63: Chapter 63 The Fear of the Mastermind

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Kyoto.

Unlike the debauchery, flashing neon lights, and modern chic of the Magic City,

the power circles of Kyoto were often hidden within those seemingly unremarkable but heavily guarded blue bricks and grey tiles.

In a hidden courtyard home with deep historical roots within the Second Ring Road, a pot of premium Da Hong Pao tea was warming over a small red clay stove, its fragrance curling into the air.

A meticulously dressed, cold, and arrogant young man lounged lazily on a red sandalwood armchair.

He was playing with two warm, premium Hetian jade balls in his hand.

Listening to the crisp clinking of the jade, his eyes held an arrogance that suggested he had everything in the palm of his hand.

He was one of the core masterminds behind this chess game to strangle the conservative faction of the Magic City.

The eldest young master of Kyoto's Su Family, Young Master Su Chi.

According to his timeline,

at this very moment, Fu Zhaonan over in the Magic City should have been driven completely to the edge.

He would be kneeling on the ground, weeping bitterly as he prepared to sign that 'indentured servitude contract' to sell off his core assets.

*Buzz, buzz, buzz—*

Just then, a black encrypted phone sitting on the red sandalwood coffee table suddenly vibrated violently at a high frequency.

A smug, cold smile played at the corner of Young Master Su Chi's mouth.

He stopped rolling the jade balls, unhurriedly picked up the phone, and pressed the answer button.

He was even ready to taste the fruits of victory, waiting to hear his subordinate report the wonderful sound of the Fu Family's empire collapsing.

However, what came from the other end of the line was not flattery and good news, but the trembling voice of his subordinate, laced with shock and panic:

"Y-Young Master Su! Something's gone wrong!"

The smile on Young Master Su Chi's face instantly froze, and his brow furrowed sharply. "What are you panicking for? Speak!"

"Fu Enterprises... I don't know what happened with Fu Enterprises, but they suddenly filled that fatal financial deficit!

They've secured enough life-saving funds to weather the crisis, and Fu Zhaonan has rejected all of our lowball acquisition offers!"

The subordinate sucked in a breath of cold air and, steeling himself, delivered the ultimate bad news that made Young Master Su Chi feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave:

"Young Master Su, our long-planned acquisition... has completely failed!"

*Crack!*

The premium Hetian jade ball in Young Master Su Chi's hand slammed hard onto the red sandalwood tabletop, letting out a sharp, dull thud.

He bolted upright, his face—which had previously looked so confident and in control—instantly clouded over with utter disbelief.

"Failed? What kind of a sick joke is this!"

Young Master Su Chi's voice was practically squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying a chilling hostility.

He stood up abruptly. Because his movement was so sudden, the red sandalwood armchair behind him scraped harshly against the blue brick floor.

He couldn't help but be furious—in fact, he was absolutely flying into a rage.

Because to set up this inescapable trap to completely swallow the Fu Family,

he had done his homework thoroughly and poured in an unimaginable amount of effort!

Over the past few months, Young Master Su Chi had been like a venomous snake hiding in the dark, keeping his eyes locked onto the fat meat that was Fu Enterprises.

He had used every means, both overt and covert, bribing Fu Family executives and stalling bank approval processes.

He had even hired grey-market thugs to maliciously cause trouble at the Fu Family's construction sites and cut off their supply chain.

Just to lay this dragnet and completely sever Fu Enterprises' capital chain,

the cold, hard cash Young Master Su Chi had 'burned' in the early stages had already reached a staggering fifty million yuan!

Losing fifty million yuan was perhaps just a sting to Young Master Su Chi.

What was truly driving him crazy at this moment was the colossal profit hidden behind Fu Enterprises, which he had already regarded as his own!

He had painstakingly schemed to drive Fu Zhaonan into a dead end and force him into bankruptcy and liquidation.

It was not at all to swallow 'Fu Enterprises,' a declining real estate brand.

His true target was the few prime, heavily-valued plots of land that Fu Zhaonan held tightly in his hands!

As a core descendant of a top-tier family in Kyoto, Young Master Su Chi possessed classified internal information about the Magic City that even the Shen Family might not be aware of.

