Chapter 103: The Poor Rely on Mutation

To keep pace with the times and improve the police force’s image among the public, Commissioner Xiao issued instructions to several reasonably fair and pretty young women from the Crouching Dragon District Precinct: they were to promote a more approachable image alongside The Black Cat Hero Cop, and then go cosplay.

The women had originally assumed they would be dressing up as female characters from The Black Cat Hero Cop. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a fan-made crossover collaboration…

Boss Li had Yao Yao draw a whole batch of Officer Judy characters, in every height, weight, and build imaginable. The young policewoman standing in the center had a trace of Fiona Sit’s charm about her, though she was shorter and more petite.

The Creative Ability makeup team from Jianye went to the Crouching Dragon District Precinct on the ninth day of the New Year. Since it counted as overtime, they were happy enough to make the trip.

The main task was to create facial molds first, followed by the headgear. Animal characters were more popular with children.

The police officers in Boss Li’s post-transmigration world did not draw their salaries from government appropriations. Their money came from taxes—vast quantities of taxes.

That was why the urban-rural fringe around Ox Head Mountain and Gongyuan Street looked as though they belonged to two entirely different worlds. Their police staffing levels were completely different.

A tycoon like Boss Li was a true big shot.

Whoever paid the most taxes had the most clout. No one cared whether it constituted exploitation or not. So long as things looked fair and just on the surface, that was good enough. It was all merely a way of fooling voters into casting their ballots.

One of the seven councillors in Crouching Dragon District had built his platform around the rule of law and public safety. He had been a councillor for nine years, and aside from having his ancestral grave relocated to Purple Mountain, he had fulfilled none of his campaign promises.

It came down to the same old principle: wealth determined power.

Without money, the game called Earth Online was ultimately a little less enjoyable.

One could hardly expect some heroic man to descend from the heavens and lend a hand.

That was why Boss Li’s original life plan after crossing over had been so utterly ordinary: establish himself at the welfare home, then muddle along until death.

Until the damned system arrived.

Only then did things change.

As the saying went, the rich relied on technology while the poor relied on mutation. Boss Li now had to possess both mutation and technology.

Sometimes money power worked better than superpowers.

For example, all it took to make everyone at the Crouching Dragon District Precinct praise Creative Ability to the skies was two commuter buses and a stack of Lantern Festival shopping cards.

“Commissioner, these are Hongwu International shopping cards. They’re not easy to get.”

“Otherwise, how would they have any class?”

Commissioner Xiao wore a look of pride, but soon turned serious again. “Of course, I’m not saying that, as police officers, we should be accepting bribes or taking advantage of our positions. After all, when Creative Ability came to express its regards to our Crouching Dragon District Precinct, they brought reporters from both the city and provincial television stations. We accepted their supervision. This is simply the excellent cultural enterprise Creative Ability, which is also based in Crouching Dragon District, expressing its appreciation for our precinct’s pragmatic and rigorous work ethic and style. It’s just a small token of goodwill…”

“I knew the commissioner would have a brilliant explanation!”

Little Chen grinned. The card was said to have a face value of five hundred, but Hongwu International was an all-purpose urban commercial complex. If one used it to buy everyday necessities—food, drink, and all the other things needed for living—the value was multiplied fivefold, and the reward points were multiplied fivefold as well.

In other words, although it looked like five hundred, it was actually worth two thousand five hundred.

Of course, prices at Hongwu International were also somewhat higher. Everything cost more—at least ten percent more—but the card was still worth two thousand yuan at minimum.

Two thousand yuan…

Little Chen calculated that if he mobilized his entire family to cast their votes for Boss Li’s maternal grandfather, at two hundred yuan per vote, he could still pocket another four hundred yuan.

There were eight legally eligible voters in Little Chen’s family. Normally, none of them voted. They were too lazy.

But this time was different.

Long live understanding!

And long live Li Jie as well, probably.

The local media organizations had no objections. If this had been anyone else, they might have savaged the police for accepting bribes. But this time was different.

