Cut Off the Financial Lifeline: The Su Group in Peril

The Zhao family mansion.

Ye Chen received the news at one in the morning.

It wasn't a phone call from Zhao Debiao.

Instead, the Zhao family butler came running in tears to report it.

"Mr. Ye! Something terrible has happened! The young master has been arrested!"

The butler knelt on the ground, trembling all over.

"The young master took over a hundred brothers to smash up the Shen family's Yunding Club, but in less than five minutes, the armed police arrived! They caught everyone! Not a single one got away!"

The teacup in Ye Chen's hand shattered with a snap.

Scalding tea splashed onto the back of his hand, but he seemed completely unaware.

Five minutes?

Zhao Debiao charged in with over a hundred men, and the armed police arrived in five minutes?

This wasn't the speed of a standard police response; this was the speed of a trap laid well in advance!

Ye Chen stood up abruptly, a cold gleam exposed in his eyes.

"Shen Fei knew about it all along!"

He paced back and forth in the hall, his mind racing.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Only a few core members of the Zhao family knew he had ordered Zhao Debiao to smash the place. From giving the order to Zhao Debiao's departure, less than an hour had passed.

How could Shen Fei have set up a trap in advance?

Unless Shen Fei had been watching him from the very beginning.

No, impossible. How could a rich, playboy second-generation heir have such methods?

Ye Chen couldn't figure it out.

But he didn't have much time to think.

Because with Zhao Debiao arrested, the Zhao family was instantly left leaderless.

Although Zhao Wanshan was conscious, his body was still recovering, leaving him completely powerless to take charge. The rest of the Zhao family were of no consequence; upon hearing that Zhao Debiao had been taken away by the armed police, they immediately scattered like monkeys fleeing a falling tree.

Ye Chen's only trump card in Jinling was gone overnight.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

If the Zhao family was ruined, so be it.

He, Ye Chen, was a genius unparalleled in both medicine and martial arts; he had never relied on some underground faction.

He still had his master's connections!

He still had his own medical skills!

Shen Fei was merely relying on his family's power. Once he contacted his master's connections in the capital, what would the Shen family amount to?

Ye Chen took out his phone and dialed his master's number.

Beep, beep, beep.

No one answered.

He called again.

Still no answer.

Ye Chen frowned and sent his master a text message.

"Master, your disciple has encountered some trouble and urgently needs your help. Please call back."

After sending it, he clutched the phone in his hand, waiting for a reply.

What he didn't know was that this text message would never receive a reply.

Because Shen Fei had thought of this a step ahead of him.

...

Meanwhile.

In the center of Jinling City, at the Su Group headquarters.

At two in the morning, the lights in the CEO's office were still on.

Su Zhenbang sat behind his desk, his hair a mess, his tie askew, and his eyes bloodshot.

The desk was piled high with documents and financial statements, each one a death warrant.

Spread out before him was a spreadsheet listing all of the Su Group's partners.

Twenty-three companies.

He had made twenty-three phone calls.

Not a single one was willing to help.

Just as the last call disconnected, Su Zhenbang felt as if his heart was about to stop.

That call had been to his closest old brother, Zhang Wenchang.

The two had grown up together and started their businesses together, a friendship spanning over thirty years.

Su Zhenbang felt that if there was only one person left in all of Jinling willing to help him, it had to be Lao Zhang.

But on the other end of the line, Zhang Wenchang only said one sentence.

"Old Su, your daughter broke off the engagement with the Shen family. In this matter... whoever helps you, dies."

Then he hung up.

Thirty years of friendship, severed with a single sentence.

The hand Su Zhenbang used to hold the phone was trembling.

He finally completely understood one thing.

In Jinling, no one dared to oppose the Shen family.

No one.

This wasn't a matter of money.

This was a matter of life and death.

The Shen family had operated for three generations, their roots penetrating every corner of Jinling. In both political and business circles, in both the lawful and the underworld, the Shen family's tentacles were everywhere.

The consequence of offending the Shen family wasn't as simple as bankruptcy.

It meant the entire family vanishing from Jinling.

And his, Su Zhenbang's, daughter had not only broken off the engagement with the Shen family, but she had done it to their faces, and even brought a wild man to their door.

In everyone's eyes, this amounted to two words.

Courting death.

Su Zhenbang slumped in his chair, old tears streaming down his face.

"It's over... It's all over..."

The office door was pushed open.

Su Qingxue walked in.

She hadn't slept all night either, but she was still neatly dressed. Wearing a black suit with her hair tied in a ponytail, her face betrayed little emotion.

But Su Zhenbang noticed that her fingers were trembling slightly.

"Dad, how is the situation?"

Su Zhenbang didn't speak; he just pushed the spreadsheet filled with the names of their partners in front of her.

Behind every single name was a red cross.

Su Qingxue looked at those crosses, her lips pressed tightly into a line.

"Not a single one will help?"

"Not a single one."

Su Zhenbang's voice sounded as if it was squeezed from his throat.

"Qingxue, Dad doesn't blame you. But you need to understand, the Shen family isn't an ordinary wealthy family. The moment you broke off the engagement, the entire Su family was sentenced to death."

Su Qingxue clenched her fists.

"Then what about Ye Chen..."

"Ye Chen?"

Su Zhenbang gave a bitter laugh.

"Qingxue, Dad is going to ask you a question. Think carefully before you answer."

"From the time you broke off the engagement until now, has Ye Chen helped the Su family solve even a single practical problem?"

Su Qingxue opened her mouth but couldn't speak.

"He talked a big game, I admit. Saying he'd show the Shen family a thing or two within three days, saying that with his medical skills the Su family would have all the money they needed. But what was the result?"

Su Zhenbang slammed the desk!

