I put aside my doubts, straightened my wrinkled clothes, and got into Sun Jiwei's car. He didn't explain why he came; he just smiled at me and started the car.
After the car had driven for a while, I finally couldn't hold back and asked him, "Brother Sun, why are you the one who came to pick me up?"
"Don't rush to talk about this. Let's find a place to have a drink first, and then I'll talk to you slowly."
I nodded, and Sun Jiwei sped up, but instead of heading back to Longkan, he drove towards the ancient city.
About twenty minutes later, Sun Jiwei led me to a very inconspicuous alley in the ancient city. There was a coffee shop inside, and the owner seemed to be a friend of Sun Jiwei. After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Sun Jiwei led me to sit down and then asked me what I wanted to drink.
I didn't order coffee; I just asked the owner for a dozen "Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon" beers.
The weather in Dali is quite unique. Although it snowed on Cangshan Mountain yesterday, the temperature quickly returned to around 20 degrees Celsius when the sun came out. There were even tourists wearing short sleeves on the street, while Cangshan Mountain remained a vast expanse of white.
This unique climate means that Dali will inevitably experience a new peak tourist season in winter, as many people from other places will choose to come here to escape the cold.
As I watched the tourists come and go, walking through this nameless alley, it felt like I was watching business opportunities slip away from my hands. My heart was filled with disappointment. I felt sorry for Wang Lei. After this incident, I not only ruined her feelings for me, but also wasted the money she earned with her dignity.
I think the inn must have been sold. Of course, I can't let Coach Ma and Tie Nan share the loss from the sale. This money can only be deducted from my investment. But in a place like Dali, how much effort do I need to make back the more than 200,000 yuan I lost?
The more I thought about it, the stronger the sense of despair I felt was than when I was in Shanghai. In a fit of rage, I bit open the beer bottle with my teeth and then drank half of it in one gulp. Only when the cold liquid stimulated my brain did I feel myself calm down.
Sun Jiwei handed me a cigarette. After I lit it, I asked him, "Brother Sun, can you tell me what exactly happened?"
Sun Jiwei took a sip of coffee and replied, “Yesterday, after hearing about what happened at your inn, I went to find Bai Lu immediately… When I found her, you had already decided to transfer the inn to that bastard you beat up in order to protect you… I didn’t agree. This is clearly a setup. If he succeeds, who from out of town would dare to invest in Dali in the future? Will Dali’s tourism economy still be able to develop?… Luckily, I have a friend who works at the Public Security Bureau. I asked him to help me hold your case in check and not submit it to the procuratorate for approval. After buying some time, we started our investigation and found that the bastard you beat up was indeed related to Cao Jinbo. We found at the Industry and Commerce Bureau that he and Cao Jinbo jointly owned a bar in the Old Town, and they also jointly owned a logistics company.”
I wasn't surprised, because I had already decided in my heart that it was this bastard who did it.
Sun Jiwei continued, "Cao Jinbo made his first fortune through organized crime in his early years. In recent years, he's tried to clean up his act, so he seized the opportunity presented by Dali's booming tourism industry and invested in numerous bars and guesthouses. His largest investment was in a seaside guesthouse in Shuanglang. These are legitimate businesses, but when faced with business competition, his approach still reflects typical organized crime thinking. A few years ago, a Beijing man opened a very profitable bar in Dali, which ruined Cao Jinbo's business. He would often gather a group of people in the bar without spending any money. Later, he colluded with the bar's landlord to constantly harass the Beijing man. Cao Jinbo, who runs a business, couldn't stand being constantly bothered by these problems. Finally, he had no choice but to sell the bar to him at a low price. What was originally a profitable bar ended up costing him hundreds of thousands of yuan."
"Isn't anyone going to do anything about his lawlessness?"
"They're all doing things that skirt the edge of the law, and they have connections themselves, so they're hard to manage!"
I shifted my attention away from other matters and asked, "So what happened to our inn in the end? Did Bai Lu and the others sign a transfer agreement?"
"I've investigated this far, how could I let her sign?... Later, I found Cao Jinbo and confronted him directly. I assured him that his seaside inn in Shuanglang would definitely be among the second batch to reopen, and asked him to let him off the hook... Actually, his inn originally had a chance to reopen in the first batch, but this guy was a bit arrogant, thinking he had connections, and he was sloppy with environmental protection. Who knew the higher-ups would be so strict this time, refusing to issue him a wastewater discharge permit, and not including his inn in the first batch of reopening lists... After weighing the options, he gave me face and promised not to cause trouble for your inn anymore..."
"so?"
So your inn was saved!
My heart, which was almost buried in hell with no way out, was instantly lifted up to a sunny height by a warm hot air balloon. I even became unsteady on my feet because of this sudden good news.
After calming down for a long time, I nodded to Sun Jiwei and said, "Brother Sun, thank you so much this time. If it weren't for your help, I really wouldn't know how to explain it to my friends!"
Sun Jiwei smiled and said, "I'm just returning a favor. Compared to how you saved my wife and child, what I did is nothing."
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