Trapped in the Same Day for a Thousand Years: Turmoil in Donghai

Welcome to the listening of "I've Been Trapped on the Same Day for a Thousand Years", exclusively produced by Feilu Novel Network. Author: Sang Ze. Narrator: Wang Xiaomo, Lao He.

Wu Chen was genuinely a bit annoyed; the other person had zero sense of boundaries.

The person on the other end of the line clearly froze for a second, then immediately realized who this unknown number belonged to, and said in a somewhat flustered tone, "Um, well..."

"Mr. Wu, you might have misunderstood, uh, I'm not... It's very late, I'm going to rest. If you have anything to say, call me directly, and stop sending people to tail me."

Without waiting for the other person to say anything further, Wu Chen hung up directly.

Clutching his phone, he glanced out the window into the alley once more, then drew the curtains.

In truth, Wu Chen was fully aware that the other party posed no danger to him whatsoever. Because, strictly speaking, the person who had sent someone to tail and monitor him could be considered one of his own people—Wang Zhuangyuan.

Wu Chen had driven away his white Lamborghini yesterday, and had even seen him that very morning at Li Ruota's place, returning the car keys along the way.

From Wang Zhuangyuan's perspective, he and Wu Chen couldn't even be considered acquaintances; at best, they had met.

Yet he still sent people to tail and monitor Wu Chen.

Wu Chen could deduce the reason why: because he was Li Ruobin's man, the brother-in-law of Donghai's Young Master Li, Li Ruota, and moreover, Li Ruobing had already grown suspicious regarding his child.

Currently, there were a total of four boss-level figures in the Donghai underworld. Aside from Zhao Guai and Wang Zhuangyuan, there were also Yan Jiu of the North City and Yuan Erbao of the Development Zone.

These four individuals controlled over ninety percent of Donghai's entertainment and leisure businesses, and were heavily involved in industries like quarries and logistics.

Donghai had only experienced a monopoly of the underworld during the 1990s, featuring a figure who could truly be called the Godfather of Donghai. Because times were relatively chaotic back then, the older generation had either died or been imprisoned after the new century arrived, while those who survived had washed their hands and gone straight. Although the transition of the older generation was immediately filled by new forces, the times and environment had changed, and the legal system had improved. It had become very difficult for Donghai to ever see that kind of godfather-like figure again—someone who could once run amok with absolute impunity and wield absolute dominance. The more developed a place was, the harder it was for such people to emerge.

Donghai City had developed; although it couldn't compare to the country's top super-first-tier cities, it was still a major first-tier metropolis with a population exceeding ten million.

However, as long as the business involved bars, KTVs, or bathhouses and saunas, it inevitably touched upon connections, networking, and underworld affairs. Thus, the current four figures—Zhao Guai, Wang Zhuangyuan, Yan Jiu, and Yuan Erbao—came to be.

Among them, Yan Jiu was the eldest and possessed the most seniority, known in the underworld as Eighth Master Yan. He was already over fifty years old this year. Zhao Guai came second, followed by Yuan Erbao, and both were under fifty. As for Wang Zhuangyuan, he was only thirty-three years old this year.

If one closely examined the tumultuous changes in the Donghai underworld over the past twenty years, they would discover a startling fact: this man Wang Zhuangyuan was terrifying, and the speed of his rise was breathtaking.

At eighteen, he was the top scorer in the Donghai science college entrance examination. To avenge his bullied parents, he stabbed someone and served three years in prison, only entering the underworld after his release.

He had once been an exceptionally brilliant student, a genius-level figure, the pride of the school, and the child of other people.

He too had believed that knowledge could change destiny, but the twist of fate during the summer vacation of his eighteenth year changed everything. It not only completely altered the trajectory of his life, but also distorted his values.

And so, having been in the underworld for twelve years, Wang Zhuangyuan successfully caught up with the older factions represented by Zhao Guai and Yan Jiu, sitting at an equal footing with them despite being twenty or thirty years younger.