"He cured Zhao Wanshan and subdued Zhao Debiao, but in the end, Zhao Debiao was arrested! Over a hundred men and not a single one escaped! Ye Chen can't even protect his own people, what does he have to protect our Su family!"

Su Qingxue's body trembled slightly.

She wanted to refute it, but she couldn't find a reason to.

Because everything Su Zhenbang said was a fact.

Does Ye Chen have skills? Yes.

Unparalleled medical expertise, formidable martial arts, and an extraordinary aura.

But so what?

The Su family is facing a systemic crisis of a broken capital chain, a mass exodus of partners, and banks demanding debt repayment.

This kind of crisis cannot be solved with silver needles and fists.

It requires money.

It requires connections.

It requires absolute power—the kind where one word in this circle can make everyone shut their mouths.

And Ye Chen has none of these things.

Shen Fei has them all.

Su Qingxue closed her eyes.

The scene of the day she broke the engagement surfaced in her mind.

Shen Fei sat on the sofa and calmly said those words.

"You are unworthy."

At the time, she felt it was an insult.

But thinking back now, those words were like a knife, precisely slicing open her pride to reveal the cruelest truth beneath.

She truly was unworthy.

It wasn't that she as a person was unworthy.

It was that Su Qingxue, having broken off the engagement with the Shen family, was already nothing on Jinling's power map.

Without the Shen family's protection, the Su Group was just a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

And she had personally torn that layer of protection to shreds.

"Dad."

Su Qingxue opened her eyes.

"Do you think Shen Fei is still willing to see me?"

Su Zhenbang froze for a moment, then immediately understood his daughter's meaning.

"You're going to beg him?"

Su Qingxue didn't answer.

She turned and walked toward the door, stopping halfway.

"Dad, regarding Ye Chen, don't tell him for now."

Su Zhenbang watched his daughter's retreating back. He opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing.

He was old and could see many things clearly.

That young man Ye Chen was indeed capable, but compared to Shen Fei, the gap was not just a little bit.

The difference was in their foundation.

The difference was in their vision.

The difference was the absolute power to crush everything.

Su Qingxue walked out of the Su Group building, the night breeze brushing against her face.

The night view of Jinling was as dazzling as ever.

But Su Qingxue felt as if every single light was mocking her.

She took out her phone and found Shen Fei's number.

Her finger hovered over the dial button, hesitating to press it.

Pride and reality tore frantically at her heart.

A minute later, she pressed it.

Beep, beep, beep.

The call connected.

A deep, slightly lazy voice came from the other end.

"Oh? Eldest Miss Su, calling me this late, did you miss me?"

Su Qingxue gripped her phone tightly and took a deep breath.

"Shen Fei, I want to see you."

The other end of the line fell silent for a second.

Then Shen Fei laughed, his voice carrying an unpredictable undertone.

"Sure."

"Tomorrow night at seven, Jinling Grand Hotel, rooftop."

"Don't be late."

The call ended.

Su Qingxue held her phone, standing on the empty street.

The wind blew her ponytail.

Her eyes held reluctance, humiliation, and struggle.

But mostly, it was a sense of helplessness after recognizing reality.

She knew what meeting Shen Fei tomorrow meant.

It meant bowing her head.

It meant begging for help.

It meant that the once aloof, icy female CEO who came to break off the engagement would have to personally crush her pride into dust and offer it at that man's feet.

But she had no other choice.

For the Su family, for the more than three thousand employees, for her father.

She had to go.

Su Qingxue looked up at the Jinling night sky, took a deep breath, and turned toward the parking lot.

The clicking of her high heels echoed on the empty street.

Crisp.

Lonely.

...

Shen Family Villa, Study.

Shen Fei put down his phone and glanced at the system panel.

[Su Qingxue (Core Female Lead of the Child of Fortune)'s trust in Ye Chen is beginning to drop!]

[Current trust level of Su Qingxue towards Ye Chen: 62 (Wavering)]

[Current affection level of Su Qingxue towards the Host: 25 (Fear + Curiosity)]

The corners of Shen Fei's mouth curled up slightly.

A trust level of 62, it was already wavering.

One more push, and it would shatter.

Tomorrow night's meeting would be that final push.

But before that, there was one more thing to handle.

Shen Fei picked up an intelligence report from the desk.

It read a few words.

Xuantian Sect's Third Elder.

Ye Chen's master, his only backer on the mountain.

If Ye Chen contacted his master, someone from the capital might step in to intervene.

This line had to be cut off before Ye Chen could react.

Shen Fei picked up his phone and dialed another number.

"Grandpa, there is a matter I need you to step in for."

An old but vigorous voice came from the other end.

"Oh? It is rare for my good grandson to ask his grandpa for a favor. Speak."

"Kunlun Mountain's Xuantian Sect, Third Elder. Help me send a greeting."

"Xuantian Sect?"

The old man pondered for a moment.

"Alright, I don't need to personally handle such a trivial matter. I'll just have someone pass a message."

"Thank you, Grandpa."

"Brat, why are you being so polite with your grandpa? By the way, I heard you broke off the engagement with that girl from the Su family?"

"Yes."

"Good riddance! That girl's heart is too wild, she can't be kept. What kind of woman can't my grandson have?"

Shen Fei chuckled.

"You are right, Grandpa."

Hanging up the phone, Shen Fei leaned back in his chair.

The Xuantian Sect line would be severed by tomorrow.

By then, Ye Chen would truly be a loner.

Without the Zhao family's power.

Without his master's connections.

Without Su Qingxue's trust.

Shen Fei looked at the night outside the window, a glint of coldness flashing in his eyes.

"Ye Chen, I will pull out your roots, one by one, until nothing is left."

"When you realize you have absolutely nothing left, that is when the game truly begins."