YA Ch46: The Hero

The lawyer left, worried, with the newly revised list.

Yang Chen threw the troublesome Lu Yu into the game pod. Once the livestream began, he sat backstage, monitoring the progress of the data team. After several days of streaming, everything was on track, and the data team members had become proficient, no longer needing his hands-on involvement. Lao Yang rubbed his smooth head, finally able to relax for a moment.

“Boss Yang, have you heard about Li Chao?” One of the data team employees, seeing that he was free, quietly approached.

Yang Chen looked up from the livestream screen, his eyebrow raised: “What?”

The other day, Lu Yu dragged him along, using the courage from alcohol to beat up Li Chao. Although the process was satisfying, he felt quite anxious once the alcohol wore off. If Li Chao reported it to the police and they found out it was them, it would be a big problem.

These past two days, he had been restraining himself from inquiring about Li Chao’s situation, fearing it would bring trouble.

“Hey, hey, hey, you’re not in that ‘Anti-Li Chao Alliance Group,’ are you? That bastard Li Chao got beaten up!” Back when Yang Chen resigned to start his own business, many former colleagues followed him, and this employee was one of them, also having suffered under Li Chao.

“What happened?” Yang Chen turned his face away, pretending to watch the livestream. His acting skills weren’t as good as Lu Yu’s, so he was afraid he might not control his expression and give himself away. He thought to himself that he should learn some facial expression management from that lawyer, who remained unflustered even if the sky were to fall.

The employee grinned slyly and sent a video to Yang Chen: “Li Chao got beaten up the night before last. He didn’t come to work the next day, but someone saw him that night and recorded a video.”

Yang Chen was startled and quickly opened the video, but then let out a sigh of relief. The video was recorded in an underground parking lot, showing a bruised and battered Li Chao holding his waist and limping quickly towards his car. A security guard, noticing something was wrong, approached and asked, “Mr. Li, what happened? What’s that smell?”

“I just slipped and fell in the restroom,” Li Chao mumbled as he quickly got into his car.

The video ended there, and the employee chuckled, “Rumor has it that Li Chao had a strange smell on him, and the person who beat him up not only hit him but also peed on him, hahaha… Genius move, truly satisfying! I’ve wanted to do that for a long time. I wonder who that hero is; they’re my idol from now on.”

Unaware that his idol was right in front of him, the employee continued showing Yang Chen the chat records from the group.

Li Chao was a relative of a high-ranking company leader, with strong connections. He had been abusing his power for years, but no one could touch him. The “Anti-Li Chao Group” was full of people who had worked under him, both those who had left and those who hadn’t, and the discussion in the group was still lively.

According to sources from within the company, Li Chao hadn’t reported it to the police or made any noise about it; instead, he had quietly taken some vacation days.

Yang Chen breathed a sigh of relief, and as the employee continued to chatter beside him, he couldn’t help but laugh along. He waved the employee off to continue working, and then, looking at Lu Yu on the livestream screen, tapped his right fist against his left chest. If it weren’t for Lu Yu, he might never have had the courage to vent his anger like this. A good brother, a true hero!

But in the next second, his good brother, the true hero, was squatting under the window, eavesdropping on his third son.

Lao Yang: “…”

A hero, but a sneaky one.

On the livestream, Hua Wenyuan had already organized his personal soldiers and was heading to the Jiangzhou camp.

He had entrusted the task of using silver to build crossbows to a personal guard and was riding a fast horse to Jiangzhou with his second uncle, second aunt, and cousin.

Jiangzhou was relatively prosperous. Even during the ongoing natural disasters at the end of the dynasty, the people there could barely survive and hadn’t yet risen in rebellion. The Jiangzhou military camp, devoid of any sense of urgency, was in complete disarray. There was no training during the day and no guards at night. Let alone guarding the border, they couldn’t even quell a rebellion; they would scatter halfway through.

Hua Wenyuan toured the camp with a cold expression, discovering that the military farmland had been almost entirely taken over by four Qianzongs (military officers), leaving the military households to become tenant farmers. Over the years, many had either died or fled, with the actual population of military households less than half of what was recorded. Moreover, most of the soldiers were actually recruited village braves.

“This is ridiculous.” Although Xie Zhongyun wasn’t one to think much, coming from a scholarly family, he had been forced to read some books and understood how serious it was that the actual population was less than half of what was on record.

