Chapter 39: Messed with the Wrong Person

Yang Jian couldn't help but gulp, the taste of blood filling his mouth.

He was about to hear the deepest secret of Anhua City's underworld!

His body trembled uncontrollably.

Guo Lei continued, "In that fight, the opponent was actually just one person."

Then he said no more. Yang Jian, who was still waiting for him to continue, was dumbfounded.

"What do you mean? You must be joking. One person took out four top assassins and Pang Dahai? And what does any of this have to do with my life?"

Guo Lei blinked but still didn't say a word.

"Are you saying I might be killed by that person too? You've got to be kidding. How can I compare to Master Fatty? Am I even worth his time?"

Guo Lei just kept blinking.

"Master Guo, can you stop being so mysterious? You're really going to mess with me when I'm this injured? You've got some nerve."

Guo Lei chuckled. "I've already told you the whole truth, but you just refuse to believe me. What am I supposed to do?"

"You haven't told me anything!"

"Just use your brain, you idiot! You can figure it out!"

Yang Jian's eyes suddenly flew wide. "You mean... that person is Mu Lin?"

Guo Lei nodded slowly. "There's hope for you yet. That man's background is unfathomable. He could do whatever he wanted in Anhua City, but he doesn't, which shows he's a relatively easygoing person. Unless... some fool is blind enough to provoke him."

Yang Jian's face went rigid. His eyes bulged, and his anger was extinguished as if doused by a bucket of cold water.

He'd been in the game since he was young, and he knew all too well why some big shots just disappeared. It was always because they'd offended some low-level nobody they couldn't afford to provoke. Some had their entire families wiped out overnight, some had their fortunes go up in smoke, and others had their dirty ledgers exposed and ended up rotting in prison.

And Mu Lin was exactly that kind of untouchable nobody. He looked unassuming, but if you crossed him, you'd end up dead with no grave to call your own.

He couldn't sit still any longer. He scrambled from his seat and fell to his knees with a THUD.

"Master Guo, Master Guo, save me! I'm begging you, show me a way out of this!"

Guo Lei let out a long sigh. "Why did it have to come to this? Making such a scene... it's not a good look."

"Get up. I'll show you the way..."

Meanwhile, the Li Group had descended into chaos.

Li Xue was reviewing documents when her secretary burst in frantically.

"President Li, this is terrible! A ton of our suppliers called at the same time. They said that starting this afternoon, they're cutting off all our shipments. We won't get so much as a bag of cement or a single brick!"

Li Xue was stunned. 'How can this be?' she thought. 'We've always had a great working relationship with them. Why would they suddenly cut off our supply?'

'Do they have something against making money?'

"Did they give a reason? Did you find out why?"

"They said that you, President Li, know perfectly well."

'Damn it! What the hell am I supposed to know?!'

She rushed out of her office without another word.

Li Yinhe was also outside, a panicked look on his face. "Xue'Er, I heard all the suppliers are cutting us off?"

Li Xue smoothed her disheveled hair, forcing herself to remain calm.

"I just heard myself!"

She then turned to her secretary, who, having actually taken the calls, was now the most important person there.

"From bricks and cement to interior furnishings, cables, and pipes—all of our suppliers have sent notices that they're halting shipments... At a few of the construction sites, they even sent trucks to haul away the existing inventory!"

"Work has ground to a halt at nearly half our sites. The construction crews have started playing cards."

Li Yinhe's eyes widened. "Is it really that bad? Don't exaggerate. This is a critical time for the Group!"

"It's the absolute truth," the secretary said. She was a company veteran, having joined the Li Group right out of college. She'd worked her way up through the ranks until Li Yinhe had appointed her as Li Xue's secretary. Her dedication to the company was every bit as strong as a member of the Li Family.

Her words made even Li Yinhe panic. "What in the world is going on?!"

The Li Group's consumption of building materials was immense; cutting them off would mean a huge loss for the suppliers, too.

This meant they would have to stockpile huge quantities of goods in their warehouses, a logistical nightmare.

The secretary said, "I've instructed the warehouse managers on site to buy some materials from retail markets to supplement our needs. If we don't ask for invoices, no one should be able to trace it back to our company."

