Siheyuan: Starting from the driver

Chapter 744 Calm on the surface? Undercurrents are surging!
Li Kailang was completely unaware of Li Huaide's actions.

However, he wasn't afraid. No matter how hard Li Huaide searched, he wouldn't be able to find that master.

The days that followed were agonizing for Li Huaide, every single moment a torment.

On the contrary, Li Kailang was completely calm.

The people arranged by Pei Xin were watching him almost 24 hours a day, but he was focused on studying and hardly went anywhere, which kept them on edge.

Li Kailang remained inactive, and they offered no feedback, which increased the pressure on them from above.

Wen Peixin came to report almost every day, but without exception, the news he brought was disappointing.

"Factory manager, the report from the surveillance team is that Li Kailang has been living a very quiet life these past few days, going between the factory, the courtyard house, and the night school. He occasionally goes to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some daily necessities. He hasn't gone to any remote places, and he doesn't go out at night."

"We've investigated everyone around Li Kailang; they're all honest, simple workers, and none of them know anything about herbs."
"Those who went to the countryside did find out about a few old doctors and barefoot doctors who had died. Two of them matched the timeline, but the places were both very far from the city."

"Li Kailang had never dealt with them before, and they weren't familiar with each other. When they were alive, they only treated minor ailments like headaches and fevers; they couldn't even concoct rat poison, so they didn't seem to have any secret recipes at all."

Each time Li Huaide heard such a report, his face grew darker.

Wen Peixin intensified his efforts and sent people to search Li Kailang's office again.

Finally, when Wen Peixin's men carefully found a bottle deep inside the bookshelf and poured out a pill, about the size of a fingernail and coated with wax, their hearts pounded with excitement.

He was overjoyed and didn't dare to open it immediately. Instead, he quickly left and delivered it to Wen Peixin as soon as possible.

"Good, very good, you did a great job!" Wen Peixin laughed heartily upon seeing this, and his mood immediately relaxed.

"Hey hey~" His subordinates were also very happy to see this.

Wen Peixin waved to signal him to leave, then immediately took the bottle and went to find Li Huaide.

"Okay, bring it here right away!"

Wen Peixin immediately handed the medicine bottle to Li Huaide.

Without saying a word, Li Huaide immediately poured it out, then grabbed the pill, carefully pried off the outer shell, revealing the paper inside.

He immediately moved closer to the desk lamp, staring intently at every word and symbol on it.

"what?!"

Upon seeing the welding material parameters and formula written on the note, Li Huaide's face darkened.

Those aren't mysterious pharmaceutical parameters! Those are fucking welding parameters from the production line!
"Damn it!" Li Kailang slammed his fist on the table, a rare occurrence for him!

He suddenly grabbed the copied "prescription" from the table and tore it apart with all his might!
"Fake! Fake! It's all fake!!! Li Kailang! Hello! You're so nice!!!"

Li Kailang actually manipulated him, the deputy director of the prestigious Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill, like a puppet!
How many resources did he use for this piece of paper?
The result was this piece of junk.

Li Kailang had guessed what he was doing and deliberately set a trap for him, but he didn't expect to actually fall into it.

"Peixin!"

Li Huaide immediately turned and glared at Wen Peixin. If Wen hadn't failed to investigate himself, he wouldn't have been so humiliated.

"I...I...Factory Manager, I have a problem. I'm incompetent! I've let you down!" Wen Peixin immediately apologized.

He hadn't expected Li Kailang to pull this trick; it was also due to his carelessness—he hadn't looked carefully before hastily giving it to Li Huaide.

Li Huaide looked at Wen Peixin. After all, he was his trusted secretary who had followed him for so many years. Naturally, he couldn't treat him the same way he treated Xu Damao.

He took a deep breath and waved his hand sharply: "Alright, call everyone back. There's no need to investigate Li Kailang anymore."

"Huh? Ah!" Wen Peixin was stunned. Had he been tricked? Shouldn't he have gotten his money back?

"What do you mean 'huh'? Everyone already knows what you did. What's the point of investigating further? It's just asking for humiliation!" Li Huaide shouted.

After going through so much trouble to get this piece of junk, it's obvious they've been tricked into a trap.

"Alright, go get back to work!"

"Yes." Wen Peixin scrambled out, carefully closing the door behind him, his back damp and cold.

His brush with death had left him still shaken.

In the office, only Li Huaide's heavy, suppressed breathing could be heard.

Pulling open the bottom drawer, I carefully took out the small medicine bottle.

Unscrew the bottle stopper, and there lay only three pills left inside.

"Oh well, if it's gone, it's gone. I'll just not eat it!"

