Substitute Toyokawa Shoko, you can become stronger by breathing

He suddenly wanted... really wanted to have another drink, to use alcohol to numb his already broken heart.

Perhaps...only when he is drunk can he temporarily forget his miserable and failed life.

Fengchuan Qingjiao smiled self-deprecatingly.

He put his cell phone back into his pocket and walked unsteadily towards the familiar, cheap pub on the corner with heavy steps.

The night is getting darker.

..

In the study room of Toyokawa's main residence.

The lights were bright and the air was filled with a faint scent of sandalwood.

Toyokawa Sadaharu hung up Toyokawa Kiyoshi's phone call with an expressionless face and threw the phone on the large mahogany desk.

Standing by the desk, a middle-aged secretary, dressed neatly and respectfully, asked cautiously after seeing the old man hang up the phone:

"Master, Mr. Qinggao... still failed to persuade the young lady to come back?"

Toyokawa Sadaharu picked up the teacup beside him and gently blew on the tea leaves floating on the water. His tone was calm, and no emotion could be heard:

"As expected."

He took a sip of tea, his eyes deep, as if thinking about something.

Seeing this, the secretary bowed slightly and continued, "Then, Master, regarding the matter of the eldest lady, what should we do now? Do we need to take further measures?"

The "further measures" he mentioned naturally referred to using tougher means to regain control of "Toyokawa Shoko".

After all, the eldest lady's current "out-of-control" state is a huge hidden danger for the Toyokawa family.

Toyokawa Sadaharu put down the teacup and tapped his fingers rhythmically on the smooth mahogany table, making a light "thump, thump, thump" sound.

The study fell into a depressing silence.

After a long while, Toyokawa Sadaharu finally spoke slowly:

"No need."

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, the secretary's eyes flashed with confusion.

He was a little surprised that the old man would choose to "let go" of the eldest lady? This was not like his usual style.

"Xiangzi..."

A complex and inexplicable light flashed in Toyokawa Sadaharu's eyes, including anger, disappointment, but also a hint of... a faint "expectation" that even he himself had not noticed?

"...It's not what it used to be."

He paused, with a barely perceptible sigh in his tone:

"She's grown strong and wild. Using those old methods again... will probably only backfire."

The secretary was startled when he heard this.

"So... you mean..."

"Since she wants to play, let her play."

"I want to see what this self-righteous girl can do now that she no longer has the backing of the Toyokawa family."

"Let her have a good taste of the cruelty and reality of this world."

"Only by letting her truly witness the darkness of the Toyokawa family and know her own limitations will she understand...who she should truly rely on."

The secretary understood what the old man said.

This is not "indulgence" at all. He wants to completely grind off the young lady's edges and sharpness through "flattery" and "frustration", so that she will eventually... have to obediently return to the track he set.

"I understand, sir." The secretary bowed his head respectfully. "Then...about Wingwing and Ave Mujica..."

"Don't touch them for now." Toyokawa Sadaharu waved his hand: "Keep them, they'll still be useful."

"Yes."

The secretary responded and said no more, quietly waiting for the old man's next instruction.

Silence returned to the study. Only the knocking sound was heard, which was particularly clear and...distressing in the empty room.

..

After reaching a preliminary "cooperation intention" with Chiaki Kitamura, Renji Kujo did not immediately launch large-scale action.

Careful planning, adequate preparation, and precise grasp of timing are all essential.

In the next few days, Kujo Renji devoted almost all his time and energy to the preparations for this upcoming "plan".

Of course, he did not directly reveal his true identity, but cleverly used the glamorous identity of "Toyokawa Shoko" as a "young lady" and certain "credit endorsements" and "resource support" provided by Kitamura Chiaki behind the scenes to reach some "cooperation agreements" with certain people in a mutually beneficial way.

During this tense and busy preparation period, the interaction between Kujo Renji and Toyokawa Shoko in his mind also became subtle.

Xiangzi could clearly feel that Lian Si was planning something...very, very big.

