If The Persona Is Wrong, Everything Else Is In Vain - Chapter 27

“Lin Er-mao?” Lin Luo blurted out, before walking right into the center of where the two opposing sides were facing off.

Lin Er-mao froze for a moment, then cast a casual glance at him and ignored him. Looking back at the director, he continued to act like a rogue, “I already said I don’t understand all that twisted, roundabout talk of yours. If you’ve got the guts, go fetch the village chief.”

“Otherwise, either compensate us or return the exact same item. Take your pick,” he muttered, lifting his chin, looking every bit the foolish thug he was.

Lin Luo took a closer look at the crowd backing him up from behind, they were all young guys from the village’s stay behind crew.

The younger ones looked like middle schoolers, and the older ones probably weren’t even adults yet. Their skin wasn’t even fully seasoned, yet they were already copying others by acting like punks.

Shuihe Village couldn’t retain its young people; most chose to leave and work in the cities.

And among those who stayed behind, they were split into two groups.

One group repeated the lives of their elders, becoming the “village guardians” who protected Shuihe generation after generation.

The other group consisted of those whose elderly family members couldn’t control. Most had dropped out of school early, they didn’t go out to work, nor did they help around the house. They just loitered on the streets from morning till night, occasionally doing things they thought were “cool” at that age.

They followed and mingled with the thug leader, Lin Er-mao, replicating his dead end, rascal lifestyle.

Their young lives were wasted away in meaningless days that even brought harm to others.

Lin Luo frowned slightly, suddenly recalling Zhao Wenying’s stubborn persistence in his mind.

The director whispered a few words to a crew member beside him. The person nodded, glanced at the only exit stairway which was “heavily guarded,” gritted his teeth, steeled his heart, and started trembling his way over there.

No one stopped him along the way, but every single eye was fixed on him. They even opened up a path for him, laughing maliciously all around him.

Seeing their arrogant demeanor, Lin Luo knew that calling the village chief would likely be useless.

Ming Songqin stepped forward ahead of Lin Luo, stopping the crew member who had been sent by the director to call the chief. He stood firmly in front of the crowd, scanning the youths behind Lin Er-mao one by one, before finally letting his gaze settle on Lin Er-mao himself.

He possessed a natural physical advantage, just standing there, he exuded an aura of authority without even being angry.

Especially when facing this group of kids who hadn’t even grown their feathers yet but were trying to play thug, Ming Songqin, an old fox, was more than enough to intimidate them.

When the people behind Lin Er-mao glared back at him, they couldn’t help but shiver. Their palms broke out in sweat, and the tools in their hands started slipping, forcing them to grip them tightly again.

Ming Songqin spoke up, “Whatever happened, talk to me.”

Lin Er-mao had seen the most of the world among this crowd, so he wasn’t completely suppressed by Ming Songqin’s aura.

He pulled down the corners of his mouth, refused to look at him squarely, blew at some dirt under his fingernails that hadn’t been flicked away, and said disdainfully, “Talk to you? Are you their boss?”

He pointed at the program crew members one by one and said, “You outsiders couldn’t sleep at night and had nothing better to do than go up the mountain. After you came back, something from our ancestral hall went missing. If it wasn’t you, who else could it be?”

“If you can’t produce the item, hand over the money,” he pointed right at Ming Songqin’s nose and said, “If you don’t give us an explanation today, don’t even think about getting a peaceful night’s sleep.”

He was just like an NPC, only capable of speaking the lines programmed into his script, unable to say half a sentence more. He merely repeated the words of “debt collection” all over again, without clarifying the cause and effect at all, not even explaining what exactly was lost.

A total waste of a minute of life.

Ming Songqin frowned slightly, turned his head, and asked the director in a low voice, “What did they lose?”

The director pondered for a moment, not knowing how to explain such a dramatic and absurd situation, and whispered, “…An apple.”

“An apple?” Lin Luo and Ming Songqin said in unison, exchanging a glance.

Lin Luo cleared his throat and said, “Can’t we just give them an apple and be done with it?”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Ming Songqin said.

As soon as he finished speaking, the director’s words confirmed his suspicion. The director said, “They want us to return an identical apple, otherwise…”

“Otherwise, pay up.”

This time, neither of them rushed to interrupt him, waiting patiently for him to finish.

The director held up his hand and slowly gestured a five, “They want five hundred thousand yuan.”

Lin Luo exchanged another look with Ming Songqin, understanding immediately that Lin Er-mao was back to his old tricks of staging scams.

A dozen years ago, Lin Er-mao was a notoriously lazy bum in the village, spending his days lounging at home doing nothing, waiting for financial relief from his older brother.