Li Huaide is a man who can endure what ordinary people cannot, and he will never be controlled by others. As for other medicines, even if they are less effective, as long as they work, that's fine.

After Wen Peixin went out, he looked at his subordinates who were waiting expectantly outside, eager to claim credit.

When the subordinate saw the secretary's ashen face, all the words of praise he wanted to say stuck in his throat.

"Secretary Wenwen, what did the factory manager say?" But she still smiled and leaned closer, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

"What do you mean? Ha!"

Looking at the face that seemed to be begging for praise, Wen Peixin recalled how his heart had almost stopped beating, and a surge of old and new grudges welled up in his heart.

He suddenly raised his hand and delivered a crisp, loud slap across the face!
"Snapped!"

His subordinate covered his face, completely stunned by the slap.

"Useless!" Wen Peixin pointed at his nose, spitting everywhere.

"I told you to find the prescription! To find the treasure! You fucking brought back that garbage parameter sheet from the welding workshop like it was a holy decree?! You made me lose face in front of the factory manager!"

"Are you brain-dead?! Just because that thing is wrapped in wax doesn't mean it's medicine! Couldn't you break it open and check first?!"

"Secretary Wenwen, that...that bottle was hidden really well. From the outside, it really looked like the real thing," the beaten subordinate said in a low, aggrieved voice.

"Shut up! How dare you talk back!" Wen Peixin was so angry that he trembled all over and kicked him again.

"Like you, my foot! That kid Li Kailang clearly dug a pit for us to fall into! And you guys, you just jumped right in, dragging me down with you!"

His subordinates were verbally abused and fled in terror.

Watching his men flee in disarray, he finally managed to vent a small portion of the anger in his heart.

But he had completely lost face at the factory. He straightened his askew collar and spat angrily:
"Damn it, Li Kailang, I'll remember this!"

The days that followed seemed to truly "calm down".

As Li Huaide said, removing all those who were monitoring Li Kailang would only be a disgrace to send them back.

He resumed his daily work routine, approving documents and holding meetings, and remained the same authoritative deputy factory director.

But the humiliation of that bottle of "welding material formula" was like a poisoned embroidery needle, deeply embedded in his heart.

Every time he reviews a technical report, his eye muscles twitch uncontrollably whenever he sees words like "welding" or "parameters".

But when I'm sleepless in the dead of night, I still can't help but think of Qianjinfang.

Li Huaide was very sincere in saying he wouldn't eat it. "Hmph, so you'll eat hairy pork just because you're away from Butcher Zhang?"
"There are plenty of good medicines on the market!"

However, in secret, he still had Wen Peixin secretly go outside and buy several kinds of pills that were said to "refresh the mind", "strengthen muscles and bones" and were "secret palace recipes".

Having received the imperial edict, Wen Peixin dared not be negligent.

Although I kept thinking to myself, "Can you really trust anything from the black market? Wouldn't the good stuff be under government control by now?"

But in order to salvage his image, he gritted his teeth and mobilized the "network of contacts" he had accumulated on the streets.

Before long, they carefully carried back several oil paper packages or small porcelain bottles.

Printed on it are colorful and serious-sounding traditional Chinese characters: "Qiankun Dali Wan", "Shiquan Tishen Dan", and "Yupin Jiansui Gao".
Wen Peixin fawned over the factory director, making him try each of the dishes as if they were precious treasures.

结果
Not long after he swallowed a "Qiankun Dali Pill"...

Li Huaide felt a burning sensation rise up his throat, and then he couldn't stop hiccuping.

"Uh! Uh! Uh—!" The long, loud sound echoed in the quiet factory manager's office.

Just then, the head of the logistics department came in to report on his work. Li Huaide suppressed the urge to slap Wen Peixin to death while trying his best to maintain a dignified image.

He tried to speak, but a series of loud hiccups left him red-faced and unable to speak coherently.

The report ended abruptly amidst an extremely eerie atmosphere and a continuous series of "uh-uh" sounds.

The section chief hurriedly left, his head full of questions and his belly full of suppressed laughter.

Deputy Factory Director Li, his authority completely shattered, could only vent his anger on the instigator: "Wen! Pei! Xin! You piece of trash! You want me to be the factory's lackey?! Get out!"

Another type of "perfect energy booster" has the exact opposite effect.

After eating it, I stopped burping, but I felt like I was on steroids, excited from the afternoon until late at night, full of inexhaustible energy.

I thought it would be very effective and useful, but before he could actually do anything about it...

The next day I felt drowsy and kept yawning during the meeting. My eyes were unfocused and I looked at everyone as if I was dozing off.

There is also an extremely expensive "Imperial Marrow Strengthening Cream" with very weak and unpredictable effects.

