For the next while, Jing Hong and Zhou Chang maintained a pattern of “competing by day and…” by night.

Occasionally, when he lost, Jing Hong wouldn’t feel much like acknowledging Zhou Chang in the office during the day. Yet at night, the moment he set eyes on him, he would inevitably be deeply captivated by the man all over again.

In July, Fanhai and Qinghui fought another round.

First, Qinghui won against Fanhai.

This time, both Fanhai and Qinghui wanted to invest in a mid-sized company simultaneously—or as the outside world put it, “Jing Hong and Zhou Chang have set their sights on the same new toy again.” However, the founder of the target company was exceptionally unyielding, refusing to yield no matter what. Fanhai expended a vast amount of time, yet couldn’t get a foot in the door at all, leaving Jing Hong to eventually announce his withdrawal.

What he hadn’t anticipated was that in this very case, Zhou Chang once again displayed his true colors as a “game-changer.” Shortly afterward, Qinghui Group acquired 100% of that company, taking complete control.

Upon hearing the news, Jing Hong was undeniably surprised.

Zhao Hanqing explained that Zhou Chang had divided his approach into several steps.

The first step was playing weak—claiming that Qinghui Group didn’t want control, didn’t want to interfere, and merely sought financial returns. With immense patience and sincerity, he moved the founder.

Of course, calling it “playing weak” was essentially just a nice way of saying “deceiving.”

Immediately following that, half a year later, Zhou Chang presented a new proposal to the founder: Qinghui Group would make a wholly-owned acquisition of the company, taking 100% of the equity, but the founder would not leave. On the contrary, Qinghui was going to build a new business group. The founder’s company, alongside two other companies, would be brought under this new business group, with the founder serving as president and joining the roster of Qinghui Group’s executive committee, allowing him to participate in future executive committee meetings. In other words, after the acquisition, the founder would not only continue managing his own company, but could also manage the other two simultaneously, even becoming part of Qinghui’s core management.

Naturally, Zhou Chang’s approach was grounded in the founder’s actual capabilities.

At the same time, to secure the company, Zhou Chang deployed a multi-pronged strategy once again. The proposal he put forward wasn’t a traditional cash acquisition, but a stock swap—an equity swap using Qinghui’s ADS (American Depositary Shares) in exchange for the target’s shares. Since Qinghui’s stock price was still climbing, this meant there was room for further appreciation in the future.

It was at this moment that Zhou Chang’s most extraordinary tactic emerged: Zhou Chang offered to lend money to the founder, allowing him to buy back a portion of his company’s shares from Qinghui, with Zhou Chang personally funding the loan. Zhou Chang realized that because the founder’s equity stake in his own company wasn’t actually high, he lacked interest in “selling the company.” But now, Zhou Chang offered to lend him money to buy more shares, after which he could accept Qinghui’s stock swap and watch his holding of Qinghui shares continue to appreciate. In an instant, the money the founder stood to gain was on a whole new level.

In short, Zhou Chang would lend him funds now, which he would use to buy back shares of his company from Qinghui to increase his stake. Afterward, Qinghui would acquire all shares of the company using Qinghui ADS for the swap—at which point the payout would naturally far exceed his previous expenditure to purchase the shares, not to mention that Qinghui’s stock price was still surging.

Furthermore, Zhou Chang persuaded the company’s two other co-founders. Both expressed their desire to sell and offered to transfer part of their own shares to the founder, allowing him to hold even more.

Under this relentless barrage of money and power, the founder finally cracked.

He nodded, signed the papers, and handed the company over to Qinghui.

Once again, something that Zhou Chang wanted—and which everyone believed he couldn’t possibly obtain—ended up firmly in his hands.

On the day the news broke, Jing Hong found it incredible as well.

He thought to himself: What kind of moves are these???

Lending money to the CEO to buy shares back from Qinghui? At the same time, convincing the co-founders to hand over some of theirs too?

Every single play looked absurd on paper, yet in the end, he pulled it off.

When he finished his report, Zhao Hanqing held his forehead and said, “Is this what they call ‘making moves smooth as silk’? He’s covered in scheme points from head to toe.”

Jing Hong picked up his phone and sent a message to Zhou Chang, though it carried a touch of passive-aggression: [Congratulations.]

Zhou Chang replied swiftly: [What? Not satisfied?]

[I’m satisfied, completely satisfied,] Jing Hong said. [By my calculations, Mr. Zhou’s little maneuver just cost Fanhai a market worth at least ten billion.]

Zhou Chang replied immediately: [It’s fine. It’s just ten billion—I’ll pay you back in 50 installments.]

“…?” Jing Hong didn’t get it at first.

What 50 installments?

He pondered it carefully, only to realize a moment later that it was a piece of raunchy double entendre!

Jing Hong was already feeling displeased, and this made him even more irritated.

And that very night, Zhou Chang began paying the “down payment.”

