Zhuang Rui shoved Ouyang Jun, who, somewhat helplessly, led the group inside, directly into a private room with a karaoke machine.
After Xu Qing entered the private room, she took off her hat and glasses, which startled Gu Yun and the others. They didn't expect that the big star they often saw on TV and in movies was actually right next to them. You know, Xu Qing's fame is much greater than Liu Jia's.
However, since they were all in the entertainment industry, Liu Jia had spoken with the big stars before and they quickly became acquainted.
Things in the entertainment industry are very difficult to do without leaving a trace. Almost everyone in the industry knows about the affair between the big star Xu and Young Master Ouyang, so Liu Jia can naturally guess Ouyang Jun's identity.
Seeing the tone of Ouyang Jun and Zhuang Rui's voice, Liu Jia became even more curious about Zhuang Rui and wanted to get some information out of Xu Qing. The two women went to chat on the sofa in the private room.
Gu Yun and Director Li, on the other hand, were somewhat uneasy. Director Li knew that Ouyang Jun had quite a background, while Gu Yun, who ran a company, could also see the subtle arrogance about Ouyang Jun.
"What kind of food does Quanjude have? I just got some Russian caviar from my place. You just don't know how to enjoy life..."
Ouyang Jun was muttering to himself in front of the Quanjude waiter, but the waiter knew that this private room was not open to the public and that the people who came here all had some connections, so he didn't dare to say anything and waited for Ouyang Jun to order.
"For cold dishes, I'd like duck liver, mustard duck feet, braised duck gizzards, and kimchi. For hot dishes, I'd like bird's nest duck gizzards, stir-fried duck heart, stir-fried kale, and butterfly fish fillets, plus two roast ducks. How about some baijiu? Hmm, and bring two bottles of Moutai too..."
Although he was unhappy, Ouyang Jun didn't want to offend Zhuang Rui. After ordering the dishes, he also ordered two bottles of baijiu, as if he were treating Zhuang Rui himself.
Zhuang Rui and Ouyang Jun were both driving back, so they didn't drink. Gu Yun and Director Li were a little reserved in front of Ouyang Jun and the big star. After drinking a bottle of Moutai, they made an excuse and left.
Liu Jia spent a long time trying to get information out of the experienced celebrity Xu, but couldn't get a single word about Zhuang Rui's identity out of him. Not long after Gu Yun and the other person left, Liu Jia also took his leave in a huff.
After Liu Jia left, the big star said to Zhuang Rui, "This woman is too scheming; she's not a good match for you."
"You're quite capable too, otherwise how could you have Ouyang Jun completely under your thumb?"
Zhuang Rui was thinking to himself when his phone rang. Seeing that it was Zhuang Min calling, he stood up and went to the door to answer it.
"Let's pack some duck bone soup for Grandma, she loves it."
Seeing Zhuang Rui finish eating and go out to answer a phone call, Ouyang Jun stood up and asked the waiter to pack up the leftovers.
"What did you say? My brother-in-law was beaten up?"
Zhuang Rui's angry voice came from the doorway.
Chapter 326 Zhen Guanxi
"What happened?"
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Ouyang Jun immediately came over.
Zhuang Rui waved his hand, signaling Ouyang Jun not to speak yet. He hadn't figured out what was going on yet when his older sister called, her voice trembling with tears. She had been talking on and on for a long time, and Zhuang Rui still couldn't make sense of it.
"Sis, don't panic. What happened? Is your husband here? Let him speak."
Zhuang Rui was getting anxious. His brother-in-law was an honest and simple man. Could he have suffered some great loss?
"Xiao Rui, I'm fine, I just got hit on the leg with a stick."
Hearing Zhao Guodong's voice coming from the phone, Zhuang Rui breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Brother-in-law, what exactly happened? Explain it clearly..."
"Someone has their eye on our repair shop..."
Zhao Guodong sighed on the phone and told Zhuang Rui what had happened.
After listening to his brother-in-law's explanation, Zhuang Rui finally understood what had happened. It turned out that after Zhao Guodong started his auto repair shop on the national highway, his fair prices and excellent skills meant that there were almost no cars he couldn't fix. Over time, his business flourished, and drivers who broke down would immediately call his shop to have a tow truck come and get their cars towed.
