These three young masters from prestigious families wield absolute power in Yangcheng. The total assets of their three families combined are nearly twenty million, making them veritable behemoths.
Moreover, in the past six months, they’ve begun to dip their toes into the Jiangsu Province and Jinling markets, conquering territory and sweeping away all opposition. Their strategic foothold is already quite deep.
Jiang Banxia let out a wail, on the verge of tears: “Gu Siyu is my boss, the president of the Provincial State-owned Investment Corporation! Jiang Tian has ruined me now! I’m definitely going to be fired by President Gu!”
“What! Instructor Guo Yinlin, why is he here!”
Jiang Ran’s eyes showed envy and admiration.
Guo’s father is the second-in-command of the Jinling Military Region, and Guo Yinlin himself is the head instructor of Jiang Ran’s own unit, an extremely formidable expert. In the past, whenever Jiang Ran saw Guo Yinlin, he was like a fan seeing their idol.
“Brother Qiang, today is my grandfather’s birthday banquet. Please, I beg you to be lenient…”
Jiang Qingfeng displayed the responsibility expected of the family’s eldest son. Steeling himself, he stepped forward, his face full of pitiful pleading:
“I know my worthless cousin has offended you. Don’t worry, later I’ll break his legs myself as an apology to you!”
Jiang Banxia even pointed at Jiang Tian and shouted angrily, “Jiang Tian, you caused this disaster! Why don’t you apologize to Brother Qiang and the others immediately!”
“What did you say? Who did you say you’re going to break the legs of?”
Tang Shaoze’s eyes suddenly blazed with a chilling light. His face darkened as he strode forward quickly, pointing at Jiang Qingfeng’s nose and demanding.
“Tang… Young Master Tang… I… I meant Jiang Tian, not you…”
Jiang Qingfeng’s face turned pale with fright. He flailed his hands frantically and stumbled backward.
“Slap!”
Tang Shaoze raised his hand and delivered a slap to Jiang Qingfeng’s face, sending him staggering to the ground, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
“Hiss—!”
“This guy dares to hit someone at the Jiang family’s birthday banquet!”
“That’s too much!”
Seeing this, the Jiang family members collectively gasped, their expressions shifting dramatically, their eyes filled with anger.
But no one dared to openly defy Tang Shaoze.
Tang Shaoze’s power was too formidable; one could say he could wipe out the Jiang family with a wave of his hand. Who dared to offend him?
Even Jiang Shouren and the Eldest Aunt could only help Jiang Qingfeng up with pained expressions, not daring to utter a single word of reproach.
“Shaoze, I thought you’d converted to Buddhism and didn’t like fighting and killing anymore…”
Seeing this, Bai Choufei said with a look of exasperation.
“My first faith is in Grandmaster Jiang, my second is in Buddhism. To protect Grandmaster Jiang, I am willing to kill and burn!”
Tang Shaoze held his string of prayer beads between his palms in a gesture of piety, his face full of compassion, and said devoutly, “Believe in Grandmaster Jiang, and you shall have eternal life!”
“Young Master Tang, please put in a good word for me!”
Yu Qiang tugged at Tang Shaoze’s sleeve and pleaded.
“Grandmaster Jiang, we worthless ones have come to wish Grandmaster Jiang an early Happy New Year and to offer birthday greetings to the Old Master…”
Under the incredulous gaze of the crowd.
Tang Shaoze, Tie Minghuang, and Bai Choufei knelt down in unison, performing the solemn, deep bow of the great ritual.
Yu Qiang knelt behind Jiang Tian, furiously slapping his own face, his voice trembling: “Grandmaster Jiang, I offended you greatly a few days ago. A great man doesn’t hold a petty man’s grudge. Please forgive me just this once! I know I was wrong!”
“We juniors, Guo Yinlin and Gu Siyu, pay our respects to Grandmaster Jiang!”
Guo Yinlin and Gu Siyu also stepped forward, bowing respectfully to Jiang Tian, hoping to establish a connection with him.
“What… what is going on? They actually knelt down to Jiang Tian!”
