Chapter 1767: A Direct Provocation!

By the time Zhao Fusheng received Zheng Yao's notice, it was already the next day.

CJ Group has proposed a meeting with you.

Zheng Yao said to Zhao Fusheng.

"Meet again?" Zhao Fusheng frowned, somewhat surprised.

But then he quickly realized that it seemed CJ Group had most likely reached a decision.

With that in mind, Zhao Fusheng pondered for a moment and said to Zheng Yao, "How about you go in my place?"

"Ah?"

Zheng Yao was taken aback, then shook her head repeatedly: "It's still not quite appropriate for me to go. After all, the person they want to see is you, and besides you, no one else has the final say on this matter."

What she said was the truth; Zhao Fusheng was the boss of Future Group, the one with the ultimate decision-making power.

Even if she went to see Li Meijing and the others, she would probably have to come back and consult Zhao Fusheng.

In that case, it would be better to let Zhao Fusheng go himself.

Zhao Fusheng thought for a moment and nodded. What Zheng Yao said was indeed correct.

After all, no matter what, this matter was of great importance. Even Zheng Yao probably couldn't easily make a decision on his behalf.

“I understand.”

Zhao Fusheng finally said to Zheng Yao, “Agree to them, set the time and place.”

Soon, both sides confirmed the time and place for the meeting.

Just before the meeting, Zhao Fusheng received a phone call from South Korea.

“Chairman, has there been some friction between our company and Samsung recently?”

The call was from Liang Jingyu, who didn't beat around the bush and asked Zhao Fusheng directly.

Zhao Fusheng frowned, somewhat puzzled—what did he mean by that?

“What's going on?”

Zhao Fusheng asked Liang Jingyu.

He wouldn't say something like that for no reason; something must have gone wrong in Korea.

Sure enough, Liang Jingyu smiled wryly and explained the whole story.

In the past few days, Hanxing Investment had been facing various forms of suppression in Korea. At first, Liang Jingyu didn't take it seriously, thinking it was an isolated incident.

But gradually, he discovered that someone was secretly pulling the strings behind it.

That was awkward.

“Who is it?”

Zhao Fusheng said in a low voice.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly said, "Could it be Samsung?"

"Not just Samsung." Liang Jingyu said with a wry smile. "It also includes Lotte and SK. They seem to have a tacit understanding, jointly suppressing our business. That's why I wanted to ask if there's been some conflict with them from headquarters."

Zhao Fusheng was speechless, unable to say a word for a long time. He really hadn't expected things to turn out like this.

What the hell, had Lee Kun-hee lost his mind?

At a time like this, he dared to provoke him like this. Wasn't he afraid that Zhao Fusheng might get angry and start cooperating with Lee Meng-hee?

At the thought of this, Zhao Fusheng's expression was quite interesting.

He really felt that he had been looked down upon.

Or rather, in this matter, Zhao Fusheng felt humiliated.

As the boss, to be worried about by the head of a subsidiary company, whether he might be implicated—this feeling made Zhao Fusheng very unhappy!

Since he was unhappy, he naturally had to fight back!

With a snort, Zhao Fusheng said to Liang Jingyu, "Don't worry about this. Someone will contact you soon."

Although Liang Jingyu was a bit puzzled, since Zhao Fusheng had said so, he didn't ask further.

Although they were being suppressed by three major conglomerates, most of Hanxing Investment's business was investment, so it wasn't too painful.

Of course, there was definitely an impact.

But in Zhao Fusheng's view, this wasn't a problem. Since CJ had chosen to cooperate with him, with CJ's resources, Hanxing Investment's business in South Korea might be suppressed for a while, but it wouldn't collapse.

What really puzzled Zhao Fusheng now was Lee Kun-hee's actions.

What exactly did that old fox want?

Zhao Fusheng really didn't understand!

Logically and emotionally, he hadn't yet reached a cooperation agreement with CJ. In fact, the two sides were still in the stage of mutual probing, negotiating terms, and contacting each other.

Moreover, the news should have been kept confidential.

Under these circumstances, Lee Kun-hee certainly didn't know the specifics, yet he had directly started suppressing his company. Was this guy crazy?

Besides, even if the Future Group and CJ Group reached a cooperation agreement, shouldn't Lee Kun-hee try to prevent the cooperation, or even break up the alliance between Zhao Fusheng and Lee Jae-hyun and his son?

This kind of behavior—attacking the opponent directly without distinguishing right from wrong—wasn't it brainless?

Zhao Fusheng certainly didn't think Lee Kun-hee was brainless.

So, he believed that Lee Kun-hee was demonstrating his power to him!

"Even if you cooperate with Lee Meng-hee, even if you ally with CJ Group, if I want to deal with you, I only need one phone call, one command!"

That was Zhao Fusheng's understanding of the matter.

So, after hanging up the phone, Zhao Fusheng, with a grim expression, dialed Zheng Yao's number.

