Chapter 288 - 289: The Treachery of the Human Heart

Chapter 288: Chapter 289: The Treachery of the Human Heart

Li Yang took a deep breath before looking at them. "I have to admit, I didn’t expect you to get here so quickly. And I certainly didn’t expect you to stoop to such despicable methods..."

"I don’t like to waste words!" the young man cut in. "I’ll be straight with you. If we wanted, your company could forget about making any more money. It would just get shut down, simple as that. I, on the other hand, want to work with you. Manager Zhang already told you this last time, but you didn’t know what was good for you. Now, you can reconsider."

"I won’t cooperate!" Li Yang’s face was flushed with anger. "Now you can get lost."

Zhang Qian hadn’t expected Li Yang to be so unyielding. His face darkened. "Listen here, Li, don’t get arrogant. Do you have any idea what you’re doing? I’m telling you, if you don’t wise up, this place of yours will be completely shut down. When that happens, we’ll make sure you don’t earn another cent."

Li Yang said coldly, "Then let me tell you something. I would rather shut down my entire farm than work with you. That’s my bottom line. And I can tell you one more thing: you’re going to regret this."

"Regret?" Zhang Qian sneered. "Who do you think you are? You think you can make us regret anything? I’m telling you, if you don’t learn what’s good for you, this place of yours is really getting shut down."

"Fine," the young man said, standing up. His face was devoid of expression. "I understand your position. Now, I’m going to make you realize what you’ve just done. You will regret it."

With that, the young man left.

Zhang Qian stared at Li Yang. "I’m warning you one last time. You’d better cooperate with us now, or else..."

"Get out!" Li Yang snapped.

Rebuffed, Zhang Qian let out a cold laugh and left.

Li Yang sat there, watching the people come and go, his gaze icy.

They had come and gone in a flash, but the impact they left on his business was anything but small.

The villagers, in particular, could hardly believe it.

A buzz of discussion broke out.

"What’s going on?"

"I heard they shut down Xiaoyang’s farm! Said his produce wasn’t up to code and needed to be inspected!"

"How could it not be up to code?"

"He must have pissed someone off!"

...

Of course, Li Shunsheng heard the news as well. He saw Li Yang as the village’s rising star and had placed great hope in him. Seeing things turn out like this, the color drained from his face.

"How could this happen? How..." After everyone had left, Li Shunsheng went over to Li Yang. "What’s going on? Tell me everything. Did you offend someone?"

Li Yang said earnestly, "Uncle Shunsheng, you should stay out of this. I’ll handle it myself."

"Xiaoyang, who in the world did you cross?" Li Shunsheng said with a helpless look on his face. "We’re just ordinary people."

"I know," Li Yang said seriously. "Rest assured, I can resolve this myself. You don’t need to worry so much."

Seeing Li Yang’s resolve, Li Shunsheng gave a wry smile. Since there was nothing he could do to help, he had no choice but to leave.

"Young Master Jin!" Elsewhere, Zhang Qian was speaking to the young man. "I really didn’t expect that guy to be so stubborn. Even after all this, he still refuses to back down."

"Then let him stew for a couple more days," Young Master Jin sneered. "I don’t know about anything else, but if we keep this up, his business will be ruined soon enough. We’ll see how he acts so tough with us then!"

Zhang Qian smiled. "Exactly, exactly. That guy is way too arrogant, daring to act like that toward us. We really need to teach him a proper lesson this time. Let him know we’re not to be trifled with."

The young man didn’t give Li Yang a second thought.

’How could a country bumpkin like that possibly compare to me?’

’Our Quan’an Group has vast connections. What does he have?’

’Sure, his produce is good, but besides that, he has nothing.’

In their eyes, Li Yang wasn’t even worth a damn. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

Li Yang sat there, waiting until every last one of them had left.

Only then did he pick up his phone and call Shen Xu. "Officer Shen, I need to ask you a favor. Help me investigate who ordered my farm to be shut down. I need an explanation."

"Okay!" Shen Xu was taken aback for a moment, but she immediately agreed.

It didn’t really require an investigation; Li Yang already knew in his heart who was responsible. So, it didn’t take long for Shen Xu to find the reason.

"It was Qian Youli who personally gave the order. The official reason is that a random sample of your produce had issues."

"Was there really a problem?" Li Yang asked.

"Let me put it this way: the sample itself was fine, but things can be done to it."

"I understand," Li Yang nodded.

"Don’t do anything rash," Shen Xu said. "You’ve helped me so many times, and I’ve never been able to properly repay you. So how about this? Let me help you this time."