“Ah! I remember who he is now!”
Fang Mingde and Su Susu were both startled by Fang Mingde. They looked at him with confusion and surprise. Su Susu pulled a cold face and asked: “Fang Mingde, what the hell are you doing? I need you to talk some sense into your daughter, not babbling about some nonsense. Did your mistress turn your brain into mush?”
“Mom, don’t say that.” Fang Qiong said embarrassedly.
She knew her father had a few mistresses outside of the family. However, growing up, she had seen too many rich and powerful men do the exact same. Plus, her father always spoiled her and treated her like the apple of his eye.
“Yes.. don’t say things like that when your daughter is here.” Fang Mingde blushed. Despite his embarrassment, shock and surprise still flashed in his eyes.
“I mean I finally remembered where I saw his picture.”
“Who are you talking about?” Su Susu asked furrowed brows.
“Him!” Fang Mingde picked up the marriage certificate and opened it up, revealing the picture of Chen Fan and Fang Mingde.
“Chen Fan?”
Fang Qiong was taken aback by the development and so was Su Susu.
A sneer appeared on Su Susu’s face and then muttered: “Idiot.”
“Fang Mingde, is your head screwed on backward? You have known this little shit ever since he was a kid. It has only been a few years, of course, you would recognize him! We even have lots of VR recordings of him hanging out with us in our basement.”
“Just so, dad. Xiao Fan is in a lot of our family photos.” Fang Qiong asked in confusion.
Chen’s family and Fang Qiong were long-time friends. They often spent vacations together and traveled across China. There were over hundreds if not thousands of pictures displaying Chen Fan’s face. Many of those pictures were kept inside of Fang Qiong’s bedroom, and she took them out of storage boxes to go through them from time to time.
Therefore, Fang Mingde should be familiar with Chen Fan’s image, and he should know it.
Seeing Fang Mingde’s sudden surprised reaction, the mother and daughter pair shook their heads and were ready to go on with their argument again. Already, Fang Qiong’s mind raced as she thought of how to deal with her mother.
However, Fang Mingde said heavily.
“I didn’t see it at home. I saw it at a banquet a few months ago.”
“A banquet?”
Everyone was caught by surprise.
“Were you having dinner with Wang Xiaoyun? ” Su Susu asked suspiciously.
Fang Qiong was also dumbfounded.
Chen Fan had only been in Jin City for less than half a year and before that, he had always remained in Chu Zhou City. How did Fang Mingde see a picture of Chen Fan at a banquet? Was he having dinner with the members of the Chen family or worse, Chen Fan’s mother?
“Wang Xiaoyun was not here, but it was Song Binsheng from the Song family who had shown me the picture.” Fang Mingde’s voice was deep and thoughtful, his face serious.
“Song Binsheng?”
The name caught Su Susu’s attention. The sneer on her face suddenly disappeared.
The Qiao family and the Song Family had always been the leading families in Jinlin City before the rise of the Chen family. They had deep roots in the city and were well connected. The combined forces of the two families could even rival the Wei Family of the North Bank. Song Binsheng was the leader of the second generation in the Song family. He was the CEO of Songs Group and was in control of over a few hundred billions of assets. He liked to keep things to himself, so the public knew very little about him. Otherwise, he would definitely be on the top ten rich list of Jiang Nan Province.
The Song family and Song Binsheng were mighty forces that Ming De Group and Fang Mingde simply couldn’t compare.
“Why does Song Binsheng have Chen Fan’s picture? Did Wang Xiaoyun give it to him?” The mother and daughter pair looked at each other in confusion. Song Binsheng was the CEO of a large company, and why would his path cross with a spoiled brat such as Chen Fan?
Su Susu suddenly realized that there was more than what meets the eye.
Was Song Binsheng trying to signal something? Perhaps to hint at the marriage between Chen Fan and Fang Qiong? If so, the Chen family must have been eyeing Fang Qiong for a while.
If the Chen family had the backing of the Song Family, even the Old man at the Wu Zhou City would have to think twice before putting a stop to the marriage. After all, the Song Family was not the Chen’s family, it was a powerful and influential force that had existed for many decades.
“Humph! He has the support of Song Binsheng, so what? If I disapprove of the marriage, there is nothing that Song Binsheng could do.” Su Susu said with a cold smirk.
To her surprise, Fang Mingde was unaffected by her comment. He said with a heavy voice: “Wang Xiaoyun didn’t give Song Binsheng the picture. When Song Binsheng showed it to me, he told me the young man is Master Chen.”
Disbelief and shock flashed in their eyes as he spoke.
“Master Chen? Who is Master Chen?” Fang Qiong was even more confused.
Su Susu’s face paled and let out a surprised cry: “Master Chen of Jiang Bei?”
Then and only then, Fang Qiong finally remembered the name. It had only been three months since the downfall of the Sheng family, so the name often got brought up among the elites of Jin City. However, as time went on, fewer and fewer people were going to talk about it.
