Chen Xiaoxiao sat beneath the locust tree, carefully stitching up the tear in Wang Xiaodong’s suit. The lingering glow of the setting sun fell across the side of her face, bathing it in a faint golden hue.
“Done.” Chen Xiaoxiao bit through the thread, shook out the suit, and handed it back to him. “It might not compare to your custom-made clothes, but at least you won’t have to go home shirtless.”
Wang Xiaodong took the suit. His fingertips accidentally brushed the back of her hand, which felt slightly cool to the touch.
“Not bad.” He raised an eyebrow. “Had practice?”
“Which kid raised in an orphanage doesn’t know how to mend clothes?” Chen Xiaoxiao stood up and brushed the dust from her trench coat. “I’ve returned your clothes. You can leave now.”
Wang Xiaodong did not move. Instead, he leisurely put on his suit and adjusted his cuffs. “Why are you in such a hurry to drive me away?”
Chen Xiaoxiao smiled, took out her phone, and started recording. “Who knows whether CEO Wang first sent people to forcibly demolish the place, then showed up afterward to play the hero and save the damsel in distress? Even TV dramas have stopped using such an old trick.”
Wang Xiaodong looked at Chen Xiaoxiao’s tense expression and suddenly chuckled. There was no mockery in his laughter. Instead, it carried a faint trace of self-deprecation.
He was in no hurry to hand her the documents. Instead, he turned around and leaned against the trunk of the old locust tree, his gaze settling on the children playing in the distance.
“What do you think I came here for?” His voice softened, almost as though he were speaking to himself. “Last year, I funded an orphanage in the western part of the city. The year before that, I renovated one in the northern suburbs. And if you go back even further, the orphanage in the south of the city with the rehabilitation center was also funded by Wang Group.”
Perhaps he had not personally done any of those things, but Dawn Group had.
What was wrong with borrowing his own family’s achievements for a moment?
These days, what major corporation did not engage in some charity to maintain its public image?
At least it was far better than those corporations that cared about nothing but profit. Dawn Group was actually giving something back to society.
Chen Xiaoxiao froze. The hand holding her phone slowly lowered, and some of the wariness in her eyes faded.
Wang Xiaodong ran his fingertips across the rough bark, leaving tiny bits of wood on his fingers. “When I was little, the house I lived in was ten times bigger than this orphanage, but it felt emptier than this place.”
“My parents were always busy with business, and there were only servants at home. At night, I would hug my pillow and cry. If I wanted someone to talk to, I could only speak to the paintings on the wall.”
He turned his head toward her. The usual sharpness in his eyes had disappeared, leaving only a vague trace of loneliness.
“Back then, I always thought that if there were a place with this many children making noise together, then even squeezing into a drafty room would be better than sitting alone at an empty dining table.”
“I hated holidays the most. Other families had warm lights glowing in their living rooms, while my house only had bodyguards standing in the hallways. The sound of their leather shoes against the floor could echo through the empty house for ages.”
That part was actually true.
Whenever holidays came around during Wang Xiaodong’s childhood, relatives eager to curry favor with his family would constantly visit, irritating him to no end.
So he would deliberately have the bodyguards wear leather shoes and make plenty of noise, pretending they were gangsters to frighten those relatives away.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” Chen Xiaoxiao tightened her grip on her phone. She had stopped recording long ago. “I was too impulsive just now.”
Wang Xiaodong turned around. A faint smile appeared on his lips, though it never quite reached his eyes. “I understand. If I were in your position, I wouldn’t be able to stand by while someone bullied a place I cared about either.”
He pushed the documents into her hands. “Whether you sign them is up to you. I just don’t want the children to have to fall asleep listening to rain leaking through the roof this winter.”
With that, he did not wait for her response and walked straight toward his car.
In the rearview mirror, Chen Xiaoxiao remained beneath the old locust tree, tightly clutching the agreement. The wind lifted the hem of her trench coat as she stared after his car, and there was unmistakable emotion in her eyes.
Even after Wang Xiaodong’s car disappeared from sight, Chen Xiaoxiao remained where she was, clutching the documents so tightly that the pages had become wrinkled.
“You were a little too impulsive just now.” Director Zhang sighed beside her. “CEO Wang was only trying to help.”
“Director…” Chen Xiaoxiao turned and began walking back, her voice slightly hoarse. “Was I… too harsh just now?”
Director Zhang patted her shoulder. “You were only trying to protect the children. CEO Wang won’t take it to heart.”
However, Chen Xiaoxiao knew that she had not simply been “protecting” them.
Chen Xiaoxiao stared at her phone screen. After a moment, she opened the search bar and typed in “Wang Xiaodong orphanage.”
Sure enough, several news reports about his donations immediately appeared, accompanied by photographs of him standing in front of different orphanages.
His expression was always indifferent, yet in the photos, he could be seen helping the children carry books and handing out toys.
If Wang Xiaodong knew what she was doing, he would undoubtedly smile speechlessly. He had already prepared several extra webpages in advance, just in case they came in handy.
As expected, Grandmaster Lü’s wisdom was unmatched.
…
The next morning, our protagonist, Lin Chen, was living beneath a bridge.
