73 Chapter Seventy-Two
◎ Suspension bridge effect. ◎
"What the hell are you talking about!" Li Boqing slapped Li Lianfeng across the face and said sternly, "I usually turn a blind eye to you taking a few coins from home, but you dare to ask for money from Xiaohua City? And you even let that woman Wang Wenxiang hold your manhood in her hands!"
Li Boqing grew angrier as he spoke, spitting all over his face. "You damn fool! Tell me! Where did that two million go?"
Li Lianfeng chuckled to himself, thinking: Two million is so easy to spend, but twenty thousand would be gone in a few spending sessions.
"Grandpa, I'm putting my own money into all those cultural and tourism projects in the city—"
Li Boqing couldn't stand his nonsense. Sitting in his wheelchair, he swung his arm and slapped him across the face. Li Lianfeng was caught off guard and turned his face away, his gold-rimmed glasses flying off and shattering on the ground.
He bent down to pick it up and said helplessly, "Really? Let's not talk about the distant past, but just look at the recent past. You just talk about reviving wooden toys, but if I don't throw some money into it, who will support you? Who will play this old horse still in the stable with you? What do you think Qian Dongchang is up to? What could a sexual harasser have in his head?"
"Besides, do you think this is still the year 2000? The county leadership has changed three or four times. Who still remembers your glorious days of venturing into eastern Guangdong all by yourself? How long has it been since Secretary Wu last visited you? Don't you have any self-awareness? You could only take advantage of Yu Renjie and his son. Oh, now that Li Yingqiao and Zhang Zongxie are protecting you, you can't take advantage of them anymore."
“But what’s with you turning around and picking a fight with me? I’ve spent all my money. I’m being transferred to the countryside now because I don’t want to embarrass you or ruin your reputation in your old age. You should be grateful to have a grandson like me who knows when to advance and retreat, but why are you hitting me?”
These words made Li Boqing blush and turn green, and he pointed at him with a trembling finger, saying, "...It's only because your father died early, otherwise, I would have beaten you to death." After saying that, he turned his wheelchair around and went into the study, "Get in here and give this document to Zhang Zongxie."
Two documents, plus a share transfer agreement. Li Lianfeng called Zhang Zongxie, who asked him to deliver them to Xiaohua City. Li Yingqiao was there too. He hadn't expected this love triangle to have a sequel. So he stood under a tree some distance away, watching with great interest for a while.
The two sat in a wonton noodle shop at the entrance of the scenic area, chatting about something. Li Yingqiao was wearing a knee-length oatmeal-colored cashmere coat, revealing a black turtleneck sweater layered underneath, and a fishtail skirt. She was idly swaying the hem of her skirt.
Zhang Zongxie said something, and she laughed. Her whole person seemed to be enveloped in a hazy halo, and that halo was also ethereal, like crystal snowflakes swirling under a street lamp. Suddenly, it clearly jumped into my eyes and could never be erased.
Li Yingqiao picked up her phone from the table as if to pay the bill, but then, as if sensing something, she suddenly glanced over here. Tsk, beautiful women are really good at detecting men's gazes.
Zhang Zongxie's gaze also shifted to the side, and upon seeing him, he didn't say anything more.
Li Lianfeng then looked away, walked over dejectedly, and threw the documents on the table: "Here's what you wanted. Mr. Zhang, please be lenient and let my grandfather off the hook. The old man is almost in the grave; he won't be able to cause trouble for many more years."
Zhang Zongxie glanced at him, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and went to open the file bag on his own.
Only then did Li Yingqiao notice that his glasses frame was broken and one eyeglass frame was empty. She laughed and said, "You look so disheveled, Minister Li. Why don't you sit down and have something to eat? I'll have the owner cook you a bowl of noodles."
"Beef noodles, please." Li Lianfeng was genuinely hungry and didn't stand on ceremony. "I'm no longer a minister; I'm working at the grassroots level now."
Zhang Zongxie tossed the document back onto the table, pulled a pen from the suit jacket hanging on the back of the chair next to him, quickly signed a few words on the paper, and said casually, "The old man is quite quick. I thought I would have to wait a while."
Li Lianfeng glanced at him, scoffed, and said, "What are you pretending to be stupid for? I just came out of the study, and the old man told me everything."
Two days ago at a dinner party, Zhang Zongxie publicly challenged him. This was the second time that the old man had lost face in front of everyone at a dinner party in Fengtan. The first time was when Li Yingqiao did it.
The difference was that at that dinner, only Li Yingqiao and Yu Jinyang, two younger generation members, were present. Apart from Qian Dongchang being quite angry, no one else held a grudge, because the two of them were seen growing up by the seniors in the wooden toy circle, and they couldn't overcome the mountain of their fathers.
