Outside the French windows of the VIP lounge at Heathrow Airport, the rainstorm was still raging. Tang Wei dug her nails deep into her palms, looking at the gilded dragon-patterned clan flag reflected on the glass, and finally understood why her father always said "Don't mess with the reverse scales of the Donghai Lin family." Second uncle Lin Zhenguo slumped on the leather sofa, his ruby cufflinks fell off at some point, revealing the blood marks on his wrists from the clan flag rope.
"Lin Aotian, you dare to use clan lynching?" His voice was broken, but he suddenly fell silent when he saw the other party take out the bronze command arrow - it was a symbol of the power of judgment that only the main line of the Donghai Lin family had, and at this moment it was tightly grasped by the blood-stained fingertips.
"Private punishment?" Lin Aotian sneered, the command arrow gleaming coldly under the floor lamp, "When Tang Wei's father poisoned the housekeeper, did he ever think about the clan's laws? When you forged the appraisal certificate of your mother's relics, did you ever think about family affection?" He turned and looked at Tang Wei, the jade pendant around her neck was the birthday gift her mother gave to the housekeeper that year, "Take them to the clan cruise ship, I will hold a trial in front of the thirty-six elders on the way back to the East China Sea."
The door of the waiting room was pushed open, and the clan guards in traditional costumes filed in. Tang Wei suddenly remembered her father's last whisper: "The dragon has reverse scales, touch it and you will die..." At this moment, looking at the jade pendant on Lin Aotian's chest with blood, she finally believed that the low-key young man at the auction had already transformed into a person who made the entire business circle tremble.
On the private plane from London to Shanghai, Su Qing looked at her reflection in the porthole, and the broken jade bracelet was carefully put into a brocade box and placed on Lin Aotian's legs. He was resting with his eyes closed, his eyelashes casting butterfly-like shadows under his eyes, and the corners of his lips still had scratches from last night's melee - the same as the one after fighting for her in college.
"Does it hurt?" She reached out to touch him, her fingertips brushing against his hot skin. Lin Aotian suddenly opened his eyes, and her panicked expression was reflected in his eyes, just like the scar under his shirt that year at the beach when she first saw it.
"Compared to the knife you blocked for me, it's nothing." He lowered his voice very softly, afraid to wake up the tranquility in the cabin, "Su Qing, I should have thought of it a long time ago. With your personality, how could you leave me for money?"
Su Qing's tears suddenly burst, and the grievances and fears of the past three years poured out at this moment. She remembered that on the eve of the engagement party, Tang Wei's father threatened her with the bankruptcy documents of Zhou Group and Lin's mother's "medical records": "Choose love or your father's life?" And now, the man she desperately protected was wiping away her tears with his warm hands.
As the plane crossed the Eurasian continent, Lin Aotian received an encrypted message from Chen Mo: Blackstone Fund, together with three hedge funds, was frantically shorting Huading's stock price in the international market, and the stock price fell by 18% in the first half hour of opening. He looked at the sea of clouds outside the porthole and suddenly remembered the words in his mother's letter: "When the dragon returns to the sea, it has the power to overturn the rivers and seas."
In the VIP channel of Pudong International Airport, he was greeted not by flowers and applause, but by dozens of cameras and flashing spotlights. Financial reporters swarmed in with microphones in hand, and asked questions like a string of cannonballs:
"Mr. Lin, is the plunge in Huading's share price related to your assassination in London?" "I heard that Zhou Jianbang, CEO of Zhou Group, suddenly resigned. Is this related to an internal equity struggle?" "There is news that the Donghai Lin Clan Association is investigating you. Will this affect Huading's strategic layout?"
Lin Aotian suddenly stopped and glanced at the man in a baseball cap in the crowd - that was the business spy planted in Huading by his second uncle. He tugged at his tie, and the dragon embroidery flashed in front of the camera: "Everyone, instead of worrying about the stock price, why not guess——" He took out a document, "Huading has just completed the acquisition of three iron mines under Blackstone Fund, with a total price of 12 billion US dollars."
