Guo Fuyun, like a female assassin, suddenly took two steps forward, swinging her meteor hammer with a whooshing sound, then hurled it. The hammer spun in the air before sweeping across the battlefield.
With two loud bangs, the two men felt their hands tremble, as if their bones were about to shatter. Their guns, meanwhile, had been knocked from their grasp by the meteor hammer and fell to the ground.
They were dumbfounded.
Even if they picked them up, it was useless; the gun handles were bent.
Hong Damao, both in pain and furious, roared, "Attack! Are you all stupid? Get them! Chop them to pieces!"
So, those men wielding machetes rushed forward.
Guo Fuyun was about to attack again, but Lu Chen stopped her, saying, "Yuyun, be good, rest a bit, you're too tired."
Actually, he was afraid Guo Fuyun would kill them. Regardless, those were Du Ling's men. Even when beating a dog, one should consider its owner's feelings; they'd already beaten the dog badly enough, it couldn't get any worse.
With a slight thought, a strange energy flow was released, instantly controlling the wrists of those men holding their knives.
They all felt their hands suddenly go weak and powerless, and the sharp machetes fell to the ground. At the same time, their feet seemed to be frozen, causing them to lose their balance and fall to the ground.
Their faces showed horror. Holy crap! This really is a ghost!
Meanwhile, Lu Chen grabbed a tree branch from a nearby villager and shouted, "Everyone, attack!"
He took the lead and charged forward.
The villagers, after a moment of surprise, all showed joy and then roared as they rushed forward as well.
Instantly, the valley was filled with the deafening sounds of battle.
Lu Chen, who was the first to rush forward, slammed a stick into Hong Damao's shoulder, sending him staggering and crashing to the ground with a cry of pain. Then, the villagers' sticks rained down on him.
Hong Damao was incredibly foolish; he actually tried to block, and a stick struck him squarely on his mangled wound. The blow caused Hong Damao to let out a bloodcurdling scream, and he quickly pulled his hand away. He dared not resist any longer, so he simply rolled over and lay face down, arching his large buttocks to protect his vulnerable area.
Lu Chen, wielding his stick, led his men in a brutal rampage, quickly defeating the thugs, who were all lying on the ground howling in pain, writhing and unable to resist.
The worst off was Hong Damao; everyone treated him like their greatest enemy and beat him mercilessly.
His pants were torn to shreds, and his buttocks were noticeably larger than usual. His head was covered in bumps.
However, compared to Guo Fuyun's attack, this was relatively mild.
Lu Chen stopped everyone, then walked over to Hong Damao and poked the largest bump on the back of his head with the end of a stick.
Hong Damao screamed, "Stop hitting me! Stop...stop hitting me..."
"I'm not hitting you anymore," Lu Chen said calmly. "But you have to tell me one thing. If your answer doesn't satisfy me, I'm telling you, you can forget about having your head!"
"You...you ask!" Hong Damao said in a low voice.
"Did you only pay 150,000 yuan per mu for the rice paddies you requisitioned? According to the market price, it should actually be 350,000 yuan per mu?" Lu Chen asked.
Hong Damao hesitated slightly, then screamed again.
Because Lu Chen poked his large bump with the stick again, then again, then again, every second. He smiled and said, "I won't ask too many questions, I'll get to you when you tell me."
After five or six thrusts, Hong Damao finally couldn't take it anymore and howled, "Yes!"
"What's going on here?" Lu Chen asked immediately.
Hong Damao hesitated again, then screamed again. He shouted, "Fine, I'll talk! I'll talk! We did withhold the subsidies. But it's not even 350,000 yuan per mu (unit of land area). We're subsidizing the equalization value, a little over 300,000 yuan per mu, not 350,000! Seriously, not!"
Lu Chen's face turned cold: "Even if it's 300,000, that's still 150,000 yuan less per mu. How dare you! Who's the mastermind?"
"I don't have that kind of power!" Hong Damao said with a mournful face, "It's a director above me who's in charge. I'm just getting a small share; he's the one getting the lion's share!"
"Director?" Lu Chen's face turned frosty: "What's his name? What director? What's his background?"
Lu Chen had already figured it out. This 300,000 yuan per mu becoming 150,000 yuan—Hong Damao probably couldn't have pulled that off alone. There must be someone even bigger involved. Sure enough, there was another director!
Hong Damao roared, "It's our company's project director in charge of the Nisdi project, named Ding Huochang. He... he's the son of Ding Dasen, the deputy director of the Municipal Land and Resources Bureau!"
Lu Chen sneered. Seems like he has some connections! He asked again, "Your boss doesn't know about this?"
"He... he doesn't know." Hong Damao swallowed hard. "It was all done behind the scenes. Ding Huochang also handled the villagers' complaints."
"Very good!" Lu Chen nodded, his face grim. It seems this Ding Huochang really does have some ability; he managed to get away with it. However, today he's going to expose him.
Lu Chen straightened up, thinking for a moment, and said coldly, "Go tell your Director Ding that I want to meet him. If he's got the guts, arrange a time and place, and I'll go. If not, then forget it. Understand?"
