The gunshot echoed through the room.
Xu Hao's pupils contracted sharply, and his body suddenly collapsed to the ground.
Zhang Yi's bullet hadn't hit his head—it had merely whizzed past his ear.
But that one shot was enough to scare the soul out of him!
He sat on the floor, panting heavily.
"Brother Zhang, don't kill me! Everything I said is true!"
Zhang Yi narrowed his eyes, crouched down slowly, and stared into Xu Hao's eyes.
"Give me an explanation that satisfies me. Convince me that you're not working with Wang Siming to set me up—then you'll have a chance to live."
Xu Hao took several deep breaths, struggling to calm himself down.
"Because compared to going against you, following you is my only chance to stay alive, isn't it?"
"I've already seen what you're capable of. I'm not stupid enough to be your enemy. Compared to you, Wang Siming—who's been living his entire life inside a luxury shelter—is much easier to deal with."
Xu Hao gritted his teeth, his voice filled with hatred.
"Besides…" he spat, "I'd rather see that bastard Wang Siming die than you!"
A sharp glint flashed through Zhang Yi's eyes.
"Oh? Aren't you two friends?"
"Friends? Ha!"
Xu Hao let out a bitter laugh, his expression filled with resentment.
"I was never his friend. In his eyes, I'm probably no better than a dog."
He then explained his relationship with Wang Siming.
"My Xu family is also a wealthy and powerful household in Tianhai City. My father's publicly listed company is worth billions. By all accounts, I should be one of the top young masters in the city, right?"
"But when Wang Siming returned from overseas, the entire second-generation rich circle of Tianhai City changed overnight."
"No matter in terms of wealth or background, his family completely overshadowed mine."
"In front of others, I was the prestigious Young Master Xu. But in his eyes? I was nothing."
Zhang Yi smirked, amused.
"I remember Wang Siming once said, 'I don't care if my friends are rich or not—because none of them are richer than me.' "
Xu Hao nodded bitterly. "That's exactly how it is."
Zhang Yi raised an eyebrow.
"So, you hate him just because he's richer than you?"
"No! You don't understand our world at all!"
Xu Hao shook his head and began explaining.
"My family is in the construction materials business, and Wang's family was our biggest client. In other words, our entire livelihood depended on them."
"So when Wang Siming returned, I had no choice but to bow and scrape, trying my best to curry favor with him."
His eyes burned with humiliation, and his fists clenched tightly.
For a wealthy young master who had lived a life of privilege for over twenty years, suddenly being forced to grovel before someone else—it was an unbearable humiliation.
"He even took an interest in my woman, and I couldn't say a single word of protest. I had to personally send her to his bed!"
Xu Hao's face turned red with rage and shame.
"She was my woman! My woman! And just because he said so, I had to hand her over for him to play with!"
"And not just once, but multiple times! Over and over again!"
"Do you have any idea? Because of this, I became the biggest laughingstock in the entire Jiangnan rich kids' circle!"
Zhang Yi raised his eyebrows slightly, feeling a twinge of sympathy.
A once-prominent rich second-generation heir, reduced to pimping out his own girlfriend just to please someone wealthier than him.
What difference was there between that and a common pimp?
No wonder Xu Hao was so filled with hatred.
Zhang Yi then thought of something and asked curiously, "I've heard Wang Siming is obsessed with women. Some people even claim he's had tens of thousands of girlfriends. Is that true?"
When Zhang Yi first heard the rumor, he found it hard to believe.
After all, even if a person lived to be a hundred years old, that was only 36,500 days. How could anyone have that many girlfriends?
Xu Hao, however, laughed mockingly.
"Brother Zhang, no offense, but you common folks have no idea how extravagant the lives of the truly wealthy are."
"You think the billionaire lifestyles written in web novels are already exaggerated and fake, right? But in reality, they don't even come close."
Zhang Yi's eyes gleamed with curiosity.
"Oh? Enlighten me."
Xu Hao smirked. "Wang Siming's women? Not just tens of thousands—he has over a hundred thousand."
Zhang Yi froze for a moment, then burst into laughter.
"Are you bullshitting me? Come on, even if I don't come from money, I'm not that gullible!"
"Hundreds of thousands? Why not say billions while you're at it?"
He felt like Xu Hao was messing with him.
Even ancient emperors known for their excess—like Emperor Sima Yan, who had tens of thousands of concubines—couldn't physically keep up with that many women.
And Wang Siming was only around forty years old.
If he truly had over a hundred thousand women, that would mean sleeping with hundreds of them daily.
How was that even humanly possible?
"Brother Zhang, I swear I'm not lying! I already told you, the world of the rich is beyond your imagination."
Zhang Yi raised an eyebrow. "Alright, then explain. How the hell does he manage that many women?"
Xu Hao straightened up and explained seriously.
"It's actually simple. Wang Siming has a team dedicated to scouting women for him all across the country. These women come from all walks of life."
"Actresses from the film industry, internet influencers, famous socialites from Tianhai City, even those girls from Shengjing's Baiziwan district."
"He doesn't discriminate. As long as they're beautiful, he takes them all."
"He has dozens of phones, each labeled with a number representing different provinces. Every phone contains multiple WeChat groups."
"Each group is full of women from that specific area. And it's not just within the country—he even has international groups."
Zhang Yi's eyes widened slightly in surprise.
"That's… quite the system."
Xu Hao chuckled. "Whenever he travels, he just sends out a message, and hundreds of women show up to accompany him."
"Even when he's not traveling, he can just send out an order, and girls will start flying in from all over the country."
"Oh, and you know those viral videos of girls writing messages on their bodies? Like 'Congrats to EDG for winning!' or 'Congrats to Messi!'?"
"Ever wonder where those come from? Wang Siming could just drop a message in one of his groups, and these girls would rush to make videos for him. And that's just the mild stuff."
"Typically, he throws out red envelopes—tens or even hundreds of thousands at a time. The ones who grab the biggest share get to… 'entertain' him."
Zhang Yi sighed in disbelief.
He never imagined that the truly wealthy could live like this.
"I see. So basically, he keeps a massive harem as a backup supply. Whether or not he actually uses them doesn't matter—it's just like collecting pets and indulging whenever he feels like it."
Xu Hao nodded. "Exactly. When you have money that you can't spend in ten lifetimes, you need some way to enjoy it."
He then joked, "In a way, this is just another form of wealth redistribution, isn't it?"
Zhang Yi took a deep breath and shook his head.
"Now I finally understand… why there are so many single women in big cities."