Chapter 217: Li Guoli

「Two days later.」

58th floor, Modu Global Financial Center.

“Okay, send the relevant information to my email. I’ll look at it immediately.”

“Thank you very much for the heads-up. Please continue to monitor the situation and contact me immediately if anything develops.”

A middle-aged man with a composed demeanor hung up the phone, his expression turning grim.

‘Those bastards at Fengxing Venture Capital must have some nerve. How dare they touch my, Li Guoli’s, son?’

The middle-aged man was none other than Li Xiao’s father, Li Guoli.

After Fengxing Venture Capital cut its ties with Zhu Huichang, it immediately launched an investigation into Li Xiao.

Since they knew nothing about Li Xiao’s background, they assumed he was just some rich but ordinary person.

As a result, they didn’t bother to conceal their investigation at all. It took only half a day for the news to reach Li Guoli’s ears.

He was, of course, familiar with Fengxing Venture Capital.

The investment firm was infamous for constantly stirring up trouble in the domestic capital market.

In recent years, several domestic brands with decent business operations had seen their hard-earned reputations crumble in a short time due to Fengxing Venture Capital’s hostile takeovers and control.

Those vultures at Fengxing Venture Capital only cared about short-term profits, completely disregarding the survival of the companies they targeted.

In truth, their actions had long drawn the ire of many. However, in the capital market, the winner takes all, and most people preferred to mind their own business. Thus, no one dared to provoke Fengxing Venture Capital.

Li Guoli slipped the phone back into his pocket and walked briskly to his computer, where he skimmed through the information related to his son.

After reading through all the documents, his brows furrowed deeply, and a hint of confusion appeared on his face.

He was usually very strict with his son, having seen too many second and third-generation heirs run wild simply because they had too much money.

In his opinion, it was better for his son to focus on his studies during college.

Therefore, he only gave his son a few thousand yuan for monthly living expenses to prevent him from picking up all sorts of bad habits with too much money on his hands.

But this report clearly stated that his son owned nearly 0.5% of Haitian Flavors’ shares.

Based on Haitian Flavors’ current market capitalization, those shares were worth nearly 1.2 billion.

There was no way his son could have acquired such an asset on his own in such a short time. The only possibility was his wife.

He really had no way of dealing with his wife. She always loved to do the opposite of whatever he did.

However, because they were both strong-willed, they were often at odds with each other, like fire and water. The number of times they contacted each other in a year could be counted on one hand.

He thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth and dialed his wife’s number.

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently switched off. Please try again later…”

Li Guoli pursed his lips in resignation. ‘That exasperating wife of mine is probably on a plane again.’

But even without asking, he was almost certain the shares were her doing.

‘A doting mother spoils the child,’ he thought. His wife must have given their son the shares, probably worried he wouldn’t have a comfortable life in college.

He let out a long sigh. It was always like this; she loved to create messes for him to clean up.

But in the next moment, a proud smile touched his lips.

‘It seems my usual discipline has paid off,’ he mused. ‘Faced with such a huge potential gain, he wasn’t swayed in the slightest and stood firmly with the old guard of Haitian Flavors.’

Although that wasn’t the way to maximize profits, in his eyes, if you had to abandon your principles to make money, it was better not to make that money at all.

Since his son was the one who stirred up this hornet’s nest, it was up to him, the father, to clean up the messy aftermath.

He only had to think for a moment before a few options flashed through his mind.

The simplest method was to find an intermediary to contact the major shareholders of Fengxing Venture Capital directly.

Given his status, if he were to step in personally, they wouldn’t dare lay a finger on his son even if they had ten times the nerve.

However, Fengxing Venture Capital already had a poor reputation in the industry, and he didn’t want to get too involved with such a company.

After a moment’s thought, he rejected this idea.

‘We’re not the ones in the wrong here. If an intermediary is needed, they should be the ones finding someone to sue for peace, not us going to them with our tails between our legs.’

The second method was also simple. Over the years, Fengxing Venture Capital had acquired numerous companies using not only legitimate business tactics but also many dirty, underhanded methods.

Moreover, its own operations were riddled with problems. He could easily send people to gather evidence and deliver a fatal blow.

However, he rejected this idea as well.

This plan wouldn’t be difficult to execute, but it would be equivalent to backing Fengxing Venture Capital into a corner.

Although Fengxing Venture Capital wasn’t massive, it managed 70 to 80 billion in funds and had ties with plenty of shady companies.

If he really pushed them to the brink, an investment firm of that size going berserk might do something irrational, which was not an outcome he wanted to see.

This time, although his son had caused them some trouble and disrupted their plan to change raw material suppliers, it hadn’t actually caused any substantial damage to Fengxing Venture Capital.

The disruption to their plan had, at most, caused a certain degree of capital squeeze, preventing them from quickly converting those funds into profits.

The actual quantifiable loss was probably only between a few tens of millions and a hundred million.

Therefore, it was impossible for them to focus all their attention on his son.

The ones investigating his son now were most likely just a specific investment department within the company responsible for the Haitian Flavors deal.

‘If, right now, another of Fengxing Venture Capital’s investment projects were to undergo a major change and suffer huge losses… ‘

‘…then this trivial matter of a few tens of millions would quickly be forgotten.’

They had many investment projects. If everything went smoothly, they could generate enormous profits for Fengxing Venture Capital.

But if fires started breaking out everywhere, these projects that were once laying golden eggs would immediately leave them too busy to deal with anything else.

Li Guoli’s fingers tapped gently on his desk. Soon, he had a foolproof plan.

He would use legal and market channels to constrain Fengxing Venture Capital while simultaneously ensuring his son’s safety.

He dialed the number for his legal advisory team and gave a clear directive:

“I need you to prepare a detailed legal analysis report on Fengxing Venture Capital’s past business practices, especially any parts that may have violated laws and regulations. At the same time, assess all legal actions we can take.”

Next, Li Guoli contacted several investment firms he was familiar with.

He didn’t plan to get his own hands dirty this time. In his view, why enter the fray yourself when you can kill with a borrowed knife?

Furthermore, he ordered his security team to strengthen the protective measures around his son, ensuring that Li Xiao would not be threatened during this period.

After all, even though this was a society ruled by law where direct violence was rare, this was his son. It was always better to be cautious.