Chapter 29: The First?

The third day passed slowly, and on this day, *Jiu Ding Daily* achieved a new high in performance.

Following Xia Yu's stock recommendations in *Jiu Ding Daily* yesterday, many people made a profit. As this news spread, more investors, eager to get rich, anticipated seeing Xia Yu's stock recommendations again and rushed to purchase *Jiu Ding Daily* at the fastest speed.

In order to get the newspaper earlier and seize the opportunity to make money before others, the vast majority of investors did not care about the cost of buying the newspaper. They were unwilling to wait for free copies and bought *Jiu Ding Daily* almost exclusively from newsstands.

For them, time is money. A few cents could potentially turn into hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Missing such an opportunity would be a catastrophic loss!

Thus, today the newspapers at the newsstands sold out exceptionally quickly. Although the number of newspapers each major newsstand received had increased from yesterday, the calls from Jiu Ding Publishing Company to deliver newspapers came much earlier than the previous days.

In today's edition, Xia Yu recommended another stock he was optimistic about. As expected, the recommended stock surged in price due to the already favorable market conditions.

The situation was moving in the direction where public opinion was influencing stock prices.

It's not that no one could see this trend, but with profit within reach, many couldn't help but be tempted. Many people believed they were smarter than others and could cash out before the stock price peaked.

There is always a risk, but where is there a way to gain without taking risks?

"Take a chance, and a bicycle turns into a motorcycle!" 

So, regardless of how investors felt, their funds poured in frenetically, and this was undeniable.

Previously, the entire Hong Kong stock market had fallen by about 20% due to an earlier incident over a year ago. Since then, stock prices have been steadily rising. Xia Yu's recommended stock, compared to others, was relatively undervalued and had greater potential for growth.

Even though this stock had room for growth, it wasn't as apparent as it is now. It needed some time to show significant growth. However, due to Xia Yu's intervention and the influx of other investors' funds, the stock's rise was stimulated earlier and significantly.

No matter the influencing factors, this stock indeed rose as Xia Yu had analyzed, and those who bought it had already realized floating profits.

As a result, those who bought the stock were deeply grateful to Xia Yu and had increased faith in his analysis. Investors who had hesitated before now no longer doubted and had greater confidence in *Jiu Ding Daily*, following the trend and investing.

Thus, a virtuous cycle was formed, boosting *Jiu Ding Daily*'s authority and sales.

Many elites in the financial industry saw this clearly and had to admire *Jiu Ding Daily*'s methods. They marveled at how the newspaper provided valuable financial analysis for free but used this information to seize the moment and drive up its sales. This operational strategy was indeed impressive.

Of course, they also had to admit that all this success was due to the high-level, high-value articles written by Xia Yu.

Moreover, many citizens who had previously not known about *Jiu Ding Daily* were intrigued by discussions from others. They bought the newspaper out of curiosity to see what made it so highly praised by their friends.

Due to these factors, *Jiu Ding Daily*'s total distribution for the day reached 240,000 copies, an increase of 40,000 copies from yesterday.

Among these, newsstands sold 160,000 copies, significantly surpassing the third-place *Ming Pao* and directly matching the previous second-place *Sing Tao Daily*'s sales.

Considering that *Sing Tao Daily* had indeed been impacted and its daily sales had dropped, it was estimated to be less than 160,000 copies now.

Furthermore, *Oriental Daily*, which had the highest overlap in user base, faced the greatest impact. It had sold 163,000 copies yesterday, and it was uncertain how much it would decline today.

Given this, *Jiu Ding Daily* had a strong chance of ranking second or even actually being first!

If this news could be confirmed and spread, it would definitely shake up the entire Hong Kong newspaper industry.

Unfortunately, since the month had not yet ended, no one had re-statted the sales rankings of major newspapers. The hope was that tomorrow or the day after, if *Jiu Ding Daily* continued to break its sales record through newsstands, it could confidently declare itself the top newspaper in Hong Kong.

Once this data was published, the entire newspaper office was in a joyful frenzy. Many new employees who had just joined through interviews today were shocked by the data and were deeply influenced by the atmosphere, instantly increasing their sense of belonging to the newspaper.

No one doesn't want to work for an impressive company.

When the company is impressive, one can proudly tell others and enjoy their envious looks.

...

On the fourth day of *Jiu Ding Daily*'s free distribution, Xia Yu arrived at the company early and smiled with satisfaction at the bustling scene.

However, upon noticing a few employees accidentally bumping into each other, he furrowed his brow and thought, "It seems it's time to prepare for a new office space. The number of employees has already doubled, and we'll need to keep expanding. If we don't move soon, we'll be so cramped that it'll be impossible to work."

Thinking this, Xia Yu entered his office under the respectful gaze of his employees.

Not long after sitting down, the head of the Public Relations Department, Li Bin, walked in with a delighted expression.

"Li Bin, have a seat. What's got you so happy?" Xia Yu asked with a smile after inviting Li Bin to sit.

"Boss, we have good news. *Sing Tao Daily* and *Ming Pao* have actually published news related to us. This is definitely a boost for us!" Li Bin said joyfully, handing Xia Yu two newspapers.

Xia Yu raised an eyebrow in surprise and immediately began flipping through the newspapers.

First was *Sing Tao Daily*. Xia Yu quickly found the article related to *Jiu Ding Daily* and skimmed through it.

The headline read: *Oriental Daily Falls from the Top, and the Comeback is So Fast!*

The article began with three images. Xia Yu couldn't help but laugh upon seeing them.

The first image was clearly labeled as coming from *Oriental Daily*, showing news Xia Yu had seen a few days ago—an article where *Oriental Daily* mocked *Jiu Ding Daily* and predicted its imminent collapse.

Xia Yu remembered clearly that he had sneered at that article, and now it was being turned against *Oriental Daily* by *Sing Tao Daily*.

The second image was a ranking list showing only one position: *Oriental Daily* was ranked first with a daily sales of 170,000 copies. However, the image also included a line of text indicating *Oriental Daily*'s sales for the previous day, which was 158,000 copies.

The third image showed two sets of numbers: 240,000 and 160,000, representing *Jiu Ding Daily*'s distribution figures from yesterday.

Next, Xia Yu read the article, which was filled with mockery and sarcasm towards *Oriental Daily*. The writer's linguistic skills were impressive, mocking *Oriental Daily* with fresh and varied tones.

What kind of grudge was there between *Sing Tao Daily* and *Oriental Daily*? It seemed that *Sing Tao Daily* was treating *Oriental Daily* with such disdain!