Chapter 211: The Game of Cat and Mouse

For the past few days, Tong Huaiyu has been in low spirits. Growing up, he had the Tong family as his mountain of support, and combined with a bit of cleverness, everything had been smooth sailing for him, even while abroad.

His primary purpose for returning to China this time was to unite the scholar-official class to push for the opening of the domestic agricultural market—something Europe and the United States had been striving for but had always been refused.

How could the big shots at the top not understand the wolfish ambitions of the West? Once the domestic agricultural market was opened to them, the domestic grain industry would suffer a devastating blow. Even with the threat of being blocked from joining the WTO, the leadership had not budged.

ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus—the four major grain merchants collectively known as ABCD—were everywhere, preaching that Chinese agriculture was failing and couldn't feed its over one billion people. Then, they found so-called elite figures like Tong Huaiyu to use a strategy of internal disintegration and external pressure to force the leadership to compromise.

The Jian family controlled the Ministry of Agriculture and held significant sway in this matter; if he could gain their support, he would surely achieve twice the result with half the effort. Thus, Tong Huaiyu returned to China full of confidence, planning to marry Jian Qiu and then leverage the Jian family's influence to push the matter forward.

When he first saw Jian Qiu, he found that she perfectly embodied the saying "a girl changes eighteen times by adulthood." She was no longer the green, yellow-haired girl of the past, becoming someone who made him—a man who had seen countless women—unable to stop his heart from racing. Yet, reality slapped him hard in the face.

The little girl who used to follow behind him, shouting that she wanted to marry him, had rejected him without hesitation and chose a bumpkin instead. The fire of anger in his body almost made him explode.

Feeling that killing Zhou Andong outright would be letting this bumpkin off too easily, he played a game of cat and mouse. But the final result was that he, the cat, was almost slapped to death by the mouse, a blow that was not insignificant.

With a clatter, the iron door of the cell was opened: "Tong Huaiyu, come out, someone is here to see you."

Tong Huaiyu was huddled in the corner, staring blankly at the ceiling, having lost his former dashing demeanor.

Suddenly hearing the guard's shout, a glimmer of light appeared in his dull eyes, and he stood up with a start: "Who is seeing me?"

The guard said coldly: "You'll know when you go."

"Good, good, good!"

Tong Huaiyu put on his shoes and walked out quickly. It must be someone from his family; he would be out soon. Thinking of this, a flash of malice appeared in Tong Huaiyu's eyes. No matter who you are or what position you hold, once I get out, I won't let a single one of you off, especially Zhou Andong—I will definitely tear you into pieces.

But when he walked into the meeting room and saw not his family, but the face he hated to the bone, his whole body began to tremble—not from fear, but from anger.

"Zhou Andong!" Tong Huaiyu let out a low growl from his throat, like an injured beast facing its natural enemy.

Zhou Andong smiled, his expression looking very bright and happy: "I always thought we had never met before. It seems I was wrong; you have seen me."

Tong Huaiyu took two sharp breaths, barely suppressing his urge to go berserk: "What are you here for?"

"Of course, to see you, the famous Young Master Tong." Zhou Andong took out a cigarette and gestured: "Want one?"

Before Tong Huaiyu could speak, Zhou Andong pulled his hand back: "Sorry, smoking is bad for your health. A young master like you, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, must value his life. Better not smoke."

Zhou Andong lit one and took a puff with great enjoyment, inwardly lamenting that in this era, one could smoke in such a place. If it were more than a decade later, let alone smoking, he wouldn't even be able to bring it in.

"I just felt that as rivals, it was a pity we hadn't met. Now that I see you in such a withered, miserable state, I am quite gratified."

Tong Huaiyu snorted angrily and turned to leave, then heard Zhou Andong say: "Don't you want to know where you lost?"

Tong Huaiyu paused, pulling back the foot he had stepped out, but he didn't turn around, waiting with an uncertain expression for Zhou Andong to continue.

But after waiting and waiting, he didn't hear Zhou Andong speak. Unable to hold back, he turned around.

Zhou Andong said with a smile: "That's right, talking behind someone's back is so impolite."

Tong Huaiyu gritted his teeth, his hands clenched into tight fists, the anger burning in his eyes as if he wanted to burn Zhou Andong to ashes.

Zhou Andong circled Tong Huaiyu and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Tong Huaiyu dodged away and roared in a low voice: "You bumpkin, don't touch me, damn it. I'm a germaphobe."

"Tsk tsk tsk..."

Zhou Andong looked Tong Huaiyu up and down with a clicking sound: "You're not a germaphobe; you should get a rabies shot. Look at you now; it's not hard to imagine that you used to be a mad dog, biting whoever you caught."

Looking at the mocking smile on Zhou Andong's face and the insults and contempt in his tone, Tong Huaiyu really wanted to take a bite out of Zhou Andong's neck.

"Angry?" Zhou Andong continued to provoke him, "You don't really want to bite me, do you?"

Tong Huaiyu didn't want to stay and continue to humiliate himself, so he turned and left.

"Don't you want to know how you lost?" Zhou Andong said.

This time Tong Huaiyu didn't stop his pace. The moment he reached out to push the door, Zhou Andong's voice came from behind: "It was Cheng Zhanjun."

Tong Huaiyu's body stopped uncontrollably again, and the hand he had reached out to push the door was pulled back. This time he had learned to be smart and turned around naturally.

"That's right!" Zhou Andong shook his head with a smile, then took a puff of his cigarette: "Cheng Zhanjun arrived in Jiangzhou and became the number one man there; you couldn't have not known that. Since you knew, yet still dared to stir up trouble in Jiangzhou, did you not take Cheng Zhanjun seriously, or did you not take the Cheng family seriously?

And the Jiangzhou Winery is Cheng Zhanjun's experimental field; he invested a lot of energy into it. You actually wanted to destroy the winery—if he doesn't mess with you, who would he mess with? Most importantly, your Tong family and the Cheng family are still competing for a certain position. At this time, you jumped out to get stabbed; if he doesn't stab you twice, he'd be doing himself a disservice."

The color on Tong Huaiyu's face kept changing. He really hadn't thought of this layer at the time, or rather, he was arrogant enough to think that Cheng Zhanjun didn't have the guts to tear his face off with the Tong family over such a small matter. But he hadn't realized the importance of that position.

Zhou Andong smiled. He could guess with his butt that once Tong Huaiyu got out, he would definitely seek revenge. He wasn't afraid, but having a fly buzzing around you all the time is annoying even if it doesn't bite—mostly, it's disgusting.

So he came to see Tong Huaiyu to give him a reminder, which could be considered borrowing the tiger's power to suppress Tong Huaiyu, making this guy afraid to mess around in Jiangzhou again, so he could have some peace. Now looking at Tong Huaiyu's expression, his purpose for coming had been temporarily achieved.