Chapter 531: Betrothal Gifts? No! A Threat!

Chapter 531: Betrothal Gifts? No! A Threat!

“Wu Chen, is it?” An Huaiguo’s expression was extremely stern. “I know that if you dare take this stance before me today—if you dare say to my face that you want my daughter to be your second woman—you must have prepared thoroughly. You probably believe you can persuade me through some clever means. But let me tell you, that is absolutely impossible! I will never agree to you and Lanlan being together. If you two insist, then don’t blame me for—”

“Shhh—” Wu Chen abruptly raised a finger to his lips, cutting An Huaiguo off with a drawn-out hush. Lowering his hand, he said with an easy smile, “Boss An, I must remind you: it’s never wise to speak in absolute terms. Always leave yourself room to maneuver. Otherwise, you’re bound to regret it!”

Arrogance! Arrogance to the extreme!

This was precisely the impression Wu Chen intended to create. It was the fastest way to deal with An Huaiguo. He had no intention of lingering in Modu; after this, he still had to return to Donghai, lure Ding Ruilong there, and pull off something big!

He needed to cut right through this tangled mess. Whatever resolved it the quickest was the path he would take!

“You… What did you say? Ha! Make me regret it? I’ll regret stopping you two from being together?” An Huaiguo was so infuriated that he actually laughed out loud.

An Menglan suddenly realized that the arrogant persona Wu Chen had cultivated was working!

By painting himself as a madman—someone whose mind was fundamentally unhinged—he had actually broadened her father’s tolerance for his outrageous statements!

It was just like being abruptly cursed out by a stranger on the street: no ordinary person would ever tolerate that.

Yet if you knew in advance that this stranger was a notorious lunatic who took perverse pleasure in barking abuse at everyone he saw, you wouldn’t feel nearly as offended when his vitriol turned on you. Your threshold of tolerance would naturally be higher. Even if anger flared, you would likely just brush him off with a stern warning. You would never react as two reasonable adults might, trading blows until fists were flying!

The persona of madness was already paying dividends!

Though Wu Chen had provoked An Huaiguo to laugh in pure exasperation, that was the extent of his reaction.

An Menglan could easily imagine what would have happened without that groundwork. If any other young man had dared speak like this to her father, he would have had him dragged out the door on the spot, followed by a handful of phone calls to ruthlessly crush him into oblivion!

“That’s right! You will regret it!” Wu Chen met An Huaiguo’s gaze, the smile lingering on his lips while his eyes remained dead serious. “Because you haven’t yet heard what betrothal gifts I’ve prepared for you in exchange for your daughter.”

“Betrothal gifts? Ha! You dare speak of betrothal gifts?!” Once again, An Huaiguo laughed in sheer disbelief, his face practically screaming: How on earth can you even fix your mouth to say that?!

Telling a tycoon worth hundreds of billions: I want your daughter to be his second wife, I’ve prepared betrothal gifts, and you’ll definitely regret refusing?!

Was that something a sane human being would say?

Could any normal mind even conceive such a notion?

“What kind of betrothal gifts could you possibly afford? Money? A vast fortune?” An Huaiguo looked Wu Chen up and down once more, his tone dripping with open mockery. How much was a “vast fortune”? More than the An family possessed?

Without waiting for Wu Chen to answer, An Huaiguo pressed on, “And have you given any thought to Li Ruobing? Have you considered how she’ll react when she discovers you’re secretly involved with other women? As far as I know, Li Ruobing isn’t one to tolerate a single grain of sand in her eye! She’s famous for her forceful personality!”

It would be difficult to claim there was no threat laced into those words.

Translated into plain terms, it meant: I’ll report you to Li Ruobing!

Such was the art of language. An Huaiguo would never stoop to crude, heavy-handed threats, but the underlying message was identical!

“I can answer your second question first—or rather, correct your misconception.” Wu Chen met his gaze with a serene smile. “I’m not keeping other women on the sly. Ruobing knows all about your daughter and me! To be blunt, my dynamic with Ruobing isn’t what you imagine. She doesn’t interfere in my affairs with other women!”

An Huaiguo mirrored Wu Chen’s smile.

His expression spoke volumes: Kid, you sure know how to spin a mountain of bullshit!

