From this car, Zhou Ziwei could tell just how wealthy Wu Di was. You have to understand, Zhou Ziwei had never seen such a luxurious RV before, let alone in a county-level city like this, or even in a major economically developed city like Zhongdu.
Clearly, if Wu Di had only run a legitimate business, even if he worked for three more lifetimes, he probably wouldn't have earned this much money. And this place borders Myanmar and isn't far from the infamous Golden Triangle, the source of drugs. So Zhou Ziwei easily connected Wu Di's current wealth and status with that white powder that could make people feel like they were in heaven.
If Wu Di was just someone who made a living through shady dealings, Zhou Ziwei wouldn't care too much. As long as he didn't get involved himself and only had some minor dealings with Wu Di, he figured that even if Wu Di's misdeeds were exposed one day, it wouldn't implicate Zhou Ziwei.
But if Wu Di really did make his fortune through drug smuggling... then Zhou Ziwei would never want to have any contact with such a person again.
Firstly, it's because doing this kind of business is too dangerous; if something goes wrong, it will inevitably lead to utter ruin.
Zhou Ziwei didn't want to get tainted by associating with such people, something that would be impossible to clear his name from later.
In addition, and most importantly, Zhou Ziwei himself deeply hated those drug dealers.
If you're so capable, go to that island nation and do this kind of business. Then poison all those bastards into becoming the sick men of East Asia. That would be real skill. What kind of ability is it to just harm your own compatriots here?
Zhou Ziwei didn't know much about Wu Di, and originally he hadn't thought much about it, but now that he saw this luxurious RV, he couldn't help but consider this possibility.
So Zhou Ziwei ignored the tall, thin driver and immediately took out his phone to call Wu Di. When he was upstairs, Zhou Ziwei not only left his phone number with Wu Di, but also saved Wu Di's private number in his phone in case he needed to ask this local bigwig for help in case something came up.
"Mr. Zhou... I'm so glad you called me so quickly... How is it? Are you satisfied with the car I gave you?"
Wu Di's voice on the phone was cheerful and smooth, as if he were chatting with an old friend. No one would have guessed that just moments before, he was fighting Zhou Ziwei to the death, which shows how strong his mental fortitude is.
Zhou Ziwei completely ignored the other party's question and went straight to the point: "I want to know, what kind of business did you start with? And what kind of business do you mainly run now to support your people... I want to hear the truth from you. Don't try to evade me, otherwise if I find out later that you've been lying to me... Hmph..."
Zhou Ziwei didn't utter any specific threats, but that one soft snort was enough to make Wu Di tremble with fear.
"Since Mr. Zhou has asked, I, Wu, would certainly not dare to conceal anything..."
Wu Di chuckled bitterly on the phone and said, "To be honest, I started out making my fortune mainly by smuggling jadeite rough. Although jadeite rough is rare in Myanmar, it's far less valuable than here, especially in some remote and impoverished areas. The chances of finding green jadeite rough there are extremely slim, so the stones are cheap. Sometimes, you can even exchange a bag of rice for a sack of rough of the same volume. Even if you cut open a rough from such a poor mine and it's worth 10,000 yuan, you might not find a single trace of green. But as long as it's genuine jadeite, you can sell it for a decent price here. Even if knowledgeable people don't buy it, you can bring a truckload of it back to the jade market and dump it there for tourists to buy and cut. You can make at least a hundred or two hundred yuan on a fist-sized stone."
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 133: I'm Carrying Your Child
Zhou Ziwei was quite inspired when he heard Wu Di talk about how he made his fortune. He thought that the jadeite rough stones in Tengchong were after all the leftovers. He would have the opportunity to go to the jadeite mines in Myanmar to take a look. He thought that there would be far more rough stones that could produce good jadeite there. With his soul power that could see through everything, he could just go there and make money as easily as picking it up!
