"Today is a good day; all my wishes will come true!"
Adrian arrived at the iPartment complex humming an off-key, dark little tune under his breath. The profound, lingering fury from the previous night had completely evaporated. Last night's high-stakes negotiation with his "grandfather" had not only solidified his rewritten lineage but had safely handed him the ultimate political shield in Shanghai.
He had run a thorough check on his new proxy before heading out. It turned out that Xu Guangxi was not just a mere chief secretary; he was the newly appointed Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission and the Executive Vice Mayor of Shanghai. In the grand, unyielding hierarchy of the municipality, he was the literal third-ranking sovereign of the city.
Given his grandfather's status as a supreme, retired titan who retained absolute, quiet leverage within the Forbidden City, commanding a subordinate of this caliber was entirely logical.
In a metropolis like Shanghai, the top two administrative leaders were typically being groomed for central promotion to the highest echelons of the state, meaning they rarely meddled in the gritty, day-to-day enforcement of municipal affairs. The third-ranking leader, however, was the iron fist—the one who actually managed the courts, commanded the police precincts, and got things done.
Yesterday, Adrian had been tightly constrained by the legal parameters of a hyper-surveillance society. Today? As long as he didn't casually start executing civilians in broad daylight, he could walk sideways through the entire metropolis with an absolute, untouchable backer shield.
Furthermore, he had immediately weaponized his new status. Early that morning, he had marched into a major state bank and effortlessly mortgaged all eighteen of his luxury properties, securing a staggering fifty million yuan in cold, liquid cash. He had immediately poured the entire sum into the high-stakes futures market, initiating a massive, aggressive short-squeeze based on his flawless memory of the 2012 global commodity shifts.
Yesterday, he wouldn't have dared to execute such a blatant, hyper-profitable move. If a random, disconnected civilian's trades miraculously skyrocketed tenfold within a matter of days, the sudden, unexplainable wealth would immediately trigger automated red flags. Redundant government departments and corporate financial vultures would descend upon him to "talk," and without a terrifying backer, he would be forced to surrender his profits to avoid a quiet execution. But today, with Secretary Xu's shadow looming over his bank accounts, the regulatory hawks wouldn't even dare to print out his transaction logs.
"Landlord! You seem to be in a spectacularly good mood today!"
The moment Adrian stepped into the downstairs bar, Zeng Xiaoxian greeted him with a wide, sycophantic smile from the central leather booth where the usual suspects were gathered.
"Yes, Teacher Zeng. The weather is beautiful, and my outlook on life has never been better," Adrian smiled smoothly, nodding at the group.
'The chessboard has completely shifted,' he mused darkly. With Secretary Xu backing his name, breaking the disloyal, materialistic gold-diggers from Tiny Times—Lin Xiao and Nan Xiang—was no longer a strategic puzzle. He could literally drive a convoy of luxury sedans to their university campus, crush their petty resistance with capital, and drag them back to his villa as kept livestock. Similarly, the working-class targets of Ode to Joy were effectively pre-selected meat waiting for the slaughter.
His only remaining, highly complex puzzles were the eccentric women of the iPartment complex.
Whether it was the fiercely violent Hu Yifei, the wealthy runaway heiress Lin Wanyu, or the terrifyingly intelligent prodigy Zhuge Dali, none of them could be broken using standard, brute-force extortion.
Hu Yifei's martial arts prowess was a physical anomaly. Adrian knew with absolute certainty that if he attempted to use raw physical violence to collar her, the savage tomboy would genuinely fight to the death and attempt to castrate him before she succumbed.
Lin Wanyu was the direct daughter of the multi-billion-dollar Lin Financial Banking Dynasty—a massive American institutional powerhouse. No matter how much domestic political leverage Adrian's grandfather possessed, the state couldn't legally seize an international banking heiress's assets to force her into a harem.
As for the genius Zhuge Dali? He would have to wait until she officially materialized in the timeline before he could meticulously dissect her psychological vulnerabilities.
Therefore, Adrian had decided that his primary operational focus would remain centered on the iPartment terrain. To establish absolute, constant proximity to his prey, he had initiated a rapid corporate acquisition early that morning.
"Landlord, what incredible fortune came your way? Come on, share the joy so we can all celebrate!" Lu Ziqiao laughed. He slid smoothly across the sofa, slapping a heavy, overly familiar hand onto Adrian's shoulder.
The playboy was an absolute chameleon, possessing an outgoing, silver-tongued charm that allowed him to instantly embed himself into anyone's good graces.
