Zhao Yougen stood rooted to the spot, steeped in regret, while Li Yundong was frantically busy at the doorway, unable to catch his breath. Especially after the Provincial Governor paid a visit to Li Yundong’s establishment, the news spread through Tiannan City’s official circles like wildfire. Almost every official promptly drove over, flocking to the location. For a time, the street in front of Li Yundong’s shop was a scene of constant traffic and unending streams of people. Li Yundong’s cheeks ached from the relentless nodding and smiling.
Su Chan and the others found their hands going soft from accepting so many gifts. Their initial excitement had faded into numbness, and finally, into outright impatience. The little girl grumbled, “There’s so much stuff, where are we supposed to put it all!”
Cao Kefei, standing nearby, covered her mouth and chuckled, “If we really can’t manage, stack it in my car first!”
Su Chan turned back to look at the mountain of assorted gifts and sighed, “Fine! I guess that’s all we can do!”
Cao Kefei laughed, “Come on, it was dead quiet just a moment ago; isn’t it better now that it’s lively and bustling?”
Only then did Su Chan break into a smile. She tossed her head back proudly and declared, “Hmph, my Yundong is the best!”
Liu Fei’er suddenly edged closer to Cao Kefei, whispering quietly, “Sister Cao, should we go upstairs to be seated? If we don’t hurry, there won’t be any spots left!”
Cao Kefei then noticed that the upper floor was already packed, brimming with the boisterous chatter of officials exchanging pleasantries and trying to establish connections.
She secretly covered her mouth to laugh, “Li Yundong didn’t open a teahouse here; this is clearly a banquet hall!”
Liu Fei’er also whispered, “This Li Yundong has serious backing! Almost the entire officialdom of Tiannan City, plus half the leadership from the Provincial Party Committee and Government, are here. It’s terrifying!”
Cao Kefei subtly pointed towards Zhou Qin and whispered, “You don’t recognize her?”
Liu Fei’er also paid attention to Zhou Qin, a girl with peerless temperament and exquisite beauty. Especially after Li Yuanbo had spoken with her, it instilled a sense of awe regarding her background and identity.
Liu Fei’er quietly asked, “Second generation official?”
Cao Kefei nodded slightly, then murmured, “Remember I told you about that girl who jumped off a building over a boy?”
Liu Fei’er’s eyes lit up, “Ah? Could it be her?”
Cao Kefei softly replied, “Of course!”
Liu Fei’er wondered aloud, “Didn’t you say she was paralyzed? How come she looks perfectly fine now? And I can’t shake the feeling she’s different from ordinary people, like someone who has trained in martial arts—her gaze is sharp, and her posture is rigid as pine.”
The expression on Cao Kefei’s face softened slightly, a shadow of melancholy flashing in her eyes. She said quietly, “I don’t know what happened afterward, but I imagine it has something to do with Li Yundong.”
Liu Fei’er asked, confused, “What does it have to do with him?”
Cao Kefei smiled, “Have you forgotten I told you he treated my illness? He saved my life!”
Liu Fei’er giggled mischievously, “So, Sister Cao is planning to offer herself in marriage?”
Cao Kefei’s earlobes flushed red. She shot Liu Fei’er a reproving look, “Nonsense! Let’s go, hurry upstairs and see if there are any seats left!”
As the two were whispering, Cao Kefei suddenly looked up towards the second floor, only to see three pairs of eyes staring intently at her—it was Cao Yi, Zhuang Yating, and Liu Yuehong.
Seeing the three staring at her with wide eyes full of shock, Cao Kefei froze momentarily. She gave them a polite smile before lowering her head and muttering to herself: Do these three know me?
She felt a flicker of surprise but quickly dismissed the thought.
Just then, Li Yundong, overwhelmed with his busy duties, shouted over to Cao Kefei and the others, “Manager Cao, I can’t entertain you personally. Please find seats for yourselves!”
