Chapter 57: Chapter 53: Don’t Get Hurt by My Inner Strength

Countryside, a rural card room.

Four middle-aged men sat around a square table playing mahjong.

“Three of bamboo!”

“I’ve won!”

“Monkey, you’re really lucky, winning three games in a row.”

The man called Monkey was actually named Yuan Chu, Monkey was his nickname in the underworld.

His surname was Yuan, which sounds like “Yuan (ape)” in Chinese, and over time people started calling him Monkey.

Yuan Chu took a drag on his cigarette and collected the money, half-jokingly boasting, “What’s winning three games in a row? Today I’m going to win until you guys are left with nothing but your underwear, haha!”

He was naturally ugly, with a scar on his face.

So, when he laughed, he looked quite sinister.

The plump man in the silver casual suit on his left said, “You? If you can win me down to my underwear today, I’ll crawl out of here.”

Yuan Chu teased, “You said it, if by then…”

Before he could finish, his phone ringing interrupted him.

“Let me take this call.” Yuan Chu signaled for everyone to quiet down, then answered the call with a respectful tone, “Hello, Sister Yaoyao, hello hello.”

A young woman’s voice came from the other end, “Tonight, go scare someone.”

Yuan Chu hesitated and said, “I have a friend coming from out of town today, can we do it tomorrow?”

The young woman replied with dissatisfaction, “Why are you so wishy-washy when I ask you to do something, but not when it comes to taking the money? I’ll ask you just once, are you going or not? If not, I’ll find someone else!”

“I’m going!” Yuan Chu quickly replied with a laugh, “How could I not go when Sister Yaoyao asks me to do something?”

The young woman said, “I’ll send you the person’s photo and general movements in a while. Remember, just scare him a bit, don’t really hurt him.”

Yuan Chu said, “I know, you don’t trust my work?”

The young woman said nothing more and hung up the phone.

Yuan Chu looked to his left, “Brother Miao, I can’t play with you all night tonight, the boss has a job for me.”

The man called Brother Miao was a plump man.

Brother Miao asked, “What’s up?”

The other two also looked over.

Yuan Chu said, “The boss wants me to scare someone. A few days ago, I did this kind of thing, the target was a cowardly middle-aged man, I didn’t even have to make a move, just had my men threaten him a bit, and he was almost begging on the ground. From the boss’s tone earlier, tonight it’s probably something similar. Sigh, she always has me do these shameful things, if it weren’t for the money, I couldn’t care less about these tasks.”

Brother Miao laughed, “How much time can it take to scare someone? How about this, I’ll go with you tonight, and after it’s done, we can come back and continue playing mahjong.”

Yuan Chu quickly waved his hand, “No, no, no, you’ve been wanted by the police for four or five years, don’t let yourself get caught having to help me with this job. You came all this way, did you just come to play mahjong? I’d have taken you to a spa a long time ago!”

Brother Miao retorted, “Like you’re not on the wanted list, too. Weren’t you wanted for three years, and you’re still doing well here? If you can go, why can’t I? What’s going to happen from scaring someone? Okay, it’s settled, I’ll go with you to do the job tonight, and then we’ll keep playing mahjong.”

Yuan Chu thought for a moment and agreed, “Okay, then we’ll go together, finish the job, grab some late-night snacks, and come back to play mahjong.”

“Sure.”

“Don’t eat out, it’s not safe, we all have things hanging over us. Don’t let us get reported and have the cops show up. Once we scare him, we’ll come back and I’ll ask my wife to make a couple of good dishes to go with the drinks.”

The other two agreed as well.

They just finished discussing this.

Yuan Chu’s phone chimed with a new message.

He glanced down, it was the young woman sending the target information.

The target was a handsome young man, looking thin and weak, seemed easy to handle.

Yuan Chu memorized the name quietly, “Lu Li?”

…

Night, around ten o’clock.

