Chapter 140: The Miss Hong Kong Killer

Zhuang Chen was taken aback, his eyes lighting up. He absolutely loved hearing this kind of gossip—it was incredibly satisfying.

"Setting aside the foreigners, the former board chairman and CEO of Chinese Estates Holdings, Joseph Lau; the former Chief Secretary for Administration, Henry Tang; the chairman of Lai Sun Group, Peter Lam; and Liao Liezhi of Chong Hing Bank are collectively known as the 'Four Great Kings of Wine Collecting' in Hong Kong."

"You might not have heard of the others, but you surely recognize the big name Joseph Lau, right?" Ding Mengyao said with a meaningful smile. "He’s known as the 'Hong Kong Pageant Harvester'!"

*It's him?*

Zhuang Chen suddenly realized why the name sounded familiar. "Isn't he the one who plays the stock market?" he asked curiously.

"Although Joseph Lau started collecting wine by chance, he is a stock market sniper with a unique eye for investment. He started by spending over 300 million USD on his collection, which is now valued at over two billion USD!"

"He has stated more than once in public: 'I am definitely among the top three red wine collectors in the world.'"

"Twenty-eight years ago, when premium Lafite cost only 1,000 HKD a bottle, 35-year-old Joseph Lau, who hosted at least three or four parties a week and consumed at least 30 bottles each time, simply bought top-tier wine in bulk. As he held fewer parties later on, he ended up with a collection of tens of thousands of premium bottles today."

"Over the past thirty years, by his own account, whenever fine wines came up for auction, he would sweep them all up nine times out of ten. Back then, not only in Hong Kong but across the world, very few people knew how to appreciate them. Almost no one in mainland China was buying, and foreigners would just buy a case or two before Christmas to celebrate—nobody thought of it as an investment."

"Now that his health is failing, he rarely drinks, and it has become a pure hobby. When he’s bored, if he’s missing an 'A' grade, he buys an 'A'; if he’s missing a 'D', he buys a 'D'. He ensures entire series are completed. Whenever he encounters a fine vintage, the auction house calls him directly, and no matter the price, he snaps it up!"

Good grief, two billion USD? Even if half of that was bragging, that’s still seven or eight billion RMB! Amazing!

Zhuang Chen recalled reports from last year that Joseph Lau was suffering from a severe illness; he had lost a drastic amount of weight and needed a wheelchair to get around, raising serious concerns about his health.

In his younger years, he was nicknamed "Fan Lau" (Fan Lau), having made his fortune in electric fans. Today, he owns four listed companies with businesses spanning real estate, media, construction, and manufacturing. In 2015, he ranked sixth on the Forbes Hong Kong Rich List with a net worth of 16 billion USD.

What people found most fascinating, however, was his romantic history. In his youth, he was a relentless hunter of beauty, and almost every famous actress in the entertainment industry during the 80s and 90s had been entangled with him. He was dubbed the "Actress Slayer."

Michelle Reis began dating Joseph Lau in 1989 and was gifted a luxury mansion worth millions. In 2006, he even bought a full-page advertisement to celebrate her 36th birthday, which caused quite a stir. Even after they broke up, Michelle Reis told the media that Joseph Lau was an important man in her life.

To win the heart of the beautiful Rosamund Kwan, he also gifted her a multi-million dollar mansion on Jardine's Lookout. Because he pampered her so much, it even led to a brief breakup with Michelle Reis, not to mention the infamous "golf ball incident" that circulated in the rumors...

Lu Lijun... Wang Yingyu... Yammie Lam... Ada Choi... Anita Yuen...

He is a real-life Wei Xiaobao. To be a man, one should be like Joseph Lau!

"I heard that the fourth cohort of Alibaba's Hupan University recently started, and many celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon, like Li Bingbing. The tuition is 280,000 for three years, but really, they’re just going there to network."

Ding Mengyao sat back down and asked the waiter to open a bottle of red wine. Finally able to relax a little, she continued: "Birds of a feather flock together; the wealthy also like to stick together, like the 'Big D Club'."

"Have you seen the movie *Overheard*? It mentions a 'Landlord Club' in Hong Kong—a group of tycoons who love to play cards. They practically control half of the Hong Kong stock market and can manipulate stocks at will."

"The Landlord Club has its roots in the legendary Big D Club. I heard that early on, Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau-kee, Cheng Yu-tung, and the Gambling King Stanley Ho were regular card partners, often playing a game called 'Big Two'."

