086 A Different Style Comes Knocking

“Go, Brother Jie!”

With her cheeks puffed out and her mouth stuffed with soup dumplings, Su Mengyao cheered on Li Jie, her words muffled as she pumped her fist in encouragement.

She was determined to show this parasitic little auntie who was boss!

Meanwhile, inside Gan Xingnu’s room, Li Jie entered to find a “little white cat” sprawled on her back, belly exposed, all four limbs in the air.

“What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you, meow. All cleaned up, meow~”

“…”

Divine gold.

He had originally planned to mention that he wouldn’t be home for dinner, but now there was nothing more to say.

“I’m all prepared, meow~”

Wonderful!

With this, my long-term meal ticket is secure, meow!

Wearing a face reminiscent of a “Guarjia Golf Ball” and posing so invitingly, Boss Li’s clever mind completely short-circuited.

Brothers, fix bayonets—let’s go all-in against these beast-eared girls!

Lately, Gan Xingnu had been on her period, so she’d been shadowing Su Mengyao, learning from her experiences. For the sake of being a “rice worm,” she had, for once, put away her chess manuals and studied anatomical diagrams instead. In the end, she concluded: a male’s endurance has its limits!

In short, good bull to good field—the advantage is mine, meow!

Full of confidence, Gan Xingnu went from a bit of pain, to a bit of pleasure, to utter collapse, all in the time it took Su Mengyao to finish her soup dumplings and battle a thousand rounds online with fans of “Wang Tianxian.”

“I’m sorry, Master, you can come out now. I was wrong, meow~”

“I’ll never get carried away again, meow~”

“I’m going to break, meow~”

What’s going on?

Su Mengyao, holding a bowl of grapes, eavesdropped at the corner, her eyes darting mischievously, her cheeks stuffed like a hamster. After a while, when only Gan Xingnu’s whimpering could be heard, she nodded in satisfaction and casually started watching an online drama.

Now the new “rice worm” finally understands how hard I’ve had it!

Being the “Queen of Rice Worms” isn’t so easy.

What good is “the Will of D” anyway?

Hearing the bathroom door open and close again, Su Mengyao finally put down her bowl of grapes and darted off to Gan Xingnu’s room to see what had become of her.

Entering, she found Gan Xingnu lying there with vacant eyes, muttering to herself.

Sniffing the air, Su Mengyao crouched by the bed and finally made out what this “little auntie” was murmuring.

“It’s so hard, meow~”

“I’m going to break, meow~”

“It’s better with the mouth, meow~”

Hmph, what a weakling with a combat power of only five.

Yaoyao looked smug, then reached out to poke her “auntie’s” cheek. “Well? Isn’t it different from what they say online? Everything online is a lie.”

Gan Xingnu burst into tears, hiding her face with a loud “Wah!”

“I’ll give you an extra five hundred a month, just stop crying.”

“Really, meow?”

“If you keep crying, I’ll have Brother Jie edit out all your ‘little white cat’ scenes.”

“No, meow!”

“Guhihi~~ From now on, Brother Jie and I… will be able to last even longer. Guhihi~~”

“…”

After the two maniacs exchanged a few words on their “conditions,” Li Jie had already finished showering. Five minutes was enough, with time to spare to dry his hair.

Wrapped in a bath towel, Li Jie passed by, grabbed a can of “Happy Water” to satisfy his craving—no need to check, it was definitely zero-calorie. As an athlete, he had to be disciplined. Even eating twelve soup dumplings today, he didn’t worry about excess fat, since the boss used only chicken breast.

Even if it looked oily, it was… olive oil.

In short, self-discipline was key.

That evening, heading to Luzhou, he settled for a “low-fat burger combo” on the road, making do as best he could.

“Yaoyao, I’ll be out tonight, so I won’t be eating at home. You and your aunt can just eat at the school cafeteria.”

“Okay, Brother Jie.”

She didn’t ask where he was going or what for. After pulling the blanket over Gan Xingnu’s feet, she bounced out to snuggle up with Li Jie again.

After feeding him a few grapes, Su Mengyao suddenly leaned in and whispered in his ear, “Brother Jie, where are we spending New Year’s?”

“At the orphanage.”

Li Jie spat out a grape skin and continued, “The city council’s plan to streamline all the orphanages in Pingjiang is currently stalled. We’ll go back and celebrate.”

“You mean the plan to close all the district orphanages and merge them into one?”

“That’s the one. The bastards aren’t giving the orphanage a single cent, and what’s worse, they’re still allocating funds as if there’s only one orphanage after the merger, not six.”

The reason the city council was stuck now was because Li Jie, of the “Red Star Orphanage,” had become popular again.

Times had changed. If this hit trending topics, the mayor would definitely be ousted. Being able to bully a washed-up child star from Red Star Orphanage didn’t mean they could do the same to Boss Li Jie, who was now a creative powerhouse.

Completely different matters.

In fact, if ten years ago, after the land was expropriated, even a tiny fraction had been set aside to compensate the orphanages for their losses and financial difficulties, this wouldn’t have dragged on so long. They would have moved to the suburbs long ago.

Not just the suburbs—even next to a cemetery would have been fine.

The key was, the investors pushing this were truly stingy, doing everything possible to force the six urban orphanages in Pingjiang to move.

They wanted the land, wanted to cut the funding, gave no compensation.

They wanted to win it all.

Fortunately, Li Jie had become a “child star” at the time. Otherwise, with just Shu Xiuqin, there would have been no option but to stage a protest at the office entrance.

Whoever had influence in the city council was king.

With Li Jie’s star fading, the investors naturally thought their time had come—they were deeply rooted, after all, Pingjiang’s “land barons,” and could afford to wait.

