Chapter 142: Nine Heavens Is Playing The Long Game

After Bai Ting left, he intensified his efforts, heading back to the headquarters to meet with that senior financial analyst.

This golden senior analyst had been hired from abroad at a very high price, and he was a very talented student in America. After graduating from Stanford University, he made a name for himself by taking in cases that looked impossible to turn around, and successfully did so, beating the stronger opponents in the process. Now that the Bai family was expanding, adding on this analyst, it would be a simple thing to clean up this small company that was just emerging.

Not to mention, they also had investments from the other companies.

“President Bai.” The financial analyst was a blond, middle-aged man that had deep lines on his face. In front of him sat a laptop with what looked to be extremely complicated numbers and data on the screen.

Bai Ting had not seen pictures like it before, they looked to be stocks, but at the same time not. He hesitated before opening his mouth to speak, “Mr. Norbert, how many days do we need to acquire Nine Heavens?”

He couldn’t wait to see Nine Heavens crumble into bankruptcy, from the time they had started robbing his goods, and when some other financial analysts wrote comments who were more biased towards the side of Nine Heavens, he was already at the end of his patience.

Over the past few days, he had been in contact with people in the police department, trying to pin the evidence all on Nine Heavens in order to cause their stock prices to plunge.

However, they had not been able to find the location of the shipment, so that plan of theirs had gone down the drain completely.

Norbert pressed a few buttons with his fingers as he said, “President Bai, don’t be rash or impatient, these people from Nine Heavens are all stupid.”

Looking at the fluctuations graph on his screen, Nobert’s blue eyes were filled with contempt. “They don’t understand how to extend their losses. If they don’t replenish their shares, then even if I don’t do anything next month, they will naturally kill themselves this way.”

When he came to China, his mentor had warned him to be wary, and that people of China were very cunning. It seemed like that was not the case at all in this situation.

The people of China were still full of short-sightedness after all.

“That’s great then. If you have any other needs, please let us know, Mr. Norbert.” Bai Ting nodded at him, and left the room with a big smile on his face.

Norbert was a weird man in the sense that he didn’t like it when there were onlookers watching him play with the stock market.

“How is it going?” Those business partners of his were quick to ask when Bai Ting returned to the meeting room, their tone urgent.

Bai Ting chuckled lightly, and spoke with full confidence in his voice, “Don’t worry everyone, in just a few more days, all the resources of Nine Heavens will be ours.”

Hearings the words he uttered, everyone present in the room let out a collective sigh of relief, and sat back more relaxed in their chairs as they discussed how the resources from Nine Heavens would be allocated among them, who would own the virtual helmets, and who would own the software?

They discussed the matter for a long time, but came to no proper conclusion as they couldn’t reach a consensus. Bai Ting sat on the chair at the head of the table, the corner of his mouth lifting into a smile. ‘When Nine Heavens has been acquired, all of you will have disappeared off the face of earth already.’

***

Meanwhile, in Tang Enterprise, Tang Qingqiu leaned back in his comfortable chair, spinning the pen in his hand slowly. He suddenly raised his head. “Qin Heng, what do you think of me acquiring the Bai family?”

Qin Heng was initially reporting the latest developments of the company to him, when the other party suddenly decided to throw a surprise into it. His hand shook slightly at the shock, and he took off his glasses slowly. “Young Master, could you please repeat that again?”

Tang Qingqiu pushed himself into an upright position, both hands on the table as he looked Qin Heng in the eyes, the words coming out of his mouth slowly, “I said, how about we buyout the Bai family?”

“…” Qin Heng was speechless as he continued to stare at Tang Qingqiu.

Although the Bai family was incomparable to the Tang family, the Bai family was still a big family. How could you acquire it just by saying you want to? It’s easy to say, but difficult to do.

Watching as Qin Heng stayed silent in his own internal struggle, Tang Qingqiu became even more interested. “Why are you like this, is that how little faith you have in me?”

