million US dollars. Where did this frosty young man come out, he was a private bank, not a big bank like HSBC or Citibank, thirty million US dollars released, he won’t have to do anyone else’s loans this year.

He looked at Li Zheng who looked so righteous, swallowed his saliva, and received the patent valuation document in Li Zheng’s hand.

The patent valuation was done by the British Weihua Consulting Company, and was very authoritative. Ma Zhendong gulped once again as he looked at the shaky USD38 million valuation behind it, and he truly understood what Xu Mingsheng meant by the so-called youngest millionaire in Hong Kong.

These consulting companies were very cautious in project valuation, and the figure of US$38 million from Weihua showed that the actual value of the technology could be twice as much as US$38 million after maximizing it.

He looked at the patent valuation document, and then looked at the patent collateral signed by Li Zheng, and smiled bitterly, originally thinking that he had gotten a small fish, but what he caught was actually a shark.

“Mr. Li Zheng, I’m sorry. I really can’t take that much capital here.” Ma Zhendong said.

Li Zheng’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, the bank didn’t have any money? The banks in later years, however, wanted to lend the money out, to accelerate the flow of money and maximize the value of capital to society, in their words.

“So how much do you have?”

Ma Zhendong subconsciously replied, “At most, fifty million Hong Kong dollars.”

Li Zheng’s eyebrows stretched, fifty million was enough, and after paying for the land, there would still be twenty-eight million Hong Kong dollars left, enough for lab decoration, landscaping, and the salaries of the first group of researchers.

Just holding on until the second research result came out, Li Zheng calculated in his heart and reluctantly nodded his head.

“Fifty million is fine.”

Ma Zhendong looked stunned, what did he just say, fifty million! That was almost all the cash he could come up with right now, how was he going to put that number out there!

Besides, shouldn’t Li Zheng be begging for a loan? Why was it the other way around?

How did it turn out that he was begging Li Zheng to accept his loan? How dare you think it’s a bit embarrassing to only loan Li Zheng 50 million?

Ma Zhendong drank a mouthful of tea to suppress his shock, with a mouthful of herbal tea in his stomach, he finally sobered up a bit.

He was shocked by the fact that Li Zheng was only sixteen or seventeen years old and had such wealth, and he was dazed for a moment before he blurted out the 50 million figure.

However, since the words had already been spoken, if he took them back, he might offend the youngest millionaire in Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong behind him. Ma Zhendong laughed bitterly in his heart, thinking that he could only move forward.

Alas, it was not a loan to just anyone anyway. Ma Zhendong consoled himself this way.

“Then Mr. Li, shall we draw up the contract now?” Ma Zhendong quickly adjusted his state and spoke with a smile.

Half an hour later, the two signed the contract separately, Ma Zhendong stood up and extended his hand to Li Zheng, “Happy cooperation, Mr. Li. After the patent document comes down, you hand it over to me and our contract will come into effect, fifty million Hong Kong dollars will be deposited into your bank account immediately.”

Li Zheng had a relaxed expression on his face, “Pleasant cooperation.” He could now probably go think about how he should design his lab in the future.

Watching Li Zheng walk out of the office, Ma Zhendong immediately called the lending department, “Don’t sign any loans, there’s no money.”

“Ah, President, but the factory manager’s side ……”

“No more money, no more money, will you lend him money on your salary?” Ma Zhendong said in a bad mood.

The youngster, disrupted his steps to master the initiative at once. Ma Zhendong shook his head, he really took it lightly.

He was almost connected with the Liang family, and the money problem was also solved. Li Zheng was now relaxed, and he wondered if he should go to class. He hadn’t been to class for two days in a row after his hasty entrance yesterday, and he didn’t seem to be a very competent student.

He took a taxi and went directly to Hong Kong University. When Li Zheng looked at the class schedule on the school’s promotional window, the section of Biopharmaceutical II was Molecular Biology.

When Li Zheng stepped into the classroom, there was a moment of silence in the classroom.

He looked at his watch, there was no class yet.

Looking around the room, he looked straight for an inconspicuous place to sit down.

The second class of biopharmaceutical students were dissatisfied with the new student’s idiosyncrasies, but Li Zheng didn’t bother them.

He Zhongming was surrounded by quite a few people.

“Class President, I heard that at the end of this month, you’re going to Tokyo to attend the Asian Biopharmaceutical Conference, right? It’s an international convention! I’m told that all the great bulls of biology in Asia will be in attendance and, as is customary, several world-class bulls will be invited as guests! Will Watson be there? What about Eric, Morton?”

He Zhongming lowered his head so that no one could see his expression, “It’s not decided yet, after all, the other two seniors are graduate students.”

The pimpled man next to him clearly had confidence in He Zhongming.

“Brother Ming, the professor has said, in terms of merit you are not worse than those graduate students at all, and you are the first in our medical school every year, if not you who else can there be, don’t be modest.”

The words of the youth caused a chorus of echoes from the crowd.

Li Zheng, who was sitting in the front row, had his mouth slightly curved, it seemed that he and that He Zhongming were really destined to be together, and he was probably going to ruin someone else’s good fortune once again.

Right at this moment, He Zhongming saw Li Zheng, he suddenly stood up and walked up to Li Zheng.

“Fellow student Li Zheng, our class had a drama performance on Christmas, and I thought that you were new and participating in this kind of group activity would help you integrate into the group, so I helped you arrange a role.”

Li Zheng was stunned and pointed at himself, “Me?”

   Before he could speak, the man with pimples barked strangely, “It’s you?! Dean Xu was next to that thin-looking …… “Remembering Li Zheng’s imposing appearance at that time, he silently swallowed the word “kid”.

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TN:

If i made a mistake with the financial terms, lemme know.