Chapter 493 The Light of Xiangjiang
Not only did he not bring the food stamps, but Lin Chaoyang didn't even bring any RMB.
He wanted to clean his face, but he estimated that his face might not be worth a bowl of fried liver and two steamed buns. He took out a 2-franc coin.
“Check out!”
Lin Chaoyang handed out the coin, “Don’t look for it.”
"Hey!"
The waiter stopped him, "Give me the money!"
"You won't give it to me? My foreign exchange!"
The waiter took the coins and With a flash in front of his eyes, he said, "No, we will just accept RMB and food stamps."
Lin Chaoyang was puzzled: "Why don't you just keep the foreign exchange yourself and help me pay for breakfast."
The waiter looked at him suspiciously, held the coin in front of his eyes and looked at him carefully for a long time without saying anything.
Lin Chaoyang took out a "Debussy" with a face value of 20 yuan from his pocket, "Look, it's really a French franc."
He didn't give back the "Debussy" Okay, when I took it out, the waiter didn’t believe it even more. Whose banknote printing quality is like this?
Seeing that the waiter almost regarded him as a liar, Lin Chaoyang felt helpless.
"Hey, Chaoyang?" A surprised voice sounded.
Lin Chaoyang turned around and looked, "Wang Shuo? Are you here for breakfast?"
"Well, bring them some food."
There was a party in the West Courtyard yesterday, and by evening most of the people Everyone left, but there were still a few die-hards who stayed up until midnight and slept in the west courtyard that night.
"What are you..."
Lin Chaoyang smiled bitterly, "I forgot to bring my food stamps!"
Wang Shuo couldn't help but smile and joked to the waiter: "This is a great writer who has just won glory for his country abroad and returned home with a great reputation!"
"Writers can't just eat for free!" the waiter said confidently.
"Stop talking nonsense, help me settle the account."
Wang Shuo took the cymbal, Lin Chaoyang said angrily to him, and stuffed the Debussy into In his hand, he walked out the door.
Wang Shuo glanced at the coin in the waiter's hand, asked for the money, and still said unforgivingly: "Look at you, you can't make money even if you ask me to pick up half of it for nothing. Monthly salary.”
After he finished paying for Lin Chaoyang, the waiter looked at the foreign exchange in his hand again and felt a little regretful this time.
If I had known better, I would not have adhered to the principle!
It was not even half past six when Lin Chaoyang came out of the breakfast shop. He went home first and stayed for a while. Zhu Wei came over from the west courtyard to find him.
"You haven't left yet? Just in time, let's take a ride."
When it was almost eight o'clock, Lin Chaoyang drove Zhu Wei towards the East Third Ring Road.
On the East Third Ring Road, located at the northeast corner of the later Changhong Bridge, there are two buildings standing side by side, square and regular, like a pair of twins.
The sixteen-story building was inconspicuous in later generations, but in 1987, it was enough to stand out from the short buildings in the Tuanjiehu community across the road.
The two buildings belong to different units. To the east is Tongguang Building, and to the west is the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Building. The house number is "No. 10 Nanli, Agricultural Exhibition Hall".
The China Federation of Literary and Art Circles building is called the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, but it is actually a joint venture between the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Association for Literary and Art Circles.
After the end of the humanitarian torrent, the National Cultural Association will live in the compound at No. 2 Shatan North Street, which is not a long-term solution.
So the Federation of Literary and Art Circles jointly submitted a report on the construction of the building to the higher authorities. At the end of last year, the building was finally completed at No. 10 South Lane of the Agricultural Exhibition Hall.
In addition to a 16-story main building, a theater-style auditorium and a 5-story guest house and canteen were built on the north and northeast sides of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles building respectively.
Lin Chaoyang's crown drove into the courtyard of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles Building. Zhu Wei got out of the car and said to Lin Chaoyang:
"It's still early, why don't you come sit with us?"
" OK! ”
The two of them went straight to the fifth floor.
After the Federation of Literary and Art Circles building was completed, the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Federation of Literary and Art Circles did not move in directly. The Federation of Literary and Art Circles let several smaller associations affiliated to it, such as the Musicians Association, the Artists Association, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Music Association and other units move in.
