There is no sun today. The concrete floor on the rooftop is gray, and the whole sky is also gray and lifeless.
Zhong Liming stared at Qi Lian'an's bloodshot eyes and shuddered. At this moment, it would be a lie to say that he was not afraid.
The north wind was blowing. It was the coldest time of the year in the port city in January, and his heart was also cold.
Zhong Limin said cautiously: "Xiao Qi, is there any misunderstanding between us?"
Qi Lian'an's eyes were even colder than the weather. "There is no misunderstanding, only hatred."
Zhong Limin thought he knew Qi Lian'an inside out. He said, "Your parents are both elders of the Luo family. There can't be any hatred between us."
"Twenty years ago, it was almost Chinese New Year, on a cruise ship, on the high seas..."
Twenty years is too long. Twenty years ago, Zhong Liming was only in his twenties. He has no recollection of it at all. But every time he went to the high seas, it was for gambling. Could it be related to money
"What?"
Qi Lian'an gritted his teeth and said fiercely: "A girl under the age of eighteen was raped by you and your friends. Do you still remember?"
Looking at Zhong Liming's confused expression, it was obvious that he didn't remember.
"After gang-raping her, he threw her a thousand yuan, and then made her suffer humiliation in court. She had no way to defend herself and committed suicide out of hatred! It's because of scum like you! You ruined someone's life!"
Zhong Limin seemed to remember it, and he tried to explain: "You misunderstood, she was willing at the time!"
"Why would she commit suicide of her own free will?!"
Qi Lian'an raised his fist and punched Zhong Liming in the face. Not satisfied with just one punch, he kicked Zhong Liming to the ground, then kicked him several times.
"Who is she to you?"
Qi Lian An gritted his teeth and said nothing. That was the person he had liked since childhood, the love he had never expressed due to his cowardice.
He kicked Zhong Liming twice again.
Zhong Limin's glasses were thrown to the ground. He struggled to crawl forward, his heart filled with fear. "Qi Lian'an! What do you want to do?"
"What do I want to do? I want you to die!"
"Killing someone means paying with your life!"
"So! You have to pay with your life! You have to pay with her life!" Qi Lian'an grabbed Zhong Limin by the collar from behind and dragged him outside. "32nd floor, I'll throw you down, how do you think it feels?"
Zhong Limin struggled desperately, but was caught by Qi Lian'an just as he was about to break free. He pressed his head against the guardrail. Zhong Limin was so scared that his soul flew away. He begged bitterly: "Don't kill me, don't kill me! I beg you! Qi Lian'an! If you kill me, you will go to jail too!"
"I won't kill you, you jump yourself!"
Zhong Liming shook his head. He was afraid of death and he didn’t have the courage to face death.
"It's okay if you don't jump. Then I will torture you slowly and make you wish you were dead but unable to live!" Qi Lian'an loosened his hand and Zhong Liming fell to the corner, trembling all over.
The rooftop door opened again and a figure walked in. Zhong Liming didn't have glasses, so he could only squint. When the figure came closer, he could see clearly that it was Ye Zhao.
Ye Zhao returned.
She walked over, squatted in front of Zhong Limin, and said, "If I were you, I would have no face to live in this world."
"Don't kill me, please."
Ye Zhao shook his head and said, "Boss Zhong, you really disappoint me. I thought you would choose to jump off the building rather than accept humiliation. It seems that you are just a small fry! You don't even have the courage to die."
Zhong Limin tried to defend himself, "Ye Zhao! I didn't offend you, why did you treat me like this? Didn't I just say a few words about you being a mainland girl? Why do you hold a grudge like that?"
