He hadn’t expected things to turn out this way, and even more so, he hadn’t expected Shen Bailou to be so unscrupulous. This had completely shattered the lowest expectations he had of Shen Bailou as a person!
Shen Bailou was, after all, a celebrity—one at the peak of his career no less. Xia Xixi had originally thought that even if his character was lacking and he wasn’t a good person, at the very least, he wouldn’t be so blatant about it.
He never imagined that Shen Bailou would actually dare to resort to direct violence.
Xia Xixi looked at the cup of coffee in front of him, but he had lost the mood to drink. He picked up his phone again and called that old man Liao from earlier.
Old man Liao lived in the same residential complex as him, just two buildings away.
When the call connected, Xia Xixi got straight to the point, “Where does that person live?”
“Huh?” Old man Liao, who had just arrived home, was confused.
“The person from our guild who was pushed down the stairs by Shen Bailou’s people.” Xia Xixi’s usually calm voice carried an icy edge—he was seething with rage.
“What are you asking that for?” Old man Liao was puzzled.
“I want to go see him.” Xia Xixi paused, sounding somewhat apologetic. “Didn’t you say he still hasn’t woken up? We don’t even know how serious his condition is. This whole thing started because of me—I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”
A few years ago, this group of people had been chatting here and there, and eventually, they decided to form a guild together.
The guild was never formally registered, had no real regulations, and even the gathering place was just an old, vacant factory owned by one of the elderly members.
Rather than calling it a guild, it was more like a tea-drinking hangout.
Usually, members would drop by to drink tea and chat, occasionally discussing industry matters or personal affairs, though gossip was the main topic.
Sometimes, members would bring friends along, and if they got along, those friends would end up joining the guild.
Over the years, the guild gradually grew, and now it had at least a hundred members.
The guild had organized three major events—one bridge tournament and two appraisal gatherings.
The bridge tournament had ended in a shouting match among a group of stubborn old men who refused to concede defeat, while the appraisal gatherings turned into large-scale quarrels where everyone brought their treasured collections just to one-up each other. All three events ultimately ended in chaos and heated disputes.
Forced to act as the referee, Xia Xixi had, by the third event, completely lost patience. After another unsuccessful attempt to mediate the arguments, he gave an ultimatum: if anyone dared to organize another event like this, he would step down as guild leader!
And from then on, no one should expect him to run errands or handle deliveries for them ever again!
Xia Xixi was the guild leader—not because he was particularly capable, but simply because he was young.
According to the group of elderly members who had made the decision on their own, it was because he was young, energetic, and easy to boss around for errands.
Xia Xixi naturally refused, but whether he agreed or not, he still ended up becoming the most insignificant member of the guild as a matter of course.
After that, he frequently received strange phone calls asking him to pick something up or help with something, completely turning him into an errand boy.
Xia Xixi wasn’t happy about being treated like a runner by that group of old men, but he never outright refused. After all, every one of those old guys had graying hair and beards—the youngest among them was already over fifty.
If he really let them run around like that on their own, he wouldn’t be able to rest easy.
Now that someone in the guild had gotten hurt, even if they were a recent member, as the errand-running guild leader, Xia Xixi couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.
“Oh great, so after everything I just said, you didn’t take in a single word.” Old man Liao was speechless. Hadn’t he just told Xia Xixi not to run around recklessly these days?
He had barely finished saying it, and now Xia Xixi was already thinking about going out.
“I’m going to the hospital, not some pitch-dark alley. No matter how bold they are, they wouldn’t dare make a move in broad daylight.” Xia Xixi said.
“The person who got pushed down was pushed in broad daylight.” Old man Liao was exasperated.
Xia Xixi fell silent. The older people got, the more they acted like children, and Old man Liao was especially skilled at unreasonable arguments.
“You’re really going?” Old man Liao asked again before Xia Xixi could respond.
“I’ll take a car there. I’ll get in a car as soon as I leave and won’t get out until I reach the hospital.” Xia Xixi said.
“Why are you so damn stubborn?” Old man Liao grumbled, then asked, “When are you going? I’ll go with you.”
“Now.”
“Alright, wait for me at the entrance.” Old man Liao muttered something under his breath as he hung up the phone.
Xia Xixi put on the jacket he had just gone back to his room to grab, took his keys, and left the house.
A moment later, Xia Xixi picked up Old Man Liao, who had just come out onto the road, and the two of them took Wu Ge’s car to the hospital.
Not long after the car left the residential complex, a few thugs who had been lurking in the distance stood up. After confirming that the license plate matched the one in the photo they had received, they quickly got into a car and followed.
As the car neared the hospital, they waited for a while. Only after seeing Xia Xixi and the others get out did they find a place to park before getting out themselves.
While they were busy, one of their phones suddenly rang.
“How’s it going?” Miao Mingyi’s voice came from the other end.
“Don’t worry, Brother Miao, we’ve already seen him leave. We’re following him now! We’ve been staking out this entrance all day, and we finally caught him going out.”
“Alright, stay sharp. Call me when the job’s done. I’ll transfer the money to your account later.”