Lu Li had just finished his first live-selling stream with Flaming Babe.

To be honest, it went pretty well.

The buzz tonight wasn’t as high as the day before.

The live room attendance was stable at around ten thousand.

The sales were pretty good, reaching 314,000.

With a fifteen percent commission, he could get over forty-seven thousand.

This money wouldn’t be available until the next month with his salary, Lu Li knew that buying a luxury car in full right now wasn’t feasible.

Tonight’s stream wasn’t as popular as the day before.

It wasn’t because Flaming Babe caused a drop in viewers.

On the contrary, if she hadn’t joined, the live room might have been even less popular.

Lu Li knew why.

The day before had benefited from the murder case spotlight.

After all, the case shook the whole internet then.

It was his first public appearance.

Attracting a large audience was normal.

Today, the buzz wasn’t as high, and naturally, the attendance decreased.

This was still because Lu Li used magic tricks to keep the audience hooked.

Plus, Flaming Babe herself brought in quite a few fans.

Otherwise, tonight’s sales definitely wouldn’t have been that high.

To be honest, earlier when Liu Kexin suggested collaboration methods and he chose the first one, it was indeed a wise choice.

Lu Li believed the live room attendance would continue to drop until it reached a “normal” level.

He estimated it would stabilize at around five or six thousand people.

As for whether it could build up again after that, that was another matter.

“Brother Lu, I’m headed home.”

“Alright, Miss Li, thanks for your hard work tonight.”

“Boss, there aren’t any buses now, could you give me a ride?”

“No problem, Xiaozhao, come with me, the rest can get off work.”

Lu Li said goodbye to Flaming Babe and his colleagues, and walked towards the parking lot with Xiaozhao who was catching a ride.

As they walked, Xiaozhao wondered aloud, “Boss, in the future when we do live sales, are there always going to be dozens of people watching us? I made a small mistake today and got chewed out by Manager Zhou, the pressure is too much.”

Lu Li laughed, “Just pay attention and do things thoroughly and you won’t get scolded. Well, don’t worry, this is just temporary. Once our streaming becomes regular, there won’t be so many people supervising.”

Although it was their second stream tonight, Manager Zhou, Vice Manager Lin, and others voluntarily stayed late to check on the results.

Of course, there were also people from the marketing department, administrative department, and others there to support, totaling thirty or forty people.

Additionally, something that surprised Lu Li a bit was that Vice President Du was also present tonight to supervise until the end of the live broadcast. However, he didn’t interfere and just quietly watched.

The two of them chatted as they got into the car.

Many others weren’t as fast as he was and had just arrived at the parking lot.

For example, Liu Kexin, Manager Zhou, and Vice President Du, among others.

Lu Li didn’t care about how those people were, and he drove out first.

The car had just driven out of the company gate.

A beam of light suddenly illuminated from the side.

With a loud bang, the car body shook violently.

It was very obvious that the car had been hit.

Lu Li quickly hit the brakes and turned to the side, saying, “Xiaozhao, are you okay?”

Xiaozhao was on the side that got hit and was frightened out of his wits, “No… nothing happened.”

Lu Li saw that he was indeed okay, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.

Immediately, he felt a bit angry.

Bro came out of the company not driving fast.

And still got into a car accident?

The person who hit my car, do they not have eyes?

Without hesitation, Lu Li got out of the car and shouted at the black Volkswagen parked in place, “Hey, you person how…”

Before he could finish speaking, a young man got out of the black Volkswagen.

He bent over repeatedly to greet, “Sorry, really sorry, I just got my eyes blurry for a moment and accidentally hit your car.”

Seeing his sincere attitude, Lu Li had nowhere to vent his frustration and could only point at the dented car door, “What do you say?”

The young man looked at it and immediately smiled, “Settle privately, let’s settle privately. You name a price, and if it’s reasonable, that’ll do.”

Indeed, it was so late already, and Lu Li wasn’t in the mood to wait for the traffic police to handle it.

