All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

The moment Zhang Li led the Black Family Army out of the darkness, it signaled the countdown to their demise. The Black Family Army was far too weak to sustain itself for three to five years.

Moreover, Zhang Li's actions were too sudden, without any prior consultation with Bai Jingqi. Without the overt support of Bai's Pharmaceuticals, the Black Family Army was destined to fail, unless Zhang Li was the chosen one. Unfortunately, he was not; he was merely a supporting character.

Bai Jingqi slowly tapped the table, revealing his inner irritation. He glanced at the doorway and gave a bitter smile, indicating that this was the final outcome.

Just then, two daggers stabbed fiercely at Bai Jingqi's back and neck, while Zhang Li on the other side lunged at Bai Jingqi.

Bai Jingqi's frustration finally reached its peak. He dodged Zhang Li's lunge like a ghost, and seeing that he had missed his target, the two daggers quickly stabbed at him at close range.

Bai Jingqi's hands moved swiftly, reaching out in the darkness to pull one of the young men into his arms. He then gripped the young man's hand holding the dagger and squeezed it hard, instantly shattering the bones in both hands. A painful scream caused the two men in the room to slow their attack.

Bai Jingqi looked at the young man's pained face in the darkness, a ruthless look appearing on his face. He then grabbed the young man's neck with one hand and squeezed it until the man was completely silent.

This technique was the hard skill that Ji Zongbu taught him back then. Now, more than fifteen years later, Bai Jingqi's strength can still crush some small stones.

Bai Jingqi didn't want to kill anyone, but he still did it in the end. From the moment Zhang Li interrogated him, Bai Jingqi already knew that these people could not be spared.

Seeing the young man's limp body fall to the ground in Bai Jingqi's arms, Zhang Li and the other young man's eyes turned red. The two roared and attacked Bai Jingqi, each move deadly, clearly showing that there was no longer any friendship between them.

Seeing that the two had lost control, Bai Jingqi painfully closed his eyes, dodged one of the daggers, clenched his fists, and punched Zhang Li hard in the chest. The punch slammed into Zhang Li's chest, causing his chest to cave in rapidly. He coughed up blood and stumbled onto the door panel, clearly dead.

The last remaining man, witnessing this scene, went completely mad. Tears and hatred drove him to utter chaos. He threw his dagger at Bai Jingqi, opened his mouth wide, and lunged at Bai Jingqi. At that moment, he only wanted to bite off a piece of Bai Jingqi's flesh to see if Bai Jingqi's heart was black or red.

Bai Jingqi barely dodged, kicking out fiercely. The opponent's body was instantly sent flying against the wall, smashing a hole in the earthen wall. The man bounced back and fell to the ground, convulsing.

Bai Jingqi looked at everything in the room, feeling immense pain. At this moment, he felt like a villain. These three were his brothers who had risked their lives with him. He was their master and their guide. He had once saved them from death in a pile of beggars, but now he was personally ending their lives.

Bai Jingqi slowly sat down on the stool, staring blankly into space. The pain in his heart made him unable to think. It was all over. The Black Family Army was all over!

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Old Man Passed Away

With Zhang Li's death, the Black Family Army completely withdrew from the historical stage, and thousands of elite troops trained over several years vanished into thin air.

Some scattered remnants were dispersed, some joined underground communist parties, and some joined the forces of warlords in various provinces. These people were like seeds, influencing the future of China. Years later, many former warlords wrote memoirs in which there was a trace of the Black Family Army.

This unit came and went in a hurry, and just like that, it completely disappeared into the long river of history.

In later generations, the identity of Black Seven Master was generally accepted in various records from different countries as that of a man named Zhang Li.

However, there are very few records about Zhang Li's background and life experiences; most of the accounts in miscellaneous books are roughly the same.

Zhang Li, whose birth age is unknown, died around the summer of the 28th year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign, at around the age of 30. He founded a mysterious Black Family Army, nicknamed "Black Seventh Master," whose achievements have shocked the world on several occasions...!

The mystery surrounding the Black Family Army goes far beyond this, which has aroused the interest of many people in later generations. Many people in later generations have carefully studied various miscellaneous historical records of the Qing Dynasty and found that as early as the fifteenth year of Guangxu's reign, a mysterious gang was circulating among the various social classes in Beijing, controlling the beggar groups in the city. The Black Family Army's recognized source of income was the beggar group.