There were originally several repair shops around the national highway, but they were far inferior to Zhao Guodong's auto repair shop in terms of scale and the skills of the mechanics. At first, they could get some small jobs, but business became more and more difficult. After Zhao Guodong expanded his business, two of them went out of business and sold their cars to others.
Those who went bankrupt and closed down were legitimate businessmen who realized they couldn't compete with Zhao Guodong. But in this world, there are plenty of people who resort to crooked means. Both of the closed auto repair shops were taken over by one person.
The person who took over these two auto repair shops was surnamed Zhang and named Zhang Yufeng. His name sounds delicate and feminine, but he was actually a tough guy with a face full of fierce features. He was quite a prominent figure in Pengcheng.
Zhang Yufeng started out as a factory worker, but due to his volatile temper, he beat up his workshop foreman. Losing what was then considered a secure job, he simply started making his way in the streets. He was a very loyal and righteous man, and he was also good at winning people over. Before long, he had gathered a group of people under his command and became the dominant force in Xiguan. He was nicknamed "Zhen Guanxi" (meaning "Zhen Guanxi").
Most of the thugs in the 1980s were brave and violent, but few thought about making money. Zhang Yufeng, although he had a bad temper, was very smart. He gathered a group of his brothers, pooled some money, and bought a second-hand, almost-scrap car in the late 1980s.
Zhang Yufeng didn't buy the car to show off; he used it to stage accidents. He would drive around the streets whenever he had free time. He was a good driver and often made sudden stops, causing rear-end collisions. Zhang considered himself a reasonable person, so he reasoned, "If you rear-end me, the responsibility is yours." Without a word, he'd pay up. This logic seemed plausible, and even the traffic police couldn't do anything about it.
The compensation wasn't much, but there were just too many cars. Zhang Yufeng specifically targeted company vehicles, but he kept his distance from public security, procuratorate, court, and government vehicles.
Back then, the drivers at the company made a lot of extra money. They could earn a few hundred yuan by borrowing a car for a friend's wedding or something. Zhang Yufeng didn't ask for much, just three, five, or eight hundred yuan. She was in the right, so most drivers just accepted their bad luck. But if they encountered a particularly aggressive one, Zhang Yufeng wouldn't be so ruthless. After the fight, she would still have to pay compensation.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, three or five hundred was not a small amount; many workers did not even earn that much. However, Zhen Guanxi could earn tens of thousands of yuan a day when business was good. This could be considered Zhang's unique way of making money.
By 1993, Zhang Yufeng had amassed a fortune of hundreds of thousands of yuan by staging car accidents. When taxis were just starting to operate, he used the connections he had built up in the public security system over the years to transform his business and open a taxi company, which became very famous in Pengcheng at the time.
His taxi company wasn't famous for its good service, but rather for its fighting. Back then, Pengcheng wasn't very safe, and there were a few thugs in every area. These people never paid for their rides. To paraphrase Xiaobing Zhang Gali Pang's translation, it was like, "I don't even pay for meals in the county town, how dare you charge me for a ride?"
Eating out for free is fine, but the drivers at Zhang Yufeng's company are all former gangsters who used to work with him. None of them have a good temper. If they hear this, a fight is bound to break out. But they can't stand being on someone else's turf, and they often end up getting the short end of the stick.
Later, technology came to the rescue. All those yellow-faced taxis (Tianjin Dafa) were equipped with radios. When they shouted to each other, hundreds of taxis would immediately swarm around them. After several clashes involving wrenches and kitchen knives, Zhang Yufeng's taxi company became famous.
There's an old saying that goes, "People are afraid of becoming famous, just as pigs are afraid of getting fat; if you walk by the river long enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet." In a fight over fare, two people died. Coincidentally, Zhang Yufeng was leading the fight, so he couldn't escape the consequences and was imprisoned for eight years.
With the boss in jail, the rest of the gang naturally scattered like leaves in the wind. The huge taxi company was sold off, and the former tyrant of Pengcheng became history.
Zhang Yufeng was released from prison two years ago. Since he had made a lot of money before going to jail, he didn't want to do anything for the time being, especially since the taxi industry was so competitive. However, the barriers to entry were very high, so he stayed at home and behaved himself for two years. But some of his former buddies were not doing well, so they encouraged him to make a comeback and start a business.
