Free Web NovelChapter 104: Chapter 103: Boundless Power and Wealth
Aside from that, there was a new Talent called Painted Hide.
The words for it on the panel were grayish-black, and its rank was clearly a tier lower than the other two Talents.
Its effect was the ability to change his appearance, skin tone, and body shape to a certain extent.
Fu Juemin had tried it once. The experience was a bit like the "face sculpting" feature for characters in the games of his previous life. He felt it might be useful to keep, so he didn’t let Soft Bone or Yao Ling devour it.
Going down to the first floor, Fu Juemin walked around the house and saw Li Tong sitting under the porch in the side yard, drinking tea.
When he walked over, he realized it wasn’t tea but coffee. There was even creamer and sugar cubes on the table to go with it.
’Uncle Tong, you’re quite trendy...’
Fu Juemin sat down, picked up the coffee pot on the table, and poured himself a cup. Just then, a servant passed by, and he called out to him.
"How’s that errand I sent you on?"
The servant who had been stopped scratched his head. "Young Master, I’ve been to all the nearby pharmacies, but none of them have it. Some haven’t even heard of it... How about this, I’ll go a bit farther out tomorrow to ask around."
Fu Juemin frowned, thought for a moment, and said, "Don’t bother with pharmacies anymore. Go to restaurants, high-end ones... the more famous, the better."
After speaking, he waved his hand to dismiss the servant, then turned to Li Tong beside him. "Uncle Tong, does it have to be a live elephant and a live crocodile? Can’t we use dead ones?"
Li Tong took a delicate sip of his coffee as if it were fine tea and said slowly, "Of course, dead ones can be used, but the effect will be significantly worse than using one that’s freshly killed..."
"Where did you get live hide and blood back in the day, Uncle Tong?"
"Live crocodiles can be found in Liangguang; the locals call them Piggy Dragons. As for live elephants, you’d probably have to go to the Southwestern Border to find one..."
Fu Juemin shook his head. "Sending someone on a trip to Shuangguan Prefecture would be easy enough, but going to the Southwest is definitely impossible right now..."
"You don’t necessarily have to go that far. I know a place that has them readily available right now."
Li Tong said slowly, putting down his cup.
Fu Juemin’s eyes lit up. "Where?" he asked eagerly.
Li Tong replied, "The Imperial Garden."
"In Yingjing?"
"There’s one in Shenghai, too."
Li Tong picked up a sugar cube from the table, tossed it directly into his mouth, and said leisurely, "I’ve already made some inquiries for you, Young Master. They do indeed keep a live elephant in the garden, but that area has been partitioned off by Westerners. They’re using it for some kind of biology lab..."
Fu Juemin let out a laugh. "I might as well just go to the Southern Ocean to catch an elephant myself then."
As the two were talking, a servant hurried over to report that the master had returned and wanted the Young Master to go see him at once.
When Fu Juemin rushed to the front hall, he saw Fu Guosheng sitting on the sofa with a pipe in his mouth, seemingly lost in thought.
Fu Juemin reached out to take the freshly brewed ginseng tea from Locust Flower, who was standing nearby, and walked over slowly.
"Dad, did you see Miss Su?"
Fu Juemin placed the ginseng tea in front of Fu Guosheng. The latter shook his head without a word, looking somewhat dazed.
’No wonder Fu Guosheng looks like he’s in a bad mood. So he hit a wall at the Su Family’s place.’
So he changed the subject. "Dad, where did you look at shops today?"
This time, Fu Guosheng answered. "Southern Country Road."
Fu Juemin blinked. Four Nations Dao was a famously bustling area in Shenghai.
He knew a little about Fu Guosheng’s plan. Fu Guosheng intended to use the Fu Family’s two existing clothing stores as a foundation to rapidly expand the business.
There were many shops on Four Nations Dao, but with Fu Guosheng’s personality, he naturally wouldn’t settle for an ordinary location. The place he chose would have to be a prime, prosperous storefront.
But since it was a prime, prosperous storefront, the rent would inevitably be much higher than others, perhaps far exceeding Fu Guosheng’s expectations.
Besides, in a place like Shenghai, there were many things that money couldn’t necessarily buy...
Fu Juemin had a good idea of the situation and asked, "Dad, which shop on Southern Country Road did you set your sights on?"