This discovery has led many to doubt that Zhang Li is not Black Seven, because Zhang Li's age doesn't match. But history is history, and is the truth really that important?

Yes, the truth doesn't matter. The dead have no future; only the living have a future.

The withdrawal of the Black Family Army actually allowed Bai Jingqi's Bai's Pharmaceuticals to completely shed the shadow of the Black Family Army.

However, Bai's Pharmaceutical is not as innocent as one might imagine. A family company that controls the "illness" in the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death has never been so aboveboard since its inception.

The lesson he learned from the Black Family Army made him realize one thing: never relinquish any power easily, not even the person you trust most. Zhang Li was someone he had personally trained for over a decade, and this was the final result.

This also earned Bai Jingqi the nickname "Iron Tiger" within the family. No one could get a piece of the throne of power from him. In other words, "iron rooster" was not enough to describe him; this was definitely an upgraded version.

In the last few years of the Qing Dynasty, Bai's Pharmaceutical developed very rapidly. Before the outbreak of World War I, Bai's Pharmaceutical already had branches and production bases in seven countries around the world, and its sales network covered every corner of the world.

Artemisinin from White House Pharmaceuticals, along with a series of antibiotics including penicillin which were launched before World War I, profoundly influenced both World War I and World War II. Taking advantage of the opportunity to profit from the war, White House Pharmaceuticals became the world's number one pharmaceutical company by the end of the 1930s, and has held that position for decades ever since.

Building a world-class pharmaceutical company in a weak country is like a piece of juicy meat, becoming a coveted prize in the eyes of various forces.

Bai Jingqi's strategy is to not rely on any power, but also to avoid offending any power. Bai's Pharmaceutical spends an astronomical amount on public relations every year. His pharmaceutical company only sells medicine.

Only in this way can all forces avoid any special prejudice against Bai's Pharmaceuticals. Of course, there is another reason for all this: Bai's Pharmaceuticals has a formidable armed organization under its umbrella.

On the eve of World War I, the Guardian Escort Agency was restructured into the Guardian Security Company. Over the decades, Guardian Security expanded dozens of times, and by the late 1930s, its number of personnel had exceeded 100,000. This private armed force, which had the foundation of the Black Family Army, was feared by countless forces for its fighting power.

In 1909, Bai Yingxuan, the father, passed away. Before that, Bai Yaping, the aunt, had already passed away. The older generation of the Bai family was getting old. Unlike in the original story, Bai Wenshi, the mother, did not work hard for the Bai family her whole life. Instead, she lived a leisurely and comfortable life because her son was Bai Jingqi.

Bai Jingqi's younger sister, Bai Yuting, in the original novel, even absurdly married a photograph for the sake of an actor, and ultimately remained unmarried for the rest of her life.

In this world, Bai Jingqi sent her away from home to study abroad when she was a teenager. However, this girl's thought process was not that of an ordinary person. Later, she married a foreigner and returned to the Bai family with a mixed-race child, which made the Bai family members furious.

The eldest son of the Bai family passed away in 1917. After that, only the third son of the Bai family remained among the older generation.

In the original novel, the eccentric Master Bai, after being tricked by Bai Jingqi several times in this world, finally came to terms with reality. Because Bai's Pharmaceuticals has become more and more successful year by year, and its business has even spread all over the world, Master Bai finally recognized Bai Jingqi's abilities.

The only thing that still bothered him was that after Bai's Pharmaceutical was restructured, Bai Jingqi only allowed the eldest and third branches of the Bai family to each hold 10% of the shares, while Bai Jingqi himself held 80% of the shares. This always bothered the Third Master Bai.

Even with just 10% of the shares, each branch of the family could receive a substantial income from annual dividends. This money would allow the children of each branch to live a carefree life, and many of them would go abroad to study.

By the 1940s, Bai's Pharmaceuticals was valued at over 50 million US dollars, making it the first company in China to be valued at over 10 million US dollars and the world's number one pharmaceutical company.