But this time, Zhang Zongxie's dinner party was filled with his people. Even the leaders of the cultural and tourism department who usually acted high and mighty couldn't help but lower their heads and wrinkle their faces when they spoke to him. After all, they were all old leeches, how could they not smell the blood?
Moreover, with 300 million yuan in his hands, Li Boqing could only watch helplessly as this young man trampled on his grave.
"Zongxie greatly admires Mr. Li's spirit in pioneering Fengtan in his early years. Although I don't live here long, my elders have told me about this legendary history, and I've always admired Mr. Li's business acumen. But to be honest, even if it were a mine, it would have been completely destroyed by now, let alone a piece of rotten land buried with some unknown stuff. What could possibly be found there? People can't always live in the past. As the saying goes, a hero doesn't dwell on past glories. Besides, perhaps none of you here know how Fengtan's first wooden toy was created, but Mr. Li should know very well."
Li Boqing's face immediately turned pale, but Zhang Zongxie stood up, raised his glass with a smile, and said, "You are all very busy people, yet you still take time out of your busy schedules to show respect to the elderly. Surely no one really thinks we are their filial sons and grandsons, coming here specifically to please the old man, right? I'll just say what I have to say. Old man, don't try to interfere in everything. Those who know you have sentiments, but those who don't know you think the leaders are all useless people who hold positions without doing their jobs."
Li Boqing was initially stunned. If he couldn't understand Zhang Zongxie's meaning before, how could he not understand it now? He looked at the crowd of people who were laughing and agreeing with him. The eyes of these leeches were red; they would swarm towards any blood that was sucking their blood. Since that was the case, he wanted to see what Zhang Zongxie's fate would be.
But his heart sank suddenly. So be it. He had been busy his whole life, devoting himself to Fengtan wooden toys. In the end, his great achievements became someone else's stepping stone, and would eventually be engraved on someone else's tombstone.
As they left, the leaders apologized and departed. Once the acquisition of Xiaohua City was finalized, the cultural tourism sector would be busy for a while. Convey Capital was going to enter the county's cultural tourism sector, so wouldn't they have to treat them like gods of wealth, day and night? This matter, which had affected the nerves of all parties in Fengtan, was finally settled. No one cared about Li Boqing's expression anymore, and they all left with beaming faces.
Fengtan has already changed drastically, but some people are completely unaware of it.
"You have no idea about the feud between our two families. What right do you have to stand up for Yu Renjie? You're just a greenhorn who hasn't even grown up yet. You have absolutely no respect for your elders!"
After speaking, Li Boqing's face turned ashen, and his arms, thin and withered, laboriously rolled the wheels of his wheelchair, like an old bird with broken wings struggling in its nest, stumbling and bumping against the edge of the table, before finally awkwardly turning the wheelchair around to leave—
Zhang Zongxie picked up the suit jacket from the back of the chair, glanced over Li's legs, and said to him, "Mr. Li, do you know that wheelchairs can be electric? You don't have to do it manually; you can move it with a remote control on the armrests. Mr. Yu's is one like that; his son bought it from abroad."
Two million!
That brat embezzled two million from the art market; I wonder if I could even buy him a ten-thousand-yuan electric wheelchair. His salary isn't enough; does he give him little pocket money? Having a son is worse than having a piece of char siu (barbecued pork); he's like char siu giving birth to another piece of char siu! If Lingling were still here…
***
The next day, Li Yingqiao went to work as usual. Just as she was about to report the acquisition to Wang Wenxiang, she saw Wang Wenxiang packing her things and putting thermos cups into cardboard boxes. She hurriedly asked, "Where are you going?"
Wang Wenxiang didn't say much, only that she had forwarded several emails to Wu Juan, and that she might need to pay attention to the event's timeline to avoid it being overdue.
Li Yingqiao walked up to her and asked, "Did you want to leave, or did Li Boqing force you?"
Wang Wenxiang asked her if she wanted some tea.
“If Li Boqing forced you, Zhang Zongxie is about to return to Beijing to report on his work. The acquisition here is over, and Li Boqing has withdrawn completely. He can’t decide your fate,” Li Yingqiao said, staring at her.
Wang Wenxiang didn't look at her, nor did she stop what she was doing. She continued tidying up and said, "Li Yingqiao, not everyone is as energetic as you every day. I'm tired. Can't I take a break?"
"Come on, you have the energy to take care of two kids, but not the energy to go to work."