“Young Master, the Bai family is not small. You already know that their business has spanned across China, and they have a solid place on the international stage.” Qin Heng replied. “To acquire them or to absorb them is difficult, unless you can get your hands on all the shares in the hands of the various shareholders, but at that time, you would at most still only be a shareholder. Acquiring and overtaking? That is really too difficult.”

Even in a small business, as long as the managers didn’t agree to transfer their company, it would be very difficult for Tang Enterprise to acquire them, let alone the Bai family, which was a family with quite a reputation in the Imperial Capital.

“So you’re saying, between the Bai family and Nine Heavens, you think that the Bai family has a better chance?” Tang Qingqiu asked, glancing at Qin Heng.

Qin Heng smiled slightly. “It’s not that I’m optimistic about the Bai family, it’s just the facts speak for themselves.”

In simple terms, the Bai family was in a great position of power. If they wanted to buy Nine Heavens and they didn’t agree, then they could use all sorts of underhanded methods to make Nine Heavens be unable to survive in the Imperial Capital. And at that point in time, what could Nine Heavens do? Their foundation was too shallow to shake such a deeply rooted tree like the Bai family.

When he thought about it, Qin Heng felt some pity for Nine Heavens. How would the company be like once it fell into the hands of the Bai family? Suddenly, a bright spark lit in his eyes. “Young Master, it’s impossible to buy out the Bai family, but it’s possible to acquire Nine Heavens instead.”

Acquiring Nine Heavens was so much simpler than the Bai family, since Nine Heavens didn’t have any complicated business partners, and their foundation in the Imperial Capital was still weak. With just a snap of their fingers, they would be able to make sure that Nine Heavens would be unable to operate in the Imperial Capital.

Moreover, Tang Enterprise had made contact with Nine Heavens a few days prior, and they didn’t seem to have any intention to cooperate with them anyway.

Were they being too arrogant or too confident? Qin Heng couldn’t figure it out.

Hearing those words, Tang Qingqiu raised his head to look at Qin Heng again, and smiled mysteriously. “Secretary Qin, how about we bet on that? The stakes are seven days leave. I’m betting on Nine Heavens, and you’re betting on Bai Enterprise. If you win, you can take the leave. If you lose, then you have to continue slaving away your soul for the next half year.”

Qin Heng felt his heart pound against his ribcage at the thought, and he was thinking that Tang Qingqiu’s smile was a little too twisted, but he wasn’t sure the reason behind it. However, he was very excited regarding this wager. Seven days of leave, didn’t that mean he could finally go on a holiday with his wife and daughter?

“Alright? Let’s go then. ” Looking at Qin Heng’s hesitant nod, Tang Qingqiu chuckled.

Qin Heng felt a numbness in his heart, thinking that Tang Qingqiu was really acting weirdly, but he still couldn’t figure out why. Seeing the man pick up his jacket and putting it on, Qin Heng was slightly surprised. “Go? Where are we going?”

“Isn’t the investment in ‘Empire Under Siege’ about a hundred million? With such a big investment, obviously I have to see the set with my own eyes.” Tang Qingqiu said as he walked out the door first.

Qin Heng who had been rooted to the spot, scratched his head. Was a hundred million a very big investment for Tang Enterprise? It was very strange for the young master to go to the theater in person, so very strange. Qin Heng snapped out his daze and hurried after the man.

He felt that today’s Tang Qingqiu was weirder than usual, but hey, it was better not to guess what was going on in that man’s mind anyway.

***

In the residential area, Gu Xiqiao glanced at her Weibo, noticing that the notifications were going nuts. She had finally managed to change her options to ignore the notifications, but she decided to slowly scroll through the comments, wondering what it was that excited the masses now.

“Wowowow! Goddess, please post something on Weibo, I really wanted to know whether you’re still here or not!”

“Wuwuwu… is it possible she’ll not come on Weibo again?”

“It’s possible, she’s just a child that came of age. Do you remember that last case where a girl committed suicide because of the comments?”

As soon as that comment came out, everyone was silent for a while, before a new wave of comment started flooding in.

“Goddess, please just say something, anything, to let us know you’re still here?”

