Chapter 366: 366 Chaos

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Cao Weihua arranged for the boxed meals to be prepared without avoiding the manor’s staff and didn’t care about the possibility of it being posted online.

It was evident that this guy acted with complete impunity.

In fact, he had thought it through very clearly, if the issue really did blow up online, the scene of distributing boxed meals wasn’t that big of a problem.

This phenomenon could be interpreted as, since some people illegally encroached on the interests of the local villagers, the locals would naturally not stand by idly.

If there were enterprises or wealthy individuals in the locality willing to support their fellow villagers, it would be perfectly understandable—justice lies in the hearts of the people, after all.

Feng Jun was somewhat surprised by the other party’s boldness. Although he also felt that the boxed meal issue wouldn’t make much of a story, wouldn’t it be stronger to show some restraint than to act so openly?

He couldn’t understand why Cao Weihua would do this and could only feel that the other party was indeed very domineering.

Seeing the financial backers preparing to pull out, the other villagers also planned to leave.

Wu Limin’s cousin, seeing this, actually became a bit anxious, “These bastards, don’t they even have the guts to make a charge?”

Boss Feng laid out so much money, if you guys don’t charge, how are we supposed to make any money?

Hearing this, some villagers got angry and turned around to curse at him, “Kid, dare you say that again tomorrow!”

The cousin grinned, revealing his teeth, “It’s supposed to rain tomorrow. Let’s see if you’re still this cocky. I’m just really curious, if it rains, will the wages be discounted? If it were up to me, it’d be double the pay.”

His words were quite infuriating; the two sides were in conflict, what was a construction worker doing joining the commotion?

Someone was about to step forward to argue, but they were held back by a more sensible person next to them, “He’s just waiting for us to take action so they can make money off it, don’t fall for it.”

Although Wu Limin’s cousin’s original intention was indeed so, his comment about “double pay” sparked ideas among the villagers.

In fact, this kind of noise had always existed on a small scale—on a rainy day, one should be paid more for coming out to work, right?

By saying this, he amplified this noise many times over in an instant.

Cao Weihua became furious upon hearing this, since it was his own money he was spending. So he turned his head and pointed at Feng Jun, “Two days, if I can’t get you to piss off in two days, I’ll never mix in Zhengyang City again!”

Feng Jun burst into hearty laughter. “Didn’t you say the same thing back when there was a case of one death and two lives? I’m really curious, over the years, have the ghosts of that mother and child ever come looking for you at night?”

Cao Weihua’s face instantly turned ashen. To tell the truth, this was the most painful memory of his life. Although he didn’t pity that woman at all, he really did not want to think about it.

So he got straight into his car, spewing venomous words, “Kid, just wait to cry tomorrow.”

He had already decided to bring in the special police tomorrow. As long as there were enough protesters, he would directly assault the opposition. Should it escalate into a conflict, the special police would move in to make arrests.

What’s that, you say it’s suspected robbery? That’s useless. With special police there, who would dare rob?

Cao Weihua really was crafty; he hadn’t told anyone he could mobilize the special police—even his dad couldn’t do that.

This was the card he played with no regard for the consequences. To deal with Feng Jun, he had gotten in touch with a middle-level official from the Finance Bureau.

The two sides actually knew each other well before this, and this time, for the sake of money, they banded together; Cao Weihua was on the front lines, and that person discreetly supported him from behind.

Otherwise, although Director Cao had some heavyweight alumni, he wouldn’t be able to mobilize so many different powers by himself.

Especially Zhengyang City Commercial Bank—the president wouldn’t have allowed the assistant to go against a major client unless it was to favor the official from the Finance Bureau.

As for why he could deploy the special police… everyone understands how fiscal appropriations work.

Of course, if Cao Weihua really did this, the cost would be very high, and the problem would not be just about money.

Director Cao didn’t want to take this step either, but with things having come this far, he had no other choice.

At any rate, he had to secure this project, and when the time came to reap the rewards, he would just have to share a little more of the profit.

Feng Jun laughed out loud, raising his hand above his head and waving, “Goodbye and good riddance!”

As the boss, he took the lead in bidding farewell, and others would naturally follow suit, raising their hands and waving.

The villagers became furious at the sight, and someone, who knows who, picked up a rock from the ground and threw it over.

The rocks were not large; the surrounding area had all been cleared, and the biggest were only the size of half a chicken egg.

Seeing this, Feng Jun hurriedly told everyone to back away, clearing a space of fifty to sixty meters near the mountain gate.

Had this happened an hour earlier, the villagers might have charged in, but now… everyone was already planning to leave.

The crowd gradually dispersed, with someone saying as they left, “It’s a shame they didn’t throw rocks at us. If someone had gotten hurt, we would have been even more justified.”

“You want to get hurt? I can help you out right now. Just take a stone and scrape a cut on your head, and that’ll do it.”

“Darn it… I don’t want to get hurt, but I sure would like to help you out.”

