Chapter 1012: 1007. Doing Things to the Extreme

Zhang Ran waited here quietly for the final moment to arrive, but the atmosphere within the Rhode Family was not nearly as relaxed.

During this period, they had done everything they could, and everything they shouldn't have.

Yet they discovered they had fallen completely into a trap; no matter what they did, they were met with targeted strikes.

Although they were a family business, they also had other shareholders.

Now, various conflicts were erupting within their main companies, and their most vital oil industry had suffered a devastating blow.

Transport pipelines, oil field renewals, and the like had caused them endless suffering, and there was no way to resolve them.

In this time alone, they had paid out an unknown amount in compensation.

They had signed quite a few contracts in the past, especially in the last two years, when they had signed even more supply contracts.

Previously, they had felt this was a testament to their own merit.

But now they realized these were all Zhang Ran's schemes—a trap Zhang Ran had laid long ago, just waiting for this moment.

Jiasen no longer possessed his former composure; he had aged significantly in these past few days, and his originally jet-black hair now showed streaks of white.

At this moment, he was completely out of options; begging for help, bribery, and the like—he had tried every method that could be used.

To survive this crisis, he was even willing to sign unequal treaties, giving away many of the family's interests.

But it was useless!

Those who could be swayed by these interests had no way to intervene, or rather, no way to turn the situation around.

And those who could turn the situation around would not be swayed by his interests.

This was a dead end!

Zhang Ran had laid his plans step by step, and before this, he had been clipping the wings of the Rhode Family one by one.

By now, they had no options left.

"I should have realized it sooner." After a long silence, Jiasen let out a bitter laugh.

Yes, he should have realized sooner that their luck wouldn't just suddenly become so good.

Qiaosilin's eyes had lost their luster, and she asked, "Realized what sooner? That all of this was Zhang Ran's layout?"

Hearing the sarcasm in Qiaosilin's voice, Jiasen felt no emotion toward it.

"Yes, the reason Zhang Ran kept whittling away at our other industries back then—wasn't it just to force us to concentrate all our energy on oil?" Jiasen said.

Qiaosilin seemed not to hear him; what was the point of saying these things now?

Jiasen ignored her and continued to himself, "But even if we had guessed it back then, what could we have done?"

"We still would have had to follow Zhang Ran's plan, because we couldn't possibly abandon oil; it was oil that made the Rhode Family, and in the end, we died because of oil," Jiasen answered his own question.

Now he understood everything, but just as he had said, even if he understood, what could be done?

Even if they had guessed Zhang Ran's goal early on, what could they have done?

Let them abandon the oil industry?

That was simply impossible; not to mention the immense confidence they had previously held in oil, the fact that oil remained the core industry of their family to this day could not be brushed aside.

Their family's connections, network, money, and more were all tied to it.

Jiasen knew that no matter what, they would never have given it up.

Zhang Ran had grasped this mindset of theirs, which was why he had acted this way.

It was precisely because they had sufficient confidence in their own oil industry that they had never feared Zhang Ran's actions all along.

Even after losing many other industries, and even when other industries suffered blows, they still believed that as long as the oil industry had no problems, then nothing was a problem.

Furthermore, they were even more convinced that the oil industry would never have problems, and if problems did arise, they would be easily resolved by them.

But the reality was that by this point, they truly could not resolve them.

No one had expected Zhang Ran to be able to leverage his connections to this extent; at this moment, it was as if the Rhode Family had been abandoned by the world.

As he spoke, Jiasen fell silent.

After an unknown amount of time, someone came in to say that the people from the bank had arrived, and Jiasen stood up expressionlessly.

As for this bank, it had previously had a very close relationship with the Rhode Family, and both their legitimate and illegitimate accounts were handled through them.

The Rhode Family was even a small shareholder in their bank, but once their family ran into trouble, this bank was the first to turn against them.

However, Jiasen did not curse them; he was a veteran of the business world and knew this was actually a normal phenomenon.

It also signaled that their family had completely lost any shred of hope.

In fact, wasn't the Rhode Family the same in the past? To spread risk, they had invested in the Southern Bank.

It was also a precaution against others.

It was just that this contingency had been directly severed by Zhang Ran.

After bringing the people in, the bank staff had no other words; they were simply there to collect the debt.

Jiasen ignored the bank staff and looked at one of them—it was Yin Long.

"If I recall correctly, Mr. Yin should be the Chairman of Galaxy Capital, and this has nothing to do with you, right? What? Since when is your bank so transparent?" Jiasen said mockingly.

Yin Long smiled and said, "Mr. Jiasen is right, I am not from their bank; I just came to take a look, to prevent anyone from taking this opportunity to transfer assets."

Yin Long did not avoid Jiasen at all; he was telling him plainly, "I am here to watch you."

Although the Rhode Family was finished, a broken ship still had three pounds of nails; it would still be very easy for the Rhode Family to try to hold onto some things.

For example, reaching some private agreement with the bank to siphon off more assets, then finding other opportunities to get them back later.

Such operations were actually not difficult, especially in capitalist countries like those in Europe and America.

Jiasen's expression turned ugly upon hearing this; he stared straight at Yin Long, and Yin Long did not fear him in the slightest, meeting his gaze directly.

"You really are ruthless!" Jiasen said through gritted teeth.

Jiasen truly had such an idea; he needed to preserve some assets for the family, and even if they couldn't be like they were before, at the very least, he had to leave behind some property for the clansmen to live on.

For this, he didn't even want to think about rising again.

However, what Jiasen did not expect was that Zhang Ran would be so ruthless, not giving him any chance at all.

Upon hearing this, Yin Long chuckled and said, "The feeling is mutual. Back then, when you all betrayed Brother Zhang for the sake of profit, didn't you also leave no shred of decency behind?"

Jiasen stopped speaking; at this moment, anything said would be superfluous.