An Huaiguo didn’t believe a single word of it, yet he had no intention of verifying it immediately.

Call her out and expose him on the spot?

He could never bring himself to do something so beneath his dignity! He would much rather dismantle this lunatic’s grand illusions right here, forcing his daughter to see the man’s true colors and pull herself back from the abyss!

“Now, as for your first question. You asked what the betrothal gifts are… Money! In a manner of speaking, you could call it money!” Wu Chen stared at An Huaiguo, his smile worn like a natural, indelible mask. “I have always lived by one conviction: there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests!”

“Blood ties, romantic feelings, even so-called brotherly loyalty—people may turn against each other despite all those things, yet sufficient benefits can bring them close again! Enough money can even smooth over the murder of one’s father or the theft of one’s wife!” Wu Chen paused, studying An Huaiguo’s face, before adding, “Besides, there’s no blood feud between us, is there?”

“And what of it?” An Huaiguo had regained his cool. Faced with a madman, he couldn’t afford to lose his own head. “You babble on about eternal interests and fortunes… Do you have any idea how much my daughter is worth? Do you have any idea how much I’m worth?”

At that, a sudden realization struck An Huaiguo.

“What is Zhuang Xiaodie to you?!” he snapped.

“My woman.” Wu Chen offered him a smile confirming he had hit the mark. “She holds those shares on my behalf!”

An Huaiguo bolted upright, his face flushed with fury!

He finally understood why his daughter had skirted the question so evasively earlier!

Once again, he felt the entire world had lost its mind!

Not only had his daughter consented to be a secondary woman to this man named Wu Chen, but she had done so knowing he had a primary partner and other women on the side?!

What did that make her?

The third? The fourth? The fifth?!

And what kind of deranged logic had driven her to hand over fifty percent of her company’s equity? How could anyone commit an act of such utter madness?!

Was she actually paying to become his second woman?!

Was she determined to strip herself of every last shred of dignity?

“Dad! We should at least hear him out first, shouldn’t we?” At this pivotal moment, An Menglan stepped in. Her tone was earnest as she reasoned with her father, successfully soothing An Huaiguo just as he was on the verge of erupting.

She played directly upon his desire to see her come to her senses.

They had to lay everything out on the table first; if that failed, it still wouldn’t be too late to take action!

Wu Chen shot a glance at An Menglan, his eyes carrying a flicker of approval.

She hadn’t let him down when it counted. Compared to Li Ruobing, An Menglan lacked that ruthless, razor-sharp edge, and her methods were entirely different. Yet when pushed to the brink, she possessed a quiet wisdom of her own.

At the very least, she understood that this conversation had to continue.

She also knew that even if she had remained silent, Wu Chen would have found a way to talk her father back into his seat in a few sentences. But she was a party to this affair; she had to do her part.

Calmed by his daughter’s intervention, An Huaiguo drew a deep breath, rested a hand on his knee, and slowly sank back onto the sofa.

He began scrutinizing Wu Chen with a cold, piercing gaze, though he couldn’t resist another caustic barb.

“Do you know how much money I have? And you dare speak to me of betrothal gifts?” An Huaiguo demanded. Since Wu Chen had been the one to bring up money first, phrasing it this way did nothing to compromise his standing.

“You are wealthy. Exceedingly wealthy. Your family commands assets worth well over a hundred billion yuan,” Wu Chen replied unhurriedly, keeping his eyes on An Huaiguo. “But so what? You cannot deny that the An family has lost its former luster. You have failed to keep pace with the times.”

“Xiangjiang is no longer the place where gold seemed to lie scattered in the streets. That era is dead and gone. Every local market is saturated to the brim. If the An family wishes to grow, it has no choice but to push into the mainland.”

“Yet how could breaking into the mainland ever be simple? I imagine that is precisely what you’ve spent the past few years striving to achieve! But the results have been meager. The An family is simply too massive. If you poured all your capital in at once, the major mainland families would inevitably react, blocking your expansion and suppressing your ventures at every turn!”

“The pie is only so large! If the An family marches in to seize their territory, you directly threaten their core interests. A ferocious backlash is unavoidable!”

