A Dish Best Served Cold (The Man In Rage)
Chapter 477 The Precarious Xue Family

No family would just leave their money lying around in the bank.

After all, that little bit of interest earned was never as much as money that grew with the exchange of goods.

So the richer one was, the more cash they had out there in exchange for assets.

The Lins were no exception.

It was not easy to fork out $150 million in cash in such a short time.

Even this $100 million took several days to prepare.

"It's all the Xue family's fault. If they didn't suddenly back out, we'd have $300 million by now," muttered Lin Feng under his breath. After some thought, he slowly replied, "Looks like we'll have to borrow some money."

Yao Bai-Sheng wanted the money urgently, and Lin Feng had already promised him to wire him everything by tonight.

Since it was their first time working together, Lin Feng had to show his sincerity, otherwise Master Yao might not trust him anymore.

As a result, Lin Feng put his pride aside and started borrowing money from others.

On the other side, Ye Fan had returned to the Xue house.

His expression was stern and he was in a very bad mood.

After a short while, Xue Ren-Yang reached home too. He quickly went to look for Ye Fan and apologized profusely.

"Dragon Master, it's all my fault for being so careless in making friends, so you ended up getting so humiliated today. But I've already withdrawn from the alliance and I'm on my own now. The Xue family can send anyone we want to the underground match without requiring the agreement of the Zhao and Lin families," explained Xue Ren-Yang profusely as he anxiously knelt on the floor.

Ye Fan looked down coldly at the old man kneeling before him and scoffed. "You seriously withdrew? And you're on your own now? You're rather bold! Get up, it's those two families who were blind and it has nothing to do with you. But it's not a bad thing that you've withdrawn from the alliance with the two of them. Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't regret this decision. Just come and pick me up on the day of the match. I will represent the Xue family at the match!"

Ye Fan's faint voice echoed and he soon turned to leave.

Xue Ren-Yang's heart finally calmed down after hearing what Ye Fan said.

He suddenly realized that his forehead was covered with cold sweat already.

"Old Master Xue, are we really backing out of Longyang Martial Arts Academy? If we back out now, we're going to offend the Zhao and Lin families big time. If Mr Chu doesn't do well at the match, then the Xue family will be in a very precarious situation in Yanjing!"

Xue Ming-Xin had walked over without Xue Ren-Yang noticing.

He couldn't help but become worried and try to advise Xue Ren-Yang after learning that Xue Ren-Yang was going to back out of Longyang Martial Arts Academy and cut ties with the Zhao and Lin families. There was danger everywhere in a place like Yanjing.

The Xue family didn't have much to fall back on, so if they didn't join hands with anyone, it was impossible for them to have survived the competition.

The Xue family had recognized this back then, and that's how they chose to form an alliance with the Zhao and Lin families to fight against the pressure of other powerful families, and managed to gain a foothold in this city.

But now that Xue Ren-Yang had fallen out with the other two, Xue Ming-Xin didn't dare to think of what sort of consequences would await the Xue family if they didn't do well in the upcoming underground match.

When that happened, not only would the four influential families try to take their share of the Xue family, but even the Zhao and Lin families would abandon them and be on the opposite side of the Xue family.

After hearing his nephew's concerns, Xue Ren-Yang just sighed. "Ming-Xin, I know. This is a dangerous move to make. But opportunities to become rich arise from crises. Since we're in business, then we have to be prepared for risks. Now that things have come to this, there's no point in worrying about anything else. The only thing we can do now is to choose to believe in Mr Chu!"

Xue Ren-Yang's voice was low, but the eyes he used to look in the direction of where Ye Fan left were filled with determination.

Xue Ren-Yang had made a bold bet today.

From the moment he decided to back out from Longyang Martial Arts Academy and fall out with the other two families, Xue Ren-Yang had essentially placed the future of the Xue family entirely in Ye Fan's hands.

There was nothing to worry about, actually.

Without Ye Fan, the Xue family wouldn't be what it was today.

Everything that they had was given to them by Ye Fan in the first place.

And that was why Xue Ren-Yang had chosen to stand on the same line as Ye Fan without even thinking about anything else.

And on the same night that Ye Fan had decided to represent the Xue family, the Zhao and Lin families sent out news. They announced that the Xue family had been kicked out of their joint investment in Longyang Martial Arts Academy.

At the same time, they were going to stop all projects they had with the Xue family.

They also announced that from that day onwards, the Xue family had absolutely nothing to do with the Lin and Zhao families. And so the alliance of the three up and coming families of Yanjing that had prevailed for so long was broken.

The whole city was in an uproar after learning of this.

The next day, Longyang Group's shares fell sharply. Their stocks fell by 10% and the Xues lost almost $1 billion overnight.

But this was a chain reaction, and worse things were still to come.

All the loans that the Xue family applied for were all rejected.

More than a dozen partners withdrew their investment and a few dozen projects were either halted temporarily or completely cancelled.

Those families that were friendly with the Xues before also stayed far from them and cut ties with them.

All of a sudden, the Xue family was pushed to the eye of the storm, and they seemed so precarious, like they might collapse anytime.

Many crazy guesses on what really happened also surfaced.

Some said that the four influential families were making an attack on the Xue family, and the Lin and Zhao families quickly drew the line after finding out about it first.

Some others said that the Xue family must have offended some big shot and so now everyone was against them, and they were about to collapse.

The more others described it this way, the more everyone believed it was true. The Xue family was in a frenzy.

"This Zhao Si and Lin Feng are really shameless. We were the ones who wanted to withdraw, so how could they say that they kicked us out?"

Xue Ming-Xin and the other important members of the Xue family were gathered in the main hall of the house and they were furious.

Walking out on their own volition and getting thrown out were two very different scenarios.

The former meant that the Xue family had guts and were principled.

The latter meant that the Xue family had just become like a dog without an owner, and it was a humiliation.

"Old Master Xue, say something. Are we going to just let Zhao Si and Lin Feng spout nonsense and ruin our reputation? Our share price has fallen sharply and many vendors have refused to work with us. If this goes on, the Xue family is really going to collapse."

Everyone in the hall looked at Xue Ren-Yang and waited for him to make a decision.

But Xue Ren-Yang waved a hand for everyone to be quiet. "We'll talk about all this after the underground match is over."