Chapter 1: My Trusted Subordinates Are All Traitors!
“Hong Kong… Hang Seng Bank, Jardine Matheson, the Governor…”
“I actually transmigrated to Hong Kong in 1978.”
“My name is Lin Haoran, direct descendant of the Lin family!”
After his memories fully merged, Lin Haoran opened his eyes.
This was a very ordinary bedroom. On the table opposite the headboard stood a square-shaped color television. On the wall was a poster of The Way of the Dragon, giving the room a faint retro atmosphere.
Lin Haoran weakly got out of bed and walked to the table, picking up a mirror.
In the mirror, a clean and handsome face appeared—well-defined and deep-set features, with a naturally sharp and heroic aura between his brows.
However, the pale complexion on that face revealed his current weakness and exhaustion.
Putting down the mirror, Lin Haoran walked to the window and looked down.
Below was a cement factory in Yuen Long, Hong Kong—Huafeng Cement Factory—and he was now its owner.
The factory was built by the sea and even had a private dock for transportation.
However, there were not many workers at the moment.
Who would have thought that this large cement factory, covering tens of thousands of square meters, was actually tied to the inheritance battle of a wealthy family?
Lin Haoran was the youngest son of Lin Wan’an, chairman of Wan’an Group, a listed company in Hong Kong.
In recent years, 63-year-old Lin Wan’an had felt his health declining and began considering choosing a successor for the group.
Wan’an Group was a highly powerful Hong Kong-listed conglomerate worth over a billion, with businesses spanning real estate, hotels, building materials, manufacturing, and more.
For such a large enterprise, the successor naturally mattered greatly.
Lin Wan’an had two daughters and two sons.
Both daughters were already married, and given the traditional Hong Kong elite mindset of preferring sons over daughters, the successor would naturally be chosen from the two sons.
The eldest son, Lin Haoning, was 35 years old and already had extensive experience in corporate management.
The second son, Lin Haoran, was 24 years old and had graduated from the London University Business School only a year ago.
Logically, choosing the eldest son as successor would have been the best option, as he had rich management experience.
The younger son, although a prestigious graduate, lacked business experience, and placing Wan’an Group in Lin Haoran’s hands seemed inappropriate.
However, Lin Wan’an felt that since he only had two sons, both were equally his children. Simply choosing the elder would be unfair to the younger.
So he came up with a plan: each son would be given a subsidiary company, with full ownership transferred to them, allowing them to run it independently.
After one year, the son who earned more money would become the heir of Wan’an Group.
Thus, Lin Haoning received a fan manufacturing factory.
And Lin Haoran received this Huafeng Cement Factory.
Both were of similar value, and their monthly revenues were also roughly comparable.
In truth, Lin Wan’an already knew the outcome—Lin Haoran could not possibly win. This was merely to ease his own conscience.
As expected, two months had already passed in the year-long competition.
The fan factory under Lin Haoning was being managed better and better, with reports of increasing orders.
In contrast, Huafeng Cement Factory, which originally had stable clients and decent performance, began losing old customers within just two months after Lin Haoran took over.
To manage the factory properly, Lin Haoran moved out of his luxurious villa and chose to live inside the poor industrial environment of the cement factory, all in order to improve operations.
Unexpectedly, business did not improve. Instead, orders kept decreasing.
Yesterday, the frustrated Lin Haoran went fishing at sea with several men. Unexpected strong winds suddenly arose, and the rough waves threw him overboard.
Fortunately, the men accompanying him were good swimmers and managed to rescue him after great effort. However, due to shock and exposure, he developed a fever and fell into a coma.
But no one knew that when he woke up again, the body had already changed hands.
“Knock knock knock.”
A knock came from outside the door.
“Come in,” Lin Haoran said, snapping back to attention.
“Young master, I brought your medicine,” a voice said.
The door opened, and a young man in his twenties entered. This was one of his father’s trusted subordinates, named Lin Si. He was assigned to assist Lin Haoran in managing the cement factory, handling miscellaneous affairs, and ensuring his safety.
