Next, Zhang Yuliang made three or four more phone calls, and his expression finally began to change from the grim look of Du Weifan backing down.
After making these phone calls, Zhang Yulin lit a cigarette and began to stroll slowly through the Zhang Family, looking at the various furnishings and layout of the rooms. Around noon, Zhang Yuliang walked to the Buddhist hall, looked at his mother who was still chanting sutras behind the curtain, hesitated for a moment, then quietly knelt down and kowtowed to his mother. He got up and went back to his bedroom, poured kerosene all over his bed and bedding, and threw matches on it.
The flames suddenly burst into flames, engulfing the entire double bed in the blink of an eye.
Did they think they could trap me with a few gangsters? Did they think I'd just wait here to be dealt with by Zhang Yujie? I, Zhang Yuliang, would rather die than back down! Even without the Shanghai people, I'll still take down the Zhang Family!
Amidst the rising flames, Zhang Yuliang's face remained calm and serene.
Chapter 143 Departure and Return
Song Tianyao went back to Tai Wo Street to sleep last night. It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep at the Dulles Hotel, but that Rotten-Life Ju and his gang couldn't get in. Although Zhang Yuliang wouldn't do the same stupid thing twice, who could say for sure? What if he found a skilled fighter like Dai Feng who could speak English to enter the hotel and kill him? Then Song Tianyao would truly die with regrets.
He lived in his bedroom, while Rotten-Life Ju and another of Chao Yong Yi's men were dozing in the living room, and four or five other men were sleeping on the stairs outside the door.
Zhao Meizhen, Song Chunren, Song Wenwen, Scribe Hui, and even Lou Fengyun all rushed to Xianyu Shuan's house overnight after Song Tianyao returned last night. The whole family knew that Xianyu Shuan had died at Dai Feng's hands while saving Song Tianyao. With Xianyu Shuan dead, his wife and daughter would be in a terrible state of shock and needed someone to be by their side to take care of them. Moreover, someone also needed to help with the funeral arrangements for Xianyu Shuan.
Song Tianyao had Zhao Meizhen send Hong Kong dollars 20,000 to A Shuan's wife first, so that she could use the money to give A Shuan a grand funeral. That Hong Kong dollars 20,000 was A Shuan Song Tianyao's way of abusing his power and directly deducting it from the HK$300,000 in cash that Chu Xiaozhong had given him. It is estimated that Chu Xiaozhong would not care how Song Tianyao spent that HK$300,000.
After leaving home, Song Tianyao went to Likang Company first. He planned not to go anywhere else today, except to see Angie Perlis off in the afternoon, and to stay at Likang Company the rest of the time.
Biting into the char siu bun that Rotten-Life Ju had bought from the teahouse, sipping tea, and flipping through almost every newspaper published that day that he had specially bought, Song Tianyao had just finished the first char siu bun when the phone rang. He picked up the phone. "Hello? Likang Trading Company, who are you looking for?"
"A-Yao, this is Chu Xiaozhong." Chu Xiaozhong's voice came through the phone, tinged with smugness. "I've added some fuel to the fire for you. More than half of the boats rented by the medicine merchants in Five Counties are not allowed to go to sea. The boat owners would rather pay the penalty for breach of contract than let those medicine merchants take back their boats."
"Be careful not to get too big and out of control, Young Master Zhong." Song Tianyao did not praise Chu Xiaozhong for his outstanding ability. As the successor of the Chu Family, it was not surprising that he did anything. Besides, it was only half of the pharmaceutical merchants' ships that could not go to sea. If it were Chu Yaozong, his firepower could probably easily cover the entire pharmaceutical merchant group.
"Let them think I've lost control. My younger brother was bullied by the Zhang Family, of course I have to react excessively," Chu Xiaozhong said on the phone.
Song Tianyao glanced at the front page of a newspaper. "Young Master Zhong, why don't you have your servants buy a few more copies of the newspaper when you go home for dinner and distribute them to the Chu Family? Everyone will be very happy. Speaking of which, my boss Young Master Shun, is really photogenic."
"Uh..." Chu Xiaozhong was provoked by Song Tianyao's words and let out an "uh". He used his connections to get the ships from the pharmaceutical merchants in Five Counties, but today all the newspapers published his brother's photo. Some shameless Chinese tabloids that only care about money and have no integrity even put Chu Xiaoxin's photo on the front page, followed by a line of bold black characters: Hong Kong's great Philanthropist!
He was working himself to the bone to help Likang, while his own brother, this great Philanthropist, seemed to be embracing a woman and still in bed.
That's just fate. But what's most infuriating is that bastard Song Tianyao. I kindly called him to tell him to take matters into his own hands and cause trouble for the Pharmaceutical Association, and that bastard deliberately brought up Chu Xiaoxin's newspaper article to annoy me.
"A-Yao, can you stop acting like a child and deliberately trying to annoy me? How old are you? If I don't talk to you, I'm hanging up to go buy a newspaper." Chu Xiaozhong wasn't angry at Song Tianyao's words, but he felt that Song Tianyao's words, which were deliberately meant to provoke him, were very childish.
While biting into a char siu bun, Song Tianyao said into the phone, "Hey, Young Master Zhong, why don't we chat a bit more? I'm getting really bored waiting for the Zhang Family."
"Then call your boss, the one who's good at taking photos, and have him talk to you," Chu Xiaozhong replied.
Song Tianyao deliberately provoked Chu Xiaozhong to say that sentence, and then said with a wicked smile, "Young Master Shun? Young Master Shun and Miss Judy spent the night together last night and haven't gotten up yet."
"Damn it!" Chu Xiaozhong realized on the other end of the phone that Song Tianyao had deliberately teased him again, and couldn't help but curse under his breath before hanging up in annoyance.
Song Tianyao put the phone back down while chewing on his char siu bun and continued reading the newspaper. All the English newspaper, reported the founding of Oxfam and the donation of medicine yesterday truthfully and with exaggerated detail. However, the issue of European Coast Company maliciously hoarding raw materials from Likang Company, the Oxfam of Chu Xiaoxin, which was supposed to be mentioned in the original plan, was nowhere to be seen. Obviously, the Zhang Family had done a good job in this regard, smoothing things over with all the newspapers, making them all report good news and not bad, all praise and prayer, without mentioning the Zhang Family.
However, the Shun Brand Flower Pagoda Candies donated by Likang were given more attention by various newspapers, with some even publishing photos featuring the Shun Brand Flower Pagoda Candies in the background. This was seen as a way of giving Likang a soft advertisement in exchange for the money.
Song Tianyao stayed at Likang until noon before heading to the Dulles Hotel, leaving Rotten-Life Ju and the others outside. He then went into the restaurant to have lunch with Angie Perlis. Today, Angie Perlis was dressed differently than usual, with her hair tied up and wearing a hair clip. She had a sun hat by her side, and her overall attire looked much more conservative than usual.