Chapter 387

Chapter 387 Hope You’re in a Good Mood!

Su Rui had already been gone for half an hour, yet Wanyan Zhengyong still stood motionless in the same spot, the blood spurting from his shoulder having long since stained half his body red!

“Why didn’t he kill me?”

Wanyan Zhengyong’s face had gone from pale to ashen, and he finally spoke his first words in half an hour — remarkably, he had not passed out from blood loss.

Tian Bingyi finally spoke as well: “Perhaps he felt this was more painful for you than death.”

To strip a person of their dreams and reduce them to a mere walking shell — that truly was more agonizing than simply letting them live!

“Should I have just slapped myself to death just now?”

After asking that, Wanyan Zhengyong didn’t wait for Tian Bingyi’s answer, and slowly walked toward the door.

His retreating figure looked so desolate and forlorn. Tian Bingyi let out a heavy sigh, keenly sensing the utter despair radiating from Wanyan Zhengyong.

This time, the Yuanwei Gang had been prepared to claim the championship of the Decade Tournament, then use that momentum to conquer Ninghai and wipe out the Qinglong Gang. Yet now this scheme had been seen through by Su Rui, and before this man, even the formidable overlord Wanyan Zhengyong had bowed his proud head.

“Is there still a chance?”

Tian Bingyi seemed somewhat unwilling to give up, muttering to himself, then quickened his pace to catch up with Wanyan Zhengyong.

On the way back, Su Rui didn’t say much about his own identity, and Lin Aoxue didn’t press him on it either. Through her investigation over this period of time, she had a fairly good grasp of Su Rui’s situation, and with the stunning appearance of the Twelve Divine Guards tonight, Lin Aoxue had completely confirmed the identity of the man beside her.

It had to be said that upon learning his identity, the ever-unflappable Lin Aoxue felt a faint, barely suppressed excitement stirring within her.

The formidable strength this man had displayed tonight stirred an indescribable and peculiar emotion in Lin Aoxue’s heart. Thinking back to the light, fleeting kiss he had placed on her forehead before, the eldest daughter of the Lin family felt a deep sense of reassurance.

After leaving the screening hall, the Twelve Divine Guards had immediately vanished — though Lin Aoxue hadn’t noticed that one of them, wearing a platinum mask, had been gazing at her intently, a faint trace of bitterness in his eyes.

Su Rui hadn’t explained much. In fact, after the Hades faction’s people arrived in early winter and before Danielle Sharp came to Huaxia, Su Rui had already mobilized the Twelve Divine Guards to Huaxia. With the Strategist and the Twin Stars holding down the home base, he would need the Twelve Divine Guards’ help for at least this period of time.

Watching Lin Aoxue walking beside him in her athletic skirt, Su Rui smiled with amusement. Thinking back to the feel from before, his hand suddenly itched, and with a swift motion his palm came down with a sharp smack on Lin Aoxue’s backside beneath her skirt.

“Ah!”

Lin Aoxue let out a startled cry, covering her backside and quickly stepping away several paces. A faint blush spread across her face, yet she didn’t spare Su Rui another glance.

Watching Lin Aoxue’s breathtaking beauty, Su Rui burst out laughing.

Lin Aoxue wished so much that tonight’s road had no end, but when she stood at the hotel entrance, she still hesitated for a moment and stopped in her tracks.

“It’s almost dawn — aren’t you coming in to rest?” Su Rui asked.

Lin Aoxue seemed quite conflicted. By the logic of most young people, wasn’t this the part where, after a bit of flirting, you were supposed to go back to the hotel and tumble into bed? Wasn’t it a bit too soon for that? She absolutely would never do something like that.

Su Rui had no idea whatsoever what Lin Aoxue was thinking. Seeing that she seemed a little off, he asked in puzzlement: “Did I hurt you just now?”

“No.” Lin Aoxue’s cheeks flushed slightly as she avoided Su Rui’s gaze. “I’m heading home first.”

With that, she didn’t wait for Su Rui to see her off, striding quickly to pull open the car door. The driver, Wang Yuan, was still slumped over the steering wheel, fast asleep.

“What a fascinating girl.” Watching Lin Aoxue’s retreating figure and thinking of how she had fearlessly stood by his side tonight, Su Rui smiled softly, then turned and walked into the hotel.

…………

After a brief two hours of sleep, sunlight was already flooding the world.

The people walking in the sunlight seemed to have no idea that just two hours ago, a mass casualty incident had nearly occurred at a movie theater somewhere in Ninghai.

Su Rui had just finished his shower and was toweling off his hair when Zhou Anke came knocking at his door.

“Su Rui, let’s go have breakfast together.”

This was the last day of the financial summit, and Zhou Anke felt a touch of reluctance in her heart — three days had passed far too quickly.

Su Rui didn’t think twice about it and opened the door bare-chested, which left Zhou Anke’s face flushing bright red.

“Gaoji Bank’s stock dropped dramatically last night — an unprecedented fall.” Zhou Anke seemed to have just remembered something, though her voice still had that soft, milk-smooth quality to it, gentle and captivating.

She had only seen the news that morning when she woke up, and it had genuinely shocked her.