“From what I know, the An family began laying out its mainland strategy shortly after the turn of the century. You moved early, yet you failed to produce meaningful results back then. Outdated philosophies, a bloated family hierarchy, rampant nepotism running from top to bottom—if you could have won a clean victory on the mainland with baggage like that, it would have been a miracle!”

“Though you recognized the rot early on and made sweeping, aggressive reforms a decade ago, it was already far too late.”

“The An family may have weathered its worst storms of domestic and external turmoil, but it still couldn’t catch up with the times.”

“You have holdings spanning countless industries—real estate, electronic components, import-export trade, textiles, shipping, and more. In recent years, you’ve also aggressively invested in emerging sectors, including chip manufacturing and internet technology… Yet in truth, those investments haven’t yielded remarkable success. I’m not saying they failed; rather, your stakes were modest, co-invested alongside other major funds. So even when a firm successfully went public and its stock price multiplied several times over, your actual returns were limited.”

“Today, the An family’s total assets have actually contracted compared to your peak at the close of the last century!”

“The family as a whole is trapped in an uncontrollable decline! The only sector still thriving is your entertainment and media division—Huaxing Entertainment Group. Thanks to the explosive growth of the mainland market and your early foothold there, it continues to expand, cementing itself as one of the three giants of the entertainment industry.”

In a single breath, Wu Chen had laid bare the An family’s current reality and the predicament they faced.

Every single word was dead accurate!

Nor was it particularly miraculous intelligence.

Anyone could pick up a reputable financial journal, flip through its special reports from recent years, and easily find an analysis of Huaxing Group.

For a titan like Huaxing, institutional struggles of this scale were impossible to keep under wraps.

“What exactly are you trying to say?” An Huaiguo asked, his face expressionless. Naturally, he was well aware of his family’s state, but this was hardly the core of their discussion.

“As the saying goes, a starving camel is still bigger than a horse. Huaxing Group remains a colossus. Yet if this decline goes unchecked, the day will come when this giant collapses. You can’t deny that possibility, can you?” Wu Chen asked with a faint smile.

“Ha.” An Huaiguo let out a brief, humorless chuckle before his face hardened once more.

His demeanor practically said: Who the hell are you to pass judgment on whether Huaxing Group lives or dies?!

“So… having reached this point, I’ll lay it bare. The betrothal gifts I offer in exchange for your daughter amount to a hundred billion yuan. Roughly a hundred billion, I should think.more than enough to double the An family’s assets in one fell swoop.” Wu Chen spoke with effortless nonchalance, devoid of the slightest gravity, as though he were tossing around a thousand yuan rather than a hundred billion.

An Huaiguo remained stone-faced.

This time, he didn’t laugh; he held it in.

It wasn’t that a hundred billion held no appeal for him; rather, anyone who bought into such an absurd claim would have to be an utter fool.

Yet An Huaiguo was gradually growing accustomed to Wu Chen’s supreme conceit—or rather, his lunatic ravings.

“Actually, it’s not merely a matter of a hundred billion. My betrothal gifts also include helping the An family’s other businesses enter the mainland market,” Wu Chen added casually.

An Huaiguo still didn’t laugh, reining himself in once more.

What a monumental load of bullshit!

Casually tossing around a hundred billion yuan as a gift? Even the richest man on the planet wouldn’t dare utter such a claim lightly! It wasn’t that the world’s wealthiest individual couldn’t muster a hundred billion, but mobilizing capital on that scale carried astronomical repercussions. As long as one remained human—never mind an intelligent human, merely human—one would never spout such brainless nonsense.

And now he claimed he would pave the way for the An family’s other industries to expand across the mainland!

That boast was even more outrageous than the hundred billion!

At least a hundred billion could be explained away by force. For instance: I’ve discovered an untapped market. Believe it or not, I say it’s worth a hundred billion, no one else has touched it yet, and I’m the sole person who holds the key! I’m sharing this secret with you, so I’m giving you a hundred billion…

If you were shameless enough, you could at least spin a thread about a hundred-billion-yuan project. You’d have something to say.

Yet facilitating the An family’s full-scale entry into the mainland…

How could anyone dare make such a claim?!

You couldn’t even fabricate a convincing lie if you tried!

