58: Chapter 58: Hidden Tricks, the Steel Mule is Born!

Long Zaifei wasn't sitting in his spacious executive chair. Instead, he stood with his hands clasped behind his back before the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing down at the bustling city below.

Long Zaitian stood three paces behind him, his head bowed, with beads of cold sweat trickling down from his temples. He looked exactly like a pupil who had committed a grave mistake, not daring to even breathe heavily.

Of the three Long brothers, the eldest, Long Zaifei, was a full ten years older than the youngest, Long Zaitian.

The saying 'the eldest brother is like a father' was embodied to the fullest in the Long family! Long Zaitian was a formidable figure in the business circles of Modu, someone who could make the ground tremble with a single stomp, yet in front of this eldest brother, he was as docile as a newly weaned kitten.

The atmosphere in the entire top-floor CEO's office was as heavy and suffocating as solidified steel.

"Market share... lost."

Long Zaifei's voice was calm, betraying no ripple of emotion, yet it pierced Long Zaitian's eardrums like an ice-cold steel awl.

"Even though it's only the thermal conduction and superconductor materials businesses, this is an extremely dangerous signal! When has our Long family ever suffered such a loss? Nip problems in the bud, do you understand?"

Long Zaitian's Adam's apple bobbed frantically. His lips trembled as he spoke with difficulty, "Big Brother, we underestimated the impact of that kid Chen Fan's technology, and his disruptive, rule-breaking cooperation model..."

"It wasn't underestimation!"

Long Zaifei whirled around sharply, his eyes gleaming with a cold, sharp light that seemed to flay Long Zaitian's face. "It was incompetence! Worthlessness!"

"What did I tell you back then? To strangle that brat in his cradle! And what happened? You've been beaten down by him time and again, utterly humiliated! Now he's grown his wings and is biting back!"

Long Zaitian's face turned as pale as paper. He hung his head even lower, not daring to utter a single word in defense.

"It seems conventional business tactics can't handle this kid whose luck is outrageously good."

Long Zaifei paced back behind his desk and sat down heavily, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the smooth redwood surface, producing a dull thumping sound.

"If the open methods don't work, then we play dirty! We'll start with the people around him!"

His gaze abruptly shifted to the shadows in the corner of the office, where a stooped figure in black stood—the Long family's 'black glove,' Old Knife.

"Old Knife, the investigation I asked for last time on the backgrounds of those lackeys around Chen Fan, any results?"

Remember us at 11kanshu.com

Old Knife took a step forward, his voice raspy like sandpaper on wood. "Yes!"

"Wang Defu, a native of Modu. In his early years, he ran a small scrap collection station in the Western Suburbs. The property rights are murky. We dug through all the old archives and interviewed the elderly nearby. We found that the land and the simple factory building on it were left to Wang Defu by his father. However, due to issues with the property deed, the transfer was never completed, and his father didn't leave a will before he died."

"What's more interesting is that Wang Defu has a younger brother, Wang Deshun, with whom he had a falling out over a decade ago and severed all contact. In principle, Wang Deshun also has a share in this ancestral property."

"But that Wang Deshun is a gambling addict. He owed a mountain of high-interest loans in his early years and fled. There's been no news of him all these years. Wang Defu has simply occupied the old property and turned it into a scrap yard."

"Later, Chen Fan rented that scrap yard and converted it into the Panshi Foundation factory."

Old Knife's investigation was astonishingly meticulous.

After listening, a cold smile curled at the corner of Long Zaifei's mouth, and his finger-tapping accelerated. "Then we start with this Wang Deshun! Where is he now? Can he be found?"

"Yes!" Old Knife nodded. "Hiding from debt in a small county town in the neighboring province, dirt poor, can't even afford a decent meal."

The smile on Long Zaifei's face widened, but his eyes grew even more ruthless. "Excellent!"

"Give Wang Deshun a sum of money he's never seen in his life, and hire him the best lawyers! Tell him his brother Wang Defu has latched onto a big boss, made a fortune, but is hogging the ancestral property that rightfully belongs to him!"

