18: Chapter 18 Leveraging Opportunities to Weave a Web: The Out-of-Town Dragon's Public Probing in the Capital

Qin Tiankuo calculated in his heart.

He raised his hand and patted Wei Ziang's broad shoulder, adopting a soothing posture: "Brother Ziang, don't be discouraged."

Qin Tiankuo lowered his voice and threw out an information gap: "That kid has been too prominent recently; it's normal that your people can't dig anything up. Because what he's been doing lately is no longer something the local snakes of Shanghai dare to inquire about."

Hearing this, Wei Ziang jerked his head up.

His originally dim eyes were filled with shock.

Meeting his gaze, Qin Tiankuo threw out his trump card, word by word: "You've heard about Meituan's angel round financing a few days ago, right? That piece of fat was originally supposed to be a plate for several Beijing local snakes to divide up step by step."

"But this kid suddenly brought capital and cut in sideways. He forcibly shattered those people's plans and snatched the most core piece of the cake right out of the tiger's mouth."

Wei Ziang gasped.

A layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.

The top young masters of Shanghai were already the sky in his eyes.

But those powerful families rooted under the shadow of the imperial city in Beijing were even more untouchable existences.

Shen Du actually dared to go and cut their cake directly?

In Wei Ziang's understanding, this was equivalent to dancing on the edge of a cliff with his head in his hands.

Watching the disbelief reignite in Wei Ziang's eyes, Qin Tiankuo withdrew his hand: "In our circle, if your hand reaches out too far, you have to pay the price. Put your heart back in your stomach; someone will naturally go and deal with him."

Qin Tiankuo stood up.

He smoothed out the non-existent wrinkles on his high-end custom suit.

Looking at Wei Ziang, he left behind one sentence: "The good show has just begun."

A few days later.

Several black sedans with Beijing license plates drove straight in without warning and stopped in front of the main entrance of the Huahai University of Finance and Economics administration building.

The car doors opened.

Several second-year students with arrogant expressions and Beijing accents stepped out.

Holding specially approved transfer documents, they stepped into this university vanity fair.

They didn't spare a glance at the ordinary students looking over; in their bones, they carried the sense of superiority of being rooted at the feet of the imperial city.

Meanwhile, at the Shanghai International Airport, dozens of kilometers away.

"Boom—" The roar of airplane engines tore through the early winter clouds.

A flight from Beijing to Shanghai landed steadily on the runway.

The automatic glass doors of the VIP passage opened to both sides.

Shen Du, who had just retreated unscathed from the negotiation table in Beijing, walked out of the passage with steady steps.

The next day.

The morning classes at Huahai University of Finance and Economics had just ended.

The tree-lined path leading to the male dormitory was crowded with people.

Shen Du walked along with the flow of people, unhurried, with one hand in the pocket of his dark black coat.

Suddenly, the crowd in front stalled.

Two completely unfamiliar young men blocked the center of the road.

They accurately cut off Shen Du's route.

The person on the left had a crew cut, a robust physique, and was wearing an aggressive high-street brand.

He twisted his neck slightly, making a "clack, clack" sound of joints.

His chin was slightly raised, and his whole body exuded a fierce aura.

The man standing half a step to the right was the complete opposite.

He had a 3-7 part short haircut and wore gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose.

What was most eye-catching was that he was slowly and methodically rotating two walnuts in his hand.

"Clack, clack." The sound of the walnuts colliding was exceptionally clear amidst the noisy crowd.

Shen Du stopped his steps and swept his gaze over their faces.

Never seen them, didn't know them.

But he was clear about his current situation.

He wasn't some princeling from a powerful family; he was just a grassroots person who had just earned his principal through an information gap.

His confidence came from the layer of "Shen Family Overseas Capital" used when the system invested in Meituan.

These river-crossing dragons who came to his door must have uncovered this background.

They came to test just how much weight this "Young Master" really had.

As long as he showed even a hint of guilty conscience today, or detoured to avoid them, this painted skin would be seen through.

What awaited him next would be the tearing and biting of various capitals.

Shen Du's hand in his pocket tightened.

The gambler's blood that had fought for capital in his previous life began to boil at this moment.

This was a high-stakes gamble with no trump cards, purely relying on psychological strength to hold on.

He took a deep breath of the cool early winter air, suppressing the instinctive trace of nervousness in this young body.

When he raised his eyes again, the emotional fluctuations had faded from his pupils.

Since the other party insisted on treating him as the "Young Master Shen" with heaven-reaching connections, he would play along with this group of people in an "Empty Fort Strategy" today.

