Chapter Ninety-One: Song Liang's Intention

Several of the younger kids in the neighborhood said that Guo Yuhang had already been discharged from the hospital.

After leaving, he was driven straight home, and then he stayed shut up inside, never once stepping outside again. Aside from his parents, no one had seen him.

If Zhuo Hua had not come storming to the door with seven or eight of his underlings in tow, Li Mu would not have known whether the rumor was true or false.

The whole thing was absurdly coincidental. On the very day Guo Yuhang was discharged, Zhuo Hua was also released on bail pending trial. By rights, after causing Guo Yuhang minor bodily injury and with Guo Lin even leaning on acquaintances to pressure the matter, the man should have been detained outright. Yet the police, for reasons of their own, granted him this face and let him go.

There were whispers that Zhuo Hua had been released because Song Liang had spoken up. Many did not believe it, feeling that a small-time punk like Zhuo Hua was nowhere near important enough to catch Song Liang’s attention. But Li Mu believed it. Releasing Zhuo Hua at a time like this would have made Guo Lin’s family the most miserable of all. A coincidence like that could not have come from anyone but Song Liang.

The moment Zhuo Hua got out, he went straight to Guo Lin’s door, shouting for Guo Lin and Xue Guilan to pay him for his nearly totalled Honda Accord.

His new car had not even been broken in before it was smashed by Zhang Wanjun’s men. Zhang Wanjun had even said the debt was on Zhuo Hua and that he should go collect from him. How dare Zhuo Hua do that?

More than two hundred thousand yuan had vanished just like that, and Zhuo Hua could not let it go no matter how hard he tried. Though he was still carrying a case for causing minor injury, he still hurled threats at Guo Lin: if they did not pay, then his son had better watch himself, because if he was pushed too far, they would all go down together.

Guo Lin called the police, but when they arrived, they merely looked over the scene and warned Zhuo Hua that he could collect debts, but not to go too far. After that, they did not even drive him off; they simply withdrew.

That left Guo Lin dumbfounded. The police were obviously taking Zhuo Hua’s side. Could it be that the punk had some sort of backing?

Seeing that even the police would not touch him, Zhuo Hua became even more brazen. With his men, he blocked Guo Lin’s doorway, intent on dragging this out to the end.

At the moment, Guo Lin already had a fire burning under his own backside, and now Zhuo Hua, this wretched nuisance, had suddenly appeared to stir the pot. He was both vexed and uneasy, afraid that if Zhuo Hua lost his temper, he might do something reckless. He thought of giving the man some money and sending him on his way. But he also did not dare produce more than two hundred thousand yuan all at once to compensate him, because he was already in a dangerous position and his old superior had specifically warned him that nothing must go wrong during this period. If he simply took out more than two hundred thousand yuan in one shot, he would be handing the other side leverage.

With no other choice, Guo Lin asked his younger brother to send Zhuo Hua two hundred eighty thousand yuan, and only then did he finally send that plague-ridden god away.

Once Zhuo Hua was gone, the three members of the Guo family felt as though a boulder had been wedged in their chests, suffocating them nearly to death.

Their son had been beaten, the grudge against Li Mu had gone unavenged, and in the end they had still handed over two hundred eighty thousand yuan to the very man who had beaten their son. Was there anything more humiliating in the world?

Xue Guilan raged and rolled on the floor at home, cursing that their family was a tiger fallen on level ground, bullied by dogs. Yet even she understood in her heart that her husband was now standing in danger’s teeth, and matters like this could only be swallowed with broken teeth and all.

Guo Lin and Xue Guilan had muddled through most of their lives together, and when the moment came they still understood the wisdom of bending and straightening as circumstances demanded. But Guo Yuhang was young and hot-blooded; no matter what, he could not swallow this insult. All his fury was concentrated on Li Mu. Yet when he thought of the powerful figures behind Li Mu, men like Song Liang and Zhang Wanjun, he felt as though a mouthful of dark blood were clogging his chest, making him wish for death.

...

While Guo Yuhang felt life was worse than death, Li Mu was living very comfortably.

Every day, Li Mu would spare some time to visit the shop and check on the renovation progress. Coincidentally, a gym opened on the second floor across from his store, so he signed up for a monthly membership and spent an hour and a half a day working out on the machines. In his previous life, he had been a technical drone, becoming nearsighted, overweight, and subhealthy while still young. Having been given a second life, he had begun to pay attention to his health as well.

After an hour and a half of sweat-soaked exertion, Li Mu showered in the gym’s washroom and stepped out wearing a T-shirt and shorts. The sun was setting, and the breeze brushing his face carried a touch of coolness. He felt refreshed all over, and his mood could not have been better.

Crossing the street, he saw that the store renovation was still in full swing. The hard construction work on the shop was basically finished; they were now installing the lighting. In two days, the cashier counter, shelving, and fitting room accessories would be delivered, and after a few more days the renovation would essentially be complete.

Li Mu quickly counted on his fingers. His parents would be back the day after tomorrow, and his carefree life would not last many more days.

With little else on hand, and with Zhao Kang handling the online promotion team and Kong Lingyu in charge of Yiting, he could spare some time to make a trip to the metropolis and see Chen Wan. Ever since parting from her at the train station in Jinling, Li Mu had found himself missing her for no reason he could explain.

He stayed in the shop for more than ten minutes, and was just about to head home when he suddenly received a call from Song Liang.

“Xiao Mu, where are you?”

