The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 3: Yesterday’s Paper Trail
A few minutes later, Mr. Fox’s assistant brought over two newspapers. One was from four months ago, and the other was from the current week.
Finance companies like Mr. Fox’s paid very close attention to financial trends, both across the country and internationally. They dealt with money every day and understood exactly what those trends meant.
Beyond that, they paid close attention to social indicators as well, things like employment rates, unemployment rates, and public safety.
If unemployment continued rising, they would lower interest rates while reducing large loans to minimize risk. At the same time, that made their business more attractive.
When the national economy showed clear signs of improvement, they would raise interest rates and encourage people to borrow more, because people could afford to repay it.
Every day, Mr. Fox’s assistant had to read a large number of newspapers, analyzing the direction of the country’s situation and deciding whether certain lines of business should be wound down ahead of time, or whether it was better to pretend they had forgotten about them altogether.
This was by no means a simple business. Most people couldn’t scale it, and even fewer could stay in it for long. Only men like Mr. Fox could operate this kind of enterprise over the long term.
That was why he had spent heavily to hire a college graduate to assist him. He viewed this as a career, not a quick-money scheme.
After opening the newspapers, William spent some time reading through them, about fifteen minutes in all. Mr. Fox did not interrupt him once. He even had someone bring over coffee and cigarettes.
Deep down, he found himself anticipating something.
This ordinary man named William was going to surprise him.
The feeling wasn’t baseless.
It came from observation.
An ordinary man like William should not have remained calm after being brought here. He certainly should not have been able to maintain eye contact after Mr. Fox had openly revealed his murderous intent.
He wasn’t an ordinary kid. From Mr. Fox’s perspective, William was indeed just a kid.
He was only twenty years old.
About fifteen minutes later, William used his pen to draw several lines, then placed both newspapers in front of Mr. Fox.
“I’ve underlined the sections you need to read. It’ll make it easier for you to see them.”
Mr. Fox and his assistant both leaned over and studied them carefully.
They read the marked sections several times, going back and forth between the two papers, but neither could make sense of them. They were nothing more than real estate rental listings.
Neither of them saw anything special.
Mr. Fox frowned.
“I don’t know what any of this means. Is there some special significance to it?”
William showed no irritation whatsoever.
He was extremely patient. After all, when dealing with an excellent customer and the money in that customer’s pocket, anyone who needed money could become patient.
He walked around to Mr. Fox’s side of the desk.
One of the bodyguards moved to stop him, but Mr. Fox waved him off.
That small gesture meant William had earned a measure of Mr. Fox’s trust, at least temporarily.
If he could deliver on what he had promised, that trust would last a long time.
“This listing advertises two street-facing apartment buildings. The monthly rent on this one is...” William pointed at the underlined section and deliberately left the sentence unfinished.
Mr. Fox instinctively supplied the answer.
“One hundred and thirty-five dollars.”
William nodded.
“That’s right. One hundred and thirty-five dollars. Let’s ignore everything else and look at the property beside it...”
Mr. Fox cooperatively shifted his gaze to the underlined listing in the other newspaper.
“One hundred and seventy-two dollars.”
“The two apartment buildings sit on opposite sides of the street, and the straight-line distance between them is less than a hundred feet. Looking at this price change, Mr. Fox, what do you notice?”
Mr. Fox thought for a moment before answering seriously.
“The monthly rent increased by thirty-seven dollars.”
In William’s previous life, throughout all of his successful ventures, he had always believed one thing:
The deeper you involved people in the process, the more time you saved, and the more hidden obstacles revealed themselves.
People would persuade themselves.
They would convince themselves that the conclusions they reached were correct.
This tendency was especially obvious in mathematics.
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