At the start, I had to choose one of four options, and I immediately picked the Brahmin from the cou

Zhao Bin knew exactly what was going on.

He knew that the unfinished project in Linjiang was a bottomless pit, and that the bulk of Lao Zhao's assets would eventually be seized by the court to pay off debts, turning him, a rich second-generation, into a debtor.

But these eight commercial concrete mixing plants and earthmoving truck fleets are the last piece of fat meat that Lao Zhao left behind when he started out, without being tainted by bad debts.

That was the empire built by his own father. Why should Duan Xue, a little vixen who has only been in the business for two or three years, take it and cash it out at a low price so she can run away?

"I heard that yesterday afternoon, Zhao Bin led his men straight to the InterContinental Hotel. If it weren't for Ma Bo's bodyguards stopping him outside, Zhao Bin would have dragged Duan Xue out of her suite and beaten her half to death on the spot." Zheng Hao became more and more excited as he spoke.

He was jumping up and down in the corridor, cursing, saying that although Lao Zhao was the legal representative of the concrete mixing plant, it was his mother's premarital property, built up with Lao Zhao back then, and as his only son, he had absolute inheritance rights. He also threatened that anyone who dared to buy Duan Xue's shares privately was going against him, Zhao Bin, and he would make sure their dump trucks couldn't even get onto the national highways in Tianshui City!

"With Zhao Bin's meager abilities?" Zheng Guodong scoffed disdainfully. "He's just a spoiled brat who only knows how to party and drive supercars. Once I'm gone, he's nothing! He only dares to shout a few words at the hotel entrance. If it really comes down to a fight, Ma Bochang could crush him with a single finger."

"Dad, you're really wrong." Zheng Hao lowered his voice, his expression becoming somewhat strange. "Zhao Bin is truly desperate this time. Not only did he bring men, but he also somehow managed to get through to the court overnight to apply for property preservation, demanding a freeze on the equity changes of those eight concrete mixing plants and the earthmoving truck fleet! And..."

"He also contacted several underworld figures in Tianshui City who had been cooperating with Lao Zhao for many years, spreading the word that if anyone could help him protect these assets, he would be willing to give them a 30% stake after the deal was done!"

"A 30% stake? This kid's gone mad! He's going to completely muddy the waters of Tianshui City!"

"That's right!" Zheng Hao nodded repeatedly. "The whole of Tianshui City is in complete chaos right now. Duan Xue is eager to cash out, Zhao Bin is determined to stop her, Ma Bochang is taking kickbacks from both sides, and the buyer from the provincial capital is still observing. These parties are practically ready to fight each other in the street over this little bit of asset."

"This water's turned into a muddy swamp, how could your brother Xiao have gotten involved?" Zheng Guodong's brows furrowed deeply. "Zhao Bin is like a mad dog gone mad with greed; anyone who gets involved will get into trouble. Could it be that Young Master Li is really going to accept his 30% stake and wade into this mess with him?"

"Take over Zhao Bin's 30% stake?" Zheng Hao nearly spat out the mouthful of herbal tea. He hurriedly wiped his mouth, his face clearly saying, "How can you look down on people like that?" "Dad, do you think Xiao Ge is one of those nouveau riche opportunists? He personally went to Tianshui; how could he possibly become Zhao Bin's employee!"

"Who is Brother Xiao? Is he an ordinary person? Let me tell you, Dad—when Zhao Bin was blocking the Intercontinental Hotel and cursing, Brother Xiao had already arrived in Tianshui. He didn't bring many people, just me and Fatty Zhou, plus two legal representatives from Lansheng. He didn't go to see Zhao Bin, nor did he contact Duan Xue; he went directly to the Tianshui Intermediate People's Court."

"What are you going to the court for?" Zheng Guodong's brows furrowed even more.

"Check the files." Zheng Hao held up a finger, mimicking Zhou Yanhuai's usual way of analyzing cases, and pointed in the air.

"Zhou Pangzi used his father's connections to find out about all the lawsuits involving Lao Zhao's assets beforehand. The unfinished project in Linjiang was indeed beyond saving; five banks were lining up to seize it, and anyone who touched it would be doomed. But those eight concrete mixing plants and the dump truck fleet were completely blank in the court's litigation system. Lao Zhao is very shrewd. When he registered these concrete mixing plants, he used independent legal entities, each plant was a separate limited liability company, and the shareholder structure was in his mother's name, with no equity connection to Jianhui Real Estate. In other words, these concrete mixing plants were not within the scope of the seizure in Wang Jianhui's case at all. Zhao Bin said that these were his mother's premarital property, and judging from the legal documents, he wasn't making it up."

Zheng Guodong has spent most of his life in the building materials business and is very familiar with the capital-intensive nature of commercial concrete plants. A medium-sized commercial concrete plant can be worth tens of millions of yuan just for its equipment. The combined size of eight such plants is enough to support the concrete supply of the entire eastern part of Tianshui City.

Tianshui City.

Li Xiao sat in the back seat of the black Maybach S680 parked on the tree-lined road opposite the Intermediate People's Court, the window half-rolled down. The early autumn evening breeze blew by, but it couldn't dispel the suffocating silence in the car.

The passenger door was opened, and Zhou Yanhuai, carrying a thick brown paper bag and covered in sweat, crawled in.

"Brother Xiao, we've got the whole story. Old Zhao really got things done back then. The equity of these eight commercial concrete plants is completely transparent and clean, without any mortgages or guarantees. Zhao Bin wasn't lying. Legally speaking, this is indeed his private property. That woman Duan Xue can't get a single hair out of it."

"What stage has Zhao Bin's preservation application reached?"

"It was just submitted, and it hasn't been approved yet. This kid's desperate for money; he wants to freeze the equity transfer, but he can't come up with any equivalent hard assets as collateral." Zhou Yanhuai sneered, wiping his sweat. "The bathhouse and sand quarry he found are all covered in bad debts; the court won't recognize such substandard collateral. At most, by tomorrow morning, his application for asset preservation will be rejected according to law."

"In other words, as soon as the court opens tomorrow morning, these eight commercial concrete mixing plants will be clean assets ready for transfer at any time. Old Lin, let's go to Nightclub."

"Brother Xiao," Zhou Yanhuai turned his head, his glasses reflecting the dim light of the car's overhead lamp. His expression was more serious than ever. "There's something I need to remind you. Zhao Bin is down on his luck now. The old thugs he hired, while they can't speak for themselves in court, are incredibly shady. They've been making a living by settling disputes over earthwork projects for years, and they're extremely ruthless. If we try to intercept them now, I'm afraid they'll do something desperate..."

"A cornered dog will jump over the wall? If Zhao Bin had that kind of guts, he would have jumped long before his father was arrested."

Zhou Yanhuai was silent for a moment, then nodded, but his brows were still furrowed. "That makes sense, but we're going to intercept her. Duan Xue has Ma Bochang backing her up, and Ma Bochang is ruthless and much more difficult to deal with than Zhao Bin and his gang of shady characters. If we go to Nightclub this time and confront him directly, what if things fall apart—"

"He wouldn't dare if the talks didn't break down."