"Calling me Mainland Girl is not an offense, then what do you think is an offense? Zhong Limin! When your people cut off Huang Dongliang's fingers, you offended me!" Ye Zhao looked at Zhong Limin's confused eyes and sneered, "You don't know who Huang Dongliang is, right? He's the man from Xishan Town who helped me collect Xiao Huangjiang. In fact, you shouldn't be allowed to commit suicide. People like you who have done so many bad things should be put in ancient times and tortured. Do you know what torture is? It means cutting off your flesh piece by piece, letting you fully experience what it means to be in agony, and die slowly, bit by bit, in agony."
Zhong Limin was so scared that he shook his head repeatedly. He swallowed and said with a dry mouth: "I know I was wrong, please let me go."
Ye Zhao: "Even if I let you go, will others let you go? Your employees, your creditors, and the loan sharks... Do you think you can escape bankruptcy? You are so naive. I think the loan sharks will treat you the same way you treated others before."
Zhong Limin shook his head and wanted to cry but had no tears: "..."
"Zhong Limin, you are such a coward!"
Zhong Limin shook his head with lifeless eyes and denied: "I'm not a coward! I don't want to die."
Qi Lianan said: "I will tell the old lady the news later. You were the mastermind behind the kidnapping of the young master!"
"I'm not the mastermind. I just said that the mastermind is Luo Jiafei!"
Mr. Ye asked: "Why did Luo Jiafei kidnap Luo Shen?"
Luo Jiafei is the father of Luo Qi, the hero of the original book, and the cousin of Luo Shen. He is a marginal person in the Luo family. The book only says that he lost both legs in a car accident in his early years, and there is no further description.
Zhong Limin said: "Luo Jiafei owed tens of millions from gambling. He had no money, so he wanted to kidnap Luo Shen and defraud the Luo family of the ransom."
Ye Zhao asked back: "Then why do you want to participate?"
Zhong Limin: “…”
Ye Zhao: "In order to make Zhong Lini's son the only heir to the Luo family?"
Zhong Limin pretended to be stupid and smiled bitterly, not daring to answer.
Qi Lian An slapped him again: "Speak!"
Zhong Limin felt a burning pain on his face, and he had to admit, "Yes... yes... I just want to help Felix become the only heir."
Ye Zhao: "So, you guys agreed to kill Luo Shen from the beginning, right?"
How could Zhong Lini's son become the only heir without killing her
Zhong Limin's mind was already confused. He shook his head and denied it: "No... No... I don't want to hurt anyone. I protected Luo Shen!"
Qi Lian An was so angry that he punched him again: "What the hell are you protecting! Scumbag!"
Zhong Liming protected his head and screamed in pain from being beaten.
Ye Zhao asked again: "Why did the Luo family let Zhong Lini go so easily in the end?"
"I don't know. The Luo family is very proud and doesn't want to make their dirty laundry public, right?"
Ye Zhao shook his head and didn't believe it. The original book said that Zhong Lini had the leverage over Luo Jiaming, but the secret was not revealed until Luo Shen forced Zhong Lini to commit suicide.
"What leverage does Zhong Lini have on Luo Jiaming?"
"I don't know." As soon as Zhong Limin finished speaking, Qi Lian'an raised his hand, and he was so scared that he covered his head with his hands, "I really don't know."
Ye Zhao slowed down his voice, "If you tell me, I will spare your life today."
Zhong Liming's eyes were full of hesitation, and he didn't seem to believe what Ye Zhao said.
"Will you tell me or not?" Qi Lian'an picked up Zhong Liming and lifted him over the guardrail, with his head facing the bottom of the building. The building was more than 30 stories high. If he fell down, he would definitely die on the spot.
“Ahh… I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!” Zhong Limin was so scared that he cried loudly, and his saliva kept flowing down uncontrollably!
Qi Lian An put him down.
Zhong Limin looked at Ye Zhao, his voice still trembling: "When Luo Jiaming was young, he had a dispute with someone and accidentally killed someone. He was afraid and fled to the mainland. Back then, our Zhong family was still well-connected in both the black and white worlds. This matter was settled by the Zhong family. For this reason, the Luo family agreed to a marriage between the Luo and Zhong families."