“Young master, I’ll leave the medicine on the table. Remember to take it later. If anything happens to you, the master will never forgive us,” Lin Si said fawningly.
But Lin Haoran wasn’t paying attention to his words.
Because above Lin Si’s head, something strange suddenly appeared—a black bracket with a progress bar inside.
[Loyalty: 11/100]
Lin Haoran even thought he was seeing things and rubbed his eyes. When he looked again, the bar was still there.
This strange scene shocked him, but he quickly realized—this must be the golden finger brought by his transmigration.
With a maximum loyalty value of 100, Lin Si only had 11—pitifully low. And yet, such a person was supposed to be his trusted subordinate!
Lin Haoran looked at him in disbelief, unable to accept it.
Who could have thought that this man, who usually acted respectfully and obediently, was actually harboring disloyal intentions?
If not for the sudden appearance of the loyalty system, he would never have believed it.
“Young master… young master?” Lin Si cautiously called out when Lin Haoran did not respond.
“Leave the medicine here. Call Lin Yi, Lin Er, and Lin San over,” Lin Haoran said calmly.
“Yes, young master,” Lin Si quickly replied and left.
Only after leaving the room did Lin Haoran begin to think about what this sudden golden finger meant for his future.
He knew this simple-looking progress bar would definitely help him rise in Hong Kong.
Someone like Lin Si, with only 11 loyalty, was basically like a new employee with no sense of belonging.
But Lin Si wasn’t a new hire—he was personally assigned by his father and trained since childhood!
Given his father’s favor toward him, there was no reason for interference from above. That only left one explanation…
However, he wasn’t certain yet. So he decided to observe the other three.
About five minutes later, Lin Yi and the others arrived.
“Young master, did you call for us?”
They all showed respectful attitudes.
But at this moment, Lin Haoran already saw loyalty bars above each of them:
Lin Yi: [Loyalty: 15/100]
Lin Er: [Loyalty: 9/100]
Lin San: [Loyalty: 12/100]
He had still held onto a small hope that only Lin Si was a traitor.
But who would have thought—all four of his trusted subordinates were traitors!
Among them, Lin Yi had the highest loyalty, and even that was only 15. With such loyalty, how could they claim to be his trusted men?
“Lin Yi, did you all previously work under the eldest young master?” Lin Haoran suddenly asked.
“Yes, young master. Four years ago, the master started assigning us to work under the eldest young master,” Lin Yi answered honestly.
They knew this could not be hidden; if the young master wanted to investigate, a phone call would reveal everything.
No wonder the previous owner of this body had tried so hard to manage the cement factory, yet it deteriorated so quickly despite his education.
Now everything made sense.
Four years ago, he was still studying in the UK—these four had already become loyal subordinates of Lin Haoning.
Moreover, anyone could see that Lin Haoran’s chances of winning the inheritance were extremely low.
So their loyalty naturally leaned toward Lin Haoning, the one with better prospects.
If they secretly sabotaged Lin Haoran’s work while feeding information to Lin Haoning, and the latter applied external pressure, it was no wonder the factory was failing.
So that’s how it is…
“Good elder brother… impressive methods.”
If this had been fair competition, Lin Haoran wouldn’t have cared. Even giving Wan’an Group to his brother wouldn’t matter.
With his knowledge from decades ahead and his transmigration advantage, building his own empire would be easy.
But since Lin Haoning chose such underhanded tactics, then don’t blame him.
“The inheritance of Wan’an Group—I, Lin Haoran, will definitely take it!”
He silently made up his mind.
“Young master? Young master?” Lin Yi called again.
“You called us here but haven’t said anything yet…”
“Nothing. Just come with me for a walk around the factory. Lin Yi, you’re responsible for orders—have they dropped again recently?”
Lin Haoran walked out while asking.
“Yes, young master. Last month was still okay, but this month production has been decreasing. Old clients are leaving and new ones are not coming in. Just yesterday, one of our old property clients in Kwai Chung suddenly stopped purchasing from us and switched to a cement factory in Tuen Mun.”
Lin Yi knew exactly what was going on, but he could not tell the truth.
(End of Chapter)
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