TYRPSM Chapter8

Nie Yunshen took advantage of the lunch break to check the account records for the Lans Group, which indeed showed several incoming transfers at 9:05 AM that morning. The total amount perfectly matched the project loan due today, down to the last cent.

When Nie Yunshen clicked for details, he saw that these funds had been transferred late last Friday, just as the workday was ending. Because corporate accounts cannot automatically process entries after 4:30 PM, the credits only became visible once business resumed today.

In other words, Lans Group had already mobilized the funds last week; there was no need to apply for an extension at all. Yet Shu An hadn’t told him a word about it. Instead, he had arrived at the hotel as planned and spent two full days thoroughly screwing him.

A sudden chill ran down Nie Yunshen’s spine. When he picked up his phone to dial the number, his hands were shaking.

Shu An’s voice soon came through the phone, and Nie Yunshen exploded with a full-force curse.

“Shu An, screw your uncle!”

Shu An seemed to be at a social engagement; Nie Yunshen heard him say, “Excuse me, please pardon me for a moment,” and only after a short while did his voice return.

“I don’t have an uncle.”

“……” Nie Yunshen never expected such a response. The torrential rage he was about to unleash had nowhere to go, leaving him feeling like he was about to combust. “What the hell do you mean by this?”

Shu An knew exactly what he was referring to but he didn’t answer. Instead, he started a different topic: “Have you eaten?”

“Eat my ass! So you were determined to screw me from the very beginning, weren’t you? Fine, great. I, Nie Yunshen, admit defeat. From now on, you’d better pray that all of Lans Group’s accounts are flawless and airtight, or I will definitely find an opportunity to destroy you!”

Fuming and completely irrational, Nie Yunshen spat out the words in a torrent without waiting for Shu An’s reaction. He slammed the phone and hung up, then with a swing of his arm, sent his brand-new iPhone flying straight toward the door.

Thinking about his poor digestion, Du Cheng hadn’t had the heart to let Director Nie go hungry; he hadn’t even eaten himself before bringing up a bowl of porridge and two side dishes. Just as he reached the door, he heard a loud thwack. Pushing the door open, he saw the phone on the floor with a screen cracked like a spiderweb and immediately clicked his tongue twice.

“What happened here?”

Nie Yunshen hadn’t expected him to return so quickly. Before he could mask his expression, the blazing fury in his bloodshot eyes was almost tangible enough to burst forth.

No matter how thick-skinned Du Cheng was, he could tell that this man was truly livid. This was the first time he had ever seen Nie Yunshen this enraged. Even back when he first took over the Risk Management Department, when a case involving a client conspiring with an accounting firm to maliciously falsify financial data nearly rendered the entire Corporate Loan Department’s year-long efforts void, he had remained composed and methodical, taking swift action to minimize the bank’s losses. Du Cheng truly couldn’t imagine who or what could possibly drive Director Nie, a man who stayed calm and collected regardless of the workplace crisis, to the point of his eyes turning red with rage.

He placed the packed porridge and side dishes on the desk and asked jokingly, “Are you angry enough to cry?”

“F*ck off!” Nie Yunshen’s expression looked very much like he wanted to flip the table. “I’m warning you, Laozi is in a terrible mood today. You’d better not mess with me.”

“I won’t, I won’t. You’re the boss.” Du Cheng pushed the food container toward him. “Eat something first. You can get back to being angry after you’ve eaten.”

Nie Yunshen didn’t say anything; he grabbed the container as he snapped his chopsticks apart and started eating.

Du Cheng then turned around, picked up the phone from the floor, and pressed a few buttons. Surprisingly, it lit up.

“Aside from the screen being a complete mess, the hardware is basically still functional… oh, there’s a text message.”

As Du Cheng spoke, he held the uniquely shattered phone close to his eyes to carefully decipher the content of the message.

“I’m, coming over, this afternoon.” Since Nie Yunshen hadn’t saved the name, the sender was displayed only as a phone number so Du Cheng finished reading and turned back to ask, “Who’s coming over this afternoon?”

Nie Yunshen, who was slurping his porridge, remained deaf to the question. After three seconds, he suddenly recognized the sender of the text and ground out four words through clenched teeth: “Tell him to die.”

Du Cheng nodded and honestly replied to the message with: The owner of this phone wants you to die.

When Nie Yunshen later saw the message he had sent, he nearly fainted from rage.

After sending the text, Du Cheng tossed the phone back to him and went out to eat. On his way back, he suddenly received a call from an unfamiliar number. The person on the other end was very polite when introducing himself as the son of Huo Qizheng, the chairman of the Lans Group. Since he was about to take over as the CEO of Lans Group, he hoped to meet with the relevant personnel at F Bank to discuss next year’s cooperation plan.

Du Cheng naturally accepted the olive branch that the Lans Group had proactively offered. It was important to note that despite his years of effort, Lans Group had only placed less than 30% of the group’s business with F Bank. Huo Qizheng was a shrewd operator; he wouldn’t risk everything on a single option. Besides F Bank, the stakes held by two other major domestic banks were equally significant.

Du Cheng knew that Huo Qizheng had a son, but since the son held no company shares and didn’t hold any position within the firm, Du Cheng naturally hadn’t inquired further. He had always assumed that this young master of the Huo family, who was studying abroad, must be quite young. He never expected that upon returning, the young man would pull such a major move as to directly take over his father’s company.

