Returning in this lifetime, Ye Chen was determined not only to repair his relationship with his wife and make amends to her, but also to build a commercial and financial empire that would grant his wife and daughter a lifetime of glory!
In his past life, his personal wealth of four hundred billion had been frozen at the moment of his death from old age.
Yet in this present life, four hundred billion was far from enough to satisfy him.
With his foreknowledge of the next sixty years, if he could not multiply that figure tenfold, he would have lived this life in vain!
However, creating a commercial empire was not an urgent matter for the moment, nor could it be rushed.
The most pressing task was how to change Chen Yinuo's perception of him, and how to erase the deep wounds he had inflicted upon her.
After smoking a few cigarettes, he headed out to the computer specialty store in the shopping mall.
Using the remaining thirty thousand yuan on WeChat, he purchased two brand-new, high-performance computers.
One was for Yinuo, since he had secretly taken her computer away last month and sold it.
The other was for his own convenience in searching for information and carrying out his next plan.
Developing Flawless Ointment!
A magical ointment capable of rapidly fading scars and surface skin pigmentation!
In his past life, this had undoubtedly been the booster that propelled Ye Chen to the pinnacle of super-wealth.
It was precisely by mastering the unique formula of Flawless Ointment, and by developing a product that was frantically scrambled for across the globe, that he accumulated the wealth to march into various industries. This allowed him to remain a super-wealthy tycoon sitting on four hundred billion in assets, even while consistently refusing to go public.
Yet, the current Ye Chen was not looking that far ahead. Right now, he only wanted to quickly produce the Flawless Ointment so that Yinuo could be rid of the numerous scars he had left on her body!
Inside the rented apartment, guided by the memory of the Flawless Ointment formula, his fingers flew across the keyboard as he searched for where the required ingredients were sold.
After all, in his past life, the Flawless Ointment had only appeared when he was approaching forty years of age.
Now, ten years ahead of schedule, trying to purchase those ingredients through the channels of his past life clearly meant he wouldn't be able to gather a complete set.
He had no choice but to inquire one by one through the internet and scour for them.
Chapter 025: A Skyrocketing Surge Overnight
Over the next three days, Ye Chen scurried about incessantly in order to gather all the ingredients for the formula.
So preoccupied was he that he repeatedly turned down consecutive attempts by Li Changfeng and Zhang Jingshan to reach him.
From running all over the place to procure the raw materials, down to assembling the pots, pans, and various vessels needed for making the ointment, three days in Ye Chen's world seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
The small rented apartment had virtually transformed into a miniature workshop.
Fortunately, his memories from the past life were as deeply carved into his mind as if engraved.
Fortunately, he had been something of a half-baked high-achieving student back in his school days.
Otherwise, even knowing how to make the Flawless Ointment, he wouldn't have known where to begin.
June 24th.
Evening, seven-thirty.
Stealing a moment of leisure from his busy work, Ye Chen put down the tools he was using to make the ointment.
He took off his gloves, sat down on the sofa, and turned on the television mounted on the wall.
On this exact night in his past life, during the Jiangzhou government press conference regarding Jiangzhou's new round of planning and development, led by the municipal party secretary and attended by leaders from several departments—including the Urban Construction Bureau, the Land Bureau, the Development and Reform Commission, and the Commerce Bureau—discussions were held concerning the reform of urban villages.
It was precisely because of this press conference that housing prices in Jinlin Mansion skyrocketed fivefold overnight, bringing an unheralded era where every inch of the surrounding area was worth its weight in gold!
After Ye Chen switched on the television right on schedule, the press conference—not a single bit different from his past-life memory—began before he had even finished smoking a cigarette.
First was the speech by the municipal party secretary.
Then came the statements from the leaders of various departments.
The relocation and redevelopment project of the urban villages, along with brand-new commercial development, were thus set in stone during this press conference!