Before long, the high-level authorities of the Magic City would roll out massive policy benefits.

And those few unfinished plots of land in Fu Zhaonan's hands, which seemingly had halted construction due to a broken capital chain,

would instantly turn into super money-printing machines where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold!

As long as he acquired them at a low price and turned them around to reap the policy benefits, the profit would easily be an astronomical figure of several billion yuan!

But now, everything was ruined!

Just because of this life-saving fund that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, Fu Zhaonan had been completely brought back to life!

The cooked duck had actually flown away right before his eyes, and billions of yuan in shocking wealth had vanished into thin air!

*Clench, clench, clench...*

Young Master Su Chi clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles making a grating cracking sound.

He took a deep breath of the cold air, forcing down the urge to flip the coffee table, his eyes filled with a bloodthirsty, fierce light.

"What on earth is going on?!"

After a moment of hesitation, Young Master Su Chi gritted his teeth, forcing down his raging fury, his voice so cold it felt as if ice shards could fall from it:

"Didn't I tell you to block every single outlet for him?

Aren't the funds for Fu Zhaonan's development department currently completely frozen?

His capital chain was clearly broken clean through!"

The subordinate on the other end of the line swallowed hard, his voice still filled with deep disbelief as he reported honestly:

"Young Master Su, we did indeed drive him into a dead end!

Just this morning, our informant inside the Fu Family sent word that Fu Zhaonan was completely out of options.

He had even instructed his lawyers to draft a bankruptcy liquidation plan, preparing to sell those heavy assets to us at a low price."

"But..."

The subordinate's voice suddenly began to tremble, as if he had seen a ghost:

"But just a few hours ago, for some unknown reason, Zhou Wennan, one of the 'Three Young Masters of Shanghai' in the Magic City,

suddenly sent his financial butler to personally visit Fu Enterprises!"

"Zhou Wennan agreed to Fu Zhaonan's previous plea for help!

And... and..."

"And what?! Spit it out already!" Young Master Su Chi barked sharply.

"And he actually slapped down a bank cashier's check worth a whopping five hundred million yuan!"

The subordinate gasped, shouting in despair, "Without demanding a single inch of the Fu Family's land as collateral, they signed an unsecured, pure credit contract!

Even the interest rate was set at the lowest current market rate for Fu Zhaonan!"

*Boom!*

Hearing this, Young Master Su Chi's brain felt as if it had been struck hard by a heavy hammer, and his entire body froze on the spot.

"Five hundred million?"

"No collateral?"

"Lowest interest?!"

Strictly speaking in terms of business, this was practically a ridiculous ghost story!

In this dog-eat-dog capitalist arena, how could there be such a thing as a free lunch?

This wasn't a loan; this was fucking giving Fu Zhaonan free money to keep him alive!

Faced with this cold and absurd number,

Young Master Su Chi's original rage was instead doused with a bucket of ice water, instantly cooling down.

As a top-tier young master from Kyoto who could secretly manipulate the winds of the Magic City, his intuition was far superior to that of ordinary playboys.

After a brief moment of fury, his brain, which functioned like a supercomputer, began a frenzied logical deduction.

"Something's wrong... This is definitely not right!"

Young Master Su Chi narrowed his sinister eyes, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, rapidly peeling back the layers of his thoughts.

"First of all, Zhou Wennan could absolutely not have a motive for this!

Young Master Su Chi knew the movements of the Magic City's elite circle like the back of his hand.

He knew very well that recently, Zhou Wennan had been following some big shot, frantically working on same-city delivery, logistics, and e-commerce.

Because that business was expanding on a massive scale and generating staggering profits,

Zhou Wennan had absolutely no time or energy to manage his family's traditional private lending business.

In fact, because of JD.com's current massive success,

the Zhou Family had even actively halted this high-risk bridge loan business to avoid regulatory risks.

Why would Zhou Wennan break his own rules for a nearly bankrupt Fu Zhaonan?

Secondly, the entire financial channel of the Magic City had long been tightly locked down by the dark net Young Master Su Chi had laid out!

Aside from the Zhou Family, all other private lenders, banks, and even personal bridge loan channels that Fu Zhaonan could contact

had long been 'specially taken care of' by the forces Young Master Su Chi had planted.

