After I stopped trying, a rich woman trained me into a demon emperor.

At seven o'clock in the morning, the lights in the conference room on the second floor of the manor were turned on.

Chen Ya pushed open the door and entered, her arm now wrapped in a new bandage.

Lin Qingxue and Xiao Hongli followed behind.

Lin Qingxue removed the veil from her eyes, but her pupils were still shrouded in a layer of white mist.

The handprint on Xiao Hongli's left cheek had not faded; it was red and swollen, stuck on her cheekbone—a vivid slap mark.

Zhou Ran sat in the main seat.

A two-meter-long network diagram of relationships is laid out in front of you.

The red line represents the flow of funds, the blue line represents personnel relationships, the black line represents gray assets, and the yellow line represents unconfirmed hidden assets.

A name is firmly locked in the center of the image by a red circle.

Marcus Weber.

"explain."

Chen Ya didn't pull up a chair; she stood up and began her report.

"The Sheng Hui Consortium has traceable assets of 120 billion yuan in China."

Five hundred billion is tied up in the Dongcheng Medical Center project, three hundred billion is spread across six acquired pharmaceutical and military companies, and the remaining four hundred billion is in a working capital pool.

She turned to the third page of the document and pointed to a line in bold.

"The source of those 50 billion yuan went through seven layers of nominee shareholding and finally pointed to Song Zhentian's trust fund in Liechtenstein."

Zhou Ran tapped his finger on the table.

Song Zhentian.

The former mastermind of the Black Dragon Society, and Master Da's puppet in the mortal realm.

He is already dead.

"Using the dead's money to build houses on the land of the living?"

"Is the chain of evidence complete?"

Zhou Ran suppressed his murderous aura and looked just like a company CEO.

"The Ministry of Justice has reviewed it three times."

The bank statements, shareholding structure, and scanned copies of nominee shareholding agreements are all complete.

"good.

Don't hand it over to the authorities yet.

Chen Ya paused for a moment.

"Use it as a knife first."

Zhou Ran looked away from the network image and scanned the three people in turn.

"Start three things simultaneously."

"First, Chen Ya."

They withdrew $100 billion from the fund pool, routed it through shell companies in North America and Europe, and simultaneously shorted the shares of the Sheng Hui Consortium on the NYSE and LSE.

Don't let it hit the daily limit down; it should continue to fall.

He'll fall until he has to call in reinforcements from all over the world.

Chen Ya nodded, continuing to stick stickers on her pen.

"Second, Hong Li."

The complaint was submitted to the municipal government in the name of the Xiao Group.

The project is suspected of money laundering and involving the Black Dragon Society's legacy.

Xiao Hongli responded:

"I'll deliver it myself."

Zhou Ran looked at the injury on her face.

"Wear formal attire."

Let them see the handprint on your face clearly.

Xiao Hongli's eyes flickered.

Without saying much, he turned around and went to change his clothes.

Third, clearing the snow.

"Are the connections in the capital still working?"

Lin Qingxue nodded:

"There are two more lines in the financial sector."

"Freeze the accounts of three core legal entities of the Shenghui Foundation."

"Chen Ya will give you the list."

After issuing the three orders, Zhou Ran leaned back in his chair.

"It will all be completed within four hours."

10:00 AM.

Chen Ya's tablet displayed a notification: Sheng Hui Group's Asia-Pacific stock price plummeted at the opening, falling by 11%.

The short-selling funds were split into forty-seven transactions, simultaneously dumped into the market from different time zones, different dealers, and different accounts.

Each transaction was just below the threshold that would trigger the exchange's risk control measures.

Chen Ya's work style is similar to Zhou Ran's.

Never give the other party a chance to breathe.

At the same time, Xiao Hongli entered the Petition Office of Jiangcheng Municipal Government.

The staff member's eyes swept from the injury on her cheek to the Xiao Group's seal on the cover of the whistleblower's report.

Without saying a word, he took the materials and went straight to his superior.

At 11:00, Marcus made his forty-seventh phone call from the presidential suite at the InterContinental Hotel.

Fund manager, investment banking partner, CFO of the European headquarters.

Everyone received the same message.

no way.

The funds used for short selling are too scattered, making it impossible to lock in the opponent's exit position.