However, Zhou Ziwei also knew that times had changed. When Wu Di first made his fortune, he could easily smuggle himself to Myanmar and exchange a few bags of rice for sacks of jadeite rough. But now, the jadeite mines in Myanmar are gradually being depleted, and with the government's forced intervention, it is probably no longer possible to smuggle rough in this way!
Wu Di then went on to talk about how he used to travel back and forth between China and Myanmar, starting by carrying sacks of raw jadeite and later smuggling truckloads of jadeite.
The jadeite rough stones that were brought back had very little chance of being mined into jadeite. They were sold on the jade market for half a year, but not even a tiny bit of jadeite was ever mined. As a result, the old tourists who had visited a few times became indignant and started spreading rumors that Wu Di was a fraud. They said that what he was selling was not jadeite rough stones at all, but just a bunch of broken stones dug out of the nearby mountains.
Although the troublemaking tourist was quickly given a good beating by Wu Di, and was beaten so badly that he dared not talk nonsense again, the news had already spread, and even those who were also doing small business on Jade Street were spreading these rumors everywhere.
After all, most people have a bit of resentment towards the rich. Wu Di has made a lot of money in the past six months, which makes these people very envious. Naturally, they can't help but secretly try to trip him up.
Over time, fewer and fewer people frequented Wu Di's stall.
In a moment of desperation, Wu Di took out all the more than two million yuan he had earned in the past six months and gambled on a piece of jadeite rough that looked very similar to his poor mine jadeite rough at first glance.
After betting on this piece of jade, Wu Di did not cut it immediately. Instead, he took it home, prepared some stone powder, and covered up the green areas on the raw stone. The next day, he threw it into his pile of low-grade jadeite. Then, taking advantage of a tour group coming by, he had one of his men, a errand boy who had never been seen on the street before, act as a shill... He spent two hundred yuan to buy the stone and cut it open on the spot.
As a result, although the semi-finished jadeite was cut into the rough stone, its quality was not very good and its size was not large. In the end, it was only sold for 1.8 million, which resulted in Wu Di losing more than 600,000.
However, the scene of the jade being unearthed on the spot shocked everyone present. A broken stone bought for two hundred yuan had suddenly become worth one million eight hundred thousand yuan, which made the small vendors who also squatted on the jade street every day, making a living by selling some "artificial handicrafts" envious.
As a result, the batch of more than two thousand low-quality raw stones that Wu Di had just brought in sold out in less than half a day. Moreover, because there were too many buyers, Wu Di simply raised the price. Originally, these stones were sold by the piece, but later he simply brought in a scale and started selling them by the kilogram.
Previously, the highest price he had ever paid for a stone was 500 yuan, but on this day, he sold the heaviest stone for a full 8,000 yuan.
So although he lost over 600,000 yuan gambling on stones, he made back all of that money from this batch of goods, and even made a profit.
From then on, Wu Di's business took off and he quickly amassed a large sum of money.
At this time, the Burmese government began to intensify its crackdown on mineral smuggling. Seeing that the situation was not good, Wu Di immediately stopped his smuggling operations and instead invested heavily in various parts of the Yunnan border region, building up the entertainment industry.
However, Wu Di's entertainment business is not just about eating, drinking and having fun. In fact, the so-called fitness center that Zhou Ziwei went to today is Wu Di's flagship business in the entertainment industry.
Of course... this is just a front for something else. The fitness center is just a facade. What they're really operating inside is a game called "Murder Game," designed by Wu Di himself, that has driven all the wealthy people in Southeast Asia crazy.
This is a real murder mystery game, and its format is basically the same as the puzzle game Zhou Ziwei went through today. Each game is played by real people in real scenes. As long as you pay a high game start fee, you can enter this real murder mystery game.
In this murder mystery game, the NPC guardians will not actually kill the challengers, but they will do everything they can to prevent them from succeeding, because if the challenger succeeds, their high reward for guarding the challenge will be completely lost.
