Chapter Ninety-One: The Downfall of the Jiang Family

“I defeated the wolf leader with a single point of my finger and saved Yuan Tiangang!”
“I cured the Changhe clan patriarch’s long-standing malaria, and the Changhe family treated me like an honored guest!”
“I crushed Zheng Tianming, the master of the Shadow Killing Sect, underfoot, and with one sword strike I severed Shen Wan’an, a half-step grandmaster; alone, I suppressed Sandflow Town!”
“On the summit of Golden Terrace, I killed four grandmasters of internal strength and forced the hidden sects of China to retreat step by step.”
“I founded a private company and drew in ten billion in investment!”
“So when the wolf leader sees me, he reacts as if he has seen a god; Xia Ning spared no effort to clear my name; Xia Qinghan regards me as a peerless figure in the world; and the wealthy of River North bow their heads and submit.”
With every sentence Jiang Yu spoke, his expression grew colder and more severe.
At last, his spirit rose like a storm cloud, his bearing looking down upon the world.
“What else do you want to know?”
Jiang Yu pressed Zheng Xuan back step by step. At this moment he was sharp-edged, as though the keen sword within him had been fully unsheathed.
Zheng Xuan’s face was icy. She gave a mocking smile. “Jiang Yu, is this your answer to me? I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Your talent for boasting is really improving.”
Jiang Yu smiled faintly and offered no explanation. If others refused to believe him, then no amount of speaking would be anything but a waste of breath.
“You only need to know this: by now, the wealthy and powerful of River North and Desert South, when they see me, must address me as sir.”
Zheng Xuan shook her head, a sarcastic smile curling at the corner of her mouth. “Jiang Yu, do you really think I would believe such nonsense? You’re nothing but a hotheaded young man in his twenties. Forget them respecting you—I’m afraid they’ve never even heard your name.”
Absurd. Utterly ridiculous.
Zheng Xuan turned decisively and went back into the hall. She no longer wished to speak another word to Jiang Yu.
...
Jiang Yu walked alone out of Silk Wave Hotel. At the entrance stood a stretched Lincoln business sedan.
Xia Housheng wore a smile. “Master Jiang, get in.”
Half an hour earlier, news of Jiang Yu’s break with the Jiang family had spread like wildfire across Cloud City.
Ordinary people thought little of it. Many did not even know who Jiang Yu was. It was like hearing that some celebrity had cheated or some singer had committed domestic violence; people merely smiled faintly and let it pass.
But the upper circles of Cloud City were in an uproar.
Everyone had the same question: had the Jiang family gone mad?
After Jiang Yu got into the back seat of the Lincoln, Xia Housheng respectfully handed him a key and said, “A villa halfway up the mountain has already been cleared out. I bought furniture and daily necessities, so you can move in right away. If you find it troublesome, you can also stay with us. I’m sure that girl Xia Ning would be delighted.”
Jiang Yu took the key and said quietly, “You were thoughtful.”
Xia Housheng was astute enough to understand at once that Jiang Yu had accepted the favor. A favor from a great figure of the present age was never something one could have too much of.
After a pause, Jiang Yu said, “Spread the word. Say the first batch of investment spots in the company are nearly full.”
Xia Housheng nodded. “Understood.”
The scenery outside the car flowed rapidly backward. Jiang Yu closed his eyes to rest, still as a meditating monk.
...
The Jiang family manor.
Three hours later, many people stood with grave expressions outside the main hall.
The last to arrive was Jiang Yun. He hurried in, panic-stricken. “What happened?”
More than ten minutes earlier, while Jiang Yun was still holding the engagement ceremony for Zhang Shaoqi at Silk Wave Hotel, he received a call saying something terrible had happened to the Jiang family. The old master had suffered a sudden heart attack in a fit of rage and was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.
“Within two hours at noon today, three companies sent representatives to terminate their contracts with the Jiang family.”
Second Aunt’s face was drained of color as she spoke through tears.
At that, Jiang Yun’s heart tightened. He asked in alarm, “What happened? They were fine, weren’t they? Why would they suddenly terminate the contracts? Did something go wrong somewhere?”
Jiang Lingxing spoke up then. “We don’t know either. After those three companies’ representatives arrived, they said nothing at all and left no room for discussion. They were even willing to pay the breach penalties rather than continue working with us. The old master was angered on the spot.”
“After a while, people from Li Hao also came and tore up the four contracts signed with the Jiang family right in front of us. They even said the Jiang family had eyes but failed to recognize the true dragon, that we were all fools.”
At this point, Jiang Lingxing drew a deep breath and sat down on the floor in defeat. “Our Jiang family... did we provoke some great figure?”
Jiang Yun forced himself to calm down and asked in a low voice, “Aren’t there still others?”
Jiang Lingxing gave a bitter smile. “None. They’re all gone. Within a single day, everyone who had signed contracts with the Jiang family came one after another. In the end, even Yuan Shixiong came personally. He found the old master and voided the contract on the spot. As for what he said to the old master, we don’t know—but the old master was so furious that he suffered a heart attack and fainted.”
Jiang Yun, who had always handled the business world with ease and never panicked in the face of trouble, sat down on the ground as soon as he heard this.
His face was full of despair as he muttered to himself, “How could this happen? How could this happen? Dozens of contracts—how can they all be broken just like that?”