At twelve o'clock, Lin Qingxue's line gave feedback.

Two of the three core legal entity accounts were frozen.

The third one cannot be acted upon for the time being due to diplomatic immunity.

Two are enough.

"I think they're like ants on a hot pan."

"Fatty, come with me."

Instead of going to the office of the Shenghui Consortium, the two went straight to the headquarters of the largest bank in Jiangcheng.

The bank manager's surname is Wu, and he is in his early fifties.

Six months ago, Chen Ya brought them into a relationship based on mutual benefit.

Zhou Ran didn't ask about the details; this was Chen Ya's job.

The door to the bank manager's office closed.

Zhou Ran pushed an envelope over.

President Wu opened the package, and his face turned two shades paler within three seconds.

"This is……"

"The money laundering chain of the Sheng Hui Consortium."

From the Cayman Islands to Liechtenstein to Wuhan, every transaction went through your bank.

Zhou Ran's tone was completely threatening, as if he were reading out an order.

"Cooperate with me, or go on the news with them."

President Wu's pen paused on the table for three seconds.

Then he signed it.

5:40 PM.

Two people arrived at the entrance of the manor.

He wore a suit, sunglasses, and an eagle-shaped badge of the Sheng Hui Group pinned to his chest.

One of them is holding a lawyer's letter.

Fatty Wang stood up from the doorman's chair, half a roasted sweet potato still dangling from his mouth.

"Dude, just leave the package at the door."

The man in sunglasses on the left reached out and pushed Wang Pangzi in the chest.

Fatty Wang spat out the sweet potato peel and slapped it across the face.

With a crisp sound, the man in sunglasses was sent flying and crashed into the rose bed by the door.

Face down, back up, like a turtle with its shell turned upside down.

The man on the right had just put his hand inside his suit jacket when a transparent worm the size of a fingernail crawled out of his collar.

The insect raised its forelegs and moved them toward his nostrils.

The man in sunglasses felt his hair stand on end, scattered the lawyer's letters all over the ground, and turned and ran.

Xiao Rou emerged from the shadows behind the rose bed, bent down to pick up the lawyer's letter, dusted it off, and handed it to Fatty Wang with both hands.

"Fatty, should we keep it?"

Fatty Wang rummaged through them and stuffed them into the foil bag containing the sweet potatoes.

"Ran was right after all, they really did send a lawyer's letter!"

7 PM, in the conference room.

Chen Ya's report was clearly audible under the fluorescent lights.

At the close of trading, the Asia-Pacific region of the Sheng Hui Consortium fell by 23%.

Its market value evaporated by $8.2 billion.

Marcus put up for sale two acquired pharmaceutical companies to recoup funds, but our front-end company snapped them up at the bottom price.

The data came pouring in, one after another.

Zhou Ran's expression remained unchanged.

Chen Ya paused.

"but--"

"Marcus transferred 10 billion euros from headquarters for an emergency injection of funds."

The downward trend has been stabilized.

at the same time--"

Chen Ya handed over the tablet.

"Jiangcheng's portal website published an article half an hour ago."

Zhou Ran looked down.

The title is long, but the core idea is just one thing.

Local capitalists colluded with foreign forces to maliciously short-sell foreign-invested enterprises, severely damaging the business environment of Jiangcheng.

The article doesn't directly mention the Xiao Group, but every sentence refers to them.

Information warfare.

Zhou Ran put down the tablet, her lips relaxing.

It wasn't a cold, hard smile; it was just genuinely funny.

"He uses the news as a weapon?"

Chen Ya waited for the next part.

"Perfect."

Zhou Ran looked up.

"Do you know what kind of news people in Wuhan are most afraid of right now?"

Chen Ya was stunned.

"Go and retrieve the building approval files for the Dongcheng Cultural Center from thirty years ago."

Which one?

"The one from thirty years ago."

His finger landed on the network map, pressing on the location of the Dongcheng Cultural Center.

This is the document that Qin San helped him find, the one from thirty years ago, which had been suppressed by the authorities.

"There is a construction annotation in the file that has been altered."

Chen Ya stared at that spot, her pen already turning to a new page.

When do you need it?

"Before tomorrow morning."