Cao Kefei smiled at him, then greeted Yin Mengfan beside her, “Hey, Manager Yin, shall we go upstairs?”
Yin Mengfan seemed to snap out of a daze. She responded, casting a complicated look first at Zhou Qin, then at Li Yundong, before gracefully ascending with Cao Kefei.
Once upstairs, they saw Li Yuanbo and others standing with their hands behind their backs, gazing at a wooden carving, murmuring in admiration and critique.
“Not bad, the carving strokes are vigorous and powerful, the technique is ethereal and transcendent—it shows great foundation!” Li Yuanbo nodded continuously, his face beaming with appreciation.
Cao Kefei, Yin Mengfan, and Liu Fei’er also glanced over. It was a piece of choumu wood, nearly two meters long and about two chi wide, carved with a scene of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea. The bas-relief was vivid and lifelike, as if the Eight Immortals might step down from the carving at any moment.
Cao Kefei and the others, being connoisseurs, instantly lit up and exclaimed, “Wonderful, truly a masterpiece of divine craftsmanship!”
Liu Fei’er asked curiously, “Which master is responsible for this? It’s truly beautiful!”
Ruan Hongling, who was busy on the second floor, heard them and declared proudly, “My senior sister carved it!”
“Your senior sister?” Li Yuanbo, Cao Kefei, and the others all turned to look at her.
Ruan Hongling showed no sign of intimidation. She said, “Yes, is there anything strange about that?”
Li Yuanbo laughed, “Which school does your senior sister belong to? Could you introduce us? This is truly a masterpiece, extraordinary! Absolutely remarkable!”
Ruan Hongling peeked downstairs, then pointed toward Ziyuan, who was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Li Yundong, and said, “There she is!”
Li Yuanbo looked down and was instantly startled, “So young… and so beautiful? How long did she take to carve this? A year? Six months?”
Ruan Hongling proudly held up a single finger, “One day!”
“One day?” Li Yuanbo burst into loud laughter, shaking his head, smiling without comment—clearly not believing Ruan Hongling’s claim.
The surrounding officials also laughed heartily, “Little sister, Secretary Li here is an expert in this field. You should draft your boasts before you speak them!”
Ruan Hongling glared at the speaker, “Who’s boasting! We renovated this entire shop ourselves in just half a month. Check it if you don’t believe me!”
“Half a month?” Li Yuanbo and the others were slightly shocked, looking around repeatedly. “You finished the renovations in half a month?”
Someone looked at the paint cans on a table and asked with some apprehension, “Little sister, has the paint dried yet? Some coatings are toxic; they need time to off-gas!”
Ruan Hongling snorted, “We don’t use those things! This is all high-gloss polishing, we did the sanding ourselves! This relief carving you see is too!”
This revelation stunned everyone. Li Yuanbo exclaimed, “With such a massive amount of work, how did you manage it in half a month?”
Ruan Hongling choked slightly. She thought to herself: I can’t very well tell them that Ziyuan-jiejie carved this relief with a magical artifact and polished it with my artifact, can I?
Ruan Hongling’s eyes darted around. She pointed downstairs at Li Yundong and said, “Ask him. He’s the owner. He led us in renovating this shop ourselves.”
Li Yuanbo looked surprised, “Oh? Little Li did the renovations himself? He knows about this kind of work too?”
Ruan Hongling snorted, “He knows nothing! He forced us to learn on the fly, stuffing us into the work, exhausting us every single day!”
This statement was open to interpretation, and a few faces showed strange smiles. But with Li Yuanbo present, they dared not speak, only exchanging ambiguous glances privately.
Li Yuanbo glanced at Li Yundong and nodded approvingly, “Not bad. Doing the work himself, starting from scratch—very good!” Then he turned to Mayor Zeng and said, “Little Zeng, our government needs to encourage more young people like this to start their own businesses!”
Mayor Zeng nodded and smiled, “Indeed, we will certainly offer strong support!”
