This Foundation—We Can Run One Too!

"How could this have happened? Who can tell me what the hell is going on?"

Tang Qian stood with both hands braced against the table, his expression grim and his voice somewhat cold.

Inside the room,

everyone else kept silent. The Penglai Merchant Association's managers, in particular, trembled in fear, not daring to raise their heads.

Ever since their son-in-law had married into the family and taken charge of the Penglai Merchant Association's affairs,

he had always appeared calm and unruffled.

Yet when he acted, he was swift and ruthless. He had snatched several juicy cuts of meat right from the Langya Merchant Association's mouth in succession, filling the entire Penglai Merchant Association with confidence and earning their deep respect.

They had never seen him like this before!

Tang Qian was not incapable of accepting failure.

Besides, this could not really be considered a failure.

The Qingyun Archipelago business accounted for only a small portion of the Penglai Merchant Association's operations, no more than a tiny corner of the overall market.

In business, there were profits and losses. That was perfectly normal.

Short-term performance proved nothing.

For forces on the level of the Four Great Merchant Associations, long-term gains were what truly mattered.

But what he could not endure was suffering setback after setback at Wang Mu's hands!

He had been suppressed twice in a row by that useless spoiled second-generation heir.

The damage might not have been great.

But the humiliation was overwhelming!

Most importantly, his judgment had been wrong.

The first time,

Wang Mu held the Ascension Convention, and Tang Qian had scoffed at it. In the end, the Langya Merchant Association had swept away all the business on Heavenly Severing Island, leaving scarcely even a hair behind.

This time,

Wang Mu established the Charity Foundation, and Tang Qian had still scoffed at it, believing it was another wasteful act of that playboy throwing money around.

In the end, the Langya Merchant Association devoured the business across the entire Qingyun Archipelago, not even leaving the other merchant associations a sip of soup.

What was that equivalent to?

It was equivalent to Wang Mu slapping Tang Qian across the face twice—smack, smack!

And with just the right amount of force: enough to leave him dazed, not enough to damage his brain.

Tang Qian had never regarded Wang Mu as an opponent.

He felt Wang Mu was unworthy.

Yet in his revenge plan, Wang Mu was an unavoidable link in the chain.

After all, the Northern Darkness Saintly Master had gone to the Southern Region and slain his mother precisely to lift Wang Mu's curse.

Countless times, he had roared and howled within his heart, imagining the day the Wang Family fell from the clouds. He would step on Wang Mu's face and say, "Without the Wang Family, you are nothing!"

Just imagining that scene made Tang Qian tremble uncontrollably.

But now, Wang Mu had slapped him in the face—twice, no less.

How absurd was that?

"Young Master Tang, please calm down!"

The person in charge sent by the Si Hai Merchant Association was called Gou Ansheng. He carried himself with refined elegance, like a scholar.

But everyone in their circle knew

that this man was famously sinister. Once, in order to seize the mineral veins of a small country, he had driven that nation's ore prices sky-high.

Afterward, more than ninety percent of that small country's people went into the ore business, and no one was willing to farm anymore.

They could only buy food from outside.

Then he used the Si Hai Merchant Association's resources to cut off every single route through which that small country could purchase grain.

He forced everyone in that country to the point where they could not afford food. In the end, he acquired the entire mineral vein for an exceedingly cheap price.

He had done many similar things.

He was one of the Si Hai Merchant Association's five chief supervisors, with a status equivalent to the Langya Merchant Association's Ten Chief Managers.

"In my opinion, this is not a bad thing at all!" Gou Ansheng said with a faint smile.

"Oh?" Tang Qian looked at him. "Supervisor Gou, why do you say that?"

"Although the Wang Family's Young Master may have stumbled upon this by accident, he has provided us with an idea!"

"He can establish a Charity Foundation, and so can we!"

"I carefully analyzed the course of this matter. The reason the Langya Merchant Association's foundation has drawn so many people like moths to a flame is nothing more than one thing!"

Tang Qian narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Gou Ansheng said confidently, "The Merit List!"

"They successfully made use of humanity's competitive nature, causing those people to spend fortunes without hesitation just to chase after the empty fame on the Merit List!"

"Of course, there is a reason that empty fame on the list has value! The first reason is that the top three on the Merit List are said to receive their awards personally from the Langya Merchant Association's Guild Master!"

"To the world, that is an honor without equal!"

"We can copy that completely! Although the Langya Guild Master has more than one identity—she is also Prince of Wei's consort and the Northern Darkness Saintly Master's mother-in-law... if the guild masters of our Three Great Merchant Associations all appear together, the effect may not be any worse than hers!"

"As for the second point, that is simple too! Changlan Island suffered a disaster, and the Langya Foundation sent people there for relief, making those who were rescued deeply grateful and greatly improving the foundation's reputation..."

"We can do the same! We can even make it far more grand and make sure everyone knows about it!"

Gou Ansheng was extremely confident. With the Three Great Merchant Associations' towering financial resources, this was no problem whatsoever.

The Cloud Palace Merchant Association's representative was a woman who rarely smiled. Hearing Gou Ansheng's words, she frowned. "Then would we not become just like the Wang Family's Young Master, throwing money around? What if something unexpected happens later and we fail to earn the money back? That would be a serious accident!"

No one could be sure whether something like the Qingyun Archipelago incident would happen a second time.

What if it had only been a coincidence?

What if the people in their chosen target region simply refused to be moved, or lacked any conscience?

Those were all very possible.

Although they were high-level executives of major merchant associations, holding high positions and possessing authority, they had to be cautious upon cautious when it came to such major matters.

After all, they were not like Wang Mu, the Young Master of the Langya Merchant Association, doted upon by his elders. No matter what he did, even if he made a complete mess of it, no one would blame him.

If they failed, people would die.

"An excellent question!"

The corners of Gou Ansheng's mouth rose slightly. "This is precisely the key point I was about to explain, and the part that makes us entirely different from the Langya Merchant Association's foundation!"

Tang Qian raised his brows slightly. "Donations!"

Gou Ansheng's gaze shifted, and he seemed somewhat surprised. "Young Master Tang, you guessed it?"

Tang Qian smiled. "Langya chose to convert one percent of its profits into charity funds! Not only does that make them seem stingy, it also makes it inconvenient for those competitive people to charge up the Merit List! That is also where the Wang Family Young Master's vision is too narrow..."

Gou Ansheng's smile gradually broadened. "The Wang Family Young Master has grown used to being high and mighty, accustomed to looking down on others! He always thinks that if he casually picks a little something off himself, others should be grateful beyond measure! If others want to do a good deed, they first have to spend money buying something. Little does he know that in business, the greatest taboo is making people feel that you are stingy..."

"We will eliminate that process entirely and let everyone donate directly. However much they donate, that much goes into the foundation!"

"Compared with Langya, where buying a hundred Spirit Stones' worth of goods earns only a little merit... I am sure everyone knows which they would choose!"

Upon hearing this,

smiles appeared on Tang Qian's face and the Cloud Palace Merchant Association representative's face alike.

It was as though they could already see countless people lining up to hand them money.

As for the money everyone donated,

where exactly it went—

if you did not say it and I did not say it, who would know?

At worst, when something happened, they could send a few teams out to put on a show. Who would know how much money had truly been spent?