The Way of Restraint

“Chairman, I heard you encountered danger in Japan.”

Lin Qingzhi raised the most critical issue in the first sentence of the meeting.

“Don’t mention that matter. The purpose of today’s meeting is for everyone to keep their mouths shut. If any rumors spread externally, you must not breathe a single word—say it’s all gossip,” Liu Shi said. “Also, if any news appears online, it must be deleted immediately to prevent media sensationalism.”

“Understood.” All the executives nodded.

“Also, from now on, you won’t be responsible for my security arrangements. I’ll have this man, Su Jie, handle it. However, his position won’t be within Hedao Group—he’ll be part of a private security team I’m establishing,” Liu Shi said. “But if he needs to carry out any security-related work, all departments must cooperate fully.”

This was an order.

It also gave Su Jie a certain degree of authority.

Su Jie was somewhat surprised.

Even now, he didn’t feel he had truly earned Liu Shi’s trust. To Liu Shi, he was still mostly like those mystical masters who discussed philosophy and esoteric matters.

He was still in the category of a guest scholar—someone to pass the time with, to practice martial arts with.

But now, Liu Shi’s words had actually granted him access to some company secrets.

Being responsible for security and requiring cooperation from all departments would allow Su Jie to access many hidden matters. Liu Shi had considerable nerve—he wasn’t afraid Su Jie might be a corporate spy.

This behavior showed that Liu Shi had supreme confidence in his own judgment.

It was a sharp eye honed through years of navigating the business world.

After these words, the many executives present looked at Su Jie with different eyes—clearly seeing him as the boss’s confidant. None of them understood why the boss had suddenly acquired such a trusted person.

Even Liu Shi’s son, Liu Guan, had not actually taken a position in the company. He had been given a sum of money to start his own company outside, to first develop his entrepreneurial abilities.

His daughter and prospective son-in-law both worked in the company, but their positions were not very high, and promotions were not fast.

Take Wen Ting, who was sitting right here—he had accomplished many achievements over the years. In any other company, he would have already climbed to a very high position. But now he was still at the middle level.

The executives had no objections to Liu Shi’s deliberate tactic of holding him back.

Moreover, many people genuinely admired Wen Ting. This man worked calmly and steadily, never impatient, yet every task he did was flawless—perfect in every way, with no faults anyone could find. He got along well with all departments, conducted himself appropriately, and never spoke ill of anyone.

Originally, many had harbored private misgivings about Liu Shi’s prospective son-in-law. But over these three years, even those with misgivings had come to admire him, believing he was certainly capable of handling greater responsibilities.

On the way back with Liu Shi, Su Jie had also reviewed Wen Ting’s file. He found that this man had established a reputation within the company as capable, competent, and well-liked. Even among his subordinates, he had built an image of being “all-powerful,” inspiring a kind of blind worship in his department.

Wen Ting came from a poor background, orphaned young, and had worked while studying to get through school. He had managed to study abroad, become a Harvard PhD, and worked on Wall Street for a time—his experience was certainly rich. But he had no real foundation, and he was in no way a match for Liu Shi’s daughter in terms of social standing.

Yet gradually, people had come to feel that Liu Shi’s daughter had good judgment in discovering such a talent.

*Give this man another ten years, and he could smoothly take Hedao Group into his own hands,* Su Jie thought. *For anyone else, having such a successor would be a delight. But Liu Shi’s years of experience have given him keen instincts—he senses this man might be problematic.*

So far, both Su Jie and Liu Shi were only speculating that there was something wrong with this man. They had no evidence. And Liu Shi also wanted to use Wen Ting as a knife, combined with his daughter Liu Xiaoguo’s relationship—dealing with him would truly be difficult.

Putting himself in Liu Shi’s position, Su Jie thought he would also want to use Wen Ting—to deal with internal undesirables and to counter Mingxia Group externally. He certainly wouldn’t want to give up such a talent.

*Where do I stand in this storm? This is certainly a good opportunity to deal with Haoyu, but there’s also great risk involved. Liu Shi is definitely using me too.* Su Jie scanned the executives in the meeting, knowing that each one was a shrewd operator. His fighting ability wasn’t very useful in the corporate world—he would have to rely on intelligence.

“Wen Ting, speak up,” Liu Shi officially began the meeting. “Originally, I had you contact Haoyu just as a tentative inquiry—to see if they would sell their film and television group. But you actually managed to get them to budge—this defies common sense. Tell me, what methods did you use? How confident are you? Here, in front of everyone, speak based on your abilities—no favoritism. If you pull this off, your promotion will naturally follow. Lin Qingzhi, tell me, how strategically significant is this matter for us?”