Facing the two blocking his path, Young Master Han stepped forward half a step, the two walnuts in his hand still "clacking" as they rotated.

He pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth: "Young Master Shen?"

"That Meituan plate was eaten until your mouth was dripping with oil; this prominence is clearly heard even by the side of the Forbidden City. I am Young Master Han, from Beijing, here today specifically to see the true face of Young Master Shen."

"If you have time, how about doing me the honor of having a drink?"

Gao Yang, on the side, didn't speak, but cooperatively pushed his shoulders forward.

It was a tough stance of "you must agree whether you want to or not."

Facing this soft-and-hard probe, Shen Du was expressionless.

But his brain was working at high speed.

Pure Beijing accent, surnamed Han, coming straight for "Meituan."

These three labels combined together.

For someone like Shen Du, who had struggled in the capital markets in his previous life, he didn't need an intelligence network at all.

Even if he only had 230,000 in his pocket, he could see through the other party's background with logic.

They were just pathfinding stones sent out by Beijing power players to test the waters.

Looking at Young Master Han's face, which he thought was unfathomable, Shen Du knew how to place his bet.

He didn't step down the stairs provided.

His eyelids drooped slightly, and he let out a very light sneer.

"Have a drink?"

Shen Du didn't even take his hands out of his coat pockets, his posture unchanged.

His tone was casual, directly piercing through the window paper in public: "The Han family of Beijing... when did they fall to the point of acting as lackeys and coming to Shanghai to beg for food?"

"If you want to drink, let your master behind you come and knock on the door himself. You, you're not worthy."

After dropping this sentence, Shen Du didn't pay attention to Young Master Han's changing face.

He started walking again.

Both hands were still in his coat pockets, and he walked straight along the tree-lined path.

But on his straight line of advance, Gao Yang's sturdy body was still blocking the way tightly.

Shen Du didn't change his route by a single centimeter.

He also didn't reveal any intention to go around; he just walked straight towards the other party.

Under his coat, Shen Du's muscles tightened slightly.

He knew he was walking a tightrope at this moment.

If the crew-cut man in front of him was an reckless hothead and threw a punch in the street, his true background, as well as this painted skin he had just established, would shatter into nothing this morning.

But he was gambling.

The intuition he had developed in the capital markets in his previous life told him.

In a Beijing circle with strict hierarchy like the Han family, before they had fully figured out his trump cards, these pathfinders brought out would definitely not dare to make a lethal move in public.

As long as the other party retreated, he would be able to establish himself firmly in this heated situation in Shanghai.

Three steps, two steps, one step.

Seeing that Shen Du not only didn't detour but instead approached as if no one was there, Gao Yang gritted his teeth, and the veins on his neck bulged.

His broad shoulders sank, and the muscles all over his body tightened.

He was nailed to the spot.

He was prepared to resist with his body and give this Southern young master a show of force.

Just a second before the two were about to collide.

Shen Du tilted his head slightly.

His gaze, which had been looking straight ahead, glanced to the side, lightly meeting Gao Yang's murderous gaze.

Just this one look.

Gao Yang's originally tense body instantly froze.

In those pupils.

Gao Yang didn't see any bluffing, anger, or retreat that belonged to a young person.

He only saw "dead silence."

That was the indifference that only came after seeing countless bankruptcies and life-and-death situations.

In Shen Du's eyes.

He, Gao Yang, was not some river-crossing dragon that couldn't be provoked; he was just a stumbling block that could be kicked away at any time.

Gao Yang's breath suddenly hitched.

The instinct to avoid danger crushed his arrogance at this moment.

Just as Shen Du's shoulder was about to hit his chest.

Gao Yang's thick right leg uncontrollably retreated half a step to the side.

His body, which had been like an iron plate, awkwardly shifted to the side.

Shen Du looked straight ahead, not even raising his eyelids.

Just like that, stepping on the space Gao Yang had subconsciously yielded, he calmly brushed past him.

There was no physical contact, and not a single extra word.

Shen Du, with an attitude of ignoring them, made this dog that was ready to bite lose its fire on the spot.

Until Shen Du's back completely merged into the crowd of students leaving school and could no longer be seen.

His straight back, only then, at a corner where no one noticed, imperceptibly relaxed a little.

In his coat pocket, Shen Du slowly loosened his tightly clenched fist.

His palms were already covered with a layer of fine cold sweat, which felt chilly when hit by the wind.

Only he himself knew that the short, less than one-minute confrontation just now was completely running with his eyes closed on the edge of a cliff.

But feeling his heartbeat calm down, Shen Du exhaled a breath of turbid air.

He had won the gamble.