“Don’t bother about those trolls! We will always be your support team! We will always love you!”

“My heart breaks for you, wuwuwu, I hope that you don’t take to heart all the happenings yesterday 😭😭”

“You have to be healthy and alive! I just started to ship the Li Gu cp!”

“If I go to sleep, maybe there’ll be some new updates tomorrow?”

“…”

Gu Xiqiao read through the comments underneath the discussion topic, these were all people that she’d never seen before. In contrast to some others, who had defended her in the beginning had stayed firm in their belief when the Internet Water Army came. Although their comments were quickly brushed down by the overwhelming number of comments, they had never given up.

There was a slight bitter warmness that filled her heart.

Gu Xiqiao sighed, and then she looked at the landing at the window. There was her easel, and it held a half-finished oil painting.

It was of a white mongrel, and a red bird that was being playful, with the golden rays of the setting sun shining down on them. Although the painting was not complete yet, the composition of the picture was peaceful and natural, with a vivid color combination which was slightly subtle and unassuming, making people feel the gentle warmth radiating from it with just one look.

Picking up her phone, she took a picture of this scene in front of her.

Gu Xiqiao: I have been painting the entire last night, I’m very well. ^_^ [JPEG]

The system spirit scoffed from where it was in the void space. [Beauty Qiao, you’re such a liar.]

The painting was clearly created when she woke up this morning and saw Haha.

Gu Xiqiao smiled slightly. “You don’t understand, this is called a white lie.”

[…] You can find a perfect reason for everything that you do anyway, right?

The morning sun shone faintly through the glass window and splashed onto the drawing on the easel, letting the painting that was already radiating a gentle warmth become even more tender, which made the fans have a strong impression of the white dog and the red bird in the painting.

The painting was not completed yet, but the two cute creatures on it were so lifelike, especially the eyes of the white dog. Its eyes looked like they were staring into the lens of the camera, full of life and slightly watery. If it wasn’t for its body that was still incomplete, it could completely pass as the real thing.

And also the red of the bird’s features, it was so delicate, that even the fine lines of its individual strands were painstakingly drawn.

“She finally posted something on Weibo! No matter what you post, it’s okay as long as you’re healthy and well!”

“Oil painting! Ahhhh! Divine goddess, I have completely become your most devoted fan!”

“Completely able to pass off something that is not real to be so lifelike, able to act and paint, tell me goddess, will you be ascending to heaven?”

Suddenly, a comment appeared in the discussion.

“This painting uses a one-off expression technique combined with the usual classical transparency techniques. The grass, sunlight, sky, dog and bird fully reflects the spatial colors and relationships, as well as the texture in this picture. From a personal point of view, she has already reached the level of a master painter.”

“Oh great god above, tell me, have the paintings of my beautiful women really reached that level of skill?”

“I think this comment will definitely get a lot of attention.”

These fans had very little knowledge about this after all, all they knew was that the painting was beautiful and vivid, and almost unreal at how real it was. However, if you wanted them to really assess it and comment on it, it was impossible. No, as soon as that comment came out, it was quickly ranked as the top comment in the discussion.

Very soon, this Weibo post was once again quickly pushed to the hot topic of the day by the fans.

When most of the people clicked into the Weibo post, the first thing they saw was the top comment in it.

***

Meng Zihua was a student from the Faculty of Art in B University and his major was in Optimization. When he turned on his Weibo as he usually did and saw this post, he didn’t think that the painting was worth much attention, until he scrolled and read the top comment of the post.

Even the teachers in their faculty rarely reached the level of master painters, because oil painting didn’t only depend on your hard work, but also your natural aptitude and talent for it.

He could tolerate all kinds of things, but this was something he couldn’t. He had initially wanted to post a comment below the discussion, but then he was afraid that he would be mowed down by this person’s fans. He decided to send a private message to the commenter instead, to let this person know that not just anyone can be a master painter.

The person who posted the comment was someone with the username ‘Sunshine’. Meng Zihua clicked into the person’s profile, and was just about to click on the private message icon, when he was stunned.

