230: Chapter 229 Chu Zhengyang's daydreams: He actually wanted to take Qin Feng in.

The top floor of Zifeng Tower.

Chu Zhengyang hung up the phone and placed it face down on the coffee table.

He stood up and walked back to the floor-to-ceiling window.

The night view of Jinling spread out beneath his feet, a carpet of city lights, with the silhouette of Zijin Mountain hidden at the edge of the distant skyline.

Chu Zhengyang's right thumb rested on his thumb ring again, turning it once, then once more.

The frequency was a notch faster than before.

Qin Feng.

The first time he had heard this name was three months ago.

Qian Zhenghao had called him, his tone laced with a smile,

saying he had encountered an arrogant young man who had acquired shares in the company.

But he told Chu Zhengyang not to worry, as he had already prepared funds and would have the other party kicked out of Jinling within a few days.

Three days later, Qian Zhenghao was in a detention center.

Then Prosperity was renamed to Qinsheng Group.

A month later, Qin Feng sat at the head table of the autumn gala,

smashing fifty million in cash into a charitable donation and bidding five hundred million for Plot C07 right in front of the entire Jinling business circle.

He had set three moves in motion; his move against Qin Feng wasn't actually to save Qian Zhenghao.

Without Qian Zhenghao, there would be a Li Zhenghao or a Wang Zhenghao; as long as he wanted, he could have a new proxy at any time.

Therefore, he had to deal with Qin Feng first.

He had utilized the family's network of connections to leverage several key nodes in Jinling.

Freezing Qin Feng's credit line, delaying the approval of his bidding qualifications, and coordinating with Vice President Zheng Guoqiang and President Li Mingde to create a three-way blockade.

Three moves, each locked tight. According to his experience over the past decade, it was enough to cause any person's cash flow to snap within seven days.

However, this Qin Feng seemed very wealthy, which, from another perspective, meant he had a very good head for business.

Chu Zhengyang's thumb rubbed along the inner wall of the ring, the pad of his finger feeling the warm, smooth texture of the imperial green jade.

He hadn't initially intervened in Prosperity for Qian Zhenghao's sake. What was Qian Zhenghao worth?

Just a bookkeeper managing money for him. Without Qian Zhenghao, there'd be a Li Zhenghao or a Wang Zhenghao.

Jinling was full of businessmen wanting to climb onto the Chu Family's coattails; he could support a new proxy at any time.

So the first step should be to eliminate Qin Feng.

He turned around, walked to the desk, and pulled out a chair to sit down.

His right hand rested on the tabletop, his index finger silently tapping the ebony surface three times.

But as it happened, a problem arose with the Shen Family.

When he sent people to Jinling to handle the follow-up layout for Qin Feng, he needed the Shen Family to cooperate and apply pressure from the shadows.

The Shen Family were the maintainers of Jinling's underground order; things in the gray areas could not bypass them.

Over the past five years, the Shen Family had more or less shown respect during the Chu Family's covert operations in Jinling.

But after he asked the Shen Family to deal with Qin Feng during the last auction, their attitude had changed.

The Shen Family sent back a message: The commercial dispute between the Chu Family and Qin Feng is not within the Shen Family's scope of business.

He didn't know if Qin Feng was too powerful or if he had given them more money; the Shen Family were also useless trash.

If it weren't for the fact that his own people appearing would be discovered by the family, would he even need these trash?

Chu Zhengyang's index finger stopped on the tabletop for two seconds, the tip pressing out a shallow white mark.

However, Qin Feng himself did seem to be quite capable.

Chu Zhengyang leaned back against the chair, his right thumb returning to the ring, turning it half a circle.

He had someone investigate Qin Feng's background.

In his twenties, from Jiangcheng, no prominent family background, and no traceable path of capital accumulation.

It was as if he had popped out of a crack in a rock, suddenly possessing his first pot of gold,

suddenly charging into Jinling, and suddenly swallowing all the core assets of the Qian Family.

There should be logic behind every 'suddenly,' but none could be found.

Chu Zhengyang didn't like things that couldn't be investigated.

Unable to be investigated meant the other party either hid deeply or had resources backing them that he couldn't reach.

