1 small poll at the end of the chapter, please do vote for your preferred opinion
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Two days after Christmas, Isabella from the United States brought good news.
Agents from Europe, South America, and other regions had placed orders with Galaxy Games.
Back when Lin Baicheng went to the U.S., Phil Smith had mentioned that people in Western countries tend to shop heavily during Christmas, leading to a surge in sales. That's why he not only placed his order early but also asked Lin to deliver additional units in advance.
At the time, Lin was delighted to hear this and had been eagerly waiting for other agents from various countries to follow suit, hoping to make even more money.
But he waited and waited—long enough for flowers to wither—and not a single agent showed up to place an order.
By the time Christmas had already passed, Lin was starting to think Phil Smith had miscalculated—when suddenly, the orders from agents began pouring in.
He later learned the reason from Isabella. After receiving their first shipment of arcade cabinets, the agents began selling them. Sales were decent, but not explosive enough to prompt immediate reorders. However, during Christmas, the number of people visiting arcades to play Hong Kong Tetris and Pac-Man surged dramatically. The arcade owners, seeing this, immediately contacted the agents to request more units. The agents, realizing their inventory was running out, hurriedly contacted the U.S. branch to place new orders.
Over the next few days, all the agents who had ordered before placed new orders again. This time, however, the number of orders for Hong Kong Tetris surpassed those for Pac-Man.
It made sense—last time, all the agents combined only bought 5,000 units of Hong Kong Tetris, while Pac-Man (excluding the U.S. and Japan) had received orders totaling 25,000 units. So it was natural for the demand ratio to flip this time.
This time, Hong Kong Tetris received orders for 15,000 units, while Pac-Man received 9,000 units. Among them, agents from the UK, Canada, France, and Germany—who held exclusive rights—ordered 4,000 units, while agents from other countries ordered a combined 5,000 units.
The selling price for Hong Kong Tetris was 1,500 USD per unit across the board—no discounts for non-exclusive agents. For Pac-Man, the price was 1,750 USD for agents from the four exclusive countries, and 1,888 USD for all others.
Lin Baicheng made another huge profit this time. He earned about 900 USD per Hong Kong Tetris machine—15,000 units meant around 13.5 million USD, nearly 60 million HKD.
As for Pac-Man, he earned about 4,050 HKD per unit for the 4,000 units sold to exclusive agents—over 16 million HKD. For the remaining 5,000 units, he earned about 4,630 HKD each—over 23 million HKD.
All combined, Lin stood to make around 100 million HKD from this round of orders—his "small goal," as some might call it.
As before, the agents only paid half of the payment upfront. The remaining half would be settled after delivery. So Lin only received a little over 80 million HKD for now—out of which only about 10+ million HKD was actual profit.
However, Lin also delayed payments to his suppliers, so if needed, he could temporarily use this money, as long as he paid part of it to the suppliers first.
Rather than keeping this unexpected gain idle, Lin immediately instructed An Yuan to secretly use 50 million HKD to buy shares of a certain company. The key was to do it quietly and gradually—once the 50 million was spent, he was to report back.
Lin wasn't planning to take over this company; he had another purpose in mind.
As December neared its end and the year 1978 approached, Lin unexpectedly received a call from shipping tycoon Bao Yugang himself. Bao said he was hosting a private gathering at his home, inviting a few friends, and Lin was one of the invited guests. He also mentioned he would introduce Lin to some people at the event.
Lin was genuinely surprised. Although he had business dealings with Bao Yugang, the two had only met once in person—at the charity gala. They couldn't exactly be called close acquaintances. So he didn't expect to be invited to such a private occasion.
But it was a great opportunity. Expanding one's business connections is always a good thing—you never know when it might become useful.
Networking is invaluable, and naturally, Lin had no reason to refuse. He gladly accepted and said he would attend on time the next evening.
The next night, Lin arrived at Bao Yugang's luxurious residence with his bodyguards.
The bodyguards stayed outside while Lin entered alone.
"Good evening, Mr. Lin. Welcome. I'm Wu Guanzheng."
As soon as Lin entered the villa, a middle-aged man standing near the entrance greeted him.
"Good evening, Mr. Wu."
Lin shook his hand. He knew Wu Guanzheng was Bao Yugang's second son-in-law, who would inherit a large portion of Bao's fortune in the future—someone destined to succeed without needing to struggle.
"Father-in-law is inside attending to the other guests. Mr. Lin, please follow me."
Wu led Lin inside. As Bao's son-in-law, he was well aware that tonight's gathering was actually being hosted in honor of this young man beside him.
Inside the hall, Lin saw Bao Yugang chatting with several people—all familiar faces from the charity gala.
"Mr. Lin, you're here."
Seeing Lin arrive, Bao paused his conversation and greeted him warmly.
"Mr. Bao, thank you for inviting me."
Lin felt genuinely grateful that Bao was willing to host such a gathering and introduce him to new contacts.
"Come, Mr. Lin, let me introduce you."
Bao led Lin toward the others, introducing him to everyone and vice versa. Among them were renowned Hong Kong figures such as Hu Yinxiang of Hop Hing Industries, Chen Zhenxi of Hengrong Group, Li Zhaoji of Henderson Land, and Feng Jinxi of Sun Hung Kai Securities—all major names in the city.
Though these men had long been established tycoons of Hong Kong, they did not underestimate Lin. After all, ever since his acquisition of the TV station became public, everyone knew he possessed at least several hundred million HKD in assets.
More importantly, Lin had achieved this in just one year—and he was still young. No one could predict how far he might go in the future.
Therefore, they were all happy to befriend him, and Lin was glad to build connections. Their conversations flowed pleasantly.
But although everyone chatted cordially, Lin understood well—Hong Kong was small. Even if he wouldn't remain confined to Hong Kong, it didn't mean others wouldn't see him as a future rival. True friendships would be rare—most relationships would remain at the level of mere acquaintance or familiarity.
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For the pole, i need your help, do you prefer as reader that I release the day's chapters at once, or as I am doing now, 1 chapter per hour:
All at once, comment here.
Chapter per hour, comment here.
I will tally the votes by tomorrow's first chapter and then do as the majority votes.
Peace Out!