Do you take me, Xia Qinghe, for a fool?

That evening, Xia Qinghe treated the film crew to a feast at the hotel to thank them for looking after Lin Fengmian, then returned to Lanhai that very night.

Ten people crowded into the private elevator. It was quiet and spotless, and everyone watched the figure standing at the very front, unconsciously holding their breath.

Only when the elevator dinged did it stop on the conference room floor.

Soon, the soft tapping of leather shoes echoed through the quiet floor, click, click, each step striking the heart of the branch president's secretary, all the way to the conference room door.

She bent at the waist and opened the conference room door. Xia Qinghe stepped inside, his gaze as piercing as a Siberian wind, slicing like a knife across everyone who had been waiting there for so long.

Heavy blackout curtains completely sealed the room off from the outside world, leaving it stifling and dim. The projector's beam was the only light in the conference room, prominently displaying the Lanhai Wetland Route Planning Diagram.

Guided by the branch secretary, Xia Qinghe took the head seat, with the person in charge of the Lanhai branch beside him.

Xia Qinghe crossed his legs and tapped his fingers lightly on the table. Before long, the click of a lighter sounded in the dim conference room. The branch head did not even dare lift his head, taking out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat that kept beading on his forehead.

Holding a slender white cigarette between his fingers, Xia Qinghe drew smoke into his mouth, then gently exhaled. Soon, a cloyingly sweet peach scent spread through the office.

When the cigarette was half burned, the man's impatient voice rang out in the conference room. "You spent an entire day in meetings. Did you come up with any viable solutions?"

The branch head's heart lurched, and his scalp prickled. "N-no."

Xia Qinghe's brows abruptly drew together. He swung the hand holding his cigarette in a backhanded blow. Smack! The crisp sound rang throughout the conference room, making everyone give an involuntary shudder.

"I poured over a billion into this. Was it so you could fool around like this?"

The middle-aged man's head was still turned to one side, his fat face looking as though it now had more surface area exposed to the air, five finger marks standing out starkly on it.

Yet he did not dare strike back. He did not even dare wipe the sweat from his head anymore, letting it trickle down and soak a patch of his clothes.

Xia Qinghe was an unrestrained bastard, a ruthless man who would not even spare his own father. Why would he care about someone outside the family?

Especially when he had made such an enormous mess.

If a few slaps would make President Xia stop pursuing that billion-plus, he would personally offer his face up to his hand and let him slap it all he wanted.

"President Xia, this project is rather unusual. N-no, it's not... what you think."

"What do I think? Half a year, 1.6 billion. This wasn't your attitude when you held your hand out to headquarters for money, was it? What? You were so self-righteous when you asked for money, calling to kick up a fuss if approval was slow, demanding to know whether they could take responsibility if the project failed."

"The money was transferred to you, so show me some results! You think you can pass the buck by saying it's not what I think? Do you take me, Xia Qinghe, for a fool?" Xia Qinghe sat there with a smile that was not quite a smile, his meaningful gaze piercing straight into the middle-aged man, the depths of his narrow eyes dark as ink.

It left the middle-aged man feeling as though he were struggling to survive in the polar wilderness, so desperate he could foresee his own death.

Everyone present knew they were there because something had gone wrong with the Lanhai Bay project. The Lanhai branch was responsible for all the preliminary work, namely relocating the wildlife of the Lanhai Bay wetlands, which affected the project's subsequent progress.

The project had clearly been proceeding smoothly at first, but for some reason, the authorities had suddenly ordered it halted.

They had not explained why, either. No matter how much they asked around, it was no use.

They had considered concealing it from headquarters, but everyone working there was shrewd, and Xia Qinghe was the shrewdest of them all. Especially since he was already in Shengjing, the political center, he soon noticed something was wrong and immediately descended on Lanhai with a team of professionals to demand answers.

The moment they learned President Xia was coming, every one of them was terrified. They held meetings nonstop for an entire day, but not a single proposal could solve the problem.

An oppressive atmosphere hung over the entire building.

Everyone seated farther down the table kept their eyes lowered and their thoughts to themselves, not even daring to glance in Xia Qinghe's direction for fear of getting caught in the crossfire.

Looking at their pitiful branch head, they no longer envied his usual lofty position and high salary.

When trouble struck, he was the one who had to stand at the front and take the slaps.

"Feng Chuyue, did you think I came to clean up your mess? No, I came to laugh at a useless piece of trash like you. How did a hopeless waste like you get shares in the Xia Corporation? By selling your daughters?"

Feng Chuyue's face flushed red.

Despite Feng Chuyue's piglike fat head and big ears, his wife was a beauty, and both daughters she had borne were good-looking.

Although he had no son, he had prospered by relying on his daughters.

In particular, he had given one of his daughters to Xia Weiting. Thanks to that connection, he had leaped from middle management into the Xia Corporation's senior ranks. Clutching the small stake Xia Weiting had given him, he strutted around as though he were the true master of the Xia Corporation.

When Xia Qinghe took over the Xia Corporation, minor shareholders like Feng Chuyue felt he was too young to support the entire corporation and repeatedly opposed him at shareholder meetings.

That lasted until Xia Qinghe produced all kinds of evidence and went through the Xia Corporation from top to bottom, removing those minor shareholders with their small stakes from their posts wherever he could and kicking them out whenever possible.

Those he could not kick out were sent down to the various branches.

Feng Chuyue was one of them.

Xia Qinghe acted with thunderous force. The longer he ran the Xia Corporation and the more profits he brought its major shareholders, the more the voices that had initially opposed him quietly faded, turning into support.

Some of those lurking in the shadows could no longer sit still. They did not want to see Xia Qinghe gain a firm grip on a behemoth like the Xia Group, lest he become increasingly difficult to deal with later.

At the end of the previous year, Xia Qinghe secured the Lanhai Bay project. Those lurking in the shadows finally lost patience and began stirring. Xia Qinghe simply pretended not to know. He wanted to see exactly who that person was.

He sat back as though waiting for a fish to bite, watching the company's project executives and branch heads use every means at their disposal to secure the Lanhai Bay project, while privately assessing how many among them harbored ulterior loyalties.

Banished to the second-tier city of Lanhai, Feng Chuyue had resented it but had not dared make too much trouble. He had spent several years keeping his head down. As he grew older and his burial savings dwindled, he wanted to find the right opportunity to turn his fortunes around and shed the label of a man who had risen through his daughters.

Unfortunately, the company attached little importance to the Lanhai branch, which had few valuable projects. Then the Lanhai Bay project came to Lanhai. As the local host, he certainly could not let anyone else snatch away such a lucrative prize. He used every connection he had to defeat numerous competitors and secure the preliminary phase of the Lanhai Bay project.

He had wanted to achieve something, too, but somehow, this problem had cropped up.

Cold sweat soaked half of Feng Chuyue's back. "President Xia, I-I didn't expect it either. I don't know why the higher-ups suddenly issued an order suspending the project..."

The corners of Xia Qinghe's mouth lifted slightly. "You don't know anything at all?"

"Or... do you know, but find it inconvenient to say?"

That icy tone swept over Feng Chuyue, and he nearly dropped to his knees, a chill spreading relentlessly across his back. "I-I really don't know."