Chapter 86: For This, They Truly Owed Lin Feng Their Thanks

Following Chu Lingshuang’s gaze downward, Gu Zhang’s heart gave a violent lurch.

The next second, outside the room, his assistant rushed in, face tight with panic.

“Sir... the warehouse we have in the outskirts of the capital—our employees have suddenly gone on strike. All of them have stopped working...”

“What!?”

Gu Zhang’s eyes flew wide at once, and he slapped the assistant across the face.

The sharp crack rang out together with his furious roar. “Useless fool! How could they all go on strike? Weren’t things perfectly fine before?!”

“I... I don’t know either!” Clutching his cheek, the assistant nearly cried. “It’s not just the workers—even all the department managers have joined the strike. The factory has completely ground to a halt. The payment deadline for our shipment is the day after tomorrow. Even if we scramble to find replacements now, it’s already too late...”

Listening to the assistant’s tearful report, Gu Zhang’s vision went black. His body shook violently, and he staggered backward.

The assistant reacted quickly and caught him just in time, preventing him from collapsing onto the floor.

One hand pressed to his chest, Gu Zhang stared at Chu Lingshuang with bulging eyes and said in disbelief, “What exactly did you do?!”

“Nothing much.”

Arms folded, Chu Lingshuang looked at him with leisurely calm and smiled. “Only a few little tricks, that’s all. It’s just that—”

At this point her expression changed abruptly, and her voice turned dark and cutting.

“I had thought Master Gu came here to apologize. I never imagined you would come only to accuse me. In that case, don’t blame me for showing no mercy.”

She looked at Gu Zhang with a cold sneer. Under his stunned gaze, she lifted one arm, held it in midair, and gave a light wave.

“Carry Master Gu out. If he has a heart attack here, he’ll only accuse me afterward of not saving him.”

“Yes!”

Zhang Peng and the others obeyed at once and stepped forward.

Several bodyguards seized Gu Zhang and his people and dragged them outside.

Only then, seeing the ruthless look on Chu Lingshuang’s face, did Gu Zhang realize she had not been bluffing.

He gasped heavily, mouth wide open, yet could not force out a single word. Just like that, he was dragged bodily out of the villa by Zhang Peng and the others.

Silence returned to the office.

Chu Lingshuang picked up her phone, typed a message, and sent it to Liu Tianhan.

“Tell them they can proceed with the contracts now.”

Very soon, Liu Tianhan replied: “Understood!”

Setting the phone down, Chu Lingshuang curved her lips in a faint smile. Originally, she truly had not possessed many ways to deal with the Gu family. At most, she had only meant to issue a warning.

But—

she had not expected the condition of a pay raise to work so well.

She had only instructed Liu Tianhan to promise that if those workers agreed to strike, the Chu family would pay them three times their original monthly wages. And once the Chu family had completely devoured the Gu family, veteran employees would be granted the right to purchase company shares.

To her surprise, those people had agreed almost instantly, as if they had gone mad.

This was the first time she had ever used such a method. She had never imagined that workers could wield such enormous power.

For that, she truly had to thank Lin Feng.

If not for him, she would never have thought of starting from the bottom...

She then sent another message to Yu Xueyan.

“Inform the other three great families of all the filthy things the Gu family has done.”

Her meaning was plain enough: so long as they did not interfere, the Chu family would not target them.

Before long, news of the Gu family factory’s mass strike spread throughout the capital’s upper circles, and those at the top all caught the scent of what was coming.

Yet no one moved.

There was no question whose hand lay behind this—it was the Chu family.

For many years, although the Chu family had always been a cut above the rest, it had maintained a harmonious balance with the Four Great Families. Now that such a thing had happened, the other three houses were all somewhat uneasy.

Within half an hour, the heads of the Wei, Wu, and Lin families convened a meeting.

“What exactly is the Chu family trying to do? Has Chu Lingshuang gone mad? She’s only just taken over, and she’s already making a move this big?!”

Before he had even sat down, Wei Chengfeng could not help bellowing.

“Old Wei, look at you—always in such a hurry.” Wu Tianhai smiled and motioned for him to sit. “We haven’t even gotten to the bottom of this yet. What are you panicking for?”

“What am I panicking for? How can I not panic? If she’s making a move against the Gu family now, and we don’t unite, who knows who’ll be next!” Wei Chengfeng could not calm himself; even seated, he looked as though he were sitting on pins and needles.

At the side, Lin De remained quite composed. He took the phone his assistant handed him, glanced over it, and said, “Old Wei, don’t panic. Look for yourself. The Gu family brought this on themselves. The Chu family made it clear—so long as we don’t interfere, it has nothing to do with us.”

“At a time like this, you still believe that girl’s words?”

“Now, now! I think Old Lin has a point. This really is the Gu family’s own doing. Greed enough to swallow an elephant, you might say. As I see it, we may as well take this opportunity to divide up a share for ourselves.”

Wu Tianhai’s eyes narrowed with delight as he smiled.

Wei Chengfeng finally calmed down. After carefully reading the report his assistant had prepared, he was silent for a moment, then his spirits rose.

“There is something to be swallowed here. But that girl’s methods really are ruthless—she’s willing to disregard even her own profit...”

“That’s an odd thing to say. Haven’t we taken enough ourselves?” Lin De added, a rare sharpness in his voice. “Even with wages raised, there’s still plenty of fat left in it. But I’d say this serves as a warning to us as well.”

“A warning about what?” Wei Chengfeng asked.

Lin De proposed, “Let’s all raise employee wages somewhat. We’ve been in this game for so many years—we’re hardly lacking that little bit of money.”

Wu Tianhai nodded in wholehearted agreement. “Old Lin’s right. Better that than letting that girl use the same trick against us in the future.”

“Mhm.” Wei Chengfeng nodded and took out his phone. “Then I’ll have my assistant speak with Ruishi right away...”

The day after Lin Feng handed over his phone and boarded the cruise ship, several explosive economic headlines surged up the trending charts in rapid succession.

The Gu Family Bankrupt

Other Families Move In to Divide the Spoils

Three Companies Announce Wage Increases

Has Your Salary Gone Up Yet?

...

One after another, the trending topics kept coming, and events were still developing. Yet at that very moment, Lin Feng was still inside his cabin on the cruise ship, fast asleep, making up for lost rest.

The financial rankings were in uproar, and the entertainment charts were no quieter.

At ten in the morning, Hell or Heaven began filming in a live-broadcast format. Together with the earlier publicity campaign, the moment it went live, nearly a hundred thousand viewers flooded in.

As the first few guests made their introductions, Lin Feng was also awakened by a burst of knocking at the door.

Still bleary-eyed, he pulled the door open. Outside, Xiao Lü cried out anxiously,

“Brother Lin, how are you still asleep? The guests have already started appearing!”

Lin Feng stretched lazily and answered, “Oh. Then let’s go.”

“Good lord!”

Xiao Lü gave a shout and pushed him straight back into the cabin. “Go change your clothes first! You can’t go on camera in your pajamas, can you?!”

Every one of the guests before him had dressed with painstaking care. How was it that the one he was following happened to be this carefree lord of all people?

Lin Feng came back to himself, looked down at his gray-and-white sleepwear, nodded, shut the door, and began changing.

Meanwhile, on the island, as the final female guest made her entrance, Zheng Bochao smacked the cameraman on the shoulder in excitement.

“Quick! Camera—focus! Lights!”