Chapter 43: Back to Normal

After Yang Jian and Xiaowang left, the atmosphere at Li Group gradually returned to normal.

A secretary announced with delighted surprise, "I just got a call! All our suppliers are resuming shipments. The Group's supply chain crisis is over—it was a close call, but this is wonderful news!"

Li Xue felt a great weight lift from her shoulders. Her body felt so light she had the illusion she was about to collapse, and she quickly found a chair to sit down.

Li Yinhe said, "Although this crisis has passed, a review will show that we were far too reliant on a limited number of suppliers, which left us vulnerable to threats. We dodged a bullet today, but there's no guarantee we'll be so lucky next time."

Although Lu Yi was smiling, a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

His meticulously laid plan had failed for some inexplicable reason. He messaged them to ask what was going on, but both Yang Jian and Xiaowang left him on read.

They clearly had no intention of explaining anything to him.

'What the hell are those two up to?'

Back in his office, Lu Yi said resentfully.

Lu Baichuan was in a terrible mood as well, but having experienced far more setbacks in his life than Lu Yi, he was much better at managing his emotions.

"You should thank your lucky stars those two idiots didn't expose you!" Lu Baichuan said gravely. "All the senior executives must know it was your idea. They're just not saying it outright for the sake of company unity."

Lu Yi sneered. "As if they'd dare! With my connections, I have a hundred ways to crush them."

He sat down at his desk and casually nudged the mouse. The movement woke the computer, and he saw a new message on the company intranet.

"A 100,000 yuan bonus awarded to Chen Xi, who is also receiving the Annual Best Contribution Award…"

"Dad!" Lu Yi slammed his hand on the desk—BANG!—and shot to his feet.

Lu Baichuan walked up behind Lu Yi, and his expression turned grim.

"To think they'd give that brat a bonus. Have they no shame!"

'Doesn't everyone know Chen Xi only has this job because of his connections? Giving him a promotion and a bonus at a time like this… Have they no shame at all?'

"Dad, I'll find a way to cause some trouble for them later. We can't let them get too comfortable!"

Lu Baichuan quickly raised a hand to stop him. "That's enough. We stop here! If we push them any further, we'll be digging our own graves."

Just then, Lu Yi's phone suddenly rang.

A glance at the screen showed it was Xiaowang.

"Lu Yi, I thought we were brothers! What does that make me to you, huh? You dumped this huge mess in my lap on purpose, didn't you?"

Xiaowang's aggressive tirade left Lu Yi completely baffled.

"We're brothers, aren't we? We're supposed to get rich together! If I didn't see you as my brother, I never would have introduced you to such a great opportunity!"

"Save it, thanks! You're no brother of mine! From now on, we go our separate ways. Let's not see each other again!"

And with that, the line went dead.

Lu Yi listened to the dial tone, finding the whole thing laughable.

'The entire Li Group will belong to the Lu Family before long,' he thought. 'I was trying to give you a cut, and you turned it down?'

On the other end of the line, Yang Jian and Xiaowang were also seething with anger as they sat in their car.

In their minds, both sides were calling the other a fucking idiot. From this day forward, it was clear they would be walking different paths.

Lu Yi tossed his phone onto the desk. "It's their loss. I'm done with them."

Lu Baichuan's brow was furrowed in thought. The more he considered it, the more he felt something was off.

'It feels like there's a fatal flaw in all this somewhere.'

"No, you need to stay in contact with him. Feel him out, try to figure out what exactly happened when Chen Xi and Mu Lin went to that pig farm to collect the debt."

"Yang Jian's change in attitude was just too abrupt!"

Still basking in the glow of his anticipated victory, Lu Yi answered reflexively, "I get it, Dad. Don't worry, I'll take care of it and make sure it's handled perfectly."

Lu Baichuan pursed his lips. "I've worked for the Li Group for decades. It's time for me to reap the rewards! I don't want any surprises now!"

Lu Yi felt the sheer intensity of his father's presence, so much so that he didn't dare to meet his gaze. He answered earnestly, "Yes, sir! Please rest assured! I will do everything in my power to put you on the highest throne in the Group."

"Keep a close eye on the Special Projects Team. They gave Chen Xi a little taste of victory this time; who knows what he'll pull next."

