The Clown Was Me All Along

The Clown Turned Out to Be Me

Lin Wen immediately said, "Good. You've worked hard. Just put it there."

Then he added, "This is Miss Qin, a good friend of mine. Xiuyu, bring her a serving too."

Xiuyu's eyes flickered between them twice, and she covered her mouth as she smiled. "All right, Lord Lin. I'll bring a bowl over to your little girlfriend right away."

As she passed Qin Luoshuang, she deliberately spoke in a low voice that everyone could hear. "My, County Governor Lin certainly is popular. Every day, hundreds of young ladies come to me fishing for news. I wonder whose daughter is lucky enough to catch the eye of such a fine man as County Governor Lin."

She chattered on as she walked away. Only after her voice had faded completely did Lin Wen say awkwardly, "She's talking nonsense. Don't take it to heart."

Qin Luoshuang had originally intended to apologize and make peace, but she suddenly grew suspicious again. "This isn't one of your tricks, is it?"

"What trick?"

Lin Wen lifted the bowl of lean meat porridge and drained it in one gulp.

"Same as before—you're aiming high. Uh, nothing. That's not what I meant."

Looking at the bright red five-finger mark on his face, Qin Luoshuang suddenly burst out laughing. "Fine, then I'm not good enough for you. Anyway, I'm just a common woman now, while you're a grand official."

Lin Wen coughed. "Anyway, this matter is up to you. At most, I can approve 110,000 for you."

That was worth one point of good karma. Lin Wen felt a little pained just thinking about it.

Qin Luoshuang played with her hair, sounding absentminded. "Fine, fine. Who told me to be living under someone else's roof?"

After preliminarily settling the intelligence work, Lin Wen had to face the issue of money again.

Qin Luoshuang clearly stated that she was helpless in that regard. She only knew how to spend money, not how to make it.

Seriously? Were you going to lightly tap the air with your index finger and say, "You can't afford to keep me"?

It stirred up some unpleasant memories for Lin Wen, so he promptly forgot them.

Focus on business!

Damn it, with my astonishing intelligence, I refuse to believe I can't think of a solution!

After lunch, Qin Luoshuang had already returned, but Lin Wen was still clawing at his hair.

"Here."

She slapped several lists down in front of Lin Wen.

"These are the records of some low-level contacts temporarily developed through intelligence peddlers. They're highly unreliable, and you can only get commonplace information from them. But I don't have any connections right now. I can't reach the more high-end channels, and I don't have money either."

"Oh? Is there any useful intelligence?"

"You're not even going to look?" Qin Luoshuang asked in surprise.

"No. If I put you in charge, then be in charge. Just tell me the conclusion directly."

"Aren't you afraid I'll deceive you? Aren't you afraid I'll pull little tricks behind your back? For example, colluding above and below, lining my own pockets, secretly dealing with outside forces? Or when I gain more power later, directly hollowing you out?"

"You're really long-winded."

Lin Wen felt as though he had just caught hold of a flash of inspiration, but her interruption had made it vanish again. He could not help getting a little annoyed.

He was starting to feel that this Phoenix Chick was not very useful—far inferior to Sleeping Dragon Zhao Minggong.

After all, he had barely managed Zhao Minggong at all, yet occasional points of good karma still drifted in from him.

She still needed to be trained—infected by my aura of kingly-bastard dominance. Otherwise, her constantly bothering me like this won't do.

With that thought, Lin Wen said to Qin Luoshuang, who was turning to leave, "Wait a moment."

Qin Luoshuang looked at him sideways. "What? You've thought it through?"

Lin Wen said, "I think you're still very green and not mature enough. You need to be influenced by me a little."

"What are you trying to do?" Qin Luoshuang covered her chest and backed up two steps, one hand already preparing to grab her gun.

"What I mean is, you have excellent aptitude, but your acquired education has been far too poor. You need to stay by my side and learn for a while before you can go out and handle matters independently. Understand?"

Judging from Qin Luoshuang's expression, it was as though she had heard the biggest joke in the world.

But she said nothing. She merely turned around and sat down, deliberately keeping a certain distance from him.

Lin Wen did not pay her any mind either, continuing to use his intelligence of 250 to think about the money problem.

After a while, Little Li came charging in and shouted:

"Mayor Lin! County Governor Lin! The Construction Corps is here! The people from the Construction Corps have finally come back!"

