596: Chapter 591 A Utter Defeat

Including the fleet, shipping routes, ports, and all overseas subsidiaries.

Zheng Tianxiao's breathing became rapid.

He forced himself to look further down.

When he saw the acquisition price column...

His mind went blank.

One billion Hong Kong dollars.

Using one billion HKD to acquire a shipping empire with a market value of one hundred billion.

This wasn't an acquisition.

This was robbery.

It was an insult.

Zheng Tianxiao suddenly looked up.

He stared fixedly at Shen Yan.

He wanted to rage.

He wanted to question him.

He wanted to tear this agreement into shreds.

But all he saw was a pair of calm eyes.

In those eyes, there was no greed.

No mockery.

Only a cold, matter-of-fact calm.

As if all of this was only natural.

Shen Yan picked up his water glass.

He took a sip.

He finally spoke.

His voice wasn't loud.

Yet it was like a heavy hammer striking Zheng Tianxiao's heart.

"You have no more time."

"This agreement is to save you."

"It is also to save the tens of thousands of Ocean Shipping Employees."

"Once the sanction order is issued, your company will be worthless."

"All assets will be frozen and seized."

"You will go from being a business titan to a bankrupt criminal with tens of billions in debt."

"Your family and your children will all be dragged down with you."

"One billion is the severance pay for you and your family."

"Take it, leave Hong Kong City, and you can still live as a wealthy man."

"Or..."

Shen Yan paused.

"You refuse."

"And then, wait for your reputation to be ruined."

Zheng Tianxiao's body swayed.

He steadied himself against the table to keep from falling.

He understood now.

From the very beginning, Shen Yan never intended to cooperate with him.

That plot of land in Central.

Those words at the Yunxiao Pavilion.

They were all just bait.

A trap to drive him into a corner.

This young man's schemes were bottomless.

His methods were ruthless and heartless.

Zheng Tianxiao looked at him.

It was as if he saw his younger self.

No.

He was even more terrifying than his younger self.

He had no superfluous emotions.

Like a precise computer.

Calculating the gains and losses of every step.

Zheng Tianxiao gave a miserable laugh.

He had lost.

He had suffered a crushing defeat.

The foundation of his life's work.

Decades of painstaking effort.

On this afternoon, it was priced at one billion by a thin document.

Did he still have a choice?

No.

Shen Yan had calculated correctly; he had none.

He had accounted for Zheng Tianxiao's conceit.

And he had accounted for his final weakness.

Family.

The television on the table was silently playing financial news.

Suddenly.

A bold red breaking news alert popped up.

[The North American Maritime Alliance has announced full sanctions against Hong Kong City's Zheng Clan Ocean Shipping Company...]

Time was up.

The prophecy had come true.

Zheng Tianxiao looked at that news.

All the strength in his body was drained away.

He slumped onto the sofa.

Like a weathered stone statue.

After a long time.

He picked up the pen on the table.

That Montblanc signature pen felt like it weighed a thousand pounds at this moment.

At the end of the document...

He signed his name.

Zheng Tianxiao.

These three words once represented supreme power and wealth in Hong Kong City.

Today, they only represented the end of an era.

Shen Yan took the agreement.

He glanced at the signature.

Then, he stood up.

He walked back to the floor-to-ceiling window.

He looked out at the busy Victoria Harbour.

Giant ships were coming and going.

From this moment on, those steel behemoths had a new master.

He didn't look at Zheng Tianxiao again.

It was as if this person no longer existed.

Zheng Tianxiao stood up, despondent.

He walked out of the room.

When he arrived, he was the emperor of an empire.

When he left, he was just an exile who had lost everything.

The bedroom door opened gently.

Youyou ran out.

She threw herself into Shen Yan's arms.

"Daddy, when are we going home?"

Shen Yan picked up his daughter.

He kissed her forehead.

"Soon."

His gaze crossed the harbor, looking toward the far north.

The door to the presidential suite closed silently.

Completely cutting off two different worlds.

Outside the door was the twilight of an empire.

Inside the door was the tranquility of a family.

On the TV screen, the red breaking news was still scrolling.

North American Maritime Alliance.

Full sanctions.

Every word was worth a hundred billion.

Shen Yan picked up the remote.

He turned off the TV.

The screen went dark.

In the room, only the flowing lights of Victoria Harbour outside the window remained.

He walked to the sofa.

He picked up that thin "Letter of Intent for Asset Acquisition."

Zheng Tianxiao's signature was scrawled and weak.

It exuded a sense of despair.

Shen Yan did not put the document away.

He walked to the bar.

He put it into the paper shredder.

The blue indicator light turned on.

The machine made a low hum.

The paper carrying a shipping empire was turned into fine strips.

They fell into the box below.

As if it had never existed.

Zheng Tianxiao was quite a character.

Being able to command the wind and clouds in Hong Kong City for decades wasn't based on luck.

Such a person would be very troublesome as an enemy.

But as a subordinate, he would be very useful.

What Shen Yan wanted wasn't a bankrupt Zheng Tianxiao.

What he wanted was a lion king whose spine had been broken, but who still knew how to hunt.

One billion HKD wasn't severance pay.

It was the price of a dog leash.

And the fodder for this lion king to regrow its fangs.

The real agreement had long since been sent to a law firm in Switzerland via encrypted email.

The second before the sanction order was released, all legal transfers were completed.

Ocean Shipping was already his.

Shen Yan took out a phone.

It wasn't any model on the market.

It was entirely black without any markings.

It was a Quantum Encrypted Communicator he had the system exchange for him.

On Earth, there was no possibility of it being intercepted.

He opened an app.

The interface had a pure black background with white characters.

In the contact list, there was only one letter.

K.

Shen Yan typed a line.

"The net has been pulled in."

Message sent.

There was almost no delay.

The other side replied.

"Congratulations."

Shen Yan continued typing.

"Lift the sanctions."

"Within twenty-four hours, issue a clarification announcement citing a data entry error as the reason."

The reply from the other side was still very fast.

"The price."

Shen Yan's fingertips tapped on the screen.

"The usual rules."

"A piece of good news."

"You can start positioning for the inland shipping routes in the North American Great Lakes Region."

"Within three months, there will be policy changes."

The other side was silent for a moment.

This time, the reply had one more word.

"Received."

Shen Yan deleted the chat history.

He locked the screen.

The North American Maritime Alliance was a massive unofficial organization.

It controlled the world's most important shipping lanes.

Its sanctions were the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of all shipping companies.

Zheng Tianxiao's Ocean Shipping indeed had loopholes.

Some transport records that wandered in the gray areas.

Not big, but not small either.

Normally, no one would look into them.

But once someone caught them and magnified them, it was enough to be fatal.

The system's intelligence pointed out these loopholes.

It also pointed out how to deliver these loopholes to the desks of key figures.