The sleeves of his T-shirt were frayed into tatters. A large tear ran through one leg of his pants, exposing an ankle smeared with dirt. The soles of his flip-flops had been worn through, leaving his toes sticking out through the holes.
He held a coarse cornbread bun in his hand, while the vegetables beside it did not contain so much as a drop of oil.
After several days of rest, his injuries had almost completely recovered.
He had even benefited from the disaster, advancing another step and breaking through to the Peak-stage Yellow Realm.
The breakthrough restored Lin Chen’s confidence. He was already preparing to seek revenge against Wang Xiaodong.
For the past few days, Lin Chen had survived by scavenging discarded food. He had barely dared to leave the bridge, terrified that he might run into Wang Xiaodong again.
He did not dare call his master either.
Getting brutally beaten by a rich second-generation heir was already humiliating enough.
How could he possibly have the dignity to trouble his master over it?
The sky had only just begun to brighten when an almost imperceptible disturbance in the surrounding aura reached Lin Chen’s ears.
He had just been preparing to go outside when he saw an elderly man suddenly collapse beneath a Chinese parasol tree outside the bridge. The vegetables spilling from the man’s basket rolled across the ground, covered in a thin layer of frost.
Lin Chen immediately darted forward.
The instant his fingertips touched the elderly man’s pulse, his brows knitted together.
This was no ordinary heart palpitation. An old chronic illness had triggered a sudden blockage in the heart meridians.
“Forgive me.”
Lin Chen gave a low shout and pressed his left hand against the Baihui acupoint on the top of the elderly man’s head to stabilize his consciousness. His right hand formed into a palm, and using his fingers in place of needles, he rapidly pressed the Neiguan and Shenmen acupoints on the man’s wrist.
“Water…” The elderly man opened his eyes, his voice hoarse.
Lin Chen hurried beneath the bridge, retrieved half a bottle of mineral water, and carefully helped him drink two mouthfuls.
At that moment, a black sedan came speeding toward them like mad.
Yangzhou Mayor Zhou Mingyuan stumbled out of the car. When he saw that his father was awake, his legs nearly gave out beneath him. “Dad! How are you feeling?”
If you are wondering why the mayor’s father was out buying vegetables so early in the morning, there was no need to ask. It was simply the power of the Protagonist Halo.
The mayor’s father enjoyed experiencing the life of an ordinary person. That was all.
“Mingyuan…” The elderly man grabbed his son’s hand and pointed toward Lin Chen. “This young man… saved me…”
Zhou Mingyuan was about to thank him, but Lin Chen had already turned and begun walking toward the bridge.
His figure was thin, yet there was a distant air about him, as though he cared nothing for worldly affairs. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“Benefactor, please wait!” Zhou Mingyuan hurried after him and handed over a business card. “I am Zhou Mingyuan, Mayor of Yangzhou. Please, you must tell me your name so that I can repay you in the future!”
“My name is Lin Chen!”
Although Lin Chen remained outwardly calm, his heart was already bursting with joy.
He knew it.
He really was the protagonist.
He had casually saved someone, and that person turned out to have such an extraordinary identity.
The Mayor of Yangzhou!
Lin Chen forcibly suppressed the emotion rising in his throat. Only after watching Zhou Mingyuan’s car disappear at the end of the road did he suddenly slam his fist into the bridge pillar.
Pain shot through his knuckles, but it only made his thoughts clearer.
“Zhou Mingyuan…” Lin Chen murmured the name.
His fingertips repeatedly rubbed the business card, which still retained a trace of warmth. He gripped it so tightly that its corners became wrinkled.
“My medical skills finally have somewhere to shine!”
He remembered what his master had told him before leaving, “Your abilities shouldn’t be buried in the mountains, nor should they be destroyed at the hands of petty people.”
Lin Chen had not understood those words at the time.
Now, everything suddenly became clear.
Saving Zhou Mingyuan’s father had not merely been a trivial act of kindness.
It was a ladder rising out of the mud, one he could use to climb back to the top!
Lin Chen abruptly stood and moved his frozen hands and feet. Even the Inner Force he had consumed while saving the elderly man seemed to have returned.
He carefully slipped the business card into the inner pocket against his chest. There was a hole in the pocket, yet it was still the warmest place he had.
Then he picked up his utterly ruined coat from the ground, dusted it off, and straightened his back.
Outside the bridge, the morning sky grew steadily brighter.
Lin Chen stared toward the city center, and an almost greedy smile slowly curled across his lips.
‘What does the Su Family amount to? And what does Wang Xiaodong amount to?’
‘Once I establish myself with Zhou Mingyuan’s support, everyone who ever looked down on me will eventually kneel and beg me!’
Lin Chen took one final look at the bridge where he had spent the past several nights. Then he turned and strode toward the morning market.
This time, he was not going there to scavenge leftovers.
He needed to find somewhere to clean himself up and get rid of this ragged appearance.
After all, he would soon be meeting an important figure.
What Lin Chen failed to notice was that a shadow hidden in the darkness slowly disappeared.
Nor did he know that Zhou Mingyuan’s so-called power and influence were nothing more than a joke in Wang Xiaodong’s eyes.