Customers participating in the challenge are not allowed to use firearms; even ordinary melee weapons must be used only with weapons provided by the company.
Of course... these weapons cost money. If you only pay the basic game start fee, you can only carry a rusty dagger and a pair of underwear.
In that case, unless someone has truly exceptional skills, entering the game would basically only result in them being constantly defeated.
The weapons here are obviously not priced the same as those in the malls outside. Even the cheapest watermelon knife is priced at two million here! A powerful hand crossbow is priced at a sky-high price of thirty-five million, and it is sold separately with the crossbow bolts, each bolt costing three million eight hundred thousand. Take it or leave it!
Of course... the most attractive thing for those wealthy people, the reason they are willing to spend a lot of money to play this game, is that they can actually kill people here... The NPCs guarding the game have all signed a death waiver before entering the game. If they are unfortunately killed by customers who are trying to pass the level, the company will compensate their families with a large sum of money in the name of an insurance company, enough for their families to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
Because Wu Di offered such an outrageous death compensation, even many healthy people with happy families would be willing to sell their lives, not to mention those who were terminally ill or burdened with debts they could never repay and had nowhere else to turn. Naturally, they all flocked to Wu Di's company willingly to sell themselves.
If you don't accept it, they'll whine and argue with you endlessly.
Therefore, although the NPCs guarding the gates were all like lambs to the slaughter, Wu Di never forced anyone to do this kind of suicide job, and there was never a shortage of volunteers who took the initiative to apply for the job.
Moreover, even if some of the deceased's family members wanted to cause trouble, Wu Di would handle it. They wore masks when they were trying to pass through the checkpoints, and after paying the money, they would leave without having to worry about being punished by law.
These days, many people have so much money that they could never spend it all in several lifetimes, so they keep looking for thrills. Eventually, they've tried almost everything, fun and not fun, and even homosexuality, but they've never tried murder... Now that someone can provide this kind of safe and exciting murder game, there's no need to worry about a lack of customers.
However, wealthy people are generally not in good health. Under normal circumstances, they may not die in the murder mystery game, but they will inevitably be tortured. So, these rich people who are humiliated in the game will inevitably spend a lot of money to buy themselves a set of luxurious equipment in order to get revenge. They will also hire a professional coach to give them a professional training session. In short, they will not be satisfied until they enter the game and kill the gatekeeper.
However, after passing the first level, there is a second level. The second level is twice as difficult and twice as humiliating. Some guys who come looking for a thrill will even get their butts violated by the NPCs guarding the level. Anyway, most of the NPCs guarding the level are just looking to die to get a settlement for their families. They don't care who the person trying to pass the level is. They are going to die sooner or later anyway, so they will torture the person as much as possible before they die!
Those wealthy individuals who were initially only looking for a casual fling and a bit of excitement will inevitably become enraged and purchase even more advanced and expensive equipment, only to seek revenge and be abused again...
As a result, Wu Di naturally amassed a fortune that was endless. Some of the wealthy even went bankrupt from playing this thrilling murder game. This shows just how terrifyingly fast Wu Di's business could amass wealth!
After listening to Wu Di's detailed explanation, Zhou Ziwei remained silent for three minutes, then sighed helplessly, nodded to the tall, thin driver, and pulled Li Yifeng into the spacious RV.
Since Wu Di wasn't a drug dealer, Zhou Ziwei didn't feel as strongly averse to him anymore. Although the ghostly killing game was indeed too cruel, since it was a matter of mutual consent, Zhou Ziwei didn't want to interfere too much.
Even after learning about the exorbitant profits in this industry, Zhou Ziwei was slightly tempted. However, the thought of those who were willing to die for a sum of money to settle down made him feel cold and he lost all interest in such a lucrative business.
A luxurious Mercedes-Benz RV sped along the narrow roads of the county town, immediately attracting the attention of passersby. Some even took out their phones and kept taking pictures of the vehicle.
