Chapter 56 Challenging Tang Qiang

Acquisition?

After securing that massive order from Maple Woods, Xinlin was facing a severe production capacity bottleneck, forcing them to rely on the collaborative efforts of three other companies just to manage it.

Once the delivery was successfully completed and a stable supply relationship with Maple Woods was established, Xinlin would finally have the potential to expand its factory.

At this very moment, everyone's morale was soaring, and they were full of bright aspirations for Xinlin’s future. How could Tang Qiang possibly talk about a buyout at a time like this?

Xinlin was currently operating in excellent health, facing neither a shortage of orders nor any sort of plight. What on earth was Qi Feng’s, and Qi Feng’s alone, motivation for suddenly bringing up an acquisition?

"Boom!"

The engine roared to life once more. Zhuang Daoyuan was driving his red Ferrari, seemingly cruising aimlessly around Xinlin.

"How much is Qi Feng offering to buy us out for?" Wei Lin asked, completely unruffled as he spoke in a calm tone. "If the price is right, it's not entirely off the table."

As soon as those words left his mouth, the key members of Xinlin—An Yuntian included—all stared daggers at him.

If Xinlin was sold off, what would happen to the rest of them?

Were they supposed to just declare themselves unemployed on the spot?

They were all getting on in years, having spent a decade or two in this specific industry. Did he expect them to re-enter the job market and start over from scratch?

"Wei Lin, Xinlin is your late father's life's work! This factory cannot be sold!" An Yuntian sprang to his feet, instantly raising his voice in objection.

Wei Lin remained silent, using a subtle glance to signal everyone to calm down and keep their composure.

"Your little outfit at Xinlin only pulls in about twenty million or so in orders each year, with profits barely scraping two million. That's less than what I make in salary over at Qi Feng," Tang Qiang said, ignoring the others and locking his gaze entirely on Wei Lin. "It doesn't even amount to pocket change compared to us."

"Fortunately, master had great foresight back in the day, acquiring a plot of land large enough to give Xinlin the room to eventually expand."

"It's a pity that until the day he passed away, Xinlin remained the exact same size, utterly failing to put that surplus land to any real use."

The moment Tang Qiang brought up his father, a blazing fire surged violently within Wei Lin’s chest.

Tang Qiang bore some responsibility for his father's fatal car crash. And as for why Xinlin had stagnated in scale for all these years, unable to develop those vacant plots of land—was it not because of the constant suppression by Tang Qiang and the corporate backing of Qi Feng behind him?

If Tang Qiang hadn't repeatedly snatched away those major orders by matching or undercutting their bids, would Xinlin have ever been driven to such straits?

Yet now, he actually had the audacity to stand here and offer sarcastic remarks!

"The office building, the production workshops, the entire plot of land, along with all the equipment and the current workforce—Qi Feng values the lot at eighteen million," Tang Qiang stated, dropping the exact figure.

"Eighteen million?"

An Yuntian laughed out of sheer anger. "A few years back, an outside corporation from another city came by and offered an evaluation of twenty-two million."

"Back then, our overseas orders at Xinlin were sparse, and domestic orders were equally scarce. We were truly going through a difficult period, and yet they still put twenty-two million on the table."

"And now, with Xinlin operating in prime condition, your Qi Feng is only offering eighteen million?"

"Tang Qiang, are you playing some kind of sick joke with us?"

An Yuntian was boiling with rage.

He was dead set against selling Xinlin under any circumstances, but Tang Qiang’s valuation of eighteen million felt nothing short of a direct insult.

This place was his life's blood!

He had poured the better part of his life into Xinlin, and now, with the unprecedented opportunity brought by Maple Woods, even if they were to consider selling, the price tag should never drop below thirty million!

"I, Tang Qiang, never joke."

Seemingly anticipating An Yuntian's fury, Tang Qiang replied with casual indifference, "Old An, the only reason Xinlin and those other three minor companies are still managing to stay afloat is because we at Qi Feng have been throwing some leftover orders your way."

"If Qi Feng stopped showing that grace, the three of you would have gone under ages ago. What could you possibly be worth?"

"Eighteen million is the current market price for Xinlin. You'd better give it some serious thought. By the time I come back next year—or perhaps even sooner—Xinlin might not even be worth eighteen million."

"I've said my piece. Discuss it amongst yourselves."

