66: Chapter 66 Backyard on Fire, Henchmen Betray

"Come in!"

Young Master Su Chi's voice sounded as if it had been fished out of an ice cave, carrying a chilling and appalling oppressiveness.

The heavy study door was flung open, and his subordinate rushed in, practically crawling on all fours.

His face was as pale as paper, his forehead covered in fine beads of cold sweat, and he couldn't even catch his breath.

"Young... Young Master! Urgent news!"

"Speak!"

Young Master Su Chi's heart sank abruptly, and his ominous premonition instantly peaked.

"Over at Meituan... the tax audit trap targeting their old books has completely failed!"

The subordinate swallowed hard, his voice trembling so much it was almost out of tune.

"What did you say?!"

Young Master Su Chi stood up abruptly, staring intently at his subordinate as if he wanted to skin him alive.

"That madman Wang Xing, it's like he had foresight!"

The subordinate reported in despair, "Just a few days ago, without any warning, he suddenly started a frenzied internal audit of all the company's old accounts!

His movements were too fast, his efficiency terrifyingly high.

In just a few days, he dug up all the bad accounts we had targeted!"

"And he mobilized massive funds overnight.

Before we could play our trump card, he proactively paid off every single cent of the problematic taxes!"

Young Master Su Chi's breathing instantly grew heavy, his eyes filled with utter disbelief.

But what sent a chill down his spine was yet to come.

"Not only that..."

The subordinate's voice grew quieter, carrying a deep dread of that business tycoon's ruthless methods:

"This time, Wang Xing spared no one.

He didn't just pay the back taxes; he also ruthlessly took the powerful shareholders who used to manage those accounts—the ones we secretly held leverage over—

and threw them straight into prison along with all the incriminating evidence!"

"Now, he has not only scrubbed Meituan's books completely clean,

but also used this opportunity to logically complete a major internal power purge.

Every single angle of attack we held has been completely blocked by his move to cut off his own tail to survive!"

Hearing this report, Young Master Su Chi stood frozen in place for several seconds, as if struck by lightning.

Immediately after, an uncontrollable rage, like a long-dormant volcano, erupted from the depths of his chest!

*Crash!*

He violently grabbed the priceless, master-crafted clay teapot from his desk—one he usually cherished deeply—

and smashed it ruthlessly against the hard blue-brick floor.

With a sharp, ear-piercing shatter, precious clay shards and scalding Da Hong Pao tea instantly splattered everywhere.

The subordinate by the door shuddered in fear, burying his head low, not daring to make a sound.

If the Shanghai authorities' thunderous crackdown on crime had merely severed his hands and feet on the front lines,

then Meituan's silent, earth-shattering reversal was tearing out Young Master Su Chi's very heart and soul!

He could accept that the secret network in Shanghai, which he had painstakingly built over a whole year, had been completely uprooted!

After all, that was the Shen Family's home turf, where they held every possible advantage.

But now, the situation had completely changed!

This deadly wind had blown straight into his headquarters in Beijing—there was a "ghost" in his own house!

Young Master Su Chi's breathing was as heavy as a bellows.

He knew the ins and outs of the Meituan audit all too well.

The campaign against Fu Zhaonan required mobilizing a vast number of low-level grey industries and financial channels, involving too many people to keep quiet.

But the tax audit trap for Meituan was a lethal strike initiated directly by the high-level figures in Beijing!

This plan had an extremely high level of confidentiality, a total secret within their circle.

From the drafting of the plan to the preparation to close the net,

from beginning to end, only a handful of key figures in the core Beijing Circle knew about it.

Not a single whisper had been leaked to anyone on the periphery.

Wang Xing was far away in Shanghai; how could he have had such foresight?

How could he have perfectly cut off his tail to survive, timed precisely to the second before the Beijing forces launched their attack?!

Unless someone had shown him their hand in advance!

Young Master Su Chi stared intently at the mess on the floor.

His eyes were shot with terrifying blood vessels, driven by rage and an indescribable trace of fear.

Supporting himself on the desk with both hands, he squeezed out a scalp-tingling voice from between his teeth:

"There is... a mole among us!"

Young Master Su Chi could never have dreamed

that the mole who could access top-secret information and betray him so utterly

was not some big shot in the core Beijing Circle at all,

but Qin Tiankuo—the front-line pawn planted in Shanghai for years, whom he had long regarded as a mere lackey at his beck and call!

Young Master Su Chi and those powerful figures in Beijing had calculated everything,

yet they forgot the most fatal aspect of human nature: loyalty must be sustained with cold, hard cash.

Years ago, when the Qin Family served as the vanguard for the Beijing forces' southward expansion,

they had taken root in Shanghai carrying countless "heavy promises" from the big shots behind the Su Family.

Back then, the Beijing side painted a massive and enticing picture: absolute financial backing, green lights for policies all the way, and fully cleared networks.

But the reality was cold and harsh.

Over the course of several years,

the Qin Family struggled and fought in Shanghai, surrounded by powerful enemies, and faced countless cash flow crises that nearly destroyed them.

Yet whenever the Qin Family reached the end of their rope and begged their Beijing masters for help, they were met only with condescending perfunctoriness and cold silence.

The Beijing side had not only failed to provide a single cent of substantive aid,

but had also, quite righteously, continuously demanded top-secret intelligence on Shanghai from them.

