Chapter 56: The Harbinger of Disaster Comes Calling

Lu Chengwu walked out cautiously: "Hehe, sister-in-law."
Lu Chengwen glared at him: "What kind of nonsense are you calling her?"
"I'll call her whatever I want!" Chen Mengyun said, "Tell me, am I your sister-in-law or not?"
"Of course you are!" Lu Chengwu said, "I don't recognize any other woman in this world except you, sister-in-law. You are my only sister-in-law!"
"Well said! If any other woman tries to ruin the relationship between me and your brother, what will you do?"
"I'll beat that shameless bitch to death!"
Chen Mengyun looked at Lu Chengwen smugly: "How do you like that?"
Lu Chengwen thought to himself, wonderful.
[Lu Chengwu, this unprincipled fellow, actually hooked up with a stubborn mule like Chen Mengyun. You two are truly a match made in heaven.]
Lu Chengwu smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, I'm a bit tight on cash lately."
"How much do you need?"
"Twenty million."
Hearing this, Lu Chengwen panicked: "What on earth do you need twenty million for?"
Chen Mengyun angrily retorted, "You can spend tens of millions on a luxury mansion, but your brother-in-law can't even ask for twenty million in pocket money? Come to your sister-in-law's company tomorrow, and I'll give you the money."
"Thank you, sister-in-law!"
Lu Chengwen pointed at Lu Chengwu through clenched teeth: "If you dare go, I'll beat you to death!"
"Brother, stop always making sister-in-law angry."
"I'll beat you to death right now!"
Chen Mengyun walked right up to Lu Chengwen, her hair disheveled and her eyes fierce, staring at him in a way that genuinely frightened him.
"Mengyun, you..."
"Lu Chengwen, let me make it crystal clear to you: you are never marrying anyone else in this lifetime. You can only marry me! Even if I die, I'll die a member of the Lu family!"
At that moment, Zhao Gang walked in: "President Lu, President Chen, Young Master..."
"If you have something to say, spit it out; if you have a fart, let it fly," Lu Chengwen snapped irritably.
"Officer Zhang is here."
Lu Chengwen felt like he was about to die.
He tore off his tie, threw it onto the coffee table, and collapsed flat onto the sofa: "Heavens above! Just let me die! The whole pot is boiling over!"
Lu Chengwen said, "You two go inside and rest for a bit. Go up to the second floor."
"Why should we?!" Chen Mengyun demanded.
"I've got an active case hanging over my head, and it's all fucking to save a stubborn mule like you! I'm a man with a criminal investigation hanging over me right now! Did you forget? You pranced off to have dinner with Hu Shuhui, let him drug you, and almost lost your chastity. If I hadn't appeared in the nick of time, you'd already be Mrs. Hu!"
Chen Mengyun instantly felt wronged. She walked over and tugged at the hem of Lu Chengwen's jacket: "I know I was wrong, so stop yelling at me! I'll never dare do it again. From now on, I'll only ever share meals with you, okay?"
Lu Chengwen no longer knew what to say to this woman.
"Go hide, just go hide! Aren't you ashamed to face Zhang Shen'er?!"
"Got it!" Chen Mengyun grabbed Lu Chengwu and scurried back into hiding.
Tang Yiyi felt as though she had seen a ghost.
What kind of absurd plotline was this?!
Xu Xuejiao, the brilliant talent of the Xu family, had actively seduced Lu Chengwen, going so far as to wear a bunny girl outfit to try and trap him with sex appeal!
And Chen Mengyun from the Chen family was here throwing tantrums and fighting to the death just to be with Lu Chengwen!
Was Lu Chengwen really worth all this?!
Yet, hearing all this, the pharmaceutical factory incident had nothing to do with Lu Chengwen—he was basically the captain of the fire-fighting squad!
And as for the shantytown project, this guy genuinely hadn't intended on making a profit at all?
Looking at it this way, far from being the ruthless profiteer everyone whispered about, Lu Chengwen was actually a thoroughly conscientious capitalist!
Pumping tens of billions into infrastructure investment while personally guaranteeing the return of capital for all investing partners—he was practically a living saint!
Had they gotten it all completely wrong?!
Lu Chengwen felt utterly exhausted, mind and body: "Let Officer Zhang in."

Zhang Shen'er stood in the foyer: "I'm already in."
"Oh, Officer Zhang is here. Please, have a seat."
Zhang Shen'er, accompanied by a trainee police officer, sat down on the sofa.
