Chapter 189 - Built On Dead Bodies

"What else did they say?" asked Liu Lifen when Wang Yimin's presentation ended. It was a wonderful presentation. Everyone's eyes were glued to the screen. The cousins really sold with the move of selling their clothes for a good cause. She gripped her daughter. "What else do they have in store?"

"Ow," Liu Meilien whispered quietly as she pried her wrist from her mother's grasp. Red lines immediately appeared on her snow white skin. "Why do you have to know? It's not like you'd be able to make a change about it. Even Da Xia is panicking over there."

Liu Lifen's eyes shifted to Da Xia and her mother. Their heads were huddled together, probably conjuring up a plan on how to make everything alright for their side.

"Did they say anything else to you?"

Liu Meilien assessed her mother's face. If she told her that she was offerred to be their ambassadress, her mother might stop her from participating. "They said nothing else. Just that I have to keep my mouth shut until they make the announcement."

Liu Lifen leaned against her seat, thinking on which side she should go to. She has to find a way to make Feng Xuan's light burn just a little less brighter.

**

"How did your meeting go?" Feng Xuan asked Qing Chen as she bit into a snack made out of zucchini and spinach.

"It's fine," he answered. "They wish to proceed with it."

"Do you need to go back there?"

"On the breaking ground ceremony. You'll come with me, then?"

Feng Xuan took cheese ball and popped it in Qing Chen's mouth. "Of course. I'll be there with you if I am not so busy."

Qing Chen has his arm around her and he caressed her bare shoulder. "I am really proud with what you're accomplishing right now."

"As you should be," she smiled. "There's more to come."

"Just how much more?"

She patted his cheek. "You'll see."

"What about Gretel's?"

"Father already named me the owner of his spare land. They will start building soon."

Feng Xuan had been meeting with her Father a lot in the past few days and she could tell he was also excited with her upcoming projects. 

"I didn't think you'd be someone interested with this," her father chuckled one afternoon. "I thought you would just be content with your cake shops and now you're also building a fashion brand. Do you even sleep?"

"I sleep just as much soundly as you do, Father," she said. "How do you even run your own empire?"

"I am mainly on developing, child. Constructions, renovations, real estate, and the like. It's one whole field, but you, it's seems like you want to be on all the boats."

She grinned. "What's stopping me anyway?"

"I just have to warn you that it can take a lot out on you. You have to have equal attention and desire to succeed in all fields. You have money, true. But you keep on investing in the wrong things and let it crash and burn? The day will come that you'll end up bankrupt."

"What business advice you can give me?"

"If you're pertaining to what you're doing, the best thing you can do is clear the way to success. No matter what it takes."

"You mean, dispose everyone who is a hurdle?"

Her father chuckled. "Your thoughts. Not mine."

Feng Xuan knew that the Qings rose to business over the last few decades and it had not been the cleanest way. This empire was built on dead bodies. They started as a mafia organization and started to invest in legal businesses and then took over the whole city. When they went up, they took Feng Lizhao with them.

Her father was not originally a member of Enigma. When he was starting in the real estate business, his boss was working for the then mafia lord—Qing Chen's grandfather. When her father's boss died in a terrible accident, it was Feng Lizhao who had taken over the business and got really close with the Qings. 

Real estate had been a great mafia business back then. They broke things inside houses for insurances or set some houses on fire. Then winning bids and overcharging the government for the projects. When Qing Zihao assumed position after his father's passing, he had made Feng Lizhao his co-head in the mafia. They made so much money together.

Another thing in Feng Xuan's to-do list was Enigma. Surely, after all these, she would find a way to look into it and support Qing Chen in his reform in the organization. 

But for now she was damn hungry.

"I'll go get another plate," she said to Qing Chen and stood up. She took bacon-wrapped chestnuts, mozzarella sticks, and was reaching for the shrimp bites when Da Xia appeared in front of her. "Hello there."

"Hello, evil spawn."

Feng Xuan laughed. "Oh, come on. I'm not that bad… yet."

"What the hell are you thinking opening up your own fashion brand?"

Da Xia looked pissed and Feng Xuan was pleased. "Nobody said I can't. And even if they did, I would still start it anyway." Feng Xuan took a handful of the one labeled 'oven friend pickles'. "You can't stay in this city, Da Xia."

"We'll see."

"We don't have to see." She straightened up. "If you want to keep your pride and confidence in your pocket, you better leave now before your brand flops here and you'll have a harder time looking for investors overseas."

Da Xia took a step towards her. "Who said it's going to flop?"

Feng Xuan flashed her pearly whites. "I did." 

Da Xia eyebrows twitched. "You don't know who you're challenging here, Feng Xuan."

Feng Xuan scoffed. "You're the one who doesn't know who you're up against."

"Oh really? Let's see about that!"

She tapped Da Xia's shoulder as she passed. "Pack your bags and return to Europe. You won't be able to bring down Yang."