Some were playing cards, some chatting on their phones, some reading books, and some smoking.

Huddled in a corner by himself, Lin Chuan was carefully crafting a text message on his phone: "Sis, I'm sorry, the incident last night was a misunderstanding, I hope you will listen to my explanation when you return."

A message with just over twenty characters took Lin Chuan a full ten minutes to compose. The typing was slow, the phone was crummy. He had to carefully press each key. Having finally sent the message, Lin Chuan felt as though a weight had been lifted from his heart.

However, just thinking about last night's misunderstanding made Lin Chuan feel a desperate urge to die.

Tang Yumeng was still on the plane; it would probably take over ten hours to reach the United States, so Lin Chuan's text message wouldn't be received so quickly. Besides, even if she did get the message, what difference would it make? Tang Yumeng was still fuming, and it was impossible for her to listen to Lin Chuan's explanation, let alone respond to a text message.

With Tang Yumeng gone to the United States, Lin Chuan was even more idle in the lounge.

Although other people's leaders had gone out, as long as any official needed a car, they usually had to be available on call. Except for Lin Chuan and the Song family brothers, who were designated drivers, the rest were essentially on-call drivers for the City Committee.

The City Committee had five or six dozen leaders, big and small, but only a dozen drivers. Sometimes there weren't enough drivers to go around. Unless it was absolutely necessary, no one dared to boss around the Song family brothers and Lin Chuan. Moreover, if it was just a director or a minor section chief, they were even less likely to order around Lin Chuan and the Song family brothers. They would rather drive themselves or take a taxi to their destination than bother these formidable characters.

After a short stay in the lounge, Lin Chuan decided to go home.

Haiqing Pool.

After being renovated, the business was booming, especially after the Northeast Tiger and Feng Taibao publicly acknowledged the status of Haiqing Pool. Many people knew that there must be some powerful support behind Haiqing Pool, otherwise, why would these two bigwigs in the eastern district openly acknowledge its status?

The booming business of Haiqing Pool made Long Wu extremely envious.

With a daily turnover reaching several hundred thousand, it was something that made Long Wu green with envy. His vegetable market only made a little money each day, and his hard work over a month could not match what Haiqing Pool earned in a day.

What was most frustrating for Long Wu was that this territory used to be his, even the three-story building was acquired by him. Now, the building fell into their hands, and even the property deed was stripped away from him; it was quite stifling.

Infuriated, Long Wu pressed down on the gas pedal and drove his dark gold Porsche away from the entrance of Haiqing Pool.

Just after Long Wu had left, Lin Chuan swaggered over. It was afternoon and Haiqing Pool had already opened for business, but since the sun hadn't set yet, there weren't many people. Lin Chuan barged straight into Haiqing Pool. Many girls came up to greet him.

"Oh, isn't this Lin Chuan?"

"Hello, Boss."

Everyone greeted him, no one daring to surround Lin Chuan, and even less daring to provoke him.

"Mhm." Lin Chuan, expressionless, nodded and headed straight to the third floor.

"Wow, the boss is so cool."

"I didn't expect the boss to have no interest in women."

The crowd was abuzz with comments. Little did they know, it wasn't that Lin Chuan had no interest in women; he just had his principles.

On the third floor, Qingzi was in her room preparing tea and arranging flowers. Whether it was tea-making or flower arranging, these were essential skills for Japanese girls, and such skills were taught to them from a young age. Qingzi was skilled in making tea.

"Mr. Lin Chuan, you've come?" Upon seeing Lin Chuan entering, Qingzi hurriedly stood up to greet him.

"Come have a seat." Lin Chuan smiled and said, "Is it okay to come here for tea?"

"Of course!" Qingzi quickly nodded and said, "Please sit down."

The relationship between the two had changed dramatically. At first, their interactions were inevitably a bit contentious, but now it was different, or rather, it changed after Lin Chuan took a knife for Qingzi. They seemed to have become friends who could talk about anything. Qingzi seemed to like Lin Chuan as well.

Qingzi quickly poured Lin Chuan a cup of tea and said, "It's rare for you to have such free time."

"Yeah!" Lin Chuan gave a wry smile and said, "My girlfriend was driven away by me."

"What happened?" Qingzi quickly asked.

Lin Chuan spilled all his frustrations. After pouring out his heart, he found that the suffocation inside was much relieved, making him feel much more comfortable.

After listening, Qingzi laughed and said, "That's where you were wrong."

"Yes, I admit my fault," Lin Chuan nodded and said, "I only hope she can give me a chance to start over."

"She will," Qingzi smiled and said, "A woman's anger is only temporary. Once it passes, you'll have no more troubles. So, don't worry about it."

"Is that so?" Lin Chuan looked at Qingzi curiously and asked, "What should I do then?"

"You don't need to do anything," Qingzi laughed, looked at Lin Chuan seriously, and said, "Mr. Lin Chuan, once a woman falls in love with a man, unless he does something to drive her to despair, the love in her heart won't change."