Tang Qiang crossed his arms over his chest, surveying the people in the room with the posture of a guaranteed victor.

"There won't be a next time. Xinlin is not for sale, period!" An Yuntian scoffed coldly.

"Xinlin is doing just fine on its own; why on earth would we sell to you?"

"That's right! We just landed a massive order, our capacity is already stretched thin, and we're planning to expand the factory soon!"

"From here on out, Xinlin is only going to become more and more profitable!"

The rest of the people in the room glared at Tang Qiang with shared hostility, shouting their protests.

Amidst the noisy, clamorous conference room, only Wei Lin remained silent, his gaze fixed steadily upon Tang Qiang's face.

He understood Tang Qiang just as thoroughly as Tang Qiang understood him.

He knew Tang Qiang wouldn't show up without a reason, nor would he come here to negotiate a buyout on behalf of Qi Feng without absolute certainty.

The fact that Tang Qiang was sitting here meant he held all the cards.

Where did his confidence stem from?

Could it be related to sabotaging the Maple Woods order? Had he and Zhong Xiaowei from Tianzhong already reached a private agreement to ensure Xinlin failed to deliver the goods on time?

Even without Maple Woods, however, their current portfolio of orders and regular business was more than enough to keep Xinlin alive and kicking.

It was simply that Xinlin wouldn't be able to achieve rapid expansion in the short term.

What gave Tang Qiang the unmitigated gall to toss out such an insulting valuation? And why would he presume that in a short while, Xinlin wouldn't even be worth eighteen million?

Try as he might, racking his brain in the span of these few short moments, Wei Lin could not fathom what hidden leverage Tang Qiang and Qi Feng were relying on.

"Mind Reading!"

Wei Lin’s eyes flashed. He abruptly closed them, focused his mental energy on the love value progress bar, and silently thought: "Use Mind Reading once!"

Above the progress bar, the prominent number 3 instantly flipped to a 2.

At the very same instance, Tang Qiang’s inner thoughts and silent self-talk suddenly flooded directly into Wei Lin’s mind!

"As expected of the boss's eldest daughter—graduating from a top overseas university really sets her apart. She merely pointed out a direction to that punk Zhuang Daoyuan, and she's already carved out an entirely new path for Qi Feng."

"The era of self-media has arrived, and the influencer economy has reached a substantial scale. Fragmented, bite-sized orders are multiplying rapidly, gradually trending toward eclipsing the massive bulk orders."

"I suppose I'm getting older; I just don't quite grasp these modern youth trends. My market sense is losing its edge."

"..."

Tang Qiang's internal monologue kept humming along.

Upon absorbing these thoughts, Wei Lin was instantly drenched in a cold sweat, finally grasping what Qi Feng was planning to do.

It turned out that while chatting idly with Zhuang Daoyuan, Zhuang Qing had casually dropped a hint about Qi Feng's future strategic direction: they ought to start scooping up those scattered, small-scale orders as well.

Zhuang Daoyuan not only harbored a deep fear of his older sister, but he also held an innate, heartfelt respect for her business acumen.

He had relayed Zhuang Qing's insights to Tang Qiang, prompting Tang Qiang to mobilize a team to conduct market research. To his astonishment, he discovered that with the explosive rise of self-media and major internet influencers, a massive volume of minor orders had suddenly been spawned.

A single order might only be worth a few thousand, or perhaps ten to twenty thousand, but their strength lay in their sheer, multiplying volume.

Whenever those influencers casually spun up a brand, their followers would eagerly rush to buy in, snapping up hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of caps in a matter of days.

Through the accumulation of these tiny drops, the total order volume had scaled up to a degree that could no longer be ignored.

Qi Feng had previously looked down their noses at those trivial orders. Now realizing that this pie was growing larger by the day, they had locked their sights onto this market at Zhuang Qing's suggestion.

Zhuang Daoyuan and Tang Qiang had presented the research data to the old man at the helm, who had already given his formal approval.

From this moment onward, Qi Feng was going to start aggressively scooping up every variety of small order in sight. In the past, Qi Feng ate the meat while leaving a bit of soup for Xinlin and the other three companies.

But now, Qi Feng intended to lap up even the leftover broth down to the last drop.

