There's a Lot of Potential Here!

Bai Yang looked at him and said, "What I mean is, I want to buy your factory. Are you selling?"

"Not... selling..."

Xiong Da shook his head and then nodded, dragging the two words out like he was singing opera.

"..."

Speechless. Are you crazy? Nodding and shaking your head at the same time—what does that mean?

"Are you selling or not?"

Xiong Da stared at Bai Yang with immense inner conflict and said, "Honestly, we're in urgent need of a large sum of money right now. If we could sell the factory, we would. But all of us have been working with machinery for years. If we sell you the factory, what are we supposed to do?"

"Hey, I wouldn't let you leave even if you wanted to."

Bai Yang grinned, looking extremely pleased.

Truth be told, he didn't really care about the factory itself. What he cared about were the people. After all, he had no idea how to use that equipment. Buying it would be useless, and it wouldn't even look good just sitting around.

What came next was simple. They cut the meal short and got down to business.

Although Bai Yang didn't understand procedures like factory transfers, someone else did. He found a law firm and an accounting appraisal firm online, and after a flurry of activity, everything was handled. All he had to do was sign and pay at the end...

A few hours later, that so-called Giant Bear Metal Processing Plant belonged to the Bai family!

Worth mentioning, the original factory's dozens of workers—big, burly guys who clearly didn't look like upstanding citizens—now belonged to Bai Yang too. Ruthlessly, he had each of them sign a twenty-year labor contract, with a lawyer present the whole time. The penalty for breach was so high it would make anyone want to jump off a building. From then on, those guys were sold to him for the rest of their lives.

At first, the workers refused. But faced with Bai Yang's offer of double the market wage for similar jobs, plus full social insurance and housing fund, a minimum year-end bonus of one hundred thousand per person, and a clause that wages would increase with market rates for similar positions, they all sold themselves without hesitation...

Bai Yang couldn't help but sigh at this. Money really was a wonderful thing. Anything that could be solved with money wasn't a problem at all!

Even though watching his account shrink by nearly fifty million stung—money spent way too fast...

"It's fine, it's fine. My money's basically the same as if it blew in with the wind. I make tens of millions in a minute—no big deal!"

He could only comfort himself like that.

But the ones even more conflicted than him were Xiong Da and the others. Logically, they should have been thrilled to receive nearly fifty million in a lump sum from Bai Yang. Yet every single one of them wore a constipated, conflicted expression.

"What's up with you guys?"

Bai Yang asked curiously.

"Boss, we're sticking with you from now on. To be honest, this money is going straight to someone else."

Xiong Da, built like a bear, said with a mournful face.

"I don't quite get it. Can you explain?"

Bai Yang shook his head.

The big guys exchanged awkward, helpless glances. Finally, Xiong Da spoke up: "Boss, here's the thing. That day after we delivered the goods and you paid us the balance, we got happy and went drinking. On the way back, we ran into a bunch of brain-dead second generation heirs street racing. Since we'd been drinking, we cursed them out. They heard us, and then a fight broke out..."

"And then?"

Bai Yang's mouth twitched, but he was dying of curiosity.

"Then we beat the crap out of those hollowed-out second gens. Most of them ended up in the hospital. Worst part was, the brothers got pissed and smashed over a dozen sports cars..."

"And then?"

Bai Yang swallowed hard, his eyelids twitching now...!

"Then medical fees, emotional damages, settlement costs, car compensation—all together it added up to over eighty million. We had no choice but to pay, or those second gens would have thrown us all in jail. We'd probably never see sunlight again for the rest of our lives."

Xiong Da said, extremely embarrassed.

"And then?"

As he asked, Bai Yang thought to himself, serves you right. Why pick a fight with a bunch of second gens who have nothing better to do than chase thrills? You were practically asking for it.

"And then the money from selling the factory, plus what we made from our last deal with you, all went to them. After scraping together everything we had, we're still short over twenty million. So, uh, boss, could you lend us some? No, I mean, advance us our wages for the next ten years..."

"..."

It took Bai Yang a while to piece it together. So that's why they'd invited him out. They were probably at their wit's end, figured he was easy to talk to, and wanted to rope him into another deal to raise the money...

Just as Bai Yang was considering whether to find a way to screw over these troublemakers, his phone rang. He pulled it out and saw it was Song Yidao, who had called and texted him countless times.

"What's up, Young Master Song?"

"Bai Yang? Damn it, you finally picked up..."

"Get to the point, or I'm hanging up. I make tens of millions a minute—can you afford to waste my time?"

The other guy nearly choked.

"...Ahem, well, a few days ago I ran into a bunch of brain-dead idiots. We were racing fair and square, and they started cursing at us. That's unacceptable. So me and my buddies went three hundred rounds with them, and ended up in the hosp—uh, that's not the point. The point is, my brand-new car I spent over fifteen million on got smashed. Sending it back to the foreign factory for repairs will take half a month. So I was thinking, could I borrow your Bugatti for a few days?"