Liu Fei’er, looking around at the exquisitely crafted, antique-style tables and chairs, and the layout of the shop, whispered to Cao Kefei, “Sister Cao, now I believe you when you said this Li Yundong is a little bit extraordinary.”
Cao Kefei pursed her lips into a smile, “A little bit? More than that!”
Yin Mengfan, who had remained silent, nudged her and whispered, “Stop standing around talking; let’s find a place to sit down!”
Cao Kefei looked up and let out a wry smile, “There are no seats left, it’s completely full!”
Yin Mengfan glared accusingly at Cao Kefei, “It’s all your fault for standing and chatting. I saw an empty spot just moments ago!”
Liu Fei’er stuck out her tongue and whispered, “We can just go downstairs then. It feels awkward being surrounded by all these officials, and some of the glances I’m getting make me very uncomfortable!”
The three beauties conferred for a moment and returned downstairs. As soon as they reached the ground floor, they saw a young man holding a camera shamelessly pleading with a round-faced beauty, “Nana, don’t be like that. We were colleagues, please do me a favor?”
This round-faced beauty was Feng Na. She replied to Han Lin coolly, “Han Lin, you know how you spoke to people just now? You can speak to people that way again. This is the consequence you sowed; I can’t help you.”
Han Lin’s face changed. He knew he had offended Li Yundong earlier, and rushing forward now would surely lead to trouble. But since he hadn’t even tried to curry favor with the Provincial Governor, he was certainly going to be severely scolded by his father when he got home. He was unwilling to leave, so he lingered at the doorway, his gaze flickering with uncertainty.
Cao Kefei and the others descended at this moment. She approached Li Yundong, glanced at Han Lin, and asked, “Who is this person? A reporter?”
Li Yundong swept his gaze over Han Lin and the dejected female host beside him, saying flatly, “Don’t know him.”
Cao Kefei said, “Oh,” and didn’t ask further. She then stated, “There are no seats upstairs, so we’ll just sit downstairs.”
Li Yundong laughed, “That’s fine, but there aren’t many seats downstairs. We didn’t anticipate this many people coming, and we didn’t arrange that many tables and chairs.”
Cao Kefei smiled, “Isn’t it better to be lively? It’s certainly better than being deserted, right?” As she spoke, she pointed across the street to Zhao’s Tea House and sighed, “Look across the street; they still have red decorations on their plaque, but there’s almost no one inside their place. How desolate, how sad!”
Cao Kefei was unaware of the bad blood between Li Yundong and Zhao Yougen. Her words were unintentional, but they were heard and noted by Li Yundong and the others.
Li Yundong and Ziyuan exchanged a knowing smile, sharing a deep, unspoken understanding. Zhou Qin, who had been quiet, suddenly gave a cold laugh and said, “More guests will surely arrive soon, and these tables and chairs probably won’t be enough. I’ll go borrow a few from across the street.”
At that moment, Su Chan was coming down from upstairs. The little girl, who delighted in stirring up trouble and had long detested the repulsive fellow across the way, jumped up excitedly when she heard Zhou Qin’s words, clapping her hands and laughing, “Great, great! I’ll help you go get them!”
Incited by Su Chan, Zhou Qin turned and left without waiting for Li Yundong’s permission. She even pretended not to hear Li Yundong calling out to her from behind.
Su Chan caught up with her, grabbing her arm, and whispered in confusion, “Sister Zhou Qin, Yundong is calling you, why aren’t you answering him?”
Zhou Qin turned her head and smiled at Su Chan, “Master is the softest-hearted. He probably wanted to deal with that guy a long time ago, but with so many people here, it’s inconvenient for him to speak up. So, as soon as I turn my back, he definitely won’t be able to help me vent this anger.”
Su Chan then realized and chuckled, “You’re right. We’ll clear out his shop later!”
Zhou Qin smiled subtly, “Clearing it out might be too much; we don’t have space to put everything anyway. We’ll just teach him a lesson!”
