There was the expansion of Thunder Horse Military Factory on one end, and the business war aimed at Vientiane Group on the other, plus the Alloy X Project and deciding whether to join the Academy of Science — these matters weighed on Xia Lei’s shoulders, making him so busy that he could not even have time to breathe. He originally thought that he would be able to take a relaxing holiday after his trip from Germany, that he would be able to unwind, but this tiny wish had clearly become impossible. 

Out of all these issues, Xia Lei put Shentu Tianyin’s matters at first priority. The day after receiving the results of Long Bing’s investigation, he told Liu Zhengnan to make an appointment with Cai Yongjian at a teahouse for tea. 

He was a youngster with little work experience, having graduated from university less than two years ago. He was refined and polite, his skin fair and clear, a typical white-collar figure from the city. This Cai Yongjian was rather courteous too. He had taken the initiative to extend both his hands towards Xia Lei for a handshake. “Director Xia, I never thought that I would be able to meet you. You’re my idol.”  

The Xia Lei today was the idol of many young individuals. His reputation had grown to be even greater than some of the most famous celebrities. 

“Sit, sit, let’s talk,” said Xia Lei with a smile. 

“Our Director Xia is a very easy-going person. Yongjian, there’s no need to hold back. If there’s anything you would like to say, please do so freely,” said Liu Zhengnan.  

“I… haha.” Cai Jongjian was still reserved. 

Xia Lei would have still been a struggling young worker on construction sites three years ago, and as a white-collar worker, Cai Yongjian probably wouldn’t have even taken another glance at Xia Lei. But now, in front of Xia Lei, he felt like he was eminent and unapproachable. He felt under pressure, and he could not loosen up. 

In the end, humans were still a type of animal, and admiring the strong were the instincts of animals from birth. A simple example was that a deer could not stand equally with a lion. And Xia Lei was the lion, whereas Cai Yongjian was no more than that deer. 

Xia Lei wasn’t planning on developing friendly relations with the trader from the fund company sitting before him. Once he took a seat, he pulled out a stuffed envelope from his business bag and set it on the table, pushing it in front of Cai Yongjian. 

“My friend, there’s fifty thousand in here. Think of it as a small token of appreciation from me. Please accept it,” said Xia Lei. 

“This, this… How can I accept this money?” Cai Yongjian did not extend his hand to take the envelope, but his gaze did shift to it. 

Liu Zhengnan picked up the envelope, and placed it in Cai Yongjian’s palm. “Yongjian, our Director Xia is a very generous person. If you help him do things, he won’t forget about you.” 

“Th,then I’ll take it.” Cai Yongjian smiled. Fifty thousand. For a trader like him, it was equivalent to a month’s salary. He had earned an extra month’s worth of his salary out of nowhere, plus he was helping his idol. There was no reason for him to be upset. 

Seeing that Cai Yongjian had accepted the money, Xia Lei said, “My friend, tell me everything you know.” 

“Sure.” Cai Yongjian continued, “Under the current market conditions with the massive fall of the stock market index, it would be very easy for the opposing party to purchase Vientiane Group stocks. This is extremely dangerous, because once they have enough shares in their hands, regardless of whether they choose to sell the company abroad or propose other requests, it would be a major hassle for Vientiane Group.” 

“I’m not very familiar with the stock market. Tell me, are there any ways to resolve the issue?” Xia Lei questioned. 

“The number of Vientiane Group shareholders are rising. If this continues, stock prices will soar. The costs for the opposing party are very low. They aren’t worried at all if Vientiane Group chooses to do this. But if Vientiane Group does go down this route, they will lose a lot of money, plus spur the individual shareholders in it for profit to dump their shares.”  

“Money won’t be a problem,” said Xia Lei. 

