To succeed in taking the position, one must generate sufficient profits. These past few days, Bai Jie has come to fully understand Yan Jiecheng's character.
In Yan Jiecheng's eyes, there was no such thing as friendship; all he cared about was profit. He would promote whoever could generate profit for him.
Bai Jie gradually caught her eye with her neighbor, Julie. To each their own, and considering Julie's yandere nature, Bai Jie had other ideas.
To entice Julie into her schemes, Bai Jie would flaunt her wealth in front of Julie at every opportunity. Julie, barely 18, quickly succumbed to Bai Jie's allure and developed other desires. Accustomed to poverty, Julie soon became somewhat vain.
Although Julie's situation is slightly better than Bai Jie's, Julie's parents are now getting old and have some health problems.
Life was manageable, but not exactly wealthy. Under the constant temptations of her older sister, Julie soon succumbed to them.
She secretly went to work as a dancer at the bar where her biological sister worked, without telling her adoptive parents. "Dancer" was just a title; what she actually did was quite different.
To gain Yan Jiecheng's attention, Bai Jie directly pushed her younger sister to his side. Yan Jiecheng had been having a run of bad luck lately and wanted to get rid of this misfortune, so he naturally wouldn't refuse Julie.
As Qin Huairu's daughter, Julie was no pushover. Ever since she gave herself to Yan Jiecheng, she had attracted his attention. With Julie's deliberate attempts to please him, Yan Jiecheng gradually entrusted some of his businesses to her management.
Bai Jie hadn't expected Yan Jiecheng to do this. She had only intended to curry favor with him, and although she had achieved her goal, it was far from what she had envisioned. This left Bai Jie somewhat unhappy.
Although things had taken a slight turn for the worse, it wasn't entirely unacceptable. Bai Jie immediately began to fawn over Julie. But Julie wasn't stupid; she had inherited Qin Huairu's shrewdness.
Julie knew a little about Bai Jie's thoughts. On the surface, she kept getting close to Bai Jie, but secretly she kept exploiting Bai Jie's value.
Neither sister is easy to deal with. Bai Jie wants to gain more power through Julie and then rise to the top. Julie, on the other hand, constantly pushes Bai Jie to exploit others and gain more benefits.
Everyone has their own hidden agendas, which ironically makes Yan Jie the biggest winner. Julie, wanting to gain more benefits, must rely on Yan Jie's protection.
Without Yan Jiecheng's support, Julie is nothing. Julie can only do her best to serve Yan Jiecheng and help him earn more money.
This allowed Yan Jiecheng to live a life that everyone envied. On one hand, he had beautiful women in his arms, and on the other hand, he had endless wealth and all kinds of flattery. This made Yan Jiecheng quickly forget the unpleasantness at the beginning.
Yan Jiecheng also knew that this path was not a long-term solution. If he could not find a few powerful backers, everything would be a castle in the air.
You can see everything from what happened to Sha Zhu. Sha Zhu was just an ordinary chef, but he had no choice but to submit to the words above.
Yan Jiecheng went to great lengths to find a stronger backer for himself. He frequented high-end places, seeking protection from others. But who among truly powerful people would associate with someone like Yan Jiecheng? For those without connections, his acquaintances were of little use.
Yan Jiecheng didn't come into contact with people from powerful backgrounds, but he did get to know quite a few people with ordinary backgrounds. This allowed him to consolidate his power effectively.
Although there are no children of ministerial-level or higher officials among these people, there are still one or two children of department-level or deputy department-level officials. These people have a wide network of connections because many children of high-ranking officials grew up together, and knowing one is equivalent to knowing a whole group.
These people are incredibly audacious. Once you get involved in this kind of thing, it's fine, but once you do, it becomes uncontrollable. Each of them has some influence, which has greatly strengthened Yan Jiecheng's power.
Yan Jiecheng, now even more arrogant than before, had already amassed a share of the profits and then turned his attention to Sha Zhu.
The top leader was, after all, in charge of heavy industry, and didn't pose much of a threat to Yan Jiecheng. Although Sha Zhu had connections, their relationship wasn't close.
Yan Jiecheng didn't believe the top leader would personally intervene. At most, he would just make a phone call to the relevant department. With his current power, Yan Jiecheng wasn't afraid of a mere phone call from the top leader.
Since it was a normal business dispute, the higher-ups stopped paying attention to it. The branch office leaders only intervened symbolically and then didn't get involved again. On one side was the higher-ups who couldn't have much influence over them, and on the other side were their actual interests.
The branch office only made a token gesture, but in doing so, they saved face for the higher-ups and also gained practical benefits.
Sha Zhu's situation was much worse; both of his restaurants were essentially forced to close. Because the troublemakers were all influential figures, Sha Zhu dared not speak out against them.
Given Sha Zhu's situation, no one dares to take over. Anyone who takes on this kind of situation is doomed. Without a powerful background, no one is willing to step in.
If it were a large hotel like Wei Hua's, many people might be willing to get involved, but Sha Zhu's two hotels are not very big. Those with connections really wouldn't even look at such places.
Left with no other option, Sha Zhu could only close the door. It wasn't that Sha Zhu hadn't tried. He called the police at noon, but no one came in the afternoon. However, by evening, people were still loitering nearby.
The troublemakers just loitered around the neighborhood. They neither went inside to smash things nor beat people; they simply lingered in small groups near the entrance.
With this group of blond-haired punks around, everyone avoids them like the plague. Who would want to eat there? If this happens a few more times, Sha Zhu and his son will have no choice but to work at Wei Hua's hotel.
Seeing that Sha Zhu had only run to Wei Hua's Peninsula Hotel, Yan Jiecheng began to hate Wei Hua as well, believing that he had become like this because of Wei Hua.
In the past, Yan Jiecheng wouldn't have dared to touch Wei Hua's Peninsula International Hotel. But now the situation has changed; Zhou Zhennan has reached an age where he can no longer work and has now stepped down from his leading role.
As long as his actions weren't particularly excessive, even if Zhou Zhennan knew, he couldn't do anything about it. Yan Jiecheng wasn't so audacious as to take matters into his own hands.
Yan Jiecheng simply had his petty thugs extort money from the neighborhood. Then he had people tarnish the Peninsula Hotel's reputation.
This wouldn't have been a problem in itself, but several foreign guests were staying at the hotel, and these people were not ordinary individuals. Among them were members of the Huo and Bao families, and these people had relatively good relations with the country. Many of them had helped the country during difficult times.
The reason they didn't stay at the State Guesthouse was because the atmosphere there was rather oppressive. They preferred the more commercial atmosphere of the Peninsula International Hotel. Besides, Yang Tao's uncle had a good relationship with them, so they all stayed there.
But something interesting happened: Yan Jiecheng's men and those spoiled brats actually managed to extort money from high-ranking government officials. Although the officials didn't get angry on the spot, they still ordered an investigation.
You don't know until you investigate, and what you find is shocking. No one expected that Yan Jiecheng would be so audacious, not only condoning his subordinates' robberies but also trafficking drugs and organizing prostitution.
When the top leaders of the country learned of this, they were so angry that they slammed their fists on the table and immediately ordered the relevant departments to deal with the matter seriously.
Upon receiving the order, the relevant departments immediately began a detailed investigation and evidence collection. The crackdown, which should have started several years later, has now begun ahead of schedule.
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