“Got it! You can count on us.”
Miao Mingyi impatiently hung up the phone, his expression turning ugly. He had contacted this group yesterday afternoon, and yet after an entire day, they were only just now spotting their target.
“Useless trash.”
Just as he was cursing, his phone rang again.
When he saw the caller ID, his expression changed in an instant. He quickly put on a smile and answered, “Ah, Xiao Shen! What’s up?”
“Miao Mingyi, what the hell have you done?” On the other end of the line, Shen Bailou’s tone was anything but friendly. He was clearly trying to suppress his rage, but his voice was filled with barely contained fury.
“What?” Miao Mingyi’s heart skipped a beat as a sense of dread crept in. But in the next moment, he forced himself to stay calm. “Did something happen?”
“Did you tamper with the expert?” Shen Bailou questioned.
Ever since receiving two more inexplicable emails just now, Li Quyin felt as if he had swallowed a bomb—he was on the verge of exploding.
Normally, he wasn’t someone who lost his composure so easily, but that lunatic always managed to infuriate him effortlessly.
After that, he replied to the emails, asking the sender what kind of madness they were up to, but there was no response.
Li Quyin didn’t want to suspect his own people, but seeing that the sender had specifically named Miao Mingyi, he couldn’t help but feel uncertain.
If Miao Mingyi were someone he could completely trust, he wouldn’t have been considering replacing him in the first place.
So after calming down slightly, Li Quyin immediately called someone at the company to investigate what Miao Mingyi had been up to over the past two days. As a result, he found out that the expert Miao Mingyi had visited just yesterday had been hospitalized that very night.
“The expert—you mean the one we’ve been trying to hire? Then you’re really accusing the wrong person. I didn’t do anything.” Miao Mingyi’s heartbeat quickened; he hadn’t expected Li Quyin to bring this up.
“I’ve been home all day today. I haven’t even stepped outside yet. Even if something really happened to him, it has nothing to do with me.”
Li Quyin frowned deeply. Miao Mingyi didn’t seem to be lying. He even appeared to be unaware that the expert he had visited yesterday afternoon had been hospitalized that night.
“It really wasn’t you?” Li Quyin was deeply skeptical.
“It really wasn’t. The security at my complex can vouch for me. If you don’t believe me, you can come check the surveillance footage yourself.” Miao Mingyi spoke with conviction, but inwardly, he was beginning to panic.
Those guys were supposed to be following the target just a moment ago—weren’t they still on the job?
And how did Shen Bailou find out about this?
“It better not be you.”
“It really isn’t. I won’t say any more for now—I’m heading to the company to see you. We’ll talk later.” Miao Mingyi wanted to end the conversation quickly so he could call those men.
If they botched the job, he wouldn’t let them off!
“No need, I’m already on my way to the hospital. The expert you visited yesterday was in an accident—I’m going to check on him,” Li Quyin said.
“What?” Miao Mingyi was bewildered. He had sent people to deal with the expert who had been causing them trouble, but that wasn’t the one he had met yesterday.
Yesterday, he had deliberately brought gifts to visit an elderly expert who lived nearby. Everything had been fine when he entered, but the moment the expert heard he was associated with Shen Bailou, his expression changed, and he immediately drove him out.
After all these years in the business, especially as the agent for a top-tier actor like Shen Bailou, Miao Mingyi was always the one giving others the cold shoulder. When had he ever been treated like that?
The more he thought about it on the way back, the angrier he became. So he reached out to some old contacts…
"That's all." Li Quyin hung up the phone.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose and turned to his assistant, who was staring at him blankly. "Later, use your own name to find someone to investigate Miao Mingyi for me."
"Huh?"
"Look into what he's been doing behind my back these past few years, and check whether he's really involved in this expert’s situation."
"Investigate President Miao?"
Li Quyin shot him a cold look.
"Miao Mingyi." The assistant immediately corrected himself. Miao Mingyi liked being called "President Miao."
"Don't let him find out." After a pause, Li Quyin added, "And don't ask anyone in the industry—don't let him get suspicious."
"Got it."
As they spoke, the car slowly pulled into the hospital parking lot.
"Boss, do you want me to go up with you?" The assistant handed Li Quyin a hat and sunglasses.
"No need. Just wait here for me." Li Quyin put on the hat and glasses, glanced outside the car, and only after confirming that no one was around did he get out.
Crossing the parking lot, he found the inpatient department and entered the first-floor lobby, heading straight to the reception desk to ask about the expert’s room.
"Room 502, fifth floor," the nurse at the front desk said without looking up. "The moment he woke up, so many people rushed in—don’t you people find it noisy? We've already told you, concussion patients need rest. Can’t you family members cooperate?"
"Are there others in the room right now?" Li Quyin asked.
"Yeah, two people just went up—about two minutes ago." The nurse finally looked up and was momentarily stunned to see Li Quyin wrapped up in a hat and oversized sunglasses.
Without another word, Li Quyin quickly turned and walked toward the elevator.
Upstairs, Xia Xixi looked at the number on the door in front of him. Confirming it was Room 502, he raised his hand and knocked.