Chapter 117: The Proud Eldest Brother

  In the morning, Li Meng opened his eyes after a night of meditation. Despite sweating all night, he was still spirited and felt a surge of power throughout his body.

  After these hours of cultivation, although he had not yet entered the door, he could already control the flow of energy within his body. With sufficient time, entering the door was just a matter of days.

  Bang! Bang!

  "Li Meng! Li Meng! Get up quickly! I'm hungry, Brother wants to go out and eat!" Fan Yi's shouting voice came from outside the door, accompanied by loud banging on the door.

  "Believe it or not, I'll throw you out if you knock again!" Li Meng opened the door, his face stern and intimidating.

  "Get out... what are you doing in there!" Fan Yi wasn't scared by his words, but was startled by his appearance, covering his nose and hastily retreating.

  "Get out of my sight." Li Meng waved his hand impatiently, picked up his clothes and went to the bathroom to shower and change. Although he looked disheveled, he was happy and hummed: scrubbing and washing, hmm...

  Outside, Fan Yi and Zi Yue looked at each other in dismay, with one of them unable to help but ask: "Has Li Meng gone mad?"

  ……

  "What? Go to the countryside for fun? Li Meng, have you been hit on the head by a door?" Fan Yi stood up angrily in the car downstairs of the hotel, pointing at Li Meng with an incredulous face.

  "What's wrong with the countryside?" Li Mang asked back.

  "This isn't a matter of being slightly different, from the moment I graduated from university, I wanted to have fun in the big city. Now you're telling me to go to the countryside? Are you trying to make me happy? I strongly disagree!" Fan Yi loudly protested against Li Mang's arrangement.

  "The countryside is more fun than the city, fishing, catching yellow croaker, going to the mountain to hunt and catch birds, and there are many delicious things." Li Mang said temptingly.

  "No way, no way, I'm not going, don't cheat kids like this." Fan Yi was dead set on disagreeing.

  Li Mang was stunned and simply lay comfortably in the chair. Youyou said to the driver beside him, "Go to Taoyuan Township!"

  "How dare you!" Fan's hair was almost standing on end.

  The driver fell silent for a moment, and finally followed Li Meng's instructions, quietly starting the car and heading in the direction of Taoyuan Township.

  "...... Fine! You're really good, Li Meng!" Fan's small body was trembling with rage, but she could only sit back in her seat with a frosty expression, perhaps feeling that compromising like this was somewhat humiliating. She then added another sentence with malice: "You'll regret it!"

  "I'm fine, no regrets at all." Li Mang responded without even opening his eyes.

  "It won't be long before it's all over!" Fan Yige hummed, his eyes gleaming with a sly light as he thought about how to get revenge on Li Mao.

  The car was neither fast nor slow. It was moving steadily, but they didn't notice that a big BMW was following far behind them. Due to the great distance and heavy traffic, Li Mang and his friends were unaware of it.

  Driving is Wei Chi Yong, Ye Zhou sat in the passenger seat. While Dai Junping behind was as cold as ice. A pair of phoenix eyes filled with murderous intent stared at the black shadow in front. If looks could kill, Li Mang and his car would have overturned or exploded hundreds of times.

  "They are heading out of town." Wei Chi Rong made his own inference based on the direction the vehicle was traveling.

  "The suburbs are good, that's a place where you can kill people. Yan Huang is just too nosy, otherwise we wouldn't have to follow him so hard." Ye Zhou's resentment was not small.

  "Hehe." Wei Chi Yong smiled and didn't respond. Yan Huang was someone who liked to interfere in other people's business, but he had the confidence to do so. As a lone cultivator, it wasn't his place to speak ill of him. Otherwise, if it were to reach Yan Huang's ears, although he wouldn't be punished, at least the impression wouldn't be good, and there was no need to make a big deal out of it.

  Two cars drove away from the city, one in front of the other. There were fewer and fewer vehicles on the road, but still some, so the three people didn't dare to make a move, and continued to follow at a distance until they arrived at Taohsiang Village, where they still couldn't find an opportunity.

  "What did they come to this broken village for?"

  "Only ghosts know, but there are few people on the roads here, we can choose to take action in this area."

  "We'll park the car in the mountains and go ahead to check out the situation before deciding."

  It's been several months since I came, and Taoshan Village has undergone tremendous changes. The entrance road has been widened and leveled, waiting for the final cement paving; while in the village and nearby mountains and fields, hundreds of workers are working together with machines to assist, and the outline of the mountain villa is already visible, and the project is progressing rapidly. Of course, it's still far from being put into use, maybe two or three months at the earliest, or possibly a year and a half later.

  "Welcome, Director Li, to guide our work." The car hadn't even stopped yet when Ge Xuelin, wearing nearsighted glasses, came up with a pretentious smile, followed by Xiao Yangzhou who was smiling brightly, and his girlfriend Zhao Hong, a very lively girl he had hooked up with in college.

  The first one to get out of the car was Fan Yi, who asked Ge Xuelin with a big smile: "Hey, buddy, you call him Li Dong? What does that mean?"

  "Huh?" Ge Xuelin's smile froze, not knowing who this little kid was with such a big attitude, and naturally couldn't answer, could only cast an inquiring glance at Li Meng who had just gotten out of the car.

  "This is Fan Yi, but he's more suited to being a second-in-command. He's the son of my superior, and this one here is Zi Yue, Fan Yi's partner." Li Mang simply introduced them as such.

  "Li Meng, you're still in your second childhood!" As soon as Li Meng's words fell, he was met with a fierce counterattack from Fan Yi. Then, he put on a big brotherly demeanor and waved his hand at the crowd, saying: "You want to call me Big Brother? Call me Big Brother! Don't dare get it wrong, or I'll beat you up!"

