Chapter 95: Come, This Old Man Will Show You a Little Trick!

The commotion downstairs went on for quite a while before finally dying down.

By the time Li Shixin and the others had been waiting in Director Wang's office on the fourth floor long enough for their tea to go cold, Director Wang finally returned, his face thick with anger.

"What absolute nonsense is this?!"

Hearing Director Wang's complaint, Liu Jianye, who stood nearby, quickly asked, "Director Wang, what happened?"

In response to Liu Jianye's inquiry, Director Wang let out a sigh and explained the whole situation—the tenant currently short-term renting the first-floor performance hall was refusing to vacate, claiming their contract hadn't expired yet. When they'd first come around looking for a space, they'd said rent would be paid weekly, with a minimum lease of one month. But after securing the space, they'd only paid for a single week, and no one had shown up the second week.

Director Wang had assumed they weren't renting it anymore, which was why he'd agreed to let Liu Jianye have it.

But who could have guessed that now that Li Shixin and the others had come and picked out the spot, those people had come back. They claimed they'd been busy with training off-site and now wanted to exercise their contract—they said they'd pay the back rent and continue leasing.

"Maybe... how about you take a look, and once their lease term is up, you could come back?"

Director Wang asked tentatively, with an apologetic tone.

After hearing the full story, Liu Jianye, standing nearby, spoke up: "Director Wang, I know my way around contracts. How about I go have a word with them?"

"No need."

Before Director Wang could respond, Li Shixin, who stood by the window, curled the corner of his mouth. He turned back to look at Director Wang and smiled. "Director Wang, these people—they're not in any legitimate line of business, are they?"

He'd been watching downstairs from the window for quite a while.

A bunch of young folks raising a ruckus, all suited up with work badges hanging around their necks, looking all slick and proper—and behind them trailed a pack of old men and women.

They'd rented the space, then gone silent for two weeks. Now that the lease was nearly up, suddenly they were all fired up.

Tsk.

This scheme...

Looked a little familiar!

In response to Li Shixin's question, Director Wang gave an awkward smile. "Sir, our Children and Youth Center is just a commercial rental operation now—we didn't ask too many questions. But when the contract was signed, the stamp the one in charge used... it was called Songtian Sunshine, or something. They said they do sales. What exactly they sell... hmm... I honestly never asked."

Li Shixin chuckled, waving a hand at Liu Jianye. "Alright, no need to bother. Why waste our breath arguing with them?"

"So, Brother Shixin, this place... shall we wait a few days and rent it then?"

In response to Liu Feng's question, Li Shixin raised his two sword-like eyebrows.

"Ten thousand years is too long—seize the day!"

This place today, this old man was determined to have it, and that was that!

"Then..."

Meeting the bewildered gazes of everyone in the room, Li Shixin pulled out his phone and sent a message to his fan group, @ing everyone, telling them to gather at the Children and Youth Center.

A rainy day is a fine time to pass the hours.

Weren't they all itching with nothing to do?

Today, this old man will treat you all to an impromptu performance!

...

"Come, come, come—grandpas and grandmas, take your seats now!"

In the performance hall of the Children and Youth Center.

Fifty or sixty elderly men and women, guided by the staff, were seated in the audience, scattered here and there.

On the stage stood a young man with his hair parted three-to-seven, combed to perfection, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, his face beaming with ruddy health—one look at him and you'd think he was dripping with erudition. He held a microphone.

Seeing that the old folks were all settled, he smiled and called out, "Good morning, senior friends! You've all received the flyers by now, I'm sure. First, let me make one thing clear: our Songtian Sunshine is a group company dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of our country's middle-aged and elderly population. This time we've come to Rongdian for one purpose alone—to hold a large-scale, professional educational lecture on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, specifically for you, our middle-aged and senior friends.

This is a special gratitude event our group has organized to fulfill our social responsibility. And so, for this one-week lecture series, we will absolutely not charge a single cent to any of you here today!"

"Excellent!"

The old folks showed no particular reaction, but the staff seated around them—like sheepdogs watching over a flock—burst into enthusiastic applause, as if injected with adrenaline.

"Hey!" Seeing the "crowd's" fervor, the lecturer on stage beamed even more brightly and waved his hand grandly. "Not only will we charge not a single cent, we'll even give back! We're going to show you real, tangible benefits for the senior friends in attendance today! Have you ever seen such a great deal?!"

"No!"

Seeing the "crowd's" enthusiasm rise again, the lecturer waved his hand once more. "Come! Before we begin the lecture, bring up the welcome gifts! Hand them out to our dear family!"

