Spare You? Sign a Seventy-Year Indenture, and I'll Consider It

Old Master Lu clutched his chest and stared at Lu Yuan in disbelief. "You, you..."

Old Master Lu was furious. He had never expected Lu Yuan to make him lose face so thoroughly in public. This wretched grandson was far too unfilial!

But Old Master Lu had forgotten what he had done. As a child, Lu Yuan had been quiet, dull and introverted. When the family ate together, Old Master Lu had mixed the leftovers from his other grandchildren's meals into Lu Yuan's lunchbox as if feeding a pig. He had also mistreated Lu Yuan by giving him cucumbers to eat while Lu Bingbing and the others had chicken legs.

Whenever Lu Yuan clashed with his male cousins of the same generation, Old Master Lu had given him a savage beating, even when Lu Yuan was in the right. Any hope of winning Lu Yuan's filial devotion was doomed from the start.

Lu Yuan glanced at his watch and said to Director Yang, "You have one minute left!"

Director Yang clenched his fists and said irritably, "Hmph! Who knows where you picked up this antique for a steal? You have neither money nor power in Magic City. So what if I don't pay you? Which of the people here saw me destroy The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea with their own eyes?"

Director Yang had placed particular emphasis on "neither money nor power," and the guests present weighed the matter in their minds. It would be better to help Director Yang than Lu Yuan.

Every guest present looked right at the scene and lied through their teeth. "I didn't see it!"

"I didn't see it either!"

"That painting, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, was already torn to pieces and lying there when I arrived."

His younger sister, Lu Shishi, looked at them in fury. "How can you go so far?"

Lu Yuan's eyes abruptly turned cold. He said to Director Yang, "Fine, don't pay. But believe it or not, I can make one phone call and have you lose your job and rot in prison."

Director Yang remained unmoved. "You, with a middle-school education, are going to put a Harvard graduate like me out of work? Who the fuck are you trying to scare?"

Lu Yuan sneered. "Heh, is Harvard such a big fucking deal? Harvard isn't worth a dick in front of me!"

Uh! Arrogant. Wasn't he far too arrogant?

He didn't even take Harvard seriously. Was Lu Yuan really just a low-level salesman?

Why was he so fearless? What exactly was he relying on? Had they just picked the wrong side?

Director Yang wore a haughty expression. "I don't know whether Harvard is a big fucking deal, but if you tried to get through its gates, I'm afraid you'd be chased away like a dog. You wouldn't even get inside."

Lu Yuan couldn't be bothered wasting any more words. He pulled out his phone and placed a video call to the general manager at Yida Shopping Mall's headquarters.

"Hello, Chairman! What can I do for you?" The middle-aged man in the video looked stiff and respectful.

Lu Yuan's voice was even. "I came to my grandfather's birthday banquet today and ran into a director from Yida Shopping Mall named Yang. He tore up an antique painting of mine worth three billion. He really doesn't know how to behave in front of me, the chairman!"

"Oh, right, this is his face!" Lu Yuan turned his phone around and aimed it at Director Yang.

The moment Director Yang heard the voice, his heart hung in suspense. When he saw the person in the video, he collapsed to the floor on the spot. "G-general manager..."

"Have you fucking eaten a bear's heart and a leopard's gall? How dare you tear up the chairman's property? Yang Bin, listen carefully. As of this moment, you're fired. You're no longer a director at Yida Shopping Mall. The company will also investigate thoroughly how you've been lining your pockets with company kickbacks and embezzling public funds to hire prostitutes. Just wait for prison!"

The guests all stared at Lu Yuan in astonishment. This young man was actually the chairman of Yida Group?

Remembering how they had spoken up for Director Yang, they cursed themselves as idiots over and over. Instead of currying favor with the chairman of Yida, they had tried to please some lousy director.

Lu Yuan pulled his phone back and said to the general manager in the video, "All right, there's nothing more for you here. Get back to whatever you were doing."

After hanging up the WeChat video call, Lu Yuan gave Director Yang a meaningful look. "I'll sue you too. Don't even dream of dodging this debt. If you can't pay it back, your family will. They can come work for my company, for free, for the rest of their lives. If one person's wages aren't enough to deduct it from, then two, three, five..."

"With what I, Lu Yuan, am capable of, I can easily make sure they can't get a job at any company. If anyone dares hire them, I'll make that company go bankrupt and shut down. I can also make sure they have no home to live in anywhere in the country." Lu Yuan was by no means making empty threats.

A net worth of several hundred trillion was no joke. Under royal power, Lu Yuan was the heavens.

Director Yang wept bitterly, filled with regret. Because of one thing he had done, his entire family would suffer with him. He could already picture the miserable sight of his wife and children unable to find work anywhere, forced to depend on Lu Yuan to survive.

Overwhelmed with remorse, Director Yang dropped to his knees with a thud and began kowtowing. "Chairman Lu, I'm sorry. I was a fucking idiot to offend you. I admit to everything I did. Please, don't drag my family into this... Please spare them!"

The people present had all just heard what the manager on the video call had said.

Now everyone swung to Lu Yuan's side and began criticizing and condemning Director Yang. "You look so respectable in that suit, but who would have thought you were a well-dressed beast, lining your pockets with company money and hiring prostitutes? Aren't you afraid of catching AIDS?"

"Serves him right! He deserves it!"

"A measly director showing off in front of his own company's chairman. Finished now, aren't you? Your future's ruined, isn't it?"

Lu Yuan looked at him coldly. "Fine! I can spare your family. Can you pay me the three billion yourself?"

Director Yang gritted his teeth and made a proposal, his heart bleeding. "Chairman Lu! As long as you spare me and my family, my annual salary is fifty million. That's five hundred million in ten years, so I can pay it all back in sixty years. How about this? I'll sign a sixty-year agreement to work for you for free. What do you think?"

A sixty-year indenture?

Lu Yuan thought it over, then said to him, "It'll take you sixty years just to pay off the debt, so add another ten years for interest. Sign a seventy-year indenture, and I'll spare you!"

Director Yang had no choice but to agree.

Lu Yuan added, "Every penny you took in kickbacks and embezzled from Yida Shopping Mall's funds must also be coughed back up on top of the interest, without a cent missing."

"Yes, yes, yes..."

Lu Yuan thought for a moment, then said, "Considering your lack of character, to prevent anything similar from happening again, I'll have someone watch your daily movements around the clock, twenty-four hours a day, so you don't bring bad publicity to Yida Shopping Mall."

Director Yang's expression immediately darkened. How was that any different from keeping a dog...

But to avoid prison and keep his family from being dragged down with him, Director Yang had no choice but to agree.

His older cousin Lu Bingbing couldn't accept what had happened. Losing her composure, she said, "How could this happen... Why did this happen?"

Lu Yuan looked coldly at his older cousin Lu Bingbing and said, "No matter how impressive he is, he's not someone you can use to show off. Only when you're impressive enough yourself can you earn other people's respect."