DLWAV CH14

“Good!”

Looking at the Xiao Corporation stock, which had already recovered more than half its value, Old Master Xiao’s face glowed with health.

“Post another Weibo update. State that to celebrate the Xiao Corporation’s miraculous comeback from a desperate situation, Hai Run Auto is publicly distributing 5,000 bearer coupons worth 3,888 yuan to the public. Furthermore, any shareholder who suffered a loss of more than 20,000 yuan due to the recent excessive fluctuations in Xiao Corporation’s stock can claim a bearer coupon worth 6,666 yuan.”

Xiao Ruicheng: “Understood.”

This was maximizing the utility of the event to the extreme.

Even with such significant discounts, Hai Run Auto wouldn’t be selling at a loss.

Conversely, once this news got out, the goodwill of hundreds of millions of Chinese investors toward them would certainly rise significantly.

Who knows when that goodwill might translate into a desire to purchase a car.

After all, no other company has ever subsidized its shareholders when they lost money.

Especially given the recent plummeting of the Beijing Stock Exchange and the ChiNext board.

Since bearer coupons are transferable, even those who receive them but have no plans to buy a car recently can resell them.

As if recalling something, Old Master Xiao added, “Oh, right. Don’t forget to send a few to your Uncle Chen and Uncle Li. After all, they’re in a worse state; they each lost over two billion.”

The two men he mentioned were none other than the major shareholders who had admitted in front of numerous media outlets that Xiao Corporation was “unable to repay bank loans,” betraying the corporation and him.

If not for this incident, he wouldn’t have known that these two “good brothers” of his were constantly thinking of how to stab him and the Xiao family in the back.

After betraying the Xiao family, they had dumped all their Xiao Corporation shares at a low price.

Their plan had been to buy back more shares at a bargain once the stock price was halved.

Later, when the news of the Bolang brake failure broke, they mistakenly thought Xiao Corporation was going bankrupt, so they sold off whatever stock they had reacquired at rock-bottom prices.

With this buying high and selling low twice over, they had indeed lost over a billion.

And the Xiao family’s revenge was only just beginning.

After all, if you cut the weeds without digging up the roots, they will grow again when the spring breeze blows.

Xiao Ruicheng: “Yes.”

Xiao Ruicheng’s wife, Xu Yue, was also very happy.

When the Xiao family was in trouble, hadn’t her maiden family left them to die?

Now that the Xiao family had turned things around, she and Xiao Ruicheng finally had a legitimate reason to openly cut ties with them.

Thinking of this, they couldn’t help but smile at each other.

There were only two unresolved issues. First, the mastermind behind the scenes still hadn’t surfaced, and Le Zhan had suddenly gone missing and hadn’t been found yet.

However, it was heard that Le Zhan’s father had fallen ill due to this matter and reportedly wouldn’t last much longer.

Second, the Vice President who had sold Xiao Corporation’s lithium battery recycling technology to the mastermind likely wouldn’t be caught.

Although they had reported the crime immediately, Country Y, in order to divert domestic social conflicts, had been joining other countries in promoting the “China Threat Theory” for years, setting China as an imaginary enemy, even though their country wasn’t even as big as two provinces of China.

Moreover, a national car company in Country Y held a grudge against Xiao Corporation because the suddenly rising Hai Run had taken away more than half of their Chinese market share. This led to Country Y refusing to cooperate with the Chinese police to arrest that Vice President.

By the way, Lin Gaolang might have played a part in this as well.

After all, another branch of the Lin family was one of the eight major financial conglomerates in Country Y.

This was why, even when Country Y was hostile toward China, the Lin Heavy Industries in Qian City could still import large quantities of high-quality iron ore from Country Y, compressing costs to four-fifths or even lower than other steel mills. This ultimately allowed Lin Heavy Industries to leap into becoming one of the most powerful steel mills in the Southeast region.

Of course, this conclusion was based on the premise that Lin Gaolang was indeed the mastermind behind this incident.

Thinking of this, Old Master Xiao couldn’t help but frown.

