Cheng Lingsu's face turned pale, "Jiang Xiu, just what do you want? I'm ready to listen to whatever you want. Please let the Cheng family off, okay?"
"Let the Cheng family off?"
"The Cheng Conglomerate had used my father's official career to obtain what they have now. An ungrateful thing, you actually wanted to throw off my Jiang family in such a way. The best method to deal with people like you is take everything away from you."
Cheng Lingsu could feel the hatred seeping out of his bones through the cell phone.
"It's big leniency from this Deity that I haven't killed you, and you think you can haggle with me?"
"Jiang Xiu, I know my Cheng family has let you down. Please let the Cheng family off. I'll fulfill our marriage engagement and won't associate with other schoolboys anymore."
"Hahaha…"
Jiang Xiu laughed out. You're begging this Deity to spare you now?
He recalled events from the previous timeline in this split second. In those days, Cheng Lingran had gently apologized to him in every possible way and begged him to forgive the Cheng family. Unfortunately, even she didn't know what Jiang Xiu wanted in the end.
"Ignorant idiot…"
"Beep-Beep-Beep…"
Indoor, the board of directors kept discussing and criticized Cheng Hanlin. All the responsibility was thrown on him, "All board members, please calm down. Give me some time. I'll surely settle this issue."
"What's the use of it now?"
"We can only sell two of the projects at a low price to rotate the funds. If we can somehow manage to drag it on till the investigation ends, our Cheng Conglomerate can still make a comeback."
This was equivalent to giving up the secondary things to save the important things when in crisis.
Although the assets of the Cheng Conglomerate would reduce a lot and the shareholders would suffer a considerable loss, but this was a better choice than forcing through this situation. A lot of funds would be needed or else the Cheng Conglomerate can only wait to go bankrupt.
"I'll make a call to find some buyers."
Cheng Lingsu stated in a muddleheaded state, "It's all useless… completely useless.."
She knew how far Jiang Xiu's influence went. He even had the Wang family at his beck and call. He's also able to control the candidate for Jiang City's Deputy Mayor position so there was no way the Cheng Conglomerate could escape his palms.
He wasn't planning to end the Cheng Conglomerate in a single go but instead wanted to see it struggle at its deathbed.
That perverted devil!
Cheng Hanlin called everywhere to find a buyer. The project was worth 400-500 million, but none of them were willing to buy it even after he reduced the amount by 50%. It was no use even after he cut it to a meager 10% of the original value.
"Director Cheng, it's not that we don't want to buy it, but rather we don't dare to buy it…"
"Everyone knows something is going on."
All the people in the business world were experienced persons. It was evident that Cheng Hanlin had offended someone and his patron, Ye Zhengqiu was demoted due to this. It was clear that the man behind the scenes was someone with quite the influence, so none of them dared to go against such a person.
"Director Wu, Direct…"
The room turned silent. Those board members who were quarreling also stopped making a scene. The circumstances were evident at a glance. The Cheng conglomerate was finished and didn't even have a chance to make a comeback.
"Hanlin…"
Sun Xiaohong's complexion tuned quite ugly as if she were mourning at a funeral. She couldn't help but think of Lin Yueling. She was a pretty woman before, but she had degenerated into selling fruits on the streets due to the misfortune of their family. Sun Xiaohong felt as if she was looking at her own future.
"O-Our family will really go bankrupt?"
"How can this be possible? Don't we have a lot of assets? How can we go bankrupt?"
She never thought she would have to experience poverty in her life.
Cheng Lingran supported Sun Xiaohong, caressing her back to comfort her as she knew that it was no use for words now. She also felt quite distraught about this.
"Why don't you call Junfei? Maybe our Cheng Conglomerate can recover if his family injects funds." Sun Xiaohong recalled about Li Junfei who had visited their home yesterday. He was from a family which had assets worth 10 billion.
"That…"
Cheng Lingran hadn't associated with Li Junfei for long.
"Alright, I'll try asking."
Cheng Lingran had to brace herself to do this as her family was at a critical junction. She left the conference hall then called Li Junfei.
"It's useless…"
Cheng Lingsu shook her head in a daze. She knew that this situation couldn't be solved with just a little bit of money. Money could only delay it by a bit. As long as the government doesn't stop the investigation, there would be no chances for the Cheng Conglomerate to recover as that devil Jiang Xiu would make the investigation go on until the Cheng Conglomerate declared bankruptcy.