With annual profits exceeding several million US dollars, Bai's Pharmaceuticals has grown larger and larger in the pharmaceutical industry year by year. Many European and American countries have tried to take anti-monopoly measures against it and break up Bai's Pharmaceuticals several times, but Bai Jingqi has strongly refuted them each time. In short, if you have the ability, don't use Bai's Pharmaceuticals' drugs!

Baishi Pharmaceuticals consistently invests between 15% and 20% of its total revenue in research and development each year, a truly massive investment.

In addition, Bai Jingqi's forward-thinking vision has enabled the research institute to be more than 50 years ahead of the world in many aspects of its research achievements, making it impossible for any country to refuse the entry of Bai's Pharmaceuticals.

Even though Bai's Pharmaceutical is a large-scale enterprise, it has always been a family business. The senior management of Bai's Pharmaceutical is basically composed of members of the Bai family, while the real power has always been firmly in the hands of Bai Jingqi.

Bai Jingqi's policy toward the Bai family has always been to follow an elite path. From a young age, they receive elite education. Once they reach adulthood, they can decide their own future. If they choose to work at Bai's Pharmaceutical, they will be bound to Bai's Pharmaceutical for life. Every member of the Bai family will start from the bottom and, based on their performance, will gradually rise to the top after ten or twenty years.

Within the management of the Bai Group, there is a strong feudal family mentality: once a member of the Bai family joins Bai Pharmaceutical, they must serve Bai Pharmaceutical for life until the day they die. This company will be the lifelong goal of every member of the Bai family.

This group of Bai family members enjoys a series of benefits that are unimaginable to outsiders. In addition to their salaries, the annual dividends for the top executives are an astronomical figure in the eyes of ordinary people.

Those Bai family members who left Bai's Pharmaceutical were not only deprived of their inheritance rights, but also received vastly different treatment in other aspects.

However, because they were born into the Bai family, they also received some benefits.

After turning eighteen, each person has three opportunities in their lifetime to receive benefits from the Bai family: the coming-of-age ceremony at eighteen, the start-up fund at twenty-eight, and the final gift at thirty-eight. After these three gifts, one can forget about receiving any more benefits or funds from the Bai family in this lifetime.

If a member of the Bai family is truly capable, they could use this money to create their own business and no longer be bound by the Bai family.

This amount of money is enough for an ordinary person to live a carefree life, but for these wealthy children who have experienced a high level of welfare since childhood, this money would be spent in just a few years if they were to indulge in extravagance.

Bai Jingqi's attitude towards those good-for-nothing members of the Bai family was resolute: either die or get far away from them.

Bai Jingqi's family precepts also profoundly influenced the Bai family a century later. At that time, the Bai family members were severely polarized. The powerful and influential members of the Bai family controlled the world's largest pharmaceutical company, and their power could determine the fate of the entire world.

Those whose parents and grandparents gave up their future, resulting in their descendants being impoverished, and many of them having the halo of being descendants of the Bai family for their entire lives, yet living a life of begging, always felt that this was too unfair.

As a result, many descendants of the Bai family are suing the Bai Group all over the world. However, Bai Jingqi doesn't care about what happens after his death. As long as he is alive, the Bai family will be his family's empire, because he created it all!

Bai Wenshi eventually passed away in 1939, and Bai Sanye passed away in 1947. After the old generation of the Bai family were gone, Bai Jingqi noticed that his beard seemed to have turned white, and he couldn't help but sigh at how fast time flies.

He married Huang Chun and had two sons and a daughter. Later, he took five concubines. The reason he took so many concubines was simply because at a certain point in his life, he had a sudden realization that he was living in an era where all he could do was fight, kill, develop his career, and have children. It was actually quite an interesting thing.

So, as if to conduct an experiment to test how strong her fertility was, Bai Jingqi gave birth to twenty-four children in just over ten years, seven of whom were illegitimate, but Bai Jingqi gave them the Bai family surname.

After the absurdity, Bai Jingqi felt no remorse. His life was nothing more than an experience game, even though he had almost forgotten his true identity.

This life experience made him truly understand the meaning of Zhuangzi's dream of a butterfly. He thought countless times in his mind whether the life of Zhang Peng was just a dream, and whether the identity of Bai Jingqi was his real life. As he got older, this doubt had deeply affected his thinking.

