WMSR — QT Chapter 85

Chapter 85: The Caged White Moonlight

If that mysterious talent could whip a messy startup like Xinri Company into such pristine shape, bringing them into their own organizations would undoubtedly elevate their enterprises to entirely new heights.

Yet at this moment, not a single person harboring such ambition could ever conceive that the very target they were exhausting every brain cell to hunt down was none other than the low-profile asset owner they had dismissed from the start—Bai Ziqian.

However, just because those outsiders were blind to the truth didn't mean everyone was equally clueless. Within the executive suites of the Baixu Group, Xu Jiangzhe stared down at the market intelligence report handed to his desk, reviewing the stellar corporate milestones forged by Xinri Company in such a brief window, and couldn't help drifting into a soft, dazed murmur: "Is it you, Ziqian?"

Having shared twelve years of intimate, daily proximity, Xu Jiangzhe comprehended that individual far better than anyone else alive. While his father harbored the ignorant delusion that simply severing Bai Yichen's access to formal educational materials would degrade a human mind into uselessness, Xu Jiangzhe knew with absolute clarity just how terrifyingly brilliant his Ziqian truly was.

Thus, while the rest of the business world buzzed with endless speculation over Xinri Company's miraculous trajectory, his thoughts instantly flew straight to the person he cherished above all else.

Although it sounded virtually impossible on paper, he possessed an uncanny, instinctual conviction that the mastermind pulling the strings and orchestrating a corporate empire with a flick of his wrist was indeed Bai Ziqian.

Just like those vultures itching to carve off a slice of Ziqian's newly reclaimed wealth, he too had mounted an effort to sabotage and block Xinri Company right at its inception. Unsurprisingly, however, he had failed completely.

Yet despite that tactical defeat, zero anger flared within him. After all, unlike his father, he harbored zero predatory designs on Ziqian's fortune. His defeat triggered no bitterness; the sole motivation prompting his interference in the first place had simply been a desperate, selfish urge to drive Ziqian back into his embrace.

Compared to his absolute indifference toward those material assets, the reality that a fully fledged Ziqian had spread his wings—just as he had once feared—and would never return to his side inflicted an infinitely sharper, more agonizing torture.

What cut even deeper into his soul was the agonizing passage of time: months had bled into the calendar—several whole months—since that single, brief encounter in the courtroom, and he had not laid eyes on Ziqian a single time since.

Even during the grueling weeks required to finalize the formal asset transfers, Ziqian had never once graced the proceedings with his physical presence, opting instead to dispatch a legal proxy to handle all interactions. No matter how many procedural roadblocks Xu Jiangzhe fabricated or how many technicalities he leveraged to delay the timeline, Ziqian refused to show up, choosing instead to let his proxy navigate the absurdly tangled bureaucracy, patiently enduring a prolonged timeline just to reclaim what was his.

Ziqian refused to see him.

Nothing tore at his heart with quite as much devastating, suffocating agony as realizing that absolute truth.

Suppressing the heavy, dull ache throbbing in his chest—a pain derived from sources he couldn't even fully articulate—Xu Jiangzhe sat in a daze for a long while before finally organizing his paperwork to head out toward the detention facility. (Read this novel on https://donttelmewhattodo.blogspot.com/ for free.) Today was his scheduled prison visitation day. While Xu Jiangzhe was fully capable of steering the helm of the Baixu Group independently, he was still relatively young. Consequently, even though Xu Weihai was stripped of direct operational control behind bars, he still insisted on periodically cross-examining his son regarding corporate progress to prevent catastrophic blunders. 

Xu Jiangzhe had never voiced any objections to this arrangement, routinely compiling his operational summaries to present to his father during visitation hours—and today was that day.

Inside the visitation room, Xu Jiangzhe systematically briefed Xu Weihai on the Baixu Group's recent operational status as usual. Listening intently on the other side of the glass, Xu Weihai nodded along, a faint flicker of paternal pride crossing his weathered features. As expected, his son remained exceptional.

Once Xu Jiangzhe finished running through the corporate briefing, the remaining time would normally be spent on brief familial pleasantries before the visitation window expired. Today, however, a sudden thought struck Xu Weihai, prompting him to probe: "So, how has that Bai Ziqian been faring lately?"

Xu Weihai's query was naturally dripping with malice. Ginger is always spicier when aged; according to his seasoned calculations, Bai Ziqian's circumstances should have taken a disastrous turn for the worse by now.

Hearing his father's question, Xu Jiangzhe paused for a brief beat before laying out the unvarnished reality in a flat, calm register.

Yet upon absorbing the truth, Xu Weihai erupted in instant, violent agitation, practically shrieking through the receiver: "That's impossible!"

Xu Weihai's explosive outburst immediately drew the sharp attention of nearby prison guards. Catching their stern, warning glares, Xu Weihai instinctively sat back down, forcing his volatile emotions into submission. Likely because Xu Weihai had maintained a clean behavioral record during his incarceration, combined with his advanced age, the guard eventually retreated to his post, albeit keeping a far tighter watch on him.

Faced with his father's forced composure, Xu Jiangzhe stated in a quiet, unshakeable tone: "Everything I said is the absolute truth."

Pausing briefly, Xu Jiangzhe murmured under his breath: "Ziqian... has always been a genius."

Though Xu Jiangzhe's voice was barely a whisper, it carried clearly through the intercom into Xu Weihai's ear. His entire posture withered instantly into deflated shock. Yes... that boy had been a prodigy since childhood. He had known it all along—otherwise, why on earth would he have expended so much energy, through fair means and foul, to keep him perpetually suppressed and guarded against?

At this moment, a utterly crushed Xu Weihai—looking as though he had aged another two years in a single instant—would never comprehend that Bai Yichen's seamless mastery over those complex assets wasn't merely the result of innate genius. It was because, in a previous lifetime, he had spent many long years personally managing a massive family enterprise several times larger than the Baixu Group.

Bai Jinchuan was a self-made entrepreneur who possessed an exceptionally grand strategic vision. The scope of the Bai family's corporate empire in that previous world spanned both domestic and international markets—a global reach far beyond anything the Baixu Group, still struggling within its tiny domestic puddle, could ever hope to rival.

Xu Weihai might have been a successful businessman who relentlessly pounced on every scrap of profit, but in terms of both horizon and strategic scale, he paled in comparison to Bai Jinchuan.

Pitting a mercenary like Xu Weihai against a seasoned heir whom Bai Jinchuan had devotedly mentored, cultivated, and taken immense pride in—the outcome of such a clash was foregone from the start.

Once Xinri Company locked onto a stable, prosperous track, Bai Yichen retreated even deeper behind the scenes. Yet despite operating behind a curtain of privacy, his strategic execution never slowed for a single second. Under his guidance, Xinri Company continued its relentless, rapid expansion—refining departmental specializations, recruiting and training top-tier talent, and rapidly expanding its business footprint with a trajectory that was both rock-solid and wildly prosperous.

In stark contrast to Xinri Company's booming trajectory, life on the other side for the Baixu Group was turning increasingly bleak. The core issue didn't stem from any lack of capability on Xu Jiangzhe's part; rather, the earlier scandal and court trial had erupted into a nationwide sensation, inflicting catastrophic damage on their corporate brand. A massive cohort of netizens even launched a semi-humorous, semi-serious boycott movement targeting all Baixu Group products. While not every consumer joined the crusade, even a partial drop in market share proved to be a fatal, crushing blow for a business of the Baixu Group's scale.