The issue was endlessly complex, entangled with far too many vested interests!

The An family’s scale was simply too large. The family’s direct capital was worth a hundred billion, but the total capital controlled through those stakes ran into the hundreds of billions!

Take, for instance, a real estate firm under Huaxing Group in which the An family held a twenty percent stake as the largest shareholder. That portion belonged entirely to the Ans, valued at two billion yuan, while the company’s overall market capitalization was ten billion!

Thus, by industry standards, the An family possessed two billion while commanding ten billion in capital!

That was the reality of high finance.

The An family genuinely owned over a hundred billion in personal equity, which meant the broader capital under their influence reached several hundred billion!

Only at this magnitude could a family truly be called a financial dynasty!

And precisely because of that monstrous bulk, small-scale investments on the mainland could never resolve their systemic decline. Yet if the An family attempted a full-scale industrial invasion, they would be met with rabid, merciless resistance!

Originally, though the An family and the major mainland clans occupied the same social stratum and had occasional dealings, they did not belong to the same circle at all!

When it came to carving up colossal fortunes, unless you knew each other down to the bone and had forged unbreakable ties over decades, you could forget about getting a seat at the table!

The An family’s competitors would inevitably be other corporate behemoths, and behind every one of those behemoths stood a prominent mainland clan.

Those people were the locals, with connections reaching into every corner.

What chance did the An family have against them?

That was why, in An Huaiguo’s eyes, Wu Chen’s second claim was vastly more absurd than the hundred billion.

How could he possibly spin that?

An Huaiguo knew that even if he swallowed his pride, approached the business representatives put forward by those major families, made massive concessions, and practically begged to be allowed to do business, they would still hardly agree. They were terrified of inviting a wolf into their fold. Once the An family’s capital established a firm foothold on the mainland and greased every critical gear, wouldn’t those families simply be bringing misery upon themselves? Wouldn’t they be nurturing another enormous competitor?

Naturally, the An family could expand into remote regions.

Countless third- and fourth-tier cities desperately sought outside investment and would welcome a giant like the Ans with open arms.

Yet why would the An family go to places the local giants couldn’t even be bothered to touch—places lacking resources, resources or established industrial supply chains?

To lose money?

In truth, it wasn’t completely impossible for the An family’s ventures to enter major mainland cities; it was simply that the resistance was suffocating. Projects struggled to get off the ground, competitors tripped them at every turn, and even if a venture finally launched, profitability was never guaranteed. Business, after all, was always a gamble between profit and loss.

Suppose that under normal circumstances, an An family investment on the mainland had a sixty or seventy percent chance of yielding a profit.

Stripped of the right timing, the right geography, and the right human alliances…

That probability would plummet to forty or even thirty percent!

What would be the damn point?!

Of course, the An family’s current dilemma could not be boiled down to basic probability, but those raw numbers served to illustrate the point!

Wu Chen was essentially saying: I’ll hand you a hundred billion yuan, and I’ll resolve every macro hurdle your family faces on the mainland! I will deliver the right timing, the right geography, and the right human alliances for you!

Nobody bragged like this!

An Huaiguo had grown numb to it—truly, completely numb.

He cast another glance at his daughter. He felt it was absolutely imperative that she see this man for what he was!

Fine, then… Let’s see what kind of fairy tale he weaves!

“A hundred billion? Where are you going to get a hundred billion? Are you referring to some untapped industry that could generate that much?” An Huaiguo asked flatly.

“No! I am referring to Hezhong Media, its affiliated entities, and the capital forces backing them!” Wu Chen replied.

“Hezhong?” An Huaiguo remained expressionless, though a brow twitched upward. Then, devoid of emotion, he said, “Don’t tell me you’re planning to hand Hezhong over to me? Ha! If Huaxing and Hezhong were to merge and swallow the associated capital interests along with it, the value would exceed far more than a hundred billion. Huaxing would establish an absolute monopoly over the entertainment industry…”

An Huaiguo was dripping with sarcasm.

So… you’re giving me Hezhong?

How impressive of you!

Who knew Hezhong Media belonged to you? My apologies, my mistake!

Wu Chen naturally caught the sarcasm, but he couldn’t care less. Having laid all the groundwork, he finally bared his fangs!