“This isn’t a problem that can be solved through money. There are rules in the stock market. Which stock on the market doesn’t have economic bubbles these days? Vientiane Group is no exception. Quite a large portion of its stock prices are in an economic bubble. Quickly raising share prices would only speed up the bursting of the bubble. If the opposing party plays any dirty tricks during this time, then the situation will only worsen,” said Cai Yongjian. 

“What sort of dirty tricks?” 

“Using the media to spread news about bearish trends. If one of Vientiane Group’s commercial properties has been reported of a critical accident with regards to its quality, for instance, or one of its projects has violated operations, and the government is launching an investigation, and so on. The information goes through media hype, and individual shareholders are easily swayed to wherever the wind blows. As long as they believe that Vientiane Group stocks are about to plummet, who will still hang on? Who won’t sell? So even if Vientiane Group’s shareholders increase their stocks, it still won’t solve the problem.” 

Xia Lei furrowed his brows. He’d never wanted Thunder Horse Group to be listed on the market, because he would be under control of a board of directors. Although entering the market allowed a company to expand rapidly, there were still corrupt practices. Vientiane Group was an example. As a well-known listed company, its circulating stocks occupied 100% of the company’s stocks. Once somebody purchases 51% of its shares, that person would be able to supersede Shentu Tianyin, and become the new owner of Vientiane Group. As for Shentu Tianyin, she could only step down and become a major shareholder. 

Looking at the results of Long Bing’s investigation, the opposing party had already planned out this smokeless battle from the start, otherwise they wouldn’t have been discovered by the attentive Liu Zhengnan at 15%. But the opposing party had already launched their undercover ambush, while Vientiane Group had yet to know about the disaster until the enemy had already advanced to the frontline! 

“Yongjian, we’re old friends. I understand everything you’re saying. Why don’t you tell me something that’s actually valuable,” said Liu Zhengnan.

Cai Yongjian looked left and right, then lowered his voice to say, “I stole a glance at the profile of one major shareholder, he has 2% of Vientiane Group shares.” 

Xia Lei’s heart thumped. “What’s his name? Do you have more details about him?” 

Cai Yongjian spoke in a whisper, “He’s a client called Wang Song. He’s got 2% of Vientiane Group’s shares in his hands.” 

“Wang Song?” The email from Long Bing suddenly emerged in Xia Lei’s mind. There was indeed someone named Wang Song listed there, but according to the description in the email, this Wang Song was merely an average businessman with a ten-year history of playing the stock market. 

Cai Yongjian continued, “But this Wang Song is just a puppet. He works for someone else and the stocks in his account also belong to that other person. If that person needs to perform any functions with his stocks, he will generally use his subordinate’s account to do so. He will never do it under his own name. He’s close with my boss, so I know about this.” 

“What did you say this guy’s name was?” 

“Gu Dinghai.” He pulled out a folded A4 paper from his pocket and pushed it across the table to Xia Lei. “His address and phone number are here. He loves to go to a private clubhouse called Bright Moon Palace for fun. That’s the most popular hangout for the rich people of Jingdu. The women there are pretty good.” 

Xia Lei paused, unmoving. 

There wasn’t a person named “Gu Dinghai” listed in the email from Long Bing. If he hadn’t bribed Cai Yongjian, and if Cai Yongjian didn’t know about the secrets of the fund company’s major customer, this man called “Gu Dinghai” wouldn’t have surfaced. When he first heard this name, his first reaction was that he must be Gu Dingshan’s brother. Then he remembered Gu Kewen. 

‘Could she still be alive? But, how is this possible…’ Xia Lei and Long Bing had discussed it and made their ‘what-ifs’ before, but they were never able to verify those assumptions. Whether Gu Kewen was dead or alive, it had always been an unsolved mystery in his heart. Now, this issue had emerged once again, and he had already seen through the manipulation behind the scenes. 

“Director Xia?” Cai Yongjian called out cautiously. 

Xia Lei snapped back to reality and picked up the slip of paper from Cai Yongjian. He unfolded it, glanced at its contents, and finally said, “Thank you my friend. Keep an eye on this for me. If you have any good proposals, please contact Zhengnan. Don’t worry, if you help me, I won’t mistreat you.” 