Furthermore, there were many women around this man. Gu Qianqian, the CEO of Qinsheng Group, as well as Lin Yue and others from Jiangcheng.

Chu Zhengyang had people check the profiles of several core figures around Qin Feng; women accounted for a significant proportion.

Use women to threaten him?

Chu Zhengyang ran through this option in his mind and discarded it three seconds later.

Having many women around actually suggested that such tactics were ineffective against Qin Feng.

He wasn't the type who would be controlled because of a single woman, at least current intelligence didn't support that judgment.

Chu Zhengyang stood up and walked back to the window.

The night view of Jinling was still the same, with lights spread densely to the horizon.

Since he couldn't be destroyed, he would be recruited.

This line of thinking wasn't new. That was how Qian Zhenghao had been brought under his banner back then.

Take a medium-sized local businessman, give him a connection to the Chu Family, give him convenient access to the financial circle,

and give him an outlet for gray funds. Once he's fed enough sweetness, he naturally becomes a piece on his chessboard.

Qin Feng was much harder to deal with than Qian Zhenghao, but essentially, every businessman has a price.

Approach him formally using the Chu Family's name and offer a cooperation condition he can't refuse.

Whether it's an equity swap or industrial chain integration,

as long as Qin Feng nods and sits at the negotiating table, the initiative returns to his hands.

He pulled his phone from his pocket, unlocked it, and opened an encrypted folder.

A financial report popped up on the screen.

Qinsheng Group: the total amount of funds transferred to offshore accounts via BVI structures over the past three years.

4.7 billion.

Three years, 4.7 billion.

This money hadn't entered the Chu Family's public accounts; it had all fallen into the trust fund he personally established in the Cayman Islands.

Those old fogies of the Chu Family sat on mahogany chairs in the capital, thinking every penny of the family was accounted for,

thinking that he, Chu Zhengyang, was diligently expanding the family's territory.

What they didn't know was that starting five years ago, Chu Zhengyang had been using the Chu Family's shell to line his own pockets.

Prosperity was the best pipeline. That idiot Qian Zhenghao only knew how to collect kickbacks, completely disregarding the shareholders' lives.

Over a billion in cash flowed out of Prosperity's shell companies every year, passing through two transfers before landing in the Caymans.

Clean, safe, and traceless.

Now the pipeline was broken.

From the first day Qin Feng took over Qinsheng, Gu Qianqian had completely purged the finance department from top to bottom.

Those backdoors buried in the system and the tricks hidden in the report layers were all cleaned out.

Chu Zhengyang locked his phone screen and placed it on the coffee table.

1.2 billion.

This number was nothing to the Chu Family, but for Chu Zhengyang personally,

it represented the total collapse of the capital pipeline he had spent two years building.

That money was the chips he needed to complete his final layout.

Those few old things within the Chu Family—the three of them jointly held the core decision-making power of the Chu Family.

On the surface, they respectfully called him the 'Patriarch,' but behind his back, every investment exceeding five hundred million had to pass their approval.

Patriarch?

A Patriarch bound by three chains.

Chu Zhengyang needed money. Large amounts of money that weren't on the Chu Family's books.

Once he had accumulated enough chips, the equity, connections, and say held by those three old fogies,

could all be hollowed out overnight.

At that time, the Chu Family would truly belong to Chu Zhengyang alone.

Chu Zhengyang turned the ring again, his thumb stroking the surface of the imperial green jade.

Who exactly was standing behind Qin Feng?

Qin Feng's background was too clean.

But regardless of who was behind Qin Feng, this capital chain needed to be restored, even if it meant paying a small price.

He had managed this territory in Jinling for five years. Qian Zhenghao had fallen,

and he could indeed change cities, find someone else, and start over.

The problem was time.

Those three old fogies had been active in the capital recently; his second uncle, Chu Weigang, had led an internal audit last month.

Although they hadn't found the Cayman accounts yet, their direction was getting closer and closer.

The window of opportunity left for him was six months at most.

Within six months, he had to find a new capital pipeline, or...

Directly cooperate with Qin Feng?

A man like him probably wouldn't deign to be managed by others.