Chapter 150 Not Enough Brainpower

Leaving the hotel, Guo Yanzhi set off to continue his investigation.

Yao Chuchu stood by the roadside. Today's conversation had stirred up memories of her mother, leaving her with a somewhat sorrowful expression.

Lu Feng walked over to her, looked at her for a moment, and asked, "Would you like me to keep you company for a while?"

"No need..." Yao Chuchu snapped out of her daze and instinctively shook her head, but then she immediately considered that Lu Feng might have meant something else, and quickly added, "If you want to, you can..."

"Do you still have work today?"

"Not for now. If anything comes up, they'll call me," Yao Chuchu replied.

"Then let me walk you back to rest," Lu Feng said.

Yao Chuchu hesitated for a moment and said, "Where I'm staying right now is very inconvenient..."

"Would you like me to help you find a place to live?" Lu Feng asked again.

Yao Chuchu hastily shook her head. "No, no... Right now is just fine..."

"Alright then, I'll walk you back." Lu Feng accompanied her toward the residential area behind the nightclub.

The two of them entered an old-style tenement building with no elevator. As they climbed the stairs, they ran into two charmingly dressed girls who greeted Yao Chuchu.

"Chuchu, is this your boyfriend?"

"No..." Yao Chuchu didn't know how to explain, and instinctively shook her head.

"You really shouldn't bring clients back home. The basement inn on the next street is very cheap, only twenty bucks an hour," said the other girl.

"It's not like that..." Yao Chuchu had no idea how to explain, her face turning crimson with embarrassment.

Seeing this, the two girls giggled and patted Yao Chuchu on the shoulder. "Relax, we're just teasing you. We won't keep you. It's past six, we have to go to work."

After the two girls left, Yao Chuchu cast a stealthy glance at Lu Feng.

Lu Feng could tell that those two girls were hostesses from the nightclub.

Yao Chuchu led Lu Feng up to the third floor and stopped in front of room 309. Along the way, he noticed that all the rooms here seemed to be occupied by women, and the hallway was cluttered with various odds and ends, making it extremely messy.

The room contained only a single bed and a desk, looking somewhat like a college dorm. However, unlike a typical tenement building, it had a small attached bathroom.

Judging by the placement of the desk and chairs, the room was originally intended for two beds, and most of the other rooms nearby housed two people each.

"The syndicate rules say we aren't allowed to bring guests in to stay overnight. You should sit for a moment and then leave. Too many people live here; if everyone brought guests back, it would be total chaos," Yao Chuchu said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

The room was very rudimentary, but Lu Feng had stayed in even more rudimentary places, so he felt no aversion. He only felt that it wasn't ideal for a young woman to live in such a place.

"Why don't you move to a better place?" Lu Feng asked.

Yao Chuchu shook her head and replied, "I want to save some money. This place is quite nice too; it's very quiet during the day."

"I can help you find a place..."

Before Lu Feng could finish, Yao Chuchu interrupted him, "I don't want to spend your money. If I did, I'd feel like I was selling myself..."

"Alright then. Get some rest and lock your door tonight." Lu Feng stood for a moment longer before turning to leave.

...

Yao Chuchu had been terrified that Lu Feng might suddenly try something with her, but when he actually left just like that, a sudden wave of emptiness washed over her.

At that moment, Aunt Jia appeared at the doorway, leaning against the doorframe. "You really are hopeless. You managed to bring a man right into your room, yet you couldn't even keep him."

"Aunt Jia, I don't know what to do..." Yao Chuchu looked bewildered.

Aunt Jia sighed and scolded, "Out of all the young girls I've seen, you have the greatest fortune to hook up with a good man, and yet you don't hold on for dear life. Are you an idiot?"

...

Chunsheng Capital was an investment firm legally registered under the name of Yuan Fuchun. However, the interest groups involved with Chunsheng Capital were extremely complex, with ties to both the underworld and the legitimate world.

Previously, due to disruptions caused by the New East Society, Yun'an Health Center's operations had run into severe problems. Coupled with the obstruction of various government departments, Yun'an had plunged into a crisis.

Chunsheng Capital seized the opportunity to propose an investment plan for Yun'an, but the terms of the proposal were exorbitant.

Anyone with discerning eyes could see that the money Chunsheng Capital was investing was secondary; the primary value lay in their connections and network of relationships.

In other words, only by accepting Chunsheng Capital's capital injection could Yun'an smooth out the obstacles in its operations.

However, Su Daoan had refused because Chunsheng Capital's funding scheme demanded a direct transfer of 70 percent of the shares, while the injected capital amounted to less than 30 percent of Yun'an's total assets—it was practically daylight robbery.

Later on, Lu Feng stepped in and successfully persuaded Tang Long to back Yun'an, which enabled them to withstand the pressure from the New East Society and revive the health center's business.

...

Last time at the nightclub, Yuan Jianhui had been thoroughly thrashed by Grab-Wave Keung. He harbored a deep grudge, blaming both Lu Feng and Grab-Wave Keung, and spent every day drinking with Babi Chicken while plotting ways to deal with them.

Babi Chicken was a subordinate of Kun Jiu. After Kun Jiu's top enforcer had been beaten crippled and sent back to the countryside to recover, it finally gave Babi Chicken an opportunity to rise.

Originally, Yuan Jianhui was unaware of Lu Feng's background, but Babi Chicken, as Kun Jiu's henchman, knew quite a bit about him.

"Turns out he's connected to Yun'an. I thought he was a cop," Yuan Jianhui said angrily. "Is there any way to teach him a lesson, and preferably cripple Grab-Wave Keung too? That good-for-nothing can't fight worth a damn, yet he's arrogant as hell."

"Dealing with Grab-Wave Keung is no problem. If he dares bare his fangs at me, I'll cripple him. It's just that Lu Feng is off-limits for now. The big boss seems to have something major in the works, and we can't mess up his plans," Babi Chicken said.

"What major plan?" Yuan Jianhui asked.

Babi Chicken shook his head. "Since it's a major plan, naturally I can't talk about it. Wait, you should know more about this than I do. Didn't your old man say anything to you?"

"What on earth is it?" Yuan Jianhui truly had no clue.

Babi Chicken leaned close to Yuan Jianhui's ear and whispered, "It seems to be the acquisition of the Yun'an Group. That's just my guess though, not sure if it's right."

Yuan Jianhui was certainly aware of Chunsheng Capital's previous attempt to invest in Yun'an. He waved a hand dismissively and said, "That deal fell through ages ago. Yun'an's boss is terribly arrogant; he took one look at the proposal and threw it right back in their faces. As far as I'm seeing, that company will go bankrupt sooner or later."

"Don't guys in finance like it when other companies go bankrupt? Once they go bankrupt, buying them out is cheap," Babi Chicken remarked.

"What do you know? By the time a company goes bankrupt, it owes a mountain of debt to the bank. An acquisition means inheriting the bank's debts as well," Yuan Jianhui said with a look of utter contempt. Although he didn't understand finance all that well himself, it didn't stop him from looking down on someone even more ignorant.

"I also heard that Yun'an has a secret recipe in its hands worth a fortune. If they put it up for sale, they probably won't go bankrupt anytime soon," Babi Chicken said. Though fierce and vicious when fighting, he wasn't very old and had dropped out of middle school to join the streets. He was ruthless enough, but lacked brains; a few drinks of alcohol made him lose all sense of direction, and he would blurt out anything.

"A secret recipe?" Yuan Jianhui genuinely had never heard of this.