This ‘Sunshine’ person was a verified account on Weibo, and the certification was: Qiu Yang, an internationally renowned oil painting artist, runner up of the 14th International Biennial Award.

Meng Zihua obviously knew who Qiu Yang was, he was a senior in B University, there were even pictures of him in the gallery of the art department. He was an oil painting genius, and his graduation painting was selected to enter the international contest in the year of his graduation.

And he had become famous in one fell swoop.

If it weren’t for Mu Yunfan’s existence that year, Qiu Yang would be far more famous than he was now.

Even until now, the teachers in the Faculty of Art would sometimes mention Qiu Yang’s name during classes unconsciously. He was really too low-key, he could have gone to study abroad after getting the award in America, but he had chosen to return to China instead, and opened a studio with a few friends.

Thinking of all this, Meng Zihua went back to the comment to have a read again. “This painting uses a one-off expression technique combined with the usual classical transparency techniques. The grass, sunlight, sky, dog and bird fully reflects the spatial colors and relationships, as well as the texture in this picture. From a personal point of view, she has already reached the level of a master painter.”

The level of a master painter? Meng Zihua squinted as he took a closer look at the painting, but he still couldn’t see any of the things that made it that way.

However, Qiu Yang’s words wouldn’t be wrong, right?

Meng Zihua clicked into the profile of the OP, and looked through the homepage of For A Millenium. He then flipped to the real pictures of the white dog and red bird, and was taken aback for a long while. He quickly flipped back to the oil painting again.

It really… was really lifelike and similar.

When you didn’t compare it to the real thing, there wasn’t much impact in the oil painting. But once you compare it to the originals… Meng Zihua’s heart was pounding in his ribcage, if an incomplete painting was able to make people feel the exquisiteness of the brush strokes, then what about when it was completed?

He saved the picture of the oil painting, followed For A Millenium’s Weibo, and then he took the saved picture and went to look for his mentor.

Under the flood of comments in the post, no one else saw this particular comment.

“Didn’t you guys realize that in the painting, there’s a shadow of two other people inside it?”

***

Jiang Shuxuan was sitting on a chair as he flipped through Weibo. When he swiped, he landed on that particular comment. After a pause, he gave a thumbs up.

Once Gu Xiqiao was done with swiping through Weibo, she looked up at the time to realize that it was already past eight o’clock. In a while, Nine Heavens would be opening for business. “Brother Jiang, I’ll be heading into Nine Heavens today.”

“Nine Heavens?” Jiang Shuxuan narrowed his eyes slightly. “I had planned to take you to see Aunt Tang and Shaoyuan today.”

Gu Xiqiao would call Tang Yanling once every few days, and you could also see Tang Yanling’s circle of friends in WeChat, so she was quite updated with the recent happenings. She seemed to have quite the exciting life lately. “I think it’s better if we don’t bother her for now.”

With Tang Yanling’s personality, if Gu Xiqiao were to head over to her, she would be fussing over her non-stop, and she wouldn’t be able to behave as seriously as she was now.

Jiang Shuxuan didn’t push the matter when Gu Xiqiao said that, and he only glanced at Xixi briefly, who was flapping around in excitement.

Xixi went silent immediately.

It was wrong, it shouldn’t have started gloating when Young Master Jiang was still around!

***

In the eyes of everyone around, Nine Heavens should be in a restless state right now, and their senior management should be tossing and turning without a peaceful rest at night. They didn’t know that the staff of Nine Heavens were still full of energy and life, all of them still having unimaginable enthusiasm and passion for the work in the company.

“Ah, Boss Gu, you’re here!” Yu Ning had immediately proceeded to drag Gu Xiqiao down to the network room the moment he caught sight of her.

However, the moment his fingers touched the slender arm, he felt an electric shock run through his hands. He shook his hand to get rid of the numbness, retracting his hands in a hurry. “It’s not even winter yet, why are you harboring so much static in you?”

“Maybe lightning is more fond of me.” Gu Xiqiao glanced at him.