“Thank you, Director Xia.” Cai Yongjian thanked him with a smile across his face. 

Cai Yongjian was sent off, and Xia Lei said to Liu Zhengnan, “Zhengnan, go to Angel Wings Building, and tell my wife exactly what Cai Yongjian had just said. Tell her to make preparations. I’ll go meet that Gu Dinghai.” 

The two of them then parted at the front of the teahouse. Liu Zhengnan drove to Angel Wings Building, while Xia Lei drove to Bright Moon Palace. 

Xia Lei called Long Bing while he drove to the club. 

“Bing, help me look up a person called Gu Dinghai. I need detailed information about him.” The call went through and Xia Lei went straight to the point. 

“Give me five minutes. I’ll call you back.” Long Bing said that one sentence, and hung up.

If it wasn’t for his understanding of her personality, Xia Lei could have thought that she was sulking because of something. But Long Bing was always like this. She was difficult to get close to and hard to interact with when she acted cold, but once she loosened up, her gentle affections flowed like water, and her passion blazed like the sun. Her wildness was like a galloping wild horse running free, and he was no match for it. 

After five minutes, Long Bing called Xia Lei back as she had stated. 

“Lei, I found him. This person is Gu Dingshan’s paternal cousin. He used to be a legitimate businessman in Haizhu City, but he wasn’t very well-known. Gu Dingshan took good care of him after making his fortune, and he had made a good sum of money as well. This Gu Dinghai’s assets mainly reside in overseas locations, while a very small amount is within the country. His domestic assets are valued at about two billion.” 

Just his domestic assets were worth two billion, so Gu Dinghai’s ability to purchase 3% of Vientiane Group’s shares was not surprising at all. 

Xia Lei thought for a moment before saying, “After Gu Dingshan’s downfall, did nobody investigate this Gu Dinghai? I don’t believe that his money is clean.” 

“He should have been investigated before. However, Gu Dingshan had gone missing at the time and his corpse was never found. Once Gu Dingshan died, those involved with the Gu clan’s profits were practically unaffected. If anyone suffered, it was only Gu Kewu and Gu Kewen, as well as some assets under Gu Dingshan’s name. But I believe that this isn’t all, for sure,” said Long Bing.  

If Gu Dingshan had not died back then, those involved with the Gu clan’s profits would have likely faced some sort of downfall. But the problem was that Gu Dingshan died and his corpse was never recovered. With this going on, the leads had broken off, and the crucial witness was gone. Looking at it now, the Gu clan’s influence seemed to have fallen and collapsed, but in reality, it had not. As long as Gu Kewen was still alive, as long has she still had the ability to gather all of the Gu clan’s connections, then she would be able to control those connections to work for her! 

“Bing, I believe that Gu Kewen didn’t die now. She must still be alive.” Xia Lei sighed. 

“I think so too,” said Long Bing. Her voice suddenly turned cold. “She was lucky the last time. Next time I see her, I’ll slaughter her for you.” 

“I’m going to meet that Gu Dinghai right now. Bing, help me look up the people who had relations and common interests with Gu Dinghai.” 

“No problem.” There was a short pause before Long Bing’s voice suddenly softened, “I sort of miss you. Come over to my house tonight for dinner. I’ll make stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs for you.” 

“You learnt how to make stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs?” Xia Lei spoke with a chuckle. 

“Are you mocking me? Say it again and I’ll feed you instant noodles instead!” 

“Okay, I like everything you cook, no matter what it is. I’ll come over after I meet Gu Dinghai.” 

“Then I’ll go shower first.” There were tender feelings, warmth, and a hint of seduction in her voice. 

These words were like a mystical curse, instantly awakening his demon-slaying staff. Xia Lei looked down at his lower region. Indeed, it had reacted like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, this rascally little soldier of his. 

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