282: Chapter 282 Enemy Situation Discovered

At the exit of the Jiangcheng High-Speed Railway Station, the midday sun was blinding.

Chen Fan carried a black canvas travel bag and held Su Wanqing's hand as they walked into the bustling crowd.

Both were dressed simply, without any attendants or bodyguards.

After the Earth Federation was fully on the right track, Chen Fan handed over all complex government affairs and the interstellar fleet construction plans to his eldest son, Chen Muyang, and completely retired behind the scenes.

When Su Wanqing gave birth to triplets back then, she developed a deficiency in vital energy and blood that neither cutting-edge interstellar medical technology nor modern Western medicine could cure.

Hidden in the old streets of Jiangcheng was a century-old traditional Chinese medicine clinic named Yunhetang.

The clinic treasured many lost ancient prescriptions for strengthening the body and nourishing vital energy, specializing in such intractable diseases.

Chen Fan had traveled specifically to bring his wife to Jiangcheng to seek medicine.

The two walked to the roadside and got into a taxi.

Outside the car window, the prosperous high-rise buildings of Jiangcheng rapidly receded.

"The third child went off to tinker with ion thrusters, are you really not going to do anything about it?" Su Wanqing asked from the back seat.

"Let him mess around. He'll know the pain once he hits a wall," Chen Fan replied.

The taxi drove into the old city district of Jiangcheng.

The road narrowed.

The car stopped at the entrance of a street paved with bluestone slabs.

Chen Fan scanned the code to pay the fare.

The two got out and walked.

On both sides of the old street were buildings in the Ming and Qing style with gray bricks and dark tiles.

The air was filled with the faint scent of traditional Chinese herbs.

Walking to the end of the bluestone road, the gates of Yunhetang were tightly shut.

The century-old black-lacquered plaque with gold lettering had fallen onto the bluestone steps.

The wood was broken, split into two pieces, with the splintered edges gleaming white.

Five burly men in black suits blocked the vermilion main gate.

One of them was holding a brush, sticking a white seal with the words "Yuanfeng Capital" onto the doorpost.

The leader had a crew cut, a thick neck, a fleshy face, and was chewing gum.

The old proprietor of Yunhetang had gray hair and was wearing a faded gray cloth gown.

He gripped the door frame tightly with both hands, his eyes rimmed with red.

Two suit-clad men stepped forward, placed their hands on the old proprietor's thin chest, and shoved him outward with force.

The old proprietor lost his footing and fell onto the stone steps.

His back hit the broken plaque, and he let out a muffled groan.

"Old thing, don't refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit." The man with the crew cut spat out his gum and waved a stack of printed documents in his hand.

His voice was extremely loud, drowning out the surrounding murmurs, "Yuanfeng Capital is taking over Yunhetang completely.

The liquidation list is here.

It's written in black and white and stamped with the official seal!

You have to move today, whether you want to or not!"

Surrounding merchants and passing neighbors formed a semicircle.

They talked in low voices.

"Yuanfeng Capital is a man-eating tiger; just last month they forced Boss Liu from the east side to his death."

"Yunhetang has been providing medicine to save people for over a hundred years; how did they provoke this gang of living Yamas?"

The neighbors recognized the background of Yuanfeng Capital and shrank back.

Seeing the vicious stance of the men in black suits, no one dared to step forward to intervene.

The man with the crew cut flicked the liquidation list in his hand, causing the paper to rustle.

"The three major core medicinal herb suppliers announced a cutoff three days ago.

The wild ginseng from Changbai Mountain and the top-grade astragalus from Longxi are all choked off.

You can't deliver the scheduled herbs and are facing a 60 million penalty claim.

Your capital chain is completely broken.

Yuanfeng Capital is taking over the shop and land to offset the debt according to the bet-on agreement.

It's reasonable, rational, and legal.

Even the Heavenly King himself couldn't save you now!"

Chen Fan let go of Su Wanqing's hand.

He stepped forward twice, blocking the way in front of the old proprietor.

He bent down, reached out, grasped the old proprietor's arm, and pulled him up from the ground.

The old proprietor gasped for air, clutching Chen Fan's sleeve with both hands.

"Young man, leave quickly, they don't hold back when they hit people."

The old proprietor wiped away his tears and accused, "They set a trap!

The Changbai Mountain supplier has cooperated with us for forty years and has never defaulted.

They all turned against us on the same day yesterday.

These people even calculated the exact amount of the penalty, pinning it on the fatal point of 60 million.

In three days, they emptied the shop's working capital!

The century-old foundation of Yunhetang, the land deed left by our ancestors, cannot be given away!"

Chen Fan turned his head.

His gaze fell on the liquidation list in the man's hand.

At the top of the page were several transaction timestamps.

The writing was clear.

Chen Fan's eyes quickly scanned the data.

On the 12th, they dumped peripheral stocks to crash the market; on the 13th, they cut off the core industrial supply chain; on the 14th, they used huge bridge loans to force the signing of a trap-laden bet-on agreement.

The short-selling nodes were perfectly timed, without any wasted movements.

Chen Fan was extremely familiar with this series of short-selling tactics, which involved hitting the right nodes to cut off cash flow and using bridge loans to complete a hostile takeover.

Ten years ago, utilizing the information asymmetry provided by the system, he had used these tactics on Wall Street to bring down over a dozen listed financial conglomerates.

