After Su Jie and Zhang Jinchuan finalized the details, they set their plan in motion.
First, Zhang Jinchuan made a phone call — and a female voice came through on the other end.
Hearing that voice, Su Jie conjured a corresponding face in his mind: it was Xia Yi, who had won the women’s division championship at the Haoyu Cup competition at Minglun Martial Arts Academy. She was extremely strong, having even defeated Zhang Manman in the ring.
In the ring, Zhang Manman’s fighting ability was indeed somewhat lacking.
Mainly because Zhang Manman’s ring fighting skills were useless in real life. She was a bounty hunter — her skills were killing techniques: marksmanship, concealed weapons.
No matter how high an enemy’s martial skill — even if they were a world fighting champion — if they clashed with her on the street, she could draw and fire, taking them down in 0.3 seconds.
Unless it was an expert like Su Jie, who had reached the “transcendent” level and could perceive everything with pinpoint clarity — to such a person, quick-draw shooting was largely useless.
“Jinchuan, what’s up?” Xia Yi’s voice on the phone was quite gentle and friendly. Just from the tone, Su Jie could tell that Xia Yi admired Zhang Jinchuan, and there was something more beneath it.
Xia Yi was Xia Shang’s daughter. Approaching Xia Shang through her would significantly increase the chances of success.
After a long conversation, they settled on a general timeframe.
“Nice work.” Su Jie now saw just how capable Zhang Jinchuan was — he had quietly gotten involved with Xia Yi as well. “With Xia Shang’s daughter on your side, you’ve saved yourself at least thirty years of struggle.”
“Not at all — it’s just business cooperation. She’s very interested in my ideas and has hired me as her senior advisor. Whenever issues arise with Mingxia Group’s internal struggles, she consults me. I’m just a strategist,” Zhang Jinchuan said.
Su Jie casually searched for some news and found that Mingxia Group had undergone significant personnel changes recently — some veteran executives had resigned or retired. And Xia Yi, who had previously managed the sports department, had now also taken on the role of general manager of the Emerging Business Strategic Investment Department.
That meant Xia Yi had begun managing some of the money.
This was a major step forward in corporate politics.
Although Mingxia Group was founded by Xia Shang, who held absolute control, as his daughter, Xia Yi couldn’t do whatever she wanted. She too had to start from the bottom and climb through performance evaluations — only then could she justify herself to the board.
If she performed poorly, even Xia Shang couldn’t arbitrarily promote her.
Moreover, factional struggles within Mingxia Group were very fierce. Each faction has its own powerful figures, some arrogant and self-important, others even holding substantial shares. They were all founding members alongside Xia Shang, true veterans, untouchable figures. Even Xia Shang couldn’t do much about them.
“Later, we’re meeting Xia Yi for a meal. I’ve already arranged it with her. You’ll temporarily play the role of my bodyguard,” Zhang Jinchuan said.
“No problem.” Su Jie nodded. His goal was to persuade Xia Shang to take action against the Feng family. Everything else revolved around this strategic objective.
That evening, as the city lights came on, B City grew increasingly bustling. The entire city was gridlocked — traffic jams everywhere.
Zhang Jinchuan’s vehicle was an extremely luxurious Maybach Mercedes business car worth over three million yuan, lavishly decorated like a palace. But on the road, it still crawled like a snail.
“B City traffic is always like this — nothing to be done. I hear Larry is researching personal flight vehicles and has already begun test flights. Have you used one?” Zhang Jinchuan asked Su Jie as they sat in traffic.
The driver was a burly, powerful man — clearly a driver and bodyguard combined.
But Su Jie knew that Zhang Jinchuan was himself a formidable martial artist. Even someone like Shen Dao of Jiu Ding Security might not be his match. Still, some mundane matters needed a bodyguard to handle — as an entrepreneur, one couldn’t personally fight every battle.
“No. Larry’s company has too many secrets — too many projects to count. I’m only responsible for the life sciences division,” Su Jie shook his head. He was just a bodyguard; Larry wouldn’t share all the company’s secrets with him.
“It seems you’ll need quite a bit more time to break into the core of Larry’s team,” Zhang Jinchuan said. “Larry isn’t prejudiced against Asians — many of his company’s executives and senior engineers are Indian or Japanese. I think his vision and business acumen far surpass those of domestic entrepreneurs — even Xia Shang and Liu Shi can’t compare.”
The two chatted as they crawled through traffic for a full hour and a half before finally reaching their dining destination.
Oh?
Su Jie noticed that the entrance to the hutong where they were eating was actually the same private kitchen where Lin Tang had once treated them.
Last time they had eaten here, their table had been taken by people from Jiu Ding Security — resulting in Su Jie beating up those bodyguards.
But this time, there shouldn’t be any issues.
Zhang Jinchuan and Su Jie entered and passed through several courtyards until the outside sounds were completely inaudible — truly a case of finding quiet amidst the bustle.