The Literary and Literary Association asked its affiliated Writers Publishing House, "Literary Newspaper", People's Literature Publishing House, etc. to move in.
The reason why the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Association for Literary and Art Circles did this is mainly because in the past ten years since the reform and opening up, the domestic literary and artistic undertakings have developed greatly, and the literary and artistic teams have also grown rapidly.
The newly built Federation of Literary and Art Circles Building has not yet been used, but it can no longer accommodate all the personnel of the two units.
At this time, everyone is embarrassed. Which leader has the nerve to move into a splendid building and let the second-level units and subordinates hang out in the earthquake-resistant shed? Aren't you afraid of being poked in the spine?
Going up to the fifth floor, this is now the joint space of "People's Literature" and "Poetry Magazine".
Standing at the top of the stairs, Lin Chaoyang joked: "Okay, your "People's Literature" has really changed a shotgun now!"
When Tao Yushu was still working at "People's Literature", they I still work there in Dongsibatiao, and the conditions are difficult.
“The times are developing and society is progressing, so we can’t stand still, right?”
Zhu Wei joked and led Lin Chaoyang into the office.
In less than two minutes, the whole floor became lively. Everyone wanted to come and see the "new winner of the French Renaudeau Literature Prize".
Of course this is a joke, but it is true that everyone is watching the fun.
Because of Tao Yushu’s relationship, Lin Chaoyang had a very good relationship with “People’s Literature”. Meeting everyone, chatting and laughing, was very lively.
"Who is here to make "People's Literature" so lively? It turns out to be today's protagonist!"
While everyone was talking, a burst of hearty laughter came from the door. It turned out to be Tang Dacheng.
He is now the person in charge of the Cultural Association and has dealt with Lin Chaoyang many times.
The reason why he said Lin Chaoyang was "today's protagonist" was because the Literary and Art Association was going to hold a commendation meeting for Lin Chaoyang in the auditorium.
Lin Chaoyang chatted with him for a while. Seeing that it was almost time, he went downstairs to the auditorium.
The huge banner with yellow characters on a red background at the Commendation Conference was hung directly behind the podium in the auditorium, showing an invisible momentum.
When Lin Chaoyang and Tang Dacheng entered the auditorium, there were already many people sitting inside.
Among them are mainly people from the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Association for Literary and Art Circles, as well as people from subordinate secondary units.
At nine o'clock in the morning, the commendation meeting officially began. As the leader of the Literary Association, Tang Dacheng delivered a passionate speech and spoke highly of Lin Chaoyang's win of the French Renaudeau Literature Prize. :
“… Comrade Chaoyang’s award-winning speech is powerful It has expanded the boundaries and artistic realm of our contemporary Chinese literature and set an excellent example for the development of Chinese contemporary literature overseas. It deserves its own place in the history of contemporary Chinese literature."
etang et al. After reaching his speech, it was Lin Chaoyang's speech.
Earlier, Tang Dacheng had praised him so much that Lin Chaoyang naturally had to be more modest and low-key. He briefly told the story of winning the award and expressed his feelings. After his speech, there were bursts of warm applause from the audience.
As for the commendation conference, the content is really lackluster. The important thing is the form, which is the affirmation of the Cultural Association.
In the National Literary and Art Association, meetings such as summary and commendation conferences are held every year, but it is very rare to hold separate commendation conferences for writers.
Writers who win domestic literary awards do not receive this kind of treatment. They basically have to win more important awards overseas, or be recognized by some authoritative international organizations.
Over the years, few domestic writers have won awards overseas.
Therefore, the commendation meeting held by the Literary and Art Association for Lin Chaoyang is naturally of great significance.
As Tang Dacheng said in his speech, receiving the recognition of the Renault Literary Award has allowed Lin Chaoyang to lose his identity as a "young writer" and truly have his own identity in the contemporary literary world. status and voice.
The commendation meeting ended in an hour, and then Lin Chaoyang accepted an interview with "Literary News".
When he returned to Xiaoliubukou Alley after eating outside, he found that several guests had come to the house.
