Chapter 104: A Debt of Favor is Hard to Repay

Li Xue: He's a trained martial artist. He sent the guy flying more than ten meters with a single punch. I was scared stiff.

Ye Chunshui: Oh, so that was him in the GIF? I didn't recognize him since you could only see his back.

With that, Ye Chunshui sent the GIF to Li Xue.

Li Xue saw Wu Long rushing a slender woman outside the Li Group building. A man dashed in front of the woman and sent Wu Long flying with a kick.

And that was it.

Li Xue: Yep, that's him.

Ye Chunshui: You're not actually falling for him, are you?

Li Xue: Piss off!

Ye Chunshui: If you don't want him, I'll take him!

Li Xue: Take him if you want him, he's all yours! So annoying!

After sending that, she turned off her phone to sleep. Any further messages from Ye Chunshui went unread.

But she couldn't fall asleep.

Mu Lin hadn't slept all night either, trying to figure out how the Li Group could survive the threat from the Yang Family.

'It's hard. So hard.'

'He didn't have much time, and he couldn't possibly stay at the Li Group forever.'

'Elder Li was very good to him. And while Li Xue was always complaining, she was a good person at heart.'

'But Li Xue would find her true love eventually, and when that happened, he couldn't just stick around being a third wheel.'

'It would be incredibly awkward for Li Xue, and he didn't have the heart to do that to her.'

'The only solution was to uproot the Yang Family completely, leaving no threat behind.'

Mu Lin sat in his office, looking worn out.

Chen Xi asked, "Brother Lin, what's wrong? I've got some ginseng slices. Want one?"

"Get out of here! My internal energy is already low. If you try to supplement it with external stuff, you'll just be hurting me, not helping!"

Chen Xi didn't get it. All he understood was that Mu Lin didn't want the ginseng.

He shook his head and popped the ginseng slice into his own mouth.

'Can't let it go to waste.'

Mu Lin's phone rang. He answered it and was surprised to hear Captain Meng from the security team.

"Captain Meng, why are you calling my cell phone? Shouldn't you have called the office line?"

"It's just the number I had on hand. Is there a problem?" Captain Meng said. "Listen, a man and a woman are here, and they're asking for you by name."

'A man and a woman? Could it be Mr. and Mrs. Qiao?'

'Didn't they say their flight was this afternoon? Why would they come looking for me in the morning?'

'Maybe it's someone else?' He asked cautiously, "Is the woman pretty?"

Captain Meng's tone immediately grew excited. "Pretty? She's gorgeous! I've never seen anyone so beautiful! I could throw out my entire collection of hundreds of porn DVDs."

That confirmed it for Mu Lin. It had to be Mr. and Mrs. Qiao. He immediately stood and went downstairs to greet them.

"Chairman Qiao, Madam Qiao, I didn't expect to see you two again!"

Qiao Canhua said, "I'd like to meet with President Li. Could you arrange an introduction?"

'Shouldn't he be asking a secretary for this? It's a little strange for him to ask me to make the introduction, isn't it?'

The thought circled in Mu Lin's mind, but he quickly dismissed it.

'Qiao Canhua knows Elder Zhao, so he must know about my situation with Li Xue.'

'He's probably just trying to be discreet and save some time, so he's using me as a direct channel to get to her.'

"Sure, I'll get in touch with her for you."

Mu Lin quickly made the call.

Li Xue was propped up on her pillow, catching up on sleep, when she saw her phone ring and quickly glanced at it.

Seeing it was Mu Lin, she rolled her eyes, not wanting to deal with him at all.

After a moment's hesitation, she answered. "What is it?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Qiao are here to see you. Should I bring them up?"

Li Xue quickly straightened her pillow and drained the coffee from her cup.

"Yes, of course. Bring them in."

Mu Lin led Mr. and Mrs. Qiao to the office door. "I'll leave you here," he said. "Please, go on in."

Qiao Canhua smiled. "Why not come in with us?"

Mu Lin chuckled. "At work, she's the boss and I'm just me. I'd better not get involved. It would be awkward for everyone if she kicked me out."

'Alright then…' Qiao Canhua shook his head with a helpless smile. Mu Lin was really something else.

'He didn't understand the ways of young people.'

Qiao Canhua pushed the door open himself and called out warmly, "President Li! I trust you've been well?"

Seeing Qiao Canhua, Li Xue was also thrilled.

"Chairman Qiao, I never expected you to visit my office. With your prestige, I should be the one visiting you for your guidance. This... I'm truly at a loss for words!"

