Chapter 244 Eliminating Jardines' Henchmen
At Old Li's newsstand, books, magazines, and newspapers were neatly arranged in their designated places, while best-selling cigarettes, bottled water, dried fruits, and chewing gum were placed prominently, awaiting customers.
As the sun rose, the sky grew ever brighter.
At this moment, Old Li also stopped reading the newspaper, as more and more pedestrians began to appear on the streets.
"Big news today! Come and get your newspapers!"
Old Li occasionally shouted, attracting considerable attention.
"Crippled Li, what's the big news today? Give me a copy," a regular customer asked curiously as he walked up to the stand.
"Here you go, Oriental Daily! You'll see once you read it," Old Li said with a cheerful smile.
Because he was missing an arm, the locals habitually called him Crippled Li, a nickname he had long grown accustomed to.
"Crippled Li, give me a copy of Oriental Daily."
"Here you go, one dollar, thanks!"
"Crippled Li, I'll take a Hong Kong Commercial Daily."
"One dollar, thanks!"
...
After a busy morning, it wasn't until after 9 a.m. that the customer flow finally lessened.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Old Li tallied up the sales—150 copies of Oriental Daily were completely sold out.
Even 100 copies each of Sing Tao Daily and Hong Kong Commercial Daily were gone.
There were only a few copies of Overseas Chinese Daily left, and those were almost sold out too.
Business was excellent today.
Old Li smiled.
The wholesale price for newspapers varied but generally ranged between 0.4 to 0.6 Hong Kong dollars per copy.
Thus, Old Li earned about 0.5 Hong Kong dollars profit per newspaper.
Selling nearly 500 copies that morning, even after deducting costs, he pocketed over 200 Hong Kong dollars—a very good day's earnings.
Much better than usual.
On regular days without any hot news, selling 300 to 400 newspapers was already considered good.
And now, it wasn't even 10 a.m.
Although sales would sharply decline later in the day, the morning results already showed how well the papers were selling.
If he had known in advance that there would be such big news, he would have stocked even more copies of Oriental Daily and Hong Kong Commercial Daily.
"Starting tomorrow, no more orders for Hong Kong Times," Old Li decided, glancing at the unsold stack of Hong Kong Times.
Unsold newspapers were usually returned to the publishers—some at full price, others at a discount.
For example, Hong Kong Times cost 0.6 Hong Kong dollars wholesale but was only refunded at 0.4 Hong Kong dollars. With about 60 copies remaining, he would lose over 20 Hong Kong dollars just from them.
Normally, Old Li only ordered about 50 copies of Hong Kong Times per day, sometimes even fewer.
However, due to the recent sensational news stirred up by Hong Kong Times, sales had temporarily surged.
That's why he had dared to stock 100 copies today.
Unfortunately, he had run into this disaster.
Luckily, thanks to the booming sales of other newspapers, he could afford the 20-dollar loss.
With nothing better to do, Old Li casually picked up a copy of Hong Kong Times and flipped through it.
Unsurprisingly, today's edition continued to focus on the follow-up of the couple's electrocution incident, almost turning it into a serialized drama, repeatedly emphasizing the tragedy.
Old Li skimmed through the articles and quickly lost interest.
This newspaper was now blacklisted in his mind.
As a newsstand owner, he understood the tricks of the media world.
He knew that with four major newspapers jointly exposing the truth, Hong Kong Times's days were numbered.
At least in the short term, its sales would plummet, dropping out of the top ten for sure—and possibly even being completely shunned, destroying decades of reputation overnight.
They had only themselves to blame.
Meanwhile, similar scenes unfolded at nearly every newsstand across Hong Kong.
In a city as packed and vibrant as Hong Kong, with nearly 2,000 newsstands, you could find one almost every few streets.
People handed over a dollar, grabbed a newspaper, and began their daily routine.
Over the years, newsstands became an integral part of the city's landscape, sustaining countless families for generations.
The joint attack by the four major newspapers quickly spread across Hong Kong.
On street corners, in company offices, and outside convenience stores, everyone was talking about it.