Hong Damao let out a long breath, feeling his life was no longer in danger, and his tone unconsciously became arrogant: "Kid, what I'm worried about is whether you have the guts! Director Ding isn't just a director; he's the deputy head of our Hongqing Hall. If you offend him, unless you escape Yunzhou City, you'll die here!"
Lu Chen smiled and suddenly raised the tree branch again.
Instantly, Hong Damao, who had just been threatening him, howled and quickly covered his head with his hands.
Lu Chen smiled coldly, took Hong Damao's phone from his pocket, and dialed his own number. He said, "Call me when you have a definite answer. Take your men and get out of here!"
With that, he threw the phone at Hong Damao's face. Hong Damao quickly grabbed his phone, scrambled to his feet, and yelled at his scattered henchmen, "Damn it, what are you still lying there pretending to be dead for? Get up and get back with me... uh, get back with me!"
With that, he sheepishly and unsteadily wobbled towards the car.
The injured thugs hurriedly followed, each running in a bizarre and comical fashion. Especially the one who'd been punched in the butt—he ran like a folk dancer, definitely fit for the Spring Festival Gala.
Lu Chen suddenly remembered something and shouted, "Hong Damao, wait!"
Hong Damao was startled. They were almost at the car, and he didn't want to wait. Jumping in and driving away was the best option! But he knew he couldn't escape at this distance!
So, he could only stop, his face contorted with despair, and turn away.
"You... what else do you have to say?" he asked, trembling with fear.
"First, before I've properly dealt with your Director Ding and Deputy Hall Master Ding, if you continue to bully these villagers, I'll cripple you!" Lu Chen coldly demanded. "Second, is your gold necklace real?"
Hong Damao nodded tremblingly.
"Fine!" Lu Chen said decisively, "Take it off and give it to me!"
"Damn it, why?" Hong Damao roared, "I spent over 40,000 yuan on this!"
Lu Chen sneered, "Compared to what you've embezzled, this is nothing! Don't waste your breath on me, hurry up, or don't leave!" With that, he swung the wooden stick in his hand.
Whoosh!
The stick grazed Hong Damao's ear, flew past, and smashed the window of the car behind him to pieces! Hong Damao screamed in terror, reaching up to touch his ear, finding his hand covered in blood.
If that had hit his head, his skull would have been smashed open!
Hong Damao was terrified. He quickly took off his gold necklace and tossed it to Lu Chen.
He turned to run away, but then heard a sweet yet chilling voice: "You still have two gold rings on your finger!"
Without a word, Hong Damao immediately endured the pain in his hand, took off the two gold rings, which weighed about twenty or thirty grams together, and tossed them to Lu Chen as well.
The one who gave the order was someone even more terrifying to Hong Damao than Lu Chen.
That was the devilish girl who had shattered one of his fingers with a meteor hammer.
Watching the group flee like stray dogs, Lu Chen smiled slightly. He handed the gold necklace and two gold rings to an older villager, saying, "Take these and exchange them for some money to pay for the injured people's medical expenses. Don't worry, I'll take care of it for you. You'll receive your due compensation, not a penny less!"
"Young man, that Hong Qingtang is very powerful. You've offended them, and we're worried something will happen to you! Please don't let us cause you harm!" the older villager said anxiously.
The other villagers quickly nodded in agreement, saying,
"That Hong Qingtang is from the underworld, very vicious!"
"That's right, they kill without blinking an eye, they're all demons!"
"We can't fight those thugs, alas..."
...
As they spoke, their faces grew worried again.
Lu Chen chuckled, "If I said I was also from Hongqing Hall, would you believe me?"
That wasn't entirely untrue. Du Ling had hired Lu Chen as an operations consultant, which essentially meant he considered him part of Hongqing Hall—if not the whole person, then at least half. Of course, as the research director of Flying Eagle Bio and the head pastry chef of Moon Fang Pastry Shop, Lu Chen didn't care about that. But sometimes, a little banter was nice.
Sure enough, the villagers were stunned.
"Ah? You…you're also from Hongqing Hall?"
"Then why did you fight them?"
"Yeah, why did you stand up for us?"
…
Lu Chen narrowed his eyes slightly and said leisurely, "Because there are good and bad people in Hongqing Hall, right? I'm on the good side, so I'm helping you wipe out the bad side."
The villagers became even more excited upon hearing this. If they were a little uneasy before, they were much more at ease now.
Yes, this young man was also from Hongqing Hall, so those guys probably wouldn't be able to defeat him. After persuading the villagers to go home, Lu Chen noticed it was nearing dusk and told Guo Fuyun and Du Haoling to head back as well. He breathed a sigh of relief. He could finally avoid his planned sneaky bath in the lake.
What if he lost control during that bath?
However, Lu Chen's relief was quickly replaced by anxiety.
Because Guo Fuyun said, "I'll go with you."
Du Haoling nodded, "Me too."
Then, Lu Chen suddenly felt a headache coming on. He knew perfectly well where they were going; the two girls were definitely talking about going to see Ding Huochang.