232: Chapter 232 The Hunter's Reunion

The Huihuang Group headquarters building, like a sharp sword piercing the clouds, overlooked the entire Imperial Capital.

A low-profile motorcade of black bulletproof Hongqi cars, ignoring the morning rush hour traffic, moved unimpeded through the dedicated lane, finally coming to a steady stop at the exclusive elevator entrance on the first floor of the skyscraper.

The car door opened, and Chen Fan stepped out.

He was still wearing the same pair of faded jeans and a grey hoodie, looking completely out of place among the group's elites in their suits and ties, hurrying about.

However, the moment he appeared, the air in the entire lobby seemed to be sucked out.

All the employees who were on calls, giving reports, or rushing around suddenly froze in unison.

Countless gazes converged on him, filled with awe, curiosity, and a trace of imperceptible panic.

The creator of Huihuang Group, the "Grand Overlord" who had long since retreated behind the scenes and existed only in legends, had returned.

Chen Fan ignored everyone and walked straight toward the highest-clearance elevator that had never been opened to outsiders.

Chen Haoyu followed closely behind and pressed the button for the top floor for him.

The elevator doors slowly closed, cutting off all the noise from the outside world.

"Ding—"

The top floor had been reached.

The moment the elevator doors opened, an intensely oppressive atmosphere of tension rushed toward them.

The wide corridor was empty; only the thick soundproof carpet swallowed every footstep.

The doors to the conference room at the end were tightly shut, but the light and shadows flickering through the gap, along with the faintly audible heavy breathing, signaled that a storm was brewing inside.

Chen Fan didn't have Chen Haoyu announce him; he raised his hand and pushed open the heavy solid wood doors himself.

Inside the massive circular conference room, the curtains were drawn tight.

On the central holographic projection screen, the K-line charts of three stocks were pinned to their limit-down prices in a desperate state.

The green color was so piercing it made one's heart race with unease.

Chen Muyang stood before the screen, his posture straight, but his clenched fists and the bulging veins on the back of his hands betrayed the turmoil in his heart.

Over a dozen of the group's top-tier traders and strategic analysts sat on either side, each with their head down, staring intently at the terminals in front of them, not daring to make a sound.

Chen Fan's intrusion caused everyone's movements to freeze once again.

"Dad."

Chen Muyang turned around, his voice slightly hoarse.

Chen Fan didn't say a word. He glanced at the hundreds of billions in market value that had evaporated on the screen, then at the solemn-faced executives filling the room.

He didn't walk toward the main seat belonging to the chairman; instead, he casually pulled up a chair from the side and sat down behind Chen Muyang.

He pointed at the complex capital path on the screen, nested through hundreds of offshore accounts.

"Tell me, how do you plan to respond?" Chen Fan's tone was calm, like a teacher testing a student.

Chen Muyang took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

"The opponent's capital is exceptionally massive, and their trading techniques are extremely seasoned. I judge that they want to trigger a stampede of selling by retail investors through creating panic."

"I've prepared 300 billion in reserve funds. I can enter the market to support the stocks at any time and pull the prices back up."

This was the most conventional and direct way to respond.

Using absolute capital advantage to crush the opponent.

Chen Fan, however, shook his head.

"If you try to support the market now, you'll be playing right into their hands."

"Their true goal isn't to make this little bit of money from you in the secondary market." Chen Fan's finger slid across the holographic screen, finally pointing at the logos of three companies: "Tongren Pharmaceuticals, Ruifeng Textiles, and Huajian Heavy Industries. These three are century-old enterprises with high-quality assets and extremely low debt ratios."

"What they want is their lives."

Chen Fan exposed the hidden truth in a single sentence.

"They use public opinion to talk down the real economy and massive amounts of capital to smash the stock prices, creating panic. Once the stock prices of these three companies remain low for a long time, their bank credit will have problems, and their financing channels will be cut off. At that time, to survive, they will be forced to pledge their assets at low prices or even sell their core factories, equipment, and patents."

"This is what the opponent really wants. To use the knife of finance to carve the flesh of the real economy."

A dead silence fell over the conference room.

Everyone broke into a cold sweat at Chen Fan's words.

They had only seen the rise and fall of stock prices, while Chen Fan had already seen the blood-red maw of capital behind it.

Chen Muyang's face turned pale, followed by an uncontrollable surge of rage.

"Bang!"

He slammed his fist hard onto the solid mahogany conference table.

"Those bastards! They're trying to destroy the foundation of the domestic manufacturing industry! Behind these three companies are the families of hundreds of thousands of workers!"

"Calm down." Chen Fan's voice wasn't loud, but it instantly silenced the furious Chen Muyang.

"Anger doesn't solve problems. Although their methods are ruthless, there is a fatal flaw."

Chen Fan stood up and walked to the screen.

"Their capital chain is too long, and all operations are completed online, with no physical assets to support them. To put it bluntly, they are playing with a castle in the sky."

"In that case..." A cold arc curved at the corner of Chen Fan's mouth. "We'll just pull the floor out from under their building."

He turned to Chen Muyang and issued instructions.

"Notify the Legal Department to immediately cut off all external financing channels for these three companies. At the same time, have the PR Department release word in the name of Huihuang Group."

"Say that Huihuang Group is optimistic about the future of the domestic real economy and is preparing to acquire these three companies in their entirety."

The conference room door was pushed open gently at that moment.

Su Wanqing walked in, carrying an exquisite food container.

She seemed not to notice the tense atmosphere in the room as she walked straight to Chen Fan and Chen Muyang.

"No matter how busy you are, you still have to eat. I made some lotus seed soup to cool your tempers."

She opened the thermal container and ladled out two bowls of steaming soup, handing one to each of the father and son.

Chen Fan and Chen Muyang, the two men engaged in a hundred-billion-level capital showdown, instantly retracted all their killing intent in front of their wife and mother, obediently taking the soup bowls.

Just as Chen Muyang was about to order the counterattack according to his father's instructions...

Chen Haoyu's encrypted tablet suddenly emitted a sharp, urgent alarm.

He quickly walked to Chen Fan's side, his expression solemn to the extreme.

"Boss, less than five minutes after the news was released, the opponent... instead of backing off..."

Chen Haoyu handed the tablet to Chen Fan, and the data on the screen was shocking.

"They added another ten billion in leverage and are smashing the market like crazy."

"And... your private encrypted email received a message."

Chen Fan took the tablet.

The email had no body, only a subject line.

Twilight of the Old Gods.

Chen Haoyu looked at Chen Fan and spoke with difficulty.

"Boss, has the opponent... gone mad?"