Chapter 1 - First Encounter (1/2)
Chapter 1: First Encounter
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
A SUV drove through the city streets at a steady speed. Lu Shang was distracted by the gasps from the person sitting next to him, he turned his head away from the night view of the city.
Beside his seat was a person, curling his blood-stained body, hyperventilating with his fists clenched, his expression showed he was in immense pain.
Lu Shang noticed something and extended his arm to touch the boy’s forehead, but his hand was pushed away by the boy roughly.
“Don’t touch.” It was a very young voice. The one beside him was a teenager.
Uncle Yuen in the driver seat turned his head slightly, “Lu Lao Ban (i)?”
T/N: (i) Lu Lao Ban is referring to Lu Shang, Lao Ban means boss. I don’t want to call him Boss Lu, because it sounds a bit weird and “boss” doesn’t really suit his personality much in English.
“It’s fine.” Lu Shang retracted his hand with the same expression as before.
As if he was holding something back in, the teenager sat far away from Lu Shang, clinging to the vehicle door, and curling up even tighter than before. The streetlights outside went passed them quickly. Lights shone on a few strands of the boy’s hair while his face was hidden. Lu Shang wasn’t sure where the boy was hurt, but a fair amount of blood soaked into the seats and a thick smell of blood filled the air inside the vehicle.
“Where are you hurt?” Lu Shang stared at him and asked.
The only reply he received was the teenager’s increasingly erratic breaths, as if a beast was hidden in his body, ready to burst out at any given moment.
“Are we going to bring him home? Like this?” Uncle Yuen asked from the front.
Lu Shang turned his head to Uncle Yuen, he was in deep thought, balancing the scales in his mind.
At that moment, the vehicle went onto a bridge, turning abruptly, all of them tilted to the right, the boy didn’t fasten his seat belt and fell over. Provoked by the sudden smell of Lu Shang, the boy opened his mouth and bit Lu Shang’s arm.
“What’s wrong?” Uncle Yuen turned his head back.
“Nothing.” Lu Shang didn’t even lift his head up and continued, “Keep your eyes on the road.”
Maybe it was because he was tired, but he didn’t feel much strength in the bite, nor did it hurt much. Except perhaps for the first bite, Lu Shang had a feeling that this boy here didn’t really want to hurt anyone. Frowning slightly, he raised his idle hand to the boy’s forehead. Lu Shang’s hand was cold, the boy seemed to have been woken up by it. He suddenly released his teeth and returned to the side in a hurry, curling up his body once again and muttering.
It seemed like he was poisoned. Lu Shang’s expression turned grave, holding his injured arm, he arched forward and instructed Uncle Yuen, “Go to the hospital.”
Two hours ago, at the bar, Nan Cheng.
The temperature dropped another two degrees. Sun Mao took a peek at his wristwatch, shifting uncomfortably on the sofa.
“A twenty million yuan loan?”
“Yes.” Sun Mao quickly nodded his head.
“Well, I guess that’s not impossible, but an incident suddenly came to mind.” The person talking was a youngster called Li Yan, barely over twenty years old. He had slicked back hair and was sitting on the armrest of the sofa, laughing with a cigarette in his mouth.
Sun Mao’s complexion changed; he had a feeling what Li Yan was about to say might be a little ugly. As expected, Li Yan breathed out a puff of smoke, beginning to recount their old confrontations, “Back in the day, my dad didn’t have enough money to start his business. At the time, you were the bank’s head, right? What did you say to my dad again? Ah, yes, ‘Even if God himself came to beg me, I still won’t loan you any money.’ Tch, Mr. Sun, why would you come ask me for a loan? You also know my dad is not a fair-tempered person, you are making this very hard for me.”
Sun Mao, who was almost fifty years old, was like a primary school kid, listening to his teacher preach in fear. His eyes were on the ground, making a forced smile, “That was just a misunderstanding…”
Li Yan smiled and cut into Sun Mao’s sentence, “But I guess what’s in the past, stays in the past. You know, my dad might be harsh with his words, but he actually has a soft heart. See, he knew of your plights and immediately sent me here to help you.”