Lin Wen was currently in Changle Town, using an empty room that had been temporarily requisitioned as an office. Little Li liked dropping by whenever he had nothing to do. He especially missed the glory of the old "Lin-Li" duo and was eager to stage a reunion of the "Lin-Li" team.

So whenever anything happened, he came racing over, just like he had back in Changle Town.

Naturally, Lin Wen felt nothing about this at all and promptly sent Little Li away.

Little Li did not mind either. He was satisfied simply with the feeling of racing over while shouting "Mayor Lin."

That was enough.

After a while, Little Li came charging back again and shouted:

"Bad news, bad news! Mayor Lin, Commandery Chief Lin, the Construction Corps people are leaving again!"

"What?" Lin Wen sprang to his feet. "What happened?"

Qin Luoshuang stood to one side, watching coldly without a word.

"It seems the Seventh Construction Corps' commander demanded too high a price. Director Huang refused, and the negotiations broke down!"

"Move!"

Lin Wen strode out in great strides, with Qin Luoshuang and Little Li following behind.

The moment he left the office, Lin Wen saw the convoy parked outside Changle Town, along with two enormous flatbed trailers hauling engineering vehicles of all sizes. At a glance, there were no fewer than a dozen.

Both sides had gathered outside the temporary command headquarters' courtyard. On one side stood Huang Mingxiao and his people; on the other, a dozen or so foremen. The Construction Corps laborers had remained outside town and had not come in.

Lin Wen strode over and asked directly, "What's going on?"

Huang Mingxiao looked furious as he shouted, "Commandery Chief Lin! They're asking an outrageous price! When you came last time, the quote was three million per construction period. Why are they demanding twenty-five million this time?"

The Seventh Construction Corps' commander was a short, fat man in a yellow vest. His face was full of flesh, and his expression was unpleasant. "Last time was last time, this time is this time. You changed all the construction blueprints, so of course I have to raise the price!"

Huang Mingxiao roared, "But the amount of work has clearly decreased!"

The short fat man sneered. "Last time, you wouldn't even pay up and came to fool us. We've got a whole bunch of mouths to feed—does fuel on the road cost nothing? Are tolls free? Did everyone go without food and drink, traveling all that way there and back, just to be played for fools by you?"

With that said, Huang Mingxiao lost some of his confidence. "That was last time. But this time, we've already prepared the money!"

"Where is it? Bring out twenty-five million, and we'll start work immediately. Not one word of nonsense."

Lin Wen watched for a moment, then shut off [Ask the Heavens] and said quietly to Little Li, "Go get Fang Dashan." Little Li's face flushed red. He gave an "Mm" and turned to run.

Lin Wen strode over. Seeing that the real boss had arrived, the short fat man had initially been somewhat afraid. But Lin Wen's opening line was, "Short fatty, tell me—how did you calculate twenty-five million?"

The flames atop the short fat man's head immediately flared up. "I want twenty-five million, damn it! Are you paying or not? If not, I'll leave! Stop fucking wasting my time!"

"No. You aren't qualified to ask for twenty-five million."

Lin Wen stepped forward and stared at him coldly, divine light flowing through his eyes.

After all, Lin Wen was the head of a commandery, so the short fat man was still somewhat afraid. "W-what? Why not? How much I ask for is obviously up to me!"

"Because you intend to pocket twenty-two million yourself. Two million goes toward construction expenses, five hundred thousand toward fuel, and your nearly thousand brothers only get five hundred thousand between them."

"So tell me: you're short, fat, ugly, and pathetic. Your wife even bore a big fat son with another man behind your back, yet you spend your brothers' blood-and-sweat money raising someone else's child. What gives you the right? What qualifications do you have to open that bloody maw?"

The short fat man's face swiftly turned from green to white, then flushed crimson. He shouted, "Bullshit! There's no way you could know that! The Inspection Guards clearly investigated it for me! That is my child!"

The instant the words left his mouth, his face changed from crimson to green, then white again. Trembling, he turned his head, wanting support from the foremen beside him, only to discover that, at some point, soldiers armed to the teeth had surrounded them.

"Y-you, what are you doing?"

the short fat man cried out.

"I-I, I'm warning you, y-you'd better not slander me! I never made any deal with the Inspectorate! No one from the Council ever contacted me!"

The moment the words fell, several foremen around him quietly moved farther away.