After chatting, I found out that these were people from the youth league committees or student unions of several universities in Yanjing. They came to invite Lin Chaoyang to give a report at the school, and Lin Chaoyang readily agreed.
In the next few days, Lin Chaoyang kept traveling to major universities in Yanjing.
Everywhere he went, there were crowds of people. Thousands of students greeted him as if they were idols.
The welcome he received was even warmer than that of the poets in previous years.
The fanatical pursuit of readers is certainly pleasing, but what makes Lin Chaoyang even more happy is that since the news of the Renaudeau Literary Award spread back to China, many of his previously published works have experienced a wave of popularity. Hot sales.
The growth rate of "The Truman Show" is the most exaggerated. According to rough statistics from Huacheng Publishing House, in the ten days after the news of the award came back to China, "The Truman Show" sold nearly 50,000 copies. Thousands of volumes.
Originally, bookstores everywhere definitely didn't have so much inventory. It was only after Lin Chaoyang won the award that he informed the cooperating publishing houses of the news, which prevented these publishing houses from being caught off guard by the sudden surge in sales.
"The Truman Show" is an award-winning work after all, and it is understandable that it has achieved such outstanding results.
In addition, the performance of his new work "The Big Era" is also very impressive, and its reputation among critics has rapidly rebounded. This has a certain relationship with his winning the award.
But the more important reason is that many media in Guangdong recently reported on the stock market crash that occurred in Xiangjiang last month.
Throughout October, not only the Hong Kong stock market, but also major global securities exchange markets such as New York, London, Sydney and Toronto experienced index plummets to varying degrees.
Among them, the London stock market led the way with a decline of 45.8%, followed by the U.S. stock market with a decline of 41.8%.
The Xiangjiang stock market is highly correlated with US and British stocks, so it is naturally not immune to this stock market crash.
After the first week of plummeting, the Hang Seng Index showed no signs of rising. It has continued to fall over the past few days and has now fallen below the 2,000-point mark.
It took more than a year for the Hang Seng Index to rise from more than 1,000 points to more than 3,000 points, but it only took half a month for it to return to its original shape. It can be said to be one of the biggest tragedies in the Asian stock market in recent years.
The society in Xiangjiang is wailing, and the media's follow-up reports have further fueled the pessimism of citizens and stock investors. Public opinion continues to be heated, and all kinds of strange stories about the stock market crash are emerging one after another.
Among them, one news wave is particularly eye-catching, and that is the claim that "Big Times" "accurately predicted" the stock market crash.
After many days of reports in the Xiangjiang media, this statement has long been known to the people of Xiangjiang, and has even caused a rush to buy and read the novel.
In just over half a month, Ming Pao Publishing House’s version of “The Great Era” sold over 800,000 copies in Hong Kong.
This number has created a sales record for serious literary works in the history of Xiangjiang. Even if all popular literary works are compared together, it is still very few.
After all, Xiangjiang is just a city with a population of four to five million.
Lin Chaoyang has become a hotly discussed figure in the domestic press these days because he won the French Renaudeau Literature Prize.
Now it is suddenly reported from Hong Kong that his new work has the power to influence the Hong Kong stock market. Of course, these domestic media must publicize it.
As the Guangdong media took the lead in paying attention to the Hong Kong stock market crash, the relationship between "Big Times" and the stock market crash also attracted the attention of more mainland media.
In less than a week since the Guangdong media began to report the news about "Big Times" and the Hong Kong stock market crash, many domestic media outlets have reprinted the relevant content.
Moreover, many media outlets gave full play to their subjective initiative and obtained a lot of specious information through various channels, and openly published it in newspapers without verification.
These reports are so outrageous that they open the door to outrageousness - outrageous as hell.
For example, there are reports:
On the day the novel "The Great Era" was released in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index plummeted 1,100 points, causing a tragedy unprecedented in the Hong Kong stock market in decades.
For another example, some newspapers reprinted the content of Xiangjiang newspapers, saying: The prediction of the stock market in "The Great Era" led to panic selling in the Xiangjiang securities market, which was the direct cause of the stock market crash.
At this time, there is no Internet, and newspapers are the most authoritative way to publish news. People have no doubts about the contents of newspapers. Most of the media in the 1980s still had a conscience, but the deterioration of many media and reporters was already showing signs of deterioration.