In 1949, Bai Jingqi did not leave the country, but instead ordered the transfer of some special talents and information overseas as a precaution.

As Baike Pharmaceuticals has grown in size, its domestic business now accounts for only one-fifth of its total business. Moreover, Baike Pharmaceuticals does not belong to any country. Several years ago, Baike Pharmaceuticals had already established headquarters in several countries. No government would offend Baike Pharmaceuticals without a reason.

When you have enough power, the influence of the state is often very small. Bai Jingqi did not go against the tide of the times. In 1953, Bai's Pharmaceutical in China became a state-owned enterprise through a public-private partnership.

Bai Jingqi, who was over seventy years old, finally began to select a successor. This process took twenty years. In 1971, the Bai Group finally issued a global announcement that Mr. Bai Jingqi, the founder and chairman of the Bai Group, had chosen to voluntarily resign from all positions within the group, and Mr. Bai Jingdong would take over as chairman.

Bai Jingdong is Bai Jingqi's illegitimate son. He is now 66 years old and has worked diligently in the Bai Group for nearly 40 years. When he was a young man, he was noticed by Bai Jingqi and included in Bai Jingqi's observation list, which lasted for nearly 40 years.

Bai Jingdong, the second-generation head of the Bai Group, has a similar personality to Bai Jingqi. He was also intelligent from a young age, which was one of the reasons why Bai Jingqi took a liking to him. However, Bai Jingdong's personality is more stable than Bai Jingqi's. Although he was an illegitimate child, he attached great importance to the Bai family's reputation. He was not arrogant in his youth, and he was not particularly rigid in his middle age. He still had some human touch in his dealings with others. In the end, he was entrusted with an important task by Bai Jingqi and became the second-generation successor of the Bai family.

In fact, the descendants of the third branch of the Bai family now number over a thousand. Bai Jingqi is now a fourth-generation family, with over three hundred blood relatives. It is a large family, with one-third of the descendants choosing to leave the Bai Group, while the majority of the remaining members remain within the Bai Group.

The elite education program at Baike Group has indeed yielded remarkable results. Despite experiencing several crises over the years, Baike Group has consistently maintained its position as a leading global pharmaceutical company.

Bai Jingqi had told the Bai family members since they were young that if the Bai family wanted to continue to be glorious, it had to have the ability to change the world. His experience told him that only by being one step ahead of others could they avoid being controlled by them.

After decades of development, the Bai's Pharmaceutical Research Institute now has more than 300 world-class laboratories and has in-depth cooperation with many of the world's top 50 medical universities and research institutes. Many of its research fields are quietly changing the world.

In 1975, Bai Jingqi, at the age of 95, had a full head of white hair. Although he still looked energetic, he often felt weak and had severe presbyopia. He needed to use a cane to go out after only a short while.

Over the years, his friends and acquaintances have gradually passed away, making him feel increasingly lonely. Huang Chun died in 1961, living several decades longer than in the original story, thanks to Bai Jingqi's care for her.

As people grow old, they often reminisce about the past, but unfortunately, their memories are fragmented, which greatly affects their emotions.

Yesterday, while practicing boxing in the park, he suddenly recalled the image of his teacher, Ji Zongbu, from many years ago. However, he couldn't remember when Mr. Ji had passed away. He was frustrated about this for a long time. When he got home, he asked someone to bring him some materials, and only then did he learn about Mr. Ji Zongbu from his archives.

During the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion of China, Ji Zongbu did not flee west with the Qing government. Instead, he led the Shenji Battalion in battles around Tianjin. After being defeated, he fled back to Beijing. On the outskirts of Beijing, he encountered foreigners insulting women. Enraged, he intervened and was eventually killed by a hail of bullets.

Afterwards, the Hei family army collected Ji Zongbu's body, and Bai Jingqi buried him in the Bai family cemetery on the outskirts of Beijing. More than eighty years have passed since then.

Upon seeing this, Bai Jingqi felt a pang of sadness well up in his heart. He didn't know if it was because he was getting old or what, but he often recalled the past, yet his mind was becoming increasingly empty. Memories that were once so vivid could no longer be recalled.