"But isn't what I did enough to make her despair?" Lin Chuan asked.

"It's just making her angry," Qingzi smiled and said, "At least it's clear from the slap she gave you."

"Why?" Lin Chuan asked in surprise, looking at Qingzi.

"If she hit you, it means she still wants to give you a chance to reform. If she didn't hit you, then I'd need to really worry about you," Qingzi said with a smile, looking at Lin Chuan.

"Really?" Upon hearing this, Lin Chuan didn't know whether it was true, but he suddenly felt much better inside because he felt he at least had the chance to correct himself. Lin Chuan couldn't help but laugh and said, "Qingzi, thank you for enlightening me."

"It's nothing." Qingzi looked up at Lin Chuan and asked, "Mr. Lin Chuan, would you say we are best friends?"

"Of course!" Lin Chuan nodded.

"That's wonderful." Qingzi immediately brightened up, saying, "I finally have a good friend now."

"Unless you don't consider me a friend," Lin Chuan said with a smile.

"But, don't you mind that I'm Japanese?" Qingzi asked curiously, "I have a deep understanding of China. Generally, Chinese people despise the Japanese, and their hatred for the Japanese is deep-rooted."

"There's good and bad in things, and there's kind and evil in people," said Lin Chuan with a smile, "Whether Japanese or Chinese, there are good and bad people among them. We despise those Japanese who refuse to distinguish right from wrong and won't recognize history. Not those who are kind-hearted, like you, Qingzi!"

Qingzi's face turned slightly red, and she bowed, saying, "Mr. Lin Chuan, thank you for your compliments."

"This is not a compliment. I'm just stating the truth," Lin Chuan said with a smile.

"Let's have some tea." Qingzi poured some tea.

Thump thump thump...

A series of urgent knocking sounds.

Before Qingzi could go to open the door, someone pushed the room's door open. Zhao Zhonghai rushed in anxiously.

"Chuan, I need to ask for leave and go back," Zhao Zhonghai said hastily, "Lend me your car."

Lin Chuan was stunned and asked, "What happened?"

"I need to hurry back," Zhao Zhonghai said urgently, "Goudan said a lot of people are surveying Dragon Spring Village, saying they plan to erect a stele. The villagers are obstructing them on the mountain, and a conflict has broken out. My old man has been injured."

"Is that so?" Lin Chuan was stunned, then said, "I'll go with you."

"I'll go too," said Qingzi, quickly rising to her feet.

Lin Chuan didn't stop her, and the three of them rushed out swiftly.

Outside, Zhou Kai was leisurely walking towards Qinghua Pool with a few people. These were Zhou Kai's classmates; the guy was planning to bring his classmates to Haiqing Pool for some leisure. However, as soon as he got to Haiqing Pool, he immediately saw Lin Chuan and the others coming out.

"Brother Chuan," Zhou Kai shouted anxiously.

"Kai?" Lin Chuan was stunned, then said, "Come on, go to Wujiang with us."

"Ah?" Zhou Kai was stunned and said, "Go... go to Wujiang for what?"

"To fight!" Lin Chuan replied and then jumped into the jeep.

"Damn, to fight?" Upon hearing this, Zhou Kai immediately got excited. He left his classmates behind and quickly jumped onto the jeep, and even turned back to shout, "You guys go ahead and have fun, just name-drop me when you pay."

His classmates were utterly puzzled. Zhou Kai was just too unreliable. They had plans to go to Haiqing Pool but found him running off halfway. They had never been to such a place and were excited about it. But without someone to lead, they obviously felt uncertain.

"To go or not to go?" one of them asked.

"Go!" the tall and skinny guy said eagerly, "We've come all the way here, can we not go?"

"But we've never been there before," the other one questioned.

"Even seasoned drivers started as newbies," the skinny one gritted his teeth, "Let's go, I'll lead the way. Anyway, Zhou Kai is footing the bill."

After saying that, the three immediately headed into Haiqing Pool.

Lin Chuan drove at full speed, rushing directly towards Dragon Spring Village in Wujiang.

After an hour of wild driving, they finally arrived at Dragon Spring Village.

At this moment, the villagers were gathered at the entrance of Dragon Spring Village, and it seemed that the incident had already come to an end. Without waiting for the car to stop completely, Zhao Zhonghai jumped out and ran towards the crowd.

"Da Hai, you're finally back?" an old man wobbled over.

"Uncle, how's my dad?" Zhao Zhonghai asked anxiously.

"You better go home and see for yourself," the old man sighed, "We still don't know if he can wake up."

Hearing this, Zhao Zhonghai ran home at top speed.

Lin Chuan, Qingzi, and the others chased after him. Two minutes later, Zhao Zhonghai entered a two-story brick-and-tile house. Inside the dim room, Goudan was busy, and an old woman was crying and wailing. The sound of crying was even more oppressive, as if mourning a death.

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