On the other side, upon receiving Lin Gaolang’s invitation, Zhong Chi hesitated for a few seconds before agreeing.

Perhaps because it had been a long time since they met, the moment they saw each other, Zhong Chi felt an unusual sense of distance.

Fortunately, Lin Gaolang was quite enthusiastic, so the atmosphere soon warmed up a bit.

“Mr. Zhong, try this salt-baked prawn. It’s the signature dish here.”

Wearing gloves, Lin Gaolang peeled seven or eight prawns for Zhong Chi in a row.

Seeing this, Zhong Chi quickly said, “That’s enough, Mr. Lin.”

Only then did Lin Gaolang stop.

When Zhong Chi had eaten his fill, Lin said, “Mr. Zhong, actually, I asked you out today mainly for two things.”

Zhong Chi: “What is it?”

Lin Gaolang said, “Regarding the incident where you were drugged at the Ruifeng Hotel, I have a lead.”

Zhong Chi instantly tightened his grip on his chopsticks, and his usually gentle face took on a sharp edge: “Who was it?”

Lin Gaolang: “It was Xiao Ruize.”

“Who?”

Zhong Chi was stunned on the spot.

Lin Gaolang: “It was Xiao Ruize.”

He continued, “Although there is no direct evidence proving it was him, yesterday a staff member from Ruifeng Hotel came to tell us that during the banquet that day, he saw Xiao Ruize making eye contact several times with the temporary workers who lured you to the room on the fifth floor.”

“Later, I sent people to question other staff members who were present, and they also said they seemed to have seen Xiao Ruize signaling those temporary workers.”

Lin Gaolang had originally planned to use this scheme when Zhong Chi might lend a large sum of funds to the Xiao family again.

Unexpectedly, the “brake failure” incident suddenly occurred at Xiao Corporation, leading the outside world to mistakenly believe Xiao Corporation was going bankrupt, so there was no movement from Zhong Chi’s side.

Furthermore, once the Xiao family went bankrupt, Xiao Ruize’s fate would be obvious, and Lin wouldn’t need to make an extra move.

So, naturally, this plan had been shelved.

The reason he brought this plan up again today was, firstly, to pit the Zhong and Chi families against the Xiao family, and secondly, to make the Zhong and Chi families owe him another favor. That way, when he asked to borrow money later, the two families would find it hard to refuse.

Zhong Chi: “H-how is this possible?”

But Lin Gaolang said, “I, however, feel that nine times out of ten, it is him.”

“Because this morning, my secretary found out that during those few days, there were large expenditure withdrawals from his account.”

Lin Gaolang continued, “As for his motive—”

“He has always been jealous of me, so we can’t rule out the possibility that he targeted you to humiliate me.”

“And think about it, if he had succeeded back then, and we didn’t know who the mastermind was, in order to quell public opinion, you would definitely have dated or even married him. For him, this would be all gain and no loss.”

“As for why he later changed his mind and chose to send you to the hospital, he was probably afraid that the matter would eventually leak out and invite retaliation from our three families.”

Lin Gaolang was full of confidence.

As he said, it would be all too normal for a profligate son like Xiao Ruize to do such a thing.

Therefore, Zhong Chi would ultimately believe his deductions.

However, he didn’t expect that in the next second, he would see that Zhong Chi not only showed not a trace of anger but instead suddenly fell silent.

Because Zhong Chi only thought of one point—

That is, Xiao Ruize, like him, was a shou (bottom). How could he force himself on him?

Even though Xiao Ruize really didn’t look like a zero.

Thinking of this, the look Zhong Chi gave Lin Gaolang changed.

This “First Young Master of Qian City,” known for his wisdom, seemed a bit stupid…

Most importantly, thinking of this, Zhong Chi, who had originally put that day’s events to the back of his mind, inexplicably recalled the scene he saw in the mirror that day—

That hand placed on his waist was at least a size larger than his own. The veins on the back of the hand were slightly bulging, and even the fingertips were bronze-colored—

No matter how he looked at it, that didn’t look like a pair of hands suited for clutching bedsheets in submission!

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