Chapter 57: Devoted to Me

Li Xue, however, had taken her grandfather's words to heart.

After spending the last few days with him, she had to admit that as annoying as Mu Lin was, he had his merits.

'At least, he's completely devoted to me.'

Not long after the father and daughter returned to the company, they heard that dozens of dump trucks had surrounded the land at Southside Plot 6. The trucks were loaded with construction debris and trash, which they were frantically dumping onto the site.

Ever since the contract was signed, Li Xue had considered that plot of land her own property.

An act like that was as detestable as someone dumping garbage on her own bed.

"How could this be..."

Li Xue gritted her teeth. Her grandfather had been so precise; Wu Long's revenge had come shockingly fast.

Only the Yuelong Group, with its vast fleet of heavy machinery, could pull off something of this scale.

But after seeing the photos sent from the site, Li Xue exclaimed in shock:

"No, this isn't right! Those are our group's dump trucks!"

'What is wrong with them? Using the group's own dump trucks to screw over the group's people.'

'Why would they do this?'

Li Xue was about to fly into a rage. Just as she was ready to start cursing, Lu Yi pushed the door open and walked in, followed by a man with a fierce gaze.

He looked just like the kind of thug Wu Long liked to hire.

"Lu Yi, what are you up to now? You're behind the dump trucks at the construction site, aren't you?"

Li Xue pointed at Lu Yi, her voice sharp and accusatory.

But Lu Yi's eyes were clear, his face a mask of innocence. "What's so strange about dump trucks on a construction site? What are you talking about?"

Of course, Li Xue knew he was playing dumb. How else could he get such a rise out of her?

But she was no longer a naive girl; she knew that curses and threats wouldn't solve the problem.

"As a member of the Li Group, you should be serving the group's interests. Plot 6 is about to enter the development phase, yet you're piling more dirt on it. Are you deliberately trying to delay the project's progress?"

Lu Yi, however, wasn't scared at all. Instead, he adopted an aggressive posture. "This project was originally assigned to me. I can do whatever I want on my land, and it's perfectly reasonable. If you don't like it, why don't you have a chat with him!"

As he spoke, he gestured toward the silent, fierce-eyed man beside him.

The silent man took a practiced step forward, looking down at Li Xue. "President Li, is there a problem?"

'There's no way my father and I can beat him in a fight,' Li Xue thought. So, she gritted her teeth and said nothing more than, "Get out. I'll deal with you two later!"

Lu Yi chuckled. "Sounds good. I'll be waiting for President Li to give the project back to me!"

As closing time approached, the secretary rushed in, her steps hurried. "President Li, it's bad! Something terrible has happened! The spark plugs from all the cars parked in our company's lot are gone!"

'What is this about?' Li Xue wondered. 'What's the point of stealing spark plugs? Do they even have any value?'

'Just buy a couple of boxes of spark plugs from an auto parts store, and all the cars will be running again.'

Just as Li Xue was thinking this, her secretary took a sip of water and continued, "The worst part is, there's a rumor spreading among the employees that you ordered the spark plugs to be removed to stop everyone from going home after work."

'What kind of ridiculous rumor is this?' Li Xue retorted, "Why would I do that?"

The secretary looked at Li Xue pitifully. "I know, right? Why would you? But it's no use if it's just us who know that... We have to convince them... Some people are already refusing to work... What do we do, President Li...?"

Li Xue's head ached. This was a massive headache.

This move by Lu Yi... it was vicious!

The special project team's office descended into chaos.

Chen Xi cursed, "Which son of a bitch who deserves to be cut a thousand times stole my spark plugs!"

Sun Lele was also worried, saying aggrievedly, "Someone in the work group chat said Sister Xue did it! They said she wants to make everyone work overtime."

Chen Xi sneered, "That's complete nonsense. Our company never has overtime unless there's an urgent task!"

Of course, as a member of the "useless team," it had never been their turn to work overtime, so Chen Xi had no idea what it was like.

But he spoke up for Li Xue resolutely. "Sister Xiaoxue is the best boss in the world. Those people are just spewing nonsense."

Mu Lin, however, stood up and walked toward the door. Chen Xi called out, "Brother Lin, where are you going?"

Mu Lin replied, "To get off work!"