With no money, no background, and no connections, Wang Zhuangyuan simply pulled it off.

Why did he succeed?

This brought up Wang Zhuangyuan's ambition. Not only was he extremely clever, but he was also exceptionally skilled at networking.

In July six years ago, Li Ruota, who was only twenty years old and still studying in university as he prepared to enter his junior year, arrived in Donghai with an astronomical sum of money and terrifying family connections to select a site and construct a building.

According to the initial plans, sparing no expense and rushing the construction speed, the building would take at least two years from construction to completion of decoration.

And two years later, Li Ruota would happen to graduate from college.

During those initial two years of practical experience, although Li Ruota was still in university, he frequently flew to Donghai in a private jet to meet with certain individuals. He was a powerful outsider, yet he treated the local ground snakes with respect and was unwilling to easily provoke them. Instead, he willingly befriended them. This outsider, Li Ruota, rapidly established his own network of connections in Donghai, laying the foundation for the opening of the Crown Club and the expansion of the Li family's influence.

It was precisely during this period that Wang Zhuangyuan managed to get acquainted with Li Ruota a step earlier than Zhao Guai and the others.

Although Wang Zhuangyuan already possessed considerable influence at the time, he still couldn't compare to those three.

Yet Zhao Guai and the others wouldn't easily make a move against Wang Zhuangyuan either, because even if they wiped him out, their own losses probably wouldn't be small.

Wang Zhuangyuan struck up a relationship with Li Ruota first, and Li Ruota gave him a helping hand. Consequently, four years ago, Wang Zhuangyuan rapidly reached a position of equal footing with Zhao Guai and the others, successfully turning the top bosses of the Donghai underworld from three into four.

In recent years, these four top figures in the Donghai underworld had been engaged in constant open and covert struggles, each wanting to eliminate the others, expand their own territory, and perhaps even achieve a complete monopoly.

The peak of conflict occurred in April of this year: an explosion took place at a massage hotel under Yan Jiu's banner, and the case made the news.

It was said that a gas pipeline leak in the hotel basement caused an accidental explosion, injuring multiple hotel employees, one of whom was seriously hurt. It was labeled an accidental mishap.

Of course this was no accident. Though no one died, it resulted in one of Yan Jiu's trusted agents—the nominal boss of the hotel—being sent straight to prison, where he remained locked up to this day.

This incident directly made Li Ruota furious. Logically speaking, Li Ruota should have favored Wang Zhuangyuan, since Wang Zhuangyuan had been promoted by his own hands and had been around for several years. If Li Ruota had truly backed him, Wang Zhuangyuan should have surpassed Zhao Guai and the others by this year, or even achieved a monopoly.

Yet he hadn't. Li Ruota didn't do that because what he wanted was balance; a core scion emerging from a super family could never be a mere prodigal son.

Li Ruota possessed his own wisdom. He knew very well that once a single monopoly appeared, whether he could keep it under control would become a question.

Another issue was that the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. In the modern era, if anyone genuinely tried that monopoly routine in a major city, they were not far from death.

If something really went wrong and the authorities launched a thunderous crackdown on Donghai, not only would those underworld figures be finished, but Li Ruota himself would certainly find it hard to wash his hands of it.

What Li Ruota wanted was balance and stability.

Therefore, although Wang Zhuangyuan had gotten to know him first, over the past few years his relationship with all four men remained fairly similar. They could all seemingly be called confidants, yet they all maintained a difficult-to-break sense of distance.

Li Ruota's business dealt in wine, women, and song, so getting entangled with the Donghai underworld was unavoidable.

If he wanted to grow larger and do better, he had to deal with them.

For instance, where did that astonishingly large, exceptionally high-quality batch of technicians under Li Ruota come from?

Naturally, they were sent up from below.

Had there been no necessity for it, Li Ruota wouldn't have bothered associating with this group of ruffians.

