Tycoon: From Rags to Riches

Chapter 159: Chapter 149: A Decisive Blow

A beauty offered a kiss, and Gu Heng certainly wasn’t going to act like Liu Xia Hui.

After a brief kiss lasting a dozen seconds or so, he raised his hand and gave Bingbing’s bottom a gentle pat.

"What’s the rush~"

"There’s plenty of time for you to kiss me tonight~"

A smile played on Gu Heng’s lips as he whispered softly in Bingbing’s ear.

"Okay~"

Bingbing’s face was flushed like a peach blossom, her eyes glistening as if brimming with water.

She returned to the camera, while Gu Heng picked up his phone again.

[Prince Heng]: Another round?

Gu Heng entered Princess Di Di’s stream and posted another scrolling comment.

After a long pause, [Desire Emperor] finally responded.

[Desire Emperor]: I’ll link up with you in five minutes.

With that, the hundred-plus high-level accounts led by [Desire Emperor] all vanished from Princess Di Di’s stream in the blink of an eye.

...

「Meanwhile, in the WhatsApp group "Middle-aged Activity Center."」

The chat, which had been buzzing with messages just moments before, was now dead silent.

[Nao Nao]: Prince Heng is just too strong. He alone contributed nearly 150 million votes. We didn’t lose because we fought poorly; we were simply outmatched.

[Yichen]: The guy’s a monster. He threw in a full 15 million just to win one PK battle. Does he think money grows on trees?

[Prince Ning]: How should we approach the next round? He’s likely playing mind games with us, trying to crush our confidence with an overwhelming opening move.

[Jing Haixin]: Our advantage is our burst potential. I think in the second round, we should feign weakness and make him think we’ve given up. Lull him into a false sense of security. Then, in the last two or three minutes, we all unleash everything at once and snipe the win. By then, no matter how fast he is, he won’t be able to recover.

[Qiuying]: That’s a good idea. If we go all-out from the start, even if we win, it’ll be a Pyrrhic victory. The cost would be too great.

[Shepherd]: We can use this time to contact more of our friends. By the time we get to the third and final round, we can just overwhelm him with our numbers.

[Desire Emperor]: Let’s go with Jing Haixin’s and Shepherd’s strategy. If I’d known this Prince Heng was such a tough nut to crack, we never would have provoked him. Now we’ve got a tiger by the tail.

[Giant Deer]: I take back what I said earlier. It’s not that we suck, it’s that he’s just way too damn strong!

...

After a brief silence, the group began discussing their strategy.

Giving up and choosing to surrender was not an option.

Although they were all using virtual identities online, at their level, many people in their real-life social circles knew who they were.

Losing was one thing. Even if they truly lost in the end, they could just delete their accounts and start over. But if they chose to surrender without a fight, then after deleting their accounts, their only option would be to quit the internet for good.

Once they had agreed on a strategy, they divided up the tasks, renewed their confidence, and got busy again.

...

「Zhonghai, Bund W Hotel.」

In the suite, Jiang Ruan lay on the spacious bed, inhaling the lingering scent of Gu Heng on the pillow. She tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

’What is Gu Heng doing?’

’Is Gu Heng even coming back tonight?’

’What’s wrong with me? Why am I thinking about him so much?’

A flood of questions kept Jiang Ruan tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

"Sigh..."

With a soft sigh, Jiang Ruan reached over and turned on the bedside lamp.

She then picked up her phone, which was charging on the nightstand, opened TikTok, and started scrolling aimlessly through her recommended feed.

This was what she always did when she couldn’t sleep.

Jiang Ruan was scrolling when, suddenly, her slender fingers froze.

"New Record on TikTok: A Tycoon Appears and Hits Level 75 in One Night," "Forget Lovers and Immortals, I Just Envy Prince Heng Every Day," "Let’s List All the Female Influencers with Prince Heng Tonight," "Prince Heng’s Real Identity a Mystery, Suspected to be a Shanghai Super-Tycoon..."

Heng?

Shanghai?

Jiang Ruan stared at the trending topics that had suddenly popped up. She keenly caught a few particular words, especially the name "Heng," which drew her immediate attention.

Because the "Heng" in Gu Heng’s name was the exact same "Heng" in "Prince Heng." And in real life, whether in a person’s name or an online handle, the name "Heng" was extremely rare.

’A coincidence?’

Jiang Ruan recalled the conversation between Gu Heng, Wang Yan, and the others as she was leaving, and a suspicion began to form in her mind.

Already struggling with insomnia, she now felt even more wide awake.

Jiang Ruan sat up straight in bed, leaning her back against the headboard.

Her long, silky black hair fell naturally over her shoulders. Her pale, delicate face was as exquisite and flawless as a porcelain doll’s. A rose-red silk slip couldn’t conceal her graceful figure, adding a touch of alluring, mature charm to her otherwise cool aura.

More than three hours had passed. By now, even the slowest content creators could smell a trend; the sudden appearance of [Prince Heng] was guaranteed to be a viral topic for a long time to come.

Under these circumstances, video clips about [Prince Heng] were already flying all over the internet. A huge number of content creators were obsessively tracking [Prince Heng]’s every move and reporting on him in real time.

Jiang Ruan browsed through the numerous clips posted by these accounts until she came across a particular one. When the voice from the video reached her ears, her body trembled slightly.

’That voice...’

’It was so familiar!’

Jiang Ruan would never forget Gu Heng’s voice, not even in her dreams.

It was obvious now. This [Prince Heng] was Gu Heng.

Once her suspicion was confirmed, Jiang Ruan subconsciously bit her lip and silently clicked on the trending topic: "Let’s List All the Female Influencers with Prince Heng Tonight."

[Bingbing], [Yangyang], [Shuyue Shuyu], [Xinxin], [Yaya], [Lili]...

As far as she could see, they were all female influencers with over a million fans. There were even top-tier influencers like [Bingbing], who had more than five million fans.

Every time Jiang Ruan saw a name, she would follow the recommendations to search for that influencer. She looked up what each one looked like, silently following their accounts one by one.

Some were innocent, some were innocently seductive, some were tall, some were sexy, and some were bewitching. There was every type imaginable, and all of them were beauties with stunning looks and figures.

The thought of Gu Heng surrounded by so many beautiful women at this very moment made Jiang Ruan’s heart race with an inexplicable panic, and a fear of losing him began to creep in.

Although she had held the title of "campus belle" her whole life, she was, in fact, just an ordinary person. No matter how confident she was, she didn’t think she could compete with the influencers by Gu Heng’s side, each with millions of fans.

Unconsciously, she had already grown dependent on Gu Heng. And once dependence forms, so does the fear of loss.

This was exactly how Jiang Ruan felt now.

It was just that she wasn’t yet aware of it herself—or perhaps, she knew but was unwilling to admit it.

As Jiang Ruan’s thoughts swirled in turmoil, a notification suddenly popped up from TikTok: [The streamer you follow, Xinxin, has started a live stream].

Seeing the notification, Jiang Ruan’s fingers moved faster than her thoughts, and she tapped it, entering Xinxin’s live stream.

A dim background, upbeat music, the whistling river wind, a bustling atmosphere, and...

Gu Heng’s voice!

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