It's clear that although this car belongs to Wu Di, he probably rarely goes out in it, after all, this car... is just too flashy.
Riding in this car on the street, it's impossible to keep a low profile even if you want to.
Zhou Ziwei had only thought about having a car to make things easier, but he never imagined that the car would be so eye-catching. No matter where it went, it would become the focus of people's attention and discussion, which was not what Zhou Ziwei wanted.
So Zhou Ziwei secretly decided that he absolutely could not keep this car. He would just have the driver take it back... At most, he would ask Wu Di to replace it with a car that was not as flashy.
I doubt that nouveau riche family only has one or two cars!
Li Yifeng, however, paid no attention to this matter. He was lying on the soft bed, a Brazilian cigar in one hand and a glass of French red wine in the other, his eyes fixed on the pornographic photos of beautiful women playing on the car TV... his eyes were filled with lust, and it seemed that he was quite fond of this decadent lifestyle.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Ziwei immediately changed his mind. Since Li Yifeng liked it, he would let him keep it. He would just have Wu Di bring another car later.
Anyway, he really expended a lot of physical and spiritual energy today to subdue Wu Di, so this luxury car... he can just consider it a little interest he got back.
When the RV stopped in front of the hospital gate, the entire hospital was shaken. Doctors, nurses, and patients alike rushed to the gate as if watching a monkey show, pointing and discussing among themselves around the RV.
This caused Zhou Ziwei to remain in the car for quite some time before he finally mustered the courage to open the car door.
At this moment, Yan Jun and Liu Ni, who had been instructed by Liu Haiyang to hide outside the hospital for a while before returning, were also standing at the back of the crowd, watching the luxurious RV.
Liu Ni was so envious her eyes almost popped out, while Yan Jun gritted his teeth in jealousy. They had originally thought they were superior to the people from this county town because they came from a relatively big city, but when they suddenly saw an outrageously luxurious car that had never appeared in Dangyang before, they no longer had any intention of looking down on this legendary little county town.
It seems that the legends of getting rich overnight through gambling on stones are not false... Otherwise, if the stones could actually yield priceless jade, how could such a luxurious RV appear in such a small county?
Meanwhile, Liu Ni kept blinking her flirtatious eyes, already considering whether she should dump Yan Jun right now and find a rich man in this county to marry! Although she really wanted to marry into the Yan family, the more time she spent with Yan Jun, the more she realized how slim that hope was. So, while she still had the chance, it would be better to make another choice as soon as possible.
Hmm... It would be best if the owner of this car was a single aristocrat... In that case, it wouldn't matter if he was a bit old... Well, with my looks and temperament, Liu Ni, it wouldn't matter if this rich man had a wife... I just need to use a little trick to make him happy in bed, and I'm not afraid that old man won't go home and divorce his old hag.
Just as Liu Ni was still dreaming of marrying into a wealthy family and sleeping soundly with money under her pillow every day, the door of the RV slowly opened, and a young man stepped out.
Because his back was to her, Liu Ni couldn't see his face clearly, but just seeing his young back was enough to make her so happy she almost fainted.
"Wow...such a young tycoon...oh my god...I can't take it anymore, he's mine...this time I absolutely have to marry him!"
Liu Ni silently vowed revenge, then shoved Yan Jun away violently. Like a madwoman, she desperately pushed through the crowd blocking her way, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Husband...husband, don't leave me...I'm carrying your child..."
"Damn it, you bitch...you're fucking ruthless!"
Upon seeing Liu Ni's demeanor, Yan Jun immediately guessed what the woman was up to. Although he had long known that she was not clean and was greedy and ungrateful, he didn't care too much. In any case, he was just playing around with her, mainly to fulfill a dream from his student days. Of course, he wouldn't be foolish enough to marry her.
Yan Jun never expected that before he could get tired of the woman and kick her to the curb, she would dump him in public for a man she hadn't even seen clearly.
