I Am Your Natural Enemy

Wu Tingsheng looked at his son's heartfelt smile, wiping away tears as he laughed beside him. After settling Xiao Wu, he brought Wen Yan into the study.

As soon as they entered, he grasped Wen Yan's hands tightly, his expression unusually earnest.

"I don't even know how to thank you. Honestly, I'm already incredibly grateful for how things stand now.

But I can guess there's definitely still a lot more going on behind the scenes.

I won't ask what those things are—just let me say this.

I've been fighting in business for so many years. Not the very top tier, maybe, but if I put my whole fortune on the line, getting together tens of billions wouldn't be too difficult.

No matter what's coming up next, if there's anywhere I can lend a hand, just say the word.

The happiest days of my life were when I bought the land for this villa district.

Back then, I was full of ambition, with a clever son and a happy family.

I can't say I have any other real skills besides two cents to my name and a few friends bought with money.

Money is fleeting to me. If I have to give it up, I will. Doesn't bother me at all.

Wen Sheng, don't you dare stand on ceremony with me. I mean it."

Wu Tingsheng spoke with absolute sincerity, gripping Wen Yan's hands tightly, afraid Wen Yan might think these were just empty words.

Wen Yan, truth be told, hadn't explained things all that clearly; Feng Yao hadn't either.

But Wu Tingsheng's ability to build his business so large wasn't something you could sum up just by saying "he's good at business."

He still had the basics—reading people, drawing inferences, all that.

He knew, to pull something like this off, there had to be some big force behind it.

And whatever it was, it couldn't be anything but power or money.

Nowadays, maybe you have to add a fist that's big and hard enough too.

Coincidentally, Wu Tingsheng might not have much else, but he had money to spare.

All these years, he'd never blindly expanded, his business always looked lukewarm, like he was lacking any drive.

But the group he controlled had a debt ratio way below the industry average. For years the cash flow had been flush, so much so it just sat there depreciating every year.

That tiny bit of debt? Most of it was just to maintain relationships anyway, basically a fixed cost.

Every year, he'd hand out huge dividends to shareholders—so much that in the end, they'd suggest, "Why not try something else too?"

Even if we lose money, everyone can live with it.

So Wu Tingsheng became an investor, throwing out tons of money over the years. Almost 99% of it went down the drain.

Yet not a single shareholder minded; on the contrary, they actually thanked Wu Tingsheng for letting them in when he set up his investment company.

Now, with Wu Tingsheng running things so zen-like, everyone figured it was just as well.

Because out of the hundreds of projects they invested in, even though nearly all were losses, two made a killing.

One was in drones, another in batteries.

Especially that drone company—at first, he just wanted to waste some money backing some college kids, pretend to be a generous benefactor, build goodwill on campus. Never expected, step by step over a decade, it quietly became an absolute powerhouse.

Roughly speaking, if you count the valuation, just Wu Tingsheng's personal share there would be three or four billion at least.

Anyway, there's no public financial report, no IPO, not even an official controlling stake—hardly anyone knows about it.

If they did, Wu Tingsheng wouldn't be just giving away villas, never selling.

This villa district, for all its reputation and whatever else, still doesn't even fetch the price per square meter of a city high-rise. But for a single villa, once you add in renovation, furniture, home appliances and all that, you can't get one for less than a couple million at least.

In reality, the cost of the interiors is more expensive than the house itself…

Wu Tingsheng doesn't care about any of that; it's just because he feels like it.

This is pocket change at most, but now that he thinks his whole net worth doesn't matter, that he might as well put it all on the line—well, then it's a different story.

Feng Yao listened beside him, heart racing and cold sweat breaking out.

The money these people hold onto isn't just money—if they know what they're doing, they can leverage it thirty times over like it's nothing. If they stretch themselves, even a hundredfold isn't impossible.

And Wu Tingsheng is all about real industry—all his investments are in brick-and-mortar businesses.

If he wanted to cash out, he wouldn't even need to make a public announcement; just find someone who could eat it, and they'd happily pay a premium. If he wanted a partner, he'd get goodwill right away.

The only reason is, years ago when he was hit hard, he lost the drive to borrow and snowball things. He could bear the early constant losses, didn't care if he wasn't making money right away. Losing out in the end didn't faze him—but still, he hemorrhaged a ton of cash.

Because of that, after casting a wide net, he really did catch a goldfish. Nobody could fake that kind of luck.

Feng Yao knew the stakes—this involved He Changfeng, it involved the Changfeng Group.

He almost couldn't hold back from speaking out, but when he glanced at Wen Yan, he held his tongue.

Now he understood why, just hearing about all this, Minister Cai would go all in to make sure Wen Yan got involved.

Because if it were anyone else, it just wouldn't work. Especially couldn't let the Scorching Sun Department get involved directly—it might even backfire.

How can you expect a billionaire who doesn't even care about his fortune, because of his foolish son, to give up on his son?

How come it feels like everyone's drunk before they've even started drinking?

If Wu Tingsheng found out, if Wu Tingsheng really stirred up trouble, and you threw Changfeng Group into the mix—regardless of who won or lost, it would be chaos, in the most literal sense.

Wen Yan didn't even dare let Wu Tingsheng see He Changfeng, of course—not wanting things to get out of hand.

He reached out with his other hand and patted Wu Tingsheng's hand.

"Boss Wu, you're giving me too much credit. Honestly, at first I just felt a bit bad turning down the benefits."