Chapter 362

Chapter 362 Pack Your Bags and Get Out!

Xu Wenjie’s face twisted in pain as he clutched his knee and said: “You… what exactly do you want?”

A playful smile flashed across Su Rui’s eyes: “Seems like that’s a question I should be asking you. What do you want?”

“You… what do you mean? I don’t want anything…”

Even on his knees, Xu Wenjie’s mouth was still plenty tough.

“What’s your purpose in openly sabotaging Bikang’s financing plan?” Su Rui’s voice gradually turned cold.

“I have no purpose. I simply stepped forward and stated a widely acknowledged fact.” Xu Wenjie gritted his teeth against the pain and said: “The public cannot be deceived. They have the right to be informed, and I have the obligation to make them aware of the risks…”

Su Rui let out a cold laugh: “I already told you, you’re not qualified to stand on equal footing with me, yet you still haven’t realized that.”

“Everything I said is the truth, and you have no evidence to prove otherwise.” Xu Wenjie was confident that Su Rui had nothing on him, so he held his ground and painted himself in such a noble light.

But he had no idea what kind of person Su Rui really was. The mighty sun god Apollo — when he suspected someone of wrongdoing, did he even need evidence?

Mere suspicion alone was more than enough!

“I must emphasize again, I have absolutely no intention of defaming Bikang. This company has already been targeted by the dark forces of the West, and every investor will lose everything!” Xu Wenjie tried to find an opening to persuade Su Rui to back off: “You, a Huaxia person, have no idea how powerful the dark forces of the West truly are!”

“I wouldn’t know what the dark forces of the West look like? You really won’t shed a tear until you see the coffin.” Su Rui said with contempt.

Xu Wenjie looked rather helpless: “What do I have to say to make you believe that those dark figures in the West are already ready to make their move?”

“You don’t need to keep emphasizing that. I already know all of this. You should tell me something I don’t know.” Su Rui said coldly, his gaze on Xu Wenjie carrying a sense of looking down from above: “I’ll give you one chance to tell me who is pulling the strings behind you. If what you say satisfies me, I might consider letting you off the hook.”

“I’ve said everything I have to say. Kill me or cut me down, do as you please.” Xu Wenjie knew full well that all that talk of “leniency for confession, severity for resistance” was complete nonsense. Hold your ground and say nothing, and in the end the other side would have no choice but to give up. Trust in leniency for confession, and you’d rot in prison!

Right now the other side held all the power. He absolutely could not give an inch, not even the slightest leak was acceptable! That would destroy everything he had!

“Still talking about ‘do as you please’ — looks like your Huaxia language is pretty good too. You do a convincing job playing the American.” Su Rui shot Xu Wenjie a disdainful glance: “Someone like you, if you’d lived in a time of war, would have been a textbook traitor.”

“We pursue different things.” Xu Wenjie had real nerve, daring to talk back even now: “What you want is patriotic sentiment. What I want is the realization of my own self-worth.”

“And what self-worth are you pursuing?” Su Rui said coldly: “Glory, status, or power?”

Xu Wenjie froze, as if he couldn’t come up with an answer for a moment.

“No matter what you’re pursuing, if you refuse to tell the truth, I will take all of it away from you.” Su Rui’s tone began to ease, each word deliberate and measured: “One by one.”

With that, Su Rui narrowed his eyes, took out his phone, and made a call.

Once the call connected, what came from Su Rui’s mouth was the most authentic American English.

Hearing such a native accent, Xu Wenjie was completely stunned. He had assumed Su Rui was some unsophisticated local, but it turned out he had overseas experience!

With pronunciation that polished, it was absolutely impossible without having spent several years in America!

“Hello, who is this?”

On the other end of the line, Smith was replying to emails in front of his computer screen. The call caught him off guard — ever since he had risen to his current position, very few people still had his number.

“My old friend, how have you been?” Su Rui said with a calm smile.

“My God, Apollo, why are you calling me?” Smith was extremely surprised — he had already clearly recognized Su Rui’s voice!

He couldn’t fathom at all why this titan of the dark world would personally call him!

“You still remember my voice. Your memory is pretty good.”

“Of course.” Smith laughed with a hint of excitement: “How could I ever forget the voice of my biggest backer? When are you buying another team? I’ll handle the whole operation for you.”

“Buy another team? I don’t have the headspace for that right now!” A trace of coldness crept into Su Rui’s laughter.

Smith sensed something was off and asked with some confusion: “What’s going on? Apollo, did someone put you in a bad mood?”

“Someone did get on my nerves.” Su Rui glanced at Xu Wenjie and said: “Business has been good at Gaoqi Bank lately, hasn’t it?”

Gaoqi Bank?

Hearing those words, Xu Wenjie on the other side froze. Could it be that this man was on the phone with some senior executive at the company?

