Chapter 783.1: Daddy Scammer Back At It Again

Li Minghui still remembered that only a few days ago, he had complained to his secretary that the New Alliance was far too merciful.

Yet before even a few days had passed, his good friends had already given him a huge surprise.

Apparently, the idlers on Ring Island had been eating too well. Because a few people had been burned to death in some mountain backwater they couldn’t even find on a map, they had come out holding signs to protest the Southern Sea New Alliance’s economic cooperation with the Xilande Empire.

All right, what happened was admittedly excessive, but the protest had genuinely left him at a loss.

Anyone who used even a little bit of their brain could see who was giving whom free money and who was bleeding whom dry, yet these people had somehow interpreted the whole thing as Li Minghui becoming the Xilande Empire’s dog.

When Li Minghui heard about it, he flew into a rage and nearly went straight to Ring Island to argue it out with those fishermen himself.

That was 20,000,000,000! The Southern Sea New Alliance was getting so damn much money for doing absolutely nothing!

Didn’t these people ever stop and think about where the welfare that kept them from starving even when they did no work actually came from?!

The New Alliance had spoiled them rotten!

In the end, the New Alliance’s administrator really had been farsighted. He had taken one look at the Xilande Empire, recognized it as a cesspit, drawn a circle around it, and left them to play by themselves without inviting them into anything.

And then there was the Army... The Army was another matter entirely. They simply didn’t regard the people in the zoo as human beings, so that was a separate issue.

Different people had different bottom lines.

While Li Minghui was still sulking, Siwen showed up exactly as he had expected and stared at him aggressively. “Mr. Li Minghui, I advise you to carefully reconsider who we cooperate with. We’ve already suffered enough because of the Torch Church... I’ll put it plainly. A considerable portion of the Southern Sea New Alliance’s residents do not want us cooperating with the Xilande Empire.”

Seeing how quickly this bastard could change faces, Li Minghui nearly had his nose twisted out of shape from anger. “Then do you people still want to sell them warships or not?!”

“We do...” Siwen answered instinctively, only to twist the words around halfway through. “But we also can’t exactly say we do.”

“Come here. You be the president!” Li Minghui shoved his chair back and started to leave, frightening Siwen into rushing forward, grabbing his shoulders, and firmly pressing him back into his seat.

“That won’t do! You have to stay in office until the war ends! We agreed on this before... Don’t joke about something like that!”

“Then explain to me how the fuck I’m supposed to both sell and not sell them?!” Li Minghui nearly broke out laughing from sheer anger. “Are we going to take their money and never deliver the goods?”

He had only said it out of irritation, but to his surprise, the man in front of him immediately agreed.

“That could work.”

Li Minghui froze. He had thought that his own idea of stripping warships down into oversized toys was already shameless enough. He hadn’t expected to meet someone even more shameless than himself.

Filthy bastard. He’s absolutely fucking filthy!

Li Minghui stared at him and spat, “You want all the benefits, and none of the blame?”

“Why not?” Siwen said, his eyes drifting slightly. “You’ll sign the law authorizing the purchase, but the procedure approving delivery will be signed by your successor... You signed the agreement because you wanted to secure a window of opportunity for the postwar recovery of the survivors in the southern seas. No one can blame you for that. Your successor can then refuse to sign the delivery agreement on righteous grounds. No one can blame him either.”

Li Minghui sighed. “That’s really bullying them.”

“What else should we do? Sacrifice ourselves for others? Hand them your ships so they can come run wild in our territory? Wake up. You yourself said the New Alliance was too merciful. Why are you suddenly getting soft-hearted when it’s your turn?” Siwen tore into him for a few sentences before he continued, “The Council will help buy you time. Once you’ve signed the contract, we’ll respond to the calls from the doves and pass an amendment... You’ll still be our hero, and you’ll even leave your successor a glorious opportunity.”

With that, Siwen walked out, leaving only Li Minghui and his own secretary in the office.

The room remained quiet for a long time.

Li Minghui sighed and looked toward his secretary. “Looks like my instincts were right. We really do need those bastards who never stop yapping at meetings! Ahem! Arrange another meeting with Duke Nihark for me. The presidential residence will do. Also, prepare the latest issue of Survivors’ Daily from French Fry Harbor. I may need it.”

It really was hard not to laugh. Only a few days ago, he and Siwen had been arguing like mortal enemies. Yet in less than a month, they had already shaken hands and made peace twice.