Yu Ning was completely unfazed by it, it didn’t matter if Gu Xiqiao was looking at him with contempt, but what was this? Was the bird actually looking at him with the same contempt and disdain in its beady eyes?

Excuse me? On what grounds do you have the right to look at me like that?

“Hurry up and come see the fruits of our labor, I found a new route to go about it,” Yu Ning said excitedly. “I think we’re about to crack the entire source code.”

Well, it has been a long time since she had paid any attention to this matter anyway, and so Gu Xiqiao followed Yu Ning into the network room.

Luo Wenlang, who had rushed over as soon as he got wind of her arrival: “…” Yu Ning this coquettish b*tch!

In the network room, Gu Xiqiao read the 20% progress on the computer, and turned her head silently to look at Yu Ning. “This is your… so-called about to crack the entire source code?”

“Even though it’s only 20%, it wasn’t easy. I walked into a detour two days ago too.” Yu Ning glanced at Gu Xiqiao. This source code also contained information about four-dimensional space and spatial folding. It was him that had translated the entire thing into their language. To be honest, he was feeling shocked and excited, the two feelings overlapping each other to the extent he didn’t know which was more prominent.

He had his suspicions that Boss Gu was actually some alien from outer space, because it seemed like this kind of information and data was definitely not something that belonged on Earth.

Gu Xiqiao rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Alright, since your progress is so slow, would the Network department be willing to take another order?”

“?” Yu Ning just looked at her in confusion.

“Post production,” Gu Xiqiao said with a smile. “Post production of a drama.”

Yu Ning looked mystified. “Post production? You want a bunch of hackers like us to waste our time on something like post production?!” He was one of the biggest names in the hacking world, and not only him, every single one of them in the Network department in Nine Heavens was too. Either they had a solid position in the hacking world, or they had a fantastic talent for computers.

And now, Gu Xiqiao wanted all these people to do post production of a drama?!

“Don’t be so excited, Wang Bo has a few software in hand that concerns the post production for the drama. I trust that you guys will be quite interested in it,” Gu Xiqiao said, looking at Yu Ning. “Most of the technology is quite rare, for example the four-dimensional space. Of course, this will be up to you guys to discover for yourselves.”

When he heard Gu Xiqiao talk about the software, Yu Ning was already baited into it. No, not only baited, right now, even if Gu Xiqiao wanted to stop him, he wouldn’t give up on doing the post production for the drama!

“Just to clarify, if I take some of us to do the post production, you’ll give us another four routes for decoding?” Yu Ning’s face was serious, though there was a reluctant expression on it.

Gu Xiqiao replied calmly, her melodious voice chillingly cold as she lifted one finger into the air. “One.”

Yu Ning’s face lit up, there was hope! “Three!”

“One.” Gu Xiqiao was unmoved.

“Then let’s do it this way, two, and no less!” Yu Ning’s face was pained.

Gu Xiqiao smiled, her porcelain face a serene expression and her voice was gentle this time. “Just one, if you don’t want it then I’ll do the post production myself.”

“Deal!” Yu Ning said in the end with gritted teeth!

He continued to stare at the thin, lean figure of Gu Xiqiao, biting his tongue to avoid letting out his inner thoughts. Was there such a lazy boss like her?! It would only take her probably another two days extra to give them that extra two decoding routes, why was she so cruel!

***

Gu Xiqiao walked to Luo Wenlang’s office, and he was on the phone when she arrived.

After a while, he handed the phone over to her with a stupefied expression on his face. “Uncle Mu’s on the line.”

As she took the phone from his hands, Luo Wenlang was still hung up on the words that Mu Zong had just uttered. “Little Luo, we’ve already successfully annexed Gu Enterprise. Say, should we change the name to Nine Heavens then?”

Luo Wenlang hadn’t been able to speak, the words from Mu Zong’s mouth were still echoing in his mind, they had successfully annexed Gu Enterprise…

They had only been in the Imperial Capital for a month! It’s only still the extended holidays for National Day now!