Upon hearing that the court was sending a general to take over, the Qianzongs, in order to make up the numbers, had heavily recruited village braves. Young men who couldn’t survive in the countryside joined the military to make a living. But with military pay often delayed and food scarce, they would eventually desert as well.

“With things like this, how could it not fall?” Hua Wenyuan was furious, looking at the accounts and feeling overwhelmed. He looked to Ming Yan for help, “Second Aunt, you are well-read; could you help your nephew with these accounts?”

In his previous life, when he successfully married, he brought two scholars from the Cheng family to help when he came to Jiangzhou. Now that he had broken off the engagement, naturally, there was no one from the Cheng family to help, so he turned his attention to Ming Yan, who seemed knowledgeable about accounting.

Ming Yan was about to agree, but Lu Yu stopped him.

Lu Yu waved his hand: “You should hire some scholars to work as accountants. Just let Second Aunt review the overall accounts. First, get a rough idea and find two thousand usable men to defeat the rebels.”

Hua Wenyuan nodded, still frowning.

Lu Yu patted his shoulder, encouraging him: “Don’t worry, your cheat support is arriving soon.”

Hua Wenyuan looked up, puzzled: “What cheat?”

Lu Yu explained what a cheat was, but after the explanation, Hua Wenyuan was even more confused and asked how Lu Yu knew there was a cheat coming.

Stroking an imaginary beard, Lu Yu adopted the manner of a mystic: “I calculated it.”

Hua Wenyuan couldn’t get any more answers, so he stopped asking and picked up his sword, planning to kill a few Bazongs (lower military officers) to intimidate everyone. After a few days, once the accounts were clear, he planned to kill all four Qianzongs.

Barrage:

【A Song of Red Silk Countless Times: Lu Yu, no spoilers. Don’t give Hua Wenyuan spoilers unless you bring me along!】

【A Song of Red Silk Countless Times gifted a Supreme Banana Boat x 300】

Hua Wenyuan stormed out, and soon after, more than a dozen heads fell in the camp. The bluestone slabs of the drill ground turned black and red, and the soldiers, who had been lounging around, finally perked up.

That night, Lu Yu dragged Ming Yan to squat under the window of Hua Wenyuan’s bedroom.

Ming Yan, hearing the commotion inside, was puzzled: “Is this the cheat you mentioned?”

“Of course not,” Lu Yu shook his head. “The cheat won’t arrive for a few more chapters, at least not until he declares rebellion.” Inside the room was a woman sent by one of the Qianzongs.

Ming Yan rolled his eyes and got up to leave, but Lu Yu pulled him back, not letting him move. Lu Yu mumbled softly: “You’re so heartless. Your son is about to have his innocence ruined, and you’re leaving.”

“I know it won’t happen.” Ming Yan, having read the original novel, was also puzzled. “This story is about vying for world domination. By all logic, the male protagonist should have a harem of three thousand beauties. Why did you make Hua Wenyuan so chaste?”

In this genre, even if there’s no romance, it doesn’t matter; romance isn’t the focus anyway. But Hua Wenyuan remained pure throughout, which was quite unusual. Because of this, the author Han Di Ba Yu (Lu Dayu) was often criticized by male readers for being impotent.

After asking, Ming Yan realized something was off. This story wasn’t written by the current Lu Xiaoyu; it was written by Lu Dayu.

However, this didn’t stump Lu Yu. He snorted coldly: “His father, I, don’t have a wife. Why should he have one?”

Just then, a cry came from inside the room, and Hua Wenyuan shouted, “Get out.”

Then came the sound of a woman sobbing: “I had no choice, General. Please take me in. If I go out like this, I’ll have no way to survive.”

“It’s happening, it’s happening,” Lu Yu was excited. Seeing a figure dart out of the room, he quickly pulled Ming Yan into his arms, not letting him see. “This is inappropriate for children. Yan-ge, don’t look.”

Ming Yan pushed him away: “I drew it myself; what’s there that I can’t see?” Lu Yu had dragged him here to watch, only to stop him at the crucial moment.

Lu Yu, seeing Hua Wenyuan running out in his underwear, was dumbfounded: “Hey, why is he still wearing underwear? That’s not how it was in the original.”

Ming Yan broke free and said helplessly: “If he’s not dressed, the livestream would get shut down.”

Lu Yu clicked his tongue in regret: “Tsk tsk, didn’t get to see him bare butt. Now I have nothing to blackmail him with.”

“What bare butt?” Hua Wenyuan, in his underwear, turned around, expressionless, looking at his second uncle squatting under the window.