Smith’s heart thumped hard several times: “Gaoqi’s business volume this year has been fairly solid, basically on a steady upward climb. Dear Apollo, may I ask why you bring that up?”

Su Rui paused for a moment, looked at Xu Wenjie’s punchable face, and said: “Because right now I very much want Gaoqi Bank’s performance to take a turn for the worse.”

Hearing Su Rui’s words, Xu Wenjie kept a straight face, but deep down a wave of contempt welled up. If a single sentence like that could bring down Gaoqi Bank’s performance, then this world-renowned investment bank would have gone under hundreds of times by now.

But the same words, falling on different ears, produce very different consequences.

Across the ocean, Smith’s whole body jolted. He clearly heard the unmistakable note of threat in Su Rui’s words!

He knew that this man was absolutely someone who meant every word he said. If he said it, he could make it happen!

After a few seconds of silence, Smith carefully said: “Dear Apollo, sir, may I ask who has angered you? If it is someone within our Gaoqi Bank, I will absolutely investigate the matter thoroughly and give you a proper account.”

“I want you to give me an account right now.”

Su Rui’s voice was ice-cold, enough to make even Smith, a star figure on Wall Street, involuntarily shudder.

“Dear Apollo, I will of course give you an account, but before that you still need to tell me exactly who has angered you.” Smith carefully chose his words: “I need to understand the situation better.”

“Have you heard of Bikang Group’s financing plan?”

“Of course I have. Our Gaoqi Bank has always had a strong interest in Huaxia projects. However, the specific person in charge of this project is Jeremy Xu, Gaoqi’s Asia Pacific Director.” Smith said: “I’ve given him full authority. If Bikang Group needs large-scale financing, they can contact Jeremy directly. He is an exceptionally talented and highly professional investor.”

“And yet this exceptionally talented and highly professional investor has been doing nothing but badmouthing Bikang — not only refusing to invest himself, but also sabotaging the investment plans of other banks.” Su Rui glanced at Xu Wenjie.

The latter was listening intently, trying to figure out who Su Rui was on the phone with. The most likely candidate was the current CEO of Gaoqi Investment Bank, Smith — only he held absolute authority and control over the entire firm!

But how could someone like Smith, a Wall Street star, have any connection with the young man standing right in front of him? What kind of international joke was this?

“Why?” Smith paused, then explained: “I trust Jeremy’s professionalism. His judgment is exceptionally sharp. Apollo, are you sure there hasn’t been some kind of misunderstanding?”

“Smith, are you daring to question me?” Su Rui’s voice instantly turned frigid!

At the same moment, Xu Wenjie, standing closest to Su Rui, also gave a shudder!

This man was actually on the phone with Gaoqi’s CEO Smith!

Who on earth was he, that he could speak to Smith in a tone like that!

At this point Xu Wenjie was certain — Su Rui was absolutely not joking! He had genuinely reached Smith with a single phone call!

“No, no no!” Smith hurried to explain: “That’s not what I meant. I’m just saying there must be a misunderstanding here.”

As he spoke, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Su Rui’s icy tone just now had dropped the temperature of his entire body by several degrees. Separated by tens of thousands of miles, he still felt a creeping fear.

To be honest, he had the financial advantage and wasn’t worried that Su Rui would do anything physically harmful — but the key thing was, this man was one of the top figures in the Western dark world, bound by no rules whatsoever. If he were truly provoked, there was every chance you’d be found dead in your own home the next morning.

“Misunderstanding my ass!” Su Rui couldn’t help but let out a profanity: “Do you have any idea that Bikang Group is under my protection?”

“What?” Since Su Rui had just said that in Huaxia language, Smith hadn’t caught it clearly.

“I’m saying, anyone who dares to mess with Bikang — I’ll kill their entire family!” Su Rui said with murderous intent!

Smith froze, then grasped the full meaning of it, and hurried to say: “Please rest assured, most respected Apollo, sir. I will absolutely investigate the full details of this matter and do my best to give you a satisfactory account in the shortest possible time.”

“Give me a satisfactory account in the shortest possible time?” Su Rui said with a cold laugh: “Smith, we’re friends. Why play these games with me?”

Hearing the word “friends,” Smith paused, wondering whether this man truly considered him a friend. If he did, then why treat him with such a combination of threats and intimidation?

Then again, to be called a friend by the sun god Apollo was perhaps no small thing. Those titans of the dark world all looked down upon the masses from on high — only this sun god had a genuine, approachable nature.

A stick followed by a carrot — Smith genuinely felt his poor heart could barely take it.

“Your Excellency Apollo, it is truly an honor to be called your friend.”

Smith weighed his words once more and said: “Do you have any other requests?”

“My request is simple.” Su Rui looked with amusement at Xu Wenjie, who was listening intently, and said: “My request is that this exceptionally talented and highly professional investor, Mr. Jeremy, pack his bags and get the hell out of Gaoqi Bank immediately!”