"I have encountered several joyful developments today, Ziqiao," Adrian said smoothly, a cold smile settling on his lips as he subtly twisted his shoulder, effortlessly shedding the playboy's grip with a brief flare of martial precision. "The first being that... as of nine o'clock this morning, this entire bar officially belongs to me."
He had paid the cornered programmer Huang Baoqiang a visit. With the recorded confession of a five-million-yuan corporate fraud burning a hole in Adrian's pocket, the terrified nerd had happily signed over the entire 1.5-million-yuan establishment for a single, insulting yuan just to escape a life sentence.
"Wait... Landlord, you bought the entire bar outright?!" Ziqiao's eyes went wide, his grifter instincts instantly tuning in. "That rustic code monkey Huang Baoqiang actually agreed to liquidate it?!"
"Every man has his price, Ziqiao. When the leverage is correct, they always sign," Adrian shrugged carelessly.
"Ha! That is the absolute, beautiful truth!" Zeng Xiaoxian and the others nodded in profound agreement, entirely oblivious to the dark undercurrents of the transaction. To them, it was just a standard real estate flex by a billionaire heir.
"By the way, Boss... now that you are the absolute king of this establishment," Ziqiao's eyes darted around, a sleazy, sycophantic grin stretching across his face as he leaned in. "Does that mean I can finally put my drinks on a permanent house tab?"
"Of course, Ziqiao. In fact, I will personally instruct Joey the bartender to open a VIP credit account under your name. Every single bottle of alcohol you consume or order will be directly charged to that ledger," Adrian smiled warmly, readily agreeing without a hint of hesitation.
"Landlord, you are a literal saint! A god among men! Let me toast to your absolute prosperity!" Ziqiao erupted in pure joy. He snatched a premium, expensive bottle of imported liquor from the nearest counter and downed a massive gulp, his mind already calculating how many naive college girls he could seduce using a blank check at the VIP bar.
"Mr. Li, aren't you even mildly concerned that letting a parasitic leech like Lu Ziqiao run up a tab will drive your new business into immediate bankruptcy?"
Sitting across the booth, Hu Yifei crossed her athletic legs, offering Adrian a sharp, genuinely concerned look. Every single resident of the building knew that Lu Ziqiao was a professional grifter whose financial philosophy was to borrow constantly and never repay a single cent. She thought the handsome landlord was a decent, sophisticated man, and she hated watching him get played like a fool by a low-tier scammer.
"Yifei, how can you wound my reputation like that in front of the boss?" Ziqiao gashed, dramatically flicking his bangs with an expression of wounded honor. "I am a well-known, highly respected figure in the Shanghai night scene! They call me the loyal and trustworthy Lu Xiaobu! When have I ever failed to settle a legitimate account?"
"It is perfectly fine, Miss Hu," Adrian smiled softly, raising his glass to toast the playboy. "I possess absolute faith in Ziqiao's... unique character. Besides, how much capital can a single man truly burn through on drinks? It isn't as if he has the resources to throw massive, high-end VIP parties every single night of the week."
"Exactly, Boss! You are a true man of vision! A literal soulmate!" Ziqiao nodded frantically, raise his bottle to clink against Adrian's glass.
'Drink up, you pathetic parasite,' Adrian sneered in the icy depths of his mind, his eyes fixed on the playboy's joyous face. 'Run that tab up into the hundreds of thousands. Throw your lavish parties. Seduce your cheap women on my coin. The higher that debt climbs, the tighter the legal noose fits around your neck. When the bill comes due and you cannot pay, your beautiful roommate Chen Meijia will have to beg on her knees to save you from a labor camp.'
"Whatever. I was just trying to look out for your wallet," Yifei sighed, rolling her eyes and leaning back against the cushions. "Don't come crying to me when the grifter bleeds your accounts dry."
She had given her mature, adult warning. If the billionaire wanted to be a naive philanthropist, it wasn't her job to mother him.
"By the way," Adrian noted, glancing around the semi-empty booth to pivot the conversation. "It feels as though a few members of your lively circle are missing today."
"Ugh, don't even ask," Yifei groaned, a wry, exhausted smile crossing her face. "There is some catastrophic drama going on with the cast of Tang Youyou's latest indie film production. Guan Gu sprinted off to the set to play the protective boyfriend and investigate. As for Chen Meijia? The idiot is currently locked in her room, frantically screaming at her laptop while trying to find a basic data-entry job online before she starves."
Yifei massaged her temples, looking profoundly embarrassed. "Honestly, the sheer level of financial illiteracy in that girl's head is a daily stain on my sanity."
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