Ye Zhao asked curiously: "Who did he kill?"
"Strange people got into an argument while drinking at a bar."
Unexpectedly, Luo Jiaming had a murder case on his hands. Ye Zhao asked again: "How did Guo Xuyan find out when you kidnapped Luo Shen?"
"I don't know how she found out. We tied the nanny up in the back hill, and she found her first. Later, she told Mrs. Luo about it... By chance..."
By chance! Maybe.
After asking a few more questions, Ye Zhao still couldn't get anything out of him. Her legs were numb from squatting. She stood up and said, "Okay, I'll go first. Whether you can survive depends on your ability."
"What do you mean? Didn't you say that you would let me go if I told you so?"
Ye Zhao ignored him and walked away.
Qi Lianan: "It's the boss's business if he lets you go. It's my business if I let you go or not."
Zhong Limin cried loudly: "Please let me go. I don't remember any girl. It must be a misunderstanding. She must have agreed at that time, that's why we went to bed with her..."
Before he could finish his words, Qi Lian An stepped on his face and said, "Shut up! You are worse than an animal!"
Ye Zhao went downstairs and got in the car. Luo Shen had just gone to the basement to get the car. He asked, "Why did it take so long?"
"I was afraid Uncle Qi would lose control, so I went up to take another look."
"Don't worry, I've talked to Uncle Qi, he will know how to handle this properly."
Right on the rooftop, in such a cold day, from day till late at night, Qi Lian'an tortured Zhong Liming to the point where he was worse off than death, and he did not stop until dawn.
But what really awaits Zhong Limin is even greater mental and physical torture.
That afternoon, the media exposed the big news that Zhong Liming and Xu Guangrong suffered huge losses in crude oil futures. When the creditors heard the news, they immediately applied to the court for asset freezing in order to preserve their claims to the greatest extent.
After the employees found out that their employee funds had been misappropriated, they went to the company to cause trouble...
Zhong Lini watched the Zhong family fall, and even the Zhong family mansion was frozen. She could only run around and secretly inquire about the news of her eldest brother. Unfortunately, Zhong Liming disappeared from then on.
It is said that he was taken away by a loan shark, and no one knows where he is.
Ye Zhao took advantage of the winter vacation to handle some business matters in Hong Kong.
After selling crude oil futures, he made nearly 300 million Hong Kong dollars, which, together with the original principal, was almost 400 million.
Part of the money belonged to Brother Xiang, so she proposed to share the money with him. Brother Xiang had originally put out nearly 10 million, so he could get 40 million.
The two were in the car, Zeng Xiang was driving, he asked: "After the money is divided, how do you plan to manage it?"
Ye Zhao smiled and said, "I haven't thought about it yet. It feels so unreal to have so much money all of a sudden. My biggest wish now is to take out all the money and sleep with it."
Sleeping with hundreds of millions of cash, what a simple and unpretentious wish.
Zeng Xiang couldn't help laughing when he heard this and said, "If you have money, you also need a house to put it in."
Ye Zhao immediately understood what Zeng Xiang meant. She asked, "Why? Are we going to buy a house now?"
Zeng Xiang said: "You don't have to give me any money. Just use this money and add a little more to buy a house in Gangcheng. Then you will have a place to stay when you come to Gangcheng in the future, and you don't have to stay in a hotel anymore."
"How much?"
"About 60 million."
"It's so expensive! I won't buy it." With 60 million, she could build several buildings in Shenzhen.
Zeng Xiang said: "I'll offer 40 million, and you only need to pay more than 10 million. It's worth it to write your name. Are you sure you don't want it?"
"It's definitely a great house! It's a real luxury house. It was built in 1965 by a famous French designer. It's not very big, maybe 500 to 600 square meters for two floors, but it's in a great location. You can walk a short distance to the downtown area."
Ye Zhao listened to her brother Xiang talking like he was advertising, and couldn't help asking, "Have you seen it?"