「In a quiet courtyard somewhere in Anhua City, Qiao Canhua walked in.」

Wu Long immediately stood up to greet him. "Old Qiao, it's a real pain to get ahold of you!"

Qiao Canhua said, "Couldn't be helped. I can't leave your sister-in-law's side with her illness, and I keep forgetting to turn on my phone while I'm running around. My secretary reminded me, that's how I knew you'd called."

Wu Long put an arm around Qiao Canhua's shoulder and guided him to a stone table.

"Given our relationship, I don't think we need to beat around the bush. I'll be direct: stay out of the Southside Plot 6 project. Just leave it to the Lu Family father and son."

Qiao Canhua said, "That's not for me to decide!"

"But you already got involved! This morning, you personally handed the agreement to that junior from the Li Family! Do you have any idea how this sets my plan to take over the Li Group one step further back?"

"Like I said, it's not for me to decide! I gave the agreement to Li Xue this morning to repay a favor, and now that favor is repaid. As for who comes out on top after this, I don't care, as long as the project is completed on time and meets quality standards."

"The budget is set. Whoever finishes the project gets the money. If you guys want to bash each other's brains out, what's that got to do with me?"

Wu Long's eyes sparkled. Qiao Canhua was truly a formidable man of his generation; he knew how to keep things clear!

"With your promise, I can rest easy," Wu Long said, a sharp glint in his eyes. "In that case, I'm going to give it my all!"

Qiao Canhua just chuckled cheerfully. 'He trusted Mu Lin. These small fries wouldn't be able to handle him.'

'Besides, if the Li Group went under, wouldn't that be even better? It would be the perfect opportunity to invite him to be a senior executive at the Shengding Group.'

Mu Lin walked nonchalantly down the hallway, flanked by employees frantically running about, spooked by the spark plug rumors.

After they went to the parking lot to see for themselves, they immediately panicked.

The spark plugs really had been stolen, which meant they couldn't drive their cars!

This made them even more frantic. They all gathered at the door to Li Xue's office, ready to demand an explanation.

Mu Lin followed the crowd toward the president's office.

He was so inconspicuous that no one paid him any mind.

But when someone saw him approach the doorknob of Li Xue's office, the crowd grew wary of him.

Someone who knew him said:

"Mu Lin, it's dangerous! Don't go in!"

If anything set them off, it wouldn't be surprising what the panicked crowd might do.

But Mu Lin simply pushed the door open and walked straight in.

Seeing him go in, the crowd clamored to follow, but Mu Lin's icy gaze sent a chill from their heads to their toes.

Instinct—their instincts told them that if they disturbed Mu Lin right now, they would likely face a very dangerous situation.

'Better not to provoke him. Their target was Li Xue. As long as she didn't run, they could accept anything else.'

Li Xue and Li Yinhe were at their wits' end. The employees outside had lost their minds, and as their boss, how could she possibly regain their trust?

If she opened the door now, the furious crowd would probably beat her to a pulp, leaving her with no chance of turning the situation around.

CLICK.

The door opened and closed. Mu Lin walked in.

Li Yinhe snapped, "What are you doing in here? Get out!"

Mu Lin coming in at this moment was an extremely high-risk move. One wrong step could ignite the frenzy of the crowd outside.

It was impossible to predict what would happen next.

"Oh."

Mu Lin responded, then turned to leave.

"Don't!" Li Xue ran up and hugged Mu Lin's arm tightly.

The sight made Li Yinhe's blood pressure spike. "Xiaoxue, let go! What kind of behavior is this?! Just let him go, what's the big deal?"

Li Xue said, "Dad, have you forgotten what Grandpa said? No matter what, don't leave Mu Lin's side! He's already here, why should we chase him away?"

'This damned grandparent-grandchild bond. You actually believe every single word the old man said when he was getting senile.'

But this was his daughter, after all. When she set her mind to something, what could Li Yinhe do?

He could only watch as Li Xue pulled Mu Lin to the desk. The secretary who had rushed in earlier was trembling as she asked Mu Lin, "How many people are out there right now?"

Mu Lin thought for a moment. "It looks like people from every department are here. Two or three hundred, I'd say."

Li Xue's heart sank. 'Does that mean every car owner in the company has gathered here?'