78: Chapter 78 A Concession on a Stormy Night!

At this point, the thunderous rage in Elder Shen's eyes slightly receded, replaced by a trace of complex vicissitudes.

He looked at Shen Che, whose brows were tightly furrowed, and slowly threw out that soul-piercing question:

"Che'er, do even you think... that what I did was wrong?"

Wrong? Of course not.

Upon hearing his father's deafening question, Shen Che fell into a long silence.

As one of the helmsmen of the Shen Family in this era.

He knew better than anyone in his heart.

It was precisely because his father had withstood countless pressures and temptations back then, holding firmly to this bottom line.

That the land of Shanghai had been able to remain free from the monopoly and crushing weight of top-tier powerful capital for the past few decades.

And thus, miraculously, countless vibrant economic myths were born.

Both publicly and privately.

This old man, who had dedicated his entire life to his faith, was not wrong.

However, Shen Che did not follow the Elder's words to affirm him.

He raised his head.

His gaze fixed directly on his father's face, which was filled with the marks of time, and he threw out a cruel yet incredibly realistic rebuttal:

"Old man, times are different now."

Shen Che's voice was somewhat hoarse, yet it carried a coldness and clarity as he faced the torrent of history:

"In these short dozen years, the era has undergone drastic changes through storms and rain.

Now, external capital is like a pack of starving wolves.

Various interest groups are intertwined, and the rules have long been rewritten by them!"

He stood up and walked to the carved wooden window.

Looking at the torrential rain filling the sky outside and the trees swaying unsteadily in the strong wind.

"When everyone in the environment you find yourself in has become accustomed to carving up interests in a muddy quagmire.

Our Shen Family, this single clear stream, is no longer the towering rock that anchors the mountain.

Instead, it will become the most glaring anomaly in the eyes of all the ambitious!"

Shen Che turned around abruptly, and word by word, articulated the coldest iron law of this political game:

"When the Shen Family is the only clear stream left in the entire environment.

Then even if the faith you hold onto is correct, in the face of the torrent of the times, it is wrong!"

"Because you are blocking everyone's path!"

Shen Che took a deep breath, releasing all the suppression in his chest: "Therefore, there is no such thing as right or wrong now.

Everyone is fighting for survival, for a reshuffling.

And under these circumstances, the sudden emergence of that kid, Shen Du, recklessly piling up defenses with capital...

Perhaps, it is the only antidote to break this stalemate!"

In the predetermined trajectory of fate in his previous life.

At this point in time, Elder Shen should have been boarding his private plane to the capital as scheduled.

Striding proudly into that Great Hall in the capital, which symbolized the highest power.

To once again lead and initiate a major conference involving the country's economic lifeline.

But in this life.

The gears of fate had deviated violently because of the flapping wings of a butterfly.

This variable was Shen Du.

As this grandson rose against the trend in a domineering posture by the Huangpu River,

Elder Shen's heart, originally as firm as a rock, had been completely thrown into chaos.

He rarely cancelled his trip north,

Because he knew better than anyone: the ancestral rules had been broken, and that code he had guarded for decades could no longer be held.

However, what made the entire Shen Family feel most helpless and suffocated was this.

Faced with this young man who had openly broken the family's iron law.

Within the entire massive power system of the Shen Family.

There was not a single person who could stand up and conduct a legitimate trial against him.

They did not have the qualification.

Because from the moment he was born, Shen Du's mother had already, with endless determination,

Completely severed all ties with this family.

For nineteen whole years, the Shen Family had not given this mother and son even a single day of protection or warmth.

Deep in Elder Shen's heart, the heavy debt of blood the family owed this mother and son.

Had long since far surpassed those cold ancestral rules!

What's more.

Although Shen Du had borrowed the Shen Family's banner to make a name for himself in Shanghai.

But every flow of his funds and every commercial acquisition perfectly avoided the red lines of the law.

He did not do anything illegal or undisciplined.

He was merely using the most extreme capital methods to fight a flawless commercial war.

Faced with such a grandson, to whom they owed a deep debt and against whom they could find no legal handle.

What could the Shen Family do besides acquiesce?

The air in the living room seemed to have frozen.

The thunderstorm outside intensified, with the strong wind battering the wooden windows of the old house, emitting a shrill, wailing sound.

Elder Shen sat quietly in the Taishi chair, having finished listening to Shen Che's cold analysis regarding the "tragedy of the clear stream."

He seemed to age another ten years in that instant.

That spine, which had been held straight for half a lifetime, finally slumped slightly on this stormy evening.

After a silence so long it was suffocating,

This stubborn old man, who once commanded the winds and clouds and had spent his life holding onto his faith, finally closed his cloudy eyes slowly.

Accompanied by a weary sigh that exhausted all his strength,

His dry lips parted slightly, uttering a sentence filled with helplessness, yet forced to bow to reality:

"Yes... the times are always changing..."

A full half hour.

The dead silence in the living room, accompanied by the continuous sound of thunder and rain outside, was infinitely prolonged.

The remaining tea in the purple clay pot had completely gone cold.

Shen Che still maintained his upright posture, not daring to even breathe loudly, waiting quietly for his father's final decision.

This was a tug-of-war of thoughts lasting over thirty minutes.

For Elder Shen, an old man who had spent half his life in military service and was like a stabilizer in the political arena.

Toppling the faith and rules he had held onto for a lifetime.

The pain and struggle experienced in this were unimaginable to ordinary people.

Finally, Elder Shen's tightly closed eyes slowly opened after the long silence.

The moment he opened his eyes, Shen Che keenly sensed that the heavy sense of clinging to old customs on his father had disappeared.

Replacing it was a sense of clarity and unprecedented sharpness after breaking all shackles.

"Che'er, to be honest."

The Elder's voice broke the long silence, carrying a slight hoarseness, yet revealing a calmness that came after setting down a heavy burden:

"Regarding the child Shen Du, my private intervention was actually minimal."

Shen Che was slightly stunned and looked up in astonishment.

"Only when he went to attend Huahai University of Finance and Economics did I use a few insignificant connections to pave a path for him."

The Elder looked at the cold tea on the table, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes:

"Even the first tuition fee for him to enter the university gate was covered by the Shen Family secretly."

"Apart from these, the Shen Family has not given him a single cent of capital, nor any substantial protection of connections."

Hearing this, Shen Che's pupils contracted sharply.

If what the old man said was true, what did that mean?

It meant that the earth-shattering feats Shen Du had accomplished by the Huangpu River.

That suffocatingly massive cash flow of ninety million, as well as the layout of Xinghuo and Meituan...

Were all achieved by this nineteen-year-old boy.

With his own strength, carving his way out of the meat grinder that was Shanghai?!