Hong Kong — Kwun Tong.
The empty land beside the Xinghe Games factory had now turned into a busy construction site, where workers were hard at work leveling the ground.
Lin Baicheng stood outside, watching the laborers bustling about.
"Old Liu, you've done a great job this time. I didn't expect you to handle the land issue and complete the purchase in just a few days," Lin said with satisfaction.
He had originally thought it would take half a month or more to finalize the land deal, but it had been settled in mere days — a pleasant surprise. The faster they acquired the land, the sooner the new factory could be built and production expanded. The benefits were obvious.
Liu Yihui replied quickly, "This is what I should do, President Lin."
Looking at the busy site, Lin asked, "How long will it take to finish building the factory?"
"President Lin, take a look at this blueprint."
Liu unfolded the construction plan and pointed as he explained, "According to your request, we're building not just a larger factory, but also a five-story office building. Relatively speaking, the factory workshop will be easier — the height is low, so we don't need to lay deep foundations or do high-altitude work."
"So once the land is leveled, the factory itself can be built in about half a month — maybe a few days more."
"The office building, however, will take longer. Even with only five floors, it'll still need about two months. If it were taller, it'd take much longer."
Lin nodded and asked, "How long will it take to finish leveling the land?"
"They need to clear the weeds and trees, and even out the terrain," Liu explained. "The construction team estimates about five days."
"So the factory could be ready in about twenty to thirty days?"
"That's right."
Lin smiled, pleased. "Make sure they prioritize the factory building. The office can come later — what matters most right now is increasing production capacity."
"I'll let them know," Liu replied.
"By the way," Lin said curiously, "how did you manage to buy this land so quickly? Didn't the original owners try to raise the price or refuse to sell?"
He was genuinely curious — if this had been in mainland China a few decades later, there would definitely be people holding out for more money or refusing to sell.
"President Lin, this land doesn't belong to private owners," Liu replied, looking puzzled. "It's owned by the Hong Kong government. Since we're expanding the factory and creating more jobs, the government didn't refuse — in fact, they even offered us some incentives."
"The land belongs to the government?" Lin was a bit speechless. He had assumed the land was owned by nearby villagers or divided among families — but it had nothing to do with them at all.
"That's right," Liu confirmed. "In Hong Kong, apart from private housing, almost all land is government-owned. Even private land has to be purchased from the government."
"I see," Lin said, understanding now.
This was Hong Kong, not the mainland — the British were in charge. There was no way they'd generously divide land among the locals. And besides, Hong Kong was tiny and densely populated; there simply wasn't enough land to divide fairly anyway.
Still, this system actually worked in Lin's favor. The over 3,000 square meters of land he'd purchased had only cost around HK$2.2 million. Industrial land was cheap — and with the government's discounts, he had saved quite a bit.
While Lin had been in Japan, the sales of Hong Kong Blocks had continued to rise.
Sales in Hong Kong itself had slowed, with only 10–20 machines sold daily, but orders from Taiwan and Southeast Asia were increasing — often hundreds of machines per batch.
Currently, the factory had two production lines — one for circuit boards and another for full cabinet assembly. The motherboard line could produce more than the assembly line, so they kept some stock aside to fulfill Taitō Corporation's orders.
Because they had hired more workers but hadn't yet built the new facility, the factory now ran on a three-shift schedule, operating 24 hours a day.
Even so, daily output was still under 50 arcade machines — not enough to fulfill all existing orders. They could only ship out what they finished each day, in order of purchase.
There was no helping it. Lin wanted to clear the backlog quickly so payments would come in faster, but production limits made that impossible for now.
Still, the company was making good money — around HK$100,000 a day in revenue. Once production expanded, that number could easily multiply several times over.
With Liu Yihui managing the factory and Lin's sister, Lin Shufang, handling the finances, Lin had little to worry about. He only needed to check in occasionally.
He had other priorities — the most important being to finalize the next game project. At the same time, he planned to rent two floors of office space in Central: one for Miyamoto Shigeru and the other developers.
The second floor, however, had another purpose.
To speed up development and improve game quality, Lin had spent over HK$1 million on IBM computer systems. It was a large one-time expense, but it would pay off — unless the development team expanded again, they wouldn't need to buy more.
Two days later…
The auspicious day chosen by the family's feng shui master finally arrived, and the Lin family moved into their new villa in Repulse Bay.
Although they now lived in a villa, they didn't throw a big housewarming banquet — just a small family celebration.
Lin's mother had come from the mainland and had no relatives in Hong Kong. His father only had one sister, who had long since emigrated to the United States, and she was too busy to come.
Lin didn't invite anyone else, either. To him, this villa was only temporary — in a few years, they would move into an even better one. That, he thought, would be the time to truly celebrate.