After saying this, President Xia bowed respectfully to Fang Chenyi and greeted him, "Hello, Chairman."

This President Xia was none other than Xia Bingbao, the man who had called Fang Chenyi earlier. It was just that he genuinely hadn’t recognized his new boss.

Fang Chenyi simply smiled and nodded as Xia Bingbao greeted him.

Meanwhile, Old Wang and Old Ma exchanged a glance, each seeing the look of resignation in the other’s eyes.

Old Wang, his face a mask of mock grievance, complained to Fang Chenyi,

"Younger Brother Fang, that’s not very honest of you."

It was just as Old Wang said. To him and Old Ma, Fang Chenyi had been a little disingenuous. He clearly owned the place, yet he had acted as if he had never been here. ’Isn’t that just making us look like fools?’

Fang Chenyi could naturally see what they were thinking and couldn’t help but give a wry smile.

"Hey, don’t get the wrong idea, you two. To be perfectly honest, this really is my first time here."

At this, the ever-astute Xia Bingbao chimed in from the side.

"Haha, President Wang, President Ma, our Chairman only acquired this place yesterday afternoon. So it really is his first time visiting. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even recognize him myself just now."

Hearing this, Old Wang and Old Ma instantly felt relieved. The looks on their faces changed to ones of speechlessness, and Old Wang gave a thumbs-up.

"Impressive. Younger Brother Fang, you’re truly impressive! Haha, but this is so awkward for me. I was planning to take you out to relax, and I ended up bringing you to your own house."

Brother Xiaoma was less fazed, since he didn’t know Fang Chenyi all that well. Old Wang, however, had come to deeply understand Fang Chenyi’s tendency to buy things at the drop of a hat.

This was precisely why Old Wang was so impressed. He was also now utterly convinced: ’This guy is definitely a mega-tycoon in hiding!’

"My apologies, you two. How about this? I’ll treat you both to dinner tonight."

After a bit more small talk, the men got up and resumed their game.

As for the platinum membership card Xia Bingbao had brought over, he naturally took it back.

They played for a while longer, and soon it was around four o’clock.

Fang Chenyi glanced at the time and said, "It’s getting late. Shall we go get something to eat?"

Both Old Wang and Old Ma nodded, and the group drove a golf cart toward the clubhouse’s signature restaurant.

Fang Chenyi hadn’t mentioned his plan to sell the club to raise funds, as it hadn’t been the right time. He was waiting for dinner to ask Old Ma if he was interested in taking it over.

However, just as their golf cart pulled up to the restaurant entrance, Fang Chenyi’s phone suddenly rang.

He took it out and saw it was a call from his father-in-law.

He gestured to Old Ma and Old Wang, then walked to a quiet spot to take the call.

"Uncle."

Fang Chenyi greeted him politely once the call connected.

Bai Zhenhua’s weary voice came from the other end of the line.

"Chenyi, the audit over here is almost done. The books have been reviewed, and the police have results as well. In three years, that Lu Zhisen embezzled a total of more than 13.637 billion."

As he said this, Bai Zhenhua’s tone became exceptionally cold.

To be honest, he had never imagined that Lu Zhisen could have embezzled so much money.

It wasn’t just him; even Fang Chenyi was flabbergasted when he heard the figure.

’Over ten billion in three years! What kind of number is that?! That’s over four billion a year!’

At that moment, Bai Zhenhua continued speaking.

"He took the most. The other senior managers were all involved in his embezzlement scheme. The next biggest was the Chief Financial Officer, who took 9.116 billion. The person who took the least still embezzled over 70 million! The total amount involved exceeds 50 billion!"

"Hiss... That much?"

Hearing this number, Fang Chenyi couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath. ’A bunch of parasites! I thought Lu Zhisen’s haul was big enough, but I never expected the rest of management to have stolen even more combined!’

’And that female CFO... guarding the vault while stealing from it. She embezzled nearly ten billion.’

’Honestly, he was starting to feel a strange sort of respect for the former chairman. How could someone stand by and do nothing while his company was being eaten alive by these parasites...’

Hearing the shock in Fang Chenyi’s voice, Bai Zhenhua sighed. He had been just as stunned when he first heard the numbers.

"Sigh... a bunch of thoroughgoing parasites. The police have started the process of recovering the funds. Let’s hope they can get it all back."

Hearing this, Fang Chenyi sighed as well. There was nothing else to be done.

’But it looks like my decision to clean house was the right one. If I had let these parasites continue to run rampant in the company, who knows what kind of state it would be in.’

’Besides, their corruption wasn’t his fault. On the contrary, he was the one who’d rooted them out. That was enough.’

Suddenly remembering his father-in-law had just said the audit was complete, Fang Chenyi asked,

"Uncle, you just said the audit is complete, correct? Does that mean the finances are accessible now?"

Bai Zhenhua, sitting in his office on the other end of the line, rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yes," he finally said.

"That’s right, they’re accessible. That’s why I called. The accounts were emptied by the former chairman when you took over, but after these past two months of operations, there’s now over 28.5 billion in available capital in the group’s account."

At this, Bai Zhenhua’s tone turned icy.

"Those bastards. In just over two months, they managed to embezzle nearly three billion!"

Fang Chenyi didn’t know what to say. Compared to the total losses over the past three years, another three billion almost didn’t seem like that much.

’But that wasn’t his concern right now. Since the police were on it, he had to trust that the money would be recovered.’

So, after offering a few words of consolation to his father-in-law, Fang Chenyi continued,

"In that case, Uncle, I need five billion. You don’t have to transfer it to me; just arrange for someone to invest it directly into our commercial park in Qinhuang Island, in the group’s name."

They discussed the specific details of the capital injection over the phone, and after reminding his father-in-law not to work too hard and to maintain a good work-life balance, Fang Chenyi finally ended the call.

He hung up, shook his head with a sigh, and started walking back toward the restaurant.

But the moment he stepped through the door, Fang Chenyi froze...