Chapter 133 The Mastermind
Su Youling instinctively covered her forehead with her hand. A sharp pain ran down her arm, and the thick, metallic smell of blood filled her nostrils. Her stomach began to churn again.
These unreasonable barbarians!
She cursed under her breath and was about to call the police when she suddenly heard a muffled thud, accompanied by terrified screams from the crowd and the ground shaking.
As soon as Su Youling looked up, her wrist was enveloped by a pair of dry, warm hands. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the dark-faced man fall against the corner of the wall, knock over a cabinet, and the things on it smashed all over his face.
The people around dared not help, their eyes filled with terror and fear as they looked at Li Tingxi.
"If we don't keep an eye on them, something bad will happen!" Li Tingxi said with a stern face. He ordered Qin He to take the bodyguards to control the group and then pulled Su Youling into the lounge to treat her wounds.
Disinfect, apply medicine, bandage...
He seemed to be familiar with the process when it came to her.
Looking at his earnest and distressed expression, Su Youling felt a warmth in her heart. "It's nothing, just a small cut. Don't keep frowning, it's scary."
Li Tingxi finished bandaging the wound and glared at her. "You're scared?"
Su Youling ignored his teasing, frowned and stared at her arm, thinking that she had been having a really bad time lately, with everything going wrong.
“These workers are a result of Qin He’s poor handling of the situation,” Li Tingxi said grimly. “I will make you vent your anger.”
He stood up to leave, his cold voice and menacing demeanor suggesting he was about to kill someone. Su Youling quickly grabbed his hand, accidentally aggravating the injury on her arm. "Ouch..."
"Don't move." Li Tingxi immediately turned around, took her arm and rubbed it, his eyes filled with self-reproach, "You're always covered in injuries... It's my fault for not protecting you."
Seeing his dejected and self-blaming expression, Su Youling sighed, "It's not your fault! Those people weren't the workers who caused trouble before. They were subcontractors that Zhao Fu signed with who didn't follow the rules. Now that the project is going to fall through, all the money they invested in bribes in the early stages has gone down the drain, so they've come to settle accounts with me."
"The project hasn't been officially announced or finalized yet, why are they suddenly so impatient?" Li Tingxi sensed something was wrong. "You suspect someone is behind this?"
Su Youling considered that it might be Zhao Fu.
But now that Manager Liu is in her hands, and Zhao Fu has even brought out the electronic invitation, she shouldn't do anything that would offend people at this critical juncture.
"Let's ask first." Su Youling stood up, just as Qin He outside asked, "President Li, should we take these people outside to the police station?"
"No need." Su Youling opened the door, glanced behind him, and paused slightly, "How did they get into such a state?"
The burly man with the dark face and the men he brought with him fell to the ground in all sorts of crooked ways, clutching their arms and legs and looking extremely painful. They were all bruised and swollen, and seriously injured.
No wonder I could hear cursing when I first entered, but then it suddenly went quiet.
Qin He looked at her and said calmly, "President Su, please rest assured, it's all superficial injuries. They'll be fine in a couple of days. They just barged into the president's office and injured someone..."
He glanced at Li Tingxi and implied, "It's already being lenient not to cripple him."
Li Tingxi remained silent with a sullen face, pulled out a chair for Su Youling to sit down, and acted like a dutiful assistant. His indifferent and aloof demeanor made him seem out of place among the people here, and he only had eyes for Su Youling.
"Let the protection
#Please do not use incognito mode whenever verification is required!
"An and the bodyguards, get out. We just dealt with the reporters; don't cause too much of a commotion." Su Youling whispered a few words to Qin He. "These people are definitely being directed by someone. That person will surely incite the reporters or paparazzi to make a comeback. You personally keep an eye on things and make sure the situation is under control."
Qin He nodded, and after all the irrelevant people in the room had left, only the burly, dark-faced man who had led the trouble remained.
Su Youling stood up and walked to the dark-faced man's side. "Logically speaking, the contract you signed with Zhao Fu should be shady and violate Yitao's regulations, which is why you didn't show up when the workers came to make trouble before. But today... who gave you permission to come here and block people?"
The burly man with the dark face was unconvinced and originally wanted to clench his fists and fight or curse a few words, but when he looked up, he saw the cold and aloof Li Tingxi protecting Su Youling behind him, like a protective rock.
The man's eyes were sinister, which frightened the big man so much that he immediately stopped moving. He grumbled as he got up and said, "You people from Yitao promised to include us all in the temporary contract worker program. We'll outsource the service, and after the job is done, we'll get a large sum of money. That's how we've always done it."
The burly, dark-faced man angrily complained, "We've already hired people, done the work, and spent so much money upfront, and now Yitao just changes its CEO and cancels the project like that. Isn't this going to kill us? We outsourcing contractors also owe money to banks and raw material factories!"
A burly, tough man with intimidatingly muscular arms and a half-sleeve dragon tattoo was now squatting on the ground, looking up at Su Youling, his eyes red as he spoke, as if he was about to burst into tears at any moment.
If they hadn't been driven to the brink, these people, who are considered somewhat successful in the industry, wouldn't have had to resort to such extreme measures to cause trouble here.
The person behind this probably took advantage of this to incite them to come here today to cause trouble and injure people.
Li Tingxi suddenly stepped forward and kicked him, coldly saying, "Too much nonsense! Who let you in? And how did you break through security and access control to get into the president's office?"
Yitao Culture is a large company with strict internal management. Everyone needs to swipe their cards to enter and exit, and even executives need to swipe their cards to get into the elevator. Without the help of internal staff, they couldn't have broken in like that.
The burly man was startled and showed obvious fear of Li Tingxi. "I...I don't know either."
Li Tingxi's eyes turned cold, and the big man shrank his neck and hid in the corner, his fearful eyes having nowhere to hide, and he had lost all his tough guy demeanor.
“Don’t be afraid.” Su Youling pulled out a chair. “Come and sit down. I think we need to talk. This project involves such a large sum of money, Yitao won’t just give up like this. But I need to know more information before I can think of a way to save it.”
The big man's eyes lit up, and his gaze towards Su Youling changed instantly. Although he still had some doubts, he was now like a piece of driftwood on the sea, about to be overturned by the surging waves at any moment.
Su Youling is the only lifeline he can grasp right now, and he has no choice but to believe it!
The burly man walked past Li Tingxi and carefully sat down in the chair. He winced in pain, seemingly aggravating a wound, but his eyes were no longer filled with resentment or hostility, but with hope and pleading. "President Su, I was reckless just now. We were desperate for money and resorted to this tactic... As long as you can save the project and our jobs, I will do anything."
Li Tingxi looked at him with some displeasure as he almost leaned close to Su Youling, and impatiently tapped the table. "Speak properly."
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