He won 900 million in the lottery.

Chapter 336 Old Friend

Ya Hong Group is on the right track.

The top-tier hospital has already begun operations.

The Three Kingdoms Entertainment City has already officially opened for business.

You never know who will call me.

Chen Sheng.

This name hasn't appeared in my field of vision for a long time.

Since he and his wife divorced, we have basically lost contact with each other.

"I heard you're back. How about we meet up and have a meal together?"

I readily agreed.

A Sichuan restaurant that looks fairly decent.

After many years, Chen Sheng seems to be doing quite well now, with two bottles of crystal swords on the table.

"Mr. Chen!"

"President Shen!"

We smiled at each other, still so in sync.

When I first started out in the underworld, the first lesson I learned was how to lift people up.

When you're out and about, calling each other by our first names is considered beneath you. Whether it's business or social networking, for convenience, people have started addressing each other as "General Manager".

Later, I found that it was very suitable for this society.

When someone helps another person up, they will always be looked up to.

So, when your friend really gets to that point, or when there's a third party involved.

If he is a leader, address him by his title.

If they are friends, address them with their honorific titles.

This is called giving people face.

Don't feel embarrassed or like you're being a sycophant; this is called basic social skills.

He is your friend.

But your friend is a leader, or perhaps a general manager, in front of others.

Do you name him by name in front of others?

Whom do you look down on?

Chen Sheng ordered four dishes, which was quite a feast for two people.

"You're quite famous in Liancheng now."

"Hehe, how come I didn't know? Actually, I just came back from out of town myself."

"How have you been these past few years?"

"good."

When old friends meet, it's natural to catch up.

I asked, very curiously, "Li Qing, have you two made up?"

Chen Sheng took a swig of his drink and said in a low voice, "No, she blocked me."

"Now that you're doing well, haven't you thought about going back to her?"

"Let it be."

Half a jin of wine.

"Tianyi, do you know that you have a very bad reputation in Liancheng?"

"What do you mean?"

Chen Sheng raised his glass and clinked it against mine hard: "Everyone says you rose to power by clinging to a female leader and profiting from the suffering of the people of Liancheng."

My eyes darted around.

"That's about right, but Ya Hong Group has also given them a good life."

Chen Sheng shook his head: "Those who are cursing you are not ordinary people, but business people."

"That's strange. Ya Hong doesn't seem to be doing any business that steals other people's jobs anymore, does she?"

"No now, but in the past. Although you returned the money to HG Municipality and the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, it dragged on for so many years that many small companies and construction teams went completely out of business. Some got divorced, some became unregistered residents, and some went bankrupt."

I remained silent; I had to admit it.

Although it was a battle of wits with Chen Hangtian at the time, I cannot escape responsibility for the fact that innocent people were harmed.

"When you invest, you should consider the consequences. I make money, establish the Ya Hong Group and the Ya Hong Foundation, and use it for poverty alleviation and to sponsor university students. What contribution do they make to society?"

At this moment, you can call me a sophist or say I've gained some enlightenment.

This statement is a fact that I have come to after careful consideration.

Chen Sheng's words finally made me understand one thing: why Long Ping'an and the others attended my wedding.

Because the Shen family was established, they followed the same path they had taken.

There is no right or wrong in this market.

There are only successes and failures.

What would be the consequences if the integrated livelihood project in Nan Province failed?

If Dong Ling loses the attention of his superiors, he may never be able to leave the mountains of Fengshan Town, let alone become a full-fledged department head.

Professor Cheng may be marginalized.

The Wen family has lost its last chance to catch its breath.

Yu Qingbin was sidelined.

Sister Tong lost her promotion opportunity due to economic problems and a wrong political orientation.

Chen Ke, Wen Yusheng, and Zhou Fan may even be taken away for questioning, thus ending their political careers.

The price I will pay for my failure is too high.

It even created a feeling that ordinary people's failures in engineering investments—even if they go bankrupt, in debt, and are blacklisted—are still insignificant compared to my failures.

Chen Sheng stared at me blankly, then, as if he were seeing me for the first time, asked again, "I have a project that can make me money, but it might hurt the last few friends I have. Can you help me?"

"sure."

I nodded without hesitation.

"Why? Those people are your friends too."

"Because you asked me, and they didn't."

Chen Sheng raised his glass: "This is the last one, bottoms up!"

Chen Sheng Company.

It's more like a studio than a company.

The tea was still of poor quality, as always.

It was only at that moment that I realized he hadn't turned his life around, but had instead endured so many more years of torment.

The wine was borrowed.

Finding me must have been a desperate act of desperation.

A last resort.

I picked up the teacup and took a sniff; the aroma was infused with a technologically advanced fragrance.

"I thought you'd turned your life around?"

"It's not that easy. We've worked on several projects, but either the leadership wasn't supportive, or the funding wasn't sufficient, so they all died before they even started, wasting so many years of our lives."

He continued to do the same thing as always.

"A broker without connections won't make any money."

"I have connections."

All these years later, it's still the same people as Director Zhang.

Some have already retired.

They were still freeloading off Chen Sheng.

I wanted to share some resources with you, Chen Sheng, but he has already spoken to me and chosen his own path.

"Tell me, since you called me, is there a new project that could turn things around?"

"I know a leader who runs a supply and marketing cooperative; it's a national-level project."

Oh no, I knew it was a trap from the very first sentence.

I don't know if Chen Sheng was scammed, but if this leader says it's a national-level project, then it's definitely a scam.

Projects like Gongshan Elderly Care and the integrated livelihood project in southern provinces are projects that even officials at the bureau level would be vying for, so how come ordinary people get to do them?

However, I still listened patiently to Chen Sheng's explanation.

"This leader collaborated with provincial leaders to establish a supply and marketing cooperative company, with government involvement. They nationalized all community group buying and rural supermarkets, branded them as supply and marketing cooperatives, and operated some products themselves while supplying others."

"What are you planning to do?"

"The provincial-level agency was taken by the leadership, and I want to get the city-level agency."

"How do I make money?"

"There are many areas where operations can be carried out, such as the supply and marketing cooperative's own supply chain and funds. The funds pool for the supply and marketing cooperative's own products are with the agents, and there is a lot of room for manipulation in this process."

"But this sounds like a lie."

I picked up the teacup several times, but I still couldn't drink the tea.

Chen Sheng squinted, held his teacup, and took a sip as if enjoying himself.

"I know this tea is cheap and of poor quality, and everyone who comes here can tell, but people who come here are here to make money. Who cares about the tea?"