“I’m at the shop, just about to go home. Do you need something, Brother Liang?”

“Nothing much. When you’re done, find some time to swing by the Broadcasting Tower. I’ve prepared a little gift for you.”

Li Mu asked in surprise, “What kind of gift, Brother Liang?”

“Go and see for yourself.”

Curious, Li Mu answered, and since the Broadcasting Tower was not far from his shop, he greeted the person in charge of the renovation and set off alone.

Turning right at the intersection, walking a few hundred meters, and then turning left, he lifted his eyes and saw the Broadcasting Tower, a thirteen-story high-rise across the way. It was one of the few tall buildings in Haizhou, and both the Haizhou Television Station and Haizhou Broadcasting Station were located there.

But why had Song Liang told him to look at it? He had seen tall buildings before; many of the skyscrapers he had seen had not even been built yet.

Just as he was wondering, Li Mu suddenly noticed a massive billboard hanging halfway up the side of the Broadcasting Tower.

Judging by the floors, the billboard was at least five stories high. It bore a huge poster of Guo Tianwang, along with the logo of Metersbonwe, and beside it a line of bold lettering: the grand opening of the Haizhou Metersbonwe flagship store is just around the corner. Address: 58 South Street, West Gate...

Li Mu was truly stunned. He had seen giant building advertisements before, but he had never imagined that his own flagship store could one day hang such an imposing billboard. Haizhou was a small city. With an advertisement like this hanging for just three days, everyone in the city would probably know about it. The effect would be far stronger than running ads on the local television station.

Recalling that Song Liang had once told him several building advertisements would be available in early August, Li Mu felt moved. He took out his phone and called Song Liang, saying, somewhat overwhelmed, “Brother Liang, this is too much trouble...”

“What’s there to be polite about?” Song Liang said carelessly. “For any building over eight stories in the city, the exterior ad space is in my hands. I already sold out my last development, so those ad spots would just sit there unused anyway.”

Li Mu really did not want to owe Song Liang too many favors. The matter of Guo Yuhang had already put him deeply in Song Liang’s debt. Although later Simple Plan had briefly arranged for four of them to treat Song Liang to dinner in order to settle and extend the favor, Li Mu still felt that he had not truly repaid it. He had never expected Song Liang to turn around and give him such a generous gift.

But from Song Liang’s point of view, hanging a few building ads for Li Mu for a while was barely more than a gesture. He had even paid out of his own pocket to commission the giant printed banners. If he was going to do a good deed, he might as well do it thoroughly. That was always his principle.

More than that, even Li Mu did not know that in the depths of his heart, Song Liang now held him in awe.

Long before Li Mu had ever asked for Song Liang’s help, Song Liang had already picked up some hints from Ye Tianming’s father, Ye Youdao. Li Mu’s way of stirring up the Simple Plan online frenzy had been enough to make even Ye Youdao admire him.

But even that was not what truly made Song Liang revere this eighteen-year-old youth.

What really inspired awe in him was a matter that had recently been discussed with great fervor throughout the streets and alleys of Haizhou: the series of incidents involving Guo Lin’s keeping a female college student as his mistress.

No one else knew the inside story, but Song Liang had guessed it.

The man Li Mu had beaten last time had been named Guo Yuhang, and Guo Lin was his father. Not long after Song Liang helped Li Mu settle that matter, a host of strange netizens suddenly appeared online and began attacking Guo Lin with overwhelming force, even producing real evidence that he had been keeping a female university student as a mistress. Later, when Xue Guilan stormed the Education Bureau and beat up Zhao Lina, Guo Lin was pushed into an extremely passive position. Comparing the common points between the two incidents, Song Liang immediately guessed that the mastermind behind all this was Li Mu.

An eighteen-year-old boy had managed to stir up such tremendous destructive force, while hiding himself so well. Such a youth could no longer be measured by ordinary standards, and he deserved Song Liang’s awe.

For this reason as well, Song Liang firmly believed that Li Mu’s future prospects were limitless. He even had a premonition that Li Mu’s eventual achievements would very likely far surpass his own. That being the case, Li Mu was all the more worth his full effort to maintain; doing a few extra things to add icing on the cake hardly counted for much.

“Today I put up four building advertisements for you. This is only one of them; the other three are also in the city center. Take a turn around and you’ll see them all.”

Li Mu hurriedly said, “Thank you, Brother Liang. When you’re free, let me buy you a meal.”

“Sure. In a couple of days,” Song Liang said with a smile. “I’ve got a lot on my plate lately. Once I’m through this stretch, I’ll look for you.”

“Okay!”

After hanging up, Li Mu walked around the city for a bit and soon found the other three building advertisements. They were roughly the same size as the first and were all placed in extremely eye-catching locations.

Li Mu thought to himself that his store’s visibility this time was probably unprecedented.

What mattered even more was that Song Liang’s building ads would not only bring him exposure, but everyone in Haizhou who was in government, in business, or mixed up in the underworld knew that Song Liang’s advertising resources were always for his own use. Even if they sat idle, he would never rent them out. And now he had actually mounted such a massive campaign for a clothing store. Anyone could read the signal he meant to send: this shop had an unusual relationship with him.

Knowing that, everyone understood that once this Metersbonwe store opened, neither the industry and commerce bureau nor the tax office, nor the urban management officers and their peers, would dare interfere even slightly. When someone needed the green light, there would certainly be no room for failure.

That implication was far more important than simply increasing exposure.