I applied it, and it feels cool and refreshing, which seems to be a bit invigorating? But then again, maybe not.

Did I eat it? It was soft, sticky, and had a strange smell. I felt energetic for about fifteen minutes after eating it, but then I was still sleepy. It didn't stop me from staring at the ceiling and counting stars in the middle of the night.

After several attempts, Li Huaide looked at himself in the mirror and saw that he was getting thinner and thinner.

Enraged, he gave Wen Peixin another dressing down, "You only bring in useless trash! Can't you be of any use at all? Don't bring me this garbage again!"

Wen Peixin had no words to express his grievances: "Factory director, this was obtained through a lot of connections, and I didn't expect the results to be so poor."

Looking at the trembling Wen Peixin, Li Huaide didn't bother to say anything to him. He had seen everything Wen Peixin had done these past few days.

"okay!"

After several days of turmoil, Li Huaide was torn between his inner thoughts and his external forces.

Eat? Isn't that admitting defeat to that kid Li Kailang? Does it mean I can't live without him?

Not eating? This guy's energy is really going to give up! So many girls are going to give up?

He was torn, extremely torn! For the first time, Li Huaide experienced the agony of being tormented by a single "pill".

But to make him back down? That's impossible.

He now hates Li Kailang, hates him to the core, and there's a vague, inexplicable feeling about it.
Thinking about it? Of course, mainly thinking about that damn magical effect!
Even though deep down he still believes that the effect mainly comes from the "self-psychological suggestion".

"You'll get used to it, you'll get used to it!" Li Huaide said resolutely.

Wen Peixin returned home with a heavy heart.

Ever since he was verbally abused by Li Huaide and then silently mocked by Li Kailang, he had been harboring a pent-up anger with nowhere to vent it.

In addition, helping the factory manager buy alternative medicines was a thankless task, which made him even more depressed.

While fretting over the various "miracle cures" he had bought from the black market, each with different effects, he suddenly noticed a package on the corner of the table.

Upon opening it, I found it was "special rat poison" that the person who had gone to the countryside to investigate had obtained from the old doctor.

It's said that "mice that eat this will fall ill in three steps, guaranteeing the elimination of rats, and it can also cure diarrhea."
Wen Peixin casually tossed it aside, not taking it seriously at all.

But today I'm in a bad mood. Looking at this powder packaged in brown paper, and smelling that strange, bitter medicinal odor, and then thinking about Li Kailang's damn little pills...
An extremely absurd, even somewhat ridiculous, thought popped into my head: "Damn it! It's just the effect of the drug, right? Maybe this rat poison is a stimulant."

Of course, he had absolutely no suicidal tendencies.

"Let's try using this rat poison to wake up! Maybe if it really works, wouldn't it be similar to Li Kailang's medicine?" Bai Xiuwen thought wildly, his mind wandering.

With an absurd experimental spirit, he carefully picked up a tiny bit of powder with his fingernail, about the size of a grain of rice.

Still not entirely reassured, he scraped off another half before finally nodding.

Pour it into a kettle, stir it, and watch the powder dissolve.

"Huh~"

Wen Peixin took a deep breath, poured out a small cup, and drank it all in one gulp!

10 minute later.

Wen Peixin's expression suddenly changed!
"Ouch~" My stomach churned instantly, like a thousand horses galloping!

He clutched his stomach and sprinted towards the toilet at top speed!

Wen Peixin spent almost the entire night in a public toilet.

The puddles were so powerful that the sky darkened and the sun and moon lost their light.

The next day at work, his legs felt weak, his eyes were sunken, his face was sallow, and he was unsteady on his feet.

Seeing his appearance, Li Huaide assumed he had been working too hard searching for medicine for him all night and felt sorry for him, saying, "Peixin, you've worked hard. Take care of yourself and don't overwork yourself."

Looking at the factory director's "concerned" eyes, feeling the weakness of his body being completely drained, and recalling his incredibly stupid experiment from yesterday, Wen Peixin felt like crying.

He could only manage a smile that looked more like a grimace: "It's no trouble at all to share the factory manager's burdens."

My heart was bleeding and screaming: What the hell is going on?! What was I thinking yesterday, eating rat poison?!

But since I've already eaten, and now I'm even receiving care from Li Huaide, it's not like I ate for nothing.

"You should still be careful, young man, you have a long road ahead of you."

At this moment, Li Huaide also felt a sense of shared misfortune.

He's been suffering terribly these past few days, and he's completely drained of energy.

Fortunately, we made it through.

Li Kailang, the source of the whole affair, was completely unaware of the situation and had no idea that the two of them had gone to such lengths to find a replacement.

(End of this chapter)