Chapter Ninety-Six: Here to Bring Money Again

After Wang Dongliang won his father’s backing, he seemed like a different man. He came at once to the little trading room he had set up earlier. It was a three-story villa in the development zone, with a footprint of nearly a thousand square meters. The entire ground-floor hall had been remodeled. At a glance, it looked like a miniature stock exchange, with a giant screen on the wall continuously scrolling live share prices. Several employees were bent over their computers, working feverishly.

“How is it going?” Wang Dongliang asked a man who seemed to be in charge.

“Silver Dragon stock is hardly trading right now, so our acquisition is a little difficult. The main problem is a shortage of funds. After what we did to Silver Dragon last time, the price still hasn’t come back down.” The man replied with some helplessness.

“Hmph. Loyalty? That only means the stakes aren’t large enough. Raise the bid by another ten percent. I don’t believe there won’t be sellers then. Money is not an issue. The old man has already nodded and agreed to our plan.” Wang Dongliang gave a cold smile. Now that he had support, he had the capital to be arrogant.

“That’ll make things easy. As soon as the funds are in place, we’ll move. It’s been a long time since we handled something this big.” The man pushed up his glasses, visibly excited.

“We still have some money, don’t we? Use it all. Also, dump the other stocks and go all in on Silver Dragon.” Wang Dongliang carried himself with the air of a man already in power.

The villa rented for Chu Dong by Qiangzi was not far from Wang Dongliang’s place. At that moment Chu Dong was also staring at a computer. As soon as the market opened that morning, Silver Dragon’s share price had begun to surge, and it had already climbed to twenty-six yuan, up sharply from the previous month. It stood in stark contrast to the sluggish market around it.

“So they’re trying to acquire it? Then let’s make it a little harder for them. Push it up a few more points. Keep a close eye on the other side’s buy orders, and as long as it didn’t come from them, sweep up any big sell orders the moment they appear. Leave nothing behind.” Chu Dong was remotely directing George, who was far away in England, over the phone.

“Understood, Boss. The great George has received your command.” George never forgot to put “great” in front of his own name.

“Boss, when is the money coming in? Silver Dragon’s stock has been pushed up again, and our funds are running short.” The man in charge hurried upstairs to the office Wang Dongliang had set up for himself.

“What are you panicking for?” Wang Dongliang said unhappily. “Is this little thing worth making such a fuss over? Then pause for now. If they keep the price high, sell a little. We can even make a bit of pocket money on the side. Do I really need to teach you even this? What good are you people, anyway?”

The man was scolded into embarrassment. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to do it; it was just that without the boss’s orders, how could he dare decide on his own? That was the sorrow of so many wage earners.

Just as Wang Dongliang’s private team began tentatively to dump a little stock, they found that someone quickly bought it up.

At the same time, George promptly reported the situation to Chu Dong.

“Boss, the other side is showing signs of unloading, but it’s being absorbed almost immediately. Silver Dragon stock is attracting a lot of attention right now. It should be speculative activity from a few well-funded retail investors. The great George believes it is not suitable for us to join the buying frenzy at this time.”

“Got it. Do what you think is best. If something comes up, I’ll call you.” Chu Dong could only laugh helplessly at vain, self-important George.

“Damn it, why aren’t you wearing any clothes?” Tan Xue was also keeping a close eye on the market. After she got up in the morning and sent Xiao Yu’er off to school, she had hurried to Chu Dong’s room to find him, only to discover that he was sitting there on a chair with his shirt off, talking on the phone.

“Haha, the boss lady has arrived. Boss, go ahead and handle your business. The great George won’t keep you from your good fortune.” Hearing Tan Xue’s voice, George chuckled and hung up. He was so quick that he did not even hear Chu Dong’s instinctive “Get lost.”

“Wife, do I have to be properly dressed in my own room? Besides, it’s not like there’s anyone else here. By the way, isn’t my figure pretty great?” Chu Dong had been infected by George’s smugness and struck a pose, even flexing his biceps.

“Who’s your wife? Don’t get ideas.” Tan Xue shot him a glare. Then her face changed color all at once. “You pervert!”

Her eyes had dropped to the prominent bulge on Chu Dong’s body. Her cheeks flushed red, and she slammed the door shut with a bang, forgetting all about what she had come for.

Chu Dong looked down at himself. He wasn’t even fully naked; his tan skin really did have a touch of ruggedness to it, but that hardly made him a pervert. And then he looked lower. Damn it. He hadn’t even noticed when it had gone hard.

Just as Chu Dong was pulling open his shorts, planning to teach this ill-timed stiff little troublemaker a lesson, the door was kicked open again. Before the person had even entered, a voice rang out.

“Pervert! I knew you weren’t any good. I never expected you to be such a wolf in human skin that you couldn’t even hold out for two days.”

Li Youlan stormed in barefoot, full of fierce momentum.

Chu Dong’s hand loosened, and the excellent elastic band of his underwear snapped back with a sharp crack against his stomach. His expression changed when he looked at Li Youlan.

“Could you at least knock before coming in? People have dignity, you know. What if you make me go soft? Are you going to take responsibility?”

Hands on her hips, Li Youlan said, “If it goes soft, cut it off. Keeping it would be useless.”

Unlike Tan Xue, she was not shy at all. She raised a golf club she had somehow found and charged at him.