“Our group’s entertainment sector layout is far inferior to Mingxia’s. But if we acquire Haoyu Film and Television, we can immediately form a complete entertainment industry chain and seize market share from Mingxia,” Lin Qingzhi said. He also found this hard to believe. “To be honest, I’m also very curious—why would Haoyu budge?”

“The reason Haoyu budged is simple: Feng Shoucheng doesn’t want his two sons to go to prison,” Wen Ting spoke up. “During this period, through detailed investigation, I discovered that Feng Yuxuan and Feng Qiancang, in the course of managing their film and television entertainment businesses, used many illegal methods—molesting and even forcibly assaulting many female artists. Through meticulous investigation, I gathered substantial evidence and persuaded those female artists to come forward and testify against the two. Armed with this evidence, I began negotiating with them—and gained a tremendous advantage.”

Although Wen Ting spoke in a few casual sentences, every executive present felt as if they had been hit by a tidal wave.

In truth, the executives present had also tried such things, but none had been able to find any evidence. Mingxia Group also had many capable people investigating Haoyu Group’s illegal activities, but had made no progress.

“You really found their evidence?” Many executives still didn’t believe it.

“This is the acquisition letter of intent signed by Feng Yuxuan, Feng Qiancang, and Feng Shoucheng with our Hedao Group.” Wen Ting did not elaborate on how he had investigated the illegal evidence, but distributed copies of the document to everyone.

“These are the signatures of Feng Yuxuan, Feng Qiancang, and Feng Shoucheng.” The executives could verify authenticity. “Once this letter of intent is signed, we can officially begin due diligence. This is indeed a breakthrough.”

“Since that’s the case, let’s confirm this matter and initiate the acquisition plan.” Liu Shi glanced at the letter of intent. “This is the biggest merger and acquisition case for Hedao Group in this period. If it succeeds, the credit goes to Wen Ting. Does anyone have objections?”

“If this can succeed, none of us have anything to say,” Lin Qingzhi said. At this moment, he truly felt his age—he had tried to accomplish things that Wen Ting had now done, and done better.

“Then let’s proceed.” Liu Shi gave the order. “This acquisition will be led by Wen Ting. Since he has leverage over the Feng family, he’ll be able to act more efficiently. If we change personnel, problems might arise. Wen Ting, what do you think?”

“The board will decide how to arrange things, and I’ll follow accordingly,” Wen Ting replied appropriately.

Su Jie had been listening the entire time. When he heard that Wen Ting had obtained evidence of Feng Yuxuan and Feng Qiancang’s illegal activities, he was startled. This was something he had also wanted to do, but with his own abilities, there was no possibility.

Not to mention him—many of Haoyu’s enemies had been looking for such evidence without success. Yet Wen Ting had actually done it.

Either this man’s methods were truly extraordinary, or there was something else going on.

The group met for an hour, finalizing all matters. Liu Shi held the overall direction, and internally the company was harmonious. But Su Jie had already seen the many factions. Even as the boss, Liu Shi faced considerable resistance when trying to push through major decisions against opposition.

“Alright, meeting adjourned.” After the meeting, Liu Shi announced the adjournment without staying to ask Wen Ting for details. This seemed curious to everyone.

Logically, Liu Shi would certainly want to ask how Wen Ting had obtained the illegal evidence.

After everyone had left, Liu Shi was about to speak, but Su Jie raised his hand.

“What is it?” Liu Shi asked.

Su Jie walked to the table and inspected it, focusing especially on Wen Ting’s chair. He found nothing, but did not let up. He expanded his search to the corners of the walls.

Suddenly, he reached out and grabbed something from a flowerpot in the corner—something that looked like a pebble. He dropped it on the floor and crushed it with his foot.

The pebble shattered, revealing circuitry inside.

It was a disguised listening device, identical to the stones in the flowerpot—impossible to distinguish.

“Who planted this?” Liu Shi’s face turned dark. “How did this happen? Was it Wen Ting? But he clearly didn’t go near that area just now—could there be a mole among our executives?”

“This listening device is very well disguised,” Su Jie said. “Usually, only international agents use these. They’re not used in commercial settings—they’re expensive and hard to come by. Ordinary people can’t obtain them at all. Only those familiar with the dark world can custom-order them on the dark web using cryptocurrency.”

During his training at Larry’s, Su Jie had also received extensive counter-surveillance training. By applying this knowledge and training his acute sixth sense, he could detect many things.

Larry’s facilities also had this type of listening device.

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