Hong Kong Island: Reborn in 1979, I Head North Early to Seize Business Opportunities

Chen Xuan transmigrates to Hong Kong in 1979. He is the son of a 14K elder and the sole heir to the Chen Group. His father tells him to start out as an assistant at the ferry company, but he demands the chairman's seat instead, silencing all objections with a single remark: "The British will rule Hong Kong for eighteen more years at most. If the Chen family doesn't expand now, we'll be swallowed up when the Chinese businessmen start fighting among themselves."

Once Chen Xuan gets the power he wants, his first move is to buy thirty sand-carrying ships and take the 14K boss north to Guangzhou. Shenzhen is still a fishing village, and the senior officials of Guangdong are stunned: he's the first Hong Kong private businessman to approach them voluntarily since the founding of the country. He secures exclusive rights to transport river sand and opens smuggling routes for fuel oil. Then he registers China Sea Logistics, ostensibly to ship fruit, but actually to transport industrial diesel, earning a net profit of two thousand per ton.

While Hong Kong's business community is still watching and waiting, Chen Xuan has already used his Cambridge connection, Li Zelian, to open up the Li family's channels. Li Ka-shing of Cheung Kong Holdings invites him to negotiate. Chen Xuan smiles and takes half the river-sand market: "We can work together, but I have to keep the initiative in my own hands."

Ge Zhixiong asks, "How dare you bet that the North will win?"

Chen Xuan glances at the ships unloading cargo at Guangzhou's wharf. "I'm not betting on who wins. I'm betting on the times."

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.