“I’m planning to take the kids abroad for a while,” Wang Wenxiang chuckled, put the last photo frame on the table into a cardboard box, looked up at her and said, “Congratulations in advance on the completion of the Convey Capital acquisition. You can sit in my seat right away.”
Li Yingqiao was stunned. "What do you mean?"
"Didn't Zhang Zongxie tell you?" Wang Wenxiang didn't say anything more, and lowered her head to continue packing her things silently.
Li Yingqiao slammed the office door shut. When the phone call she had been dialing on her way back finally connected, she bombarded him with questions: "What are you doing, Zhang Zongxie? Are you trying to apply your Beijing methods to me? Our small art city is in dire need of manpower right now. You've driven Wang Wenxiang away. How am I supposed to get back to work?"
A lighter clicked across the table. Zhang Zongxie took advantage of a break from his social engagement to smoke a cigarette, only to be met with a sarcastic laugh: "Why don't you ask Xiang Jie first what I told her? Do I not even have this much trust in you? Am I crazy? Would I have such a heart to scheme against you two? I just let her choose: either work for you or find another job. She herself doesn't want to be subordinate to you, can't you see the problem? Li Yingqiao, you're not much better. You've been back for so long, and you can't even handle Wang Wenxiang. Have you gone mad from being in love?"
Li Yingqiao stood by the window, phone in hand, with a huge poster of Yu Jinyang fluttering in the wind. She hadn't seen him for several days, and she missed the arrogant Yu Jinyang. Occasionally, she could hear intermittent bursts of sound coming from the studio in Crazy Harbor, vaguely reminding her of the trembling floor in the underground dance troupe in the provincial capital. The sound system made her scalp tingle, and it felt like a spring was wound up in her chest, with the deep bass pounding on her heart, making her heart pound and tighten. It was a completely different world, but this was Yu Jinyang's world, and she wanted to stay there.
Yu Jinyang covered her ears and leaned down to ask in her ear, "Are you used to it? If not, we'll leave."
Li Yingqiao turned to look at him and said, "I'm not leaving, it's fun." Then she covered his ears and leaned closer to say, "There's a suspension bridge effect, Yu Jinyang."
Yu Jinyang chuckled softly, pinching her ear lightly to indicate that everything was normal. But on the way back, he suddenly picked her up and tossed her high into the air under a streetlamp. Caught off guard, she screamed and grabbed his T-shirt collar, only to hear him laughing and asking in her ear, "Are you still going to do the suspension bridge? What were you saying to me just now? What are you going to do?"
She kicked off him and skillfully grabbed his hair, scratching his fluffy head. After a flurry of scratching, she grabbed his neck and shook him violently, lifting her knees and slamming them against him repeatedly, shouting, "If you try to surprise me with a princess carry again, I'll scratch you to death!"
Yu Jinyang pretended to be hurt, winced in pain, frowned, and groaned. He grabbed her waist with his right hand and pinched her hard. The two of them fought their way back to the hotel, barely managing to stay afloat. As soon as they entered the hotel room, they started kissing again without saying a word.
...
Li Yingqiao hung up the phone, cutting off her thoughts. Turning around, she saw Pan Xiaoliang suddenly rush in and say, "Report! There's trouble at the shop."
It's nothing more than who's overshadowing others, who's secretly waging a price war, and who's poaching whose VIP customers.
Li Yingqiao was so tired. It was truly a case of one misfortune after another. She was still thinking about how to coax Wang Wenxiang to stay. She silently poured herself a cup of coffee, thinking that she needed to perk herself up.
As a result, Pan Xiaoliang stood there proudly and loudly, saying that this time it was two fans who got into a fight!
Wait a minute?
"Who are the fans? Who are the two?" Li Yingqiao could hardly believe her ears when she heard the name.
“Just our Xiao Yang’s fans,” Pan Xiaoliang said, emphasizing each word.
"No, the other one."
"That top influencer who gets 100,000 comments and a million likes with every Weibo post, who can trend on social media just by posting 'hello,' and who gained three million followers overnight on Douyin."
Li Yingqiao put down her coffee and rushed to the scene of the fight to check it out, but she kept muttering to herself: How dare they!
No, Yang Shengjian fans, you're not even close to Yang Shengjian's status! Where did you get the audacity to try and piggyback on the fame of top-tier fans?!
She didn't ask any further questions, assuming that the "fans" Pan Xiaoliang was referring to were the old ladies of Xiaohuacheng, a group of elderly women who couldn't afford to lose a single tooth, yet they would bite anyone they could get their hands on.
[Author's Note]
See you the day after tomorrow! This one also comes with a red envelope!!!
Happy reading!
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