In a certain courtyard in Jiangzhou, this was the residence of former municipal party secretary Zhang Weimin, and also the ancestral home of the Zhang Family.
Beneath its historical and weathered appearance, the courtyard featured neatly arranged green plants and potted trees. Inside and outside the house, the pristine cleanliness exuded an atmosphere of peace and harmony.
Inside the house, the scene on the television was precisely the press conference held by the municipal government.
And sitting before the television were three generations of the old Zhang family: former municipal party secretary Zhang Weimin, Yongan Construction Company Chairman Zhang Xingguo, and Zhang Jingshan.
"Dad, the government is going to develop that urban village in the West District? How did this happen so suddenly? Did you know about this beforehand?"
Watching the press conference on TV, Zhang Xingguo cried out in disbelief.
"I knew!" The old Secretary Zhang Weimin nodded.
"What? You knew about this? Then why didn't you tell me?!" Zhang Xingguo grew anxious.
"Why should I tell you? Don't think I don't know what you've been plotting. I, Zhang Weimin, have lived a clean and upright life dedicated to the public good. Could it be that in my twilight years, I would leak the government's advance deployment plans and development insider information to my own son so he could transform into a blood-sucking capitalist? And thus have ordinary people point fingers and curse at Zhang Weimin's spine?" Zhang Weimin said, his beard twitching in anger.
Zhang Xingguo was instantly struck dumb with a bitter expression.
Because this was simply the Old Secretary's style!
If the Old Secretary had even the slightest bit of selfishness, his Yongan Construction Company would probably have risen several tiers long ago.
However, after his fit of anger, Zhang Weimin added, "Little Zhou brought this up when he came over to chat with me half a month ago, asking for my thoughts. At the time, he gave me the strictest instructions that I must keep this matter tightly under wraps, saying it was a pilot development unit designated by the province, and anyone who dared to leak it in advance would be dealt with without mercy.
So didn't you notice how calm everything was before this? From the provincial level down to the municipal level, not a single official dared to leak it!"
Little Zhou was none other than the current municipal party secretary of Jiangzhou City.
Nearby, Zhang Jingshan—who always loved to bicker and talk back to his father, Zhang Xingguo—uncharacteristically remained silent.
He was struck utterly dumb, frozen in a state of shock!
Because that urban village slated for relocation and redevelopment was right next to Jinlin Mansion!
What did this imply?
It meant that in the wake of this press conference, Jinlin Mansion was about to experience a crazy, skyrocketing surge!
In a flash, all the things Ye Chen had said to him kept echoing in his mind.
"Considering it's fate, if you believe me, you can buy a few units!"
"If I had the money, I would buy out the entire real estate project. Unfortunately, I only have two hundred thousand right now, so I can only put down the deposit for two units!"
"Trust me and give it a try!"
"Actually, you could be even more unhinged, like putting down deposits for ten units at once, or buying ten units outright with full payment in one go. After all, there's no such thing as purchase restrictions!"
At the time, he hadn't taken those words seriously at all.
Although he later followed a whim and paid the deposit for two units, what he had in mind was treating that two hundred thousand as money thrown into the water. After all, he didn't believe Jinlin Mansion had any room for appreciation in the near future, so he wasn't going to spend any more wrongfully acquired money to purchase them.
Yet now?
This...
How on earth did Ye Chen know that area was going to be relocated and developed?
Could it be that even a scoundrel like Zhang Xingguo couldn't catch a whisper of this inside information, yet Ye Chen knew about it?
How was that possible!
"Grandpa, are you certain nobody leaked the news about the relocation and redevelopment beforehand?" Zhang Jingshan asked hurriedly.
"Unless someone thinks the official cap on their head is too heavy!" Zhang Weimin said without a second thought.
"Then could someone have let it slip in some casual setting?" Zhang Jingshan's mouth felt dry.
"If someone could let slip a matter that the province has declared will be dealt with without mercy, do you think he'd be fit to sit in that position of knowing?" Zhang Weimin hit the nail on the head.