As for the breach penalties, a lawsuit could drag on for years or even decades. By then, even if the money were eventually paid, the Jiang family would already be ruined. Those people were experts at exploiting such rules; dragging things out for ten or more years would be nothing to them.
“What do we do? Several major projects have had all of the Jiang family’s assets poured into them. If they are terminated now, the Jiang family will lose everything.”
Jiang Yun stared blankly ahead, unable to speak.
Second Aunt wailed beside him. “It’s all your fault! It must be that you offended some great figure, and that’s why they’re targeting the Jiang family like this. Jiang Yun, if you don’t sort this out, I’ll fight you to the death!”
With that, she lunged forward in a frenzy.
The sharp-tongued Second Aunt had reduced the Jiang family manor to chaos, with cries and commotion rising endlessly.
Everyone kept their heads down and said nothing. For the Jiang family, this was a catastrophe from which there might be no return.
Jiang Ziyue wrung her hands and gave a self-mocking laugh. “Maybe this is just retribution.”
Jiang Lingxing asked in panic, “Second Brother, didn’t you say all these contracts were brought in by you? Think of something. Maybe there’s still a chance to turn this around?”
Jiang Ziyue lifted her head and looked at Jiang Lingxing. “Father, at a time like this, you still believe Second Uncle’s words? So many contracts—do you really think he brought them all back by himself?”
This...
Jiang Lingxing’s mind went blank. He was an indecisive man, and he had no idea what to do in a matter like this.
In the end, everything still depended on Jiang Yun. If he collapsed, the Jiang family would be finished.
Zheng Xuan’s parents soon rushed over in a flurry. Seeing the Jiang family looking as though they were attending a funeral, they felt their hearts sink and asked cautiously, “In-laws, what happened?”
Second Aunt, still collapsed on the ground and crying her eyes out, saw Zheng Xuan’s parents as if they were a lifeline. She hurriedly got up and wailed, “Sister-in-law, you have to help us. For some reason, this afternoon all of the Jiang family’s more than ten contracts have fallen through.”
Zheng’s mother’s heart jolted. She knew that the Zheng family had also invested a great deal of money in these business projects. If losses came, even the Zheng family would face bankruptcy.
“Old Zheng, what about Xuan’s wedding?”
The first thought that rose in Zheng’s mother’s mind was to extricate herself from this filthy mire.
Such was human relations and social convention: on the surface everyone was all warmth and cordiality, but once trouble truly struck, it was already a kindness if others did not seize the chance to kick you while you were down.
After decades as husband and wife, one glance from Zheng’s mother was enough for Zheng’s father to understand what she meant. He said in a deep voice, “The wedding will proceed as promised in Jin City three days from now. I know a few major bosses; let me ask them what exactly is going on. There must be a reason.”
The Jiang family manor was silent as still water. Everyone was despondent, speechless.
Jiang Yun’s legs were nearly trembling apart.
After a while, Jiang Ziyue said with reddened eyes, “All of you are fretting over these contracts, but no one cares what’s happening to Grandfather in the hospital. Jiang Yu was right. In this family, there is no such thing as warmth or kinship.”
With a resentful look at the others, Jiang Ziyue turned and left.
Jiang Lingxing’s old face flushed red. Suppressing the fear in his heart, he turned and followed after her.
That day, seven Jiang family projects and twelve ventures were all halted. Within just five hours, the Jiang family had accumulated tens of millions in outside debts.
The family’s backbone, the old master, had also fallen ill in the hospital, his life and death unknown.
At seven in the evening, Jiang Ziyue bent down and placed the basin under the bed, then smiled and comforted the old master. “Grandfather, what if we still have a chance? Even if the Jiang family truly falls apart, I’ll stay by your side and take care of you.”
The old master’s eyes were sunken, his face bruised, his lips trembling as he said, “Ziyue, don’t comfort Grandfather anymore. The Jiang family can’t hold on. If I die, tell Little Fish for me that in this lifetime I have owed him too much. I was muddle-headed. Tell him not to hate Grandfather.”
Jiang Ziyue could no longer hold back. Her tears burst forth like a flood.
At that moment, the door was pushed open and a broad-shouldered man walked in, his whole body radiating a fierce air, his gaze exceptionally sharp.
After entering, the man took out a small jade box and handed it to Jiang Ziyue. “I was asked by someone to deliver a pill. After the old master takes it, he can calm his spirit and recuperate quietly. Rest for a few days and he will be fine.”
Without another word, he turned and left the ward.
Jiang Ziyue opened the jade box and saw a pill lying inside, pale yellow all through, like amber.
Could it be poison?
Jiang Ziyue had no certainty and hesitated over whether she should give it to the old master.
“Child, it’s fine. I’m already lying here with hardly any days left. If someone wanted to harm me, would they need to go to such trouble? They could simply wait a few days, and these old bones of mine would not be able to endure it anyway.”
The old master’s illness was a weakness of the heart. Today he first heard that Jiang Yun had expelled Jiang Yu from the family, and then one blow after another followed, while his age left him frail; in an instant, his body gave out.
Taking the pill, the old master swallowed it without the slightest hesitation.
Then a wondrous scene unfolded.
Jiang Ziyue saw the bruising on the old master’s face fade at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his sunken eyes gradually became full and clear again.
In that instant, who could know what he had truly felt?