When the rich kids gathered at Xu Zifan's club, they would often invite Xu Zifan to join them. Xu Zifan would usually give them face and go for a drink or two, chat with them for a bit, and if he met someone with some ability, he would try to build a relationship and make friends.
A group of young men came over to celebrate Xu Zifan's birthday. Xu Zifan went over to offer a toast and even gave them a bottle of red wine. He had just sat down and exchanged a few words when one of the drunken young men suddenly said, "Brother Fan, it's been two or three months since Xu Lili's incident. How come you're still so celibate? I own a small entertainment company. The models and actresses there are all beautiful, and most importantly, they know their place. If you're interested, Brother Fan, I can bring them over for you to see?"
Everyone who heard this looked at Xu Zifan. Some people, fearing he would get angry, tugged at the young master who had spoken. But Xu Zifan didn't care at all and just smiled and said, "You all know I don't like to play games. These things depend on fate, and there haven't been any that catch my eye yet. But the entertainment industry is quite interesting. Investing in a few movies is not bad. Could you help me make some connections and introduce me to people in the industry sometime? I need to earn more money to support myself and my mother."
Mentioning his parents, a sensitive topic, elicited no response. The young master readily agreed to introduce him to someone, and Xu Zifan exchanged a few more pleasantries before leaving. Xiao Jiang, following beside him, asked, "Young Master Xu, are you really planning to invest in the film?"
Xu Zifan nodded, "Do whatever makes money. If you have connections, you might as well use them. Take a few days to learn about the entertainment industry. If you find any good scripts, bring them to me. Investment is investment, but it can't go wrong if it doesn't make money."
"Yes, Young Master Xu, I will take care of it."
Xiao Jiang is very capable; he quickly grasped the general situation of the entertainment industry in three days and even obtained five scripts. Xu Zifan skimmed through the scripts, consulted with the directors, lead actors, and their teams, and directly invested 50% of the funds in two of the films, putting most of the recently recovered capital into the market. However, he was very optimistic about these two films and the directors, believing that the return would be at least ten times after their release in a year—a sure profit.
Coincidentally, one of the films stars Yang Lin, a top-tier actress, the same actress Xu Zifan ousted from Xu Lili's investment. Yang Lin is an excellent actress, but she's just unlucky; she's been nominated three times without winning, so this role is definitely for her.
After netizens learned that Xu Zifan had invested in this movie, he once again became a trending topic. Many were saying that Xu Zifan did it on purpose, deliberately promoting Xu Lili's rival after blacklisting her, hoping to make Xu Lili regret it. This clear-cut personality unexpectedly resonated with many, leading to a surge in Xu Zifan's fans praising him and saying they loved his carefree and unrestrained style!
Xu Zifan, a young master from a wealthy family, is constantly trending on social media. With over 30 million followers, he's incredibly popular. His live streams have even topped the popularity charts, surpassing many internet celebrities who make money solely through live streaming. He's considered a breath of fresh air in the world of the wealthy, and even casual viewers have started to like him, with his reputation growing ever stronger.
Things were developing in the direction Xu Maotong least wanted to see, and the stronger Xu Zifan appeared, the less he dared to do anything rashly. Moreover, Xu Zifan was no longer living at home, the club's funds belonged to him, and he had built a considerable network of connections. Xu Maotong no longer even had the power to freeze his assets; Xu Zifan was completely out of his control. This feeling was unpleasant, leaving him with no patience to care about his "wronged" younger son or Liang Yujie, who hadn't properly raised her eldest son. Xu Zifeng and Liang Yujie could only share his frustration, helpless and frustrated.
Xu Zifeng wasn't as composed as his parents. He bribed Liu Cheng, a rich second-generation from out of town, to become a member of the club, and then caused trouble there.
Liu Cheng's family was facing bankruptcy; otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to such an offensive request. Now, only Xu Zifeng was willing to help his family resolve their troubles, so he had no choice but to comply. After joining the club, he went there every two or three days to observe the guests and wait for his opportunity. Half a month later, the vice mayor of Beijing booked a large banquet hall at the club to celebrate his youngest daughter's birthday; many dignitaries were in attendance. Liu Cheng had his eye on the vice mayor's youngest daughter!
If the girl was 10 years old and had drunk water laced with aphrodisiacs, causing her to embarrass herself in public, Xu Zifan would definitely offend the deputy mayor, and consequently, the other dignitaries present. Moreover, if something like this happened at a club, who would dare to come there in the future?
However, getting water for the little girl was extremely difficult. Liu Cheng couldn't even get into the banquet hall; security at the club was very tight. Liu Cheng waited a long time before seeing a guest with an invitation enter the club and go straight to the restroom. He quickly followed, knocked the person unconscious from behind, took the invitation, and sneaked into the banquet hall.
Xu Zifan was watching the surveillance footage in his upstairs office when he inadvertently spotted Liu Cheng and frowned, saying, "Go and bring this person up here."
He didn't know who Liu Cheng was, but he noticed that Liu Cheng had come several times and wasn't from Beijing's social circles. He vaguely remembered seeing this person arrive earlier when he reviewed the security footage; it was strange that he was only entering the banquet hall now. Better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free; he couldn't allow even the slightest potential harm to occur.
These surveillance cameras are, of course, hidden, and only he can see them. No matter how much protection is given to the guests, he still needs to have complete control over the club before he can talk about protection. This time, they came in handy.
