Three Days and Four Nights Wasted in Vain

The "Kaihuang Hot Spring Resort Hotel" in Jiangdu County was considered a landmark, with its highest floor boasting the so-called "Emperor Suite," offering the most exhilarating panoramic view. From there, one could see the Wetland Park and the Grand Canal, and overlooking the world from such heights gave a sense of possessing the entire realm.

Li didn’t need to guess; he knew Yang Ying, that bastard, was definitely staying on the top floor—it was just a matter of which room. So, that night, Li spent the evening by the Grand Canal in Jiangdu County, playing the role of a fisherman. Fishing was merely a pretext; his real purpose was to use a high-powered telescope to observe the upper floors of the hotel. Unfortunately, he saw nothing of interest.

Nonetheless, Li was patient, keeping watch for three days and four nights. During this time, he discovered Yang Ying’s car had the license plate "Jiang K11111," so Li tracked the movements of "Jiang K11111." Besides the resort hotel, the rest of the destinations were either high-end clubs or ultra-exclusive venues.

Damn... life was good.

After three days and four nights, Li was so envious he felt physically ill. How could he rest until he put Yang Ying in the ICU? That bastard had tried to drag "spirit girls" into the mud. Even though it failed, Li had managed, through his own abilities, to find himself a wife with a rare, dependent personality disorder—a "sickly beauty." If he hadn’t found her, Yang Ying might have succeeded. So now, he had to teach him a lesson.

Murder wasn’t an option; Li lacked the experience. But beating someone half to death? He had plenty of nerve and experience there. The value of a non-typical orphan wasn’t just reflected on "Houlang" Weibo.

However, on the fifth day of Li’s vigil over Yang Ying, something unexpected happened.

"What the hell?"

According to the pattern of "Jiang K11111," today Yang Ying should have headed straight for a high-end club. But just as he left the resort hotel, he was surrounded by more than a dozen trucks.

The lead dump truck had a banner fluttering atop its cab, emblazoned with huge letters: "Give us our hard-earned money!"

"What’s going on?"

"A foreman’s been owed payment for a construction project, so he’s brought his men to demand their money."

A crowd had gathered to watch. Li arrived late and didn’t catch the full story, but the local onlookers quickly pieced it together. A hapless fellow named Du Yao had taken his fellow villagers to subcontract part of the "Daye Film" studio project. Two and a half years after completion, their wages still hadn’t been paid. The workers were fed up, forcing Du Yao, the foreman, to resort to drastic measures.

"Yang, if you don’t transfer the owed money to me today, I’ll make sure we go down together!"

Li felt uneasy. "Brother, not now—I still want to take care of this bastard myself! If you get to him first, I’ll regret it for life."

A heart unresolved is a mind unsettled.

"Boss Du, it’s not that we don’t want to pay, it’s just that the company’s accounts are empty right now, we really can’t make it work..."

A man bowed and scraped, smiling up at the foreman atop the dump truck. Li recognized him at once—it was Li Lingbo, the one who incited the three "spirit girls" from the Academy of Cultural Industries. This scoundrel deserved a slap or two.

Riding a shared bicycle, Li did his best to blend into the crowd, observing quietly. The workers inside the trucks looked fierce, and when the police arrived, they immediately protected Yang Ying’s car, seemingly intending to escort it back to the resort hotel.

But that action triggered a furious response. The dump truck driver erupted: "Damn it, they’re all in it together! Run Yang down!"

The dozen trucks roared to life. Onlookers whipped out their phones to capture the dramatic scene.

It was a spectacle—the crowd loved it.

"Damn..."

Li was stunned by the unfolding chaos. He’d thought himself tough, but nothing compared to the power of collective outrage.

The dump truck, a hybrid with formidable horsepower, accelerated and rammed into Yang Ying’s luxury car, scraping black streaks across the pavement before smashing it into the hotel’s perimeter wall.

Then came the workers, wielding shovels and crowbars, wearing hard hats, charging forward. The foreman led the way, sledgehammer in hand. Though Yang Ying’s car was bulletproof, it was no match for the laws of physics.

No car door is unbreakable; if there is one, bring in the dump truck!

The police had never expected such ferocity from those demanding their wages, but after two and a half years of pent-up resentment, it was only natural that it exploded in such violent fashion.

"Damn, did I come here for nothing?"

Li realized he wouldn’t get a chance to lay a hand on Yang Ying. His days and nights of stalking had all been wasted.

Foreman Du Yao was ruthless; after dragging the trembling Yang Ying out of his car, he stripped him completely—not even his underwear was spared.

Then Yang Ying was hoisted into the air.

One of the trucks had its own crane.

Click.

Li took out his phone, snapped a photo, added a slight mosaic, and posted it to his "Houlang" Weibo:

"Family, who can relate? Came to Jiangdu County for a hot spring and witnessed a flying naked man."

Li’s account was already flooded with replies, and now, thanks to the explosive success of "Masked Calabash Hero: Power of Red," his platform traffic had multiplied fiftyfold.

As always, the first to arrive in the comments were the "old haters."

"The beast actually went to Jiangdu County?"

"Damn, there really is a flying man, and he’s naked."

"That’s a bit much for the eyes."

"Wait, why are there so many people below? Performance art? Spectators?"

"Hahahaha, found the scene—it’s a wage dispute gone violent; the boss was stripped and hoisted for all to see..."

While Li’s Weibo comment section descended into chaos, the official media accounts of Guangling City and Jiangdu County were in utter turmoil.

Soon, search terms like "Daye Film boss owes wages," "violent wage dispute in Guangling Jiangdu," "wage protest at Kaihuang Hot Spring Resort," "who is the Daye Film boss," "flying naked man’s connection to the Daxing Consortium," and so on, all shot into the top ten trending topics.

Wang Tianxian’s announcement about holding a fan meeting in Huating managed to trend for less than three minutes before being completely eclipsed by "flying naked man."

The origin of the "flying naked man" meme traced back to Li’s Weibo, and somehow, the media started using his mosaiced photo for their coverage, turning it into "Li Jie—flying naked man photo."

Wang Tianxian’s fans, unaware of the truth, bombarded her Weibo with comments: "That Masked Calabash Hero actor will do anything to trend!"

Half an hour later, someone popped up in the "Ten-Year Hater" group chat and greeted him: "Crab bro, working hard lately? Even taking roles without clothes now?"