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

As Zheng Hao soaked in the water, the expression on his face slowly changed from confusion to realization, and then a slightly embarrassed smirk emerged from that realization.

"I really didn't think that much about it. My dad used to talk to me about Jianhui Real Estate all the time, especially about Wang Jianhui. I've heard it for years, and my ears are practically calloused."

"What did Uncle Zheng tell you?" Zhou Yanhuai closed his laptop, a rare look of curiosity on his face. Zheng Guodong had spent most of his life in the building materials business in Jiangyang County, so it was impossible for him not to know. The Wang Jianhui he was talking about was definitely not the same version they had seen in the documents.

"He talks a lot. Every time he drinks a little, he starts bringing up old grievances, repeating the same few sentences over and over again: 'Look at Wang Jianhui. He came from the same peasant background as me. And now? He's a big shot in Tianshui City, while I'm stuck selling steel bars and cement in Jiangyang County.' When I was little, I didn't understand and thought he was just complaining. Later, when I got older, I realized that my dad wasn't envious of Wang Jianhui's money; he just couldn't swallow his pride."

"What's wrong?"

"Wang Jianhui's first pot of gold was snatched from my dad's mouth. Back then, the city was doing urban renewal, and my dad was just starting out. He finally won a bid for a demolition project to supply building materials, and the contract was even signed. But then Wang Jianhui interfered, and through some connections, he managed to snatch the contract away. My dad almost went bankrupt because of this. If it weren't for the Li family later—"

He glanced at Li Xiao, and seeing that Li Xiao had his eyes closed and was not reacting, he continued, "It took him several years to recover."

"Wang Jianhui started out as a bricklayer on construction sites. Later, he became a foreman and gathered more than a dozen people under his command. He wasn't good at anything else, but he was incredibly daring. He would take on jobs that others wouldn't dare to take, and he would mess with people that others wouldn't dare to mess with. The most ruthless time was when, in order to snatch an earthwork project, he led his men to smash all of the competitor's excavators. He made a little money with this kind of reckless methods. Later, I don't know how, he got involved with his current connections, and then he just took off."

Zheng Hao wiped the water droplets from his face, his tone tinged with disdain and lingering fear. "My dad said that even if Wang Jianhui wore a bespoke suit and a watch worth hundreds of thousands, looking like a respectable real estate tycoon, he was still the same thug who used to wield a sledgehammer. It's just that before, he used a sledgehammer to smash his rivals' machines, and later he used capital and connections to destroy his competitors' livelihoods. Over the years, he's driven countless business owners to suicide or bankruptcy."

"What Uncle Zheng told you matches exactly what we saw in the materials. Wang Jianhui's initial accumulation of wealth was achieved by stepping on the bones of others. It's just that no one could stop him before, but now..."

"Now someone can cure it."

Zheng Hao picked up the conversation, nodded his chin toward Li Xiao, and resumed his usual playful and smiling demeanor.

"Brother Xiao is truly amazing. He made a move and collected all of Wang Jianhui's debts from the past ten years. If the developer in Linjiang who jumped off the building, Old Chen who was swindled out of his entire fortune, and those people who moved out of Tianshui City with their families and never came back, they would probably set off firecrackers all night long if they knew that Wang Jianhui was currently in jail."

As he spoke, Zheng Hao looked at Li Xiao, who was still resting with his eyes closed, and felt that Li Xiao was becoming more and more towering in his mind.

For more than a week afterward, the urban construction and financial sectors of Tianshui City felt as if they had experienced a silent earthquake.

Wang Jianhui's case started from a single point, then led to a whole web of problems.

First, the deputy director in charge who was summoned for a talk by the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection voluntarily confessed his problems. Then, the person in charge of approving the two bank loans for Jianhui Plaza was suspended from his duties for internal investigation. Later, a deputy section chief of the Linjiang County Land and Resources Bureau turned himself in and confessed clearly one by one the illegal deferred payment agreements he had handled over the years.

Every new piece of news was like pouring water into a frying pan, keeping those who had dealings with Jianhui up all night. Sun Dewang transferred the principal and interest owed to Zheng Guodong, plus an extra two million as interest.

With the help of his lawyer, Lao Zhao managed to apply for property preservation before the court could seize his assets. How much he could recover was still uncertain, but at least he hadn't lost everything. Bald Liu simply turned off his phone for three days, hiding in his old house in the countryside fishing, refusing to see anyone.

After everyone had fully digested the matter, and after the last bank credit department director who had been called in for a talk returned to his office and locked himself in to write a self-criticism, Li Xiao and Zheng Hao and the others slowly walked out of the hot spring resort.

Old Zhang's car was already waiting at the entrance of the resort. After not seeing Li Xiao for more than a week, Old Zhang had polished the car until it shone. When he saw Li Xiao come out of the gate, he opened the car door with a smile on his face, but didn't ask a single question.

Li Xiao bent down and climbed into the back seat, while Zheng Hao and Zhou Yanhuai got into another car. The two cars drove down the mountain road, one after the other, towards Jiangyang County.

Back home, Li Xiao had just changed into his slippers when he saw Li Jianguo sitting on the living room sofa, flipping through a newspaper. Hearing the noise from the entryway, he didn't even look up, simply turning the newspaper over and casually remarking, "Oh, our busy man actually knows to come home? I thought you were planning to stay at the hot spring resort for a while and move the whole family there."

Li Xiao walked over, sat down on the sofa to the side, and picked up a cherry from the fruit plate and popped it into his mouth.

"Dad, I'm back now. Besides, I haven't had a moment's rest this past week; I haven't missed a single thing that needed to be done."

"Not idle?"

Li Jianguo put down his newspaper, looked him up and down, and said, "You've been busy in the hot spring, haven't you? You and Haozi have been soaking in the pool every day, your skin must be wrinkled from all that soaking."

"Dad, you're wrong about me. What I was doing was strategic regrouping, using stillness to control movement."

"Strategic respite?" Li Jianguo folded the newspaper and placed it on the coffee table, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and looked at him with a half-smile. "You've come up with a strategy from soaking in hot springs? Tell me, what results has this respite yielded?"

Li Xiao didn't rush to answer. Instead, he slowly spat the cherry pit into a tissue before looking up at his father.

"The results are all laid out on the table, aren't they?"

Li Xiao smiled and pointed to the tea set beside Li Jianguo. "First, Wang Jianhui, along with the big tree behind him, has been uprooted, and the business districts of Jiangyang County and Tianshui City have been reshuffled. Second, Uncle Zheng has been collecting pledges of allegiance at the building materials market these past few days, so he naturally helped Lansheng take over the high-quality resources around the south of the city. Third..."

"Dad, I reckon the official document from the province regarding the allocation of that piece of land in the south of the city to the provincial high-tech zone will be issued soon, right?"