How shameful... so incredibly shameful! What infuriated Yan Jun the most was that Liu Ni, in order to get close to that man and attract his attention, actually said something so cruel as to claim she was pregnant with his child!
If Yan Jun hadn't been standing with Liu Ni just now, it wouldn't have been so bad. Even if it was embarrassing, it would only have been Liu Ni who lost face. But... just a moment ago, Yan Jun was holding hands with Liu Ni, chatting and laughing together. Many people around could see it clearly, and some were even secretly envying this perfect couple. But now... Liu Ni has turned around and dumped Yan Jun, claiming that she's pregnant with someone else's child. Now, all that's being looked at by Yan Jun are gloating, contemptuous, and pitying glances.
Faced with these strange looks, Yan Jun was both amused and exasperated, and even wished that he was the one who had just shouted that he was pregnant with someone else's child!
Upon hearing that someone was looking for her husband, the unsuspecting onlookers quickly and enthusiastically made way for her, their eyes wide with excitement, eager to see if this was another modern-day version of the story of Chen Shimei and Qin Xianglian.
However, when Liu Ni finally broke through the crowd and arrived behind the young man, a bad premonition suddenly arose.
This wasn't some vague sixth sense; it was because the distance between them had closed, and there were no more people in between, that Liu Ni suddenly realized the man's figure seemed very familiar... and it was a familiarity ingrained in her very being...
After all, compared to men, women find their first love more unforgettable. And it's not just innocent women who care about their first love; in fact, the more unrestrained a woman is, the easier it is for her to forget her first love. Even if she encounters her first love again in reality, she might only respond with sarcasm or anger. But the more she does this, the more it proves that the image of that person has been deeply engraved in her heart and can never be erased.
Although Zhou Ziwei was no longer the first love Liu Ni knew, and his entire demeanor had completely changed, that figure still retained a certain ambiguous familiarity for Liu Ni. She was startled, her feet stopped, and her outstretched hand, which was about to climb onto Zhou Ziwei's arm, froze in mid-air...
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 134 Learned and Talented
Zhou Ziwei had already heard Liu Ni's shouts, and a surge of anger immediately welled up inside him.
He wasn't angry that this woman had insulted him. Anyway, he didn't know many people here, and even if others saw this scene and heard Liu Ni's nonsense, they might have some bad associations, but that had little to do with Zhou Ziwei.
Zhou Ziwei was simply furious at Liu Xiaofei's father. He knew Zhou Ziwei hated that despicable couple, yet he hadn't chased them away and instead let them linger at the hospital entrance to disgust him! It seemed Liu Haiyang didn't take him seriously at all and completely ignored his words!
Zhou Ziwei has his own pride, and he always does what he says. Since he has encountered someone who disgusts him again here, he is unwilling to go upstairs easily this time, unless that self-righteous Liu Haiyang comes to beg him in person, then he will reconsider!
Zhou Ziwei stopped in his tracks as he was about to walk towards the hospital entrance, slowly turned around, and gave a soft groan to Liu Ni, who was standing behind him in disbelief, saying a single word: "Get lost!"
Liu Ni finally saw Zhou Ziwei's familiar face, and immediately staggered back several steps as if struck by lightning, muttering to herself, "No... how could this be... aren't you the Zhou family's good-for-nothing? How could this be... this car... how could you..."
Zhou Ziwei ignored Liu Ni. After all, he was no longer the original Zhou Ziwei. He had absolutely no feelings for this woman. If he had any feelings at all, it would only be disgust.
Even if Liu Ni had a thick skin, she couldn't stand Zhou Ziwei's indifference and ruthlessness any longer. She covered her face in shame and turned to slip through the crowd.
Seeing that Yan Jun was still standing in the same spot, she immediately threw herself into his arms without hesitation, crying, "Brother Jun... that man bullied me... please teach him a lesson... Brother Jun..."
"Fuck you, you filthy bitch!"