Inside the restaurant's private room.
Several people sat around the table.
"Want to have a drink?"
Qin Fen looked at Zhou Xing.
"Forget it, maybe next time."
Zhou Xing declined.
He wasn't an alcoholic; he only drank a little during his leisure time.
When you're young, you still need to take good care of your body.
He couldn't be like in his previous life, where he hadn't made any money, yet his body was broken down by the time he was nearly thirty, worse off than some retired old cadres.
"Alright."
Qin Fen didn't insist.
"What's the point of drinking here? We might as well head to my bar later for an after-party. I'll bring out some of my private collection; I guarantee you'll all be satisfied."
Chang Wenyu said with a smile.
Qin Fen smiled faintly and asked, "Old Chang, are you planning to just stick to that bar of yours forever? No other ideas?"
"I don't want to just rot away at the bar either; I'd like to expand my business."
Chang Wenyu said helplessly, "Unfortunately, there hasn't been an opportunity. Nowadays, all the good chances are snatched up by the people at the top. We're lucky if we can get some scraps."
"That's true."
Qin Fen nodded. "Many of the projects I have in hand aren't doing very well either."
"How is the outlook for the investment industry lately?"
Seeing the two of them discussing business, Zhou Xing asked casually.
Qin Fen turned around. "Are you interested?"
"Yes."
There was no need for Zhou Xing to hide it from them.
Starting an investment company was only a matter of time. Since they were all in Shanghai... it would be impossible to keep it from them.
Coming clean might even help him get some resources and first-hand information from them.
"No way, you're only eighteen, and you're already thinking about starting an investment company?"
Chang Wenyu said with a look of disbelief, "You just spent so much money—do you still have funds? You're not joking with us, are you?"
This was also what Qin Fen wanted to ask.
He had already guessed that Zhou Xing's family was wealthy.
But he hadn't expected them to be this wealthy.
He was only eighteen!
A freshman this year.
It was one thing to throw away nearly fifty million at the auction just now, but he actually had the idea of starting an investment company.
An investment company is definitely not something an ordinary person can manage.
It requires real gold and silver to be thrown in. Without several hundred million in cash, one would never dare mention starting an investment company.
"I still have some funds on hand, and since they're just sitting there, I figured I might as well start an investment company. Plus, the current outlook seems decent; there's no harm in giving it a try and seeing what works."
Zhou Xing raised an eyebrow and took a sip of the apple cider vinegar in his glass.
As soon as he set it down, Tongtong, who was beside him, obediently refilled it for him.
"Old Zhou, give us the bottom line. Exactly how much capital do you have?"
Qin Fen couldn't help but ask at this point.
Zhou Xing's identity was truly too mysterious.
They only knew he had strength, but exactly what level he was at remained unclear.
But from his words and demeanor, one could sense the confidence brought by that capital; the amount of funds he held was definitely not small.
"He's already a China Merchants Bank ultra-high net worth private banking user and even has a Private Secretary. His deposits must be in the hundreds of millions. But looking at how effortlessly Old Zhou handled the auction this afternoon, I'd guess he has about four or five hundred million."
Chang Wenyu looked at Zhou Xing with envy.
Zhou Xing chuckled. "Old Chang is right. It is indeed five hundred million."
Both Chang Wenyu and Qin Fen's expressions froze slightly.
"However... it's in us dollars."
The rest of Zhou Xing's sentence made both of them widen their eyes.
Five hundred million us dollars!
Chang Wenyu and Qin Fen could no longer remain calm.
Not to mention Chang Tong, Liu Feng, and Xie Pan... their assets couldn't compare to Chang Wenyu and Qin Fen's at all. In this circle, they were merely on the level of subordinates.
Chang Wenyu and Qin Fen were already enough for them to look up to.
They never expected that an even more shocking super-boss was hidden right beside them.
"I tried my best to guess, but I didn't expect you to be even more astonishing than I imagined."
Qin Fen took a deep look at Zhou Xing, his gaze complex.
He didn't doubt the truth of Zhou Xing's words.
At this level, there was no longer any need to rely on bragging about family assets to get attention.
They were more concerned with the benefits that an asset background could provide.
They were all Second-generation rich; their family situations would be exposed sooner or later. Just how much real weight they carried, others would surely be able to sense.
Continuing to pretend would be meaningless.
Five hundred million us dollars!
Adding up his family's total assets, the amount of cash they could pull out wasn't even this high.
Although their assets exceeded ten billion, much of it couldn't be liquidated.
A net worth of ten billion isn't very rare in Shanghai.
At least among those Qin Fen knew, there were quite a few.
But someone who could casually pull out five hundred million us dollars in cash—to this day, he had never seen anyone capable of doing that.
Even the son of the richest man Wang Xiaocong couldn't do it.
"Zhou Xing, be honest with me. Does your family run a money-printing factory?"
Chang Wenyu looked shocked. "Even printing money wouldn't be as fast as your family's, right?"
"I can't believe Jiangcheng has a big shot like this and I had no idea. It seems I'm truly ill-informed."
Qin Fen also laughed self-deprecatingly. "Same here."
Zhou Xing's words gave them a huge shock.
"However, the energy industry indeed has many hidden big shots that we know nothing about. For instance, isn't there a young master in the north who inherited his family's naval vessels? He controls a bunch of heavy industries but remains very low-key."
Qin Fen gradually calmed down and then said, "If it weren't for the news, we wouldn't have known at all. Maybe if he came to Shanghai, we would even look down on him."
"Old Zhou, do you have that plan too? To play the pig to eat the tiger, just like in the novels? Waiting for someone like me to come and provoke you, then you'd slap my face like crazy and annex my family."
Chang Wenyu looked at Zhou Xing warily. "Fortunately, I didn't do anything wrong back then. Otherwise, I might be kneeling in front of Zhou Xing right now, begging for his forgiveness."
"Have you been reading too many Fanqie Novels?"
Zhou Xing looked at Chang Wenyu as if he were an idiot. "Where is there so much face-slapping in reality? If I wanted to slap your face, would I have spent millions at your bar?"
When he first met him, he thought he was a smart guy, but he turned out to be a bit of a goofball.
"True."
Chang Wenyu chuckled.
Qin Fen was lost in thought. When Zhou Xing first mentioned starting an investment company, he was somewhat dismissive.
But once Zhou Xing revealed his five hundred million in cash...
...the nature of the situation changed completely.
He said he was just playing around, but Zhou Xing's background was definitely unfathomable. Since his family would give him so much cash flow and let him squander it with peace of mind...
...it meant they were absolutely certain that nothing would go wrong with this money.
Could it be... that Zhou Xing had special channels?
Knowing some investment information?
Qin Fen couldn't sit still anymore. "Old Zhou, what was that you said about the investment outlook being quite good? What's that all about?"