Chapter 59: Turning Danger into Safety

Holding it in for so long had been absolute torture for his father-in-law.

He was already getting on in years, and it had pushed him to the point where he'd nearly thrown decorum to the wind and relieved himself in an office flowerpot.

Li Xue wasn't faring much better, running quickly as she followed him.

One after the other, they rushed into the restroom.

Mu Lin looked at the secretary. "Aren't you going?"

The secretary smiled. "I came prepared. Best not to ask."

'Probably something like an adult diaper,' Mu Lin thought. 'As a secretary, you have to be ready for all sorts of strange situations. They're supposed to be prepared for anything.'

A while later, the father and daughter emerged, walking leisurely now that they had relieved themselves.

When Li Xue saw Mu Lin, her expression shifted. "Mu Lin, do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"It was fine," Mu Lin said.

'They would never know what he had just done.'

'And Mu Lin had no intention of telling them.'

Li Yinhe noticed that the crowd was gone. "Where did everyone go?" he asked.

Mu Lin answered, "Once you take down the king, the pawns scatter. The instigators fled, and the rest got bored and went home."

"It was only the few in the front row who were aggressively banging on the door. The rest were just here for the show."

Li Yinhe's face was black as thunder. "This was all the Lu Family's scheme! Why incite so many people to block our door? For no other reason than to take advantage of the chaos."

Li Yinhe glanced downstairs, only to see the Lu father and son tied to a tree. Several mid-level managers were gathered around it, trying to untie the ropes.

But despite all this time, they weren't making any progress.

"What's their problem?" Li Yinhe asked.

Mu Lin replied, "I used an inch-thick rope and tied it in a dead knot. Unless they cut the rope, they'll never get it undone."

"Serves them right! That's what they get for their dirty tricks!"

Li Yinhe cursed, hands on his hips.

Li Xue gazed at Mu Lin with a complicated expression. He was, after all, her fake husband, and she had never offered him a single thing.

"Do you know how much danger you were in? I told you not to go down there! Why didn't you listen?"

"Let's head downstairs," Mu Lin said dismissively, completely ignoring her.

"Listen to me!"

Mu Lin turned to face her. "Listen to what? Why are you being so serious over such a small thing?"

Li Xue stomped her foot in frustration. "What if you had fallen? You would have been smashed to pieces! What then?"

Mu Lin still looked completely unconcerned. "Back in the mountains, I used to leap around all the time, scaling cliffs and running along ledges hundreds of meters high. You don't need to get so worked up."

Li Xue pressed her lips together, unable to say a single word in response.

'He's just that incredible. What could she possibly say?'

"Why do you care about him? It'd be for the best if he died," Li Yinhe said nonchalantly as he dialed their home landline.

'The old man is probably frantically calling for reinforcements,' Li Yinhe figured. 'It's better to call the landline.'

Elder Li was wracking his brain, trying to think of any other connections he could use. Lost in thought, he was startled when the landline beside him began to ring.

"Dad!" Hearing his son's voice, Elder Li was stunned. 'Have they already prepared for the worst? Are they calling to say their final goodbyes?'

"I'm here!" Elder Li cried out. "How are you?"

"We're out! The rioting employees are all gone!" Li Yinhe shouted into the phone.

'Ah, did my calls work after all?' Elder Li was surprised and overjoyed, yet also a bit melancholic.

'Mu Lin is going to be poached by someone else. The Li Group won't be able to keep him.'

'But he is my grandson-in-law, after all. If he works there for a while and doesn't like it, he can always come back.'

'Thinking about it that way, the problem didn't seem so bad.'

"How did you manage it? Did Wu Long call them off?"

"No!"

Elder Li was even more astonished. 'It wasn't? Then how?'

"Then how did you do it? Tell me everything, step by step."

Li Yinhe explained, "Mu Lin climbed out the window, tied Lu Baichuan and his son, Lu Yi, to a tree, which forced the ringleaders to go rescue them. The rest of the employees who'd just been swept up in the chaos realized something was off and naturally dispersed."

'So it was all thanks to Mu Lin. He truly is worthy of being *that man's* disciple—bold, yet meticulous.'

"I see! Well, hurry back. It's getting late, and Jiajia is keeping dinner warm for you!"

"Okay!" After that close call, Li Yinhe felt the warmth of home was something to be cherished more than ever.