At their absolute best, Zhao Guai and the others could only compare in status to local wealthy individuals with a net worth of under one billion yuan. They couldn't compare at all to anything higher; they fell short by that tier.

Still, ruffians were ruffians after all, running the most hazardous businesses.

Given Li Ruota's background and connections, Li Ruota could destroy them the moment he wanted to.

This was precisely why Li Ruota, an outsider, could become the big boss of the local Donghai underworld bosses. He was closely tied to them yet maintained his distance, preserving the balance among the four while both understanding and controlling them.

Following the explosion in April, in early May, Li Ruota summoned all four men along with several notorious, heavy-hitting veterans of the Donghai underworld, and flew into a towering rage.

He laid down the hard truth: whoever dared to start trouble first again would be hacked to pieces by his own hands.

These secret meetings were the May gathering that Wu Chen had mentioned yesterday when he borrowed Li Ruota's name to call Zhao Guai.

Wu Chen returned to his room to fetch his laptop, walked back to the living room, sat down on the sofa, and began browsing the news.

Regarding Wang Zhuangyuan sending people to tail him, Wu Chen didn't overthink it. Understanding Wang Zhuangyuan's personality and his modus operandi, he understood the reason why.

To put it bluntly, he wanted to hitch a ride on Wu Chen's coattails. Perhaps he wanted to understand Wu Chen first, then find an appropriate opportunity—or even manufacture a coincidence—to get acquainted with Wu Chen privately and build a relationship with him, thereby gaining an advantage in his competition against Zhao Guai and the others.

This was why Wu Chen hadn't paid much attention to it even though he knew he was being tailed; he knew there was no danger.

Not only was there no danger, but Wang Zhuangyuan was very likely to directly send him favors and generous gifts.

At eleven in the evening, Wu Chen put away his laptop and went to his room to sleep.

Sleeping soundly through the night, on July 9, 2020, a brand new day, Wu Chen woke up promptly at seven in the morning. Picking up his phone, he looked at the unreset timing and broke into a smile.

Although he had long since confirmed that time would no longer be passively reset, he still smiled whenever he saw the new date, because having a future life was truly fantastic.

He had exercised yesterday, leaving his legs a bit sore, though it didn't affect his walking.

Wu Chen got up, washed up, changed his clothes, and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Just as Wu Chen stepped out of the apartment building, the bespectacled man leaning against the wall smoking by the entrance suddenly straightened up, dropped his cigarette butt onto the ground, swept away the surrounding smoke with a wave of his hand, and looked at Wu Chen. "Mr. Wu, yesterday I..."

Wu Chen turned his head to look at him and replied, "It's Wang Zhuangyuan." The ground was littered with cigarette butts; who knew how early he had arrived or how long he had been waiting at the front entrance.

Wang Zhuangyuan had genuinely been terrified out of his wits yesterday.

What he feared wasn't Wu Chen, even though he knew Wu Chen was extraordinary.

Those subordinates he had sent to tail Wu Chen had all reported back to him about Lu Guanglin talking privately with Wu Chen outside the restaurant door.

He also knew that Li Ruobing had driven Wu Chen home and shared a kiss with him upon parting, but he didn't really understand Wu Chen—he only knew Wu Chen was formidable, possessed means, and likely had some massive background. What he truly feared was Li Ruota. The fact that Wu Chen could call him directly had already given him a tremendous shock, because he instantly suspected that the phone number might have been provided by Li Ruota; otherwise, how would Wu Chen have known his number?

There was one thing he dreaded above all else: that Wu Chen would tell Li Ruota about him sending people to tail him. This matter involved Li Ruobing, and everyone in Donghai knew how fiercely Li Ruota protected his older sister. People in the underworld especially understood that if there was anyone you must never provoke, it was Li Ruobing—doing so was even more terrifying than provoking Li Ruota himself.