Li Yinhe nodded at the secretary. "Good thinking. You'll be rewarded for this!"

But Li Xue was worried. "That's a good stopgap, but if this drags on, we'll be discovered sooner or later. How do we solve this problem for good?"

Just then, Lu Baichuan and his son, Lu Yi, walked out. Lu Yi asked with a very serious expression, "I hear the suppliers have cut us off?"

Lu Baichuan added, "Li Yinhe, this is an extremely serious problem. You need to solve it, and fast! Every day of stopped work costs millions in losses! You can't afford that!"

Li Yinhe wiped sweat from his brow. As much as he hated being lectured by Lu Baichuan, the problem really was that severe.

One wrong move and the Li Group's entire financial chain could collapse.

Suddenly, Li Xue felt something wasn't right. Her secretary had received the calls and come straight to her.

'So, who told the Lu Family?'

'Project Team One? Those guys never set foot on a construction site. The chances of them discovering this were practically zero.'

'Which means this must be their scheme.'

Just then, Cui Chun ran over, his face covered in sweat. The moment he saw the group, he yelled:

"It's terrible, the material shipments have been cut off! Several projects are at a standstill!"

'So he got the news too...' Li Xue thought. 'That makes it harder to blame the Lu Family.'

Li Yinhe was completely baffled. "Everyone, calm down. The one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it. Since it's come to this, we might as well ask them directly why they're so insistent on cutting off our supply."

He still had the phone numbers of his old partners; he knew exactly who the bosses behind these supply companies were.

The phone rang a few times before connecting.

"Hello, Xiaowang! Why did your construction materials brand suddenly cut off shipments to the Li Group? I've been giving your family business since your father's time."

Li Yinhe had the call on speaker, and he yelled with his hands on his hips.

"Heh, you've got some nerve. Someone from your Li Group's project department went to my buddy's place to collect a debt and beat him so badly he's got internal bleeding! Did you think I'm some kind of saint who wouldn't get angry, is that it?"

'What in the world is he talking about?'

Li Yinhe was bewildered. The Li Group had always been strictly managed. For every department, from project management to the rest, the number one rule was to conduct business in a civilized manner. Assaulting someone was an absolute taboo, an offense that would get you fired!

'Who would possibly risk getting fired to beat someone up?'

"Could there be some mistake?" Li Yinhe asked. "We don't have people at our company who would just assault someone!"

"So you're saying my brother is lying to me with his life on the line?" Xiaowang's voice on the other end of the line was overpowering, enough to make anyone's head spin.

"No, no, that's not what I meant at all! Can you please give me some time for an internal investigation? I'll give you a response as soon as it's complete. Until then, I'm begging you, please resume the shipments!"

"Not a chance!" With that, the call was disconnected.

Elder Li and Chen Quan slowly approached, leaning on their canes. "Why are so many of you gathered here? I just overheard something... what's this about the supply being cut?"

The sight of the old man made Li Yinhe's head buzz. The Li Group was Elder Li's life's work; if he found out their supply had been cut, he might worry himself to death.

"It's nothing, Dad. Just a small problem. We can solve it with a little communication!"

But Lu Baichuan just chuckled smugly. "You're really something else, Li Yinhe. Getting completely cut off by your biggest supplier is just a 'small matter' to you?"

Elder Li's expression immediately turned grave. "Li Yinhe, don't try to fool me," he said sternly. "Tell me the truth. What happened?"

Li Yinhe, thoroughly embarrassed, had no choice but to explain everything. "It's a very difficult situation right now. But please, don't worry. Nothing is impossible if you put your heart into it. With enough sincerity, we can definitely win that person over."

Chen Xi and Mu Lin drove back to the company, returned the car, and then walked cheerfully toward the entrance.

Before he even reached the door, Chen Xi was already shouting gleefully, "Lu Yi, get out here and look! I got all seven million of the debt back!"

Everyone inside who heard this froze as if they had been struck by lightning.

'Of course,' they thought. 'How could we have forgotten about this agent of chaos!'

Chen Xi burst in, full of energy, only to stop short when he realized everyone was staring at him.

"Ta-da! Look everyone, I collected the entire debt!"