'Wealth is fleeting, and fame and status have their limits. Only family is the ultimate safe harbor.'

Hanging up the phone, Li Yinhe declared, "Let's go home!"

But when they reached the parking lot, they found the driver looking completely helpless.

"Boss, someone took the spark plugs! I can't start the car!"

Li Yinhe's blood pressure shot through the roof.

'That Lu Family father-son duo! You've really outdone yourselves. Stealing the employees' spark plugs was one thing, but did you have to steal ours too?!'

Li Yinhe gritted his teeth in fury. "The absolute nerve!"

With no other choice, he had to call the old man for help again and ask him to drive over from the house to pick them up.

He even gave the driver a small cash-filled red envelope as a gesture of consolation.

As he turned back toward the main entrance, Li Yinhe was surprised to see that the Lu father and son still hadn't been freed. A group of loyal mid-level managers was still sweating buckets as they worked on the ropes.

'He'd thought they would have been released long ago.'

"Mu Lin, what kind of knot did you tie?" Li Yinhe asked.

"This knot is called the Devil's Despair," Mu Lin said calmly, his hands behind his back. "It's impossible to untie. If they want out, they'll have to consider amputation."

Li Xue's eyes lit up. "Excellent! Let's leave them. Let them get amputations! It serves them right for pulling such an inhuman stunt!"

She strode over, pointed at the Lu father and son, and laughed heartily.

"Reaping what you sow for your wicked deeds, are we? Serves you right!"

Lu Yi cursed, "Mu Lin, you'd better untie this rope right now, or believe me, I'll make you pay!"

Mu Lin gave a faint smile. "Didn't you already try? And fail? How much weight do your threats carry now?"

At his words, the color drained from Lu Yi's face.

'They had been directing everything from the office just fine,' he recalled. 'Then, out of nowhere, everything went black. The next thing he knew, he was tied up here, bound by some massive, troublesome rope.'

He couldn't even fathom how Mu Lin had managed to get him here.

Wu Long had clearly assigned him an expert, but the guy had vanished the moment he arrived at the company. He hadn't even shown his face when they were being abducted.

'What a useless piece of trash!'

Li Yinhe, however, said, "We should hurry and release them. Leaving them trussed up like this is just making us a public spectacle."

"At the end of the day, they're still part of the Li Group. If word gets out, it's our own reputation on the line!"

Li Xue retorted, "So what if it's embarrassing? We've already been embarrassed today. What's there to be afraid of?"

"Mu Lin, untie them! Now! You will listen to me on this!"

Mu Lin thought for a moment before walking toward the Lu father and son. The loyal lapdogs posing as managers scattered in fear.

They watched as he picked up a stick and gave the knot a casual poke, and the entire thing came undone on its own.

Once free, Lu Yi frantically moved his arms and legs. If he'd been tied up much longer, his limbs would have gone numb from lack of circulation and risked necrosis.

Lu Yi pointed at Mu Lin and snarled, "Just you wait! I'll make you regret this!"

Mu Lin just smiled faintly. "If I can trap you this easily, what do you think? Could I kill you just as easily?"

The color drained from Lu Yi's face again, and he stumbled back several steps.

Mu Lin performed the same maneuver, freeing Lu Baichuan. His condition was more severe; he was struggling to even stand up.

Lu Yi rushed to support his father. Lu Baichuan waved his arms, looking like he wanted to spout a few threats.

But in the end, he decided against it and let Lu Yi help him leave.

Watching the Lu father and son depart, Li Xue frowned, thoroughly displeased.

"The wicked truly do live long."

Li Yinhe patted Li Xue on the head and said gently, "To achieve great things, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. The Li Group is our company, so we're naturally held to a higher standard than the Lu Family."

"In the end, this is all the consequence of not listening to the old man…"

Li Yinhe shot Mu Lin a complicated look. 'If only I'd listened to the old man and kept Mu Lin by my side from the start, maybe I wouldn't have been trapped in my office in the first place.'

'But asking him to swallow his pride and say something conciliatory to Mu Lin? That was out of the question.'

The car to pick them up arrived. Mu Lin watched as Li Yinhe and Li Xue got in. "I have something to take care of," he said. "You guys go on ahead."

Li Xue thought of the girl from the previous night. She gritted her teeth, but feeling helpless, she simply got into the car.

"Make sure you come home tonight!"