Chapter Ninety-Six: Still Three Eights

On the morning of August seventeenth, as the hit-and-run affair in Haizhou had already swelled into a scandal known to all, a piece of news exploded online and shocked the people of Haizhou to the core.

According to the report, the driver who had fled the scene was Wu Dong, a coal baron from Haizhou. On the night of the incident, Wu Dong had invited Guo Lin, the director of Xiling Coal Mine, out for drinks. The reason was simple enough: Guo Lin was his patron, the very foundation of the fortune he had amassed over the years. After drinking, Wu Dong drove Guo Lin home, and along the way struck and killed the victim and his wife. The vehicle involved had already been hauled out of Haizhou overnight by Wu Dong, with plans to have it altered beyond recognition in another city and the evidence completely destroyed.

The exposé also revealed a great deal of inside information. It said that Wu Dong had grown rich by colluding with Guo Lin, showering him with lavish favors in exchange for a monopoly over the output of Xiling Coal Mine. If not for Guo Lin, how could Wu Dong have driven an imported BMW? And if not for Guo Lin, such a horrendous tragedy would never have occurred in the first place.

Zhao Kang thought Li Mu had fabricated the story merely to continue exacting revenge on Guo Lin, so he gave him a false lead. He did not ask further, however, and simply followed Li Mu's instructions, ordering his most trusted online promoters to use Haizhou proxy IPs and fan the flames.

When the rumor first surfaced, the public was skeptical but intrigued. Although the story was told with impressive detail and offered both external and internal motives at length, there was still no solid proof, and no one dared believe it outright.

But soon, some enthusiastic netizens began gathering all sorts of corroborating evidence to prove the story's accuracy.

First, someone claiming to be Wu Dong's neighbor came forward and said that the imported BMW Wu Dong had bought earlier that year had disappeared. This was unusual, because in the past the car could be seen coming and going every day.

Then many users remarked that Wu Dong had always driven that BMW with brazen arrogance. Whether day or night, in the city, the suburbs, or on the national highway, people had often seen him speeding in it. Its license plate, 58888, was especially eye-catching and well known throughout Haizhou. For such a conspicuous car to vanish all of a sudden was indeed suspicious.

Next, another person said that in the past two days Wu Dong had stopped driving the BMW himself when going out; instead, a chauffeur had been picking him up and dropping him off in an Audi. Such a sudden change in habit looked even more suspicious.

The most important piece of information was that, on the evening of the second day after the incident, someone had seen both Wu Dong and Li Jiawei, deputy chief of the municipal public security bureau, separately at a luxury fish restaurant in the suburbs. The crash had barely happened, and yet he was already meeting privately with a deputy police chief. Something about that was clearly off.

One user claiming to be a waiter at the restaurant said the two men had indeed dined together that day.

With so many different reports reinforcing one another, public opinion changed dramatically. People were no longer merely doubtful; they were now almost certain in their hearts that the hit-and-run driver was Wu Dong.

Once the crowd had fixed on Wu Dong as the culprit, the denunciation began in earnest, and Guo Lin, who the rumor said had also been in the car that night, was not spared either.

Guo Lin was the director of Xiling Coal Mine, a corrupt state enterprise official. It was he who had funneled more than eighty percent of the mine's coal into Wu Dong's hands, helping Wu Dong earn vast sums while also taking huge bribes himself. It was bad enough that he had abused his power for gain and preyed on young women; to have become an accomplice in this hit-and-run case was what reignited the public's fury toward him.

A saying even began to circulate online: if Guo Lin had not been in league with Wu Dong all along, Wu Dong would never have gone to the trouble of hosting a banquet for him, and there would never have been a drunk-driving accident after the meal. Therefore, Guo Lin bore at least half the blame for this tragedy.

Under the covert steering of the online agitators, Guo Lin was once again thrust into the center of the storm.

To Li Mu, Wu Dong's case still needed to be kept boiling by the shills, even spread beyond Haizhou and into Jinling. Once it drew the attention of higher-ranking public security leaders, Wu Dong would have nowhere to run. As for the allegation that Guo Lin had been in the car at the time, though it was indeed a smear fabricated by Li Mu, Guo Lin had no way to defend himself anyway, because no one was focusing on whether he had truly been in the vehicle; what mattered now was his利益关系 with Wu Dong.

Li Mu's minimum goal was to strip Guo Lin of his post as director of Xiling Mine. If he could get him thrown behind bars, so much the better.

As for keeping public opinion alive afterward, Li Mu handed the entire matter to Zhao Kang. He told Zhao Kang to continue promoting the story on forums in Pengcheng and Jinling, so that the local Haizhou officials would not interfere. It would be even more interesting if people at the provincial level were alarmed.

As for Li Mu himself, he truly had no time to keep watching the matter unfold, because an evening family banquet was waiting for him.

That night, his parents had reserved a private room at the Haizhou Hotel, the same grandiose Room 888 as before, and the guests were once again the relatives from his mother's side of the family.

His father had also wanted to treat the Li family to a meal at the Haizhou Hotel, but most of them were farmers and lived far away. To make a special trip into the city just for dinner would have been too much trouble for them.

At this point, only Li Mu's maternal uncle and his family knew about the shop his parents had opened. When his uncle heard that his second sister and her husband had offered his wife a salary of two thousand yuan a month, he was so astonished he was speechless. It took several confirmations before he understood. His second sister and her husband, though plain and honest people, had a truly remarkable son. Quiet and unassuming as he usually seemed, he had actually earned a fortune in such a short time and even opened such a large specialty store for his parents.

Still, his uncle knew very well that he could not spread the word. As a result, Li Mu's grandparents, who lived with him, knew nothing about it either. They had only heard that the younger daughter-in-law had gone south with the second daughter and her husband for some kind of training.

