Chen Guoxiang nodded, "Yes, I came with my wife yesterday. She said it's our fifth wedding anniversary and we should celebrate it by traveling, so I had to accompany her."

"Where's your wife?" Chen Feng asked curiously, while glancing around. He was genuinely curious about the kind of woman the snot-nosed kid from back in the day ended up marrying.

"Over there, at the counter." Chen Guoxiang pointed towards the service desk, "The one in the blue top."

Chen Feng looked in that direction and saw the back of a slender woman about 1.6 meters tall, with long straight hair, wearing a blue chiffon long sleeve top and black skinny pants.

Just from the back, Chen Guoxiang's wife seemed quite decent.

Perhaps feeling their gaze, his wife turned to look in their direction. She turned out to be not bad-looking, not a stunning beauty, but certainly above average. The main thing was, she was more than a good match for Chen Guoxiang.

Chen Guoxiang looked less than 1.7 meters tall, but weighed at least 150 to 160 pounds. He had a big round belly, a chubby face that was shiny with oil, which, though it enhanced his affability, significantly lowered his attractiveness.

To say that Chen Guoxiang was now a typical greasy middle-aged man was not an injustice.

"Not bad, your wife is a beauty. You're really blessed."

Chen Feng sincerely commented.

Chen Guoxiang beamed and, without any modesty, nodded and said, "I'm indeed blessed to have married a woman like my wife. When I was pursuing her, there were quite a few rivals, but in the end, I won her over."

By this time, his wife had already walked over, gave Chen Feng a glance, and smiled, nodding at him politely.

"Did you run into an old friend, hubby?" the woman asked gracefully.

Chen Guoxiang immediately introduced, "This is Chen Feng, my elementary school classmate. He was always a top student since childhood and went on to attend East Sea Institute of Technology, someone I've always looked up to. Now he lives here in Xiu Zhou and is the owner of a company. Chen Feng, my wife, Ni Yuhua."

"Hello!"

"Hello!"

The two of them exchanged smiles and nods.

Ni Yuhua continued warmly, "Since you're an old classmate, join us. Let's have some tea together. I've already booked a private room."

"No, no," Chen Feng quickly declined, "I just finished having tea with a friend inside and was about to leave. Besides, it's your fifth wedding anniversary trip, I don't want to be a third wheel."

Chen Guoxiang jokingly said with a laugh, "That's true; I wouldn't want a third party ruining our couple's world either."

Ni Yuhua gave him a playful eye roll and was about to say more when Chen Feng said, "How about this? When you're heading back to Lu City, I'll treat you to a meal as a send-off."

Chen Guoxiang immediately replied joyfully, "You said it! When we're leaving, we'll definitely call you. By the way, what's your phone number?"

Chen Feng promptly gave him his phone number, and he called immediately.

"Alright, in a couple of days, we might be heading back. I'll contact you, so don't back out saying you're busy."

Chen Guoxiang said with a certain familiarity.

"Of course not, it's rare to meet a fellow schoolmate from Qingpu here; I definitely have to treat you."

"Let's call it a deal then."

"Alright."

"We'll head in now to enjoy our couple time."

Chen Guoxiang chuckled, winked playfully at Chen Feng, and briskly led his wife inside, without any hesitation or awkwardness.

The way Chen Guoxiang handled social interactions was impressive to Chen Feng. It made everyone feel comfortable, and no one felt awkward, quickly bridging the gap between them.

Once they left, Chen Feng also got up to leave. It was almost noon by then, lunchtime.

He wasn't particularly hungry though, having eaten most of the snacks and fruits in the private room earlier.

When he drove back home, Sun and Wu weren't there. He checked on WeChat and was told they had gone to the company.

Once again, he was home alone.

He first went to eat, then returned to his lifestyle at home, lying on the couch to check his phone for a while.

Then he went upstairs to meditate, absorbing invisible energy.

The afternoon passed quickly.

The next day continued.

His day-to-day life seemed to return to calmness once again.

Normally, even Sun Yanhong wouldn't come to bother him every day.

But clearly, he was a bit too optimistic.

Sun Yanhong wasn't bothering him because there was something else pressing — the Riverside land was about to be forcibly reclaimed by the authorities.

Two years ago, the four of them bought that land for 180 million, and now, two years later, it's worth at least 300 million, mostly because a large sports complex is planned to be built just a few hundred meters away, causing the land value to skyrocket.

Two years ago, they secured this land by getting insider information about the specific plan for the sports complex, allowing them to pay a slight premium to secure the property.

Then, a few days ago, the insider who had given them the tip was suddenly arrested, and that insider confessed to providing them with inside information.

This clearly involved insider trading and legal issues, so the authorities decided to forcibly reclaim the land. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Originally, this land was as good as theirs. Now it's being forcefully taken away, and they're obviously unwilling.

They had already started the project to build a skyscraper, and had raised nearly all the necessary funds. Once the building was up, they would receive great returns. But now, being told the land would be reclaimed, they wouldn't stand for it.

Before buying the land, even though they had inside information, they followed all the legal and proper procedures during the auction, spending a real 180 million in cash.

Now, even if they got their money back with interest, it would still be a huge loss for them.

Besides, it's not that simple to just take the land away.

They were even prepared to bring this to court against the authorities.

However, if the issue could be resolved privately, that would obviously be ideal.

These past two days, all four of them have been working their connections, trying to gather specific inside information and find someone to intervene on their behalf.

From the current situation, there's a puppet master behind the scenes targeting their land, resorting to such underhanded tactics. The authorities would first forcibly reclaim the land and then sell it to this puppet master — that juicy piece of cake would fall into the opponent's mouth.

This act of snatching prey from the tiger's mouth is extremely nasty and outrageous.

It's infuriating for all four of them, but they can't immediately identify who's orchestrating things behind the scenes. They only know the opponent must have considerable backing.

Otherwise, given their social connections, this situation shouldn't happen, and even if it did, they would easily resolve it.

But this time, it's very strange; many of their connections are of no help, which clearly suggests that their opponent has strong backing, likely even stronger than theirs.