110: Lin Xia's family

At dusk,

Guangzhou Military Region Compound

The afterglow of the setting sun spilled over the tiled eaves of the red-brick building,

and the silhouettes of two old pines cast long shadows across the bluestone steps.

The guard at the gate stood with a straight back,

his shoulders tensing imperceptibly as his gaze swept over the incoming black sedan.

In the third-floor study,

a white-haired old man stood with one hand behind his back

in front of a mahogany desk.

Several files were neatly arranged on the desk,

the top one featuring a photo of Li Zhan.

The old man was over seventy years old, his body as straight as a pine, with silver-white cropped hair,

and a sharp, commanding presence between his brows.

He wore a dark grey Mao suit,

his fingers tapping on the desk as he looked up at his children standing opposite him.

"My granddaughter found a boyfriend, and you didn't even know?"

His voice was low and cold, his gaze piercing his daughter like a knife,

"He's coming to our door tomorrow, and you call yourself a mother?"

In front of him was a middle-aged woman,

about fifty years old, with a gentle face, gold-rimmed glasses, and a dignified air.

She wore a beige turtleneck sweater and black straight-leg pants,

exuding the steady aura of an intellectual.

Facing her father's questioning,

she lowered her head slightly and said softly,

"Dad,

because of what happened between Son-in-law Jianye and me, Xia Xia has been a bit rebellious since she was a child..."

"No matter how rebellious she is, she's still your daughter!"

The white-haired old man interrupted her with a cold snort,

"How could you hear about something this big from someone else?"

His gaze turned to the silent middle-aged man beside her.

The man was about forty-five, dressed in a sharp suit with a refined face,

but there was a hint of sharpness in his expression, honed by years in officialdom.

"Zhou Wentao, what do you think of this kid?"

The man pushed his glasses up, his tone slightly disdainful,

"A thug from the underworld—how could he be worthy of our Xia Xia?

No matter how much he tries to clean up his act, he's still inherently unpresentable.

Look at his resume;

in just six months, he rose from a nobody to the spokesperson of Chang'an. How clean could his methods be?"

The white-haired old man narrowed his eyes and tapped the documents on the desk,

"Being in the underworld isn't the point; he can just clean up his act later.

Which tycoon's first pot of gold was clean?

Besides, do you think the underworld is that easy to navigate?

Could any random punk unify the Chang'an underworld in six months?

I actually quite admire this kid..."

He snorted coldly, "Weren't your grandfather's origins just as humble back then?

And now you two are putting on airs?"

The man frowned, "Dad, this is different..."

"How is it different?"

The white-haired man slammed the table suddenly,

"Do you think I don't know about the shady dealings that kid from the Liu Family has been up to?

You two are something else;

one idling in a state-owned enterprise, and the other being timid in officialdom,

not even daring to speak up when your own junior is being bullied!"

He stood up, hands behind his back,

walked to the window, looked at the pine trees in the courtyard, and after a moment of silence, said slowly,

"Tomorrow is his first visit; don't give him any attitude."

He turned back, his gaze sharp, "What our Zhou Family has lacked these past few years is exactly that bit of grit!"

"Of course, you don't need to rush to take a side."

He picked up Li Zhan's information and sneered,

"I want to see just how far this kid can go."

"I heard...

he's already clashed with that kid from the Liu Family?"

"Good!

Then let's see

if this kid is a wolf cub or just a paper tiger..."

Before he could finish, there was a soft knock on the study door.

A young officer stood straight at the door, giving a standard military salute,

"Reporting, the documents you requested."

The old man took the sealed file, and the officer immediately turned and left.

The only sound in the room was the rustling of paper.

Zhou Ya and Zhou Wentao exchanged a look,

watching their father's expression shift from serious to an unfathomable depth.

The old man's finger stopped on a certain page,

his fingertip gently stroking the paper as the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

"Xia Xia..."

He spoke suddenly, his voice much softer than before, "You have good luck..."

Zhou Ya looked up in surprise,

only to see that her father had already locked the documents in a drawer.

When the old man turned back to his son, his gaze had returned to its sharp state,

"Since we're going to see what he's capable of, we can't let him suffer too much of a loss..."

He stood up, the creases of his military trousers as sharp as a knife,

"Zhou Wentao...

you'll be responsible for helping him balance things out in the Dongguan official circles."

Walking to the window,

he faced away from his children, his voice low and powerful,

"Dongguan is not yet the Liu Family's private backyard..."

Outside, the pine trees in the twilight swayed gently in the wind.

The hand the old man held behind his back slowly clenched and then relaxed, his thoughtful face reflected in the glass window.

---

Late at night,

the cold wind outside battered the windows,

but the heat in Lin Xia's apartment bedroom had not yet dissipated.

The crumpled sheets hung halfway to the floor, and the quilt had been kicked into a corner long ago.

Li Zhan leaned against the headboard, a cigarette flickering between his fingers,

watching Lin Xia in his arms through the lingering smoke—

she was lying on her side against his chest,

her graceful curves glistening with fine beads of sweat under the dim lamp, with a few faint red marks remaining on the small of her back.

"A-Zhan..."

Lin Xia's fingers gently stroked his chest, her voice carrying the post-coital laziness,

"I should give you a heads-up first, tomorrow..."

She paused,

"My grandfather is a retired Military Region Chief,

my uncle is a vice mayor in the Municipal Government, and my mother is a vice president of a state-owned enterprise...

My dad is... forget it, let's not talk about him."

Li Zhan's body stiffened;

he had guessed that this girl's family background wasn't simple, but he hadn't expected it to be this illustrious.

Lin Xia immediately noticed his reaction,

tilting her face up to nuzzle his chin,

"Don't feel too much pressure...

I've lived in boarding schools since I was a kid, and I'm not close to them..."

"It's just...

their desire for control is too strong, always talking about 'family interests'..."

Li Zhan narrowed his eyes and took a deep drag of his cigarette.

How could she avoid such family ties just because she wanted to?

What Li Zhan wanted now was to leverage their influence, not to become anyone's pawn.

If they pushed too hard...

Heh...

At dinner, he had gone to see Director Li,

who had been preparing for a special crackdown on organized crime in Chang'an since taking office,

and now that the operation was about to begin, he needed Li Zhan's cooperation.

Director Li needed political achievements to consolidate his position,

while Li Zhan needed to use this operation to clear out the various forces' layouts in Chang'an.

The two of them hit it off immediately...

"Do you know what I like most about you?"

Li Zhan suddenly stubbed out his cigarette,

flipping over to pin her beneath him, his fingers entwining with her sweat-dampened hair,

"It's exactly this rebellious streak of yours."

Lin Xia chuckled, her legs naturally wrapping around his waist, "Then tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow, we'll just let things happen as they may."

Li Zhan bit her earlobe, his voice muffled but firm,

"I'm going to celebrate your grandfather's birthday, not to acknowledge my roots..."

His palm slid down her smooth back,

pressing hard on the small of her back, eliciting a soft cry from Lin Xia.

Since he had stepped onto this point of no return in the underworld, he had no intention of looking back,

as for the twists and turns within those high-walled compounds?

They were merely passing scenery.

At worst, I'll go to Southeast Asia or the Americas; the world outside is vast.

In any case, he wasn't going to return to the system.

He'd had enough of it there...

Outside,

the cold wind slammed into the window with a dull thud, the edges of the curtains sucked tight against the glass.

Li Zhan looked at Lin Xia, who was gradually falling asleep in his arms, his gaze turning cold.

If anyone wants to use a golden cage to trap a wild wolf,

they'd better be prepared to be torn apart by sharp teeth.