The most typical example is Master Hai Deng, a monk who became famous.
Master Haideng was originally just a monk living in seclusion in Sichuan. He was quite famous in the Buddhist world, but was not well known among the people.
In order to shoot the large-scale news documentary "Sichuan Wonders", Emei Film Studio inquired about Master Hai Deng.
A personal visit allowed Master Haideng to demonstrate his superb martial arts, which made Master Haideng somewhat famous. Originally, things were normal up to this point.
But after Master Hai Deng became famous, a reporter from the Yanjing Evening News wrote a half-truth and half-false report in order to attract readers' attention, in which he changed Master Hai Deng's identity to the abbot of Shaolin Temple.
The common people believed it to be true and thought that Master Hai Deng was the abbot of Shaolin Temple.
As a result, the real Shaolin Temple abbot was offended, and a complaint was filed with the China FJ Association, causing quite a disturbance.
Although the news about "The Great Times" and the Xiangjiang stock market crash have been distorted when reaching China, it does not prevent the common people from believing in it.
Moreover, humans are animals that are often resistant to mysticism and conspiracy theories.
""Big Era" caused the Hong Kong stock market to plummet." This kind of statement is exciting and explosive. What a topic, and how exciting it is to chat!
Many news about "Big Times" and the Hong Kong stock market became popular in China in a short period of time.
In addition to attracting the attention of many readers by many media reporting on this matter, the most intuitive impact is that the popularity of the novel "The Great Era" has increased and sales have continued to rise.
On November 17, during the week when Lin Chaoyang returned to Beijing, he participated in various activities including commendation meetings, interviews, reports, speeches, etc., which can be regarded as completing the government's publicity tasks.
In the blink of an eye, he has been away from Xiangjiang for more than half a month, and he has to go back to see his wife and children.
He flew back to Xiangjiang and was teased by Tao Yumo as soon as he got home.
“Oh, isn’t this the ‘Light of the Perfume River’!”
“What is the Light of the Perfume River?”
Lin Chaoyang was completely confused when he heard this. Puzzled.
“You don’t know yet, right? This is the name given to you by the media in Xiangjiang!”
Tao Yumo smiled brightly when he talked about this.
More than half a month ago, the Hong Kong stock market crash broke out, and some newspapers linked "The Great Times" to the stock market crash.
The reporters wanted to dig up some news about the author Lin Chaoyang, but after two days of searching they couldn't find anyone else. They were told by Tao Yumo that Lin Chaoyang had gone to France to receive the award.
These reporters regretted not being able to dig out the inside story of "The Great Era" and the stock market crash, but this regret was quickly erased by the fact that Lin Chaoyang won the award.
The stock market crash made "The Great Era" very popular in Hong Kong. Lin Chaoyang, the novelist, has naturally become the focus of public attention. He has won awards abroad, which is quite eye-catching. News?
The reporters waited for two days, and sure enough, they found news about Lin Chaoyang's award in some international media, and then some media immediately reprinted the news.
Lin Chaoyang has received a lot of attention these days, and people love to read news about him.
After the news was published, good results were immediately achieved.
Seeing this, some media began to tell the public about the awesomeness of the Novo Literary Award. The trend of the entire incident was exactly the same as what the mainland media did more than a week ago.
Later, everyone praised Lin Chaoyang so much that the public became numb and the media felt that it was a bit lackluster.
Therefore, "Ming Pao" suppressed a big problem. They published an article saying: The Renaudeau Literary Prize is the crown of French literature, and Lin Chaoyang's winning of this honor can be called the light of Hong Kong.
"Ming Pao" was originally a major newspaper in Hong Kong, with great influence, and it was evaluated by Lin Chaoyang, a popular writer who has dominated Hong Kong recently.
The title "Light of Xiangjiang" was immediately recognized by many Xiangjiang citizens. In addition to allowing "Ming Pao" to start a beautiful battle for publicity among media colleagues, it also gave Lin Chaoyang a good reputation. A layer of golden body.
After Tao Yumo finished talking about the origin of the title "Light of Xiangjiang", he asked Lin Chaoyang with a smile on his face: "How is it? Brother-in-law, does this title sound good to you?"
