Early the next morning.
After slipping out of Shouichi’s embrace, the powerless Ai gave him a shove.
She despised her own cowardice and incompetence from last night, having once again willingly acted as his body pillow.
Then, without a shred of reluctance, she crawled out of the covers and drew a clear line between herself and Shouichi.
Last night was merely a temporary compromise.
Now, she was feeling bold.
Shouichi blinked and reached out to pat Ai’s head.
Ai was still enduring it.
Although she didn’t physically resist, every micro-expression on her face showed she was still fighting back internally.
Ai still hadn’t lost her fighting spirit.
Shouichi felt very gratified.
He rested his hand on Ai’s head, petting her over and over again to conduct an obedience test.
Even though Ai wasn’t baring her fangs and claws, she clearly hadn’t been fully tamed by Shouichi yet.
After breakfast, a refreshed Shouichi didn’t go to work.
Instead, he headed to a special luxury villa complex to visit his old man in “prison.”
Sumitomo Saburou was leisurely watching TV.
Seeing Shouichi walk in, he simply instructed the butler to pour him a glass of juice.
“How are things at the bank?” Sumitomo Saburou asked.
“Boring.
All day long, I’m either helping people launder their assets or doing IPO planning for some companies.
It’s completely meaningless,” Shouichi said, shaking his head.
Incredibly boring.
Even slacking off was boring.
Sumitomo Saburou stroked the kitten in his arms.
*’Didn’t you love this kind of laid-back lifestyle before?’* he thought.
“I’m going to start a business,” Shouichi said.
“Starting a business is great,” Sumitomo Saburou said with a smile.
The kitten in Sumitomo Saburou’s arms glanced at Shouichi, then went back to licking its fur while nestled in Saburou’s embrace.
“I’m going to open a construction company,” Shouichi added.
“A construction company?” Sumitomo Saburou said, still smiling.
“A construction company is great.”
*’The real estate market in Japan is absolutely abysmal right now, and you want to start a construction company?
You really don’t have a single entrepreneurial brain cell in your head,’* Saburou thought.
*’No matter how much money I have, I can’t let you squander it like this.’*
“Aren’t you going to invest a little in me?” Shouichi asked.
“Investing is great, investing is great,” Sumitomo Saburou continued to play the senile old man.
Shouichi looked down his nose at him, knowing full well that his biological father just didn’t support him venturing out on his own.
Shouichi said arrogantly, “I don’t want your money.
I need your support.
A construction company needs a lot of cement and steel.
I need the family businesses to sell them to me at a low price.
“And as for the family’s construction machinery, it’d be even better if you could rent them to me on the cheap.”
Sumitomo Saburou gave him a look and said, “The family’s assets are all under corporate management now.
The functional departments are clearly divided.
It’s not like I can just do whatever I want.”
*’I don’t even hold a position in the company anymore.
Coming to me is useless.’*
“Besides, do you even have the money to set up a construction company?”
Shouichi smiled and said, “Isn’t Sumitomo Bank there to give me a loan?”
“Don’t even think about it!” Sumitomo Saburou shouted.
*’Trying to start a business empty-handed, and diving straight into a dead-end industry at that?
Are you insane?’*
“Old man!” Shouichi said to Sumitomo Saburou with earnest gravity.
“Now is the perfect time to buy the dip!”
“Real estate won’t recover for at least a decade,” Sumitomo Saburou said.
If real estate was dead, the construction industry was even deader.
Sumitomo Saburou took out a bank card and handed it to Shouichi, saying seriously, “If you want money, just say so.
Don’t use ‘starting a business’ to threaten me.”
*’Does this biological father of mine really think I care about this pocket change?’* Shouichi thought.
“I don’t want it.
I’ll have plenty of money soon,” Shouichi said, curling his lip.
“You’ll have plenty of money soon?”
Sumitomo Saburou looked at Shouichi suspiciously.
Lifting the cat out of his lap and setting it down, Sumitomo Saburou said sternly, “You aren’t teaming up with outsiders to short the copper market, are you?”
“How is that possible!” Shouichi deflected.
“How could I do something like that?
Uncle has been driving up copper prices.
How could I possibly go against Uncle?”
“Hard to say.”
Sumitomo Saburou shook his head.
Everyone knew that when Shouichi had tried to warn his uncle back then, he had been lectured instead.
This kid had been petty since childhood.
Was there any way he wouldn’t retaliate?
Besides, his uncle already had other conflicts with their branch of the family.
“You really didn’t?”
“I really didn’t.
I shorted it all by myself,” Shouichi muttered quietly.
He hadn’t contacted any outsiders.
Copper prices were bound to crash sooner or later anyway.
He just wanted to secretly skim a little off the top.
Sumitomo Saburou nodded.
Good.
As long as he didn’t collude with outside thieves, he wasn’t a disgrace to the family.
“Why don’t you pick a different business venture?” Sumitomo Saburou suggested.
It was better to find something for Shouichi to do, rather than let him wreak havoc on his own family.
But a construction company was absolutely out of the question.
Shouichi slammed his hand on the table and declared, “Just trust me, okay?
I am a once-in-a-generation entrepreneurial genius!”
In the end.
Shouichi’s old man still agreed to help him start his business.
Since Shouichi had his own money, the family wouldn’t invest in him, but the construction-related family enterprises would form close partnerships with him.
However, borrowing money from Sumitomo Bank was completely off the table.
Without any proven results from the company, he shouldn’t even dream of borrowing a single cent.
Tormenting his uncle was fine, but he couldn’t be allowed to ruin their own assets.
Just as Shouichi left the villa, Sumitomo Saburou saw a news report on the TV.
A former employee of the Sumitomo Corporation had leaked that Naka Yasuo, the head of the non-ferrous metals trading department, had engaged in massive illegal trading on the international copper futures market.
Relying on Sumitomo Corporation’s powerful influence in the copper market, he had attempted to manipulate copper prices to reap massive profits.
He influenced market prices by hoarding large amounts of physical copper and establishing massive long positions in the futures market.
It went without saying that copper prices were about to plummet continuously.
Those international short-selling groups would definitely jump on this immediately.
Sumitomo Saburou’s mouth twitched.
*’This little bastard.’*
…
Heartbroken that his uncle was about to lose a fortune, Shouichi bought a party popper and went home to celebrate.
“Pop!”
Ai, who was doing her homework, reacted like a startled cat.
Hearing the explosion of the party popper, she instantly bristled and jumped up.
Seeing that Shouichi was holding a party popper, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and began picking the confetti out of her hair one by one.
“Ai, I’m so sad.”
Ai stared at Shouichi in silence.
*’That smile on your face doesn’t look sad at all.’*
“My uncle’s company is having operational issues.
He’s going to lose a lot of money.”
*’What a truly delightful piece of news,’* Ai thought.
*’Seeing a syndicate member from a wealthy conglomerate like you lose money is as sweet as eating honey.’*
“I quit my job.
I won’t be able to go to work anymore.”
*’Good news just keeps on coming.
What a wonderful update,’* Ai thought.
Shouichi patted Ai’s head and continued, “Let me tell you another piece of bad news.
My uncle lost money, but I’m about to make a ton of it.”
*’Now that is truly depressing news,’* Ai thought.
“And the other piece of bad news is that I’m starting my own business.”
*’When it rains, it pours.
Bad news really does come in pairs,’* Ai lamented internally.