Given Qi Feng's brand reputation and industry scale, the moment they lowered their corporate pride to chase down small batches of hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of items—while matching Xinlin's unit pricing—Xinlin would be left with zero competitive edge whatsoever.

It was entirely predictable that once Qi Feng made this move, the subsequent orders for Xinlin and the other three firms would be rapidly devoured by Qi Feng, plunging Xinlin straight back into a crisis of having no business left to run.

"As for that fat tub of lard Zhong, once I apply a bit of pressure at the end, Tianzhong wouldn't dare deliver the goods on time."

"If Wei Lin thinks he can ship out the items required by Maple Woods by the agreed deadline, he's living in a pipe dream."

"Once this first cooperation goes belly-up, Xinlin will also face crippling breach-of-contract penalties. And once Anderson learns the hard way about dealing with small factories, he'll eventually have no choice but to come crawling back to us at Qi Feng."

Tang Qiang thought to himself, completely composed and entirely at ease.

Wei Lin abruptly stood up from his chair.

"Screech!"

Dragging his chair over to the corner of the desk, he sat down, planted his right forearm vertically onto the wooden surface, and challenged Tang Qiang, "I hear you're quite the arm-wrestling champion. Care to play a round with me?"

Everyone in the room froze instantly, staring at him in utter incomprehension.

"Wei Lin, what on earth are you acting out now?"

An Yuntian reprimanded him sharply, convinced that Wei Lin had been driven out of his mind by Tang Qiang's provocation.

Back when he was still working at Qi Feng, he had known that Tang Qiang loved challenging people to arm wrestles—a skill Tang Qiang took immense pride in, routinely defeating opponents who were far bulkier and heavier than himself.

When it came to arm wrestling, out of ten matches, Tang Qiang rarely lost even one.

Even if Tang Qiang had pushed your buttons, why on earth would you pick his absolute proudest arena to challenge him?

An Yuntian tried to intervene and stop him.

"Fancy a match?" Wei Lin met Tang Qiang's gaze with a provocative look, ignoring An Yuntian's warnings entirely.

Tang Qiang was not a man prone to smiling; from the moment he stepped foot into Xinlin today, he hadn't cracked a single smile.

Yet at this moment, a smile actually broke across his face: "Wei Lin, are you being serious right now?"

With that, Tang Qiang also dragged his chair over, extended his hand with a hint of visible excitement, and said, "Didn't your old man ever tell you that I practically never lose at arm wrestling? Wei Lin, look at those skinny little arms of yours. What possessed you to try this with me?"

Gripping Wei Lin's hand tightly, he taunted, "Could it be that you're hoping to lose to me so it puts me in a better mood, and maybe I'll put in a good word back at Qi Feng to bump up your buyout price a little?"

Before the words fully faded from his lips, Tang Qiang's expression shifted drastically.

The hand Wei Lin used to clasp his had suddenly turned as heavy and unyielding as an iron anchor. The veins on Wei Lin's much leaner forearm began bulging one by one like thick cords!

Tang Qiang instantly threw every ounce of strength he had into his arm!

The moment he began exerting force to push back against Wei Lin, he caught sight of Wei Lin's gaze—it was razor-sharp, brimming with astonishing, unshakable confidence.

"This kid!"

The veins at Tang Qiang's temples practically throbbed.

The next instant.

"Bang!"

His hand was slammed heavily downward, the back of his fist crashing hard against the wooden desktop, completely motionless no matter how desperately he strained.

The hand he shared in a tight grip with Wei Lin was trapped as if beneath a five-fingered mountain of iron, sending a dull, aching pain shooting up his entire arm.

Meanwhile, Wei Lin's face remained as calm and tranquil as still water, though his eyes radiated a chilling, intimidating ferocity that sent a genuine shudder through Tang Qiang's heart.

He stared at Wei Lin, and Wei Lin stared right back at him.

Everyone else stood rooted to the spot, staring in stunned silence at the two of them, watching the hand that had just been pinned flat against the tabletop by Wei Lin.

In the arena of arm wrestling—a skill he held as a badge of unmatched pride—Wei Lin had defeated him in a brutally direct, utterly clean, and decisive manner, leaving him without even the dignity of a token struggle from start to finish.

A crushing, total defeat.

At that moment, locking eyes with Tang Qiang, Wei Lin articulated each word with crystal-clear precision: "Xinlin—we are not selling!"