As they were speaking, the two had already walked into Zhao Yougen’s teahouse. They walked straight in without seeming to notice Zhao Yougen at all, heading directly for the tables and chairs to move them.
Both of them were cultivators, possessing immense strength. Carrying a heavy piece of redwood table in one hand felt effortless to them, leaving the cheongsam-clad beauties inside the teahouse dumbfounded. Only when they reached the entrance did one beauty chase after them, shouting, “Hey, hey, what are you doing? That’s our stuff!”
Zhou Qin didn’t even spare her a glance, instead looking sideways at Zhao Yougen, and said coldly, “Manager Zhao, we are short on tables and chairs on our side. We’re borrowing a few; you’re not going to be so stingy as to refuse, are you?”
Su Chan piled on, adding fuel to the fire, “Exactly! Look at your place, it’s deserted with hardly anyone here. It’s a waste to leave them empty; you might as well let us use them!”
Zhou Qin gave Su Chan an appreciative look, and Su Chan reciprocated by giving Zhou Qin a thumbs-up. The two girls exchanged knowing looks, completely treating Zhao Yougen as if he were air.
Zhao Yougen’s face cycled through shades of green and red. He wanted to refuse, but he utterly lacked the confidence to utter the words. He swallowed hard, forced a smile, and said stiffly, “It’s fine, take whatever you need!”
“Hmph!” Zhou Qin and Su Chan both threw their heads back, haughtily carrying the tables and chairs back, like victorious generals returning with their spoils of war.
Li Yundong and Ziyuan watched the two women; one offered a wry smile, the other a light chuckle—both speechless.
Feng Na, however, burst into laughter and gave Zhou Qin and Su Chan a huge thumbs-up, “Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! That move was ruthless, so audacious! But I like it. Who told that guy to be so arrogant and annoying before, even running up to Li Yundong to say things like that! Ptooey, he should look in the mirror and see what sort of character he has!”
Li Yundong deliberately put on a stern face and feigned anger, “Do you know that you are taking advantage of someone’s misfortune? He’s miserable enough already, and his patrons have defected to our place; why rub salt in his wounds?”
Most of the people downstairs had witnessed exactly how Zhao Yougen had humiliated Li Yundong. They exchanged glances, somewhat unable to understand why Li Yundong would suddenly speak up for Zhao Yougen. While they were puzzled, they saw Li Yundong’s expression suddenly ease. He said slowly and deliberately, “Although I despise this behavior of kicking a dog while it’s down, kicking over the wall while everyone pushes, and adding insult to injury, as an onlooker, it’s actually quite satisfying to watch!”
By the end, he himself burst into laughter.
Zhou Qin and Su Chan exchanged a smile and carried the tables and chairs inside vigorously and proudly. The other Tiannan University students who had accompanied Cheng Cheng also laughed and went to help.
Feng Na laughed and chided Li Yundong, “Li Yundong, what you just said was truly unfair. Are you trying to be the good guy while Zhou Qin and Su Chan play the villains?”
Zhao Yougen across the street clearly heard Feng Na’s words. It felt as if someone had violently squeezed his heart, a stifled anger building in his chest, making it almost impossible to breathe. He was filled with rage, fear, hatred, and grievance.
How could a respectable CEO like himself be humiliated like this? How could he bear it!
It was one thing that the other side stole his spotlight, but they even stole his guests! And even if they stole his guests, they were now stealing his tables and chairs!
Bullying someone shouldn't go this far!!
The more Zhao Yougen thought about it, the more pain and sorrow he felt. Finally, he couldn't hold back and let out a piercing wail.
Li Yundong, having heard Feng Na, chuckled and was about to reply when he suddenly heard Zhao Yougen across the street let out a violent cry. He turned his head and saw Zhao Yougen kneeling on the street, tears streaming down his face, crying out loudly, “Heavens! I’ve seen people bully others, but never like this!!!”