The muscles at the corner of Jiang Yangming’s eye twitched wildly. His eyeballs bulged as if they might pop out of their sockets.
“My heart!”
Jiang Shouren’s right hand fumbled shakily into his pocket, pulled out a bottle of quick-acting heart-saving pills, and swallowed one in one go.
The scene before him was too shocking; his heart couldn’t take it!
“My… my god! This… this is too astounding! President Gu actually…”
Jiang Banxia was dumbfounded, her mouth wide open, even her back teeth showing.
“Brother Qingfeng, explain this to me. Is this something that could be achieved by using the Zhang family’s name?”
Jiang Chao’s mood was like a rollercoaster, plunging and soaring, now in hell, now in heaven. Jiang Tian was driving him crazy.
“This…”
Jiang Qingfeng was like someone hit with a sap; he was dazed and confused, completely unable to utter a word.
“Could Jiang Tian have actually made some huge amount of money?”
“Could he have invested in high-tech companies like Facebook or Tencent, or shorted American real estate bonds during the financial crisis, making billions in a year? But even billions couldn’t achieve this!”
The Eldest Aunt, Second Aunt, Eldest aunt, and Younger aunt were all speechless, their faces a picture of disbelief.
Just as Jiang Chao said, even explaining this by Jiang Tian borrowing the Zhang family’s name and bluffing couldn’t account for the stunning scene before them.
That’s right, these three young masters, proud and unruly, wouldn’t even perform such a great ceremony upon meeting a member of the Zhang family.
So why were they kneeling and worshipping Jiang Tian?
Jiang Zhixing and Zhang Wanqing were also baffled and shocked.
But soon, this shock turned into sheer astonishment.
A super big shot they wouldn’t even dare to imagine had also arrived!
…
At this moment, at the entrance of Jiang Village, several boys and children were picking up firecrackers that hadn’t completely gone off.
Whenever an honored guest arrived to offer birthday greetings, Uncle Jiang Daya and his crew would set off a string of firecrackers as a sign of respect.
Today, they had set off several dozen strings. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, and the ground was covered with red paper scraps.
Now, it was almost noon, and the birthday banquet was about to begin.
Figuring that no more guests would arrive, Uncle Jiang Daya and his crew had already returned to the village to join the feast set up along the street.
“Let’s play with a sizzler-and-banger! Time to go back for lunch!”
“Yeah, Great-Grandpa Changgeng will give out red envelopes too!”
The children had been having a great time today and were now getting ready for some excitement.
The so-called sizzler-and-banger involves opening up a firecracker, pouring out the gunpowder inside, laying it in a straight line, and putting a large firecracker at the end.
The effect is quite spectacular: first a burst of sparks, then a loud bang.
Just then, a military “Warrior” off-road vehicle sped over and screeched to a halt, blowing away the gunpowder dust on the ground.
“Damn it! Are you blind?”
A thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy, the self-proclaimed king of the kids, jumped three feet high and cursed at an old man in military uniform stepping out of the car.
The kids didn’t care at all. They’d seen too many luxury cars that morning—Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, even supercars. This car in front of them was nothing special.
“Little brat, no manners. I ought to spank you!”
A spirited female officer beside the old man made as if to strike.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. My driver didn’t see clearly. This bag of candy is my apology to you.”
The old man in military uniform patted his head, handed him a bag of milk candies, and smiled kindly.
“That’s more like it!” The kid took it, rolling his eyes quite arrogantly.
“Child, is this Jiang Village? Does Jiang Changgeng, Old Master Jiang, live here?” The old man, hands behind his back, bent down and asked with a smile.
“Yes! First house at the east end of the village! You guys are here for the birthday, too?”
Seeing how polite he was, the boy king warmed up to him, his young, innocent face looking particularly cute.
“Good, I’ll be off then. You kids shouldn’t play with firecrackers; it’s very dangerous!”
The old man in military uniform then had his driver park the car at the village entrance and, smiling, walked with a few attendants towards the village.
“That car looks a bit like a Hummer!”
One of the kids pointed at the car and said in a babyish voice.