Without saying a word, she kept a stern expression and stared straight at Lu Chengwen.
Lu Chengwen said weakly, "Zhao Gang, serve our two officers."
"Don't bother," Zhang Shen'er said. "I heard your conversation with Ms. Chen just now. Looking at it this way, we really did wrong you, didn't we?"
Lu Chengwen looked at Zhang Shen'er, lacking even the energy to argue with her anymore.
"Officer Zhang, I know you look down on me. It doesn't matter, I don't care. Whether you wronged me or not doesn't matter to me anymore. If you have evidence, sentence me; if you don't, hurry up and lift the restraining order against me. I don't want to stay in this city for even another single minute."
Zhang Shen'er smiled: "We've finished investigating on our end as well. Your suspicion has been cleared, and I'm here today to tell you that the restraining order is cancelled."
She pulled out a document: "Sign here, and you're a free man."
Lu Chengwen took the pen and scribbled his signature rapidly.
"Aren't you even going to read it before signing?"
Lu Chengwen handed the pen back to the junior officer and looked at Zhang Shen'er: "A person like you would never pull dirty tricks on people. I trust you."
Zhang Shen'er stood up and looked around: "Nice place."
"Anything else, Officer Zhang?"
Zhang Shen'er smiled faintly: "Alright, I know you're dying for me to leave. See you around if fate allows. Lu Chengwen, I'll be keeping an eye on you."
"Thank you."
Just then, Zhao Gang stumbled back through the front entrance in a panic: "President Lu, this is bad! Long... Long Aotian is here!"
Lu Chengwen was immensely shocked: "Long Aotian?! Impossible! King Iron Lump beat him into a pulp, how could he possibly be back on his feet?!"
"I don't know, but it really is him!"
Lu Chengwen clenched his fists: "Oh, damn it!"
[Is the plot moving this fast? King Iron Lump beat him until he passed out cold, how did he wake up so quickly?!]
[The protagonist is the protagonist, completely defying all logic!]
[Could today be my doomsday?! I really, truly refuse to accept this!]
Zhang Shen'er felt something was amiss.
Long Aotian? This was a name Lu Chengwen often muttered to himself, always claiming the guy was insanely powerful and firmly believing he was destined to become one of Long Aotian's concubines.
Today, she would finally see who this person really was. She wanted to witness firsthand how on earth she was supposed to become one of his concubines.
Zhang Shen'er smiled faintly: "It seems President Lu has made quite a few enemies, hasn't he? Long Aotian, which family's young master is this one?"
Lu Chengwen said nervously, "I won't keep you then. You should head back right now."
Zhang Shen'er pulled out a voice recorder and tucked it behind a sofa cushion: "I'll record everything. If he tries to harm you, I can save you."
Lu Chengwen forced a bitter smile: "Fine, then go hide in the inner room."
As soon as Zhang Shen'er stepped inside, she found the inner room already packed with people.
No one knew Tang Yiyi, but Zhang Shen'er recognized her: "Yiyi?"
"Shen'er."
"What are you doing here?"
"I..."
Zhang Shen'er understood instantly—her journalist best friend had been up to her old reckless tricks again.
Looking further around, she saw Lu Chengwu, Xu Xuejiao, and Chen Mengyun—all familiar faces.
Trapped together in a single room, an excruciating awkwardness hung in the air.
Everyone harbored their own agendas, and everyone was inextricably entangled with Lu Chengwen in one way or another.

Long Aotian strode into the living room and let out a hearty laugh: "Lu Chengwen, what a magnificent place you've got here!"
Lu Chengwen stared at him: "You're... completely fine now?"
Long Aotian laughed heartily, walked over to the wine cabinet, opened it, grabbed a bottle of foreign liquor, and strolled out carrying two glasses: "Join me for a drink."
"Are you here to start a fight? You don't need to put on airs anymore—if you want to fight, just get on with it."
"No rush." Long Aotian was brimming with supreme confidence. Seeing Lu Chengwen's nervous state, he smiled faintly, twisted open the bottle cap, and began pouring the drinks:
"Sometimes, I really feel that destiny is a strange thing. You're wealthy, tall, and handsome, but you have one fatal flaw. Do you know what it is?"
Lu Chengwen sighed: "No idea. Please enlighten me, Your Excellency."
Long Aotian handed a glass of wine to Lu Chengwen and said, "You have no brains."
The corners of Lu Chengwen's mouth twitched, but he didn't speak.
