The Tempting Road to Becoming an Official

It was clear, the moment Zhang Cheng's people came out.

Confidence vanished from Hong Qian's face in an instant.

He watched Zhang Cheng play pool, trembling slightly.

Swallowing hard,

he mustered his courage and said, "Zhang Cheng, don't be smug. I'm telling you, even if you have more people now, I'm not afraid of you. My people from the other two sides will soon arrive. Then it will be your turn to beg for mercy."

"Oh?"

Zhang Cheng struck a ball with his cue,

stood up straight,

and said, "Why don't you make a call and ask how the people on those two sides are doing?"

Hong Qian took out his phone and quickly dialed the first number.

However, there was no answer.

He immediately dialed the phone to Tiancheng Group, but the result was the same, nobody picked up.

Zhang Cheng said, "If I knew you were going to come to the pool hall, how could I not know you'd ambush those two places?"

Like a bolt from the blue,

Hong Qian stood frozen.

With that, his last shred of hope was extinguished.

All this time, his so-called strategy had already been seen through by Zhang Cheng.

"You... How did you know I... I would do this?"

He asked with a trembling voice.

Zhang Cheng glanced at Chen Fang and laughed, "Brother Ah Fang, it's your turn."

Chen Fang gave a slight smile, stood up, and said, "Director Hong, to tell the truth, it's really not hard to guess. Everyone knows about Zhang Cheng's reputation in Changming County. You dared to kidnap his invited artist, which means you must have had a bigger backer to dare to do it, right?"

"You know it already, and if you touch me now, I guarantee you'll also be buried without a grave,"

said Hong Qian, as if regaining his confidence, puffing out his chest.

Chen Fang chuckled and said, "If I'm not mistaken, your so-called backer is Sun Shenru, right?"

Hong Qian's eyes widened in shock,

his face nearly screaming, "How did you know?"

"Sun Shenru's move is actually very astute. He uses you to provoke Zhang Cheng actively. He knows well Zhang Cheng's personality; once provoked, he must strike back, and when he does, there will be bloodshed. Though it might not be a matter of life and death, injuries and fatalities would likely be inevitable. If the matter escalates, the first responsible person in the local area will suffer. If there are enough casualties, the higher-ups will inevitably activate the severe violent incident accountability mechanism, and the first to bear the brunt will be Li Duming, since he had already gone out on the pretext of an inspection."

Chen Fang paused, then continued, "The most ingenious part of this move is that it's difficult for anyone to think of it as a political struggle. In layman's terms, this is called repairing the plank road while marching through Chencang in secret, and you, Hong Qian, would never have imagined that you were being used in such a way. Even if you failed, you would only think that Sun Shenru was just trying to help you grab territory. But once a bloodbath ensues, do you think you can escape?"

Chen Fang's words

left Hong Qian agape.

He couldn't believe the truth Chen Fang was telling him.

After swallowing hard, he said, "Impossible. This is absolutely impossible. It's all nonsense."

"Heh, nonsense? Director Hong, you've been to Changming County more than once. Why didn't you dare to touch Zhang Cheng before, but now you do? Can you say that this courage doesn't come from Sun Shenru?"

"So what if it does? He's just trying to help me make money!"

Hong Qian roared.

Chen Fang sneered.

He asked, "Helping you make money? Why would he? Just because you're handsome enough?"

This question left Hong Qian speechless.

Indeed.

He had been in Changming County for quite some time,

and aside from Gao Jianzhao, he had wanted to forge connections with other leaders,

but due to his rivalry with Zhang Cheng, no leader dared approach him, for a simple reason – they couldn't afford to offend Zhang Cheng.

But indeed, both previous and current moves against Zhang Cheng came from hints by Jin Zhan.

"I know you still don't believe it. You can now call Jin Zhan or Sun Shenru, tell them the deed is done, many are dead, and ask what should be done next. See if they will still help you."

Chen Fang said with a cold laugh.

Hong Qian hurriedly took up the phone,

The call was quickly connected.

Before Jin Zhan could speak, Hong Qian, impatient and panicked, blurted out, "Secretary Jin, Secretary Jin please save me, a lot of people are dead, so many people..."

He didn't even get to finish his sentence.

The line went dead with the sound of a "beep beep beep"; clearly, he had been hung up on.

Hong Qian was not ready to give up.

He dialed Jin Zhan's number again.

This time, the response was "The user you are calling is currently unavailable."

He had been blocked.

A feeling of desperation hit him for the first time.

With a thud,

Hong Qian slumped to the ground.

Muttering to himself, he said, "It's over, I'm completely finished..."

Suddenly, as if realizing something,

he fell to his knees, crawled in front of Zhang Cheng, and through his tears and snot, pleaded, "Boss Zhang... Brother Cheng... I was wrong, I've been used by others, I didn't really want to harm you, please forgive me this one time, please forgive me this one time..."

"Forgive you? If this gets out, wouldn't everyone in the underworld dare to go after me, Zhang Cheng?"

Zhang Cheng, while playing pool, asked coldly.

Hong Qian was even more terrified.

Stammering, he said, "Brother Cheng, please let me go, I... I don't want to die, I really don't want to die, whatever you want, I'll give it to you... as long as... as long as it can buy my life."

"What I want is not important, the important thing is how much Mr. Hong thinks your life is worth,"

said Zhang Cheng indifferently.

Hong Qian shuddered.

Through gritted teeth, he offered, "Changxi Blue Court, I'll give you the Changxi Blue Court project, I'll give it to you!"

"I wouldn't dare take it as a gift. How about this, eight million, you sell me the project for eight million, Fang Mei, bring the contract."

Zhang Cheng commanded authoritatively.

Fang Mei immediately brought the contract to the table.

It seemed Zhang Cheng had already prepared for this.

After all, although Changxi Blue Court had just opened for sales, it had already cost tens of millions. Selling it for eight million was almost like giving it away for free, wasn't it?

And more importantly, for the Changxi Blue Court project,

Hongze Group had taken out a substantial loan from the bank.

If he were to just hand it over, it would mean that Hongze Group's financial chain was broken.

"Mr. Hong, sign the contract. After signing, my people will also take you to get it stamped,"

Zhang Cheng said directly, without even glancing at him.

Although it pained him,

there was no turning back once the arrow was shot from the bow.

Moreover, Hong Qian truly believed that Zhang Cheng was capable of anything, so he took the pen that was passed to him and signed the transfer contract.

"Fang Mei, take a few people and accompany Mr. Hong back to the company to get the stamp,"

Zhang Cheng instructed.

Fang Mei nodded and replied, "Yes, Brother Cheng."

"Fang Gui, take the construction crew and take over the Changxi Blue Court project, go now."

This was Zhang Cheng's second command.

Fang Gui nodded and said, "Yes, Brother Cheng."

After everything was arranged,

Fang Mei pulled Hong Qian up from the ground.

Finally putting down his pool cue, Zhang Cheng approached the shivering Hong Qian, patted his shoulder, and said, "Mr. Hong, I didn't extort you, did I? This deal doesn't lose you anything—smashing up my sales center and office building, shouldn't you compensate for that? My many employees were frightened by you, shouldn't you compensate for that? So, you must learn from this, never be impulsive in doing things, got it?"

"Yes, yes, thank you Brother Cheng, thank you Brother Cheng,"

As he was escorted out of the pool hall by Fang Mei, he kept nodding and bowing, repeating this phrase.

With that, such a drama came to a close.

However, the outcome was not as the "scriptwriter" and "director" had originally planned.

According to the original setup, it should not have ended this way.