“Dad, you mean Xiao Fan is the Master Chen of Jiang Bei?” Fang Qiong rounded her eyes in surprise and glared at Fang Mingde in disbelief.
Chen Fan and Master Chen of Jiang Bei…
Su Susu found it hard to make the connection between a mighty figure that dominated Jiang Bei and a spoiled brat. There was no one in Jiang Nan Province who dared to oppose Master Chen. Even Sheng Ronghua, the richest man in Jiang Nan Province.
“Fang Mingde, are you sure you weren’t drunk? Chen Fan is not Master Chen of Jiang Bei. That’s ridiculous.” Su Susu quickly gathered herself and folded her arms. “You saw it how many months ago? Are you sure you weren’t drinking? I don’t think your recollection was right. You have to be drunk. ”
Su Susu didn’t believe any of it.
Although she works for the government, she had heard of the name. The battle between the Sheng family and the Chen family had been the focal point of everyone’s attention, so everyone knew that it was the sudden involvement of Master Chen that had toppled the Sheng family. Sheng Ronghua and his mansion were destroyed with him inside while Shen Junwen had a car accident at the Jin City Bridge.
Su Susu had even interviewed a few neighbors of the Sheng family, but no one seemed to know what had happened. In the end, the police determined that the destruction was caused by an explosion from a natural gas leak. However, Su Susu’s journalist’s instinct told her that that was not the truth.
“I did drink a lot that night. That is why I am not entirely sure right now. Maybe I did remember the picture wrong. But I can’t explain the other piece of evidence.” Fang Mingde shook his head and said.
“What other evidence?” Fang Qiong asked.
“When Song Binsheng showed me the picture, he told me that Master Chen’s real name is Chen Fan and he is from Chu Zhou City and is less than twenty years old.” Fang Mingde let out a wry smile.
“When I heard that name, I thought maybe it was just a coincidence that his name is the same name as Chen Fan that we know. After all, it’s a pretty common name. There could be over a few hundred Chen Fans in Chu Zhou City right now. But it wasn’t until I saw his picture on the wedding certificate that I realized that Master Chen is Chen Fan that we know.”
He looked up at his wife and daughter and said: “Can you find another person who is named Chen Fan, less than twenty years old, from the Chen family and looks exactly the same as this picture?”
Both Fang Qiong and Su Susu became quiet after they heard the question.
He was right. If he looked like Chen Fan, sounded like Chen Fan, then he must be Chen Fan.
The mother and daughter pair were both shocked by the development, as both of them tried to grapple with reality.
“Xiao Fan is Master Chen of Jiang Bei? The one who did away with the Sheng family?” Fang Qiong murmured to herself in disbelief.
Fang Qiong had heard many rumors about Master Chen. In those rumors, master Chen was a cold-hearted murderer who possessed deadly Dharmic powers. In her mind’s eye, she saw Master Chen as a man wearing a black robe with menacing tattoos on his arms and a sadistic grin on his face. Wherever he went, a group of men in black suits with equally cold and menacing-looking faces trailed behind him.
Therefore, she found it hard to reconcile the Chen Fan that she knew with the image of a deadly sinister man in her imagination.
Chen Fan had always felt like a little brother next door to her, not a dominant figure of Jiang Bei.
Su Susu’s shock was tenfold worse than Fang Qiong.
Su Susu knew much more about Master Chen than her daughter did. She knew that over a hundred tycoons from Jiang Bei had attended Chen family’s family banquet, just to pay tribute to Master Chen. She had even heard rumors saying that the Wei Family of the North Bank was also his ally.
How could such a powerful force turn out to be the young man that she despised so deeply?
Su Susu found it hard to come to terms with reality.
A minute ago, she was looking down on the young man, mocking him for being poor and weak; a minute later, she learned that the very same boy might as well be the most powerful man she had ever known.
“I remember now. Xiao Fan told me once that the Master Chen of the Chen family was him. But I thought he was just pulling my legs!” Fang Qiong suddenly announced.
“I wager he was behind Wang Xiaoyun’s appointment as the Chens Group’s CEO. He must have also caused the rising of the Chen family.” Fang Mingde exclaimed.
He had always liked Chen Fan and thought one day he could hire the young man to work for him. After knowing that the young man he wanted to hire had already far exceeded himself, a mix of complicated emotions rose inside of him.
“Humph! So what? I work for the government, and his financial clout means nothing to me. I also have the support of the Su Family, he can’t forget about that!” Su Susu said bitterly.
Despite her words, they all knew that Su Susu was fighting a losing battle.
Ming De Group was peanuts before Master Chen. Only the mighty Su Family could make Chen Fan take them seriously.
“Honey, it’s not that simple.” Fang Mingde shook his head and let out a wry smile. “Don’t you know that other than the Sheng family, there is another victim of Master Chen?”
“Who is that?” Fang Qiong asked as she batted her lashes.
Su Susu paused a second and then color drained from her face.
“Gao Tianmin!”
Fang Mingde said slowly.