  Everyone was moved by the child's performance, their shoulders slightly shaking with suppressed laughter. At the same time, they were shocked by his identity - Li Meng's superior's son? How dare they be slow to react? They immediately gave him a smile. Ge Xuelin, being more smooth in nature, nodded and bowed: "Warmly welcome Eldest Brother to come to Taohuaxiang Village to guide our work."

  "Hmm, you're not bad, take care of yourself!" With Ge Xue Lin's flattery, Fan Yi couldn't help but feel a little proud, even his head held high, probably already lost his sense of direction.

  "You two don't bother with this." Li Meng cut in impatiently, and the group headed towards Xiao Yangzhou's home. It was a three-story rural building that used to be the headquarters of Peach Village Farm, which had been renovated quite well, but now it had been converted into a temporary office for Peach Village Mountain Villa.

  Fan Yi and Zi Yue have been taken out by Zhao Hong to play, while Li Mang has come to the office with Xiao Yangzhou and Ge Xuelin.

  "Mangzi, this is the mountain villa construction drawing. There are also project tables that we have asked people to plan, and finally the latest financial report, take a look." Xiao Yangzhou put three folders in front of Li Mang.

  "Good." Li Mang did not refuse, and took the lead in picking up the design drawings to take a look. He unexpectedly found that this was not only a surface plan, but also included renderings made by artists, and looking at the scenes in the pictures, Li Mang felt very satisfied. This was designed according to his requirements, and even better than he had imagined.

  The overall design is classical, simple and unadorned, with few high-tech elements. In terms of color, it restores the local flavor, I believe that the result will be a place he likes, a leisurely paradise.

  The complete plan of the mountain villa was affirmed by Li Mang, and finally he picked up the financial report. In addition to the tens of millions transferred before, there was also an amount of 350 million inside, which made him curious and asked: "How did that piece of jade stone sell for such a high price?"

  "This is all thanks to Mr. Chen's help. The promotion and operation of the jade stone auction were all done by him. Plus, the jade stone is extremely rare, which is why it was able to be sold for nearly 40 million." Xiao Yangzhou explained that the "Mr. Chen" he mentioned was Chen Hui, Chen Zixuan's father. Li Mang had introduced Chen Hui to Xiao Yangzhou and Ge Xuelin last time he left, considering their lack of experience and connections.

  "Mr. Chen found out that you wanted to build a villa and gave us great support. The design plan of the villa, as well as the engineering team, were all contacted by him. He even wanted to sponsor it for free, but since he didn't get your consent, we didn't dare accept it." Ge Xuelin also said.

  "Oh." Li Meng responded faintly and didn't show much reaction. He seemed to not care about Chen Hui's help, let alone feel grateful.

  Xiao Yangzhou and Ge Xuelin looked at each other in dismay, surprise flickering in their eyes. They were aware of Chen Hui's identity - a wealthy tycoon worth tens or even hundreds of billions, with an extremely high social status. Yet, these past few days, he had been considering the mountain villa at every turn, and they had assumed it was because of his close relationship with Li Meng. But now that they thought about it, Chen Hui's actions were clearly just trying to curry favor!

  This old classmate has become increasingly mysterious in their hearts, but because Li Mang didn't put on any airs in front of them, just like before, they don't feel any pressure.

  Li Meng didn't look at the financial information below and directly asked: "According to this design, is there enough money in the account now?"

  "We don't need to build high-rise buildings, just a series of independent courtyards will do. The funds required are not much, the investment assessment is only around 300 million, and in the end we can still have several hundred million operating funds left over, so there's no need to add more investment for now." Reported by Xiao Yangzhou.

  "Then let's proceed with the current plan, I believe you two can do a good job." Li Mang pushed all the materials in his hand back, a simple action that inadvertently revealed his trust in them, which moved them.

  "Alright, although the boss likes to be a absentee landlord, I still need to report to you on the current progress of the mountain villa construction." Xiao Yangzhou locked the file in the safe and began to brief Li Meng on the current situation of the mountain villa.

  On the other hand, Fan Yi, who had originally been reluctant to go to the countryside, was now surrounded by a large group of peers.

  "Hey, you think there's really a ghost in that lake up ahead?" Fan Yi asked the group of peers beside him, sounding incredulous and skeptical.

  Fan Yige's attitude annoyed the little friends in Taohu Village, and a leading big one said loudly: "Why cheat you! Last month, Xiaolong was almost eaten by the water ghost, and finally it was brought to that great hero uncle who saved him. If you don't believe me, ask Xiaolong."

  "It's true, at that time I felt like I was caught by something and then pulled to the bottom of the water, and then I didn't know anything." Xiaolong replied seriously, although he escaped, every time he thought about it, his young heart still had lingering fears.

  "That uncle is really a hero! All the adults in the village couldn't find Little Dragon, but he found him as soon as he went into the water. He's amazing!"

  "Yes, yes! I heard from my mom that he's still very rich and wants to make our village a beautiful place..."

  Listening to the constant praise of Li Meng, Fan Yi felt annoyed and suddenly interrupted loudly: "He's nothing great, just a small trick, isn't he just a water ghost? If it saw me, your big brother, it would definitely turn around and run!"

  "Shh... don't even think about bragging!"

  "It's true, it's true! If you had seen the water ghost too, you would have been so scared that your pants would be wet!"

  The whispering sound from the side made Fan Yige feel that his dignity was being challenged, and he angrily declared: "I'll go catch it right now and let you all take a look!"

  PS: This is still yesterday's 3500-word chapter.

  (……)