“That’s what you get for bringing trouble on yourself,” Su Rui said meaningfully. “If they hadn’t gone after Bikang in the first place, they might not have ended up in this sorry state.”

Hearing this, Zhou Anke gave a light laugh and didn’t take it to heart. She didn’t think too deeply about it, and would never have imagined that all of this was the result of a few casual phone calls made by the man standing right in front of her.

After all, Gaoji’s stock had been one of the strongest performers in recent years. For anyone to manipulate it into a decline in the financial world, they would need a massive influx of capital to launch a sudden attack.

Zhou Anke assumed it was a consortium of financial groups working together to short it — why would she ever connect it to Su Rui?

Having barely slept the night before, Su Rui — who was already prone to dozing off in meetings — simply laid his head down on the table and fell into a shameless, deep sleep, even letting out faint snores, drawing sideways glances from everyone around him.

Zhou Anke felt embarrassed by the stares and gently nudged Su Rui. He rubbed his bleary eyes, stretched lazily, and asked in a daze: “The meeting’s over already?”

Zhou Anke lowered her voice and said, “It’s only been five minutes.”

Someone nearby had already started cracking up. This guy was too funny — was this sense of humor something he was born with?

Su Rui’s performance at last night’s dinner had left a strong impression on everyone present, and they had a fairly good opinion of this young fellow. Seeing him say something like this, they all found it rather outrageous, yet felt no irritation toward him whatsoever.

Xu Wenjie swept a dark glance at Su Rui, his resentment boundless.

Last night’s catastrophic drop in Gaoji’s stock had reached his ears as well. Since this Asia-Pacific investment director had poured nearly all of his assets into Gaoji Bank’s stock, the drop had shrunk his entire net worth by 15%.

News like this left Xu Wenjie with absolutely no desire to continue sitting through the meeting. He barely managed to endure until it ended, and as he was making his way out, he suddenly heard voices murmuring behind him.

“Hey, did you hear? Gaoji Bank’s bonds were massively dumped last night?”

“I heard — not only were the bonds dumped en masse, the stock kept falling too!”

“Gaoji hasn’t dropped in years — what on earth happened?”

“What do you think? You reap what you sow. After destroying so many companies over the years, it’s finally their turn.”

Hearing these remarks, Xu Wenjie’s expression grew even darker. He didn’t bother to respond, and simply walked away at a brisk pace.

In its rush to expand, Gaoji had made itself deeply unpopular in the financial world over the years. Had they not packaged subprime bonds as Class A bonds, the subsequent subprime mortgage crisis might never have happened.

Capital is the most ruthless of things. That subprime crisis — how many families did it destroy? How many business owners did it drive to jump from buildings? Although Gaoji, as the instigator, had largely escaped the fallout, it had left countless people harboring deep resentment toward them.

Everyone present was from the financial world and naturally paid close attention to the news of Gaoji Bank’s stock decline. Seeing the Asia-Pacific director hurrying away, more than a few people allowed a contemptuous smile to curl at the corners of their mouths.

Just last night, this Xu Wenjie had called himself Jeremy, refused to acknowledge being Huaxia, and had even shown no respect for the mentor who had gone out of his way to recommend him to Yale University. That news had already spread rapidly among the attendees. Huaxia people despised those who achieved a measure of success only to forget their roots and ancestry, and Xu Wenjie’s behavior had undoubtedly struck the contempt nerve in everyone’s hearts.

He was so full of himself yesterday — how did he end up slinking away like this today?

Just as Xu Wenjie was trying to push through the crowd and leave, Su Rui caught sight of him and called out loudly: “Hey, Jeremy, I’ve got something I’d like to ask you about.”

Xu Wenjie froze at the words, and upon turning around to see it was Su Rui, said coldly: “What is it?”

Su Rui was still several meters away, smiling pleasantly as he said: “I heard Gaoji Bank’s stock took a terrible beating last night. I’m no expert in these things, so I was hoping Director Jeremy could explain to me — why is it that after all these years of Gaoji’s stock never falling, it dropped yesterday of all days?”

Su Rui’s words were nothing short of open provocation. Everyone around them knew about the grudge between Jeremy and Bikang, and they all stopped in their tracks and gathered around.

“No comment!” Xu Wenjie let out a cold snort and turned to leave. Truth be told, even he himself hadn’t figured out the real reason behind the stock’s decline. He had spent nearly half the night analyzing it and still couldn’t identify any financial consortium capable of pulling this off.

Although Xu Wenjie craved status and reputation intensely, he wasn’t particularly attached to money — but anyone who lost this much wealth would feel the sting.

Su Rui had been brushed off, yet showed not the slightest sign of being discouraged, and continued smiling pleasantly: “Jeremy, there’s one thing I’m worried about — it seems like you’re in a pretty bad mood right now. Will that affect tonight’s cocktail reception?”

“My mood is just fine, and I will absolutely be attending tonight’s reception.” Xu Wenjie turned back to say one more thing, then swept Su Rui with a cold glare.

“Good to hear. I hope you’ll still be in a good mood by then.” Su Rui said with a pleasant smile.

At that very moment, a passenger jet flying in from New York, USA, broke through layer upon layer of white clouds and was descending toward the runway of Ninghai Airport.