Long Aotian sat down on the sofa, crossed his legs, and swirled his wine glass: "I know, saying this probably makes you unconvinced. Let me tell you: if you were smart enough, you'd know that I, Long Aotian, am absolute existence you can never afford to provoke."
"I can understand you lusting after the beauty of Leng Qingqiu, Xu Xuejiao, Chen Mengyun, and the others. But you ought to take a piss and look at your own reflection—competing against me, Long Aotian, do you even have the capability? With just a flick of my finger, I can make you vanish from this face of the earth. Do you understand what vanishing means?"
Lu Chengwen sighed, picked up his glass, swirled the contents, and took a sip to calm his nerves.
"Believe it or not, I never intended to get engaged to Leng Qingqiu from the start. Xu Xuejiao was just a chance encounter; I never had any designs on her. As for Chen Mengyun, that's even more ridiculous—we broke up over three years ago..."
Long Aotian wagged his finger to interrupt: "None of that matters now. The issue at hand is... you've pissed me off, and the two of us need to settle this once and for all."
Lu Chengwen sighed: "How do you want to settle it? Beat me to death?"
"Hahaha!" Long Aotian burst into laughter: "There's no need for that just yet, but you embezzled fifty billion in investment funds from my subordinates, and you need to cough it all back up to me."
"No problem," Lu Chengwen said. "I can transfer the funds to you first thing tomorrow morning."
"Also, for the shantytown project, I want you to pull out and breach the contract."
"I've already signed the contract with the government."
"I don't care about that. The Lu family cannot fall because of you. If the Lu family goes completely bankrupt, it does me no good."
"So, looking at it this way, you're not going to let the Lu family go, nor are you going to let me go?"
Long Aotian stood up: "You're smart, smarter than I imagined. Even though you're just a mortal creature—nothing more than a pile of stinking mud in my eyes, a lowly running dog who couldn't even reach a steaming pile of shit in time—you do indeed have some brains."
Lu Chengwen took a sip of his wine: "There's one thing I don't understand."
"Speak."
"King Iron Lump hit you so hard, how did you recover so fast?"
"Heh, you seem to have forgotten that I am a miraculous divine doctor and a wizard of alchemy. Brewing a batch of Bone-Restoring Vitality-Enhancing Pills is well within my capabilities."
Bone-Restoring Vitality-Enhancing Pills.
Hearing this name from inside the room, Xu Xuejiao's brows knitted tightly together.
Chen Mengyun asked in a low voice, "Is that some kind of formidable medicinal pill?"
Xu Xuejiao nodded with a grave expression: "It's a legendary pill recorded only in ancient texts, capable of repairing all fractured and shattered bones within twenty-four hours. For a practitioner at the Qi Refining stage or someone with a special physique, the time frame is even shorter. Judging by the duration of Long Aotian's disappearance, he likely possesses both."
Tang Yiyi wore a look of utter bewilderment: "That's unscientific?!"
Xu Xuejiao cast a cold glance at this layperson... laywoman:
"Like I said, it exists only in ancient texts. Many modern people consider the Bone-Restoring Vitality-Enhancing Pills to be mere 'mythological' names used by ancient apothecary shops, nothing more than superstitious nonsense from the ancients. Plenty of modern experts have tried to replicate these ancient divine medicines, but all of them have failed to find the method."
Zhang Shen'er chuckled: "And you guys actually believe the ramblings of some wandering charlatan? I'm a criminal investigator—when a human breaks over seventy bones, surviving is already a miracle. There's no way they could get out of bed without resting for at least half a year."
Xu Xuejiao shot Zhang Shen'er a cold look: "Just a few days ago, you were still insisting that Brother Chengwen was the suspect who drugged Sister Mengyun. If you don't understand, just quietly listen."
"You..."
Lu Chengwu gave a goofy smile: "Alright everyone, stop arguing and listen to what they're saying."
...
Lu Chengwen nodded: "Since you're so capable, why didn't you fight back when King Iron Lump attacked you?"
At the mention of this, Long Aotian glared angrily: "That's because I was using the Metamorphic Face-Shifting Grand Technique. Using that technique leaves one unable to mobilize true qi for a few hours, which is why I let that idiot get the upper hand."
"So you made a special trip here just for the fifty billion, and to stop me from investing in the shantytown project?"
"There is one more thing."
"Name it."
"I want your fifty billion to fund the amusement park project."
Lu Chengwen's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at Long Aotian.