Chapter 615: Don't Try to Guess the Emperor's Mind (Part 2)

Cao Chuan stared blankly as Xia Xianze rose to his full height. Reacting a moment later, he felt both emotional and amused: Truly, a great man cannot go a single day without power!

So Cao Zong hurriedly stood as well, reached out and pressed both hands onto General Manager Xia's shoulders: "Xia, you're being too sensitive! Is it really that dramatic? Sit down, sit down first, then we'll talk."

In that brief span, Xia Xianze's stress reaction had also passed. He had now likewise realized that Cao Chuan truly could not possibly commit such a "witless" act of direct rule; he himself had overreacted somewhat.

So he sat back down with the momentum, saying sheepishly: "Mainly, I just couldn't figure it out — since you were living quite stably over 'there,' why would you suddenly come back to 'shift your focus'?"

In this moment, Cao Chuan finally realized that his actions had not been as "quietly pervasive" as he had imagined, but had instead brought tremendous pressure and confusion to Xia Xianze. It was easy to imagine that if this remained unclear, it would inevitably bring even more chaos to the entire transmigrator group once they learned of it later.

It seemed this matter could not be glossed over lightly; it had to be nailed down and made eye-to-eye clear, in order to gain the other party's understanding and support.

Having thought this point through, Cao Chuan no longer hesitated. He intended to have a heart-to-heart with Xia, just as he had when they first met.

Yet when it came time to open his mouth, he momentarily did not know where to begin, and could only sigh softly: "Ah, it's precisely because life has been too stable. How should I put this to you?"

The predicament Cao Chuan had encountered in the Old World could actually be summed up with one common phrase: development had hit a bottleneck.

At the very beginning, Cao Chuan had obtained the Ring, and then naturally began trading goods between the two worlds. In the Great Ming Plane, he was the Cao Emperor; in the Old World, he became Cao Zong.

That decision was undoubtedly correct. Later on, Cao Chuan not only supplied a fledgling empire in the New World, but also amassed more and more wealth in the Old World, living the life of a rich man.

Further on, as time flowed ceaselessly by, he eventually passed through the adjustment period, recovering a normal state of mind from the unstable condition of a loser suddenly striking it rich; a life of wealth became routine for Cao Zong.

At this point, Cao Zong finally had the time to sit down and quietly reflect, reviewing the past and looking ahead to the future.

Unexpectedly, upon this reflection, Cao Zong had a new realization: had he seemingly reached a bottleneck in the Old World?

Yes, that was right. After a period of serious investigation and assessment, a certain someone discovered that he had truly hit a glass ceiling in the Old World.

Unlike the Great Ming Plane, which was in a primitive state, the place Cao Zong lived in was a mature industrial society that had developed over several centuries. Here, humanity was committed to nanotechnology, genetic engineering, quantum computing, controllable nuclear fusion, and a whole series of cutting-edge technologies for mastering nature.

Here, what raced along the streets were self-driving electric cars, what flew overhead were satellites and space stations, and the air was saturated with dense electronic signals; even a city-dwelling loser held a smartphone in their hand.

In such a world, with its mature institutions, complete financial system, and ubiquitous surveillance cameras, Cao Chuan discovered that as a successful nouveau riche, he had pretty much reached his limit.

Currently, his industries were divided into two parts. One part consisted of several "cross-border intermediary" companies he had secretly invested in to facilitate "immigration." These companies had played a considerable role in the early stages of Cao Zong's immigration enterprise.

However, if you walk the night road often enough, you will eventually meet a ghost. In this process of constantly "shuffling" people to the New World, a few accidents and mishaps had inevitably occurred. In the most recent one, the family members of an immigrant had even grown suspicious, resulting in a cross-border legal dispute.

After activating the emergency contingency plan and paying a huge sum in compensation, Cao Zong directly abandoned the white-glove company, suspended immigration activities, and lay low to observe the situation. The consequence of this matter was that from the end of the year 161 onward, the Old World received no more immigrants.

Apart from the series of industrial arrangements related to "immigration," Cao Zong also had several wood-processing enterprises under his name. These enterprises were not large in scale, but had broad coverage, spanning from raw material processing all the way to international furniture export, encompassing the entire wood-processing industrial chain.

Ultimately, deeply laying out his operations in the wood-processing industry was also a helpless choice made after practical experience.

In the early days, the ignorant transmigrator had been completely unbridled, taking all sorts of items that had gone extinct in the Old World to make a profit, such as top-grade jadeite, single-head abalone, huanghuali wood, and so on.

Later on, as the number of transactions increased, Cao Chuan suddenly discovered that he was being watched: the luxury goods circle was only so big, and with a steady stream of high-end goods suddenly appearing, it would have been hard not to attract attention.

After he broke out in a cold sweat sending away the "strategic partner" who had come uninvited, he knew that the luxury goods business could no longer be done.

Compared to the profits brought by luxury goods, the subsequent problems they triggered were what a certain someone with a guilty conscience feared most: a mature society could not possibly allow him to continue like this, because he could not explain the origin of the luxury goods.

This world was densely covered with electronic eyes, satellites floated overhead, and the inter-bank systems were extremely efficient and advanced. If he continued like this, once the profits grew large enough, even if Cao Zong hid abroad like a ghost, he would still be tracked down by those with intent.