“That is precisely the case. My ultimate objective is just as you described: for Huaxing Entertainment and Hezhong Media to merge, becoming an entertainment empire in a league entirely its own… I know you may not be keen to cooperate, but I must remind you: I will have Peng Wei continue leaking damaging dirt on Hezhong Media, and I will ensure the flames spread straight to Huaxing’s doorstep.”

“You have only two choices.”

“First, accept my betrothal gifts and join my game. I will ensure you take over Hezhong Media smoothly.”

“Second, refuse me! I can guarantee that the online public outcry will be far more intense than you can imagine. When the time comes, Huaxing Entertainment and Hezhong Media will tear each other apart with scandal after scandal, poisoning public opinion online until both face severe punishment from the authorities—even… utter ruin!”

Betrothal gifts!

Wu Chen kept repeating the phrase!

In reality, it was merely a way for An Huaiguo to save face!

What Wu Chen was actually doing was threatening him!

Yet An Huaiguo was An Menglan’s father, after all. Wu Chen could never allow the situation to degenerate into an irreconcilable, bitter enmity. Otherwise, An Menglan would be torn apart, caught between the man she loved and her family!

The ultimate resolution Wu Chen intended was for An Huaiguo to yield to his threat, have no choice but to enter the fold, and become a member of the secret alliance between the Li, Sun, Tang, and other great dynasties! The An family would serve as another force in the eventual destruction of the Ding family! Naturally, along the way, the Ans would reap astronomical rewards!

Yet if it were framed purely as naked extortion, An Huaiguo would find it unbearable to swallow afterward. He would be cornered with no face left, stripped of any dignified retreat.

That was why providing a way to save face was paramount.

An Menglan sat frozen in shock.

She could clearly hear that Wu Chen was threatening her father! What she couldn’t comprehend was how he dared!

“So you’ve been the one pulling the strings all along!” An Huaiguo’s face shifted violently.

Why had he come to Modu in the first place?

Precisely because of this mess!

He had been utterly furious at Peng Wei’s reckless, rogue crusade, which had brought colossal trouble to his doorstep!

That trouble stemmed from his visceral dread of the authorities’ iron fist.

Online public opinion was not something to be trifled with. If Peng Wei kept releasing devastating dirt and Hezhong Media retaliated in kind, both sides trading blows and exposing a fresh outrage every day, neither would emerge unscathed. Then… who knew when that enormous hand might descend and crush both entertainment and media giants!

Huaxing Entertainment was currently the An family’s sole thriving engine, responsible for feeding cash flow into their other struggling enterprises.

If something happened to Huaxing, the fallout would be catastrophic!

“Come in!” Wu Chen suddenly turned toward the office door and called out.

The two men seated in the corridor outside rose immediately, walked to the entrance, pushed the doors open, and stepped inside.

“Allow me to introduce them.” Wu Chen gestured toward the pair and stated plainly, “This is Peng Wei. You should know him well; he’s been working for me lately… And this is Shang Yunlu. You should recognize him as well; he was an actor years ago, and is now a middle manager in Hezhong Media’s publicity and promotion division… Currently, he works for me too.”

With that, Wu Chen signaled to Peng Wei and Shang Yunlu.

Both men had arrived carrying document envelopes and laptops.

At Wu Chen’s gesture, they began laying the items out on the table.

There was an astonishing quantity of envelopes. Large folders housed thick stacks of smaller packets. They unpacked them methodically, arranging them across the coffee table one by one, each clearly labeled with a name.

The names encompassed Hezhong Media’s marquee celebrities as well as its senior corporate executives.

Could every single one of these be damaging dirt?

The thought had already crossed An Huaiguo’s mind. After all, they were being laid out by none other than Peng Wei, the nation’s premier paparazzo.

Suddenly!

An Huaiguo’s pupils contracted!

He had caught sight of an exceptionally familiar name, scrawled across a massive, unusually thick envelope!

That person was Hezhong Media’s largest shareholder!

An Huaiguo couldn’t stop himself from reaching out. He seized the envelope, tore it open, and tipped out its contents…

A fan of photographs spilled out first.

Photographs of a corpse.