Then, suddenly sensing that this brat Zhang Jingshan was acting strange, he asked, "Jingshan, what do you mean by this, you brat? Why are you asking all this?"
"Grandpa, I... I put down deposits for two apartments in Jinlin Mansion, right on the very first day it went on sale. Someone told me that if I trusted him, I should buy a few more, and even said that if he had the money, he would buy out the entire Jinlin Mansion. Later, he even suggested I could buy ten units all at once!" Zhang Jingshan said in a daze.
At that moment, he felt a strong urge to raise his hand and slap himself wildly across the face.
If—if he had really listened to Ye Chen back then and bought ten units at once, what would things be like?
Housing prices at Jinlin Mansion were only seven or eight thousand back then, and a single unit cost at most a little over one million.
Ten units, after discounts, ten million would be enough. He could still cough up the sum of ten million.
And in the wake of this press conference, those ten units would be worth at least fifty to sixty million.
In other words, in the span of just three days, ten million would turn into fifty or sixty million!
Three days, a five-to-sixfold profit—dammit, even robbing a bank couldn't make money this fast!
Right now, the word "regret" was simply inadequate to describe Zhang Jingshan's state of mind.
At the same time, his shock and curiosity regarding Ye Chen had reached an unspeakable level!
First, picking up a bargain on a strand of prayer beads.
Then, his intuition that he was about to fall into a romantic calamity.
Followed by his intuition that housing prices at Jinlin Mansion would skyrocket.
And then his intuition that Li Changfeng's newly bought car would meet with an accident.
All of these had been verified one by one.
If one were to say all these were mere coincidences, could that make any sense?
"What?!"
However, as Zhang Jingshan's words fell, the Old Secretary Zhang Weimin and Zhang Xingguo simultaneously let out cries of astonishment.
Chapter 026: An Eerie Character
Jinlin Mansion was a real estate development unfamiliar to no one who kept abreast of information in Jiangzhou.
Because ever since construction on this residential complex first began, it had been dogged by all kinds of controversies.
Even people including Zhang Weimin and Zhang Xingguo believed that nine times out of ten, this housing project would end up smashed in the developer's own hands.
Against such a backdrop, and before the municipal government had even launched its press conference, Zhang Jingshan had actually run off to reserve two units?
However, that wasn't even the main point.
The main point was that someone had told him to buy a few more? Said that if he had money, he should buy out the entire Jinlin Mansion? And even suggested Zhang Jingshan buy ten units all at once?
Was this pinpoint accuracy born of absolute confidence, or had he acquired insider information?
The former was too far-fetched.
The latter was impossible!
"Dad, didn't you say insider information wouldn't be leaked?" Following his exclamation, Zhang Xingguo looked toward his father, Zhang Weimin.
Zhang Weimin said with absolute certainty, "It's impossible for it to have been leaked in advance. No one would risk their political career! Even taking a ten-thousand-step retreat, suppose the news really had been leaked in advance—would someone who knew the inside information share it?"
Zhang Xingguo fell silent, speechless.
"Jingshan, who was that person you mentioned?" The Old Secretary Zhang Weimin asked urgently.
"Grandpa, he's a very eerie character!" Zhang Jingshan replied with a complicated expression.
"Eerie?" Zhang Weimin widened his eyes.
Nodding, Zhang Jingshan spilled the details about Ye Chen.
From the prayer beads at the Antique City, to his warnings about the trap being set for him, his warning to Li Changfeng, and finally the matter of buying property at Jinlin Mansion, he recounted it all over again.
However, when it came to the matter of him being set up, he glossed over it lightly.
After all, that incident was too embarrassing to speak of.
"Are you kidding me? Could there really be such an eerie character in this world? Don't go getting yourself sold while you're still helping the other guy count his money!"
Hearing this, Zhang Xingguo immediately let out a scoff.
