Chapter 12
In the morning, Meng Zixian was running on Jiangjing Road. The summer in Hancheng was humid and stuffy, and there was no coolness in the morning. The air he breathed into his lungs felt like water.
Of course, this is not the reason why he runs slowly. Three years in prison have caused his physical fitness to decline a lot. He has lost fifteen pounds and his resting heart rate has increased from fifty to nearly seventy.
Over the past two weeks, he has averaged seventeen minutes for a two-mile run, which would barely pass the eighty-point mark for new recruits, but not enough to qualify for the Green Berets, where the pace is usually thirteen minutes.
When Meng Zixian first joined the army, he was 20 years old, a second lieutenant, and led 30 new recruits in his platoon. New recruits usually only had four sentences to say to their superiors:
Yes, sir.
No, sir.
I don't understand, sir.
Report to the boss, there is no excuse.
But Meng Zixian was young, with a scholarly air, and his Asian face made him look even more childish. A few of the tough guys in the platoon weren't impressed, mocking him, calling him "kid" and "looking like a baby," and making racial jokes.
Leading the team's first physical training, he stood at the assembly point punctually, his uniform neat and tidy. "Four miles," he ordered expressionlessly. "No need to rush, just keep up with the group."
It was a winding mountain road. The gray-blue morning mist at dawn had not yet dissipated, and a group of black shadows were rising and falling on the mountain road.
At one mile, the two squad leaders grumbled that he didn't know how to control his pace and didn't realize the hill behind was very steep, but Meng Zixian ignored them. The two-mile section had a gentle slope, and Meng Zixian sped up. The mumbling behind him stopped, and occasionally a curse word was thrown out.
At three miles, the mountain road became steeper and Meng Zixian slowed down, but still maintained a pace of seven and a half minutes per mile. The team had become very long and some people began to fall behind, but everyone was silent except for panting. In the morning mist, only dozens of M4s made slight collision sounds as the privates advanced.
After that day, no one made fun of him anymore.
Right now, weighted running is the most effective training method for Meng Zixian. But the doctor doesn't allow it, saying that the penetrating lung injury needs more time to heal. Meng Zixian asked him how long he should wait, and he said two months, or even longer, depending on his recovery.
Meng Zixian ran back to the Jiangjing parking lot, opened the door and got in the car. This Bentley Bentayga was lent to him by Xi Yuhui. After getting the car, Meng Zixian told him that the wheel pressure of your car is not right. Xi Yuhui said if you are not used to driving this nice car of mine, I will assign you a driver. Meng Zixian said I don't need a driver. Xi Yuhui laughed at him and said I know what you are talking about, I was just kidding. Meng Zixian didn't understand what was so funny, he planned to take the car to be repaired today.
Meng Zixian drove to the underground garage of Lanjingyuan. This apartment was arranged for him by Lou Hetai. His own house in the east city had been forfeited three years ago. He had originally planned to rent a place in the old city for six months or a year, and then return to New York after finishing his business in Hancheng. But Lou Hetai said his house was vacant and he was planning to put it up for sale.
Meng Zixuan thought it was a good idea, so he moved in with his schoolbag after leaving the disciplinary center.
Two of the three elevators in this building were broken, and they still hadn't been repaired even after the weekend. Meng Zixian lived on the tenth floor and walked up the stairwell. He turned the air conditioner to its lowest setting and went to the bathroom to shower. He came out and received a call from Lou Hetai, who said they were going to visit a field in Xitai Mountain this weekend. It was a field education base in which Lu Xiaofan had a stake, and that Chen Huan and Li Ting would also be there.
Meng Zixuan agreed.
Lou Hetai seemed to have not expected that he would agree so readily. He asked, "Did you have a good chat with Lao Li last night?"
When they met at the riverbank last night, Li Ting said with a wry smile that the valuation of Ronghui Commercial Bank would only be several billion in the best years, but in the blink of an eye, the bad debts on the plate had accumulated to 30 billion, which could not be balanced even if the entire Xuantao International was filled with it.
Li Ting said that at last month's shareholders' meeting, those old-timers looked at him with eyes that could have ripped a piece of his flesh out even through the screen. He had taken this step five years ago, and now they're pointing fingers at him, accusing him of uncontrolled expansion and overly aggressive tactics. If he hadn't taken this step, they'd still be calling him a stubborn old man who couldn't grasp the trend and deserved to be eliminated by the times.
Meng Zixian listened calmly and said, "I think we are still too conservative. If there really is a 200 billion hole," Meng Zixian pointed to the sky and said, "Now there is a guarantee from above."
Li Ting laughed so hard that tears came out of the corners of his eyes. When his laughter gradually stopped, he asked Lao Meng, "Can you help me with this?"
Meng Zixuan shook his head and said that he would not get involved in Xuan Tao's affairs in the future.
Li Ting's smile faded, and he remained silent for a few seconds. He said, "Regarding that 100,000 yuan incident at the Qingyu Fund, you could have been incarcerated for a few months, behaved well, and made some meritorious contributions, and you would have been released long ago. But instead, you broke your spine, and one year turned into three, and I can't do anything."
Meng Zixuan didn't respond, but looked at the chimneys in the mist on the other side of the river.
Four years ago, when Shen Huan came to see him, she was wearing that cashmere turtleneck vest. When she smiled, her nose would wrinkle, making people laugh involuntarily.
