Chapter 149

In the evening.

Yu Mingyuan went out to run errands after dinner, while Su Tianyu drove back to the Yu family's villa.

Upon entering, Su Tianyu only saw Dabai, Zhou Tonghui, and Su Tianbei chatting together, but Kong Zhengwei and Su Tiannan were nowhere to be found.

"Where are those two?" Su Tianyu asked casually.

"...Uh, your eldest brother's whereabouts are unknown," Dabai replied with a grin. "Zhengwei's father has a serious liver condition. He's staying home for a couple of days to see if the city hospital can handle it. If not, he might have to fly to District One for a while for treatment."

Su Tianyu nodded upon hearing this, "I'll go visit him with you when we have time!"

"Sure," Dabai immediately stood up, changing the subject, "How did it go with your Uncle Li today?!"

"Pretty good. You guys chat, I still have to go upstairs and put together an investigation plan." Su Tianyu glanced at his watch and said, "Don't bother calling me for dinner later, I've already eaten."

"Comrade Xiao Su, don't overwork yourself. Call us if you need anything," Zhou Tonghui said with a smile.

"Cut the crap. You guys are lazier than the next. The only thing I can get you excited about is ripping people's pants off." Su Tianyu curled his lips and walked upstairs.

That evening.

Su Tianyu took a shower in the bathroom, made a cup of coffee, and sat down at the computer to write the investigation plan report.

After working on it for more than an hour, the plan was finally completed. Su Tianyu then used the Coast Guard internal network to post the document in the work discussion area.

About ten minutes later, Chief Cheng was the first to browse the plan in the work area and sent five thumbs-up emoticons in a row, accompanied by the words: "Approved for execution!"

A minute later, Chief Cheng's comment received more than twenty likes. The leader who had been dozing off at the meeting left a message commenting, "Xiao Su's plan is well done. Chief is still awake so late, working so hard. Get some rest soon."

At the end of the message, the fifty-something-year-old leader even added four red flower emoticons.

Su Tianyu drank his coffee, thinking to himself, "If you don't have a silver tongue working in this unit, you simply can't survive."

After finishing the plan, Su Tianyu reopened the webpage and investigated information about Huihong Pharmaceutical again. This time, he investigated in great detail, including the project publicity information of Huihong Pharmaceutical in recent years and various press release news, all of which he carefully read, attempting to find some clues.

After searching for more than two hours, just as Su Tianyu was feeling a little drowsy, he suddenly found in a news article a list of the board of directors of Huihong Pharmaceutical, and one of the honorary vice chairmen of the board listed was someone he knew.

Su Tianyu was a little surprised and immediately clicked on the person's basic information.

"Damn, there really are all sorts of connections," Su Tianyu muttered, blinking his eyes.

...

Two days later, after 11 p.m., at the Baolong Group headquarters in Dragon City.

Zhang Taotao closed her computer, leaned back wearily in her chair, and massaged her eyes with her slender fingers.

Outside the door, the secretary saw this and walked in, whispering, "President Zhang, shall I call a car?"

"Hoo!"

Zhang Taotao let out a long breath, picked up her cup and drank the last bit of coffee, then suddenly stood up and said, "Call one. I need to go back and rest."

"Okay." The secretary immediately picked up the phone on her desk and dialed the special driver's number for the group's vice president: "Master Wang, President Zhang will be downstairs in ten minutes. Okay, okay, that's it!"

Five minutes later, Zhang Taotao, wearing a fitted trench coat, walked down the company corridor and instructed softly, "Notify the negotiation team tomorrow to revise the conditions again! The equity structure of the mine should be four-four-two, leaving a portion for the officials, and the remaining two splitting it equally!"

"Are you giving them such good terms?"

"It's not that I want to give them good terms, but if you don't bleed, the mining company is dead." Zhang Taotao frowned slightly and said, "Old Li won't easily budge on this matter! The investigation team is still stationed at Baolong Mining!"

"That's true, but I'm afraid the board of directors won't approve it."

"That's not my problem. If they agree, I'll continue to negotiate with the other party. If they don't agree, then find someone else more capable." Zhang Taotao was very firm in her opinion: "This matter is actually a wake-up call. The Baolong Group's development within District One has been too smooth, to the point that it has lost its sense of awe in Dragon City. Such a large pie of profits in the mining industry, yet they've always been thinking of swallowing it all, how can you make that happen?! Actually, even without the mine disaster, I foresaw that there would be problems with the mining industry. Project approval is one thing, but formal operation, starting to make money, that's another matter! Some people will be envious."

The secretary nodded slowly, saying nothing more.

"You should go back and rest early too." Zhang Taotao walked to the underground parking lot and glanced at her watch, "You need to be at the company by 7:30 tomorrow morning."

"Understood!"

"That's all!"

With that, Zhang Taotao pulled open the car door and sat in the back seat.

Along the way, Zhang Taotao had no time to admire the beautiful night scenery of Dragon City. She began removing her light makeup in the car.

Being a strong person is not easy, and a strong woman wanting to gain a foothold in the business world is even more difficult. Zhang Taotao has come this far, not by selling her body, nor by social skills, but by solid work ethic and business acumen.

She sleeps and rests around 1 a.m. every day, and gets up at 6 a.m. sharp the next day, almost without fail.

This high-intensity work has cost Zhang Taotao a lot of personal time. She even removes her makeup in the car on her way home from work.

...

About half an hour later, Zhang Taotao returned to her high-end apartment rented along the coast in the Longkou District. Because it was night, the driver, as usual, escorted her upstairs.

At the door of her home, the driver politely bowed and said, "I'll be going now, President Zhang!"

"Okay, drive safely!" Zhang Taotao nodded with a smile.

The driver responded, turned around, and left in the elevator.

Zhang Taotao walked to her door and entered a string of numbers on the keypad lock, but found that the door didn't respond.

"Beep beep...!"

Zhang Taotao paused for a moment and re-entered the password, but the door still didn't open.

Broken?

Zhang Taotao took out her phone with some annoyance and turned to walk towards the elevator. Not wanting to waste her rest time, she was going to call the driver to wait for her and take her to a hotel, and then have someone come and fix the door lock tomorrow.

"Beep beep...!"

Zhang Taotao pressed the number on her phone as she walked.

"Bang!"

Just as Zhang Taotao passed the fire escape, the iron door suddenly made a noise.

Zhang Taotao turned her head and saw a figure standing inside the door, suddenly grabbing her by the collar.

"You...!"

Zhang Taotao was about to shout, but she was dragged into the stairwell.

"Bang!"

The door closed, as if nothing had happened.