Although Lian Si did not reveal all the details of the plan to her, from the few words he occasionally revealed, Xiangzi could still vaguely guess that the target of this impending "storm" was directly aimed at the Toyokawa family!

Xiangzi had complicated feelings about this realization.

On the one hand, she was full of resentment and disappointment towards her grandfather, and she also wanted to see the family that once suffocated her pay the price they deserved.

But on the other hand, the Toyokawa family is where she grew up and is her bloodline root.

When she thought about the huge changes that might happen to that huge family because of her "acquiescence", she couldn't help but feel a little...unexplainable feeling in her heart.

She also expressed doubts about Kujo Renji's plan.

"The Toyokawa Group is so large and has so many businesses. Even if you find some loopholes or create some trouble, it should be just a drop in the bucket for the entire group, right? Can it really shake Grandpa's foundation?"

Upon hearing this, Kujo Renji smiled and did not directly answer Xiangzi's question. Instead, he asked:

"Ms. Xiangzi, do you still remember... why your father Fengchuan Qing complained and was kicked out of the Fengchuan family by your grandfather?"

"Eh?"

Xiangzi was stunned for a moment, obviously not expecting Lian Si to suddenly ask this.

She recalled it for a moment and said uncertainly:

"It seems... it's because... a major investment project he was responsible for went terribly wrong, causing the company to... lose a large sum of money?"

"Do you remember how much money you lost?"

"One hundred sixty-eight billion..."

Kujo Renji looked at the computer screen and saw a series of "precision strike" plans he had carefully planned for different business areas of the Toyokawa Group.

He cleverly controlled the expected "loss" amount for each plan to... 16.8 billion yen.

“Wait, wait!”

Toyokawa Shoko suddenly realized something

"You're asking me this question... and considering the actions you've been planning against the Toyokawa Group recently... are you planning to..."

Xiangzi's voice trembled slightly, she seemed to have guessed Kujo Renji's "sinister intentions"!

Jiujo Renji did not admit it directly, but asked in a joking tone:

"What else? Miss Xiangzi, do you think there is any number that would leave a greater impression on your grandfather than this?"

"..."

My mind fell into a strange silence.

After a long while, Xiangzi's voice sounded again, but this time, there was no longer any worry and confusion in her voice.

Instead, there was a mixture of shock, disbelief, and a hint of uncontrollable excitement and excitement.

"You...really...really..."

She seemed to want to find a suitable word to describe Kujo Renji's "bad taste", but after racking her brains for a long time, she found that she couldn't find any words that could accurately express her feelings at the moment?

Because she found that she actually had a strong resonance with Kujo Renji's revenge method of "revenge for every grievance" and "an eye for an eye"!

Although this might just be a reflection of Kujo Renji's bad character...

but!

If, if this plan can really go smoothly...

If... when grandpa saw the financial statements showing a loss of "16.8 billion".

What wonderful expression will appear on your face?

When I think of that scene...

Toyokawa Shoko felt her heart pounding uncontrollably! An unprecedented excitement, mixed with a sense of revenge, surged out from the depths of her heart!

She never thought that one day she would resonate so strongly with Kujo Renji's "bad taste"!

It seemed that a new "tacit understanding" was reached between the two.

A wonderful tacit understanding based on shared "bad taste" and "expectations" for the future.

...

Time, like silent flowing water, flows forward slowly and steadily in the prosperous yet indifferent city of Tokyo.

For most ordinary people, life remains dull and mundane day after day. The trains are still crowded, work is still hectic, and the news is still filled with all kinds of bizarre social events and insignificant entertainment gossip.

However, in the top world where power and wealth are intertwined, which is invisible to ordinary people, a war without the smoke of gunpowder has already quietly begun and is intensifying.

Kujo Renji's plan was like a giant net carefully laid out under the calm surface of a lake. After a period of silence and brewing, it finally began to take effect.

The initial shock began from some seemingly insignificant departments within the Fengchuan Group.