"I've seen it. I think you will like it. Even if my mother comes, she will like it too. There is a sense of everyday life around." Zeng Xiang said confidently.
"I am moved by what you said."
Not long after, they arrived at the gate. The car did not drive in, but they got off directly on the roadside. The large dark brown stone wall was as high as a floor, and strings of bright yellow firecracker flowers hung on the wall.
Seeing the stone wall and the flowers on it, Ye Zhao fell in love with it.
Zeng Xiang pointed to the house number beside the gate and said, "We can write 'Ye Family Mansion' here in the future!"
Ye Zhao had already forgotten the Seaview Bay villa her father had bought for her but she had never lived in. She smiled and said, "Isn't this the first house in my life?"
Zeng Xiang coaxed her, "That's right! From now on, Hong Kong City has one more wealthy family, the Ye family!"
The Ye family is a wealthy family! If Ye Dingguo were still alive, he would probably be so happy to hear this that he would go crazy.
Ye Zhao smiled and said, "I'm not from a wealthy family, I'm just an ordinary citizen."
Zeng Xiang teased her deliberately: "Then change the house number to 'Zeng Family Mansion'!"
Ye Zhao said: "No, I make money! The Ye family mansion is for ordinary people."
"Give me the door number and I'll order it for you."
After ringing the doorbell, the real estate agent was already waiting inside. He took Ye Zhaoli around the house. The front and back gardens were not big, but very exquisite.
Although this house was built more than 20 years ago, its facilities are very modern and the overall style is very warm and cultural.
If you don't tell people, no one would know that this was designed by a French master. After all, it contains a lot of modern Chinese elements, including the name of the mansion "Chiwuju", which is from "Chu Ci".
There are modern Chinese elements in the architectural style, but the interior decoration is more Westernized. The overall style is a perfect combination of Chinese and Western styles.
Ye Zhao immediately decided to buy it. This house will definitely be worth hundreds of millions in the future. It may not appreciate as fast as buying a house in Shenzhen, but not everything should be measured by economic benefits.
In fact, Zeng Xiang had already bought the house. If Ye Zhao didn't want it, he could only give it to his grandmother. After all, the initial money was paid by his grandmother.
When Old Mrs. Luo heard that Ye Zhao's name was finally written on Chiwuju, she was a little disappointed.
Lao Fan said: "The 60 million was transferred from Ye Zhao's account."
"She's quite good at making money."
"Are you afraid that the young master will be suppressed by her in the future?"
Old Lady Luo shook her head and said, "If she is better than Shen'er, it is Shen'er's blessing. Only incompetent men would be afraid of women who are better than themselves."
Lao Fan smiled and flattered, "That's right. A man who can control a capable woman, that's what you call him." He gave a thumbs up.
It was impossible for Mrs. Luo to let her subordinates guess her thoughts. She laughed and said, "You men, all you think about is how to suppress women! Superficial."
She just felt sorry that she had to change her surname to Ye because of such a nice and famous house.
A few days later, the Hong Kong media published extensive reports on the change of ownership of Chiwuju to Ye Zhao.
The Hong Kong media paparazzi are also very powerful. They have their own connections in the upper circles, and they turned Ye Zhao's background upside down.
Several media headlines are extremely exaggerated and eye-catching:
"The top scorer in the college entrance examination in Shenzhen swept the crude oil futures in Hong Kong and made a huge profit of 400 million!"
"The future daughter of the Luo family, 20 million units sold to Song Rongji, a ready-made billionaire!"
"Chiwuju, the benchmark of luxury houses, changed its name to Ye today! The buyer turned out to be a girl from mainland China!"
"Who does the eldest son of the Luo family love the most? Not only is he stunningly beautiful, he is also a business genius"
Ye Zhao read the reports in the hotel. Two of them even found photos of her being interviewed by the media after the college entrance examination. On the one hand, she felt speechless about the contents of the reports, but on the other hand, she had to admire the paparazzi in Hong Kong. They were really capable.
