Chapter 100 The Old Flame

After the hearing, he exchanged pleasantries with others.

There were still some procedures to go through, but Su Yehao felt there was basically no problem. With the potential profits shown by Emperor Crab Island, real estate developers with the strength to take it on didn't care, while those without the strength couldn't afford to invest. No one was going to jump out and compete with him.

Just as Su Yehao was gloating and came to the garage to get in his car, after the bodyguard sprayed him with disinfectant from every conceivable angle, he suddenly received a call from Nangong Tian.

Nangong Tian said:

"I wasn't watching you for a moment, and you ran off to find your old flame again? You're really awful, openly together, and photographed by the newspaper. Jiang Yu is going to be furious, and we're going to be laughed at..."

After listening.

Su Yehao felt like he'd been struck by lightning.

He stood beside the car, thinking about his visit to Yin Liuli last night... and someone had secretly photographed him!?

For a moment, he was speechless. Just as he was about to apologize, Nangong Tian continued, "I also think you're quite stupid, Hao-ge. Why use such a conspicuous sports car, with 'su' written on the side? Isn't that clearly telling people it's you?"

"I... huh? Oh, the Enzo Second Mistress gave me. I went home to get the car and ran into Miss Zhao. I just gave her a ride and tested the car."

Su Yehao scratched his head, almost breaking out in a cold sweat.

Nangong Tian didn't notice anything unusual about him. Even if she did, she'd probably assume it was just guilt. She snorted and added, "You know better than I do if you have a guilty conscience. So many of our classmates live at Panlong Villa, and you just happened to be giving her a ride."

"She has terrible taste and asked me for some investment advice, like I told you before. She even plans to treat me to dinner for helping her make money. It's just normal courtesy. Don't listen to those reporters, I'll deal with them sooner or later. The cost of spreading rumors is too low, and it's damaging my image."

"Heh, what kind of image do you have? Don't you have any idea?" Nangong Tian wasn't too angry, mainly because Su Yehao had been behaving well the past two years, and he'd been busy with important matters recently.

If there really was a problem, she believed Hao-ge wouldn't be so sloppy about it, with his brains.

In reality, because it was a new car, Su Yehao had indeed forgotten about the "su" printed on the side of the Enzo, foolishly thinking he'd be fine as long as he didn't get out of the car.

He said in a melancholy tone, getting into the car:

"It's because I know myself too well that I can't refute it when people write that I'm a playboy. After all, it's true. The hearing just ended, and it'll be a while before the results are out. When they are, I'll give your mom a piece of land. Whatever style of villa she likes, that's what we'll build. What do you think?"

"No problem, I'll be her advisor, and we'll keep it for her to retire in..."

After returning to Taipa Island, he quietly went to Yin Liuli's house.

Su Yehao searched on his laptop and found that he had indeed been photographed.

Moreover, it was a black-and-white image from a surveillance screen, which meant there was a mole inside the Donghuang Group headquarters. It was highly likely that a security guard had stolen the image.

One photo could probably sell for ten thousand, a real windfall.

He flipped through his contacts, found Zhao Yimeng's number, and casually called her. When she answered, he said, "Did you see the news?"

"I saw it. Isn't it normal? If you search my name online, there's a ton of news about you. I'm too lazy to care anymore."

Miss Zhao's voice sounded lazy, like she didn't care at all.

She continued, "It's perfect. Even if you hadn't called, I was going to call you. Let's have lunch together, at that French restaurant I told you about. I'll send you the address later. I'm bringing a friend. I need to talk to you about something."

"Who is it?"

"Your old flame. You'll know when you see her."

"That's quite a statement. I don't have any old flames. That's slander."

...

The restaurant wasn't large, but it had a view of the Casino Tower built by the old gambling king.

Su Yehao had always wanted to bungee jump, but he could never make up his mind. The bungee jump at the Casino Tower was too stimulating, too high above the ground, not suitable for a middle-aged man like him with a psychological age of over thirty.

At this moment.

He was a little embarrassed. Besides Zhao Yimeng, Miss Vera Andrade was also there.

Speaking of which, she wasn't just an old flame. Recently, the two of them had been communicating by email, and their relationship had become much closer than before.

Judging from Vera's expression, she obviously hadn't expected Su Yehao to be there.

Su Yehao was also a little surprised. After ordering, he asked curiously, "Miss Zhao, you said you needed to talk to me about something. Are you referring to Miss Vera's matter?"

He didn't know the situation. Since Zhao Yimeng had brought Vera along for no reason, it couldn't be to matchmake them.

Vera was a little embarrassed.

At first, she had said she wanted to guide Su Yehao, but over time, she seemed to have fallen for him herself.

To avoid thinking about Su Yehao often and waiting for his emails, Vera had recently deliberately reduced the frequency of their contact. It wasn't a good thing after all, but she hadn't mentioned it to Zhao Yimeng.

The warmhearted Zhao Yimeng nodded and said:

"That's right, you've already slept with her, so I don't need to introduce her, right? Vera's parents were scammed badly by relatives, losing almost HK$160 million. If things continue like this, they might have to sell their house to pay off debts. You have connections in the United States, so I'd like you to help find the guy who scammed her family."

"Huh? Vera, what's going on?"

Hearing Su Yehao ask, Miss Vera understood that he meant she hadn't mentioned it in her emails.

But in front of Zhao Yimeng, Vera only said:

"It's my uncle, my mother's younger brother. He runs a private equity fund in Lisbon, Portugal, and knows many wealthy clients. His business used to be very good. But it's said that in 2000, he lost a lot of money on NASDAQ, so he started using a Ponzi scheme to make up for it. A client tried to withdraw money at the beginning of last month and didn't receive it. After the matter was exposed, my uncle disappeared. The police said he fled to the United States."

Ponzi scheme, Su Yehao was very familiar with this. With a little packaging, it was just a p2p microloan.

Simply put, it was to give clients a high return without actually making money, only using the money clients invested to circulate.

Since the interest was relatively high, the speed of attracting funds was also very fast. It was easy to be exposed when it was investigated or couldn't make ends meet.

Su Yehao said in surprise, "Your uncle even scammed your mother? He's terrible. How big is his Ponzi scheme?"

"About 800 million euros? That's what the newspaper said. I'm not sure. My family's loss doesn't seem to be as much as HK$160 million. We received more than 50 million in dividends before. The money has been with my uncle for almost four years, and now my family's assets in Lisbon have been frozen."

Vera's voice grew softer as she spoke, and her eyes turned red.

Her parents had been worried about this recently, even mortgaging their house to get money to fill the hole with the liquor supplier.

To Su Yehao, this amount of money didn't matter now, but to her family, it was already a major blow. Years of accumulation were ruined, and more importantly, the cash flow had problems...