For any company, shifts in key decision-makers and senior management are significant issues that must be treated with utmost seriousness. From a banking perspective, this is also a clear potential risk. After all, a new leader will inevitably bring significant variables to the company’s future development strategy and business deployment. Such variables could be positive or negative. To put it bluntly, the mindset and vision of a decision-maker determine the life or death of an enterprise.

Du Cheng took this matter very seriously. Upon returning to the bank, he intended to first brief Nie Yunshen but he was intercepted midway by the head of the Asset Protection Department and dragged into a discussion regarding collection issues for a client already classified as bad debt. By the time he was free again, other matters demanded his attention; it wasn’t until Shu An had already arrived at the bank that he realized he had forgotten to notify Nie Yunshen.

The people accompanying Shu An were his assistant Xiao Zhou, CFO Sister Ning, and a Vice President with the surname Liang. The group of four entered the conference room accompanied by Du Cheng.

As the parties exchanged business cards, Du Cheng looked at the name on the card with some surprise.

Shu An explained at the opportune moment, “I take my mother’s surname.”

Du Cheng smiled. “I see. Please have a seat, CEO Shu. I’ll send someone to fetch Director Nie from the Risk Control Department; he should be here shortly.”

When Director Nie, who was completely unaware of the situation, was invited over by a junior intern from the Business Department, he felt a sudden urge to smash his computer the moment he stepped through the door.

The intern had told him an important client had arrived and that Director Du requested his presence in the conference room, but Nie had forgotten to ask exactly which client it was.

Had he known in advance that it was Shu An, the black-hearted bastard through and through, he wouldn’t have come, not even if his life depended on it. He had never imagined that Shu An’s message saying “come over in the afternoon” was to be taken literally.

Nie Yunshen clenched his back teeth, mentally ripping Shu An to pieces a hundred and twenty times, before at last forcing a flawless smile and stepping forward.

Putting on an act? Who the hell couldn’t do that?

Du Cheng stood up to introduce the two of them: “This is Mr. Shu, the newly appointed CEO of the Lans Group…”

“No need for introductions, Director Du.” Shu An interrupted Du Cheng, his lips curling into a slight smile as he looked at Nie Yunshen. “Director Nie and I were high school classmates.”

“???” Du Cheng looked completely bewildered. “Really?”

He directed the question at Nie Yunshen.

Nie Yunshen said, “That’s right. Old classmates, it’s been a long time.”

As he spoke, he extended his hand toward Shu An. The moment their hands locked, he put every ounce of strength he had into a vicious squeeze.

Shu An, however, didn’t exert any force at all. He simply maintained that elegant, poised smile and let him squeeze to his heart’s content.

Nie Yunshen spent a lot of time in the gym and maintained a regular outdoor workout schedule so his grip strength was no joke. Despite this, he failed to see even a trace of pain on Shu An’s face, which instantly ratcheted up his frustration.

Feeling a total lack of accomplishment, he withdrew his hand and sat down on the opposite side of the conference table. During the negotiations that followed, he tested the boundaries of being difficult and meticulous, posing questions so sharp that Du Cheng repeatedly felt as if he was deliberately trying to provoke a conflict.

Shu An responded with unfailing good humor. Although he had only recently returned to the country to take over the company, his grasp of its past operations, current status, and future goals was remarkably clear. He was even intimately familiar with obscure financial data, not to mention the land reserves and construction progress in various cities. His mind operated like a high-performance, state-of-the-art computer; if needed, he could pull up any data or detail about the Lans Group from recent years.

Nie Yunshen was actually somewhat surprised. Shu An’s performance proved him to be the most qualified successor for the Lans Group. He possessed even greater leadership and vigorous ambition than his father, with a keen sense for the market and a grasp of trends that made his decision-making seem remarkably stable and reliable. If not for that mess over the weekend, Nie Yunshen would have almost stood up and cheered for the man.

But this was also the same man who had screwed him inside out and then treated him like a goddamn fool.

Nie Yunshen could not swallow this insult.

As the negotiations concluded, Du Cheng and Shu An reached a preliminary agreement on next year’s cooperation. Just as they rose to leave, Shu An suddenly raised his hand to check his watch. “It’s past six; you all should be getting off work soon, right? If it’s convenient, let’s have a simple dinner together.”

Du Cheng laughed. “For those of us in business, there’s no such thing as getting off work on time. I still have a few cases to look over, so there’s no need to be so polite, CEO Shu.”

Shu An nodded and turned his gaze toward Nie Yunshen. Before he could even open his mouth, Nie Yunshen said coldly, “I need to work overtime too.”

Unaware of the underlying tensions between them, Du Cheng immediately betrayed Director Nie.

“You’re not feeling well; you shouldn’t work late. Go home early and get some rest.”

Nie Yunshen had to exercise extreme restraint to keep from smashing his laptop over the head of this “pig teammate”, Du Cheng.

Shu An spoke up, “Director Nie isn’t feeling well?” Du Cheng said, “Yeah, between straining his back and having stomach issues, I have no idea what he was up to over the weekend.”

The speaker was casual, but the listener was sensitive; the moment Nie Yunshen heard the word “weekend,” his already sour expression darkened even further.

“I’m not finished with my work yet, so I won’t see you out, CEO Shu. Take care.”

After saying that, he gave a polite nod to Sister Ning and Vice President Liang, then spun on his heel and was the first to exit the conference room.

Du Cheng gave Shu An an awkward smile. “I’m so sorry. Our Director Nie isn’t feeling well today, and his mood seems to have followed suit…”

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