When Li Yi returned to his rented apartment wearing bloodstained clothes, he happened to run into Uncle Wen and Aunt Wen as they were heading out.
Seeing this, both of them were stunned.
Uncle Wen, ever the kind-hearted soul, hesitated briefly before stepping forward with concern: “What… what happened? Where are you hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital?”
Li Yi couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—Uncle Wen was still the same old Uncle Wen.
Most people would want to stay as far away as possible from something like this, but not this couple—they were actually stepping forward to help.
“Uncle, Auntie, I’m not hurt—I just got this while coming to someone’s aid!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“Acting heroically?”
“Yeah, I came across a robbery on my way home last night. I rescued the victim and took them to the hospital—this blood is from them!” Li Yi explained.
“Is that so? You’re a real hero!”
Uncle Wen breathed a sigh of relief and immediately praised him.
“It’s the least I could do. If no one steps in to help when they see injustice like this, who’s going to help us when we’re the ones being bullied?” Li Yi said.
“You’re right. Now go inside and change into some clean clothes—you look pretty scary like that!”
“Alright, I’ll go in first then!”
With that, Li Yi headed toward the courtyard!
In the west wing, a few young men were chatting while munching on sweet potatoes.
“Where did Brother Yi go? Why did he leave without even saying a word?” Qiangzi asked.
“Maybe he had an emergency!” Shi Yong said.
Dongzi frowned and said, “The window in Brother Yi’s room is frozen over. He probably didn’t come back last night. I hope nothing’s happened to him…”
Before he could finish, they heard the sound of a door opening next door.
The young men exchanged glances, immediately stood up, and went out to check what was going on.
When they saw Li Yi standing in the doorway, covered in blood, they were all stunned.
“Brother Yi… what happened to you…”
Before Dongzi could finish, Li Yi cut him off: “Don’t make such a fuss. I saved someone last night—it’s his blood.”
Then Li Yi added, “You guys go wait in the next room for a bit. I’ll change into some clean clothes and join you!”
“Got it!”
Li Yi went back into the room, immediately pulled a clean set of clothes out of his suitcase, took off his blood-stained clothes, and tossed them into the washbasin to soak in water.
Watching the bloodstains rise to the surface of the water, Li Yi couldn’t help but frown.
Tang Xue had helped him pick out this outfit before they left for Qin Province—and now it was ruined.
Bloodstains are the most stubborn of all, and with the soap’s limited cleaning power, it would be nearly impossible to get them out no matter how hard he scrubbed. What a waste!
Besides the outer layer being soiled, the sweater underneath was also stained with blood. But since he only had one thick sweater, he had no spare to change into.
Fortunately, there wasn’t much blood on the sweater, so it was still bearable.
After changing, Li Yi lit the stove in the room. Although Beijing in late November hadn’t yet reached the depths of winter, it was still getting a bit chilly.
Plus, the west wing was a bit damp to begin with, so not lighting the stove would have been downright uncomfortable.
Once that was done, Li Yi went into the next room!
Seeing the young men munching on sweet potatoes, he immediately asked, “Where did you get these sweet potatoes?”
Dongzi replied right away, “We saw your door was locked, and we didn’t dare go out to eat, so we asked the landlord to buy us some sweet potatoes to roast!”
“Haha, I was worried you guys might be going hungry. That’s great!”
Li Yi continued, “Last night when I went out, I ran into some thugs who tried to rob me and even stabbed someone. I stepped in to save the guy. But because I had blood on me, the police misunderstood and took me to the station!”
“The investigation is over now, so they let me go!”
Li Yi briefly recounted what had happened to put the younger guys’ minds at ease.
“Bro Yi, what should we do now? Should we go out and hang around some more this afternoon?” Dongzi asked.
“No need. Let’s grab a bite to eat first, then get some sleep this afternoon. We’ll head to the foundry tomorrow!” Li Yi said.
“Didn’t that jerk who guards the foundry say they don’t rent out their housing? Why would we go there?”
“Haha, a mere gatekeeper like him wouldn’t have the authority to decide something like that. We’d have to ask the plant manager or other factory officials!” Li Yi said.
“But as long as that guard is there, we can’t even get through the gate. How are we supposed to meet the foundry’s management?” Dongzi asked.
