Chapter 360

Chapter 360 You Handle It!

Xu Wenjie seemed quite pleased with his own performance. He looked at the conference room that had fallen into absolute silence, and a hint of a mocking smile crossed his face.

This whole affair seemed to have gone even more smoothly than he had imagined.

They were nothing but a bunch of shortsighted, narrow-minded people. Did they really think that learning a bit about finance and pulling off a few decent investment deals was enough to make waves in the investment world?

They still had a long way to go if they wanted to play the investment game!

“Where do you go from here — think it over carefully, everyone.”

With that, Mr. Jeremy strode out of the conference room with his head held high.

After closing the conference room door behind him, a sly smile crept across Xu Wenjie’s face. He took out his phone and sent a text message.

The content was simple — just one line: “The effect is exactly as you imagined.”

Less than half a minute later, a reply came back, also just one line: “The boss says you did well.”

After Xu Wenjie left, Wilkins stood up right after him and said to Zhou Anke with an apologetic expression, “Beautiful Director Zhou, I’m sorry — now that Mr. Jeremy has shared this important information with me, I have no choice but to report it to headquarters and reassess the risk profile of the Bikang New Pharmaceutical Industry Complex project.”

It seemed the name of the Twelve Gods of the Western Dark World was genuinely striking enough to shake people to their core. Wilkins was clearly rattled.

Driven by the pull of absolute self-interest and the fear of absolute danger, the investment bankers present excused themselves one after another, unable to even manage a perfunctory farewell. If this project had truly caught the eye of the Western Dark World, then choosing to work with Bikang would inevitably put them in the crosshairs of those dark power brokers.

People are selfish by nature. You only live once, and no one is willing to gamble with their life.

Zhou Anke’s complexion looked a little pale. She never could have imagined things would turn out this way. What had seemed like a perfectly solid financing plan — how had a few simple words from Xu Wenjie reduced it to this?

The remaining presidents from the state-owned banks, however, did not panic the way the Western investment banks had. Perhaps they didn’t have a deep enough understanding of the power wielded by the dark world’s big players, or perhaps it was their supreme confidence in China’s national strength — either way, they looked on at the departing financial elites with undisguised contempt.

“Director Zhou, we Chinese people are all connected — we’re nothing like these Westerners,” said the president of China Construction Bank. “I have believed from start to finish that Bikang’s new project is excellent, and I’m willing to continue our deep cooperation with Bikang. Just say the word, and our loan can be in place within a week.”

“Thank you,” Zhou Anke said. It was all she could manage at that moment. Seeing so many representatives from Western investment banks walk out had been a blow, and hearing the CCB president’s support gave her heart a small measure of relief.

After the CCB president spoke up, a few others followed with expressions of support, though their faces no longer carried the same conviction as before.

Once everyone had left, Zhou Anke looked at the empty conference room, then glanced at Su Rui, and gave a bitter smile. Her voice sounded a little drained: “Am I completely useless? Even something that should have been a sure thing ends up going sideways in my hands.”

“This has nothing to do with you.” Su Rui placed both hands on Zhou Anke’s shoulders and said reassuringly, “This is all Xu Wenjie’s doing — how can any of it be blamed on you?”

“But I’m the one directly responsible.” Zhou Anke shook her head, her eyes filled with confusion. “I really had no idea that triazolam could have such a huge impact. It’s a medication — how could it possibly become a key ingredient for producing drugs? And who knows whether Xu Wenjie is even telling the truth?”

“I don’t know what his real intentions are, but he wasn’t lying.” Su Rui didn’t want to hide it. “It’s exactly as he said — triazolam is a key ingredient in producing the new synthetic drug X-one, and it has already attracted the attention of the Western Dark World.”

Su Rui’s words sent a shiver through Zhou Anke. She looked at him with a hint of disbelief. If all of this was true, then judging by the reaction of the Western investment bank representatives just now, this large-scale financing effort was going to run into difficulties beyond imagination.

If they tried to push forward against the tide, there was a very real chance of dragging the entire Bikang Group into a quagmire.

Su Rui could read Zhou Anke’s expression perfectly well. He knew this deeply responsible young woman had once again taken all the blame onto herself.

“Let’s go for a walk — we can talk as we go.” Su Rui gave Zhou Anke’s shoulder a pat.

“Okay.”

She gave a quiet nod. There was no way her mood could be anything but low right now, and until a good solution was found, this weight on her mind wasn’t going to lift.

The two of them made their way to the park outside the hotel. The summer evening breeze was wonderfully pleasant, and the park was full of couples walking arm in arm. With the cool wind and the bright moon, it was the kind of night that stirred something tender in the heart.