Lin Chaoyang smiled and said: "Of course it's good, can you still be unhappy when someone praises you?"
"You have really become a celebrity in Hong Kong. In the past few days, various media have been inundating with interview invitations. Some rich people even invited you to their dinner parties."
The media's interview invitations came from Lin Chaoyang It was expected, but the rich man's invitation surprised Lin Chaoyang.
"Rich man? Who is it?"
"Li Zhaofu, Zhuang Chongwen."
After Tao Yumo announced these two names, Lin Chaoyang couldn't help but frown.
Zhuang Chongwen is a patriotic businessman. Lin Chaoyang even accepted his hospitality when he visited Hong Kong with a group of mainland writers.
After living in Xiangjiang, Lin Chaoyang did not take the initiative to contact him.
After all, he is a wealthy man, and Lin Chaoyang doesn’t want others to think that he wants to cling to him.
Zhuang Chongwen and Lin Chaoyang had a relationship, and there was a reason for the invitation to the banquet, but what was the situation with Li Zhaofu?
In a society like Hong Kong, where a wealthy man like Li Zhaofu with a net worth of nearly 10 billion Hong Kong dollars is at the top of society, Lin Chaoyang does not feel that he has anything worthy of his wooing.
After thinking for a while, Lin Chaoyang could only attribute the reason to his operations in the stock market.
Thinking of this, he called the stock trading phone number of the Stock Exchange.
After understanding the situation and confirming what he was thinking, Lin Chaoyang hung up the phone.
When the stock market crash happened before, Maggie Cheung asked him if he had bought stocks. He did not buy them, but it did not mean that he did not do anything.
The 1987 stock market crash was an opportunity for a windfall, so it was unreasonable for him not to earn some pocket money.
Before the stock market crash, he targeted the stocks of Huang Yulang's Yulang Institution. He first sold out all the stocks in China Taicheng City, and then increased the leverage by 10 times, financing up to 140 million Hong Kong dollars from the institution.
Then he used all the money to borrow the stocks of Yulang Institution from brokers.
It would have been impossible to borrow such a huge amount of stocks through a securities firm.
But he couldn't resist Huang Yulang's manipulation, which gave Lin Chaoyang an opportunity to take advantage of.
Huang Yulang established Yulang International in 1979. Yulang International was listed in Hong Kong under the name of "Yuklang Institution Co., Ltd." last year. Huang Yulang holds 75% of the shares, with a market value of HK$240 million.
At that time, Yulang Organization published 14 kinds of comic books and periodicals and a weekly magazine called "Yuklang TV", sweeping the comics industry in Hong Kong.
After the listing, Huang Yulang’s confidence increased and he continued to take action.
First, it spent HK$13 million to purchase the Bumrungrad Center in Chai Wan as the factory building of Yuk Lang Printing Factory.
Later, the 10-storey King's Road News Building was purchased from Sing Tao Newspaper Group for HK$70 million to serve as the administrative and production headquarters of Yulang Group.
Immediately afterwards, he targeted "Tiantian Daily".
This daily, founded in 1960 by Wei Jize and Wei Jishun of the Webster family, was the world's first color newspaper. It was acquired by Liu Tianjiu of the Miaoli Group in 1977.
Miaoli Group declared bankruptcy the following year, and was liquidated and taken over by the British Hong Kong Government's bankruptcy administration agency.
The domestic Jincheng Bank is its creditor, and Xin H News Agency entrusted He Shizhu, a patriotic businessman from Hong Kong, to host the "Tian Tian Daily".
As a result, "Tian Tian Daily" came back to life under the leadership of He Shizhu, and became the second largest daily newspaper in Hong Kong.
In April this year, Huang Yulang reached an agreement with He Shizhu and acquired 70% of the equity of "Tiantian Daily" and the entire equity of its Tiantian Color Printing Company for HK$77 million.
In July, Huang Yulang once again spent HK$25.2 million to acquire "Fresh Weekly".
In the same month, it acquired "Youth" magazine for HK$9.3 million.
In just over half a year, Huang Yulang made several moves and spent money like water.