Around the eight-immortal table in the main room sat two people — a man and a woman. One was Xia Yi, and the other was a handsome man with jade-like features, tall and straight, wearing an immaculate suit. He had the look of a social elite, raised on Western education — his bearing was similar to Western elites, different from those educated in the East.
“Sorry about the traffic — we’re late,” Zhang Jinchuan apologized.
“No problem, no problem.” The man stood up with a smile. “In B City, it would be strange if there weren’t traffic jams. We only just arrived ourselves. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself — I’m Zhu Qing, President of Mingxia Group’s Strategic M&A Division.”
“And this is my temporary bodyguard, Mr. Su Jie. He’s also Mr. Larry’s personal bodyguard, back in China to complete his studies. He’s also a good friend of mine. Su Jie.” Following their plan, Zhang Jinchuan introduced Su Jie.
“Larry? Which Larry?” The man was taken aback. He naturally knew who Larry was, but he didn’t believe that Su Jie could be connected to that real business tycoon.
“There’s no second Mr. Larry in the world who could afford my friend here,” Zhang Jinchuan said. “It’s the one who founded the search engine.”
“Is that so?” Zhu Qing wasn’t entirely convinced, but he knew Zhang Jinchuan wouldn’t lie — such things were easily verifiable. “I recall Mr. Larry has a bodyguard named Sawai Takeji.”
“Mr. Sawai and I are both Mr. Larry’s bodyguards and coaches,” Su Jie nodded.
Zhu Qing didn’t press further, but his eyes still held doubt.
Many people could claim to be Larry’s bodyguard — perhaps someone on the外围 handling minor duties. But being a coach as well was different.
“Mr. Su Jie, if I’m not mistaken, we’ve met before,” Xia Yi said.
“Correct. It was at the Haoyu Cup competition,” Su Jie nodded.
“After your female companion lost to me, she seemed very dissatisfied. She came to find me afterward and challenged me to a one-on-one fight — though her methods were quite underhanded, using concealed weapons and daggers against me.” Xia Yi still harbored resentment over this incident. “If I ever meet her again, I’ll have another match with her.”
“That lady’s family is a major overseas clan. Her father is an instructor at Honey Badger Training Camp. She’s a bounty hunter herself, trained as a special forces soldier — proficient in solo combat. She’s not very familiar with domestic customs. I apologize on her behalf,” Zhang Jinchuan quickly smoothed things over. In fact, he had explained this to Xia Yi many times.
“Mr. Larry has recently suffered several attacks. I’ve read news reports saying he now has a very capable Chinese bodyguard — so that’s you,” Xia Yi said. She had specialized intelligence gathering on events happening around these business tycoons to analyze their business actions.
Sometimes, by knowing whom major figures met, one could infer a company’s strategic direction. Getting ahead of such moves could yield significant gains.
“I’m just responsible for Mr. Larry’s safety.” Su Jie’s tone was very calm. He now naturally exuded a detached, “transcendent” quality — even mediocre people without discernment would sense something extraordinary about him. “Go ahead with your discussion. Don’t mind me — I’m just here to assist with Jinchuan’s security.”
Xia Yi was curious about Su Jie’s demeanor.
As she spoke, she opened her phone, seemingly searching for information. Within less than three minutes, she appeared to have found some interesting tidbits.
Meanwhile, Zhu Qing was also searching on his phone.
Su Jie paid them no mind. Although these two were influential figures in the business world, associating with them now would only diminish their mystique. Su Jie needed to speak directly with Xia Shang.
“Xia Yi, does Mr. Xia Shang need security? Domestically, he’s certainly very safe. But due to business matters, he often travels abroad. That’s when strong security is needed — someone who can save his life at critical moments. Just recently, Mr. Larry was attacked by the world’s most ruthless assassination group, and Su Jie single-handedly dealt with those assassins, bringing them all to justice. Incidentally, I’ve invested in an overseas security company that’s definitely more professional than domestic companies like Jiu Ding Security,” Zhang Jinchuan began his pitch.
“I’ll need to discuss this thoroughly with my father. He doesn’t really care much about security — he’s used to being safe in China. But I studied abroad — at a military academy, no less — so I’m deeply aware of how serious security problems can be overseas,” Xia Yi said. “However, you’ll have to persuade my father yourself for him to invest in your overseas security company.”
Hearing this, Su Jie understood that the security company Zhang Jinchuan was referring to was the one Zhang Manman had started independently.
Zhang Manman had recently realized there was no hope of seizing power within her family. She had finally led some junior branch members out to establish their own independent venture — and was managing quite well. Meanwhile, her brother Zhang Kaitai had secured a position as a senior executive on the board of Honey Badger Security.
Su Jie and Zhang Manman’s efforts had been unable to overcome Zhang Hongqing’s will. Thinking about this was somewhat disheartening.