If they could investigate international drug traffickers, international money launderers, and international arms smugglers, why on earth couldn't they investigate an international "luxury goods" dealer?

Oh, right — a certain merchant had actually purchased large quantities of arms in the past, even buying an Italian Cannon; furthermore, there were rumors that this person had also handled international human trafficking, and might well be an international snakehead and arms dealer.

You see, you wouldn't know without investigating, but with just a casual probe, in this mature world, as long as you do things, there is no way to hide the traces. Not to mention that a certain Cao, inexperienced and forced into it at the start, had left far too many traces.

In fact, Cao Zong was not actually afraid of being seen by the world as some arms dealer / smuggler / snakehead. What Cao Zong feared was the investigation that would arise from it, and having his greatest secret uncovered.

Having thought all this through, Cao Zong spent the next two years completely halting the immigration and arms trade. The businesses including luxury goods were likewise wound down, switching to the less conspicuous raw timber trade.

Even within the raw timber industrial chain, he no longer "smuggled" those precious types of wood that easily triggered safety inspections and suspicion, switching instead to common, mass-market materials.

But in doing so, having left behind the enormous profits brought by luxury goods, he also "faded into the crowd."

In the Old World, the position Cao Chuan ultimately stabilized into was enough to ensure he had no worries about food and clothing and became a genuinely wealthy person. However, the speed of his wealth accumulation, let alone compared to someone like Ma Yun, was hopeless even when compared to those tycoons one or two tiers lower who made the news.

The Old World, with its mature systems and advanced technology, had too many magnates, too many political heavyweights, too many systems that a nouveau riche like Cao Chuan could not afford to offend.

Moreover, the Old World actually did not leave much room for a nouveau riche to rise. In the end, Cao Chuan was merely a graduate of a third-rate university. Apart from the fortuitous encounter with the Ring that came to him, in terms of true caliber, he did not possess the personal capability to become a major power player.

That is to say, in this lifetime, in the Old World, living as a wealthy man in anonymity was the ceiling for Cao Chuan. To take one step further, whether in business or politics, was impossible.

The secret of the Ring was the primary constraint; Cao Chuan was the type of person who refused all scrutiny and exposure. If he wanted to take another step up, he could only honestly wait for the next generation to grow up.

Casting aside the confusion brought by a life of comfort, when Cao Chuan calmed his mind and properly analyzed the stakes involved, he was shocked to discover that the Old World, which he had initially regarded merely as a gas station, seemed to be his final destination after all?

Admittedly, the New World was currently a place that didn't even have a flush toilet; the lower limit was very low, but thinking about it the other way, the upper limit was also high!

Because the transmigrators possessed the technological data and developmental experience accumulated by the Old World over several millennia, in the future, the New World could embark on a path of ultra-high-speed development, under the major premise of neither harming the environment nor taking detours.

Perhaps in less than a hundred years, the New World would become a beautiful homeland led by the Han people, rich in resources, with a pristine environment and a technological level comparable to the Old World.

Then, as the sole owner of the nation, even if only in name, wouldn't that be reaching the goal in one step? What need would there be to live in fear of investigations and exposure, let alone worry about how future generations would break through the glass ceiling!

No need to strive anymore! Born in Rome!

After suddenly thinking this all through, Cao Chuan was also filled with regret for his previous shortsightedness. But he couldn't be blamed; very few people, in that stage of a loser suddenly striking it rich, consider things that far ahead. To lose weight, you first need the chance to grow a belly, right?

Fortunately, it was not too late. Having learned from his pain, Cao Zong decided to mend the fold after the sheep were lost, hurriedly going back to connect with a wave of "ministers," inspect his domain, and earnestly be an emperor for once.

And so, there came the enthusiastic spectacle of the Cao Emperor, disregarding preset rules, carrying large quantities of personal supplies and rushing to the snow disaster site to personally "console" Li Dazui and other cadres fighting on the front lines of disaster relief — people in sedan chairs carry one another; to sit securely as emperor, it is essential to win over a batch of sycophants!

After earnestly listening to Cao Zong's entire mental journey, Xia Xianze let out a long breath. Looking up at the wall clock, he saw it was already two in the morning without him noticing.

In this moment, Xia Xianze had a fleeting feeling reminiscent of that year when the two of them first crossed over, and Cao Zong had extended a finger to tell him the story of a ring.

"So, you still intend to participate in governance, just within a reasonable framework." After a long silence, Xia Xianze seemed to have figured it out; his expression relaxed considerably, and he said slowly: "Am I correct in saying this, Cao Zong?"

Cao Chuan nodded: "Correct. My original promise remains valid; I will not break the rules."

Having said this, Cao Chuan added: "Come to think of it, my current mindset is exactly what a constitutional emperor's mindset should be. The previous one was actually just a slacker skipping work and coasting — unqualified."

Xia Xianze nodded in agreement: "If that's the case, then there's no problem on my end. What is yours will ultimately be yours; no one can take it away. I will cooperate with you."

Cao Chuan beamed: "Xia, this time, as sovereign and minister, let's properly accomplish something great together."

Xia Xianze smiled: "First, let's get through the upcoming hurdle of the assembly session. Your acting on whims has coincided perfectly with it."