While reports on Ye Zhao were generating a buzz, Song Rongji promptly clarified earlier false information about clearing crude oil futures and attached a detailed trading schedule.
Smart stock investors did the math and found that Song Rongji not only did not lose money by speculating in futures, but made 100 million yuan!
At the same time, Song Rongji announced its impressive annual report ahead of schedule and promised to distribute the more than 10 million shares of Song Rongji stock repurchased earlier to management and shareholders.
In other words, this time the shareholders will receive the shares previously repurchased from Zhong Liming as dividends.
Of course, the one that can get the most shares is the major shareholder Qiaozhi Investment.
As the news was announced, the stock price instantly rose, increasing by nearly 40% in one day!
After the stock market closed, everyone at Song Rongji was in a festive mood.
This year, not only did their stock market perform well, but because they expanded into the domestic market, their performance increased by nearly 50% compared to last year!
And the trend is getting better. With the improvement of domestic consumption capacity, old brands like Song Rongji, which have been deeply rooted in people's hearts through advertising on CCTV, will only see their business getting better and better.
Ye Zhao and Zeng Xiang came back from Gangcheng, and there was still a week before the Spring Festival.
Ye Zhao, who hasn't eaten dumplings for a long time, wants to eat dumplings.
Aunt Qiao didn’t know how to make dumplings, so she bought the ingredients and asked Aunt Qin and Li Ruixiang to teach them how to make dumplings.
There are two kinds of fillings, cabbage and pork and celery and beef. Because we made too much, Fatty Ying's family also came to eat.
There were many people but few chairs, so everyone sat or stood and chatted while eating.
Speaking of the fact that Zizhulin was about to be built, the scrap collection station had to be closed, and the mute was once again facing the problem of unemployment.
Fatty Ying asked Ye Zhao if he could arrange for his brother to work in the factory, saying that he could do all kinds of rough work.
These are all small matters, Ye Zhao agreed to arrange them.
Fatty Ying said again: "Hey, the Zizhulin community has been built, can we buy it?"
Ye Zhao said: "If you want to participate, you have to pay after the New Year. If you pay now, it's the cost price. It's not decided whether it will be sold after it's built, but it certainly won't be sold at cost price."
Fatty Ying immediately said, "I can pay, I want five sets! Is that okay?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Aunt Qiao kicked her and said, "How dare you say that! Why are you so greedy? You have so many houses, but you still want to take advantage of our Xiao Zhao. You can buy at most one house, and then we can live together and take care of each other."
Fatty Ying said: "Sister, we are sisters!"
"You can't take advantage of your sister like this! Besides, what sister? You are my cousin. But I didn't build the house. Ye Zhao built it. Ye Zhao and you are just neighbors."
Fatty Ying looked at Ye Zhao, and Ye Zhao said, "You can buy one, and Uncle Fugui can buy one too. But they can't both be named after you. Yours should be named Zeng Xiuqun, and Uncle Fugui's should be named Zeng Fugui..."
"what does it mean?"
Aunt Qiao retorted, "What do you mean, don't you understand? Even Xiao Zhao can see that you favor boys over girls. If you want to buy it, you can write Xiuqun's name."
Fatty Ying: “…”
The topic was opened, and Aunt Qin took the opportunity to say: "Xiao Zhao, we also want to book a house in this house..."
Ye Zhao was eating dumplings stuffed with cabbage. "Sure. One set is no problem."
Li Ruixiang asked: "Whose name should I write?"
Aunt Qin nodded at her daughter and told her not to talk nonsense.
Ye Zhao understood Li Ruixiang's request and said with a smile: "Of course I'll write your name..."
Li Ruixiang laughed and said, "That's right, it's not the relationship between Ye Zhao and me, how can you take advantage of this, Mom?"
