Chapter 277 — Departing for the East Sea

This kind of old-fashioned breakfast—fried dough sticks, fried cakes, douhua, soy milk and the like—didn't bring in much money because the prices were low. It was nowhere near as profitable as running a congee shop, so basically anyone who could afford a proper storefront gave it up. This family, though, had no grand designs on fortune; a decent living was enough for them.

After they moved, they told Yang Ce their new address through Lin Yanhe—the breakfast stall owner knew that one of Yang Juehuan's friends was fond of the old-style fried cakes.

All these people knew that the generous compensation from the demolition had come about because of Yang Juehuan. If Yang Juehuan's company hadn't taken over Wei Jin's family business, they would never have received so much money. So their gratitude toward Yang Ce was boundless.

Yang Shuyu knew the address but had never been there; this time it was the perfect occasion to bring Xia Xue along.

The shop was called simply the Old-Style Breakfast Shop, and its location was nothing special—not in the busy downtown, but tucked away inside a rather remote residential compound.

He parked the car in front of the breakfast shop, drawing some astonished looks from the neighbors. The people who ate here were all local residents with modest incomes, and now a luxury car was parked right outside—of course it drew stares.

Yang Ce and Xia Xue got out and walked into the shop. Old Wu, the owner, was busy frying dough sticks. He looked up, spotted Yang Ce, and hurriedly handed his work off to his wife before coming out in person: "Mr. Yang, you've finally come! We've been wanting to thank you face to face, but never had the chance..."

"Boss Wu, don't stand on ceremony. My friend and I just came for a bit of breakfast—you go about your business!" Yang Hengye said.

"Sit, sit!" Boss Wu cleared a table, wiped it down, and said, "What'll you have? I'll go fix it for you."

"Just some fried cakes and soy milk," Yang Yanzhou said.

"Coming right up!" Boss Wu answered, and went off to work.

The customers in the shop were rather curious—since when did Boss Wu know such a wealthy man? But no one asked.

The fried cakes arrived quickly, freshly fried by Boss Wu himself, and the soy milk was piping hot.

At the sight of the fried cakes, Xia Xue's eyes lit up. Boss Wu's special recipe in particular was even more crisp, soft, and sweet, and Xia Xue ate with unrestrained delight.

When they finished, Yang Ce wanted to pay, but Boss Wu absolutely refused, insisting, "Mr. Yang, we already owe you for the demolition. What's a little breakfast!"

Seeing Boss Wu like this, Yang Ce had no choice, knowing it was pointless to insist further, so he said, "Then I won't decline—consider this your treat."

"It's only right," Boss Wu said, then took out a bag of fried cakes he had prepared earlier and handed it to Yang Ce: "I made these especially for you. Please take them."

Yang Shuyu knew it was a gesture from the heart, and the things weren't worth much anyway, so he accepted them as Boss Wu wished: "Thank you, then!"

Outside the breakfast shop, Xia Xue laughed: "You really are popular—even the owner here treats you so well!"

"Isn't it because of the demolition? The shantytown demolition was given to my company to handle, so they got a lot of compensation—naturally they're grateful," Yang Yanzhou said.

"So that's it." Xia Xue didn't know much about Heng's company or such matters, but hearing Yang Cenbin put it that way, she didn't ask more.

After dropping Xia Xue at the police station, Yang Ce headed back to Zhang Zhishen's place in the Huashang residential compound.

Zhang Zhishen and Xiao Qi were eating congee. Seeing Yang Ce return, Zhang Zhishen quickly called out, "Mr. Yang, have you eaten breakfast? Xiao Qi's congee is quite good—join us for some?"

"I've eaten, you two go ahead." Yang Ce waved his hand and said, "How's the gu poison coming along?"

"It's being cultivated," Zhang Zhishen said. "I'll go check on it after we eat."

He phoned Bao Lin and told him to send a car to pick Jing Yu up for school; Bao Lin readily agreed.

Although Yang Ce had told Qing Shuang to send a car, Bao Lin didn't dare be negligent. He drove personally to the Songjiang International Hotel, and when he entered the lobby, the lobby manager was startled and hurried over to greet him: "President Bao, you're here? Is something the matter?"

Seeing Bao Lin suddenly arrive at the hotel so early in the morning, the lobby manager was somewhat nervous and fearful—he had heard about the company's troubles, and wondered whether Bao Lin had come this time to make an example of the hotel too.

"Nothing much. I'm here to pick up Miss Jing for school," Bao Lin said.

Bao Lin called Jing Yu "Miss Jing" rather than "Assistant Jing," which underscored that Jing Yu's status was more than that of a mere assistant—for the vice president of the group to come fetch her in person... one could well imagine Yang Juehuan's own standing.

The lobby manager quickly sent someone upstairs to ask Jing Yu to come down. At that moment Jing Yu had just received Yang Juehuan's call; Yang Ce told her he had arranged for someone to pick her up for school. Though Jing Yu was slightly disappointed that Yang Ce hadn't come himself, she knew Yang Cenbin would surely be busy these two days and couldn't demand otherwise.

By the time the manager's messenger came upstairs, Jing Yu had already washed and dressed, and she went downstairs with the man.

Stepping out of the elevator, Jing Yu spotted Bao Lin standing in the hotel lobby at a glance and was instantly thrilled—Yang Yanzhou had sent someone, but she hadn't expected Bao Lin to come in person!

If she could have him drive her to the company for work, how glorious that would be—her colleagues would certainly see her in a new light. But Jing Yu knew Yang Yongjin disliked this showy manner of hers, so she suppressed the thought.

Otherwise, even if Jing Yu asked Bao Lin to drive her to school and then pick her up in the afternoon to take her to the company, Bao Lin surely wouldn't have refused.

The morning passed without incident. Around noon, Zhang Zhishen called out excitedly: "Brother Yang! It's done—the gu poison has been successfully refined and is ready for use!"

"Oh? That's wonderful!" Yang Ce had been worried whether the gu poison could be refined in time for his trip to the East Sea that afternoon. If it couldn't, he would have had to rush back to Songjiang to fetch it, but now it seemed he wouldn't have to make that extra trip.

"This batch of gu poison can be made into about thirty doses. I don't know if that's enough?" Zhang Zhishen asked. "If not, I'll hurry and refine some more."

"More than thirty doses? That should be plenty!" Yang Lanxu said. The ones he needed to punish were the people around Tian Long and the company's senior executives; the lower-level people were all fence-sitters who acted entirely according to their superiors' wishes. So thirty-odd doses were more than enough—he might not even need them all.

"All right, then. How much antidote should I prepare?" Zhang Zhishen nodded and asked.

"Antidote? Do you mean the suppressant or the complete cure?" Yang Yanchuan said.

"How much of each do you need?" Zhang Zhishen asked.

"More of the suppressant; the complete cure won't be necessary," Yang Yanzhou said. These people had already betrayed him once, and might well betray him a second time. To prevent that, there was only one way—to hold their lives in his hands so they wouldn't dare rebel.

Jing Yu was quite clever at times; this really was a solution that settled things once and for all.