Chen Huan held a copy of the Qingyu Fund's account in her hand. She asked, "Please help me check. This 130,000 yuan remittance was used to buy an IP from Lianmen Culture Media, but I've never heard of this company and can't find where this IP was used."
Meng Zixian took over the accounts and contracts. Since the British Virgin Islands' registration information is not public, he used his own channels to find out that the chairman and general manager of the shell company, Lianmen, was a person named Wendy Jia. Meng Zixian learned that Wendy Jia's Chinese name was Jia Mandong, and she was Shen Huan's stepmother.
He went to tell Chen Huan when he found out. Chen Huan's smile froze on his face. She picked up the purchase contract from his desk and left. She didn't speak to him again for the next two weeks.
Meng Zixuan felt that he had crossed the line. Perhaps Shen Huan had already known about the controlling situation of Lianmen. He didn't really come to ask him how to calculate the accounts, nor did he need his help to check the company information. He just asked him to make up the shortfall of 130,000 in a tactful way.
Shen Huan's biological mother died when she was six. Her father, Shen Honglang, was away on business all year round and married Jia Mandong a few years later.
When Shen Huan was in college, Shen Honglang's freight business was booming, but most of his companionship and money went to his and Jia Mandong's daughter, Shen Jinghan. When Shen Huan and Meng Zixuan got married, her parents only sent a greeting card from London.
The relationship between Shen Huan and Shen Honglang wasn't exactly good, but Shen Honglang didn't let Shen Huan down on his living expenses, and on the surface, they were still a loving and filial relationship. Later, when Shen Honglang went bankrupt, Jia Mandong heard that Shen Huan had hooked up with a wealthy man and would occasionally ask her for money. But Jia Mandong never asked for too much, and Shen Huan would always give it to her out of respect for his father.
Meng Zixuan thought he shouldn't have pried into her privacy and exposed her embarrassment. He didn't withdraw the money from the head office and used his own money to make up for the shortfall.
He didn't expect that his good intentions would be turned into "abuse of power to embezzle company funds and make unauthorized overseas venture investments" by the Shen Huan couple.
Occasionally, pedestrians walked along the riverside path. As night fell, the street lights came on one by one.
After a long silence, Meng Zixuan asked Qingyu what her current name was. After he was arrested, the company changed the name of the fund to distance itself from him.
"Yi Xiang Fund." Li Ting said: "Chen Huan is still in charge."
"Yi Xiang." Meng Zixian repeated the two words slowly between his teeth, his eyes like the heavy mist on the river, not focusing. "It's a good name."
"Name your price, Old Meng. There's always a price." Li Ting's attitude was gentle, but under the pressure of the 30 billion debt, his eyes were still filled with uncontrollable urgency. "I'm asking for your help today, not for myself. This is about integrating thousands of people, a team you once led. Let's put aside personal interests and grudges for now."
This was a very high-sounding statement. Meng Zixian's right thumb gently rubbed the calluses on his index finger joints, which were left by long-term training in pulling the trigger. After a long while, he said calmly, "I want to take away all the businesses under the Xuantao Asset Management sector."
The gentle smile on Li Ting's face faded, and his neck, which had been slightly stretched forward, seemed to be pushed back to its original position. He thought he had misheard, "All business. Including integration?"
“Including integration.”
"What do you mean by take away? Do you want to be the CEO? Or the chairman?"
Meng Zixian withdrew his gaze from across the river and looked at Li Ting without answering. Their eyes met, like a taut bowstring. After two seconds, Li Ting finally understood that Meng Zixian was trying to force him to resign from his management and board positions, to give up his position as the top executive.
Li Ting's hands were still frozen on the guardrail of the riverbank. His face felt as if it had been splashed with a basin of cold water, cold and hard. He was silent for a moment, then smiled wryly, "I knew you were going to rebel. It was like this three years ago, and nothing has changed since then."
Meng Zixian didn't argue. For both public and private reasons, he wouldn't work for Li Ting anymore. Their disagreement over investment strategy had been brewing for a long time. It would be fine if they just parted ways, but if they sat across from each other under the same roof again, they would inevitably start fighting again.
Li Ting asked, "If I retire, who will run the company? You?"
Meng Zixian pulled his phone out of his coat pocket and opened the memo. It already had a few names listed, corresponding to positions in insurance and investment asset management. Li Ting reached out to take it, but Meng Zixian had already retracted the phone, allowing him only a glimpse. Li Ting sneered, "You've already thought about it, waiting for me to come today and ask for a slap in the face."
Meng Zixian said, "Go ask Wu Ruifeng for help. Regardless of whether he has any influence in Chenyue, if he can really bring the money over, I'm afraid half of the management team will have to be replaced. In my list, except for the co-CEO of Ronghe and the finance manager of the venture capital, who are from outside, the rest are all veterans of Xuantao, so it won't be a big deal."
This logic was impeccable. Li Ting grinned silently, his hands returning to the railing, his fingers tapping unconsciously. It was Li Ting himself who had let the wolf into the house, and he had explained the reasoning before: "Personal interests and grudges should be put aside for now."
There was silence between the two of them for a moment. The regular tapping sound on the fence stopped. Li Ting sighed and said, "Let me think about it."
Meng Zixuan kept his gaze fixed on Li Ting's eyes. When he said the last sentence, a sharp light flashed in Li Ting's eyes. It seemed that the old fox had not yet revealed his trump card.
Meng Zixuan nodded, turned and left the river bank.
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