Chapter 1036: That Was Rash!

The night passed without incident.

Early the next morning, as soon as Li Yi opened his eyes, he didn’t bother with washing up or breakfast. After getting dressed, he hurried straight to the newspaper box by the door.

These days, as long as circumstances allowed, most families had the habit of subscribing to newspapers.

Every morning before dawn, the post office would deliver the subscribed newspapers to the newspaper boxes at each household’s doorstep.

Originally, Li Yi’s family hadn’t subscribed to any newspapers, but ever since he became Deputy Director of the Development Commission, they’ve been receiving seven or eight different papers every day—all as a perk from his workplace.

Previously, Li Yi hadn’t paid much attention to these papers; most of the time, his older sister would collect them and take them back to the village to use for plastering walls and roofs.

But today, preoccupied with the matter involving Wang Anguo and the others, he broke with tradition and came out personally to retrieve the newspapers, much to the surprise of Zhou Wen and the others.

Li Yi paid no mind to the strange looks from Zhou Wen and the others. After taking today’s fresh newspapers out of the mailbox, he dashed back to the main house like a gust of wind.

Back inside, Li Yi placed the newspapers on the coffee table in the living room and began reading them one by one.

He first opened the most authoritative People’s Daily. As always, the front-page headline featured the unchanging reports on high-level developments—either a top leader meeting with a head of state from some country, or an important meeting held the previous day.

Li Yi had absolutely no interest in any of this.

Scrolling down the page, he quickly found what he was looking for: “Absurd: With Irrefutable Evidence, Suspect Acquitted, Yet Investigators Imprisoned.”

Though not the front-page headline, it was still on the first page and in a fairly prominent spot.

Since it was to be published in the People’s Daily, Li Yi’s article—aside from its unconventional headline—was fairly conventional in content. It simply recounted the full sequence of events and, in passing, posed a few soul-searching questions to society at large.

After a quick glance, Li Yi pulled out copies of the Workers’ Daily, Beijing Daily, and Industrial and Commercial Evening News to read through them one by one.

Soon, headlines familiar from his past life began to appear before Li Yi’s eyes:

“Shocking! The Elderly, Women, and Children Demand Justice at the Municipal Bureau Gates, with Hundreds Gathering to Show Support!”

“Shocking! Protesters Block Entrance to Beijing Municipal Bureau to Plead Their Case—Here’s the Truth!”

“Terrifying! The son of a high-ranking official acts with impunity—he actually did something like this!”

“Exclusive…”

After reading through all the newspapers, Li Yi felt much more at ease.

Although Jiang Longcheng was usually carefree and lacked a serious demeanor, he was quite reliable when it came to getting things done—and sure enough, all these articles had been published.

Excellent!

One can only imagine the media storm that will erupt once the public across the country sees these reports.

After all, what the people of China detest most is this kind of abuse of power by the children of officials. Setting aside sympathy for the weak, we have always had a deep-seated sense of justice and a desire to uphold righteousness.

On top of that, Liu Dongping’s actions have truly been utterly shameless and beyond the pale—they’re enough to make anyone seethe with rage—so it’s no surprise that he’s come under fierce public criticism.

Once a media storm breaks out, the situation will be difficult to resolve.

If this had previously been solely Liu Dongping’s affair, once public opinion flares up, the people’s anger will no longer be directed solely at Liu Dongping himself, but at the entire Liu family.

The public’s sentiments are straightforward: how could Liu Dongping, a mere twenty-something upstart, possess such power that he dares to toy with women at will and even frame the investigators?

Without the Liu family backing him, no one would believe it.

So now, even if those in power don’t want to touch anyone from the Liu family, it’s probably impossible—after all, anyone wanting to intervene in this matter must take the raging public sentiment into account.

Of course, these reports alone weren’t enough; Li Yi still needed to fan the flames a bit more…

Just as Li Yi was pondering how to proceed with the matter, a sudden commotion—a mix of squeals and cries—echoed from inside the room, startling him.

Seeing this, Li Yi immediately opened the door and went back into the inner room.

His precious little daughter had already woken up and was rubbing her face against her brother’s, seemingly trying to wake him up to play with her.

Disturbed by the little girl, Yun Rui, who had been sleeping fairly soundly, began to grumble and whine. Even Jiang Xue, lying at the head of the bed, rolled over, looking as if she were about to wake up.

Li Yi quickly took a few steps forward and picked up the little girl, lest she disturb her brother and mother.

After all, it was Sunday—a rare chance to sleep in!

Once Li Yi had picked her up, the little girl looked at her father’s face, just inches away, and was instantly overjoyed.

“Daddy… I’m hungry… I want milk…”

Li Yi was instantly melted by his little girl’s cuteness and immediately said with a smile, “Okay, Daddy will go make some milk for Yunjin!”