“Simple. When we get there tomorrow, we’ll say we’re there to do business with their management. That way, he can’t very well stop us, can he?”
Li Yi continued, “Of course, if he still won’t let us in, we’re not afraid. We’ll just use that as an excuse to cause a scene. When the time comes, don’t hold back—beat the hell out of that son of a bitch!”
“Brother Yi, we’re strangers here. Isn’t it a bit unwise to start a fight?” Dongzi asked.
“No problem. If we make a big scene, it’ll just draw their plant manager out!” Li Yi said.
“That might work, but it’ll be hard to explain ourselves once the factory boss comes out!”
Li Yi smiled and said, “What’s there to explain? We’re just here on business. I plan to place an order with the foundry to have them custom-make a batch of special stoves.”
Hearing this, Dongzi and the others’ eyes lit up instantly!
That would make everything make sense—even if things really did escalate, they’d be in the right.
After all, we’re just here to do business, and your watchdogs won’t even let us in—don’t they deserve a beating?
With that settled, Li Yi glanced at his watch—it was already 1:00 PM—and immediately said, “Let’s pack up and go grab some lunch. What kind of lunch is it to be munching on sweet potatoes in the middle of the day?”
“Alright!”
…….
Downtown. The Jiang Residence!
Just as Li Yi was heading out to eat with a few of his guys, the doorbell at the Jiang residence suddenly rang.
Mrs. Jiang went to check and saw it was the young man from the Ye family. Realizing he’d come to visit her youngest son, she opened the door right away.
“Jianhua, you’re here?” Mrs. Jiang said politely.
“Auntie, I heard Longcheng got hurt, so I came to check on him!” Ye Jianhua replied immediately.
“Come on in, then…”
Just as she spoke, the door to the inner room suddenly swung open, and Jiang Longcheng, his upper body wrapped in bandages, suddenly walked out.
Seeing this, Mrs. Jiang was startled and immediately scolded him, “Good heavens! Why are you up and about?”
Seeing his mother’s reaction, Jiang Longcheng gave a wry smile. “Mom, I only hurt my arm—not my leg. Why can’t I get up?”
“That’s still not allowed! Didn’t you hear Dr. Jiang tell you to rest?”
“Mom, I know my own body best!”
Then, turning to Ye Jianhua standing nearby, he said, “What are you just standing there for? Come on in!”
Once Ye Jianhua had entered, Jiang Longcheng immediately led him to his room.
As soon as he walked in, Ye Jianhua asked in astonishment, “What happened? You were fine last night. How did you end up looking like this after just one night?”
“Don’t even ask. I got mugged by some petty thieves on my way home after drinking last night. I almost didn’t make it!” Jiang Longcheng said.
“That bad?” Ye Jianhua asked in surprise.
He actually had no idea what had happened. Just a moment ago, when he’d seen Jiang Longcheng talking to his mother, he’d seemed perfectly normal, so he’d assumed it was just a minor injury. He hadn’t expected the situation to be far more serious than he’d imagined.
“Yeah!”
Jiang Longcheng then recounted last night’s events in detail.
After listening to Jiang Longcheng’s account, Ye Jianhua frowned and said, “So you’re saying that last night, after you had a drink and were heading home, you got mugged in a narrow alley, and at the critical moment, that blabbermouth saved you?”
“Mm-hmm!”
“So could it be just as Old Zhou said—that the whole thing was orchestrated by that kid, with the aim of…”
“No way!”
“Why?”
Jiang Longcheng said in a low voice, “At first yesterday, I thought the same thing you do, but then I realized I was wrong. That kid was incredibly brutal when he saved me!”
“Can you imagine that guy beating three knife-wielding robbers to a pulp right in front of me? Can you imagine him breaking their legs right in front of me, just to make sure they couldn’t get away?”
Thinking back to Li Yi’s brutal display last night, Jiang Longcheng couldn’t help but shudder!
Ye Longcheng swallowed hard, then said, “What if it was a ruse?”
Jiang Longcheng immediately fell into deep thought, but just then, his mother’s voice suddenly rang out from outside: “Third son, come out quickly—it’s your second brother on the phone!”
Jiang Longcheng told Ye Jianhua to wait a moment and went to the living room to answer the phone.