Even though he was inwardly shocked by this, he refused to believe there was such an eerie character in the world.
Especially since it was being spoken by his own unreliable son, he felt it was all the more unreliable.
"Sorry, I don't think I was talking to you, was I? If you can't stand listening, go cool off somewhere else! As for whether I'll get myself sold while helping someone count their money, does that have anything to do with you? Do you need to stick your nose into other people's business?" Zhang Jingshan snapped right back.
For eighteen years, right up to the present day, he still harbored resentment toward his father, Zhang Xingguo.
He believed that if not for him back then, his mother wouldn't have died in that car accident.
"You—you little bastard, you—"
Zhang Xingguo was choked with fury, raising his hand as if to slap Zhang Jingshan across the face.
"Enough!" Zhang Weimin let out a fierce reprimand, which finally made Zhang Xingguo hold back.
"Are you two father and son ever going to finish? Were you irreconcilable enemies in your past lives, only to come to this life to exact revenge on each other, huh?" Zhang Weimin scolded them once more.
"Dad, don't you think he's getting more and more out of hand? I asked him to come to Yongan Construction Company so he could take over and inherit it in the future, but has he listened to a single word of mine all these years? Not listening to me is one thing, but he goes and messes around with some live-stream shopping company—can that kind of thing be reliable? Can that sort of thing be considered a proper career? I talk to him once and he gets into an argument with me every single time. Now it's even worse; I show a little concern for him, and he disrespectfully snaps right back at me. Does he still have me, his own father, in his eyes?" Zhang Xingguo said.
"I don't need your concern. As for your lousy construction company, I don't think much of it either. Whoever wants to inherit it can inherit it. Don't you have another son outside? Go ahead and make your lousy company big and strong to leave to him, I couldn't give a damn!" Zhang Jingshan said through gritted teeth.
"You bastard, you—" Zhang Xingguo had reached the limit of his endurance.
"Get lost right now!"
Fearing that the conflict between this father and son would escalate, the old man hurriedly shooed Zhang Xingguo out.
"Ah—!"
Sighing inwardly, Zhang Weimin knew that regarding the conflict between father and son, over the years, everything that should have been said had been said, and everything that shouldn't have been had been said as well.
Yet it remained impossible to bridge the rift in Zhang Jingshan's heart.
He had resigned himself to fate; as for the rest, let it be up to fortune.
"Grandpa, from now on, wherever he appears, I won't! If he's at home, please don't ever ask me to come back." Zhang Jingshan softened his tone.
"How can you talk like that? No matter what, he's still your father!" Zhang Weimin said helplessly.
"Ever since I was twelve years old, I stopped considering him my father!" Zhang Jingshan said.
"You—fine, fine..."
Zhang Weimin didn't want to drag this issue out any longer.
Instead, he pivoted the conversation.
"You said earlier that that fellow Ye Chen picked up a bargain on a strand of prayer beads at the Antique City, and you bought it? What kind of prayer beads were they?"
"Grandpa, didn't Uncle Lu tell you?" Zhang Jingshan asked.
Zhang Weimin said, "Lu Cheng? He didn't mention it. Why?"
"Grandpa, Uncle Lu said that string of prayer beads consists of Arhat beads from Vajra Temple. They are the eighteen Arhat prayer beads crafted back in the day by the eminent monk Hongyi using the branches of an old sandalwood tree. I was planning to give it to you as a surprise for your birthday in a few days!" Zhang Jingshan said.
Hearing this, Zhang Weimin instantly turned to stone.
Following that, his whole body trembled, and an unprecedented, irrepressible wave of excitement surged forth wildly.
"You—you're talking about those eighteen Arhat prayer beads that accompanied the eminent monk Hongyi through decades of Zen meditation until his nirvana and passing?"
"Mm-hmm, that's what Uncle Lu said!" Zhang Jingshan said.
"Where are the items? Quick, hurry up and bring them out for me to see!"