In the eyes of the Beijing forces, the Qin Family was merely a pawn that could be sacrificed at any moment.

What had actually allowed the Qin Family to survive in this cutthroat metropolis,

and even painstakingly climb to the fringes of Shanghai's top-tier families,

was not Beijing's protection at all, but Shanghai's local business environment!

Ironically, it was precisely the Shen Family—whom Beijing viewed as a thorn in their side for being so upright and rigid—

whose rule-bound, ethical business system established in Shanghai

had prevented an outsider like the Qin Family from being eaten alive by local capital giants, leaving not even a bone.

It gave them room to breathe and grow.

Years of empty promises and the harsh blows of reality had long since allowed Qin Tiankuo to see through the cold-blooded nature of the Beijing forces.

On the surface, he remained submissive to Young Master Su Chi.

But mentally, the Qin Family had already completely slipped the leash held by Beijing.

In the cutthroat arena of capital and fame,

there was a fundamental, brutal logic: even if you are just keeping a watchdog, you still have to throw them a meaty bone every now and then!

The Beijing forces didn't offer a single cent, yet expected the Qin Family to bite their toughest enemies and bleed to the last drop in Shanghai.

To Qin Tiankuo, this was simply treating them like fools.

This was precisely why, when Meituan was about to face trouble and the tax audit trap from Beijing had just been ordered,

the first thing Qin Tiankuo thought of was not to resolutely execute it,

but to turn around and go straight to Shen Du.

This was not some desperate plea for help at all, but a cold-blooded, rational touchstone test!

Qin Tiankuo wanted to test the waters on behalf of his entire family,

to see if this suddenly emerged "Young Master Shen," who didn't play by the rules,

would be just like those high-and-mighty masters in Beijing, only capable of painting empty, illusory promises.

And the result of the test showed an immediate, stark contrast!

Facing the Qin Family's allegiance and testing, Shen Du offered no long-winded bureaucratic talk, let alone empty promises of a bright future.

His actions were swift and decisive.

He directly threw down a whopping thirty million in hard cash, plus a personal favor!

On one side was a hopeless promise painted for years that they could never actually taste.

On the other side was a massive sum of cash slammed directly onto the table, along with the protection of a top-tier figure.

Comparing these two options, as long as they weren't completely insane, the Qin Family knew exactly which one to choose.

Qin Tiankuo had led the Qin Family to work tirelessly, bleeding and sweating in Shanghai for so many years,

and had finally built up this hard-won foundation.

Why should they, for the sake of a distant Beijing master who treated them as cannon fodder,

personally smash the very foundation they had painstakingly built in Shanghai?

Since Beijing wouldn't give them a way to survive,

then Qin Tiankuo would simply defect and personally hand the knife to Shen Du, who could actually give them real money!

At this moment, the study was dead silent, with only Young Master Su Chi's heavy breathing echoing in the air.

Barely clawing back a shred of sanity from his fury, Young Master Su Chi's mind began a frantic, almost trembling retrospection.

At this moment,

he finally woke up completely from these consecutive, scalp-tinglingly precise counterattacks.

First, the dark network in Shanghai was completely flattened by a thunderous strike from the authorities.

Then, the top-secret plan of the core Beijing Circle was perfectly defused by Wang Xing, as if he had foresight.

This was absolutely not just a coincidence, let alone so-called "luck"!

A terrifying, spine-chilling suspicion crawled into Young Master Su Chi's mind like a cancer.

This was no longer a question of whether they could successfully take over Shanghai's territory!

The opponent's shadow, or rather that invisible intelligence network, had long since crossed the natural barrier of the Yangtze River.

Like a ghost, it had directly penetrated the core of the Beijing Circle, which they had deemed completely solid!

It had even reached the vital points of these top-tier young masters!

The moment this terrifying thought arose, Young Master Su Chi shuddered uncontrollably.

His arrogance and composure as a top-tier black glove of Beijing were shattered in an instant.

In their place was an extreme, bone-deep fear concerning his very survival.

These big shots, who fancied themselves the chess players,

had unknowingly become prey on someone else's board, ready to be hunted at any moment!

"No... I absolutely cannot keep taking hits passively like this!"

Young Master Su Chi snapped back to reality.

No longer caring about the messy shards of the clay teapot on the floor, he completely cast aside all routine matters regarding Shanghai.

With trembling hands, he quickly walked to the safe behind the bookcase and entered multiple passwords.

From the deepest part, he pulled out the encrypted satellite phone that represented the highest authority and could connect directly to the top leadership.

Without any hesitation, he quickly dialed that rarely used special number.

The moment the call connected, Young Master Su Chi lowered his voice, his tone carrying a mix of resolute ruthlessness and panic.

He gave a comprehensive report to the true big shots behind the scenes regarding all the recent anomalies and the fatal crisis of their intelligence network potentially being compromised.

"...That's the situation.

This is absolutely not an ordinary business counterattack; someone in our core circle must have been bought off!"

A fierce light like that of a hungry wolf flashed in Young Master Su Chi's eyes as he gritted his teeth and requested instructions:

"We must close the net and cut our losses immediately!

I request to exercise the highest authority to immediately initiate a thorough purge within our Beijing Circle!

I would rather kill a thousand innocent people by mistake than let the mole hiding in the shadows escape!"

As a result, no one expected

that Shen Du's brilliant move would, by a stroke of luck, cause the Beijing Circle to fall into chaos first.