At the lecturer's signal, several staff members carried up two large baskets and brought them down to the audience.

Each old person got three eggs—hard-boiled.

"Are the eggs fragrant?"

"Fragrant!"

"Fragrant is right! But let me tell you—this is just the welcome gift. Over the next week, as long as you come to our free lectures, each person will get another three jin of eggs per lecture!"

"Wow!!!"

Seeing that the old folks below were finally fully moved, the lecturer on stage smiled slightly.

"Good! Enough idle chatter—let us begin Songtian Sunshine's first health lecture! Why do you get cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases?!"

Just as the lecturer was in high spirits, flourishingly scribbling these big characters on the whiteboard on stage, the doors to the performance hall were pushed open.

Every staff member on-site jolted in fright and leapt up from their chairs.

Only when they saw that those standing at the door were not industry-and-commerce inspectors or tax police, but a crowd of smiling old folks who looked like they'd come out on a spring outing, did everyone finally pat their chests in relief.

"These seniors, you are..."

Seeing the lecturer on stage, then the peeled eggs in the hands of the old folks in the audience, and the health supplement advertisements throughout the hall, Li Shixin narrowed his eyes slightly, then put on a bewildered expression.

"I heard Old Sun from my housing complex mention some kind of lecture... isn't this the Children and Youth Center? Sorry, I'm old and muddled—got the place wrong! My apologies, my apologies!"

"Wait!"

Seeing the large crowd—no fewer than a hundred old folks—standing at the door, the lecturer's eyes turned red.

Were these people?

Were these old folks?

No!

Each and every one of them was a dear relative, a meal ticket, a fat sheep hobbling in on walking sticks!

"Sir, you haven't got the wrong place. What we're holding right now is a large-scale health education lecture specifically for middle-aged and senior friends! Arriving by chance is better than arriving on time! Come, come, come—staff, seat our dear relatives!"

Hearing this summons, Li Shixin, his back to the stage, winked at his crowd of old folks.

When he turned back around, his face was set in a seven-tenths simpleton grin. "I heard from Old Sun that coming to this lecture gets you gifts?"

"Gifts? Of course, of course! Come, come—give each of our dear relatives three hard-boiled eggs!"

At that, Li Shixin's face showed deep disappointment.

"Just three eggs? That doesn't seem right... I heard Old Sun say they give out health supplements at lectures... Well, I guess I'm just muddled and got the wrong place after all."

"Don't go!"

Seeing Li Shixin turn to leave, the lecturer on stage stamped his foot hard.

"Sir, we were originally planning to reveal this in the second segment. But since an insider has already leaked the news, I won't keep it from you! Staff! Bring out the product our group has prepared to give back to our dear relatives—Pacific Deep Sea Fish Oil BOAO Extraction Capsules from America! Present them!"

"Boss, isn't that the stuff we sell?" Hearing the lecturer's big proclamation, one of the staff on stage froze and said in a lowered voice.

"Idiot! We've spent days slogging through every housing complex handing out flyers, and how many people did we get? Look at this bunch, who wandered over here after getting fooled by who-knows-which rumor—how many of them are there? If we give them a little sweetener to keep them here, and one in ten buys a product, then this trip to Rongdian is a success! Go, bring up the product—you know, the one we bottle as vitamin AD capsules. Give each person one bottle to start."

Tsk.

Watching the lecturer's grand, excited expression, the little lackey couldn't help but feel a surge of admiration.

This was a real head honcho—generous, bold, indeed!

A moment later.

Holding in his hands a flashy bottle of pills whose label claimed it specially treated cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, Li Shixin gave a cold smile.

"Teacher, this thing... it doesn't have any kind of certification mark on it. Is it any good? It's not some brand-name counterfeit like they talk about on TV, is it?"

"Try it! We encourage you to try it! All Songtian Sunshine products come with a one-to-ten-thousand guarantee—fake and we compensate you ten thousandfold! Sir, pop one in your mouth—if you can't taste the flavor of the Pacific, I'll issue a public apology and atone on the spot!"

Well, then.

Li Shixin dumped a handful of those little golden pills—contents unknown, but he was certain they'd neither do him good nor harm—into his palm and shoved them into his mouth.

Facing the lecturer on stage, who was asking how the "BOAO extract from the depths of the Pacific" tasted, he nodded hard.

"Mmm! Tastes like fish!"

Crunching loudly on the vitamin AD pills in his mouth, Li Shixin wore a look of pure satisfaction.

The groundwork was all set.

If this old man doesn't scare the piss out of you today, then this trip to Rongdian will have been a wasted journey!