Silent Tides Episode 13 Recap
> Silent Tides Recap
He Xian maintains a calm front before Qiao Yinwan, carefully avoiding any mention of the newspaper reports detailing her brother Qiao Renyu’s collaboration with the Japanese. Their quiet moment is interrupted by Yang Chang, who arrives in a hurry to take He Xian to Jinghu Hospital to see Robert, the wounded man found at the pier. Upon hearing that the man mentioned HSBC and the Hong Kong dollar before collapsing, Qiao Yinwan insists on coming along.
At the hospital, Dr. Ke Lin administers an adrenaline injection to the critically wounded Robert to buy a few final moments for questioning. While Ke Lin deals with the medical emergency, he instructs Qiao Yinwan to call Lok Pak and the Macau police in a specific order to secure the scene before the Japanese arrive.
Before Robert passes away, he manages to reveal a devastating secret to He Xian: the Japanese forced HSBC to issue 120 million Hong Kong dollars without any gold reserves. He warns that once these notes are circulated to plunder the market, the Japanese intend to declare the currency invalid, rendering the Hong Kong dollar worthless. He Xian attempts to call the exchange to warn Boss Lin, but Sawa Eisaku suddenly appears and cuts the phone line.
To prevent the information from leaking, Sawa orders the detention of everyone inside the clinic. Meanwhile, at the exchange, Boss Lin and the Chinese merchants decide to push the exchange rate higher to protect their interests. Outside the clinic, a tense standoff ensues between Huang Gongjie and Yang Chang until the Portuguese police arrive. Though the police are hesitant to challenge Sawa’s authority, Lok Pak arrives with a swarm of reporters.
Fearing a public relations disaster, Sawa refrains from forcibly removing the witnesses but refuses to let anyone leave, claiming a formal autopsy is required to determine the cause of death. Inside the exchange, Ogata Yozo closely monitors the Chinese merchants. Sawa orders the military doctor, Tanaka, to intentionally prolong the autopsy until after the 5:00 PM market close. Trapped in the clinic, He Xian and his companions watch helplessly as time slips away.
Lok Pak protests the detention of innocent citizens and suggests they be allowed to call their families, but Sawa dismisses him under the pretext of a criminal investigation, threatening that releasing them would be seen as the Macau government harboring fugitives. At the exchange, the Hong Kong dollar reaches a high of 3. 43 as the four major Chinese banks exhaust their liquidity to stabilize the market.
Ogata Yozo manipulates the board, occasionally buying small amounts to create a false sense of hope before preparing a massive sell-off. Believing the Japanese are out of resources, Boss Lin and the other merchants gamble their remaining four million dollars to hold the price. At the same time, Rodrigues is poised to sign a contract with Liang Yanming. However, a sudden phone call reveals that the Hong Kong dollar has crashed, plummeting below 3. 0 and spiraling down to 2.
6 within the final hour. The contract is abandoned, leaving everyone in a state of despair. With the market closed, Sawa concludes the autopsy and releases the detainees. He Xian rushes to call Tai Fung Bank, only to realize the financial system of Macau is on the brink of total collapse. De Solaire calls an emergency meeting, concluding that the Banco Nacional Ultramarino has lost over half its assets and the Chinese banks are effectively bankrupt.
This disaster allows the Yokohama Specie Bank to emerge as the dominant force in Macau. To mitigate the damage, De Solaire orders the Economic Bureau to suspend the market for an additional 48 hours. Sawa visits Ogata Yozo to celebrate, but Ogata reveals his ambition is to spend all 120 million Hong Kong dollars.
He plans to notify all Japanese businesses to use the currency to stockpile essential supplies and quietly buy up Guangdong silver coins, liquidating their holdings into hard assets before the Hong Kong dollar is officially abolished. He Xian returns home and realizes he left his jacket at the clinic. Qiao Yinwan, who has already retrieved it, discovers the newspaper hidden in the pocket detailing her brother’s collaboration with the Japanese Governor.
She later overhears Liang Yanming and Ma Wanqi discussing how Qiao Renyu’s actions have ruined Macau. Though devastated, she refuses to believe her brother is a traitor, a sentiment He Xian finds suspicious and worth investigating further. While reflecting on the crisis, He Xian notices a photograph of Qiao Yinwan with Lee Kong Chian, the renowned "Rubber King."
He devises a counter-strategy and asks He Hongshen to help by leaking information to Saito, claiming that Rodrigues is in possession of a massive shipment of rubber belonging to Lee Kong Chian. Fearing that this strategic resource will fall into Chinese hands, Ogata Yozo decides he must intervene. To convince Rodrigues to accept Hong Kong dollars for the rubber, Ogata realizes he must drive the currency’s value back up. He plans to push the exchange rate higher one last time to spend the remaining 70 million dollars on the rubber before finally letting the currency collapse.