Completely losing his composure, Zhang Weimin could not wait a moment longer.
"I didn't bring them back yet. They're still in my office; I was planning to use them as a birthday gift in a few days to give you a surprise, Grandpa!" Zhang Jingshan said.
Zhang Weimin paused.
After all, he was a figure who had spent decades in politics. Upon hearing Zhang Jingshan say this, aside from feeling a sense of regret, he gradually forced himself to calm his emotions down.
He wasn't in such a rush to have Zhang Jingshan go fetch them immediately.
Suppressing his inner impatience and the agitation deep within his heart, he took a deep breath and shook his head.
"Let's put the matter of the eighteen Arhat prayer beads aside for now. That fellow named Ye Chen—is he really that eerie? Not only could he calculate the calamities awaiting you and Li Changfeng, but he could also calculate that Jinlin Mansion would skyrocket?"
"Grandpa, he is precisely that eerie! However, I don't think he's some kind of divine fortune-teller. Based on the background check I did on his past, I found that his past was nothing more than that of a hopeless gambler with no life to speak of. So I really want to connect all of that to coincidence, but the explanation of coincidence is too far-fetched—so far-fetched that even I don't believe it. Besides, I feel that behind his hopeless gambler facade, he is definitely not simple. Definitely!" Zhang Jingshan said firmly.
Zhang Weimin nodded.
After pondering for a moment, he said,
"A single event can be called a coincidence, but two or three events—that's no longer a coincidence. However eerie a person or event may be, there is always a root cause that can be traced. Given the situation you described, Grandpa doesn't oppose you making friends with this fellow named Ye Chen, but you must maintain a sense of proportion. Before completely figuring out his background, you must not become deeply acquainted with him. Grandpa knows you're a loyal and emotional person, and I'm afraid that you might be swayed by your feelings in the end and end up tricked or cheated."
"Don't worry, Grandpa, I know what to do!"
While nodding, Zhang Weimin paused once more.
Then he continued, "Also, if there's an opportunity, you can bring him to meet me. I'd like to have a chat with him!"
On the other side, in the rented apartment, Ye Chen—unaware that he had already caught the attention of the former municipal party secretary—did not finish watching the rest of the news broadcast.
Upon confirming that the trajectory of his past life had not been altered, he turned off the television.
Just as he was about to stand up and continue working on the Flawless Ointment,
Creak.
The door to the rented apartment was pushed open.
"Daddy!"
Ye Youyou's joyful, cheering voice rang out.
Like a little rabbit escaping its cage, she leaped straight into Ye Chen's arms.
Meanwhile, Chen Yinuo, who entered right behind her, caught sight of the scene inside the room—which looked for all the world like an illegal drug-manufacturing workshop.
In her mind, it instantly conjured up scenes from television and movies depicting drug production.
In a split second, she almost completely broke down!
Chapter 027: You've Finally Acted Like a Human Being
"You bastard, are you trying to drag me and Youyou down into hell?!"
Just as Ye Chen was happily lifting Ye Youyou up into his arms, before he could even speak, Chen Yinuo cried out in terrified alarm.
That's right, she had mistaken the scene of the rented apartment turned into a miniature workshop for Ye Chen's drug-manufacturing site.
And this also explained how Ye Chen had managed to get thirty thousand yuan from Zhang Jingshan.
That thirty thousand yuan was most likely drug money.
All that talk about picking up a bargain at the Antique City was fake—all of it was fake.
This human scum and beast could never shake off his habitual nature of treating lying like second nature; just like a dog could never give up eating feces, he would never change!
Well, fortunately Zhang Jingshan didn't know about this, otherwise he wouldn't just be dumbfounded—he'd be driven mad with fury!
He, Zhang Jingshan, with such a great world before him, had run off to go into the drug business with Ye Chen?
"Mommy, please don't scold Daddy, Youyou is so scared!"
Her smiling face gone, Ye Youyou burst into tears.
"What do you mean by that?"