The city station, the provincial station, Three Rivers Media, Yongle Media, and the rest were all “one of us”—at least for the time being.

After all, ever since New Rainflower Culture had collapsed, Creative Ability had been, to the cultural circles’ “rats of Jiangdong,” a sudden glimpse of light after a long, dark tunnel.

It had not yet reached the point where it had to prop up a collapsing empire, but quite a few people in the same line of work were now relying on Creative Ability to make a living.

Especially when it came to the various foreign-language rights for overseas release, professionals were essential. If the dubbing were completely devoid of emotion, wouldn’t that ruin the company’s reputation?

What did “professional” mean?

It meant charging by the minute rather than by the episode!

At present, the Goryeo-language version of The Masked Calabash Hero was being translated and dubbed under Yongle Media’s direction. Many dubbing studios—especially those capable of producing Goryeo-language adaptations—had pulled strings in hopes that Boss Li of Creative Ability would put in a good word for them.

After all, Boss Li enjoyed “taking a shitstorm online.”

Since he was already butterfly-stroking through a sea of filth, surely he would not mind mentioning the little maggot next door. Once it broke out of its cocoon and became a fly, it would be eternally grateful.

Of course, saying “eternally grateful” with their mouths alone made Uncle Li happy enough. But if there were no tangible benefits, Uncle Li was not interested.

If they wanted Uncle Li to speak first, how could they remain silent themselves?

Uncle Li loved the sound of gold bars clinking together.

When Lu Xiaoguan organized a fan appreciation event, Li Jie took the opportunity to slip over and join the fun. It was rare to have the media taking photographs of him, and regular exposure was never a bad thing.

He also happened to be there to collect a New Year’s red envelope from his useless old father, Ai Shoujin.

“Big Brother, Xiuqin says you’ve found yourself a girlfriend?”

Seeing that her husband had clutched the red envelope and refused to let go, Qin Yuandai snatched it away and slapped it into Li Jie’s hands.

“Where is she from? What does she look like? What did she study?”

Li Jie immediately tucked the envelope away and chuckled. “My mother really does love me best.”

Then he leaned toward Qin Yuandai and whispered, “Mother, she isn’t my girlfriend. She’s my wife.”

As he spoke, he pulled out his phone and showed Qin Yuandai a photograph of Su Mengyao.

Qin Yuandai liked her at once. The girl was genuinely beautiful.

“Oh my, she’s such a fresh-faced beauty.”

The more she looked, the more she liked her. Being pretty certainly had its advantages.

Ai Shoujin craned his neck, trying to sneak a look, but Qin Yuandai elbowed him away and refused to let him see. The old man grumbled indignantly, muttering under his breath again.

When he heard that they had already begun preparing for pregnancy, Qin Yuandai was even more startled.

“How old is she? You’ve already started trying for a baby?”

“Eighteen last year, nineteen this year.”

“…”

Good heavens!

Qin Yuandai did not think there was anything particularly inappropriate about it, however. Considering the trouble Li Jie had stirred up lately, it would be better for him to have a child sooner rather than later, if only to set the minds of Little Red Star’s twelve mothers at ease.

Remembering the conflict with Grand Endeavor Pictures, Qin Yuandai asked quietly, “Big Brother, is there still any room for reconciliation between you and the Second Young Master of the Yang family?”

Qin Yuandai did not know the details. She had no idea that it was Li Jie himself who had broken both of Yang Ying’s legs.

Because of the information gap, she had always assumed that the two sides were simply matching one another’s moves and limiting their struggle to the business world. Some of the reports in the news had cut out crucial video footage, leaving her unable to understand what had really happened.

Ai Shoujin, on the other hand, had been paying close attention. He had privately confirmed that Yang Ying’s legs really had been broken, and that Li Jie’s posts on Weibo had been nothing less than provocative.

But Ai Shoujin was stubborn by nature. He did not believe that his “weak” son would have gone out of his way to provoke Yang Ying. It could only mean that the Yang boy had brought the disaster upon himself.

As for whether Li Jie had received assistance from some powerful benefactor, Ai Shoujin was curious, but he had no intention of asking.