People have to admit they get old. I used to be able to crush a small pebble, but now I have to use a cane. Sigh!

Bai Jingqi flipped through the notebook in his hand again. He had experienced too many things in his life, and he was always afraid that he would forget them, so he created a database that only the true core members of the Bai family could access.

Many people were utterly shocked when they first entered the database and saw the life stories of their fathers and grandfathers. Some even thought the old man was exaggerating.

He could run and talk at the age of 18, get up at midnight to exercise at the age of 2, and start building the Black Family Army at the age of 5. He killed eight burly men by himself. Such a feat would not be believed by the Bai family, let alone any normal person. But Bai Jingqi's legendary life does not need others to believe it. True strongmen are always lonely.

If this document were made public, the whole world would probably be shocked, because it contains many unsolved mysteries of the world, mysteries that many countries are still searching for. However, Bai Jingqi does not intend to make this document public, nor does he allow the Bai family members to do so. It is intended to be internal information of the Bai family.

Bai Jingqi has never cared about his posthumous reputation. At his age, he cares more about the safety and honor of his family. Once these documents are made public, many countries will probably cause trouble for the Bai family. Although many of the experiences in the documents are too fantastical and outrageous, they were recorded by Bai Jingqi himself. At that time, people will not care whether they are true or not. They will only come after the Bai family.

Bai Jingqi flipped to another document, looked at it for a long time, and a smile appeared on his lips. It recorded the first time he met his brother-in-law Huang Li. That year, he met Huang Li in the capital.

Bai Jingqi deliberately played dumb to fool Huang Li, letting a group of thugs surround him. It turned out that the thugs were all his bodyguards in disguise. Three or five thugs beat Huang Li so badly that he questioned his existence. Finally, Bai Jingqi made a heroic appearance, kicking the "thugs" away one by one, leaving Huang Li speechless.

Later, Huang Li also joined the Guardian Escort Agency, got married, had a son and three daughters, and was eventually sent overseas by Bai Jingqi to serve as the head of a small place. He lived a peaceful and prosperous life in his later years and has now been dead for many years. Thinking about it carefully, Huang Li's image in my mind has become very blurry. Indeed, time is the best forgetting potion.

Bai Jingqi felt increasingly choked up as he looked at these past memories. He couldn't help but sigh deeply, stand up with difficulty, and walk outside with his cane.

Bai Jingqi had been waiting for the day he would die, because he had almost forgotten that he once had the identity of Zhang Peng. He had also forgotten whether he was dreaming or not. Nearly a hundred years of life had made him doubt whether the memories in his mind were just his imagination, because this world had long since become very different from the world in his memory.

But it was different, yet it was the same in many ways. This often confused Bai Jingqi, because he really couldn't figure it out. That's how it is when people get old. He kept looking forward to death, so he could know whether he was dreaming or if this was a real life.

But for a person, being old and not dying is also a kind of pain and torment. Bai Jingqi endured and endured, and seeing that he had already passed his 100th birthday, it was now 1988. Bai Jingqi finally let go of his obsession and decided to live one day at a time.

So he decided to throw himself a 108th birthday party because last year he was diagnosed with cancer and Alzheimer's disease. He often sits in a wheelchair, staring blankly for a whole day. He can't distinguish between day and night, and feels that time passes quickly and is boring. He feels like he has entered another state. Perhaps this is really the end of his life!

On the old man's 108th birthday, thousands of Bai family members rushed back, because everyone knew that this might be the old man's last birthday. As the true king of the Bai family, this old man had controlled the Bai family for nearly a hundred years. He was the real old devil.

This birthday party was particularly grand. Although it was just a family gathering, it was still a stage for fame and fortune. Many middle-aged people stood silently in the corners, holding wine glasses, while some young people were surrounded by people.

Although everyone shares the surname Bai, their social status is vastly different. Many members of the Bai family spend their entire lives in entry-level jobs because they lack talent and remain unknown at the bottom.

However, as members of the Bai family, they also have a privilege: their descendants enjoy the benefits of the Bai family. Their children can still enjoy elite education until adulthood. This is something that many descendants of the Bai family believe in. Even if they themselves are not successful, their children will one day make a name for themselves.