Toyokawa Group, as one of the largest multinational corporations in Japan and even in Asia, has business scope covering almost every imaginable field - from traditional finance, real estate, energy, and heavy industry to emerging technology, communications, culture and entertainment.

It can be said that this is a true business giant whose tentacles have long penetrated into all aspects of the national economy.

However, such a behemoth has recently encountered some incredible "little troubles" one after another.

First, a subsidiary of the Toyokawa Group responsible for overseas mineral resource investment had just signed a valuable rare metal procurement contract with a small, little-known mining company in South America a month ago.

The contract was signed very smoothly, and the terms offered by the other party were quite generous. Everything seemed like a good deal with no loss.

However, just after the Toyokawa Group paid the first advance payment of billions of yen, the South American mining company seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth and completely lost contact.

The company's website was inaccessible, no one answered the office phone, and the personnel sent to conduct on-site inspections only found a dilapidated office that had long been deserted.

Billions of yen in advance payment were wasted.

Next up was a high-end luxury brand invested in Europe by the Toyokawa Group. The brand recently launched a limited-edition custom handbag. Its unique design and exquisite craftsmanship have garnered widespread acclaim from celebrities and wealthy women worldwide, and orders are pouring in. However, just as the first batch of products was about to be delivered, a serious quality issue suddenly surfaced: the leather used in all the handbags was dyed with an untested, low-quality chemical dye that not only fades easily but can also irritate and harm human skin.

The news caused an uproar. The brand's reputation plummeted, and it faced not only massive order cancellations and compensation, but also the possibility of completely losing the trust of the high-end market. An internal investigation revealed that the supplier of these substandard dyes was a recently established leather accessories trading company with unclear registration information.

Similar "accidents" and "losses" occurred one after another in various business areas of the Toyokawa Group in the following weeks, like a plague.

The subsidiary responsible for Southeast Asian shipping business suffered heavy losses due to a forged bill of lading, which resulted in a batch of valuable goods being claimed by unidentified persons.

The core server of a technology department investing in artificial intelligence research and development was suddenly attacked by unknown hackers. Although it finally successfully resisted the invasion, some important data was still stolen and tampered with, resulting in the postponement of a key project that was about to be launched.

Even the financial services department of the Toyokawa Group, which was proud of its monopoly in Japan, suffered considerable losses due to an elaborate "insider trading" fraud case that exploited system loopholes.

Judging from individual cases, the amounts of these "losses" and "commercial frauds" may not be particularly huge, and for the large and powerful Toyokawa Group, they seem to be within an acceptable range.

However, when these seemingly isolated incidents erupted intensively in a short period of time and affected so many different business areas under the group, it was enough to arouse the vigilance and panic of the entire group's senior management.

What is even more bizarre and disturbing is that when the Fengchuan Group mobilized a large amount of manpower and resources to try to track down the masterminds behind these incidents, they found that all the clues ultimately pointed to some unknown small businesses registered overseas or simply some shell companies with no actual business.

The registration information of these companies is unclear and the background of shareholders is difficult to trace.

The flow of funds is like a drop in the ocean. After layers of transfers and complex financial operations, they eventually disappear into anonymous accounts in some offshore financial centers with loose regulations.

It is almost impossible to protect your rights and seek redress through normal legal channels.

It was as if there was an invisible big hand carefully manipulating all of this in secret, eroding the flesh and blood of the Fengchuan Group bit by bit in a subtle way, causing this business giant to unknowingly lose precious wealth and, more importantly, market confidence.

When the financial audit department within the Fengchuan Group compiled and counted the "losses" and "frauds" of these different departments and fields, an even more horrifying discovery surfaced:

Whether it's the loss of advance payments for overseas mining investments, compensation for quality crises faced by luxury brands, fraudulent claims for shipping cargo, the theft of AI data, or financial sector fraud...

The total direct economic losses caused by these seemingly unrelated loss events that occurred in different business areas, after precise calculation and conversion, surprisingly... all pointed to an astonishingly consistent number!

16.8 billion yen!