“On the surface, what Xu Wenjie did today was scare off those investment bank representatives — it will temporarily stall Bikang’s financing plan. But beyond that, after what happened tonight, the claim that Bikang’s triazolam is a raw material for drug production will be forced into the open. There’s no keeping it quiet anymore.”

Zhou Anke’s delicate brows furrowed slightly. “If news like this gets out, Bikang won’t just see its stock price plummet — the company’s reputation will take a serious hit as well. By that point, forget about building a new pharmaceutical industry complex. Not only would Bikang lose any chance of becoming an industry leader, it might not even be able to hold onto its current position.”

Zhou Anke had a clear grasp of the situation. She had immediately identified the crux of the matter. And precisely because she understood it so well, she knew just how thorny this problem really was.

Xu Wenjie’s move looked simple on the surface, but it had effectively pushed Bikang to the edge of an abyss.

What had been an extremely well-kept secret was now, thanks to him, on the verge of becoming public knowledge.

“Some things aren’t as hard as we imagine. Don’t lose heart — there’s always a way out.” Su Rui said reassuringly.

“I know you’re just trying to make me feel better.” Zhou Anke shook her head and gave a bitter smile. “This is the information age. Who knows how many companies have been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by a single piece of negative news. A few words from Xu Wenjie have already triggered a crisis for Bikang, and as far as I can see, it’s a crisis that’s almost impossible to come back from.”

“What if I told you I could turn it around — would you believe me?” Su Rui tilted his head slightly downward, meeting Zhou Anke’s eyes directly.

“I’d rather believe you’re still just trying to comfort me.” Being looked at like that by Su Rui, Zhou Anke felt a warmth rise in her heart.

Su Rui placed both hands on her shoulders and held her gaze, his eyes carrying a look of quiet encouragement.

“Anke, you have to believe — living in this world, we all face countless difficulties. No one’s life is ever completely smooth sailing. If a person’s life were like a heart monitor that flatlined into a perfectly straight line, it would mean they were already dead.”

Zhou Anke let out a soft laugh, and the gloom she had been feeling seemed to lift considerably. This man seemed to have a kind of magic about him — when she was with him, no difficulty felt quite so insurmountable.

“I understand what you mean. It’s just that this time, it’s really going to put Bikang’s crisis management skills to the test.” Zhou Anke took out her phone. “I need to report this to the president right away.”

“Go ahead, make the call — tell Lin Aoxue everything that happened in detail.”

Zhou Anke and Lin Aoxue talked on the phone for a long time. Su Rui stepped to one side, taking in the night view of the park, a faint gleam flickering in his eyes.

In truth, when Xu Wenjie had been speaking and undermining Bikang, Su Rui had had every opportunity to knock him out cold with a single punch — or even kill him on the spot without any trouble. But after weighing it carefully, he had let go of that idea.

The first reason was that Xu Wenjie had clearly come prepared. Killing him might temporarily stop the information from spreading, but who knew whether someone this sharp had a backup plan in place? And causing a death in a setting like this would bring far more serious negative consequences down on Bikang.

The second reason was that Su Rui wanted to understand Xu Wenjie’s true purpose. Looking at it from the standpoint of his role as a representative of Gaoji Investment Bank, there was absolutely no reason for him to do what he did — it ran completely counter to what an investment bank stood for. If there was truly no one pulling strings behind the scenes, even Su Rui himself wouldn’t have believed it.

Could it be that, beyond the Hades Palace already making open moves, other forces were starting to stir as well?

At that thought, a cold smile tugged at the corner of Su Rui’s mouth. The word “afraid” had never existed in his vocabulary. If certain people couldn’t keep themselves in line, then he would discipline them until they did.

By the time Su Rui surfaced from his thoughts, Zhou Anke had already finished her call with Lin Aoxue.

“What did that girl have to say?”

“President Lin said she needs to think it over carefully, and that we should try to come up with some ideas on our end too.”

Su Rui curled his lip. “You two were on the phone that long, and that’s all you came up with? That’s basically nothing. I think I’ve been giving Lin Aoxue a bit too much credit.”

“Anyone would need time to find a solution when faced with something like this.” Zhou Anke said a word in Lin Aoxue’s defense, though right after that, a faintly playful look crept into her eyes.

There was something a little sly in that expression — the kind that had never appeared on Zhou Anke’s face before any of this.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Being stared at that way, Su Rui suddenly felt a little uneasy. Were these two women cooking something up behind his back?

“President Lin knew you’d say exactly that, so she had one more thing to add.” Zhou Anke said with a smile, looking to be in quite good spirits.

“What did she say?” Su Rui immediately went on guard. Lin Aoxue might come across as cool and aloof, but her business acumen was effortless and razor-sharp. Su Rui was wary of this woman setting a trap for him.

“She said — if you think neither she nor I can handle it, then you can handle it yourself. Dealing with the Western Dark World is nothing difficult for someone like you.”