Gu Xiqiao said a few words into the phone before hanging up and looking towards Luo Wenlang with a solemn look on her face. “There’s something I want to tell you.”

Luo Wenlang was stunned, he had never seen Gu Xiqiao’s face having such a serious expression before. He thought that the words she would say next would be something like, maybe Nine Heavens wouldn’t be able to beat the Bai family, but he never expected it to be what she said next.

“I want Dalin to go back, to take over the Gu family.” Gu Xiqiao said, her tone light.

“Dalin?” Luo Wenlang didn’t know what to say, letting Luo Wenlin return. So she had planned to axe the Gu family, in order for Luo Wenlin to head back and take over them.

Gu Xiqiao was still looking at Luo Wenlang, who was still unresponsive, she rubbed her temples. “Let’s shelve the topic for now, and handle the matter with the Bai family first.”

“Oh.” Luo Wenlang finally came back to himself. He glanced at Gu Xiqiao who was flipping through documents.

From Mu Zong, to him, to Yao Jiamu, and Dalin, every single person who had met her was constantly changing. Sometimes when he woke up in the morning, he would still feel like his entire life was a dream. The Chen family had been destroyed, Luo Wenlin was cured, and it was not until he walked past the slums and saw the desolated Luo Jiajin that he finally believed that his fate had really started to change.

He remembered when he was younger, his mother had brought him to read his fortune. At that time, the fortune teller had told him that his life was going to be a rough road, and it would only start to turn around when he turned twenty eight or so.

All those fortune telling stuff was complete and utter bullsh*t.

“There’s a problem here.” Gu Xiqiao said as she flipped through the documents in her hands quickly, picking out the problems almost instantly.

Luo Wenlang took it from her and swept his eyes over it, turning the pages over a few times, his speed not any slower than her as he nodded his head. “I saw it.”

The secretary who just walked in was silent as she stared at them. ‘Do you know if you guys keep doing this to me, I will really leave one day?’

“Miss secretary.” Gu Xiqiao greeted her as she finished reading through the pile of documents.

The secretary nodded her head back in greeting as she silently turned on the computer on the desk. “I just received news of a speech from the Bai family on the internet.”

She turned the screen towards them, letting the two of them see. Gu Xiqiao glanced at it in disinterest.

“The Bai family have announced that they have hired a well-known senior financial analyst. At a glance, you can see that the netizens seem to be more optimistic about them right now on the internet, and their stocks have reached the peak of its prices already.” The secretary explained, her brows furrowing slightly. The Bai family’s rise in circulation of fluid funds was not beneficial nor was it good news to Nine Heavens at all. She really did regard Nine Heavens as a family, no matter how odd the members of the family were.

The stock market was in a state of unrest, and the industry that Bai Enterprise was in was also in the same state. The people in the Imperial Capital felt that it wouldn’t be long before the fall of Nine Heavens.

There were people trying to talk some sense into the financial predator who had been cooperating with Nine Heavens. “I know that you have gotten a partnership with Nine Heavens. Although I was envious about it in the beginning, now you can no longer be so stubborn about it. It’s better if you avoid this storm that’s brewing between Bai Enterprise and Nine Heavens.”

“We’re all old friends by now, so let me tell you honestly. Do you really want the chance to cooperate with Nine Heavens? Then this is the once in a lifetime opportunity, they don’t have any care for improving on perfection, but have more care at providing help when one most needs it.”

When he had gone to Nine Heavens the last time, he also saw that there was a group of internationally renowned financial analysts who were working there. They were not any less famous than the senior financial analyst, Norbert, who had been hired by the Bai family, and they wouldn’t be so easily forced into a corner by them. In this situation, he guessed that Nine Heavens was playing the long game, which meant that they could possibly be making unpopular decisions in the short term to have a long-term payoff.

Thinking back, it was a similar situation as the last time, when everyone was wondering whether or not Nine Heavens would be destroyed by the Chen family.

Nine Heavens had been silent in the beginning, and it wasn’t until the very last moment that they pulled out and threw a heavyweight, causing the entire Imperial Capital to be caught off guard!

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