"What did you say?" On the other end of the phone, Hua Tianze was completely petrified, with the scene from ten years ago vividly flashing before his eyes.
At that time, he had just taken over the reins of the Hua Family from his father, and it seemed he had reached the pinnacle of his life, nearly dismissing anything and anyone out of hand.
In his heart, there was nothing the people of the Hua Family couldn't do, nor anyone they couldn't offend. He acted arrogantly, and under the premise of not violating the moral bottom line, everything he did was based on his own preferences. If there was something he wanted to do, no one could stop him, and anyone he disliked was bound to face misfortune.
It was during a gala that he had this encounter. The event gathered almost all of Huaxia's power and wealth elites. The cause of the incident was simple, at a corner, Zhang Xiaoyun, holding a glass of red wine, bumped into Hua Tianze.
Actually, the red wine did not spill on Hua Tianze's clothes, but only a few drops landed on his leather shoes, and Zhang Xiaoyun had immediately expressed his apologies.
Generally, those who do not seek death naturally will not die. At that time, blinded by the immense resources in his grasp, Hua Tianze uttered a sentence in front of many upper-class elites to Zhang Xiaoyun.
"Lick my shoes clean, and we will pretend this never happened."
It had already been a year since Hua Tianze had taken power, and in that year, countless people had been humbled under his hand, yet he was thriving, and the backgrounds he could call upon were well known.
Whether it was the political or military realm, the shadow of the Hua Family was evident, and what was most terrifying was that Hua Tianze always had a man in his thirties protecting him closely.
This man, although not looking very strong, even rather slender, had made countless people who openly or covertly targeted him disappear without a trace.
Once, due to a business matter, he came to war-ravaged South Africa, where the trade meeting of that regime was located right at the center of crossfire among three armies.
That night, the three armies launched a sudden attack on the area. Over 2000 people were killed or injured, and almost the entire area was littered with corpses, yet Hua Tianze walked out of that death zone unscathed.
It was said that when he left there, a torrential rain fell over the entire place, washing away all the bloodstains.
Later, it was rumored that his greatest reliance for sauntering around such a place safely lay with his bodyguard.
Thus, no matter how outrageous Hua Tianze's actions were, no one dared to question anything he did, and his acts of insult were not isolated incidents; they almost always ended with the others capitulating.
As for Zhang Menglong's father, Zhang Xiaoyun, during this gala, almost no one recognized him, and people only started paying attention to him when they realized he was an uninvited guest.
A man with no background dared to provoke someone like Hua Tianze?
Everyone felt that eventually, the unlucky man would definitely obey and submissively lick Hua Tianze's shoes clean in Hua Tianze's presence.
But to everyone's surprise, that man merely smiled and then, as if shooing away trash, uttered one word.
Since Hua Tianze's birth, no one had ever dared to say such a word to him, and after he took control of the Hua Family, almost everyone who met him spoke respectfully; this word had almost never appeared in his dictionary!
The atmosphere at the scene immediately became extremely tense.
But this was a grand gala. Although the host's status could not compare with Hua Tianze's, he was nonetheless one of the foremost figures in all of Huaxia. Causing trouble in this place was undoubtedly a sign of great disrespect to the host.
Hua Tianze merely asked if the man dared to resolve the matter in a secluded place, and to his surprise, the man agreed. The two thus left the gala halfway.
What exactly happened after they left remained unknown to anyone, but for Hua Tianze, it was almost like a nightmare.
The first thing Hua Tianze did was to have the Dragon King teach this ignorant man a lesson, but he witnessed the biggest nightmare of his life.
With just one punch, the Dragon King fell to the ground like a pile of trash, and the man's aura was so oppressive that Hua Tianze could barely lift his head. It was then that Hua Tianze realized this man might also be a powerful Psychic!
Possessing the power of the Hua Family, Hua Tianze could mobilize the entire family's resources. At that time, the Hua Family had over a hundred divine Psychics, including even ten above Level Five among those divine Psychics. Such a force, unmatched by any non-official power throughout Asia, could even shake the second-world situation in the entire Asia.
He immediately convened the family's divine Psychics, a force so powerful it could shake the geopolitical landscape of the entire Asia.
However, that man had only used his own aura, and hundreds of elite psychics from his family all knelt on the ground, with several weaker ones being crushed into bone dust by this power, losing over half of their elite psychics!
Afterward, the man said, "This person's water-based supernatural abilities are not bad, I'll take him back to water my farm."
Then he disappeared with the Dragon King as if he were carrying a little chick.
In the following period, a terrifying financial storm swept through Asia, which seemed to specifically target their assets, causing huge losses to the Hua Family's industries. Within just a few weeks, the family's assets had shrunk by a third.
What was worse, several core members in their political circle were also heavily impacted. A nearly certain election ended in direct failure, and several prominent figures were forced to step down.
At that moment, Hua Tianze finally realized that the power of the man in front of him far exceeded his imagination!
That night, while the entire Hua Family was discussing countermeasures, the man came uninvited through heavy guards, and this time, Hua Tianze finally broke down.
As a price, the Hua Family surrendered a large portion of their assets as an apology, and promised to keep a low profile in their actions afterward. Only then did Zhang Xiaoyun stop.
After this incident, Zhang Xiaoyun disappeared as if he had evaporated from the world. No matter how the Hua Family inquired, they could not find any information about him, but from then on, the entire family became exceedingly cautious.
"Are you sure?" Recalling the events from 10 years ago, Hua Tianze shuddered.
Ten years ago, he had provoked that man. Now, his son had offended his son. Was the world really this small?
"I saw Uncle Dragon King," Hua Tianze said in a tone of despair, "he was working on artificial rainfall at one of Zhang Menglong's farms, and if done poorly, he got whipped with a whip... Dad... I..."
"You can't be blamed," Hua Tianze said, "you did it with my permission. I share the responsibility for this situation!"
"Dad, he wants us to pay 150 billion US Dollars as a ransom before he will release us, I..."
"Agree to it," Hua Tianze said, "not to mention that Hua Ye is my own son, these two Level Seven elite psychics are not something that can be equated to taking out 150 billion US Dollars."
What was most crucial was that he actually thought the 150 billion US Dollars was too damn cheap!
Keep in mind that when he had offended Zhang Xiaoyun ten years ago, a third of their family's assets had evaporated, leaving two-thirds from which they had to extract half in fixed assets and cash as compensation.
Now, their losses mounted to trillions of US Dollars!
This 150 billion, while vast, actually seemed somewhat of a bargain!
"Menglong, aren't you being a bit too harsh?" Lu Yiya spoke from the side. 150 billion US Dollars was nearly close to the entire fortune of the second wealthiest person in the world, and even the Hua Family might not be able to muster 150 billion US Dollars.
"No problem, if they can't produce it, we can always bargain!" Zhang Menglong said with a laugh, actually, the 150 billion US Dollars was just a figure he mentioned casually.
"Mr. Zhang," Hua Ye bowed respectfully to Zhang Menglong, "My father would like to invite you to our home as a guest, hoping to personally apologize to you."
"Don't give me all this fancy nonsense, even one cent less from the ransom won't work!" Zhang Menglong pretended to be fierce.
"The ransom is no problem, my dad said it, it will definitely be offered with both hands!"
"Ah?" Zhang Menglong and Lu Yiya exchanged glances, somewhat surprised at how smoothly things were going.
"Yiyi," Zhang Menglong suddenly felt a bit of regret, "why do I feel like I asked for too little?"