If you provoked Li Ruota personally, given Li Ruota's temperament, he would at least give you a chance to explain. As long as Li Ruota hadn't flown into a massive rage, a kowtow and an apology could let the matter pass.

Yet if you provoked Li Ruobing, you might not even get the chance to explain yourself to Li Ruota.

Furthermore, although Wang Zhuangyuan had sent people to tail Wu Chen yesterday, because Wu Chen hadn't parted ways with Li Ruobing, they had essentially been tailing Li Ruobing the entire time as well.

On top of that, Wu Chen was Li Ruota's brother-in-law—his genuine brother-in-law. If Li Ruota found out about this, Wang Zhuangyuan broke out in cold sweat just thinking about it.

Li Ruota was the one who had promoted him with his own hands; Wang Zhuangyuan knew Li Ruota's methods all too well. He was terrified he wouldn't be able to explain himself, or worse, that Li Ruota wouldn't even give him the chance to try.

Throughout the entire night yesterday, Wang Zhuangyuan had tossed and turned, unable to sleep. He had picked up his phone several times, wanting to call Wu Chen to offer an explanation first and probe Wu Chen's tone to see if he had mentioned anything to Li Ruota.

Ultimately, however, he hadn't made that call. Because Wu Chen had called him proactively and stated before hanging up that he was going to sleep, calling him again would definitely displease Wu Chen. What might have been a minor issue could easily turn into a major disaster precisely because of that phone call.

Wang Zhuangyuan had set out just as dawn was breaking, and upon arriving downstairs at Wu Chen's building, he didn't dare go up to disturb him, simply waiting below for Wu Chen to come down.

Wu Chen looked Wang Zhuangyuan up and down. Wearing glasses, the scholarly yet beast-like Wang Zhuangyuan looked much more haggard today; his hair was a bit greasy, and he had dark circles under his eyes.

"Mr. Wu, ah, actually I came to explain to you, I'm not—" Wang Zhuangyuan started.

Before he could finish, Wu Chen raised a hand to signal him to shut up, then turned to glance down the alley, gesturing with a hand. "Had breakfast yet? There's a decent joint inside."

With that, Wu Chen walked further down the alley.

Wang Zhuangyuan immediately hurried to keep up with Wu Chen's pace.

"I haven't told A Tai."

Walking on, Wu Chen cast a sideways glance at Wang Zhuangyuan.

It was as if he knew what Wang Zhuangyuan was thinking, or rather, what he was afraid of.

Wang Zhuangyuan visibly relaxed, truly feeling a sense of immense relief.

"You came alone?"

Wu Chen asked casually.

"Ah, they're all out on the street; I didn't let them come over. You live right here, and it's early in the morning—if there are too many people and the neighbors see us, well, it sends a bad message," Wang Zhuangyuan said.

Wu Chen nodded and gave a slight smile.

This man Wang Zhuangyuan really knew how to handle things.

The two walked deep into the alley. There were still a few small shops here—convenience stores, fast-food joints, and the like.

Wu Chen led Wang Zhuangyuan into a breakfast shop, the kind of dingy little eatery where breakfast consisted of soy milk, fried dough sticks, steamed buns, and pickles.

Since it was already past seven, the peak breakfast rush had actually passed.

There was only one table of customers inside the small eatery. Wu Chen casually ordered a few items and found a table near the entrance to sit with Wang Zhuangyuan.

After sitting down, Wang Zhuangyuan took a few extra observations of the breakfast shop's environment. It had been far too many years since he last dined in such a small joint; ever since he rose to power, everywhere he frequented was a high-end venue, and his food and daily necessities had grown increasingly refined. He honestly hadn't expected Wu Chen to come eat at a place like this.

Naturally, he didn't think Wu Chen was poor or just an ordinary person; he only figured Wu Chen was keeping a remarkably low profile.

The steamed buns and fried dough sticks were ready-made, and the attendant quickly served them.

"Want some porridge?"