He was already prepared to console his old man, raising the ginseng tea from the table, ready to hand it over at any moment. But then he heard Fu Guosheng say slowly, "Southern Country North Road... half a street of shops."
"Huh?"
Fu Juemin’s hand, holding the teacup, froze in mid-air. For a moment, he didn’t know whether to praise his father’s astounding ambition or to advise him to be more cautious and build things up steadily.
However, before he could figure it out, he heard Fu Guosheng add an earth-shattering statement—"Someone gave them to me."
"What?" ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
"An old friend I haven’t seen in years."
Fu Juemin’s hand trembled. Ignoring the scalding tea that had splashed out, he put down the cup and shot to his feet.
"Are you saying you went out for a stroll and someone just gave you half a street’s worth of storefronts on Southern Country North Road?"
Fu Juemin’s face was a mask of confusion. He even suspected that the man before him was another illusion created by Painted Hide.
Fu Guosheng’s expression was complicated, as if he didn’t know how to explain it to him either.
Just then, Uncle Chen the butler hurried in from outside. "Master, Madam Ding’s car is waiting outside."
"Madam Ding?"
Fu Juemin sharply caught the name, and the look he gave his father instantly became peculiar.
Fu Guosheng, however, stood up, straightened his collar, and sighed. "Alright, hurry up and change your clothes. I’ll explain it to you on the way."
......
Half an hour later, inside a luxury limousine slowly heading toward the Shenghai New Realm, Fu Juemin and his father, Fu Guosheng, sat facing each other.
"So, this Madam Ding is a good friend who grew up with you and my... mother?
And now she’s made a fortune in Shenghai, and just happened to run into you on the street—her down-on-his-luck, middle-aged friend from her hometown?"
Fu Juemin leaned back against the leather seat, his fingertips lightly stroking the window frame, his tone still thick with disbelief.
Probably annoyed by the teasing in his tone, Fu Guosheng shot him a glare and then solemnly warned, "When we get there, remember to watch what you say and do. Madam... Madam Ding is no ordinary person. She asked to see you by name."
"Your friend asked to see me? Why?"
Fu Juemin shook his head, then couldn’t help but ask, "Dad, what’s this Madam Ding’s background in Shenghai, exactly?"
Fu Guosheng glanced toward the driver’s seat in the front, then said thoughtfully, "Her birth name is Ding Xiang, but she now goes by Ding Moshan..."
"That doesn’t sound like a woman’s name."
"Don’t interrupt."
Fu Guosheng continued, "When she first arrived in Shenghai in her early years, she was taken a liking to by a ’Wan’ generation elder of the Qinglian Gang, the foremost of Shenghai’s three great gangs, and was adopted as his goddaughter.
Now that many of the Qinglian Gang’s elders have passed away, she is one of the most senior members left in the gang. She controls three of the Qinglian Gang’s halls—’Lu’an,’ ’God of Wealth,’ and ’Hundred Industries.’ It’s no exaggeration to say her wealth is astronomical.
I hear she’s on very close personal terms with the current mayor of Shenghai City, Wen Zhiqiu, and she also holds the public position of Vice President of the Huazong Chamber of Commerce..."
Fu Guosheng spoke, one detail after another, and Fu Juemin’s expression grew more and more colorful as he listened. It felt like he was in a teahouse listening to a storyteller narrate the "Biography of a Famous Person." freeωebnovēl.c૦m
By the time Fu Guosheng finished, the image of a remarkable woman from the Republic era—powerful, wealthy, and incredibly well-connected—had gradually formed in his mind.
According to Fu Guosheng’s account, there were only a handful of people in all of Shenghai on the same level as this Ding Xiang, Madam Ding.
She could be considered a true super-magnate standing at the very top of Shenghai’s pyramid.
And someone like that was actually connected to his own father. Even though Fu Juemin had seen all sorts of melodramatic clichés in the novels and TV shows of his past life, he still felt an indescribable sense of absurdity and strangeness about it all.
"Dad."
Fu Juemin’s expression suddenly turned serious. He looked Fu Guosheng straight in the eye. "Be honest with me. Back in the day, were you and this Madam Ding..."
"Don’t make wild guesses."
Fu Guosheng cut him off. After a moment of silence, he looked out the window, his voice growing softer. "Actually, my relationship with her was just average. The one who was truly close to her... was your mother."