"..."

Bai Yang shot a very strange look at Xiong Da and the others. No way this was a coincidence, right? It couldn't be...

Of course it could. It was obvious!

If guys at Song Yidao's level got beaten up, no wonder those bastards had to pay so much and didn't dare run. Could they even escape?

Not getting thrown straight into jail and violated was already Xiong Da and his crew burning incense to the heavens!

His eyes darting, Bai Yang felt like he might actually have something going here!

Avoiding Xiong Da and the others, he slipped into a corner. Across from him, Song Yidao was still going "Hello? Hello?" as if the line had dropped. Bai Yang lowered his voice and said:

"Master Song, want to do a deal?"

"You trying to swindle me again?"

The other party was immediately on guard.

"Cough... Don't put it so harshly. 'Swindle'—what an ugly word. It's a good thing... You really want that kind of liquor, don't you? Heh heh, I've still got one jar..."

With just that one sentence, the other party perked up like he'd been injected with stimulants, firing off questions: "Bai Yang—no, Brother Bai, Grandpa Bai—where are you right now? I'll crawl over if I have to. You have to save that liquor for me. Money's no object! You don't understand—I only stole a tiny sip of that liquor my grandpa bought from you. I almost got beaten to death for it, but holy crap, I felt like I was flying. It's a hundred times better than Tiger Penis Wine. After a whole night, not only was I not sore or tired, I was completely refreshed..."

So every damn good thing in your world is just an aphrodisiac, huh? Bai Yang was utterly speechless...

Then Bai Yang and Song Yidao huddled together for a whispered discussion. The gist was that Bai Yang used the liquor trade as leverage, demanding that Song Yidao and his crew not retaliate against Xiong Da and the others afterward—they were now Lao Tzu's people!

Originally, Song Yidao and his group had planned to get proper compensation and then still teach those muscle-bound, brainless idiots a lesson. But that liquor was only available from Bai Yang, and if they didn't agree, he wouldn't sell. They had no choice but to abandon their original plan.

One jar of Hundred Fruit Brew was still sold at one million per hundred milliliters. Bai Yang absolutely refused to lower the price. Song Yidao couldn't foot the bill alone, so he had to rope in his buddies to buy a jar together. Nearly half the funds came from the money Xiong Da and his crew hadn't even had time to warm in their pockets—the cash from selling the factory...

So that's how it went. In short, the tens of millions Bai Yang had just spent were back in his hands, and on top of that, they'd doubled, sending his bank balance soaring! Not only that, but he'd also acquired a metal processing factory, plus a bunch of workers who now owed him nearly ten years of back wages...

And all he'd given up was one jar of fruit liquor brought over from 'over there'...

He was almost losing his mind from joy!

In the end, Song Yidao never managed to borrow a car from Bai Yang. Xiong Da and his crew not only failed to land an order but ended up digging their own grave...

After spending most of the day wrapping everything up, Bai Yang rushed over to the metal processing factory and gathered the workers.

Then his style as a ruthless boss was on full display. Waving his fists, he bellowed:

"Where is everybody? Where'd you all run off to? Get your asses in formation, and make it snappy! You're workers who owe me ten years of wages—don't even think about slacking off on me!"

Xiong Da and his crew had no idea about the shady dealings behind Bai Yang, the black-hearted boss, scheming to get his money back. Even if they did, they could only be grateful—otherwise, who knows how badly they'd have been screwed over later.

So much for drinking causing trouble...

The workers assembled. Xiong Da took the lead and asked, "Boss, what's next?"

"What's next? Heh heh, I just landed a prop order for an epic movie. Everything has to be real. They're investing hundreds of billions of USD. Move it! I'm transferring fifty million to you. Use it all to buy Titanium Alloy material. Forge Armor Warblades using the same molds as last time, plus two new items: two-meter Titanium Alloy longswords and Triangular Arrowheads. Turn all fifty million worth of Titanium Alloy into these things! Want to watch an epic blockbuster? Then get moving!"

Bai Yang pushed his bullshitting skills to the max. I'll say whatever I want. Whether you believe it or not, that's your problem...

"Uh... Fine, you're the boss."

Xiong Da was completely dumbfounded.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Bai Yang asked as Xiong Da turned to leave.

"To get the Titanium Alloy material, boss."

"Not done yet. While we're waiting for the materials, have the brothers clean out the warehouse. Here's the list. Buy all this stuff and bring it back. Remember, contact the manufacturers directly. Nothing on any of these items should have any pictures, text, or logos..."

Xiong Da took the so-called list from Bai Yang's hand, looking more and more bewildered as he read.

Salt, lighters, Yunnan Baiyao, pots, pans, bowls, and chopsticks...

Boss, are you planning to open a supermarket?

"Xiong Da, tell me honestly—do you guys have a way to get that kind of stuff?"

Bai Yang leaned in mysteriously and whispered...