The secretary nodded blankly. “Yes... sir.”

Perhaps his own level simply wasn’t high enough. He was finding these people harder and harder to understand.

...

The sword, shield, armor... even the chopping board had already been prepared. Yet Nihark, who had received the invitation, had no idea that he had already become the fat ox inside the arena, while his newly made good friend was backstage idly twirling his sword and warming up.

Thinking that the Southern Sea New Alliance’s supreme war hero had once again remembered him, the wealthy and mysterious old friend, Nihark happily put on his luxurious formalwear woven from Devil’s Silk and went to the meeting. That was his favorite outfit.

The sunlight outside the window was rather dazzling.

Li Minghui stood, walked over to the window, and slightly adjusted the blinds. After taking a moment to work himself into the right mood, he turned toward Nihark, who was calmly drinking black tea, and said solemnly, “Mr. Nihark, what your people did was a little excessive.”

Duke Nihark frowned. “What do you mean?”

Li Minghui coughed lightly. “I mean... the newspaper underneath your teapot.”

For the sake of the money, he moderated his tone somewhat.

Sure enough, Nihark’s brow relaxed, and his gaze fell onto the newspaper’s headline. He hadn’t bothered reading the words on the paper before. Only after Li Minghui pointed it out did he realize that it was actually a newspaper.

[The Butcher of Mammoth State, Alyang, Who Annihilated 100,000 ‘Enemies’!]

[Photo: The Stone Village Massacre]

The moment he saw the headline and photograph, Nihark’s eyebrow twitched violently. Without even reading the article itself, he darkened his face and explained, “We can’t interfere with every decision made by a general at the frontlines... What he did was indeed disgraceful. We’ll hold him accountable afterward!”

That fucking Alyang!

The bastard didn’t even know how to wipe his ass after taking a shit!

Nihark immediately guessed what had happened. Someone must have shown foolish mercy and allowed survivors to live, letting the story get out. If they had killed everyone, would this problem even exist?

Then it wouldn’t be called the Stone Village Massacre. They would simply be cremating 100,000 enemy troops! After all, the dead told no tales.

Of course, holding Alyang accountable was merely something he said out loud. Nihark had personally pushed Alyang into command. Punishing him would be the same as slapping himself in the face. Besides, what the hell did any of this have to do with the Southern Sea New Alliance?

Li Minghui sat opposite him, poured himself some tea, and sighed. “Things are difficult now. Personally, I don’t want to involve myself in this kind of business, but some residents of Ring Island have jumped out to oppose selling warships to you.”

No warships?!

Wouldn’t that mean that the previous 10,000,000,000 had gone down the drain?!

The moment Nihark heard that, his expression changed and he yelled, “What do you mean?! How can you go back on your word!”

Seeing the man overreacting somewhat, Li Minghui quickly softened his tone and soothed him. “Duke Nihark, you misunderstand. I’m not trying to go back on anything. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have urgently invited you here to discuss a solution.”

Hearing that there was still room to negotiate, Nihark finally calmed down, and his tone softened as well. “Then tell me how we’re supposed to handle this.”

“The representatives want me to give the residents an explanation. Frankly speaking, they don’t understand a damn thing. They have no idea how important the Xilande Empire is to the Southern Sea New Alliance. Unfortunately, I’m basically their nanny. Even if I don’t want to deal with them, I still have to coax them a little.” Li Minghui sighed and put on a troubled expression before continuing with a shake of his head. “If I can’t get past them, and they replace me with someone who opposes the Xilande Empire, who knows where this warship deal will end up.”

Nihark immediately became nervous. “Can’t you... deal with those people?”

As he spoke, his eyes shifted left and right, and he lightly drew his hand across his throat. His meaning couldn’t have been clearer.

Li Minghui’s eyebrow twitched violently and he coughed. “Could you please act normal? We’re discussing something very serious.”

Forget about Li Minghui being unable to do such a thing. Even Chalas couldn’t have pulled that off. That arrogant madman could at most have imposed martial law. If he had actually turned his weapons on his own people, he probably wouldn’t even have gotten the chance to become a bunker boy. There wouldn’t have been any need to fight the airport battle at all.

Nihark fretted over it for quite a while but couldn’t figure out what part of his suggestion was abnormal. Besides, he had only been offering an idea. It wasn’t as if he had insisted they had to do it. Since Li Minghui didn’t agree, he could only approach the problem from another angle.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.