"Prepare yourselves. Have the Strategic Planning Office study how we can maximize our benefits from cooperating with CJ."

Zhao Fusheng got straight to the point.

Zheng Yao on the other end of the line was taken aback, somewhat baffled: "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

Zhao Fusheng said in a deep voice, "I just want to teach someone a lesson!"

That was the truth.

Lee Kun-hee's actions had greatly provoked Zhao Fusheng, making him extremely displeased.

In Zhao Fusheng's view, business wasn't done this way. Since you, Lee Kun-hee, looked down on me, don't blame me for being rude.

If Lee Kun-hee knew that his mere probing had completely pushed Zhao Fusheng toward Lee Jae-hyun, he would be furious.

But unfortunately, there are no ifs in this world.

So Lee Kun-hee didn't know what he had lost.

Actually, this was inevitable.

Character determines destiny. Lee Kun-hee's domineering character determined that he would make such a choice.

And Zhao Fusheng might not have cared about such things in his past life, but now, he was no longer the person he once was, so naturally he couldn't tolerate Lee Kun-hee's behavior.

…

…

At CJ Group, Lee Jae-hyun and his siblings didn't know that Lee Kun-hee had unintentionally made an assist for them.

After receiving the reply from Future Group agreeing to meet, the Lee siblings began discussing how to meet with Zhao Fusheng to talk about cooperation.

The first in line was naturally the main advocate of cooperation, Lee Mi-kyung.

Also Lee Jae-hyun and Lee Jae-hwan.

Plus Lee Maeng-hee himself and Son Kyung-jik.

These were the people who would meet with Zhao Fusheng.

It was no exaggeration to say that these people were de facto the top brass of CJ Group.

Soon, three days later, the day of the meeting arrived.

Still in that same tea room, Zhao Fusheng met with the top brass of CJ.

But this time, besides the Lee family members from CJ, Zhao Fusheng also brought Zheng Yao, Dong Chenxi, and the others.

The reason was simple: since you could bring people, naturally I could too.

Since we were going to discuss substantive cooperation, we had to get down to business.

For Zhao Fusheng, he didn't mind having a few more people on the opposite side, but he also didn't want to be led by the nose by his opponents.

If that happened, it would mean he had lost the initiative in the negotiations and the subsequent cooperation process.

Once the initiative was lost, getting it back wouldn't be easy.

Especially in the business world, it would come at a huge cost.

Zhao Fusheng was well aware of this.

CJ was straightforward, knowing that their side indeed had too many people, and they didn't object to Zhao Fusheng's request to bring Zheng Yao and the others along.

Lee Jae-hyun also knew that even if he objected, Zhao Fusheng probably wouldn't give him face, because now circumstances favored the other side, and they were the ones asking Future Group for cooperation.

If it were Zhao Fusheng asking them for cooperation, it naturally wouldn't be like this.

"Chairman Lee, hello."

"Chairman Zhao, hello."

Although it wasn't their first meeting, Zhao Fusheng and Lee Jae-hyun were still very polite, after all, the latter was a genuine big shot.

Zhao Fusheng maintained a respectful attitude toward everyone, whether they were stronger than him or not, in his view, it was all the same.

Of course, this wasn't because of the so-called "don't bully the young and poor," but because Zhao Fusheng felt that everyone deserved to be respected, even bad people.

This kind of respect was on a human level.

As for those truly evil people, in Zhao Fusheng's view, humane destruction was the best way to respect them.

Saying this might sound cruel, but it was indeed his true thoughts.

But that's getting off track.

Back to the main topic.

As for Zhao Fusheng, many top executives at CJ Group were actually curious.

After all, this guy was a tough guy who cooperated with Lee Kun-hee. When the news of Samsung and Future Investment's cooperation broke, it definitely shocked everyone.

And the CJ Group executives present were undoubtedly among them.

People have a common weakness: if a certain opponent too strong for them to defeat suddenly becomes friends or rivals with someone else, and they are evenly matched, they will think that person is equally strong.

In this situation, in the eyes of many Koreans, Zhao Fusheng was already equated with a mysterious billionaire from China.

Although in fact, he was indeed a super-rich man from China.

But the feeling of hearing about it and seeing it in person was completely different.

Just like now, Lee Mi-kyung looked at Zhao Fusheng, who was obviously about the same age as her son, and even felt a sense of unreality.

This guy, what exactly was his background?

Lee Mi-kyung looked at Zhao Fusheng, her brows slightly furrowed, scrutinizing him up and down for a full half minute without saying a word.

Clearly, she was a bit unsure how to start.

But Zhao Fusheng chuckled and looked at Lee Mi-kyung: "You must be Ms. Lee. First meeting, I'm Zhao Fusheng, please take care of me."

"Ah?"

Lee Mi-kyung was startled, never expecting that Zhao Fusheng would greet her first.