The Self-Cultivation of a Reborn Massage Therapist

Chapter 265 Drinking Blood
The lights quietly dimmed, casting a precise beam onto the platform in the center of the courtyard.

Leng Xiao stood in that halo of light.

Instead of walking to the stage like a traditional host, he stood still, one hand in his trouser pocket and the other casually holding the crystal glass, calmly surveying the audience.

His gaze was not sharp, even gentle, but those who were looked at by him all felt an invisible pressure.

His gaze slowly swept over the faces; they were the true heart of this banquet.

There are "second-generation entrepreneurs" from Jiangsu and Zhejiang who have accumulated huge family businesses through the real manufacturing industry and now manage family offices; there are also investment managers who keep a low profile and represent a large insurance asset management institution. They are the most stable and largest investors in the market.

Several tech new rich have successfully cashed out and exited during the golden age of the internet, and are now transforming into personal limited partners (LPs); there is even a female boss of a film and television company in Beijing who not only holds contracts with top-tier artists, but also has a thriving consumer brand she has invested in, making her a representative of cross-industry capital.

Of course, there are also many A-list celebrities who have broken into the mainstream, and the newly crowned Best Actress Wang Churan is one of them.

Finally, Leng Xiao withdrew his gaze and raised the crystal glass to his chest.

"Welcome back, old friends."

His voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly, carrying a unique magnetism.

“Every year in the middle of the year, we gather here, not to celebrate our successes, but to review and look ahead. The first half of 2020 was a stress test for everyone. Some call it a crisis, but I prefer to call it a ‘crucible’.”

He smiled.

"The furnace burns away impurities, allowing the true gold to shine even brighter. The mission of Far Mountain Capital is to find that true gold in the fog."

His opening remarks were brief and powerful, without a single wasted word, yet they precisely set the tone for tonight's gathering—this was not a social party filled with clinking glasses, but a top-level strategic meeting about the future.

“The main course is finished,” Leng Xiao said, turning his gaze to the side of the courtyard. “In fifteen minutes, Wei Lan, the CEO of Yuanshan, will present our report card for the first half of the year. Please prepare yourselves.”

After saying that, he turned and walked down the platform, blending into the guests, as if the man who had just been in control of the entire room was just an illusion.

As he left, the stagnant air began to move again.

Highly trained waiters appeared one by one, serving each guest exquisite food and drinks.

Whispers resumed, but unlike the casual conversation at the start of the dinner, the topic now invariably revolved around the upcoming meeting.

…………

Zhao Xiaochui's opening remarks at such a top-tier banquet were surprisingly simple.

He pulled his head back out, sat down, and asked in surprise, "That's it?"

"How complicated do you think it is?" Qian Mankun answered Zhao Xiaochui's question. "Ugly Donkey achieved profitability for the first time in the first half of this year. Not just anyone can do this in such a short time. This is an affirmation of Leng Xiao's ability."

After listening to Qian Mankun's answer, Zhao Xiaochui looked at Ling Rui again.

President Ling said with a solemn expression, "Leng Xiao's position at Ugly Donkey goes without saying, but he is also a shareholder of Far Mountain Capital. This kind of cross-shareholding..."

Ling Rui's words were brief and to the point, because the risks involved were very sensitive in this context.

Zhao Xiaochui didn't understand and pressed for an answer: "Isn't this good? Voting for yourself shows you have confidence."

"Confidence?" Qian Mankun let out a disdainful sneer, skimming the tea leaves with the lid of his cup, not even bothering to lift his eyelids. "Young man, this is called 'left hand to right hand.' Using the money of these bigwigs here to inflate his own company's valuation and pave the way for his IPO. In this game, he's both the referee and the player. How can this game be played?" Ling Rui picked up the conversation, his voice extremely low, as if stating a cruel reality:

"Let's look at it from another angle. Where do you think the money these LPs (limited partners) invested in Far Hills Capital tonight came from?"

He subtly gestured with his chin toward the "second-generation entrepreneur" from Jiangsu and Zhejiang not far away.

"It was 'optimized' from the overtime pay of thousands of workers in his factory, and 'squeezed' out from the squeezed payment terms of upstream suppliers. Then this money, through the hands of Yuanshan Capital, was invested in Ugly Donkey, and then turned into algorithms, ever-decreasing order prices, and never-ending reward tasks that weigh on every food delivery rider. Every penny of profit is a layer of oil scraped off these low-level workers."

These words stunned Zhao Xiaochui. He stared blankly at the still-warm Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup and the clear Moutai liquor in the glass on the table.

This……

Is it still some kind of delicacy?

The image of the female rider he met when he first met her, her sticky sweat, her wet hair, and her pretty face full of longing for the future, kept appearing in his mind.

Every order she painstakingly delivered, every few dollars she earned, was perhaps also boiled down to a single golden drop in this poison.

Zhao Xiaochui suddenly felt nauseous.

Ling Rui seemed to think the impact wasn't enough, and continued, "This is still a winning scenario. Think about it again, how many companies went bankrupt in the bike-sharing wars and community group-buying wars of the past few years? What happened to those losing companies?"

He looked at Zhao Xiaochui and said, word by word:

“If it had been Ugly Donkey that went bankrupt, the deposits of millions of riders would have evaporated instantly; the hundreds of thousands of yuan owed to the cooperating small merchants would have become worthless, leading to direct bankruptcy; while top players like Far Mountain Capital, because of their ‘liquidation priority right,’ could even recover most of their investment from the company’s ruins. For them, this was just a failed case in their investment portfolio, but for those riders and merchants, it would have meant a 100% complete loss.”

Finally, Ling Rui concluded: "So you see, regardless of winning or losing, they always find a way to make the people at the bottom pay the bill. If they win, they skim off your profits; if they lose, they take your life."

Zhao Xiaochui fell completely silent.

He looked at Ling Rui: "So, you're a good person?"

Upon hearing this, a bitter, self-deprecating smile appeared on Ling Rui's face. He shook his head, picked up the tea in front of him, which had long since gone cold, and took a sip.

“A good person? Mr. Zhao, we’re all in this quagmire, who can be any cleaner than whom?” He put down his teacup, his voice regaining its calmness, but his eyes were exceptionally sincere. “Firstly, I’m doing this for someone’s sake. My superiors want me to help you ‘open your eyes’ and see just how deep this water really is.”

He paused, leaned forward slightly, looked directly into Zhao Xiaochui's eyes, and said without any hesitation:

"Secondly, I've just been promoted to oversee part of the bank's credit business. As a new broom sweeps clean, I need to make some impressive achievements to secure my position. I need results, impressive results."

"Pfft-"

Qian Mankun, who had been silent the whole time, couldn't help but burst out laughing when he heard the last sentence. He pointed at Ling Rui with his finger, then looked at the astonished Zhao Xiaochui, shaking his head and saying:
"President Ling, your abacus beads are practically bouncing into my face."

Seeing that Zhao Xiaochui still hadn't fully grasped the situation, Qian Mankun simply laid it all out:

"Young man, still don't understand? If you succeed in negotiating with Yuanshan Capital today, then President Ling will be the biggest financial intermediary, which is 'icing on the cake'; if the negotiations fall through, he can bypass all the 'middlemen' and directly provide you with 'timely assistance' in the name of the bank. Regardless of success or failure, he's determined to catch this big fish. Tell me, isn't that brilliant?"

Zhao Xiaochui: "..."

Are people in society this complicated now?

(End of this chapter)