Although it was “morally corrupt,” at least back then he hadn’t actually ruined anyone else’s life. A few years later, his brother was paralyzed in a car accident, and the perpetrator paid a massive sum of compensation. That scoundrel found a “business opportunity” in it.

He changed his habit from lounging at home all day to lounging on the main road. Of course, he wasn’t that stupid, he didn’t actually want to get hit into becoming a cripple or lose his life directly. After waiting for over half a month, he finally caught an opportunity. A Mercedes Benz sped past, and coincidentally, it just grazed the hem of his clothes.

What kind of person was Lin Er-mao? Give him two chicken feathers and he’d dare to pretend to be the Monkey King. When that driver got out of the car, he was scared out of his wits, he had just gotten his driver’s license and just picked up his brand-new car, almost becoming a killer with a crashed vehicle. Under Lin Er-mao’s manipulation, he didn’t call the police and settled privately right away.

But unexpectedly, Lin Er-mao kept a trick up his sleeve. Afterward, he went to the police anyway and framed the driver for a hit and run, nearly bankrupting the poor guy.

He had simply benefited from the “bonus” of surveillance cameras not being widespread back then.

After tasting sweetness that time, Lin Er-mao pulled off a few more scams until he was finally caught red-handed and spent a few years behind bars.

When he came out, he squandered money heavily in casinos, blowing all his own money along with his brother’s compensation funds until nothing was left. His brother was so enraged that he died on the spot. Lin Er-mao, due to illegal gambling, debt, and other offenses, went right back inside to do another stretch.

Upon his release, it just so happened that something went wrong with the village chief’s family. No one knew what kind of method Lin E-rmao came up with, but the night before the mansion collapsed, he saved the day.

To this day, nobody knew exactly what kind of trouble the village chief had run into. They only knew that if it weren’t for Lin Er-mao, his daughter would probably have been taken away by the ABO Association.

Because of this, Lin Er-mao went from being an ex-convict to a favorite in front of the village chief. While he wasn’t allowed to meddle in ordinary major affairs, he skimmed plenty of profit from peripheral matters.

This was also the reason why Lin Luo, putting aside moral character, had still sought his help to let Lin Shen return to his roots.

After so many years, Lin Er-mao could be considered to have suffered quite a bit in prison. After being registered with the village chief, he no longer dared to do anything confrontational on the surface.

To dare to be so flagrantly reckless this time, there must be a “mastermind” pointing him from behind.

“What’s the matter? Have you guys been whispering over there for ages and come up with a result or not?” Lin Er-mao asked impatiently.

“We indeed didn’t take the apple, and we cannot produce an identical one,” Ming Songqin said.

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Er-mao waved his hand, and the crowd behind him raised their weapons, preparing to move forward.

Ming Songqin raised his hand to halt their actions and said, “However, in order not to ruin everyone’s harmony, I can pay this money.”

Hearing this, Lin Luo instinctively grabbed his arm and pressed his voice down, “Are you crazy?”

Ming Songqin patted his hand and shook his head slightly.

Lin Er-mao stood up, stretched his limbs, smiled maliciously, and extended his hand, “Then shell out the cash.”

He thought about it and added, “I only accept cash.”

Ming Songqin gave a light snort, the disgust in his eyes almost impossible to suppress, “Cash? Where do you expect me to find that much cash for you in the middle of the night?”

Lin Er-mao narrowed his eyes and said, “Are you playing with me?”

“Then what should we do?” Turning around, he smacked his lips in mock regret, “What a real pity.”

With that, the people behind him swarmed forward under his command, instantly surrounding the program crew.

That stance was not at all about demanding money or solving a problem, it was highly likely that their gang’s original purpose was to wreck the place.

“F*ck, they have a lot of people but we have many too. I don’t believe we can be pushed around by a bunch of petty thugs,” a young guy from the crew spat out, grabbing a tripod, ready to fight back.

Splash!

A basin of hot water came crashing down from the second floor, landing squarely on Lin Er-mao’s gang.

The group wiped their faces and looked up stupidly at the upper floor.

Gu Ning leaned his elbow halfway on the railing, smiling without any real warmth as he greeted the people below, an empty basin still half-raised in his hand, “What is everyone doing? It’s the middle of the night, aren’t you going to let people sleep?”

Ming Songqin released his hand which had been shielding Lin Luo’s head. Some water had splashed onto the hem of his clothes, “Are you okay?”

Lin Luo had been covered tightly from head to toe by him and was completely unharmed.

The crew members were still stunned in place, but those who snapped out of it gave Gu Ning a massive thumbs-up.

Gu Ning glanced at the two of them, pointed at Lin Er-mao who was jumping around like a drowned dog, and curled his finger at him, “You, come up here and talk to me if you’ve got business.”

Lin Ermao cursed loudly. Even if Gu Ning hadn’t called out like that, he would have chased him up to teach him a lesson.