“Helping me out is fine too. It’s no big deal, just remember, if I get compensated, don’t be jealous.”

“Why should only you get compensated? If I help you fake it, we should split it half and half!”

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“So I help you fake it, we split half when we meet, okay? I’ll settle for thirty percent.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Thirty percent? Dream on, I’ll give you at most ten percent… Wait, don’t start yet. What if they don’t pay up?”

A group of people chatted merrily as they walked. Cao Weihua sat in the car, his face dark as he watched this scene, really wanting to leave right then.

But he couldn’t go yet, today’s money had not been distributed. Although meals could be handed out at the entrance of Luohua Manor, money had to be given out somewhere secluded—these two things were different by nature and absolutely not to be photographed.

In fact, the task of handing out money could be delegated to subordinates. There wasn’t much money involved, just tens of thousands of yuan.

But Cao Weihua was still preoccupied with mobilizing even more people for tomorrow, so he had to be there to oversee matters.

He also overheard the discussions about faking injuries, marveling at the boundless wisdom of the people.

However, today was not the right time for such a scheme. If anything, it was to be considered for tomorrow.

Then he heard other voices suggesting that the fee for showing up in rainy weather should be higher, which irked him even more: If it rained for ten or eighteen days straight, how much money would I have to throw at this, and now they’re pondering a price hike?

Of course, he wouldn’t consider the additional expenditures Feng Jun had to shoulder due to his actions against Luohua Manor.

At this moment, the rain had stopped for a while, but the road was still very muddy. His car, stuck among the villagers, couldn’t move quickly.

As they traveled, a villager suddenly staggered and bumped into his car, emitting a dull thud.

“Huh?” Cao Weihua glanced over, thinking the person had simply slipped on the road, and didn’t take much notice.

The villager was sturdy, seemingly the same one who had been throwing stones earlier.

What puzzled Cao Weihua, though, was that the villager’s gaze seemed a bit unfocused, as if he were drunk.

After another hundred or two hundred meters, another person stumbled, colliding with two others, and fell to the ground. Someone nearby helped him up.

Then, more people started acting strange, waving their arms and legs deliriously as if they were high on something.

Cao Weihua finally realized something was amiss and stopped the car, “Go check it out, what exactly is happening?”

What happened? That’s really not easy to explain clearly.

A few subordinates went to inquire and came back with incredulous expressions to report.

Many in the crowd appeared dazed, some began hallucinating, and others became extremely agitated, stripping off their coats or even their shirts.

Cao Weihua had never heard of such an event in all his life. Listening to his subordinates telling the spine-chilling tale, he couldn’t help but get goosebumps.

At his core, though, he was a man without taboos. Steadying his nerves, he stepped forward, “What in the world is going on here?”

What was going on? Anyway, it was something very eerie—simply put, several people were experiencing hallucinations.

Cao Weihua furrowed his brows, “What the hell… How can this be so damn weird?”

A comparatively normal villager spoke up, “Could it be… eating something unclean?”

“You’re talking nonsense!” One of the subordinates burst into fury, cursing loudly, “The boxed meals are fifteen yuan each! Do you know that? Fifteen a box, I watched them make it myself, how could it be unclean?”

Hearing the curse, a villager lunged forward, “Dare to curse my dad? I’ll beat you up!”

Though the two villagers were close in age, this one was obviously in the throes of an episode, experiencing severe visual and auditory hallucinations.

The subordinate dodged aside, and the villager fell straight into the mud, hands clenched into fists, pounding the ground relentlessly, “I’ll teach you to curse my dad, I’ll teach you to curse my dad!”

Cao Weihua couldn’t help but shiver.

He turned his head to look and jumped in shock to see a villager with his pants off, grinning idiotically and… jerking off in his direction.

“Fuck,” Cao Weihua took a quick step back, jumping far away and hiding behind several people, “What the hell is this?”

A subordinate trembled uncontrollably, “Fuck, this… what did we hit… something unclean?”

This time, no one rebuked him. They had encountered something evil, not food poisoning.

Out of the five or six hundred people, more than half were afflicted with this oddity. Most were mildly symptomatic, just a bit dazed, but sixty or seventy were quite severe.

Two of Director Cao’s subordinates were also unlucky enough to be affected, with one yelling loudly, “Director Cao has connections in the finance department, why should he be scared of some out-of-towner? Ever heard of Director Guo?”

“Damn it,” Cao Weihua helplessly slapped his forehead, “Tie this guy up and gag him with duct tape!”

“Don’t touch him,” someone shouted, “Be cautious of spreading the filthy thing… Knock him out, just knock him out cold!”

There’s no need to go into the chaos that ensued. Less than two miles from the mountain gate, it turned into a hot mess.

Cao Weihua was lucky not to have been “entangled by the filth.” Protected by three subordinates, he retreated more than a hundred meters away to the roadside, staring dumbfounded at the scene, “What in the world… is actually happening?”

(Yinmeng will have five chapters, this part, let Feng Xiao have a break for two days, I admit to this account.)