"Later on, as these giants aged and their careers diverged into their own powerful fiefdoms, the circle slowly faded."

"That was until Cheng Yu-tung joined. He was a super-tycoon on par with 'Superman' Li Ka-shing. He was low-profile, which caused him to be severely undervalued by Forbes. As the chairman of New World Development and Chow Tai Fook, he held several listed companies, with assets totaling hundreds of billions."

"Joseph Lau was also a member. At the time, he was known as a stock market sniper, stirring up trouble and basking in immense glory. Then there’s Albert Yeung, chairman of Emperor Group, who owns eight listed companies and has a net worth of tens of billions. And Albert Hung of the Emperor Group, whose father was a tobacco pioneer—he's a top-tier second-generation rich kid."

"The Gambling King, as he grew older, recommended his daughter Pansy Ho to join the Big D Club. She is the chairwoman of MGM and has a net worth of over 10 billion USD."

"The newest member is Evergrande's Xu Jiayin. Don't look at old Xu as being a big deal in China; in front of these giants, he’s just a little brother. In 2008, for Evergrande’s IPO, he took on 33 projects at once, leaving a capital gap of over 10 billion."

"When the financial crisis hit, Evergrande was already struggling. A company originally valued at over 100 billion suddenly had no takers, and the listing seemed hopeless. Xu Jiayin was at his wits' end. He first went to Wang Shi of Vanke, but he was ignored. He had to run to Hong Kong to find help. Fortunately, he had some cooperation with Emperor Group and knew Albert Yeung."

"They organized a card game and introduced him to Cheng Yu-tung and Joseph Lau. Xu Jiayin’s Cantonese wasn't good, and Cheng Yu-tung’s Mandarin was poor, but the two communicated amazingly well during the game. Cheng Yu-tung highly approved of Xu Jiayin, so he joined forces with Joseph Lau to invest 500 million USD into Evergrande."

"They didn't just help him through the crisis; they also pushed for Evergrande to list in Hong Kong. That’s how Xu Jiayin got to where he is today, and that’s how he officially joined the Big D Club."

"Later, the three of them acted together, continuously increasing their stake in Vanke, dumping in 20 billion. Evergrande became Vanke’s third-largest shareholder. Many of the subsequent controversies were manipulated by them from behind the scenes—perhaps to settle an old score?"

Zhuang Chen listened with great interest; he loved this kind of insider gossip. Sometimes, having a wealth of information in social circles is a powerful tool for showing off.

"Old Xu paid them back in kind once he turned his fortunes around. He spent 12.5 billion to buy the MassMutual Tower from Joseph Lau’s Chinese Estates, which is now the Evergrande Center. He then spent over 20 billion more to take over six of Cheng Yu-tung’s New World projects in the mainland."

"Rumor has it that in recent years, he has spent over 50 billion to fully acquire the Big D Club’s mainland projects. After Cheng Yu-tung passed away last year and Joseph Lau’s health declined, Xu Jiayin is the most likely candidate to become the new core figure of the Big D Club."

"Now do you see why they are so low-profile in the country? It’s because they’ve long since joined the top-tier Chinese circle—resources that even the likes of Jack Ma, Pony Ma, and even Wang Jianlin could only dream of!"

Ding Mengyao took a sip of wine and said with admiration, "Although Joseph Lau has moved to the sidelines in the stock market, his investment eye is still sharp."

"He simply changed his strategy. He’s been continuously pulling out of real estate, banking, and other industries heavily affected by policy, both at home and abroad, and instead investing in real estate through Evergrande stock. He hides behind the scenes, comfortably achieving a flexible strategy where he can attack or retreat at will."

"He invested in Evergrande early and kept increasing his stake, catching several major market rallies. In the last few years, his investment profit from Evergrande stock alone has reached 10 billion."

"Although 'Big Lau' is a playboy, he is absolutely generous to women. It’s not just his wives and lovers, but even his two precious daughters. He bought a rare 12-carat blue diamond for 380 million without batting an eye and sold it to his youngest daughter."

"He named it: *The Blue Moon of Josephine*. Another massive pink diamond was bought at auction for 220 million and named *The Sweet Josephine*."

She added with a mix of envy and jealousy, "They say a daughter is a father's lover from a past life. You tell me, who wouldn't be envious of having a dad like that?"