The moment Jing Hong opened the door to his home, he was scooped up by Zhou Chang. Zhou Chang embraced and held him from behind, forcing Jing Hong’s neck to tilt lower, before planting soft, gentle kisses on his neck, one after another.

Jing Hong had been feeling “displeased,” but as Zhou Chang pecked at his neck with exquisite devotion, the thought of the man behind him harboring such feverish desire and craving for him softened Jing Hong’s heart bit by bit. Finally, he let out a soft sigh, reached back to wrap his arm around Zhou Chang’s neck, and gently ran his fingertips from the lowermost spinous process of Zhou Chang’s neck, tracing upward along his cervical spine until slipping into his black hair, gently caressing the back of Zhou Chang’s neck over and over again. One kissed the back of the other’s neck, while the other reached back to caress the exact same spot—the atmosphere tender and intoxicating.

That night, Zhou Chang paid a 1-billion “down payment” in a single go.

…………

Then, a mere two weeks later, Fanhai won against Qinghui in turn.

Regarding a company Qinghui had invested in, Fanhai had always wanted to put in a bit of capital, but couldn’t find a way in. Yet out of nowhere, the CEO “defected.”

This company’s CEO had long held friction with Qinghui. One of the conditions for Qinghui’s investment in the company was that its annual marketing budget had to be primarily spent on Qinghui’s platforms—search engines, short-video platforms, and the like—with specific assigned quotas. The company mainly operated in the education sector, which was one of the highest ad-spending industries alongside healthcare, travel, gaming, and the like; Qinghui had no desire to give money away to others.

However, the CEO had always felt this restriction hindered their own growth, believing the company would perform better if given more freedom. Moreover, while this CEO had low emotional intelligence, he held lofty ambitions and a touch of arrogance in his talent. He constantly looked down on Qinghui’s “suggestions,” feeling they didn’t understand the business as well as he did. Over two years, he had offended quite a few people inside Qinghui, driving relations between the two sides to rock bottom.

Spotting this rift, Jing Hong acted decisively right as the two parties were renewing their advertising contract for the upcoming year, stepping forward with two promises for the CEO.

The first promise was for the CEO to tell Qinghui that if Fanhai couldn’t invest, Fanhai would support the founding team—including the CEO—in walking away to pick a new direction and found a brand-new company, never having to put up with Qinghui’s nonsense again.

The second promise was that if Fanhai did manage to invest, it would transfer a portion of its corporate equity to the founding team to help them secure controlling interest. Jing Hong privately pledged to transfer 2.5% over, bringing the founding team’s equity above Qinghui’s.

Of course, for Fanhai and the founding team, the first promise was mainly intended to serve as a threat against Qinghui, with the ultimate goal of achieving the second.

In addition, Fanhai promised that Fanhai would absolutely not tie down their advertising expenses.

Jing Hong put on a warm and pleasant demeanor, telling the CEO that he could personally oversee the project to guarantee sufficient professionalism.

The CEO immediately grew restless and “defected to the enemy.”

With Jing Hong backing them up, the founding team, egged on by Fanhai, grew bolder and more aggressive, using heated language right from the start without leaving any room for compromise.

Faced with the extraordinary circumstance of “if Fanhai can’t invest, the founding team walks,” Zhou Chang truly had no choice but to agree to Fanhai Group “taking a partial stake.”

Zhou Chang knew full well that moving forward, Qinghui’s position within this company would be severely compromised. On one hand, the founding team was thick as thieves with Fanhai; on the other hand, several executives inside Qinghui had loathed the CEO’s personality for a long time, and he couldn’t ignore his executives’ feelings for the sake of a single portfolio company. The most likely end result was that despite holding the early advantage—investing in the company and shutting Fanhai out—Qinghui would ultimately be forced out entirely.

Zhou Chang knew that Jing Hong had once again studied the years-long “marriage” between the company and Qinghui, figuring out what they wanted and what they didn’t, tailoring his approach to use Qinghui’s past baggage as a springboard to poach them directly.

After officially signing Fanhai’s investment documents, Zhou Chang naturally sent Jing Hong a message. He said not without sarcasm: [Fanhai plays the side piece pretty smoothly. Listening to the old man talk about all his marital troubles, tailoring the cure to the disease, and putting on a gentle, understanding act.]

The final outcome would most likely be Qinghui’s “divorce” from this company.

Seeing this burst of resentment, Jing Hong couldn’t help but laugh out loud, replying in a thoroughly delighted mood: [Knowing the duck is about to fly away, what is Mr. Zhou thinking in his heart? “Damn”?]

A few seconds later, Zhou Chang replied: [Pretty much, but I prefer the raw version.]

Jing Hong didn’t get it and followed up with text: [Explain what “the raw version” means.]

Zhou Chang’s message came back swiftly, also in text: [I was thinking: “Fuck.”]