Yulang Institution has just been listed, but it is beginning to take shape. Where did it come from so much money?
Even if his Yulang organization is a golden goose mother, it is impossible to draw such a huge sum of money in a short period of time.
This matter is not a secret in the Xiangjiang securities industry. The reason why Huang Yulang has so much capital is that he was inspired by his friend Liu Luanxiong from the same hometown. He sold his company shares in exchange for a large amount of capital.
In more than half a year, the more rights issues Huang Yulang got, the richer he became. The richer he got, the more he invested, and the more he invested, the longer his stock price increased.
The snowball is getting bigger and bigger, and the market value of Yulang Institution has skyrocketed from HK$240 million when it was first listed to HK$2 billion.
Huang Yulang raised a total of 450 million Hong Kong dollars, and the company's stock he held plummeted from 75% to 36.4%.
Huang Yulang, who holds hundreds of millions of funds and has invested in consecutive victories, has ushered in the highlight moment of his life, but he never imagined that he was about to face the biggest failure in his life.
In fact, not only him, but all Xiangjiang Securities practitioners and investors could not have imagined this.
Before the stock market crash, Huang Yulang once again imitated fellow countryman Liu Luanxiong and spent HK$260 million to boldly enter the market and speculate in futures.
At the peak, the floating profit was HK$210 million. Not wanting the bear to attack, the futures index plummeted 2,000 points. The futures contract held by Huang Yulang directly changed from a floating profit of 210 million Hong Kong dollars to a floating loss of 90 million Hong Kong dollars.
The main business of Yulang Institution is publishing, not securities investment.
Huang Yulang was not doing his job properly and suffered heavy losses during the stock market crash. Last week, he was jointly attacked by the small shareholders of Yulang Institution.
Originally affected by the stock market crash, the stock price of Yulang Institution plummeted.
As soon as the news came out that small shareholders were forcing the company to leave, the stock price of Yulang Institution plunged directly, with a market value of less than 300 million Hong Kong dollars, and the stock price continued to decline along with the market's decline.
Two days ago, the Xiangjiang Securities Regulatory Commission ordered Yulang Institution to suspend trading for 6 days and accept investigation, which can be said to make matters worse.
Although Yulang Institution is currently suspended, everyone knows that the company's stock price may still have a lot of room to fall.
Lin Chaoyang called the stockbroker just now to verify the current situation of Yulang Institution and Huang Yulang.
With God's vision, he was ruthless in shorting Yulang Institution.
Now Yulang Institution’s stock price has dropped by 80% from its peak. Even after paying handling fees and dividend compensation, Lin Chaoyang’s conservative profit will exceed HK$100 million.
The next thing he needs to do is to buy the bottom at a very low price after Yulang Institution resumes trading, return the same number of stocks to the brokerage, and everything will be fine.
He must be happy with such a result.
And his prejudgmental operation naturally could not escape the eyes of Lee Siu-fook, the chairman of the Stock Exchange.
So Lin Chaoyang guessed that this should be the reason why Li Zhaofu took the initiative to befriend him.
Lin Chaoyang is not worried that his short selling of Yulang Institution will cause others to covet him after word spreads.
Huang Yulang's investment style itself is very radical. If there is a little bit of negative news, the stock price of Yulang Institution will easily go on a roller coaster. It just so happens that he had too many rights issues before, so it is normal for some people to be short-selling.
And there are a lot of short sellers in the market. Lin Chaoyang just happened to catch the stock market crash and made a lot of pocket money.
As for the prediction of the stock market crash in "The Great Era" reported by the media, the stock market crash was indeed written in the novel, but the details have been changed by Lin Chaoyang, which is very different from reality.
This matter is more of a far-fetched one by the media, and combined with the anxiety and panic of society and stock investors, it has such a big impact.
Everything in my mind was exhausted, but only a minute or two passed.
Seeing that Lin Chaoyang had been thinking silently after making the phone call, Tao Yumo couldn't help but ask:
"Brother-in-law, what are you thinking about?"
"It's nothing, your sister What?”
"My sister said that she has to talk to Prince Zhong and Prince Chen about something tonight and will have to come back later."
(End of Chapter)