“Ten million, to a man of Mr. Li’s net worth—over three billion—is just a drop in the bucket…” Xu Ze chuckled lightly, his eyebrows arching slightly as he looked at the two men. “Mr. Li’s earlier attitude did indeed annoy me somewhat, so I had to take advantage of the situation… Although Mr. Li has apologized, and I should, by rights, give the Secretary-General face, I still find myself wanting that ten-million-dollar consultation fee…”
Watching Li Jiande’s expression gradually sour and Secretary-General Lin’s face also show displeasure, Xu Ze suddenly smiled. “How about this, then?”
“What do you propose?” Li Jiande asked, though he felt like he was being fleeced, he dared not show any disrespect toward Xu Ze.
“In my hometown of Chentang Town, the elementary and middle schools are both old buildings, built over twenty years ago. They’re quite dilapidated now. Repeated requests for renovation funds have been unsuccessful. Seeing the children studying in such conditions, I truly can’t bear it… The reason I wanted to charge a ten-million-dollar consultation fee… was actually to rebuild these two schools and bring some benefit to the local people…”
At this point, Xu Ze suddenly laughed. “If Mr. Li is sincere, why don’t you rebuild these two schools for me? Consider it accumulating some good karma… What does Mr. Li think of this?”
Hearing Xu Ze’s words, Secretary-General Lin, standing nearby, suddenly understood. So Xu Ze’s outrageous demand was for this… But ten million—that was no small sum…
It seemed, however, that Xu Ze was determined to fleece Boss Li this time, and there appeared to be little room for negotiation. Secretary-General Lin could only look to Li Jiande to see what he planned to do…
Li Jiande stared at the young man before him, who was wearing a faint smile and looking like a fisherman waiting for a fish to willingly take the bait. A wave of irritation washed over him… This kid really dares to open his mouth so wide. Ten million… does he think it’s just blank paper? If those were hundred-dollar bills, stacked up, they’d be several meters high…
Annoying as it was, Li Jiande could only swallow his pride at this moment because he quickly realized that, aside from paying up, he truly had no way to make Xu Ze back down.
A person whom Lin Weiguo treated with such importance and courtesy in Star City, and someone who could so casually disregard Lin Weiguo’s face—this was absolutely not just some simple, ordinary young doctor…
So using other methods to force this young doctor to submit was probably unrealistic. Thus, Li Jiande had no choice but to choke down his anger and part with this million or so to make the young doctor happy. At least, his own illness was far more important than ten million. He forced a dry smile onto his face and nodded. “Building schools to aid education is a wonderful thing… Several companies under my group often do such educational support activities on the mainland…”
“Since Doctor Xu requests it, I will immediately have my staff make the plans. The funds will definitely be allocated and in place within half a month, and construction will begin…” Li Jiande spoke with a decisive air. After finishing, he suppressed the ache in his heart and asked, “Is Doctor Xu satisfied with this?”
“Good… Since Mr. Li has agreed, then there’s no problem. Please just come find me tomorrow… The Secretary-General has my phone number; you can have him contact me.” With that, Xu Ze stood up, nodded to Li Jiande who was looking at him with hopeful eyes, and smiled. “I’ll take full responsibility for Mr. Li’s illness. Please rest assured…”
With these words from Xu Ze, Li Jiande finally felt relieved. After Xu Ze had left, he looked at Secretary-General Lin, puzzled and shocked. “Weiguo… just what is this kid’s background? How can he even refuse to give you face?”
Secretary-General Lin smiled wryly and shook his head. “He’s Old Mr. Tang’s god-grandson and Mayor Tang’s god-nephew. As for whether he has any other backing, I’m not clear… I only know that just a couple of days ago, he single-handedly brought down a police chief who was about to be promoted to deputy mayor…”
“Old Li, since you’ve agreed to build those two schools for him, you’d better put your full effort into it… You still need him to treat your illness; this is not something to take lightly…” Secretary-General Lin let out a soft sigh and a faint smile. This Xu Ze was truly ruthless; that cut really went deep…
Li Jiande nodded, still indignant, then said helplessly, “I really shouldn’t have looked down on him at first, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have made such a huge demand…”
But then, he suddenly laughed, comforting himself. “Wealth is ultimately an external thing, not truly ours. If it’s spent, so be it. I just truly hope he can cure this illness of mine…”
……
Thinking back to last year in Chentang, when he ran into his former elementary school teacher and heard about how the school buildings were leaking rain in many places, and saw the helplessness on the teacher’s face… And now, today, he had incidentally earned two new school buildings for his alma mater. Xu Ze was in a very good mood. He felt not a shred of guilt about extorting Li Jiande. After all, this guy hadn’t been a good bird in the past, and his money hadn’t exactly come from clean sources; he’d only whitewashed his image in recent years. When a chance to fleece someone presented itself, why not take it…
He wasn’t the least bit worried that Li Jiande would dare try anything against him. To Li Jiande, this little bit of money was utterly insignificant compared to the illness that made his life a torment…
As the days of treatment passed and Li Jiande saw increasingly obvious results, he became quite generous. The funds originally planned for allocation on the fifteenth day were officially transferred to the infrastructure account—jointly set up with the Chentang Town government just days earlier—by the tenth day.
The Chentang Town government and schools had initially been very puzzled as to why a wealthy Hong Kong businessman like Li Jiande would come to their obscure location to donate money for school construction. Li Jiande, intending to do Xu Ze a favor—since no one would refuse a good relationship with a formidable doctor—simply told the curious people directly that it was because Xu Ze had cured an illness of his, and he was building these two schools in Chentang as repayment, at Xu Ze’s request…
Once this statement spread, it took less than half a day to travel throughout Chentang Town. The townspeople, hearing of such a good deed, spared no effort in their praise, saying that Xu Ze hadn’t forgotten his roots, still remembering his teachers and school from so many years ago. He was truly righteous and kind…
And his medical skills had indeed advanced remarkably. Even a big boss from Hong Kong came to seek his treatment. The prediction made last year was indeed correct; winning the Nobel Prize in twenty years might not have been just wild talk after all…
As for Xu Ze’s parents, upon learning this news, they were naturally overjoyed. Doing good deeds and accumulating virtue had always been a tradition at the Xu Family Clinic. For Xu Ze’s mother, a devout believer in Guanyin Bodhisattva, she was especially happy. That her son could do this not only accumulated great merit but also accomplished a wonderful thing for the people of Chentang Town…