The door probably needed to be replaced, and he didn’t extort the other party, mentioning a market price, “Replacing the door for a Camry is about two thousand. If you want a private settlement, it can’t be less than that.”

“Oh no, I didn’t bring that much cash with me.” The young man looked pitiful, “But my house isn’t far from here. How about…you come with me to get the money? It’s only a five-minute drive.”

Lu Li was speechless, “Can’t you transfer it using your phone?”

The young man helplessly smiled, “I don’t have money in my phone, usually, my wife handles the finances.”

Lu Li had no choice but to say, “Alright, you lead the way, and I’ll follow you in my car.”

“Okay, okay.” The young man was extremely grateful, “Thanks a lot.”

They each got into their own cars.

Lu Li asked Xiaozhao, “I’ll make a private settlement with this person, it’ll just take ten minutes or so. Are you going to ride with someone else, or come with me?”

Xiaozhao said, “Others aren’t on the way, ten minutes doesn’t matter, I’ll come with you.”

Lu Li nodded, “Alright.”

The black Volkswagen moved.

It headed towards the west.

Lu Li’s home was to the east, and he really hadn’t gone west before.

He didn’t think much of it and drove following the other party.

The guy seemed quite sincere about wanting to compensate, driving slowly.

Ahead was a turn.

The black Volkswagen indicated left, seemingly signaling Lu Li to turn.

Lu Li also drove and followed.

Something unexpected happened.

As soon as he turned, he saw a dead end ahead, with the Volkswagen directly blocking the way.

And on both sides of the Volkswagen stood about a dozen youths holding shiny machetes.

Lu Li knew something was wrong at a glance and quickly tried to reverse out.

Who would have thought, a black Nissan car suddenly came out from behind, directly blocking the rear exit!

With two cars squeezing him, Lu Li’s car had only a meter or two of space front and back, nowhere to move, and was tightly trapped by them.

They came prepared!

Absolutely prepared!

Lu Li knew he had been ambushed.

Sitting in the front passenger seat, Xiaozhao shared his realization, looking terrified, “Boss, this isn’t good.”

Lu Li remained calm, “It’s fine, you stay in the car, don’t get out, they should be after me.”

As he spoke, he reached for a sewing kit placed nearby, drawing out two needles and slipping them into his sleeve.

Just as he inserted the needles into his sleeve, a burly young man holding a machete stepped forward and knocked on the roof above the driver’s seat, shouting, “You, kid, get out!”

Xiaozhao was trembling all over!

Lu Li, however, was not scared at all. He pushed open the door and stepped out.

He slightly raised his chin, “What do you want with me?”

About a dozen people surrounded him, and three or four people also stepped out of the car behind, holding machetes as well.

The burly man who spoke earlier sneered, “What’s it about? Do you really not know?”

No old grudges or new feuds.

Now ten or so armed social figures came looking for trouble?

Lu Li could guess what was going on with his toe!

It was probably because he’d refused Vice President Du during the day, and the old guy found people to mess with him!

Lu Li couldn’t help but laugh, “I know, so what?”

“Hey!”

“You’re quite arrogant!”

“Don’t you really consider us, your brothers, in your eyes?”

This group of thugs felt that Lu Li wasn’t respecting their profession, and each of them looked very angry.

Among them, a guy with dyed yellow hair angrily said, “Old Russians, beat him up. After the beating, see if he dares to talk tough!”

The burly young man who spoke earlier casually handed his machete to the side, “Hmm, this guy won’t recognize Lord Ma’s three eyes without a beating!”

Seeing Lu Li about to be beaten up, Xiaozhao inside the car trembled even more violently with fear.

In contrast, Lu Li’s smile grew even more infectious, remaining calm and collected as he warned, “I advise you not to create unnecessary trouble, I’ve trained in martial arts; get away from me, if you get too close, I might injure you with my inner strength!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep