Chapter 552: 548. The Water is Too Deep (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Tickets)

After Zhang Ran returned in the evening, he logged into a website and saw the message sent by Hyena.

Zhang Ran immediately took out a disposable SIM card again and dialed the number.

"Did you see the message?" Hyena said.

Zhang Ran nodded and said, "I saw it, but your information came a bit late."

"Huh?" Hyena was confused.

"The Whale has already come knocking. What you guys took out back then wasn't the Whale, but his younger brother, his twin brother," Zhang Ran said.

Hyena rubbed his brow and said, "I only just found out about this matter too. You know, after that incident back then, we also suffered heavy losses, and afterwards, we withdrew from this circle.

Over these many years, we basically haven't paid attention to the affairs of this circle, nor have we participated in them, so it's inevitable that the news lagged a bit."

"Mm, I understand that, but I have a question to ask you," Zhang Ran said.

"What question?"

"Were there others standing behind you back then?" Zhang Ran said in a deep voice.

Hyena fell silent all of a sudden, opened his mouth, but didn't say a single word.

His silence made Zhang Ran understand. "Alright, I get it. I was wondering why things felt a bit off; our relationship shouldn't have been good enough to warrant you paying such a high price for me. So that's how it is. In that case, I've actually been played by someone all along?

Or should I say, I was just a gun from the start? Heh, they really have some nerve," Zhang Ran said, letting out a cold laugh at the end.

"Rich Man, I don't want to say much about what happened back then, and I don't want to deal with it anymore. In any case, we didn't do anything detrimental to you," Hyena said.

Zhang Ran nodded and said, "I know that, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to withdraw safely."

Hyena fell silent again. He had seen the Rich Man's methods with his own eyes. Although the downfall of Whale Shark was their doing, they were only the ones at the forefront; the one who truly wielded the knife was the Rich Man.

It seems the Rich Man had already sensed something was wrong back then. Well, of course, otherwise, one would be underestimating the Rich Man too much.

It's just that perhaps he also sensed how thorny this matter was, so he temporarily chose to act as if he hadn't noticed.

"Thank you. By the way, I have a piece of news to give you for free," Hyena said.

"What news?"

"I've actually been watched by someone all along, but it was just watching. It's normal for people like us to be watched after retiring. Originally, I didn't pay it any mind, but two days ago, these people withdrew. I don't know exactly who it was, but the target should be you, Rich Man," Hyena said, taking a deep breath.

Zhang Ran said, "I know, thank you."

"Sigh, I really shouldn't have gotten involved in your affairs back then," Hyena sighed.

"Alright, don't think about it so much. If you want to retire, then retire in peace. I reckon you don't have many years left to live anyway. I won't come looking for you regarding this matter, but if you are still in contact with the people behind you, pass on a message for me."

"Those who live by the sword will eventually pay the price. My life, Zhang Ran's life, isn't that cheap, and I'm not that magnanimous!"

After saying this, he hung up the phone.

"The water in this world is truly deep. Heh, I was still too young back then," Zhang Ran laughed at himself after hanging up the phone.

Although Zhang Ran's path wasn't entirely smooth sailing back then, he hadn't encountered any major hurdles, at least not regarding the things he had planned.

After all, having foresight into the future trends, coupled with the capital he had already accumulated, Zhang Ran had been a bit arrogant back then.

If things had continued to develop according to that trend, and Zhang Ran had walked smoothly to this day, then he probably would have suffered a huge loss at some point.

The incident with the Goddess of Destiny actually allowed Zhang Ran to settle down, making him realize that there were still many things not under his control.

This can be seen from the methods Zhang Ran used to deal with people like Tian Yaohui; if it were in the past, Zhang Ran wouldn't have spent so much time and energy.

"Dayong, where is Zhou Fei's family now?" Zhang Ran asked suddenly the next morning.

He Yong said, "I went to check yesterday; they immigrated a long time ago."

Although Zhou Fei betrayed Zhang Ran in that incident, he ended up taking a bullet for Zhang Ran, so Zhang Ran didn't make things difficult for his family, but he didn't provide any help either, simply acting as if the matter didn't exist.

"It seems they really were prepared early on," Zhang Ran sneered.

He then temporarily put this matter aside and began to busy himself with his own affairs.

Before resolving these matters, he had to be well-prepared, and the greatest preparation was money.

Without money, there's no point in talking about anything.

Moreover, Zhang Ran's biggest trump card was money!

So that very day, Zhang Ran began calling Zhao Lifeng, telling him to hurry up and integrate the company, and by the way, to pay back the money.

Originally, Zhang Ran had planned to pay back the 100 billion he borrowed as soon as he finished using it; after all, there was a lot of interest every day.

It's just that now that Zhang Ran needed the money, he wasn't in a hurry to pay it back.

And the bank naturally wouldn't urge him; on the contrary, the longer Zhang Ran used it, the better. As long as the businesses under Zhang Ran's name didn't have any problems, they wouldn't press for debt repayment.

Currently, the businesses under Zhang Ran's name were all booming.

Because of "Yong Ge," Yaotian Pharmaceutical had already begun to move toward the international market, and now it had started selling and building factories in some small countries.

Sales were increasing day by day, and the money earned was also increasing day by day.

Now, Yaotian Pharmaceutical was equivalent to Zhang Ran's money-printing factory; the health supplement "Yong Ge" was selling too well.

And as time went on, it was foreseeable that as long as no product appeared to replace "Yong Ge," this would be a very huge source of funds.

The same was true for Maikai Supermarket. With the cooperation of Fengli Net, their online supermarket sales had also been consistently good.

Recently, Jiao Zhen had even started preparing for a new round of expansion, and his opponent was none other than his old employer.

Because of this, Xin Youmin had called many times to scold Zhang Ran.

Fengli Group couldn't see ready cash for the time being; all the money had to be reinvested into the group's development.

Kangshilan had money, but Zhang Ran didn't want to use their funds; they also needed to develop, and he couldn't make things too difficult for Huo Zhiyuan.

With these businesses as a foundation, let alone 100 billion, even if he needed another 100 billion, the bank would lend it to Zhang Ran without hesitation.

On January 3rd, He Qing handed the collected information to Zhang Ran; these were all materials regarding Youjia Grain and Oil Company.

Just as Li Yiting had thought, Zhang Ran's next target was him. Although Zhang Ran still had some things to busy himself with, he wouldn't forget about Li Yiting and the others.

Work had to be done, and one had to eat as well.

Flipping through these materials, Zhang Ran pondered some matters.