Zhang Yufeng's business history was limited to staging accidents while driving and working for taxi companies. But since there are insurance companies for car accidents, who would still pay for his services? These two things were clearly no longer suitable for today's society, so he set his sights on auto repair shops. In his early years, he had dealt with auto repair shops quite a bit.
Hearing that two auto repair shops were for sale, Zhang Yufeng took them over. Originally, he wanted to run a proper business. But after taking over the shops, he found that there was no business. He could only repair one car every three to five days. This made him anxious. You see, the money he used to take over these two shops was his retirement savings.
After making some inquiries, it turned out that all the business had been taken over by a car repair shop run by a young man surnamed Zhao. The business was so good that it made people envious, and Mr. Zhao was no exception. So he went to Zhao Guodong's shop to discuss cooperation, with his two car repair shops as shares, taking 80 percent of the shares in Zhao Guodong's car repair shop.
Zhao Guodong naturally refused. The auto repair shop had been invested in for over a million yuan, and now it was earning seven or eight hundred thousand yuan a month, with a net profit of over five hundred thousand yuan. Zhang Yufeng's two shops combined weren't even worth a million yuan, yet she was asking for 80% of the shares. This was practically robbery. Besides, Zhuang Rui was the real boss of the auto repair shop.
The negotiations naturally ended unhappily. Zhao Guodong didn't care and continued with his business as usual. His car interior decoration business had been doing well lately, and he gradually shifted his focus to it. Within a few days, he had forgotten all about the matter that Zhang Yufeng had brought him.
As the business grew, people became busier. At noon today, Zhao Guodong went to a dinner party and drank some alcohol. He went to the restroom, but as soon as he came out, he was hit on the head with a stick. Before he could even see who it was, he was hit on the knee with another stick and was knocked to the ground.
Fortunately, the person who hit him didn't dare to kill him. The blow to his head wasn't too severe, but the blow to his knee broke the bone, leaving Zhao Guodong unable to walk. When the people eating with him heard Zhao Guodong's cries, they quickly took him to the hospital and notified Zhuang Min.
Zhuang Min, a woman with few social connections in Pengcheng, immediately burst into tears upon seeing her husband's head wrapped up like a rice dumpling, which led to the phone call Zhuang Rui was receiving.
"Brother-in-law, are you sure Zhang Yufeng did this?"
Zhuang Rui had calmed down by now. What's done is done, and there's no use being anxious. He could only sort things out and get back as soon as possible.
"I don't know. It's been three or four days since he asked me to partner with him. I don't know if it was him or not, but I haven't offended anyone else besides him..."
Although the blow to Zhao Guodong's head wasn't heavy, it made him feel a little dizzy. He thought for a long time but couldn't think of anyone else besides that bully Zhen Guanxi.
Zhuang Rui knew that Zhao Guodong was a kind-hearted man who would never offend anyone easily. After thinking for a moment, he said, "How about this, brother-in-law, don't go to the auto repair shop yet. I'll head back today. Since that person plotted against you, he'll definitely show his face. Let's talk about it when I get to Pengcheng."
After hanging up, Zhuang Rui immediately called Liu Chuan again, asking him to bring a few Tibetan mastiffs to the auto repair shop that afternoon to keep an eye on things and prevent anyone from causing trouble. Liu Chuan didn't know about this and got furious when he heard it, shouting that he wanted to go find Zhang Yufeng. Zhuang Rui stopped him on the phone, saying that these days, many things don't need to be done with violence.
"Fourth Brother, I'll go back to Yuquan Mountain right now and tell Mom about what happened between you two. Oh, and don't tell Mom about my brother-in-law getting beaten up..."
Zhuang Rui briefly explained the situation to Ouyang Jun, gave him some instructions, and then prepared to go to Yuquan Mountain to pick up Bai Shi. If he went back to Beijing this time, it would be at least a month later.
"Xiaomin's husband, that must be my brother-in-law, right? I've never been to Pengcheng before, so I'll go with you."
To Zhuang Rui's surprise, Ouyang Jun actually wanted to go back with him.
Chapter 327 Visiting the Sick
"Fourth Brother, it's nothing. You don't need to go. After I've told Mom about your situation, you can wait in Beijing to prepare for your wedding..."
Zhuang Rui thought for a moment and decided not to let Ouyang Jun go with them. This matter shouldn't be a big deal. He's just a washed-up old hoodlum. Finding Liu Chuan's father and dealing with Zhang Yufeng will be a piece of cake.