The short fat man spun around in panic several times, like a tiny bug exposed to the sunlight after a brick had been lifted.

Then, all of a sudden, he hardened again.

"I'm just not doing it! What are you going to do about it!?"

"You dare detain us? Let me tell you something! I've got a powerful backer behind me! As commander of the Seventh Corps, my authority is defined by headquarters! I can demand however much I want! You dare touch me?"

Lin Wen gave a cold laugh, turned, and reached into Qin Luoshuang's arms. She cried out, slapped his hand away, and retreated two steps. "What are you doing?"

"Give me the gun for a moment."

Lin Wen spoke in an extremely tiny voice, while making up his mind that he absolutely had to educate her later. How could she drop the ball at such a critical moment?

Seeing him falter, the short fat man grew even more overbearing. "If you dare touch a single hair on my head, headquarters will strip off your official skin first, then the Council will twist your neck clean off! Come on! Let's see if you've got the dog guts!"

Qin Luoshuang hesitated. The gun was her final line of defense. Though she could not hit Lin Wen with it, she could use it to kill herself. Handing over the gun meant placing herself at another's mercy.

But the hesitation lasted only an instant. Thinking of everything that had happened before, Qin Luoshuang gritted her teeth, drew the gun, and handed it to him.

Lin Wen immediately took it. Before Qin Luoshuang could feel the emptiness welling in her heart, amid the short fat man's taunting cry of "Come on," Lin Wen fired.

The thunderous gunshot rang across the fields.

The short fat man was hit in the head and died on the spot. His final "on" remained lodged in his throat, never leaving his mouth.

The entire scene fell silent as death.

Holding the gun, Lin Wen walked forward and looked at those who remained.

"The beautiful wish of three hundred thousand disaster victims in Long Mountain Commandery to rebuild their homes has no room for any filthy thing to interfere. If any of you don't want to work, speak up. I'll make arrangements, until I find someone who can."

He looked first at the deputy commander, a middle-aged man.

"Can you do it?"

The middle-aged man stared at the gun barrel still trailing blue smoke and swallowed.

"I can."

"Very good." Lin Wen smiled. "Huang Mingxiao, make the arrangements. They will be the first batch of laborers."

"What?" All the foremen present cried out.

Lin Wen revealed a harmonious smile. "Huang Mingxiao, hurry up and organize the thousand brothers in the back. Have them elect twenty leaders, split into twenty teams, and begin work according to the plan."

"Also, tell them that while they work for me, their wages and benefits will be doubled."

"Of course, this batch in front of us gets no wages. As long as they don't starve to death, that's enough. Fang Dashan, arrange soldiers to keep an eye on them. If even one runs away, I'll hold you accountable."

"Yes, sir!" Fang Dashan's booming reply came from afar.

Lin Wen walked back and handed the gun to Qin Luoshuang. She stood there dumbly, having forgotten even to take it.

"Take the gun, dummy!" Lin Wen said in an extremely low voice.

Only then did Qin Luoshuang snap back to herself. She gave him a deeply complicated look, took the gun, and tucked it back into her clothes.

Just as Lin Wen was about to turn away, he suddenly spotted Fang Yaobo in the crowd and immediately called him over.

"Fang Yaobo, come here. Can you write up the case file this time? What crime did he commit?"

Though Fang Yaobo was still trembling a little, there was no confusion in his eyes.

"At-attempted murder of the county chief and three hundred thousand disaster victims. A-a crime against humanity! Shot dead on the spot!"

Qin Luoshuang was struck as if by lightning, charred on the outside and tender within. "How can you just make things up like that..."

"Exactly right!"

Lin Wen's voice instantly drowned hers out.

"A child who can be taught!"

Fang Yaobo was still somewhat flustered, but he could not help smiling.

"And then?"

Fang Yaobo straightened his chest, and even his speech became far more fluent. "I'll go among the laborers and dig up his crimes. Since County Chief Lin had him shot, his sins must have been unforgivable. As long as I go deep among the people, I'll find out what kind of scum he was."

Lin Wen gave him a thumbs-up. "Perfect! As expected of the Chief Justice of the People's Tribunal!"

Fang Yaobo actually smiled shyly.

Meanwhile, Qin Luoshuang felt as though her entire worldview had flown into outer space. She had only one feeling now.

I was such a fool. Truly. I only thought he was the clown.

Who would have thought...

The clown was me all along.