The expression on Sun Mao’s face was complicated, he barely managed to reply after a few moments of thinking, “No, it’s because boss Li is such an understanding person.”
“Well, of course.” Li Yan accepted his compliments with zero qualms, “However, we are still merchants. We have to consider the profits, unlike you who inherited everything from your parents. I can very well loan you the money, but what is it that you can do for us? If, unfortunately, you gave your lender our money and he still doesn’t extend your loan period, then it would be a huge waste.”
“I have two flats, also a plot of land, if boss Li is uncertain, I can pawn those lands to you.”
Li Yan waved his hand, “I’m not even going to talk about how much that stuff would be worth, but according to my sources, you have already applied for the Other’s Rights Certificate (ii) for those two flats you speak of, right? I don’t need those intangible things, I will only take things that I can immediately exchange to money.”
T/N: (ii) Other’s Rights Certificate: One can apply for them in China for the flats they own, once applied it will limit other’s rights to the flats, that includes pawning. Basically, when it’s there, pawning can’t legally happen.
Sun Mao opened his mouth, but no words came out. He had been working his ass off for decades now, getting to the position he was in now was anything but easy. If he didn’t just happen to lose his way and gambled all the money away, he would never have to bow his head to this kid.
“Lu Lao Ban, what do you think?” Breaking the silence, Li Yan turned his attention to the man sitting in the corner.
Following Li Yan’s gaze, Sun Mao turned his head to a young man sitting at the bar, who was wearing a huge black coat. He was slim and tall, propping his head up with his hand, and staring at the cup of alcohol in front of him.
Coincidentally, someone carried in a pot of tea, and Li Yan said, “Lu Lao Ban doesn’t drink alcohol, give him a cup of tea.”
A waiter swiftly took the glass of alcohol away and filled a cup with Pu Er tea (iii), “Sorry for the inconveniences.”
T/N: (iii) Pu Er is a kind of Chinese tea, it’s extremely dark in color, as in almost pitch black, it tastes less “flowery”, and in my opinion old people tend to like it more.
Lu Shang nodded his head slightly. This person was just too quiet. He had never spoken a word from beginning to end. If Li Yan didn’t mention him, Sun Mao wouldn’t even remember someone like that was in the private room with them.
“You have heard of the news of Lu Lao Ban investing in a few universities’ building projects, right? In the aspect of financial strength, they are definitely comparable to us, the Li family.” Li Yan smiled as he hinted.
Sun Mao immediately understood what Li Yan meant, he turned his gaze to Lu Shang, “Are you saying that…”
“I have a lot of dealings with Lu boss, if he were to be your underwriter, then I’m okay with loaning you money.” Li Yan said.
Sun Mao was familiar with the name Lu Shang, he became the director of Tong Yan at such a young age. One could see how much potential he had from that alone. It was also common knowledge that he was a modest person, living in quiet neighborhoods and never showing off when he had to go out. He also seldom got involved with such dirty things, but for some reason he was here today. Sun Mao felt that everything had completely gone out of his control. He was playing right into Li Yan’s hands, but at the same time, he couldn’t come up with a better solution.
“The plot of land I have in the countryside might not be worth much now, but once the bridge is finished, the price will surely inflate. If Lu Lao Ban wants it, I can pawn it to you.” Sun Mao said.
Lu Shang rotated his head slightly to look at Sun Mao, without asking anything about the land, he said blandly, “I can consider that.”
Sun Mao already prepared a lengthy speech to persuade him, but he never would have thought that Lu Shang didn’t even want to hear it. Sun Mao spaced out from the shock.
Li Yan, however, was glad, “I have no more uncertainties with Lu Lao Ban’s words.” After that he called for a person to prepare the contract, that person delivered the paperwork shortly.