Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

  Liao De-Sheng looked at his watch and sneered, “Punk, your friend? Where is he?”


  Li Yu-Lan responded, “Chief Liao, young people are like these nowadays, looking down upon their elders. They are still lacking experience in society and social interactions. It’s good to let them be disadvantaged so they will acknowledge that the world is not such an easy place to live in. Once they know that there are people they should not offend, they will become more mature.”


  These words were aimed at Xia Lei, hinting that he had offended someone he should not have offended.

  Liao Si-Yao was also getting worried, thinking and suspecting that Xia Lei was just blowing hot air to try to make Liao De-Sheng approve his application. She did not voice her thoughts, however. She was not too familiar with Xia Lei and did not know his character very well.

  Xia Lei, on the other hand, was calm. He was not worried at all that Zhou Wei and Jiang Xin from China Industrial Group would not come to help him at the Trade and Commerce Bureau, and not worried that they would be unable to help him.

  What is the identity of China Industrial Group? It was a company which manufactured tanks for the country, one of the fundamentals of China! He was of unique value to China Industrial Group - would they stand by if he ran into a spot of trouble? Solving this problem was like using an insect spray to kill a fly.

  With the lockdown on technology from Europe and America, Xia Lei was the only person in the whole of China who could manually produce parts which they needed to import from Europe and America. Based on this, Xia Lei was not worried at all that he would not be able to get this application done.

  “How about calling your friend again to ask him to hurry up, punk? You have time but I don’t, and my time is precious,” said Liao De-Sheng sarcastically.

  Zhou Wei and Jiang Xin appeared in the doorway of the office right after he spoke.

  Liao De-Sheng’s guard went up when he saw Zhou Wei and Jiang Xin.

  Li Yu-Lan also observed Zhou Wei and Jiang Xin, trying to guess their identity. However, they were strangers to her and she had never seen them before, so there was no guessing that they were from China Industrial Group.

  Xia Lei got up from the sofa and welcomed them, “It’s a good thing that you’ve come, Mr Zhou and Mr Jiang. This Chief Liao De-Sheng was just mocking me, saying that I’d invited some shady friends to help and he wouldn’t approve the company registration no matter who turned up.”


  Liao De-Sheng started to feel a little guilty. He stood and asked probingly, “And the two of you are……?”


  Zhou Wei and Jiang Xin just looked at him and didn’t even bother to greet Liao De-Sheng.

  Zhou Wei spoke, “Mr Xia, is he the chief who is giving you trouble?” He pointed at Liao De-Sheng.

  Xia Lei smiled and nodded, “It’s him.”


  Jiang Xin spoke angrily, “A small bureau chief dares to do such a thing with his capabilities?” He looked at Liao De-Sheng, “Do you have any respect for your country’s laws at all?”


  Liao De-Sheng froze, then flared up, “Who are you? How am I not respecting the law? If you don’t say who you are I’ll call security to escort you out.”


  “You want to know who we are?” said Zhou Wei.

  Liao De-Sheng did not say yay or nay, but looked at Li Yu-Lan.

  Li Yu-Lan smiled as she spoke, “Gentleman, let’s talk it out. The Chief is a respectable man after all. He can’t talk to you if you behave this way. Even an outsider like me can’t help but get involved. Are you here to help this young boy solve his problem or to cause trouble?”


  Zhou Wei spoke, “Okay, I’ll introduce ourselves. I am Zhou Wei, I am the head of the Procurement department at China Industrial Group.” He then pointed at Jiang Xin and said, “This is Jiang Xin, head of Human Resources at China Industrial Group.”


  Liao De-Sheng’s face turned ashen at their introduction.

  As a person in the trading industry, how could he not know the great entity that is China Industrial Group? He not only knew what China Industrial Group manufactured, and what status it had in China, he also knew that the people of management level in the company were all high-ranking military personnel!

  “China Industrial Group?” Li Yu-Lan was not aware what sort of company China Industrial Group was and said, “Do you people at China Industrial Group have influence over the registration of business at the Trade and Commerce Bureau?”


  Zhou Wei and Jiang Xin’s gazes turned to Li Yu-Lan and they did not look friendly.

  Liao De-Sheng quickly spoke, “Madam Li, um, that…… You should leave. We can talk another day.” He then gave her a look.

  Li Yu-Lan, however, had no intention of leaving but she took note of the look that Liao De-Sheng had sent her and thought to herself, ‘Do these two people actually have some sort of powerful backing?’


  “Who is she?” Zhou Wei asked Xia Lei.

  “Li Yu-Lan of the Chamber of Commerce. She and her husband are Hai-Zhu City’s tricksters. My application was not approved because I had offended her husband, Huang Yi-Hu. There was nothing wrong with my application but it was rejected the moment this Madam Li turned up.”


  “You……” Li Yu-Lan was gobsmacked. She’d thought that Xia Lei did not know who she was and even more so her husband Huang Yi-Hu. Furthermore, she realised from Xia Lei’s tone that he knew much more than what he had just spoken of!

