Xu Tingsheng said, “I don’t know what I should do, where to plunge the knife, how to retaliate, how to untie the knot……I can’t find that line, that point.”


  By this, he did not mean that he did not know who his opponents were. After all, from the Fang family’s perspective, those two were out there in the open, not hiding anything at all. Still, things were not as simple as that. It was not like if they were feeling oppressed, they could simply spend a bit of money and hire two fugitives to see if they could stab those two to death.

  It was the same for those two with their hatred that had accumulated over decades. They too had not tried to secretly send someone to kill old Mr Fang, alleviating their emotions all at once.

  It simply did not work like this for people of this level. Each and every one of their actions were tied to too many things. Those people above them could not disapprove, and they also had to consider those under them……making such indirect actions inevitable.

  At Xu Tingsheng’s current level, he could not reach or see through these things.

  Right now, the three people who had once held important positions were actually all retired. Since a very long time ago, while retiring from the bureaucracy in this country after attaining certain heights entailed giving up on the authority one directly held, it served as a protective talisman as well.

  Generally speaking, no one dared to act directly against them for revenge. Such would induce a mass panic, very likely leading to the dissatisfaction and collective antagonism of everyone else.

  Hence, what remained was a contest of their networks and their pieces.

  Here, the Fang family was at an absolute disadvantage.

  In the words of the old man himself, he had been opinionated and full of himself in the past, not good at associating with others. Thus, his net was very dispersed. Even those who had been under him could not be considered loyal. As for colleagues, they were in no way allied at all.

  Therefore, those who were still willing to stick their necks out for him had either long since perished on the battlefield or were non-existent.

  Despite how things were, Xu Tingsheng still detected a hint of arrogance in the old man’s words, feeling admiration as a result. Actually, at the level the old man had once been at, establishing one’s own net really depended primarily on mutual benefits as personality or loyalty might be secondary or even insignificant.

  This old man had been in a high position, yet had little such relations with his old friends and those under him and virtually no alliances of mutual benefit with his colleagues. This was the main thing: To achieve this, while very foolish, was also not easy at all.

  As for his two opponents, if that net that they had painstakingly spent twenty years building up were to be fully expanded, it would probably leave many people shocked. This could be seen in what had happened to the eldest son of the Fang family a couple of days ago.

  The current Fang family had no illusions of winning whatsoever. They only hoped that the other side would spare them, give them a way out.

  The point that Xu Tingsheng spoke of was the point to disentangle the net. No net could not be broken. And as soon as it was, those two old men would really only be able to try to physically exact revenge on old Mr Fang.

  Also, the line that he spoke of was the other side’s boundary line. As soon as it was pressed and hurt, different sounds would resound from the interior of that net, causing one to again calculate if it was worth it as they felt pressure. It might cause them to change their minds.

  All ties of mutual benefit had a breaking point. In simple terms, when things reach a certain point, some people will feel that it’s not worth it and won’t be willing to play on for any longer.

  This point and this line were not easy to grasp. Xu Tingsheng could not do it, and neither could the old man.

  And so, the old man who had fought in wars before said: Pull the trigger, then take aim……

  When Xu Tingsheng exited the sick ward, the exterior room was filled with people looking troubled, most of them probably having rushed over after having heard the news of his visit.

  Those of the Fang family now gazed in unison at Xu Tingsheng. Rather than looking forward to him actually doing something, it was more like they wanted to learn from him when the old man would finally retaliate and what he intended to do.

  They still harboured a bit of hope, just that this hope was all on the dying old man in the room. One had to say that the state of this bunch was very pitiful, yet also very infuriating.

  It was no wonder that the vast majority of them were pieces to be discarded.

  It was no wonder that Fang Yuqing had said that the descendants of the Fang family were failures.

  What the old man would never say usually, they were hoping to hear from Xu Tingsheng.

  But Xu Tingsheng only smiled and took his leave.

  A man and woman blocked his path.

  Fang Zhong and Fang Ying had just returned from overseas. They were Fang Yuqing’s cousins, the children of his eldest uncle. Because something had happened to their father a few days ago, they were inevitably rather more emotional.

  “What did Grandpa say? As an outsider, how are you qualified to keep it from us of the Fang family?” Fang Zhong pointed in Xu Tingsheng’s face.

  “I think Grandpa must be losing his wits,” Fang Ying agreed.

  As Fang Yuqing moved to interrupt, Xu Tingsheng raised a hand to stop him.

  “Who do you think you are?” Fang Zhong asked, though it was unknown whether he was addressing the still expressionless, uncaring Xu Tingsheng or Fang Yuqing who had been going to stand up for him.

  The third child of the Fang family’s second generation, Fang Yuqing’s father, walked over. After Xu Tingsheng had left the interior room, he had gone in to see the old man. He was the only one of the Fang family’s descendants whom the old man allowed to freely enter and leave it.

  Slap!

  Fang Zhong clutched his face, looking in bewilderment at his Third Uncle.

  “The old man asked me to do this. He said that this will be the rule in the future.”


  “The old man asked for all of us to enter now.”


  Those of the Fang family surged into the interior room.

  Xu Tingsheng left.

  In the corridor, Fang Chen caught up with him.

  “Xu Tingsheng.”


  “Hmm?”


  “Thank you.”


  “No need to stand on ceremony. I’m totally not used to that.”


  “I, I wanted to ask you-what can I do?”


  “You can’t, you mustn't do anything at all. Especially not move on your own accord.”


  “Huh?”


  “Also, break up with Tan Yao.”


  “.……You knew?”


  “Yeah. Off you go. The old man dotes on you a lot. Go speak with him.”


  “Right.”
……

  The day after Xu Tingsheng met old Mr Fang.

  A wild volley of shots was fired from the Fang family who had previously been silent.

  Fixated on the attack on Fang Yuqing’s cousin, seemingly set on rescuing the eldest son of their family, all the power which was still available to the Fang family was collectively unleashed all at once.

  And so the suppressors came.

  In response to the old man’s wild volley, those people in the opponent’s net, those pieces, were forced to step forward one by one.

  On Xu Tingsheng’s side, Zhicheng Real Estate prematurely sprung the ambush for Ning Garden which had been waiting for them in virtually ‘asking for it’, taking the initiative to start the conflict. Soon afterwards, Fang Yuqing pounced in a meeting between the government and local entrepreneurs, spending an hour on a prepared speech bombarding their governmental departments for harming local entrepreneurship.

  As compared to the earlier two incidents which were only known amongst the upper echelons still, this incident with Ning Garden evidently caused much more societal upheaval.

  After dinner, Xu Tingsheng sat before the table in his study with the piece of paper before him, adding one point after another which had just been exposed, drawing line after line.

  For the first step, he had to sort out and ready a list.

  This list would eventually end up in the hands of Chen Jianxing.