"What? You want my family to inject funds into the Cheng Conglomerate?" Li Junfei laughed, "Lingran, it's not that I don't want to help but rather that your circumstances can't be fixed with money, so it's useless to even throw money in. It can only be solved if the Cheng Conglomerate pays back the debt to the bank in full, but this just isn't consistent with the economic interest. How about this? Your Cheng Conglomerate will apply for bankruptcy then my Li family will provide enough money so that the Cheng Conglomerate can turn a new leaf."
"There's no need. Sorry for troubling you."
She returned to the conference hall and shook her head towards her mother who was filled with hope.
"It's useless…"
"No matter what you do, it's all useless…"
The situation developed into an irreversible direction later on. Cheng Hanlin used all methods he could, and all of the big banks outdid each other until the Cheng Conglomerate went into debt though they knew its dilemma. After 10 days, the Cheng Conglomerate had to helplessly declare bankruptcy.
A gradually rising star company had crumbled in the end.
On the day the Cheng Conglomerate had declared bankruptcy, the bank had begun to auction the 6 projects. The newly appointed head of the Wang family, Wang Xuetang came to Jiang City to bid for them.
Although he had come to bid, everyone knew that these things belonged to Mr. Jiang, so no one fought over them. They had all fallen into the Wang family's hands at low prices.
Cheng Hanlin sat on the chair in his director's office. Everything was the same as before in the big office, but none of these belonged to him anymore.
Slide!
The door was pushed open, and Wang Xuetang walked while being crowded by everyone. Cheng Hanlin's eyes opened wide when he saw Wang Xuetang, "IT'S YOU!"
He almost roared out. He was always pondering about the identity of the person who had acted against his Cheng family. He thought it was Tang Zhenshan and the others, but they didn't have the power to eliminate Ye Zhengqiu out of the picture. The puzzle was finally solved now. It was the Wang family. The same Wang family who had promised to cooperate with him.
Wang Xuetang said, "It's been a long time Brother Hanlin. Only, you've misunderstood it. I wasn't the one who did it. It's my boss."
"You have a boss?"
Wang Xuetang wasn't willing to take this blame. In fact, he didn't even know Jiang Xiu had enmity with the Cheng family. He nodded, "Yes, my boss."
"The business world is a battlefield, Brother Hanlin. A man is called a king if he succeeds, a thief if he loses. You can't blame people like this. If it weren't for you expanding so radically, my boss also wouldn't have grabbed your sore spot."
Real estate was surging a lot nowadays, and those vast profits were making the merchants go blind. Myriad Base's Qin Weiping was this way, and so was Cheng Hanlin. They had invested all their assets into it, and in-case a problem occurs, they would lose everything.
"Please…"
Wang Xuetang pointed towards the doorway.
Cheng Hanlin's face turned ashen. He felt quite reluctant to part with it, his right hand clenching onto the chair's handle rigidly, giving out a creaking sound from the force. He too was powerless to reverse fate. He stood up gloomily then walked out as if he had lost his entire soul.
"Father, where are you?"
His eldest daughter called him.
"We couldn't go inside our home so I, Mama and Susu are at our old home now…"
Cheng Hanlin recalled that old house which he had forgotten long ago. It was a small broken house where he and Sun Xiaohong had got married. They were quite satisfied then, but he had to go there to live now. His heart was conflicted when he recalled that crowded space, damp and moldy walls as well as the problematic toilet.
Cheng Lingsu was standing outside the door, taking a step inside, pondering whether this was a place a human could live.
Sun Xiaohong still wore expensive clothes and stood there motionlessly.
Only Cheng Lingran moved the huge suitcases inside one after one. Suddenly, a hand stopped her. Cheng Lingran's gaze brightened after she saw who it was, "Little Xiu…"
"Let me help you…"
Cheng Lingsu felt quite astonished that Jiang Xiu had appeared here. He was the same as usual, wearing simple clothes which really suited this old street. She almost opened her lips to question how he had the face to show up here. You murderer. Devil.
But in the next moment, she swallowed her words down, leaving only fear in her heart. Though Jiang Xiu appeared ordinary, he had the entire Jiang City, no, even more than half of the Jiangnan province under his control.
It was as easy as just thinking for him if he wanted to cause more trouble for the Cheng family.
"There's no need for you to do it. Let Sister do it, okay? You'll make your clothes dirty."
"It's okay… why don't you take a break?"
TL NOTE:
10 more chapters will be released for the week as usual. The only exception is that the release days have changed. 2/day from Wed-Sun which will cover the regular quota for the week.
As for the patreon update, the chapters will be updated accordingly on the same time as the regular release.
Which means I'll release c101 and c102 on the site at 12:00 PM EST Wednesday and you'll have access to up to c106 according to your tier.
Once again, sorry for the delay and enjoy the chapters.
o/