That call, which sounded exactly like summoning a dog, made the fire in his heart flare up instantly.

He pointed at Gu Ning from afar, “You just wait.”

Saying that, he picked up a sturdy stick from the ground and lifted his foot to leave, but was stopped by Ming Songqin. Ming Songqin glanced at the arrogant Gu Ning, took out his phone, and made a call.

He said to Lin Ermao, “The money will arrive in twenty minutes.”

Lin Ermao held up two fingers to form a cross, “Add another hundred thousand, or else this matter won’t end.”

Without even blinking an eye, Ming Songqin readily agreed.

Fifteen minutes later, Ming Zheng walked over carrying a black briefcase, the “clack-clack” sound of her stiletto heels audible from afar.

With one hand she placed the briefcase on the table, and with the other, she pushed forward the village chief, who was still wearing his pajamas.

With a cold expression, her frigid eyes swept over Lin Er-mao, “Talk to him first,” she pointed at the village chief, “or talk to them first.” She then looked toward the police car down the steps, its red and blue lights flashing alternately.

Lin Er-mao glanced down, feeling a tremor of fear in his heart. Forcing himself to stay calm, he said, “What do you mean by this?”

“They’re here to arrest you, obviously,” Gu Ning leaned against the guardrail, resting his chin on both hands, adopting a posture of watching a good show.

“You guys!” Lin Er-mao pointed at everyone one by one, unable to utter a word for a long time.

The gang of thugs behind him panicked the moment they saw the police car. Scared out of their wits, they dropped the things in their hands and shrank nervously behind Lin Er-mao, not daring to utter another peep.

Ming Songqin smoothed his clothes and stood up. He glanced at the flustered village chief who was looking around anxiously, placed a hand on the chief’s shoulder, smiled at him, and said to Lin Er-mao, “Weren’t you looking for the village chief? Now that the chief is here, why don’t you two talk first?”

“Or would you rather catch up with the police too?” The trailing edge of his voice lifted slightly, carrying a lethal pressure.

Ming Zheng tilted her chin toward Ming Songqin and gathered the briefcase, “Since he wasn’t destined to have this money, I’ll reluctantly count it toward my own bonus for now.”

“You will regret this!” Lin Er-mao had already become like a dying snake cornered inside a wall, yet he still refused to soften his mouth and say a submissive word.

His face contorted as he yelled, “Do you think it’s over just by locking me up?”

He laughed grotesquely, “If it weren’t for… mmph, mmph…”

Before he could finish his words, his mouth was covered by the village chief beside him.

The chief forced a smile and said to Ming Songqin, “Since this matter happened in our village, I will definitely give everyone an explanation. President Ming, how about you leave this matter to me to handle? There’s no need to make such a grand scene…”

He glanced at the police car below and continued, “It’s just a small matter, there’s no need to trouble the police comrades to get involved. It would be using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”

Ming Songqin pointed at the disheveled program crew staff, whose faces still burned with lingering anger, and said, “You call this a small matter? Well, I don’t think so. When you are sitting at home and disaster falls from the sky, will you still think it’s a small matter?”

“To put it bluntly, until the whip lashes your own skin, you don’t know the pain.”

“This, this, this… then what do you want…” The village chief wiped away sweat in anxiety, glared fiercely at Lin Er-mao several times, and then turned his attention to Lin Luo nearby.

“Little Lin, you are the most sensible one. Look, this was originally a sm…” He quietly caught Ming Songqin’s glance and changed his phrasing, “…a matter that could have been easily resolved. Look at the mess this has created.”

He pulled Lin Luo to the side and said in a low voice, “If you help me smooth this over, I promise to let your father be moved back.”

Lin Luo lifted his eyes to look at him.

That face was clearly blooming with a smile, eyes crinkled, wrinkles piled up into mountains, yet the more he looked, the more contorted and grotesque it appeared.

“I don’t have that kind of ability,” Lin Luo said.

The concept of returning to one’s roots was engraved in the hearts of every older generation in Shuihe Village. Years ago, after Lin Shen died, Luo Wenying wanted to bury him in the Lin family’s ancestral graveyard.

But those who died outside could not be brought back to the village, as it was said it would disrupt the feng shui and affect the future generations of the region.

Back then, Lin Luo, who was still a junior high school student wearing the uniform of the best high school in the city, knocked on every single door and kowtowed, for seven whole days. His school uniform was worn to shreds. When he kowtowed his way to the village chief’s house, the chief had also said a single sentence. “I don’t have that kind of ability.”

Lin Luo remembered that sentence for a lifetime.

It turned out the chief’s ability could “reach the heavens” what was just a minor matter of a single sentence to him had painfully ground Lin Luo down for over ten years.