The exclamations of the reporters drowned out the airport broadcast. Lin Aotian took the opportunity to turn around and whispered to Su Qing: "Go to Zhou Group to find Uncle Zhou. Under the third floor tile in his office, there is evidence of Tang Wei's father's crime." He stuffed her with a USB drive and ran his fingertips across the broken bracelet on her wrist, "This time, it's my turn to protect you."
In the conference room on the top floor of Huading Building, the air conditioner was turned too cold, and Johnson, the representative of Blackstone Fund, shivered. He looked at the young man sitting in the main seat. The dragon embroidery on the cuffs of his suit was more dazzling than three days ago, just like the Huading stock price that was soaring on the screen at this moment——After Lin Aotian announced the acquisition, it rebounded 25% in just one hour, performing a rare "dragon raising its head" in the capital market.
"Mr. Johnson," Lin Aotian turned the emerald ring, "I have handed over your company's tax avoidance structure in the Cayman Islands to the US IRS." He suddenly chuckled, "But if you are willing to transfer Blackstone's European port equity to Huading, I can help you apply for leniency."
Johnson's back was instantly soaked with cold sweat. This young man not only tricked them in London, but also cut off Blackstone's foundation in Europe. He finally understood why the industry was circulating "Don't play the capital game with Chinese people named Lin" - they are like giant dragons lurking in the deep sea, seemingly calm, but in fact they can stir up storms in an instant.
In the old house in Suzhou late at night, the thirty-six elders sat around the lotus pond in front of Long Yutang. The second uncle was forced to kneel on the bluestone bricks, in front of him were the autopsy report of Tang Wei's father, the transfer record of Xingyao Capital, and the surveillance backup of the housekeeper's fall from the building. The elder's hand trembled as he read the family tree. He finally turned to the page of the family rules that had been sealed for many years: "If the heir of the main line is betrayed, the main culprit of the side branch can be beheaded and his clan membership can be abolished."
"Aotian," the old man's voice came from behind the screen, "how should it be dealt with according to the law?"
Lin Aotian looked at the dragon-patterned jade pendant reflected in the pool, and thought of the ward where his mother died, the smell of disinfectant mixed with the fragrance of osmanthus outside the window. He suddenly knelt down and kowtowed heavily to the family tree: "For the sake of blood, I will leave my second uncle a way out. But Xingyao Capital must be merged into Huading, and all assets under its name will be added to the clan charity fund."
The second uncle raised his head, and a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes. He thought he would face the death penalty, but he didn't expect that this nephew chose a more severe punishment - deprivation of all power and becoming an ordinary clan member who depends on others. The night breeze from the lotus pond brought the fragrance of water lilies, and he suddenly remembered his brother's last words before his death: "Zhenguo, don't let power confuse your mind..." Unfortunately, he still lost to greed.
In the early morning of the Zhou Group headquarters, Su Qing knelt on the floor of her father's office and trembled to take out the iron box under the floor tiles. In addition to the evidence of Tang Wei's father's crime, there was also a yellowed letter written to her by Lin's mother before her death: "Qingqing, if Aotian is in danger, please use this bracelet to contact Donghai Shipbuilding Group..."
She stroked the broken bracelet in the brocade box and suddenly found that there were tiny words engraved on the inside of each fragment, which turned out to be the shipping route map of Donghai Lin's. Tears dripped on the fragments, reflecting the gilded dragon logo on the top of Huading Building outside the window, which was particularly eye-catching in the night.
The phone vibrated, Lin Aotian sent a message: "The clan has officially appointed me as the head of the Lin clan in Donghai. At tomorrow's global strategy conference, I will announce to the world -" At the end of the message was a location, showing the deep-water port in the Strait of Malacca, "The next stop for Longyu Business is the sea of stars."
Su Qing looked at the gradually brightening skyline outside the window, and remembered what Lin Aotian said in college: "When I have my own company, I will engrave your name on the logo on the top floor." At that time, she thought it was just a joke of teenagers, but now she saw that next to the word "Huading", there was a pattern of freesia, exactly the same as the one in her hair.