  Li Yu-Lan’s eyes suddenly turned cold.

  “There’s such a thing going on?” Jiang Xin took out his mobile phone, “I’ll call our Director right now and ask him to help you solve this problem.”


  “No, don’t!” Liao De-Sheng panicked right away and hurriedly clasped Jiang Xin’s hand, smiling as he said, “Mr Jiang, this is a misunderstanding. There’s no need to call your Director. It must be someone downstairs who misplaced some documents. I’ll go down right now and tell them to re-examine the documents.”


  Jiang Xin’s and Zhou Wei’s statuses were enough to make Liao De-Sheng full of dread. If this matter went to their Director, he’d be so dead!

  Jiang Xin put down his phone; he did not dial. He was here to help Xia Lei solve his problem so if Liao De-Sheng was willing to to solve it he would not need to get his Director involved. Zhou Wei and himself were not from Hai-Zhu after all and it was not so convenient for them to move around.

  “Then make an exception and approve everything in one go,” said Zhou Wei.

  “This……” Liao De-Sheng was only willing to re-examine the documents to drag the time on. He still wanted to confirm the identities of Zhou Wei and Jiang Xin and did not expect them to demand the expedition of all the processes. He could do this and make it convenient for Xia Lei to finish all processes in one go but if he did, he would have to answer to Huang Yi-Hu and Li Yu-Lan.

  Liao De-Sheng looked sneakily at Li Yu-Lan, as if asking her for instruction.

  Li Yu-Lan spoke indifferently, “The two of you sure can talk. I wonder what sort of relationship you have with this Mr Xia?”


  “Is there a need to tell you?” said Jiang Xin.

  “You have to at least show proof of identity if you want the Chief to do a special service, don’t you? There are a lot of con-men around these days who can act very well. Who knows, you may be actors hired by Xia Lei.” Li Yu-Lan emphasised weirdly. This was a hint to Liao De-Sheng - there is no way Xia Lei would get what he wanted unless they are sure about the real identities and power of these two people!

  Xia Lei did not interrupt and just watched. He also wanted to be sure of something - how valuable he was to China Industrial Group. This was also very important for the next thing he wanted to do.

  Jiang Xin and Zhou Wei exchanged looks, seeming to come to the same conclusion through eye contact. The two of them took out their respective identification but they were just normal identification documents and work badges from China Industrial Group. They did not produce their military documents.

  Zhou Wei put the documents on Liao De-Sheng’s desk and said, “These are our documents. Take a look.”


  Liao De-Sheng’s looked at Zhou Wei’s identification, then at Jiang Xin’s. The documents were real and he knew why they did not show him their military documents - he was too low in the hierarchy.

  After he looked at the documents, Liao De-Sheng chuckled, “Heh heh, don’t misunderstand, dear Sirs, I’ll immediately……”


  “Ahem.” Li Yu-Lan coughed dryly, “This can be done just by showing two sets of identification? What wonderful documents. What if they’re fake?”


  Liao De-Sheng wiped the smile off his face. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He knew what Li Yu-Lan was trying to get at, which was to not allow Xia Lei to have his way and get his company registered. However, the two godly beings in front of him from China Industrial Group were not to be trifled with either. He was caught between a rock and a hard place.

  Xia Lei remained silent. This matter was about him but he was like a spectator watching all the action. He was getting more calm as the situation progressed.

  Jiang Xin and Zhou Wei interpreted Xia Lei’s silence and calmness differently. One was from Procurement and the other from Human Resources, so they were quite good at reading people. How could they not know what Xia Lei was thinking with his seemingly indifferent attitude?

  Jiang Xin and Zhou Wei looked at each other, then Jiang Xin sneered, “Chief Liao, I see you cannot make decisions here. You want to go with the wishes of this woman here, don’t you?”


  Liao De-Sheng put on a smiling face, “Mr Jiang, your words are……” He looked at Li Yu-Lan out of the corner of his eye.

  Li Yu-Lan gave no instruction. Xia Lei was calm but she was calmer. She had her backing - the Gu clan! The one who was troubled in the matter was Liao De-Sheng and even if these two people had some power, it was not going to faze her, Li Yu-Lan!

  “Old Zhou, give the Director a call.” Jiang Xin put away both Zhou Wei’s and his own documents which were on the desk.

  Zhou Wei went out the door with his phone in hand.

  Liao De-Sheng wanted to stop Zhou Wei from leaving the room but Li Yu-Lan shot him a look and he shut his mouth.

  Liang Si-Yao quietly pulled at Xia sleeve then spoke softly in his ear, “Why aren’t you saying anything, Mr Xia? Can those two people help you?”


  A faint smile appeared in the corners of Xia Lei’s mouth and he also spoke softly to her, “If they can’t help me then no one else can. I’m not saying anything because I want to see how willing they are to help me.”


  “Huh?” Liang Si-Yao was confused.

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