Chapter 19

Ao Qingyuan did not know whether Wenren Yan's words or his smile struck deeper. Suddenly, he felt the air was a little thin, the sunlight a little scorching, and his head a little dizzy.

And you said I was good with sweet talk. You're the one who sweet-talks people for free.

Ao Qingyuan grumbled silently, but the curve of his lips kept rising.

The two of them were lovey-dovey out at sea for the entire day, only strolling back ashore near evening. They had just confessed their feelings to each other, and this should have been their sweetest, most passionate time. However, their upcoming schedules did not allow them to spend every day clinging to each other and dating. Ao Qingyuan had to film the national treasure variety show he had signed up for earlier. Wenren Yan had even more complicated matters to handle.

At the beginning of July, the collapse of the domestic stock market spread to Hong Kong stocks. The Hang Seng Index plummeted. Correspondingly, all investment targets related to China—including the exchange rate of the RMB, commodity trading, and Chinese concept stocks—fell across the board. Many people worried that this would trigger an economic crisis in China. Everyone in every industry felt threatened. Market sentiment had practically collapsed across the board.

Under these circumstances, just as Wenren Jing had said, the state stepped forward without hesitation. Together with various regulatory departments, it summoned twenty-five financial securities firms influential in the domestic stock market and required them to contribute 15% of their net assets as of the end of June to prop up the market. At the same time, major firms were ordered not to reduce their proprietary holdings, while major shareholders of listed securities firms were required to repurchase their own companies' shares. The suspension of IPOs was also announced immediately.

Zhao Zhao, who had already infiltrated the enemy camp, sent back news at once. Because of these policies, the capital firms that had previously caused trouble for Wenren Yan suffered devastating losses. Not only were all the concept stocks they had invested in trapped, but they also had to dig into their nest eggs to help the state stabilize the market. Naturally, those capital players complained endlessly. According to Zhao Zhao's observations, they were also constantly making moves in secret. Using their special status as those "ordered to support the market," they obtained first-hand insider information at once, then immediately colluded with outside capital to manipulate stocks, hoping to make up for their losses in the market.

Zhao Zhao took the opportunity to steal all the evidence of those people working from within and without to profit from a national crisis. Wenren Jing personally handed it over to the relevant authorities.

Half a month later, all the capital players who had profited from the national crisis were thrown into prison. Once Zhao Zhao had wrapped things up, he brushed off his sleeves and returned to Yan Feng Capital to resume his role as investment department manager and head of security. Only then did those capital players who had not yet figured it out finally understand where they had lost. But they never imagined Wenren Yan's schemes ran so deep. They had guarded against him day and night, laying an inescapable net to monitor him completely the moment he returned to the country, yet they still fell into Wenren Yan's trap in the end.

What they had not expected even more was that Wenren Yan could be so ruthless. If he did not strike, he did not strike at all—but once he did, he went straight for the vital point, cutting off the source and leaving them no way out.

"Mercy toward the enemy is cruelty toward yourself." On Zhao Zhao's first day back at Yan Feng Capital, Wenren Yan gathered the entire company to hold a celebration banquet for him. During the banquet, Wenren Yan also fired several employees. After going through this storm, everyone knew perfectly well why those employees had been dismissed. No one objected. Even the dismissed employees left immediately without a word.

They were even grateful that Wenren Yan had, after all, considered the fact that they had worked together and once started a business together, and had not gone all the way.

After the celebration banquet ended, Steven planned to drive his boss home personally. Wenren Yan, slightly drunk, refused.

"Then should I call a driver for you?"

"No need. Someone's coming to pick me up." Wenren Yan, pleasantly tipsy, showed off with a smug look. Steven and Zhao Zhao exchanged glances, then followed Wenren Yan curiously all the way to the company's underground parking garage. There, they saw a black minivan parked quietly nearby. When it saw Wenren Yan, the minivan's door opened, and Ao Qingyuan stepped out and came forward to support Wenren Yan. "Are you drunk?"

"How could I be?" Wenren Yan lifted a brow. "How could I let myself get drunk when I was going to see you? I only had a little."

Ao Qingyuan shook his head. Looking at the dumbfounded Steven and Zhao Zhao, he smiled faintly. "Hello. I'm A-Yan's boyfriend, Ao Qingyuan."

The new novel, Rebirth: Accepting My Fate, has begun—

Everyone knew that Gu Chen was a lackey who craved vanity and profit, loved fawning over others, and clung to powerful people everywhere. For the slightest benefit, he was willing to come when summoned and leave when dismissed, without a shred of integrity. He was the complete opposite of his younger brother, Gu Xiu.

Gu Chen could not understand it. He had only wanted to live a better life, so why had he ended up ridiculed and tormented by everyone, eventually breaking down and committing suicide? Only after his death did Gu Chen learn that he was merely a supporting character in a wish-fulfillment novel. Gu Xiu was the protagonist. He was only a green leaf meant to set off the red flower.

When he opened his eyes again, Gu Chen had returned to ten years earlier. He and Gu Xiu had just come out of the mountains and entered university. This time, he would stay farther away from those plot-driven characters.

He was not as likable as Gu Xiu. He accepted his fate.

He would no longer fawn over or please anyone. He would simply keep his head down and work himself to the bone, turning himself into the thickest thigh of all.

Much later, the accomplished and famous President Gu accepted an interview on television.

Reporter: "President Gu, what motivated you to start a business?"

Gu Chen: "No one liked me. No one recognized my abilities. I could only work hard on my own."

The plot-driven characters: "...Bullshit!"

Thank you to the little angels who threw support or watered me with nutrient solution between 2020-05-31 11:53:58 and 2020-06-01 13:57:29~

Thank you to the little angel who threw a landmine: Feng Chu, 1;

Thank you to the little angel who gave nutrient solution: yvonne, 5 bottles;

Thank you all so much for your support. I will keep working hard!

"It's raining outside!" Though it was still early August, daytime temperatures could still rise above thirty degrees Celsius. Once night fell, the temperature cooled down. Especially after a rain, there was an even stronger sense of bleak wind and bitter rain.

Ao Qingyuan sat in the minivan and looked out the window. The sky had been clear just moments ago, but in the blink of an eye, heavy rain began to pour down amid flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder. Watching the lightning claw wildly across the sky, Ao Qingyuan suddenly smiled. "I wonder which fellow cultivator is undergoing tribulation."