A few days earlier, word of that had accidentally reached Li Mu's eldest maternal uncle, who then discussed it with his wife and younger sister and came to a conclusion: Li Daiping had taken his wife and Li Mu's second aunt south to run a pyramid scheme.

Unexpectedly, only a few days after reaching that conclusion, the three of them came back. And upon their return, Li Daiping was hosting another banquet, once again at the Haizhou Hotel, once again in Room 888.

Before setting out for the dinner, Li Mu's eldest maternal uncle, Xiao Yunjian, wore a baffled expression. As he bent down to put on his shoes, he only got one shoe on before straightening up and saying to his wife, Cai Yanhong, "Honestly, I can't make heads or tails of what Li Daiping is up to. Some time ago I heard that the two of them had voluntarily gone off their jobs, then took the second brother's wife south. They were gone for half a month, secretive as anything, and no one knew what they were doing. The second brother's wife even quit her job to go with them. Could they really have found some way to make money down there?"

Cai Yanhong curled her lip, full of disdain. "Haven't you heard? Gold is everywhere in the south. Of course, that was what people said back when reform and opening had just begun more than ten years ago. Money isn't that easy to earn now."

"But you can't deny that some people are just willing to spend," Xiao Yunjian said with a frown. "Last time we ate out, I quietly asked the waiter. With cigarettes and liquor included, the meal cost more than six thousand yuan. This time it's Room 888 again, so it'll probably be several thousand more. If Li Daiping didn't have money, he wouldn't be willing to bleed like that."

Cai Yanhong was silent for a moment before nodding to herself. "Fair enough."

Then her expression shifted from disdain to a hint of sourness. "And that Li Mu is a strange one too. I heard his mock exam scores were only around five hundred, so how did he suddenly turn so promising on the college entrance exam and get into People's University..."

Xiao Yunjian let out a dry chuckle. "Maybe the ancestral graves of the Li family were smoking green flames."

Cai Yanhong jabbed him in the side. "Enough with the sour grapes. Hurry up and put on your shoes."

The family banquet that evening saw everyone arrive fairly punctually. Since Li Mu's parents had informed them in advance that the dinner was to celebrate Li Mu's admission to People's University, all the relatives who came brought red envelopes. As soon as they walked in, they pressed the envelopes into Li Mu's hands and congratulated him on getting into such an excellent university.

Li Mu did not refuse the kindness of his elders. Money of this sort was like New Year's money or wedding gifts in the future; it was simply the currency of family relations, and naturally it should go back and forth between kin.

By half past six everyone had arrived, including his maternal aunt's husband, Zhou Gang, who had not come last time. The only one missing was Li Mu's cousin, Xiao Yuanyuan.

With a helpless expression, his eldest aunt said, "That girl is impossible for us to control. We just bought her a camera, and now she's already gone to Qingdao with her friends for a trip."

His younger aunt laughed and said, "Sister-in-law, you can't keep indulging Yuanyuan like that. It's one thing for a girl to spend money, but she can't be running outside all the time."

His eldest aunt spread her hands. "Your brother can't control her, let alone me."

Li Mu's grandmother said with obvious delight, "All three of the children in our family who took the college entrance exam got into university. Yuanyuan made first-tier, Xiaowei got into second-tier, and now Xiaomu has entered a key university. Next up, it all depends on Haohao!"

The Xiaowei she mentioned was Zhou Wei, the son of Li Mu's eldest maternal aunt, who was also absent that day. It was said that a classmate had found him a part-time job, and at the end of July he had gone to Yangcheng to get a taste of real life.

Li Mu's maternal uncle teased his own son. "Haohao, I don't have high expectations for you. If you can get into a second-tier university in Jingdu someday, I'll be satisfied."

"Getting into a second-tier university isn't hard," Xiao Hao said with a pout. "But why Jingdu?"

"To go cling to your cousin, you dummy!" his uncle said with a laugh. "Your cousin is so capable. If you follow him in the future, won't you be eating well and living well?"

Li Mu's uncle knew how much money Li Mu could make, and he also knew that the shop where his wife served as manager had been entirely set up by Li Mu alone. To him, this nephew was nothing short of a genius.

When Xiao Hao heard this, he suddenly understood. Looking at Li Mu not far away, he thought of the hundred yuan his cousin had generously given him last time. He had used it to treat the class beauty, Nana, to a meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken, then taken her to the park for a boat ride. On the way home, he had successfully held her little hand. The feeling had been beyond words.

Compared with before, Li Mu's father now seemed like a different man. He was not only radiant and full of life, but even his voice carried more authority than it once had. Picking up a filled glass of Moutai, he rose to his feet and said with a smile, "Father, mother, brothers, sisters, thank you all for coming today. On behalf of our whole family, let me toast you all."

His uncle hurriedly said, "Second brother-in-law, this isn't a toast you should give alone. We should all raise our glasses together."

With that, he stood up and said in high spirits, "Xiaomu is the first among our family to be a prospect for a key university. Let's all raise our glasses and wish him a bright future!"

His aunt's husband nodded and joined in happily. "Right, exactly. May Xiaomu have a bright future!"

Li Mu's eldest uncle and aunt, however, felt a touch of bitterness in their hearts. When their own daughter had left for university in previous years, they had never seen everyone so excited. Their daughter, after all, had also gotten into a first-tier university and was no less remarkable. Li Mu had indeed been admitted to a key university, but did that mean he would definitely amount to something in the future? Looking at the two of them fawning so obviously, one would think graduating from a key university meant becoming mayor or governor.

Though they felt sour inside, the two of them still stood and lifted their glasses, and the family drank together.