Another reason is that Zhuang Rui doesn't want to rely on his maternal grandfather's influence, which feels like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. He also doesn't know Ouyang Jun's character and doesn't want to blow a small matter out of proportion.
To everyone's surprise, Zhuang Rui's words only enraged Ouyang Jun, who glared at him and said, "Nonsense! Isn't your brother-in-law my sister's husband? What, I've never been married before? Why would I be eager to get married?"
"You've never been married before, huh? Hey, why are you glaring at me like that?!"
After saying this, Ouyang Jun sensed something was wrong. He noticed the big star next to him had an unfriendly expression and glared back at him. What business is it of a woman to interfere when men are talking?
Actually, Ouyang Jun's trip to Pengcheng was also partly to avoid his father. He figured that after his aunt told his father about it, even if his father agreed, he would still scold him severely. It was better to leave and lay low for a while, and come back later when his father's anger subsided.
Zhuang Rui was somewhat helpless against Ouyang Jun, so he figured, "Fine, if he wants to go, let him go."
Xu Qing drove Ouyang Jun's car away. Zhuang Rui took Ouyang Jun straight to Yuquan Mountain. After finding his mother, he told her about Ouyang Jun's situation. Sure enough, Ouyang Wan immediately agreed upon hearing this, which put Ouyang Jun at ease.
Zhuang Rui then told his mother that he was going back to Pengcheng. Ouyang Wan didn't think much of it. After all, this wasn't her home, and it was normal for her son to want to go back. She just told Zhuang Rui to drive carefully.
After picking up the white lion, Zhuang Rui drove out of Beijing. He was a steady person, and even though he was anxious, he drove at a leisurely pace. They arrived in Pengcheng around 11 PM. Ouyang Jun, however, had never driven such a long distance before. He had initially tried to talk to Zhuang Rui, but was now fast asleep in the back seat. ...
"Fourth Brother, get up, we've arrived."
Zhuang Rui drove the car directly to the parking lot of the First People's Hospital. After parking, he turned around and patted the sleeping Ouyang Jun.
"Huh? We're here?"
Ouyang Jun sat up groggily, took out a bottle of mineral water to wash his face, combed his hair in front of the rearview mirror, and then leisurely got out of the car.
"What smells so awful?"
As soon as Ouyang Jun got out of the car, he smelled a strong odor of bleach. He looked around and realized he was in a hospital. He looked at Zhuang Rui and asked, "Didn't you say you got hit in the leg? Why are you hospitalized? Is it serious?"
"He also got hit on the head; it would be better for him to be hospitalized for observation."
Zhuang Rui left the white lion in the car and led Ouyang Jun into the inpatient department.
"Hey, you two, stop right there."
Just as Zhuang Rui stepped out of the elevator on the eighth floor and was about to go to his ward, a nurse called out to him.
"We've come to see the patient..."
Zhuang Rui offered an explanation.
"How novel! People who come here are either seeking medical treatment or just visiting others. What else could they be here for? Visiting hours are over now. Please come tomorrow if you wish."
The nurse seemed to have just been dumped by her boyfriend or had a hormonal imbalance, as her tone was a bit harsh. Zhuang Rui didn't think much of it; that's how people from Pengcheng talk—they speak so loudly it sounds like they're arguing. However, Ouyang Jun couldn't stand it and immediately frowned.
"How dare you speak like that? Call your dean out here..."
Every year, Ouyang Jun would accompany his grandfather to the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, also known as the 301 Hospital, for a check-up. Not to mention the nurses, even the hospital directors with the ranks of senior colonel and major general treated him with great respect. Now, being humiliated by a young girl, he was naturally unhappy and blurted out that he wanted to see a leader.
To be honest, although Ouyang Jun often joked around with Zhuang Rui, everyone in the circle in Beijing wears several masks. When he straightened his face, he actually exuded an air of authority, which immediately intimidated the young nurse.
"The...the hospital director isn't here. Which ward do you want to see?"
Although anyone visiting a hospital can be called a patient, their status varies. The nurse wasn't sure about the Mandarin speaker's identity and didn't dare offend anyone. Besides, there are so many medical schools these days, and countless doctors and nurses graduate each year without jobs. What if she offended someone she couldn't afford to mess with? What would she do if she lost her job?
"Ward 812, the patient who was admitted at noon."