“Damn it, a female hooligan!” Chu Dong shouted and turned to run. A real man knew when to retreat; that truth had lasted through the ages.

He circled the big bed twice. Li Youlan jumped onto the bed, and Chu Dong took a blow on the shoulder in exchange for escaping the room. Then, in blind haste, he burst into Tan Xue’s room.

“Ah!”

“Ah!”

Chu Dong and Tan Xue cried out at the same time.

Tan Xue had always worn the kind of casual denim she rarely used in the villa, but after being interrupted by Chu Dong earlier she had never gotten around to asking him the question on her mind. She had decided to go to the company and take a look, so she returned to her room to change. She had just taken off her clothes and had not yet put on her professional outfit when Chu Dong charged in.

She held her clothes against her chest with both hands and crouched half-squatting by the side of the bed. There really was no comparison between people. Tan Xue was not only beautiful, her skin was good too; even the glimpse of her rounded shoulders was enough to make a person’s blood race.

Seeing Chu Dong’s greedy eyes, Tan Xue did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Get out. Out!”

“Wife, have some mercy. If I go out now, I’m dead for sure. That girl is crazy. Besides, you’re not the one at a disadvantage here. I’m barely wearing anything either.” Chu Dong braced his backside against the door, bent his body to hide the great fellow that had once again risen at attention, and tried hard to reason with Tan Xue.

“Turn around. Now,” Tan Xue snapped, biting her lip in embarrassment and urgency.

“Fine, I’ll turn around. Don’t be angry. Stay calm.” Chu Dong reluctantly turned away, then suddenly looked back over his shoulder. “And don’t look at me either.”

“Get lost. Like anyone wants to look at you.” Tan Xue had just begun to dress when Chu Dong turned his head and she hurriedly covered herself again.

Could Chu Dong really stand there honestly waiting for Tan Xue to finish dressing? Of course not. If it were somebody else’s wife, that would be one thing, but his own wife changing clothes and refusing to let him look? In this day and age, even sleeping together after meeting for only a few minutes was nothing strange. Yet his openly acknowledged future wife was still hiding from him like this. It was a profound insult to him, a humiliation beyond words.

But direct confrontation was not Chu Dong’s style. The doorknob was made of steel, and on the door there was a palm-sized plate that served as a lock fixture; it was as reflective as a mirror. Chu Dong kept one hand pressed to the door, bent at the waist, and his eyes never left that little panel. Outside, Li Youlan was so furious she was practically hopping in place, but she still could not get in.

By the time Tan Xue had finished dressing, Chu Dong secretly wiped away the long string of saliva that had run from the corner of his mouth.

“Tell that crazy girl for me—what exactly did I do to provoke her?” Chu Dong said with a bitter expression, wrapping himself in the bedsheet Tan Xue had thrown at him.

“It has nothing to do with me. You brought this on yourself. Who can you blame?” Seeing Chu Dong so embarrassed, Tan Xue felt pleasantly satisfied. She had simply not been prepared just now; now that she was fully dressed, her confidence returned.

“Chu, get out here!” Li Youlan shouted from outside when she still could not budge the door.

“What am I going out for? My wife and I are about to sleep. Don’t disturb us. If you want to steal a friend’s husband, just say so. I don’t mind working a little more.” Chu Dong searched for a while inside only to discover the door could not be locked from within, so he could only block it and hold the stalemate.

“Stop spouting nonsense.” Tan Xue kicked him in the back from behind, but she was too small and weak to do much; Chu Dong barely felt it.

“Heh heh, I’m just making her mad.” Chu Dong now had a bedsheet tied around his waist. If he wrapped a towel around his head as well, he would look no different from an Indian holy man.

Since Chu Dong was blocking the door, Tan Xue could not get out either. She sat down on the bed in a huff and did not even look at him.

After a while, Chu Dong heard no movement outside. He quietly loosened his grip, opened the door a crack, and peered out.

Li Youlan really was no longer at the door. She was holding the golf club in her hand, turned away from him and bent over, apparently looking for something.

Chu Dong saw his chance. He called a quick goodbye to Tan Xue, opened the door, and ran back to his room like the wind.

For safety’s sake, the moment he got inside he immediately dragged the large bed over to block the door, sealing himself in. Before he could even catch his breath, the phone rang again.

“Boss, Bruce discovered something interesting by infiltrating the trading market’s terminal. Do you want to take a look?” It was George.

“What is it?” Chu Dong sat down by the computer desk.

“We traced the addresses used for the other side’s buying and selling operations. They should be very close to where you are. Bruce used a newly developed little gadget to trigger their camera automatically, and we recorded a bit of it on the side. I don’t know whether it will help, but the great George thought you might be interested.” George laughed in excitement.

“Cut the crap and send it over.” Chu Dong was amused as well. These guys had actually found the other side’s nest.

Soon afterward, a video was sent over the internet.

Chu Dong clicked it open casually. A man was on the screen making a phone call, though there was no sound, so it was impossible to tell what he was saying.

He knew that face.

It was Wang Dongliang, the very man who had just generously sponsored eight percent of Sea Breeze Group’s shares.

Chu Dong untied the bedsheet around his waist and threw his head back with a loud laugh. He had no idea what kind of luck he had stumbled into, but Wang Dongliang had brought him money again.