During the New Year holiday, he had instead made several trips through the Guanzhong Special Administrative Region of the Sili Province, calling in favors to get the rerun of The Masked Calabash Hero admitted into the region.

He would never dare openly challenge the Yang family. But making trouble for them behind the scenes was still within his courage.

Otherwise, wouldn’t that make a mockery of the underworld standing once held by his former father-in-law, Qin Yuanming?

In truth, Ai Shoujin was also rather annoyed with Li Jie now.

Did this boy even remember that he had a father?

Whenever something difficult happened, he should have told the family.

Instead, he said nothing at all. And when his old man came to ask, he only talked about film and television arts.

Damn it! If Ai Shoujin had possessed even a scrap of artistic talent, would he have had to rely on his wife just to scrape together a living?

That was also why he had held so tightly to the red envelope and refused to hand it over. Qin Yuandai was far cleverer than her husband. Though she did not know the truth, she understood that the child did not want to make his troubles any bigger.

Her husband’s brain was probably about the size of a walnut.

At that moment, Li Jie and Qin Yuandai were deep in conversation. Since the Second Young Master of the Yang family had come up, Li Jie reminded her not to get involved.

“Mother, don’t let yourselves get mixed up in this. Let me put it this way: Fifth Master Yang Shiren of the Kaihuang Group called me a while ago to negotiate peace, and I rejected him outright.”

“…”

As someone from Guanzhong, Qin Yuandai knew exactly what sort of aristocratic heir Yang Shiren was. She grew tense at once.

“Big Brother, nothing is going to happen, is it?”

“Put your mind at ease a hundred times over.”

“Big Brother, Yang Shiren has deep connections in the military, and the Yang family has always held defense contracts. He’s not a simple man. If he came up with some strange piece of equipment to hurt people, it wouldn’t be impossible.”

Qin Yuandai might have worked in the arts, but she knew all about the notorious tough men from the region around her hometown.

That Fifth Master Yang was a genuine “warrior king.” He had been into the heavens and down beneath the seas. If he truly set his mind to harming someone, what could Li Jie, a child raised in a welfare home, possibly do?

Seeing Li Jie keep insisting that there was nothing to worry about, Qin Yuandai could not possibly relax. She hurriedly said, “Big Brother, I think I should call a few people over from my family to work as your bodyguards. Don’t worry, they all have firearms permits and security certificates. Once the contract is signed, even if they fire a gun in the middle of a crowded street, the compensation will be covered by insurance.”

“…”

Li Jie was completely dumbfounded. He quickly tried to reassure her again.

“Mother, really, nothing is going to happen here. I’ve already applied for personal protection through the Crouching Dragon District Police Bureau. I even have Commissioner Xiao’s contact information.”

“That still won’t do. You’re not alone anymore. What about Yao Yao? Someone has to look after her too. Don’t worry, I’ll find you a female bodyguard through my family.”

“Mother, it really isn’t necessary…”

What Li Jie actually wanted to say was that if something happened to Yao Yao, it would simply mean she had bad luck. It would not threaten him in the slightest.

But if he said that aloud, Qin Yuandai’s blood pressure would probably burst through the top of her head. So he had to make himself appear at least somewhat human.

In truth, threatening Li Jie through anyone was useless. Even if all twelve of his mothers were involved, they could not threaten him in the slightest.

“Listen to me. Safety comes first. Besides, let Yao Yao interview her and see how it goes. If she truly isn’t suitable, you can turn her down afterward.”

“All right, then.”

Li Jie was helpless.

“Don’t worry. I’ll find a suitable female bodyguard. I’ll personally screen her first.”

“Fine…”

Seeing Qin Yuandai so determined, Li Jie decided to go along with it. He figured that even if he did not reject the idea himself, there was no way Yao Yao’s twisted personality would allow someone to follow her around day and night, never leaving her side.

For now, he would simply placate this bargain-bin mother of his.

First update.

I had to go back for a follow-up examination of my foot injury and did not have time to write, so today’s chapter is a little late.

End of chapter.