Qiao Canhua waved his hand good-naturedly. "The contract may be signed, but some of the finer details still need to be settled."

Qiao Canhua took a document from his bag and handed it to Li Xue.

Li Xue asked, puzzled, "Chairman Qiao, what's this?"

"A letter of intent, to finalize the price of the project," Qiao Canhua said. "Take a look. If it seems right, go ahead and sign it."

Li Xue opened the letter of intent, skipping past the standard pleasantries at the beginning and going straight to its core: the project's transfer price.

No more than ten million.

"This low?" Li Xue said, stunned.

'Isn't this basically giving it away for free? For a major corporation, this amount is nothing. The wire transfer fees alone for a few transactions would cost more than this.'

"Why?" Li Xue pressed. "This is far too cheap."

Qiao Canhua chuckled. "Let's just say we're building a friendship. There will be many opportunities to cooperate in the future. Besides, Mu Xiaoyou helped me a great deal, and I ought to repay the favor."

Li Xue pursed her lips. His words made her uncomfortable.

'Lumping the company's fate together with Mu Lin's... When it's a good thing like this, fine, she could accept it.'

'The problem was, Mu Lin didn't just do good things. He caused just as much trouble.'

'Fortunately, Qiao Canhua and Mu Lin were already well-acquainted, so he wasn't likely to cause him any harm.'

After she put the document down, Mr. and Mrs. Qiao shared a smile and turned to leave.

Li Xue immediately stood up and hurried to Li Yinhe's office.

"Dad!"

Li Yinhe frowned. "Didn't I tell you to call me 'Chairman' at the office?"

"Just look at this!" Li Xue slapped the document down on his desk.

Li Yinhe gave it a casual glance, but then his eyes locked onto the incredibly low number.

"This cheap? Is Chairman Qiao running a charity?" Li Yinhe exclaimed.

"I've checked it over. It's just a memorandum regarding the transaction price. There are no restrictive clauses... everything will be executed according to the contract we already signed."

"So, I'm afraid he really is running a charity..." Li Xue said, a bitter twist to her lips. "Dad, I have a theory... I think he gave us this price on account of Mu Lin..."

Li Yinhe scoffed. "How is that possible? Mu Lin is just some kid from the mountains. How could he have that much clout? He might be a good fighter, and maybe his medical skills are decent, but that's not enough to make the chairman of a major group concede this much."

"If he reports this to his board of directors, they'll tear him apart! Does Qiao Canhua even want to be chairman anymore?"

As a fellow chairman, Li Yinhe knew all too well the pressures of the position.

Little did he know, this plot was just one of Shengding Group's countless properties, and not even a core asset.

It wasn't even significant enough to bring before the board for discussion. Qiao Canhua truly did have the authority to set the price and grant such a personal favor.

Mu Lin was waiting in the hallway. When he saw Qiao Canhua emerge, he went to meet him.

"Mu Xiaoyou, I suppose this is a real farewell," Qiao Canhua said, extending his hand. They shook.

"What sort of document did you come to deliver? Why did you have to make the trip in person?"

"Just a memorandum on the pricing. You can't even call it a contract," Qiao Canhua said with a smile. "Besides, I wanted to see you. So, what do you say? Are you sure you won't come with me? A vice president position is just sitting there waiting for you!"

Mu Lin shook his head firmly. "Mr. Qiao, I'm sorry, but my heart's just not in it. But even if we can't make a deal, the goodwill remains, right?"

"Aren't you even a little curious what price I set for the South City Lot 6?"

Mu Lin shook his head. "I have no idea."

Qiao Canhua smiled. "Ten million..."

With that, he put his arm around his wife and walked away, giving Mu Lin no chance to say another word.

Mu Lin let out a long sigh. The man had saddled him with a massive debt of gratitude right at the end.

'If he were a cold, heartless person, it would be fine. But if he had even a shred of conscience, this was going to be a problem.'

'He was destined to owe this debt.'

Turning back to his office, Mu Lin slapped the desk twice.

"Alright, everyone, wake up! We've got work to do!"

The three princelings snapped their heads up, looking at Mu Lin nervously.

"Work? What kind of work?"

Mu Lin paused. "To be honest, I'm not sure yet. But these are eventful times, and it's the perfect opportunity for us to do something big."

The commotion in the Special Group's office was loud enough to attract Xue Yang, who was passing by.

"What's all this ruckus?" Xue Yang was about to reprimand them, but when he saw how few people were left in the office and remembered the incident from yesterday, he let out a long sigh.

"Ah, never mind. Carry on."

'The Special Group had been through enough. He didn't have the heart to chew them out.'