Chapter 189: The Promise, Teaching My Son His First Lesson (5k)
The story starts in Chapter 189 of "I Am Your Natural Enemy": Wu Tingsheng looked at his sonâs heartfelt smile, wiping away tears as he laughed beside... Donât miss it!
Wu Tingsheng looked at his sonâs heartfelt smile, wiping away tears as he laughed beside him. After settling Xiao Wu, he brought Wen Yan into the study.
As soon as they entered, he grasped Wen Yanâs hands tightly, his expression unusually earnest.
"I donât even know how to thank you. Honestly, Iâm already incredibly grateful for how things stand now.
But I can guess thereâs definitely still a lot more going on behind the scenes.
I wonât ask what those things areâjust let me say this.
Iâve been fighting in business for so many years. Not the very top tier, maybe, but if I put my whole fortune on the line, getting together tens of billions wouldnât be too difficult.
No matter whatâs coming up next, if thereâs anywhere I can lend a hand, just say the word.
The happiest days of my life were when I bought the land for this villa district.
Back then, I was full of ambition, with a clever son and a happy family.
I canât say I have any other real skills besides two cents to my name and a few friends bought with money.
Money is fleeting to me. If I have to give it up, I will. Doesnât bother me at all.
Wen Sheng, donât you dare stand on ceremony with me. I mean it."
Wu Tingsheng spoke with absolute sincerity, gripping Wen Yanâs hands tightly, afraid Wen Yan might think these were just empty words.
Wen Yan, truth be told, hadnât explained things all that clearly; Feng Yao hadnât either.
But Wu Tingshengâs ability to build his business so large wasnât something you could sum up just by saying "heâs good at business."
He still had the basicsâreading people, drawing inferences, all that.
He knew, to pull something like this off, there had to be some big force behind it.
And whatever it was, it couldnât be anything but power or money.
Nowadays, maybe you have to add a fist thatâs big and hard enough too.
Coincidentally, Wu Tingsheng might not have much else, but he had money to spare.
All these years, heâd never blindly expanded, his business always looked lukewarm, like he was lacking any drive.
But the group he controlled had a debt ratio way below the industry average. For years the cash flow had been flush, so much so it just sat there depreciating every year.
That tiny bit of debt? Most of it was just to maintain relationships anyway, basically a fixed cost.
Every year, heâd hand out huge dividends to shareholdersâso much that in the end, theyâd suggest, "Why not try something else too?"
Even if we lose money, everyone can live with it.
So Wu Tingsheng became an investor, throwing out tons of money over the years. Almost 99% of it went down the drain.
Yet not a single shareholder minded; on the contrary, they actually thanked Wu Tingsheng for letting them in when he set up his investment company.
Now, with Wu Tingsheng running things so zen-like, everyone figured it was just as well.
Because out of the hundreds of projects they invested in, even though nearly all were losses, two made a killing.
One was in drones, another in batteries.
Especially that drone companyâat first, he just wanted to waste some money backing some college kids, pretend to be a generous benefactor, build goodwill on campus. Never expected, step by step over a decade, it quietly became an absolute powerhouse.
Roughly speaking, if you count the valuation, just Wu Tingshengâs personal share there would be three or four billion at least.
Anyway, thereâs no public financial report, no IPO, not even an official controlling stakeâhardly anyone knows about it.
If they did, Wu Tingsheng wouldnât be just giving away villas, never selling.
This villa district, for all its reputation and whatever else, still doesnât even fetch the price per square meter of a city high-rise. But for a single villa, once you add in renovation, furniture, home appliances and all that, you canât get one for less than a couple million at least.
In reality, the cost of the interiors is more expensive than the house itself...
Wu Tingsheng doesnât care about any of that; itâs just because he feels like it.
This is pocket change at most, but now that he thinks his whole net worth doesnât matter, that he might as well put it all on the lineâwell, then itâs a different story.
Feng Yao listened beside him, heart racing and cold sweat breaking out.
The money these people hold onto isnât just moneyâif they know what theyâre doing, they can leverage it thirty times over like itâs nothing. If they stretch themselves, even a hundredfold isnât impossible.
And Wu Tingsheng is all about real industryâall his investments are in brick-and-mortar businesses.
If he wanted to cash out, he wouldnât even need to make a public announcement; just find someone who could eat it, and theyâd happily pay a premium. If he wanted a partner, heâd get goodwill right away.
The only reason is, years ago when he was hit hard, he lost the drive to borrow and snowball things. He could bear the early constant losses, didnât care if he wasnât making money right away. Losing out in the end didnât faze himâbut still, he hemorrhaged a ton of cash.
Because of that, after casting a wide net, he really did catch a goldfish. Nobody could fake that kind of luck.
Feng Yao knew the stakesâthis involved He Changfeng, it involved the Changfeng Group.
He almost couldnât hold back from speaking out, but when he glanced at Wen Yan, he held his tongue.
Now he understood why, just hearing about all this, Minister Cai would go all in to make sure Wen Yan got involved.
Because if it were anyone else, it just wouldnât work. Especially couldnât let the Scorching Sun Department get involved directlyâit might even backfire.
How can you expect a billionaire who doesnât even care about his fortune, because of his foolish son, to give up on his son?
How come it feels like everyoneâs drunk before theyâve even started drinking?
If Wu Tingsheng found out, if Wu Tingsheng really stirred up trouble, and you threw Changfeng Group into the mixâregardless of who won or lost, it would be chaos, in the most literal sense.
Wen Yan didnât even dare let Wu Tingsheng see He Changfeng, of courseânot wanting things to get out of hand.
He reached out with his other hand and patted Wu Tingshengâs hand.
"Boss Wu, youâre giving me too much credit. Honestly, at first I just felt a bit bad turning down the benefits."