Wu Chen picked up a fried dough stick, tore it into pieces, dropped them into his bowl of soy milk, and asked at the same time, "Mr. Wu, I need to explain to you. You must have misunderstood; I harbor no malice toward you."

Wang Zhuangyuan began his explanation. Naturally, he wouldn't speak his true inner thoughts—he couldn't very well say that he tailed him to find an opportunity to deliberately cozy up to him—so he had to come up with a reason.

The reason Wang Zhuangyuan offered was to protect Wu Chen, or rather, to secretly protect Young Master Li's brother-in-law. God knows what was going through his head; perhaps he simply couldn't think of a normal excuse, which was why he came up with such an awkward and far-fetched one.

The excuse itself didn't matter much; what mattered was Wu Chen's reaction and attitude.

Wu Chen had already started eating, listening as Wang Zhuangyuan spoke.

Wang Zhuangyuan was exceptionally articulate, somehow managing to make his words sound logical and well-founded.

"You know, people like us who hustle at the bottom—to put it nicely, we're underworld bosses; to put it bluntly, we're just punks."

"You're family with Young Master Li, and although Young Master Li didn't give any orders, we all rely on Young Master Li to toss us scraps to eat. We have to show some initiative and respect, don't you agree?"

"Hm? Finished?"

Wu Chen nodded blandly and asked Wang Zhuangyuan again.

"Finished."

Wang Zhuangyuan's expression suddenly turned a bit unnatural, because Wu Chen didn't seem to believe a word he said, yet showed no intention of causing trouble for him either.

"Aren't you eating?"

Wu Chen asked Wang Zhuangyuan again.

Wu Chen had ordered enough food for two people, but Wang Zhuangyuan hadn't touched a thing the entire time.

"Ah, I'm... quite hungry."

Wang Zhuangyuan forced a fairly natural smile, picked up a fried dough stick, tore off a piece, and dropped it into his bowl.

Ordinarily, he had no habit of eating fried dough sticks like that, but Wu Chen had just eaten them that way.

"Last night, a violent gang fight occurred on Fuyuan Road in our city. Eyewitnesses captured footage of the scene."

"Police officers from the Fuyuan Road Substation rushed to the scene to handle the situation immediately after the incident. One of the individuals sustained severe injuries and was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment."

Wu Chen suddenly turned his head to look at the small television hanging on the breakfast shop's wall. The TV volume wasn't high and had been playing the whole time, but the mention of Fuyuan Road caught Wu Chen's attention.

The screen was broadcasting footage captured by an eyewitness. The camera shook violently, yet one could still make out a man being dragged out onto the main street and beaten by a crowd. He was wearing only boxer shorts, looking as though he had been dragged straight out of a nearby building.

Wu Chen recognized this person: it was Hu Xiaowei.

Wang Zhuangyuan glanced at the television following Wu Chen's line of sight, though he had no mood to pay attention to it. Adjusting his glasses, he smiled and spoke up, "Mr. Wu, do you frequent this restaurant?"

"Ah, often."

Wu Chen turned his head back to glance at Wang Zhuangyuan and continued eating.

The rest of the breakfast time turned purely into an opportunity for Wang Zhuangyuan to proactively try and cozy up to Wu Chen, asking about this and that.

He even reminisced about himself over a decade ago when he also used to frequent such small eateries, claiming he felt quite nostalgic.

Just as the two were finishing up, Wu Chen's phone rang. It lay right on the table, and the caller ID showed: Ruobing.

Wang Zhuangyuan saw it too, and immediately stood up, signaling to Wu Chen that he was going outside.

Wu Chen waved a hand at him, indicating that he didn't need to leave; there was nothing he couldn't let him hear.

"So early?"

Wu Chen answered the call.

"Get to the company."

Li Ruobing's speech was rapid, and her tone clearly carried a heavy sense of anger.

"Hurry up and come over, something happened at the company."

This episode has concluded. Welcome to continue listening!