With that, Li Yi carried the little girl into the kitchen and began preparing her formula.

Just as he settled the little girl, Yunrui woke up too.

Seeing his little sister happily drinking from her bottle, the little guy immediately got upset. He puckered his lips, and his mood instantly turned from sunny to cloudy…

Seeing this, Li Yi immediately resorted to his old trick, carrying him into the kitchen and making a bottle of formula for him as well.

After settling both little darlings, Li Yi finally began cleaning the stove, then boiled water to wash his face, and then made breakfast…

By the time everything was nearly ready, Jiang Xue, who had been exhausted from the previous night’s exertions, slowly opened her eyes.

Seeing the man bustling about the room, a sweet smile instantly spread across Jiang Xue’s face…

………

Winter days are short, and by the time the household chores were taken care of, it was already past nine in the morning.

According to Jiang Xue’s plan, since the kids didn’t have school today, she intended to take them to the Long family home to visit her third older sister and her young nephew.

Naturally, Li Yi would accompany them. He also planned to take Jiang Xue back to the Jiang family’s ancestral home after visiting his third sister.

After all, since he was planning to take on the Liu family, there were certain matters he had to discuss with the old man.

It wasn’t that he needed the old man’s help, but simply to let him know his plans so he could be prepared.

After all, at the Old Master’s level, a full-scale conflict would have far-reaching consequences.

After all, in the eyes of outsiders, he, Li Yi, was a member of the Jiang family, and whatever he did—right or wrong—would be attributed to the Jiang family.

In dealing with the Liu family, although Li Yi didn’t need the Jiang family’s help, he certainly didn’t want to cause trouble for them.

However, just as Li Yi and Jiang Xue had finished getting ready and were about to set off for the Long family’s residence, the home phone suddenly rang urgently.

Li Yi immediately asked Jiang Xue to wait a moment, then picked up the phone.

“Hello, who is this…”

Before he could finish, Old Chen’s familiar voice came through the line: “It’s me. You’ve got some nerve, kid, daring to use such methods against the Liu family. Aren’t you afraid of damaging the nation’s reputation?”

Li Yi knew exactly what Old Chen was referring to, and he didn’t deny it.

After Old Chen finished speaking, Li Yi replied bluntly, “The Liu family is just a small clan—they don’t represent the entire nation!”

There was a brief silence on the other end, followed by, “But after all, Young Liu is a general. With this matter having blown up so big, it’ll be hard for the higher-ups to clean it up!”

Li Yi immediately retorted loudly, “What’s so hard to clean up about this? The Liu family—these rotten apples—deserve severe punishment to uphold party discipline and national law. Their thinking has gone seriously astray, and they’ve even corrupted officials in other departments. We can’t have bad apples in our ranks!”

“But pulling out a radish brings up the mud. Dealing with such high-ranking officials requires a measured approach…”

Before he could finish, Li Yi cut in: “Old Chen, the Liu family may be powerful, but they haven’t reached the point where the higher-ups fear them.”

“Moreover, I believe we should take thunderous action against the Liu family and crack down on them with an iron fist. Only then can we achieve the effect of punishing past wrongs to prevent future ones and curing the illness to save the patient. At the same time, it will allow the common people to see the intensity and resolve with which we are turning the knife inward and scraping the bone to treat the poison.”

As soon as he finished speaking, silence fell once more on the other end of the line.

After a long while, Old Chen finally said, “You’ve got quite the way with words, young man… Never mind. I’ll pass on what you just said to the higher-ups. Go ahead and handle this matter as you see fit. We really do need to deal with these festering sores and cancerous tumors!”

“Thank you very much, sir!”

“All right, let’s not talk about that anymore. I called you today to inform you of something else!”

Old Chen continued, “Regarding your plan to acquire the Beijing Electronics Factory and the wafer fab, the higher-ups have given their approval. Have your people contact the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission to negotiate the acquisition.”

“Also, regarding your request to recruit university graduates, the higher-ups have approved that as well, but they’re only giving you a quota of 500 people…”

Before he could finish, Li Yi immediately interjected, “Old Chen, our Starry Sky Company represents an investment of tens of billions. With so many projects and industries, a mere 500 people won’t cut it—we need at least 1,000!”

“You’re asking for the moon, young man. How many college graduates does the whole country produce in a year? At most 600—not a single one more!”

“900 people, and we’ll increase our investment by an additional $200 million next year!” Li Yi said.

“800 people, and we’ll increase our investment by 500 million!”

“Deal!”

Hearing Li Yi’s decisive tone, Old Chen was suddenly overcome by a sense of foreboding. He’d been too hasty…

……….