Liu Cheng had just dissolved the aphrodisiac in the water, intending to find an opportunity to approach the main character of the banquet, when suddenly everything went black and he knew nothing more. A waiter quickly knocked Liu Cheng unconscious, then helped him away as if he were drunk. The others, seeing that he was a stranger, assumed he was an insignificant nobody and paid him no attention. The waiter also took the glass of water that Liu Cheng was holding and carried it away with him.
When Xiao Jiang arrived at Xu Zifan's place, she had already retrieved Liu Cheng's membership information and handed it to him, and had also learned that the Liu family was about to go bankrupt. Xu Zifan also retrieved the surveillance footage from the past few days and used facial recognition to locate Liu Cheng's information.
They noticed he was always looking around the club, and since he was on the verge of bankruptcy, he was still spending millions to join the club, which was clearly suspicious.
He didn't wake Liu Cheng up, but directly had the club's doctor test the water. The results showed that it contained aphrodisiacs, so he had Liu Cheng taken away and placed under guard. The glass of water was naturally sealed away as well.
After the birthday banquet, Xu Zifan personally escorted the deputy mayor away. When no one was around, he whispered to the deputy mayor, "Mayor, we just caught a suspicious person in the banquet hall. We didn't make a fuss for fear of affecting your daughter's birthday banquet, but this person has ulterior motives and I think he is unforgivable. I wonder if the mayor would like to handle this personally or let me handle it?"
The deputy mayor's face hardened, his gaze sharpening. "Is this true? Have you found out who he is and what his intentions are?"
Xu Zifan shook his head. "All I know is that this person's family is about to go bankrupt. It's very likely that he was instructed by someone else. The specific situation still needs to be investigated."
The deputy mayor has weathered all sorts of storms to climb to his current position, and he has many political enemies. They immediately saw this person as a political foe and wanted to harm him, so of course they couldn't let Xu Zifan investigate. Therefore, they said, "Leave the person to me; you don't need to worry about this anymore."
Xu Zifan immediately breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "The mayor will definitely handle it in no time if he does it personally, so I won't bother you any longer. Welcome to visit again next time, Mayor."
The deputy mayor patted him on the shoulder and smiled, "You're very good."
It was no easy feat for the former good-for-nothing young master to receive praise from the vice mayor of Beijing. Some officials who hadn't left yet witnessed this scene and secretly wondered if Xu Zifan had a good relationship with the vice mayor. This subtly elevated Xu Zifan's status in their hearts, which was an unexpected surprise for him.
After sending Liu Cheng away, Xu Zifan still had people continue the investigation, but he did so very discreetly, since he had already stated that he would not interfere. Two days later, Xiao Jiang discovered that Liu Cheng had been in contact with Xu Zifeng, and that Xu Zifeng's account had exactly five million missing before Liu Cheng joined the group.
Xu Zifan sneered as he held the investigation results. He had suspected before that the Xu family was involved; after all, someone who wanted to harm the deputy mayor wouldn't frequent the club so often. Liu Cheng was definitely after him, so he conveniently handed him over to the deputy mayor to resolve the matter. Anyway, he wouldn't be able to uncover Liu Cheng's motives in such a short time. Even if the deputy mayor eventually discovered it was after him, he wouldn't care; he would deal with Liu Cheng himself. After all, Liu Cheng had brought that drug into the banquet hall—it was the deputy mayor's youngest daughter's birthday party.
The original owner hated Xu Maotong the most, and his obsession was to make Xu Maotong die of anger. He didn't mention Xu Zifeng much, so Xu Zifan didn't pay any attention to Liang Yujie and Xu Zifeng during this period. Who knew that Xu Zifeng would insist on coming to his death? Then don't blame him for being impolite.
He used hacking techniques to send a message to Liu Cheng's parents, telling them that Liu Cheng had been imprisoned by Xu Zifeng, but Xu Maotong suppressed the news.
When Liu's parents received the news, they were extremely puzzled. Why was Xu Zifeng imprisoning their son? They couldn't contact Liu Cheng, and remembering his earlier statement about helping Xu Zifeng with his business, they panicked. They loved their son dearly; otherwise, Liu Cheng wouldn't have sacrificed himself to help the family pay off their debts. They rushed to Beijing and went directly to Xu Zifeng's school to demand his release.
Knowing that Xu Zifeng's identity was not to be offended, Liu's parents initially spoke to him politely, "Second Young Master Xu, could you please let Liu Cheng meet with us? We have urgent business with him."
Xu Zifeng couldn't contact Liu Cheng either, and he was furious. He said irritably, "You're looking for him? I'm looking for him too! He took so much money from me and didn't do anything for me. You didn't conspire to hide him, did you? I'm warning you, you better tell him to get things done for me right now, or I won't let him off the hook!"
Xu Zifeng had been having a run of bad luck lately and was seething with anger. He showed no respect for Liu's parents, who didn't take him seriously. Liu's parents, however, became even more agitated. Liu's mother, her eyes red with worry, grabbed him and angrily said, "Did you arrest my son? What did you make him do? Hand him over! What you're doing is illegal!"
Unable to find their son, Liu's parents became increasingly convinced of the information's authenticity, clinging to Xu Zifeng and insisting on making him hand over the man.
They were scuffling and pulling at each other near the school when someone finally noticed something was wrong. Several people rushed over to break up the fight, only to hear them say that Xu Zifeng had imprisoned their son. Their eyes immediately changed when they looked at Xu Zifeng. Xu Zifeng had slept with their sister-in-law before, and now he'd forced his way into her son? How disgusting!