No matter who Fu Zhaonan went to beg, he would absolutely not receive help, but rather the terrifying risk of loan recalls!

In Young Master Su Chi's original inescapable trap, Fu Zhaonan's only way out was to sell his heavy assets to him at a low price.

But now, Zhou Wennan's people had actually taken the initiative to come to his door, offering a massive sum of five hundred million yuan with no collateral and low interest?!

"Even if the Zhou Family is incredibly wealthy, Zhou Wennan is no living bodhisattva doing charity!

Delivering five hundred million yuan in cash out of nowhere to a dying man's doorstep

completely defies basic business logic!"

Young Master Su Chi muttered to himself.

Suddenly, he felt a chill run down his spine, and an inexplicable coldness instantly washed over his entire body.

He was no fool.

When all these 'impossibilities' were forced together in reality,

there was only one explanation left.

Behind this seemingly perfect stranglehold, there was a terrifying 'invisible hand' secretly and forcefully moving the chess pieces of the Magic City!

And he, Young Master Su Chi, had actually failed to notice even a shadow of this hand from beginning to end!

Silence. A deathly silence.

This sudden wave of coldness made Young Master Su Chi's fingers grip the phone until they turned slightly white.

In the eyes of this top-tier young master from Kyoto,

the fifty million yuan that had gone down the drain was not even worth mentioning.

He could even grit his teeth and swallow the loss of those billions in windfall profits that had slipped through his fingers.

But what was truly surging from the depths of his heart right now was an ultimate fear of losing control over the entire situation!

A guess that he was most unwilling to face, and which made him feel the most wary, flashed wildly in his mind.

Could this 'invisible hand' that had forcefully stopped the Fu Family's massive avalanche belong to the Shen Family of the Magic City?!

One must know that the industries under Fu Zhaonan were by no means as simple as a few unfinished plots of land waiting to be developed.

It was a crucial link that Young Master Su Chi had laid down to alter the entire power dynamic of the Magic City, joining hands with the reformist forces to secretly strangle the traditional conservative faction!

As soon as the Fu Family, this first domino, fell,

a fatal breach would be torn into the business barrier that the Shen Family had painstakingly built.

But now, this fatal blow had been casually neutralized by someone with five hundred million yuan in cash!

If it really was that behemoth, the Shen Family, finally waking up and reacting,

realizing the hidden card of the Kyoto forces secretly teaming up with the Magic City's radical faction,

and even starting to leisurely deploy their forces for a counterattack...

then all of Young Master Su Chi's previous schemes would be completely exposed to the light of day!

The series of killer moves he had prepared for later

would not only have to be entirely scrapped and redone, but he might even face a devastating and frenzied counterattack from the Shen Family!

"Whew..."

After a silence that lasted for nearly a full minute, Young Master Su Chi let out a long, suppressed breath of turbid air.

On his face, which had previously worn a calm, cold smile, there was now only an extremely distorted expression, like a wild beast whose territory had been violated.

"Investigate!"

Young Master Su Chi spoke into the phone, practically spitting out each word through gritted teeth as he handed down a death order, his voice carrying a chilling aura that made one's scalp tingle:

"Go investigate!

Find out for me exactly who the fuck secretly interfered in this matter!"

"Zhou Wennan is absolutely just a white glove showing his face!

At all costs, use all of our hidden connections in the Magic City.

We must uncover the beginning and end of this matter.

Dig out the real chess player hiding behind the Zhou Family and moving the board, root and branch!"

Hearing his master's near-manic rage,

the subordinate on the other end of the line didn't dare utter another word of nonsense and immediately responded in a trembling but loud voice:

"Understood, Young Master Su!

I will personally arrange the personnel right away and immediately initiate the highest-level investigation protocol!"

With a sharp *snap*, the phone was hung up forcefully.

Young Master Su Chi spun around abruptly and kicked over the expensive red sandalwood coffee table.

The premium Da Hong Pao tea and the shattered Hetian jade balls scattered all over the floor.

He stared fixedly in the direction of the Magic City to the south, a fierce light fully exposed in his eyes.