The luxury VIP room at the Hidden Forest Club is, as expected, highly upscale. While it's called a room, it's actually a vast suite, spanning a sizeable 180 square meters with four bedrooms, a meeting room, and a large living room.

This is the second floor of a faux-ancient-style building, somewhat resembling an old embroidery tower, with only two levels, adorned with carved beams and painted pillars, impressively magnificent and nestled among the secluded greenery. Within thirty to forty meters around, there are no other buildings.

Downstairs are dedicated service attendants and security personnel who prevent anyone from entering without permission, let alone going to the second floor.

Speaking here, of course, doesn't incur any concerns about being overheard.

Therefore, whenever Sun Yanhong's group of four discuss confidential matters, they choose to come here. Additionally, upon arrival, everyone would knowingly place their phones on the shelf by the door.

This time was no exception for the four of them, but after Ma Wenjiang informed the other three that Tao Yaoyang was the one causing trouble behind the scenes, everyone fell silent momentarily, and the three men frowned as they smoked.

Initially, Sun Yanhong could tolerate it, but with the three seasoned smokers continually puffing around her, she couldn't take it any longer and first stood up, saying, "Alright, alright, enough with the smoking. Mr. Tao is formidable, but he shouldn't be unreasonable. Moreover, I've heard his father is about to step down soon, we needn't fear him too much. I think we should send someone to negotiate with him, start with diplomacy, then use force if necessary."

After Sun Yanhong spoke, she walked to the window and opened it, allowing the roomful of secondhand smoke to disperse more quickly.

"Start with diplomacy, then use force?" Li, the balding man, exhaled smoke, showing his yellow smoker's teeth, "What do we have to go head-to-head with him?"

Among the four, Li's foundation for prosperity back then wasn't the cleanest. Although he had washed his hands off it for many years, deep down he was still very wary of second generations like Tao Yaoyang.

Because people with a similar or even more aggressive start like him either ended up in the grave, with grass three feet high above, met ruin and lived a miserable old age, or were still stuck in prison.

If he hadn't withdrawn early, he wouldn't be living a stable and prosperous life now.

"Li, the older you get in this world, the less guts you have," Sun Yanhong mercilessly mocked.

Li's temperament remained quite good; he just chuckled lightly in response to her teasing, without retorting.

"Little Hong, then how do you suggest we make him back down? Who should we send?"

Another little old man in his fifties, wearing glasses, gentle and refined, like an old teacher, his surname is Guan, nicknamed Master. In fact, he used to be an actual teacher then ventured into business, the oldest in age, with the longest experience, highest education, and richest social experiences among them.

Sun Yanhong straightforwardly said, "If we're looking for someone to represent us, we must find someone who can connect with him or intimidate him. My connections don't reach that level, it's up to the three of you to think of a way."

Ma Wenjiang asked, "Can you ask your old man to reach out and say a word?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Yanhong's face immediately darkened as she replied, "I haven't spoken to my old man for several years, as you well know, yet you still ask me to ask him to intervene? Besides, he doesn't have that much influence; even if he did talk, eight to ten times, they might not want to help. I think it's better you take Zou and go negotiate with Mr. Tao; maybe he will show some respect to Zou."

Ma Wenjiang smiled wryly, shaking his head, "Zou's level is still a bit lacking, and moreover, Zou may not want to get involved in such matters. Even if he reluctantly agrees because of my request, he might feel unhappy inside, weakening the friendship between us; it's somewhat not worth the risk."

After exhaling a puff, Li said, "Zou is quite loyal, but his level is indeed a bit low for this matter, and if it displeases Mr. Tao and implicates Zou, that would be our mistake."

The Master Guan also agreed, "Involving Zou in this is inappropriate; it might harm him. Many of our businesses still need his kind of character to look out for, we can't afford to drag him in."

"If he's not suitable, then forget it; let's think again," Sun Yanhong casually mentioned. Seeing everyone opposing, she naturally wouldn't insist, thus skillfully diverting Ma Wenjiang's previous suggestion.

Ma Wenjiang then shifted topics, "It seems now we can only find someone close to Mr. Tao to mediate. The sooner the better; each of us should activate our networks to look for someone among Mr. Tao's relatives or friends; we should be able to find someone."

The Master emphasized, "Ordinary relatives and friends won't do, it must be someone with significant influence over him, someone who holds prestige in front of him. Each of us should activate our networks and inquire carefully, search and see." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

With his suggestion, Sun Yanhong and Li also agreed.

…

The dinner ended close to ten o'clock.

Though Chen Feng tried to control himself, he still ended up drinking three cans of beer, making driving himself unsuitable.

Tao Yaoyang and Cai Zhixin, however, drank quite a bit and were eventually assisted away by their respective drivers.

At this point, Chen Feng, this billionaire, seemed quite modest, as he still had no driver by his side and drove himself every time he went out.

Even Tang Xinyi always had an assistant accompanying her, helping with driving, though occasionally she wouldn't bring him out.

As for Chen Feng, despite having Jin Xinyan as his so-called personal assistant, he basically didn't keep her by his side.

Tonight, like Chen Feng, Tang Xinyi drove herself over, but since she hadn't been drinking, she volunteered to drive Chen Feng back.

Chen Feng didn't think much and agreed, as taking a taxi now would be inconvenient, and he didn't want to trouble Sun and Wu.

Sitting in the passenger's seat, Chen Feng closed his eyes semi-consciously to rest.

After the car started, Tang Xinyi casually asked, "You don't intend to participate in our project, do you?"

Chen Feng didn't deny it, instead, he asked, "How did you figure I didn't want to participate?"

"Intuition, I guess. I feel you're not very interested in our project."

Tang Xinyi said while driving.

Since she spoke this way, Chen Feng didn't hide anything and straightforwardly said, "Your intuition is pretty accurate; indeed, I'm not very interested in this project."

"Why?" Tang Xinyi inquired with curiosity, "Don't you have confidence in our project?"

"It's not that, it's purely that I don't want to invest in such things; I'm completely uninterested in the real estate business. Besides, I think the investment cycle is too long; what you perceive as a high investment return rate seems quite mediocre to me."

Tang Xinyi commented, "If the project is successfully completed, we will own a commercial complex worth at least two to three billion, usable for both commercial and residential purposes. Our total investment would be at most one billion, with us needing to put in only three hundred million in actual cash, using land and the project itself as collateral for borrowing the rest from the bank; this is practically a guaranteed profit. I can't think of any reason you'd refuse, and the reason you provided earlier wasn't your true reason."