"These shameless media outlets love stirring up trouble. Newspapers like Hong Kong Times shouldn't even be allowed to operate!"
"Exactly! Fortress Electrical is part of Hongkong Electric Holdings, right? A Chinese-owned enterprise! Instead of going after British companies, they attack their own. Shameful!"
"I used to subscribe to Hong Kong Times every day. Never again. Why bother reading fake news? I'd rather buy a storybook!"
"Me too! I used to buy it even more often than Oriental Daily. I can't believe they turned out like this. Disappointing."
"I bet Hong Kong Times got paid to do this. Hongkong Electric must have offended someone powerful."
"Who knows? I even bought a copy today, still feeling sorry for that couple—only to find out it was all fabricated!"
"Hong Kong Times was one of the top ten papers? Should be shut down already!"
"Exactly, a newspaper without integrity is nothing but a storytelling tabloid!"
...
In just one morning, the news created an uproar throughout Hong Kong.
Public opinion overwhelmingly condemned Hong Kong Times.
Its credibility was rapidly collapsing.
Normally, the four major newspapers sold over 200,000 copies a day combined. Today, thanks to the scandal, they sold more than 300,000 copies.
Many newsstands quickly sold out of all four papers.
At the headquarters of Hong Kong Times, the general manager realized early in the morning that disaster had struck and immediately contacted the owner.
Just a few days ago, they had been celebrating their skyrocketing sales thanks to the electrocution incident coverage.
"There's no reason for this! Why are the four newspapers ganging up on us? Every paper has printed fake news before!" the owner muttered, frowning.
He had accepted Jardines' offer because of the benefits—both financial and in boosting Hong Kong Times's popularity.
With Jardines Matheson backing them, he had thought there would be no issues.
But he hadn't anticipated that four major newspapers would suddenly unite against them with hard evidence.
Clearly, Fortress Electrical had provided the proof.
In the past, newspapers rarely attacked each other.
That's why Hong Kong Times had dared to accept the assignment.
"Boss, I've tried contacting the managers of the four newspapers, but none would give a reason. Two even hung up immediately," the general manager said bitterly.
"Don't panic. I'll go to Jardine Properties. This was their idea. If they don't help us now, we'll expose everything. Jardines has entrusted us with plenty of dirty work over the years. If we go down, they go down too. I'm sure they'll come up with something!" the owner said fiercely.
He was determined: if Hong Kong Times suffered, he would drag Jardines down with them.
Over the years, Hong Kong Times had acted as Jardines' secret weapon.
That's why Jardine Properties had contacted them for this operation.
Meanwhile, as the owner of Hong Kong Times tried to reach Jardine Properties, the general manager of Jardine Properties was just as shocked by the morning's developments.
He had initially planned to contact more newspapers to ramp up the smear campaign.
But to his surprise, after making several calls, everyone flatly refused him.
At first, he didn't understand why.
Later, a newspaper owner informed him about the exposés in Oriental Daily and Hong Kong Commercial Daily.
Only then did he realize why everyone was turning him down.
In desperation, he even jokingly called Cui Zilong, the general manager of Oriental Daily...
After learning the truth, Jardine Properties' general manager's first instinct was to distance himself from the scandal.
Just as he was mulling over damage control, the owner of Hong Kong Times called.
"Mr. Reed, you must know what's happened today, right? You have to save our company! You asked us to do this. If we can't fix it, we'll suffer huge losses!" the Hong Kong Times owner pleaded as soon as the call connected.
"Mr. Hong, you must hold the line. You absolutely cannot reveal our involvement. You know Jardines Matheson's influence in Hong Kong. If you leak anything, you won't survive in this business," the general manager of Jardine Properties warned coldly.
He dared to threaten Mr. Hong because the latter had other businesses in Hong Kong beyond the newspaper.
Hearing this, Mr. Hong was stunned.
Had they been abandoned?
"But don't worry, Mr. Hong. Jardines won't let your company fall. I'm on my way to discuss this with Mr. Noel Croucher now. We'll get you an answer soon. Just stay calm!" the general manager continued.
"Alright, I'll wait for your news," Mr. Hong said. At this point, he had no other choice.
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