“Idiot, can’t you read? It’s a Dongfeng Warrior, a domestic car!”
The boy king unwrapped a candy, rolled his eyes, and slowly walked to the windshield, peering at the permit sticker: “C e n t r a l… M i l i t a r y… C o m m i s s i o n…”
Whoosh! His hand suddenly jerked, and the bag of candy fell to the ground in a mess.
“This guy looks kind of familiar…”
“Yeah, like I’ve seen him on TV…”
As the old man walked towards the Jiang family residence, a group of Jiang villagers seated at the thirty-meter-long feast laid out on the main road in the center of the village curiously watched him pass.
Four guards in military uniform, using their bodies like an iron bucket, protected him closely.
A male and a female soldier, along with a few officials of extraordinary bearing, followed behind. The old man walked slowly, exuding a calm and composed aura.
…
“Jiang Tian, what exactly have you done to make so many people respect you so much?”
Under the colorful awning, Jiang Banxia’s face was filled with shock, and her heart roared with the question, but she didn’t step forward to ask.
A graduate of an overseas prestigious university who had worked on Wall Street, she had her own pride. She could be considered the most outstanding descendant of the Jiang family in this generation. Even Jiang Lin couldn’t compare to her.
That’s why she never planned to return to the Jiang family. She felt the Yao Wang Group’s platform was too small; she wanted to carve out her own world.
But watching the guests, whom even her father had to greet with smiles, prostrating themselves before Jiang Tian and showing him utmost respect, she felt like a beggar with her annual salary of a million, utterly insignificant.
Now, the only thing supporting her was nothing more than her prestigious university background.
“It must be because of the Yanjing Zhang family! Otherwise, they wouldn’t pay any attention to this useless waste!”
Jiang Qingfeng gritted his teeth and muttered to himself, his fists clenched so tight they might shatter, burning with jealousy:
“Without the Yanjing Zhang family, how could this incompetent fool possibly compare to me?”
“Brother Changgeng, Jiang Tian seems to be doing quite well down in Lingnan, to have so many wealthy people respecting him like this?”
Second Grand-Uncle stood at the door, holding Jiang Changgeng’s hand, his face beaming.
“Hmph, Lao Er, thinking like that is wrong!”
Ninth Grand-Uncle sat in his grand armchair, not moving at all, his expression calm as he spoke:
“These wealthy people from Lingnan are too far away. Their help to our Jiang family will be very limited. In the future, we still have to rely on the lineage of Shouren and Qingfeng!”
Having lived through the Republic of China era, the founding of the country, and the reform and opening-up, one could say he had weathered many storms and seen it all.
Many big families, in their heyday, have extensive connections. But once they show signs of decline, it’s like the tree falls and the monkeys scatter.
What establishes a family, what makes a clan? It ultimately relies on the talents and abilities of its members, on its own inherent strength.
Jiang Banxia had somehow slipped back into the inner hall. Hearing this, she clapped her hands and said, “Ninth Grand-Uncle is right. In the end, a family is sustained by its talents. If its own strength isn’t great, no amount of connections is useful! So-called connections, when you get right down to it, are nothing but an exchange of interests! But Jiang Tian… he’s a nobody. What does he have to exchange with them?”
Jiang Changgeng looked suspiciously at Jiang Tian in the courtyard, chatting and laughing with numerous wealthy people and high-ranking officials, and said slowly, “Banxia, call Jiang Tian in here. Ask him what exactly is going on!”
“Yes, Grandfather!” Jiang Banxia responded, gloating inwardly.
Your trick of using the Zhang family’s name to swindle people is probably about to be exposed, isn’t it? Just wait until Grandfather scolds you to death.
Hearing his grandfather’s call, Jiang Tian left the crowd of guests and re-entered the inner hall.
Many core members of the Jiang family, wanting to see Jiang Tian’s true face, to see if he was really as impressive as he seemed, followed him in.
“Jiang Tian, have you been using your maternal grandfather, the Zhang family’s name, to swindle people outside?”
Second Aunt was the first to question him, her tone laced with sarcasm.