"Make him crawl back to Modu! Have him cause a scene at Panshi Foundation! Demand money! Demand the land! Make the commotion as big as possible! Best if it attracts media coverage, creates a huge scandal, leaving Chen Fan overwhelmed and distracted!"

He suddenly looked up at Long Zaitian, his tone chilling. "See that? That's called hitting the snake's vital spot! Set his backyard on fire, leave him no room to breathe!"

"Also, continue executing the plan targeting Panshi Foundation's transportation lines! I want Chen Fan besieged from within and without, stretched thin, forced to watch the foundation he painstakingly built crumble before his eyes!"

Long Zaitian's spirits lifted. He quickly bowed and responded, "Yes, Big Brother! I'll arrange it immediately! I guarantee it'll be handled flawlessly!"

Long Zaifei leaned back in his chair, slowly closed his eyes, a confident, cold smirk on his lips, as if already seeing Chen Fan's frantic, overwhelmed state.

"Chen Fan... our contest has only just begun. First, I'll dismantle your support, throw your backyard into chaos, and see how much energy you have left to fight me!"

Meanwhile, inside the Fanxing Technology factory.

Ten brand-new sorting robots were tirelessly operating, their mechanical arms moving with agile precision. Mountains of scrap metal were being sorted and categorized with frightening efficiency under their exact operations.

The raw material sorting problem had been completely solved!

The pressure on Chen Fan suddenly eased, allowing him to devote all his energy to the most critical step—Amplifying the sorted metal raw materials into sets of 'stardust material standard production machines.'

The Amplified machines were all stored inside his space jade pendant, saving space and facilitating transport.

Within just a few minutes, ten sets of machines, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen and brimming with futuristic tech aesthetics, took shape one after another.

The efficiency was simply unbelievable!

"Fan Zi, you're not just building machines... you're practically 'printing' the future!"

Lin Hao stood to the side, dumbfounded. Then, looking at the sweat-drenched Chen Fan, his face filled with concern, he said, "Take a break, don't push so hard! I really wish I could share the load, but this work... I just can't get involved."

Chen Fan flexed his stiff fingers, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and grinned. "Gotta finish this quickly. Next, we need to push forward with Engineer Fu's heat shield tile project."

He looked up towards the workshop entrance and suddenly remembered something. "Hao Zi, the first batch of twenty trucks, they should be arriving soon, right?"

"They're here! They're here!" Lin Hao immediately nodded, his tone excited. "They were just moved into the warehouse not long ago. I was about to tell you, waiting for you, our big boss, to come and 'work your magic'!"

"Let's go, check out our 'Iron Mule-Horses'!"

A glint of anticipation flashed in Chen Fan's eyes as he strode out first.

On the open outdoor grounds, twenty large trucks were neatly lined up, varying in age and condition.

Some had their bumpers dented, others had paint scraped and peeling, looking rather shabby.

Chen Fan strolled among the trucks, his hands touching each cold hood in turn.

This time, his Amplification wasn't focused on altering the external appearance but primarily on internal reinforcement and functional enhancement!

As his intent precisely anchored, streams of invisible Amplification light silently merged into the interior of each truck.

The engine, chassis, tires, cargo bed... even the cockpit's control systems were undergoing earth-shattering transformations.

The entire process lasted nearly an hour.

"Done!"

Chen Fan let out a long sigh of relief, turned to look at Lin Hao, who had long been rubbing his hands together in excitement, and a confident smile curved his lips. "Now, they're no longer ordinary transport trucks."

"They are mobile fortresses, self-contained reconnaissance nodes, and emergency support platforms capable of handling various unexpected situations!"

"Quickly, assign them the best drivers and conduct emergency response training. From the moment the first batch of stardust material equipment rolls off the line, they'll be our escorts!"

"Fantastic!"

Lin Hao circled the trucks excitedly, itching to take one for a spin immediately. He laughed heartily, "With these 'godly trucks,' let's see which blind fool dares to mess with our transport lines!"

Just as Fanxing Technology and Panshi Foundation were intensively building their two pillars of production and logistics, and everything was starting to look up, they were unaware—

A treacherous net aimed at them had already been silently cast!