This had once been the prototype of the core tactics used by Huihuang Group to sweep through the business world in its early days.

The operational trajectory of the liquidation list before him was a complete copy of his old tactics.

They had learned the form, but the execution was crude.

Seeing Chen Fan stand out to interfere, the man with the crew cut raised his right hand and pointed his thick index finger at the tip of Chen Fan's nose.

"Where did this poor brat come from? Tired of living and meddling in other people's business? Get lost immediately!"

The man with the crew cut stepped forward.

He reached out to push Chen Fan's shoulder.

His movements were barbaric.

Chen Fan did not move his feet.

He turned half a body length to the side, dodging the shove.

Chen Fan raised his right hand, his five fingers locking onto the man's extended wrist with the precision of iron pliers.

He tightened his fingers and exerted force downward, twisting it against the joint.

A crisp sound of a joint dislocating rang out.

The man with the crew cut screamed.

His knees lost support, and he smashed heavily onto the bluestone slabs.

He was sweating profusely from the pain, his features distorted and twisted.

The surrounding neighbors watching the commotion retreated in fear, leaving a large open area.

Chen Fan let go.

The man with the crew cut clutched his deformed wrist and rolled on the ground, wailing in pain.

The remaining four men in black suits looked at each other, stunned by Chen Fan's ruthlessness for a moment, and dared not step forward.

Chen Fan took out a red classified mobile phone and dialed Chen Haoyu's number.

"Investigate the background of Yuanfeng Capital in Jiangcheng," Chen Fan said in a steady tone, "I want results in three minutes."

Hanging up the phone, Chen Fan stood on the steps waiting.

Su Wanqing walked up and took out a handkerchief to hand to the old proprietor to wipe his sweat.

Two minutes later, the phone vibrated.

Chen Haoyu called.

"It's been investigated," Chen Haoyu reported the data, "Yuanfeng Capital is a shell company registered less than half a year ago.

They used 80 million in bridge funds of unknown origin to complete this acquisition of Yunhetang.

The fund path went through multi-layer encryption via offshore accounts, ultimately leading to a local underground bank in Jiangcheng."

"Cut off all circulation channels for these funds," Chen Fan ordered, "Seal the head office accounts of Yuanfeng Capital as well.

Freeze all assets under the name of the legal representative."

"Understood," Chen Haoyu replied.

Deep in the Northwest base, Chen Haoyu sat in front of the main console, his hands typing on the keyboard.

He directly connected to the Earth Federation's highest financial terminal, bypassing all conventional approval processes, and wrote the blocking order into the underlying data.

Yuanfeng Capital's capital chain was completely erased at the physical level.

The call ended.

Chen Fan put his phone back into his pocket.

The old street returned to silence, save for the moans of the man with the crew cut.

Ten seconds later, the mobile phone in the man's pocket vibrated rapidly.

He took out the phone with his uninjured left hand and pressed the answer button.

Hysterical shouting from the financial director came through the phone's receiver.

The head office accounts had been completely sealed by the highest federal financial department.

The 80 million in funds on the books had been wiped to zero in a single second.

The company's bankruptcy liquidation procedure had automatically started.

All relevant personnel had been detained by the Jiangcheng police.

The man's phone dropped onto the stone slabs, the screen glass shattering.

He looked up at Chen Fan, his eyes filled with panic.

"Who... who exactly are you?" The man's voice trembled.

One phone call to instantly kill a capital company—even the richest man in Jiangcheng couldn't do that.

"Who taught you to use this set of short-selling tactics?" Chen Fan asked, his tone devoid of emotion.

"It's Lu Feng! The boss behind the scenes is called Lu Feng!" The man spoke extremely fast, afraid of getting hit again if he spoke too slowly, "He was the one who ordered the series of acquisition plans.

He was also the one who found the bridge funds!

We are just taking money to do the job!"

Seeing their leader crippled and the company completely sealed, the remaining four men in black suits turned and squeezed through the crowd, fleeing in panic.

The man with the crew cut struggled to get up, clutching his broken wrist, and stumbled out of the old street.

Chen Fan did not pursue them.

He turned and helped the old proprietor sit on a mahogany chair inside the clinic.

"Arrange for the Pangu System medical team to come and take over the critically ill patients at Yunhetang," Chen Fan dialed again to instruct Chen Haoyu, "Find out the background of the Changbai Mountain suppliers.

Tell them that if they do not immediately resume supply to Yunhetang, all interstellar pharmaceutical companies and Earth industries under Huihuang Group will permanently blacklist them."

The order was issued.

The Changbai Mountain suppliers would never dare to defy the will of the Earth Federation's highest authority.

Putting away his phone, Chen Fan looked at the broken plaque on the ground outside the door.

He had never heard the name Lu Feng.

But the fact that the other party could learn his early killer tactics and mobilize secret bridge funds meant this was definitely no ordinary businessman.

Chen Fan walked back to Su Wanqing's side.

"Getting the medicine will be delayed for a few days.

I'll have someone get a new plaque," Chen Fan said.

"I'm not in a rush," Su Wanqing shook her head, understanding that her husband had a new target.

Chen Fan looked at the street, which was covered in seals.

"Someone is using my old knife to kill people, messing up the medicinal herb market in Jiangcheng.

I'm going to meet this Lu Feng.

Let's see who is teaching him the rules behind the scenes."