They even planned to stall until Shu Xiuqin and her peers retired. By now, other orphanage directors had already retired; only the occasional protest group kept the city council in check.

But unexpectedly, Li Jie made a comeback.

Unlucky!

Apart from a few grassroots protest groups, most others were just doing it for money.

All those so-called non-profits were nonsense.

Even more so than before Li Jie’s transmigration.

Boss Li’s finances weren’t enough—he could only hold out.

By regulation, since Li Jie had turned eighteen and gotten into college, his household registration should have been moved out of “Red Star Orphanage.” From then on, its affairs would have nothing to do with him.

But before the “land barons” could make their move, Li Jie, as the “Masked Man,” had rescued a child from the nursery, buying a few days’ respite.

After all, the company trying to force out the six orphanages and push them next to the cemetery was none other than the developer behind “Hengqiang Loving Heart Kindergarten”—Hengqiang Real Estate.

Such were the subtleties of fate.

Now, Li Jie wasn’t just the “savior of the nursery,” but had regained fame, made a fortune, and even formed ties with a prospective district councilor in Jianye…

Where could the investors appeal now?

So, Hengqiang Real Estate was feeling the pressure—if they didn’t secure that land soon, the major shareholders would explode. As for the city councilors’ feelings…

Who cares? They’re just the “land barons’” attack dogs, biting whoever they’re told to. Isn’t that their job?

Why? Because they’re the “land barons’” dogs.

But after years of bad blood with Li Jie, now, if they wanted to make amends, they had to leverage the “Masked Man’s” rescue of the nursery child.

Whoever tried to persuade Li Jie to help demolish the orphanage would be a clown.

But there was no choice; the plan had been to settle everything by summer, demolish the orphanage, and start construction. Now, every day of delay was a day’s loss.

Li Jie was going back to the orphanage for New Year’s to see what kind of performance Hengqiang Real Estate would put on this time.

“Gotham can’t have just Batman; it needs the Joker too.”

But Su Mengyao didn’t really care about all this—she just wanted to meet more of Li Jie’s “family.”

Li Jie had promised to take her home for New Year’s, and that was enough.

The two of them chatted idly through an episode of the drama, until finally, the sound of a door opening reached their ears—it was Gan Xingnu, bracing herself against the wall, shuffling toward the bathroom, legs pressed together.

She’d been holding it for half an hour, but couldn’t stand it any longer and finally got up to use the toilet.

After the sound of the toilet flushing, the bathroom door opened, and again came the sound of slow, painful footsteps.

Li Jie got up to take a look, and saw Gan Xingnu lying face-down on the bed, her rear in the air.

“What kind of position is that?”

“It feels a bit better this way, meow…”

“You’re still ‘meowing’ in this state? Meow your damn head.”

With a slap.

“Ouch, meow—”

Clutching the red mark on her cheek, Gan Xingnu curled up like a cocoon, whimpering for a while before pleading weakly, “Master, please don’t hit me anymore, meow~~”

Divine gold.

But what could he do? She was just too cute.

He liked her, and she was fun.

After settling the two female perverts at home, Li Jie received a confirmed message from Hou Taiji: the VIP ward at Luzhou Ren Shou Hospital was indeed housing Young Master Yang.

Li Jie, who had already researched the hospital’s VIP ward layout, immediately headed to his former residence, now converted into his equipment room.

He packed his self-stitched protective suit, a pack of custom “cat’s claw darts,” a set of smoke bombs, a rappelling kit, two sets of ropes, a pair of grappling hooks, a pair of brass knuckles…

All of it fit neatly into a single suitcase, which he placed on the passenger seat of his eight-thousand-yuan manual secondhand car. He opened his phone and set the GPS for Swan Lake Park in Luzhou, right next to Ren Shou Hospital. Many visitors from out of town parked at the park to save on parking fees.

Boss Li intended to give Young Master Yang a little surprise tonight; last time, he’d ambushed him in hip-hop gear—this time, no sneak attack.

He suited up for action!

At midnight sharp, Li Jie donned his full black stealth suit, only his eyes exposed. With a single leap, he vaulted over the hospital’s electric gate.

He dashed into the inpatient wing, took the elevator straight to the top floor.

The so-called VIP ward wasn’t all that secure. When Li Jie appeared, the night nurse froze, her mind blank from the late shift, and even asked, “Who are you here to see?”

Though Li Jie was dressed head-to-toe in black, his face unrecognizable, the nurse didn’t react in time.

It wasn’t until Li Jie sprinted down the corridor that she screamed.

There, two bodyguards saw him and began to move, only for two “cat’s claw darts” to fly out, striking them in the arms. Li Jie closed in and dispatched both with a karate chop.

As they slumped to the floor, he kicked open the door—the steel frame shuddered at the impact. Inside, Yang Ying, just recently asleep, woke with a start and roared, “What the hell is all that noise—”

Bang!

Another crash snapped Yang Ying to attention: “Help! Somebody help—”

In the next room, Han Zitong rushed out almost instantly, only to see a black figure burst through the electronically locked door…

What kind of monster was this!

“Stop right there—”

Han Zitong charged in, drawing his pistol in a flash.

But the moment he entered, a surge of brute force yanked him to the ground. With a sickening crack, his wrist was dislocated on the spot.

The pain made Han Zitong groan, while Yang Ying stared in terror, his eyes wide. He wanted to scream, but fear had stolen his voice—he was mute with fright, a picture of humiliation.

With a mocking, cruel look, Li Jie took Han Zitong’s pistol and pressed it to Yang Ying’s brow.

But instead of pulling the trigger, he tucked the gun into his jacket and produced a collapsible baton.

Yang Ying recognized it instantly—it was with this baton that his left leg had been broken before!

Now, the black-clad psycho pinned his right knee, raised the baton, and aimed for his right shin…

(End of chapter)