Chapter Ninety: Better to Vomit It Up Than Be Plundered

How could Li Qingjiang possibly bother with such a thankless task? In her view, everyone in business was driven by profit; there was no such thing as stirring for anything but gain. Since there was clearly nothing to be won in Shundu, how could he possibly step into the game?

Xi Mintang gave no direct answer. “Li Qingjiang may hold a high position in Shundu, but to put it plainly, the one who really calls the shots is still his elder brother, Li Qinghai. The two brothers have been at odds in private for a long time. The older one wants to deepen ties with Maoyuan; the younger wants to go it alone. In short, so long as the elder brother does not get his way. This time, the younger brother went behind his back to fight Maoyuan head-on. That amounts to slapping the elder brother in the face, and it also cuts off any possibility of cooperation between Shundu and Maoyuan. The board does not understand what is going on, and many of them are displeased with the elder brother. Tell me, does Li Qingjiang have anything to gain?”

After hearing all this, Xiao Xiao only felt the weight in her heart grow heavier. It was not because of the war without smoke, but because of Xi Mintang’s complete candor. He had almost laid out the whole matter of business secrets before her, practically taking her as one of his own. For someone like Xiao Xiao, who was used to keeping herself sealed off, it was hard to know how to respond.

After a long while, she finally said, “The reason I won’t sell the land to you is that I still think of you as a friend. I don’t want too many entanglements of interest to change what we have. Do you understand what I mean?”

How could he not understand? He could only give a bitter smile. “If that’s the outcome, then even I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry. Given your temperament, if you really signed a contract with me, we’d probably never see each other again for the rest of our lives. Still, I have to advise you: don’t make life hard for yourself. I do hope things turn out well for you.”

“I know. Otherwise you wouldn’t have told me all this.” She smiled faintly. “It’s getting late. Drive on.”

Everyone had a stubbornness that could not be torn away. She firmly believed that no matter what kind of feeling it was, once money entered it, it was no longer pure. The more one cherished something, the less one should let it become entangled with wealth and profit, just as when we are born: clean, untouched, without a speck of dust.

“Just when things finally went quiet on Shenghua’s side, Shundu had to come stir up trouble again.” Cheng Feng pinched the price figures he had dug up. Shundu had truly gone all in.

Lin Shuo stood by the window, his mind filled with the expression Xiao Xiao had worn that night, so utterly unaware of anything. It looked so genuine, so convincing. He asked Cheng Feng, “Do you know what packs of hunting dogs on the grasslands do after they catch their prey?”

“They take it back to the den.”

“Is that so?” Lin Shuo shook his head and sank back into the broad chair. “They eat it at once. The longer they drag it out, the more likely the smell of blood will draw other formidable rivals to snatch the food away.”

“What about the pups in the den?” Cheng Feng asked, puzzled.

Lin Shuo lifted one corner of his mouth. “They would rather spit it out to feed the pups than accept being robbed.”

His words made Cheng Feng sense the ferocity in him, but the figures on the paper forced him to ask one more question. “Are you sure you want to continue?”

“Of course. Shundu is merely trying to drive up the price and scare us off, but as far as I can tell, they don’t have the appetite for something that big yet.”

“Understood. I’ll have someone investigate right away.”

Cheng Feng left the office, and Lin Shuo remained seated in his chair, lost in thought about the earlier question. Impossible. The bride was a client of Xiao Xiao’s company, and the groom happened to be the young master of Shundu. By rights, she could not have been unaware. There had to be something he had overlooked before.