But Lu Yi dismissed it. "I'm already prepared for that. That useless fool Mu Lin is simple-minded. I goaded him into a do-or-die wager: if he can't land a 20 million contract within a month, the entire Special Projects Team will be disbanded."

"Don't get careless. It's all too easy for shameless people like them to go back on their word."

Lu Yi replied, "Of course. I'll find an opportunity to pressure them. I'll make sure they have no choice but to honor the agreement."

Over in Li Yinhe's office, however, the atmosphere was not nearly as cheerful.

Although they had managed to restore the supply of building materials, the close call left the three members of the Li Family with a profound sense of crisis.

The Lu Family could easily use their connections to undermine the Group, and the Lis had absolutely no way to fight back.

Elder Li sat in Li Yinhe's large, high-backed chair, closing his eyes in exhaustion.

Li Yinhe, on the other hand, was focused on the problem of replacing their material suppliers, occasionally jotting down notes.

Li Xue, however, had nothing to do, her mind left to wander aimlessly.

Suddenly, she asked:

"Dad, why did Yang Jian's attitude change so drastically all of a sudden?"

'The image of Yang Jian on his knees, crawling toward her like a dog… she would never be able to forget that for as long as she lived.'

Li Yinhe put down his pen. After a moment of thought, he could only shake his head.

"I don't know. But it's over now, so there's no point in dwelling on it."

"That said, we need to tighten our management of the project team members. Discipline must be strictly enforced. An incident like Mu Lin dragging Chen Xi to a pig farm to beat someone up for no reason absolutely cannot happen again."

Li Xue pursed her lips. The mention of this brought back Mu Lin's words when he'd admitted to the assault.

'He hadn't done it for anyone else. He'd done it for her!'

'Even though she was always so awful to him, the moment he heard she'd been crying, he had charged in without a second thought.'

'In this whole wide world, what other man would be willing to go to such lengths for her?'

Li Yinhe rapped on the table. "Li Xue! Are you listening? We need to tighten up management! Especially with the Special Projects Team. Have Xue Yang hold some training sessions for them. Anyone who fails the assessment gets half their pay docked."

Li Xue scratched her head. "That'll be tricky. We just gave Chen Xi that Annual Contribution Award; his ego must be soaring right now. If we try to discipline the Special Projects Team at this point, it probably won't go over well."

"Why else do you think I'm asking you, the CEO, to handle it?"

Li Xue had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree. "Alright, I'll do it."

Elder Li chuckled. "Xue'er, my dear, this husband I found for you is a good one, isn't he? A man willing to stand up for his wife like that is a rare find these days!"

Li Xue looked mortified. 'This is killing me,' she thought. 'Why did Grandpa have to wake up at the worst possible moment!'

'Couldn't he just say a little less?'

'Besides, this is a completely fake marriage, just to fool him.'

Feeling flustered and guilty, Li Xue could only force herself to agree.

Li Yinhe was practically dying of secondhand embarrassment and quickly changed the subject.

"We may have solved the building material supply issue for now, but the core crisis is far from over. Lu Baichuan has secured the development rights for South Side Lot 6. What are we going to do? That's a personal achievement for him, and on a corporate level, we have no project that can compete. If we can't land a bigger project, the entire Group will end up following the Lu Family's lead. It's not out of the question that the board of directors could vote us out at the next meeting."

Elder Li tilted his head and scratched it. "That is indeed very dangerous. But a company… in the end, it's just an empty shell. If it's gone, it's gone. We can just start a new one, and that'll be that, right?"

Li Yinhe and Li Xue looked at each other, their blood running cold. The sheer nerve of the old man who had founded the Li Group was truly on another level.

But they couldn't do that. The thought of starting a business from scratch—the sheer hardship of it all—seemed like a near-impossible task to them.

Besides, the Li Group was hardly an empty shell. The biggest deal in the company's history was tied to this so-called "shell."

The project that was all but guaranteed from the Dingli Group!

No matter how cavalier they tried to be, they couldn't stomach the thought of handing that project over to the Lu Family.

"For now, our only option is to discreetly gather intelligence on South Side Lot 6. First, we need to figure out how Lu Baichuan pulled it off, then we can investigate other angles!"