Aunt Qin originally wanted to write her son's name, but the situation was so serious that she smiled at her daughter and said, "I didn't say I wouldn't write your name. I just saw how anxious you were."
After everyone finished eating the dumplings, they washed the bowls before leaving.
Aunt Qiao was sitting on the sofa picking her teeth. She knew that Ye Zhao had bought a mansion in Hong Kong City. She had never liked going to Hong Kong City, so she took the initiative to say, "You bought a new house, you have to move in during the New Year, so that next year will be more prosperous."
Ye Zhao sat beside her and twisted her fingernails. She said, "I can, but Aunt Qiao, will you stay with us? You didn't spend the New Year with us last year. If you don't go with us, then we should just spend the New Year here."
Aunt Qiao smiled and said, "I'll accompany you! How can I not accompany you? I'll help you clean the house."
Zeng Xiang, who was watching TV bored, said, "You don't have to clean up. Aunt Feng has already brought people to clean up."
Aunt Qiao got angry when she heard Feng Ma's name: "I have to make it clear, I don't want Feng Ma. I get annoyed when I see her."
Zeng Xiang understood what his mother meant, and he said, "Then I'll ask Li Tong to find someone else."
Ye Zhao also said: "We don't want the old man from the Luo family, we need to recruit new ones."
Aunt Qiao smiled and said, "Xiao Zhao still understands what I mean. We need new people, and they don't have anything to do with the Luo family. Just have one person who can help with cleaning, don't hire so many people. In your Luo family, there are more servants than masters."
"knew."
At this time, in Lao Kai's office, there was a Hong Kong city newspaper on the table. Ni Meng and Lao Mai were sitting there listlessly drinking tea. Lao Kai crossed his legs and sighed heavily.
The rotten nails on Xiao Xu's broken ship are better than those on Zhong's. Even if they go bankrupt and liquidate, they can cover most of their debts, unlike the Zhong family which is completely insolvent.
All of Xiao Xu's family's assets in the Hong Kong government were frozen, leaving only this wealth building in Shenzhen City available for sale. He was eager to sell it, but he couldn't.
Seeing that the Fortune Building had once again become an unfinished building, Old Mai, who had stockpiled hundreds of thousands of materials in the Fortune Building, was so worried that he couldn't sleep for several days, and his beer belly seemed to have shrunk a lot.
Ni knocked on the newspaper on the table. "Look for Ye Zhao! You've seen the report. She has at least 1 billion now!"
Old Mac still couldn't believe these Hong Kong newspapers: "How could she have 1 billion? It must be a mistake, with the same name and surname."
Ni Meng: "No mistake. There is another magazine that says 'Shenzhen City's College Entrance Examination Champion' and has her photo. There is no mistake."
"One billion? I can't even imagine it."
Lao Kai sat up and said, "How can I beg? Anyway, I have no shame, I can kneel down to ask you to do it. As long as you can give me back the 100,000 yuan I invested."
Ni Meng also invested more than 100,000 yuan. He said, "Not really. Boss Ye is a reasonable person. Analyze the situation with her. If you don't take advantage of a bargain, you are not a hero!"
Old Mai shook his head and said, "She said last time that our unfinished Fortune Building has bad feng shui, so there's no way she would want it. And she hates me so much, it's good enough that she didn't step on me a few times."
Ni Meng thought he knew Ye Zhao better. He said, "Hey, you have a low vision. She is not that petty. To put it bluntly, she doesn't take you seriously at all. If you slap yourself twice, she will definitely let it go. But I still have to say that you shouldn't have destroyed the six-lane road in the first place. You are really mean."
Old Mai: "How can I be that capable? It was the Xu family who did it."
Lao Kai stood up and said, "Let's go, let's go and ask her first. Let's see the situation. If we are sure it can be done, we can ask Xiao Xu's family to ask her. Otherwise, we won't be able to get through this year."
(End of this chapter)