Chapter 223: Even a Child is Involved

After returning from the Provincial Party Committee compound, Li Dong had a lot on his mind.

However, these were mostly his own speculations, and he didn't have the courage to ask Shen Qian about them.

As for Shen Qian, she acted as if she had never mentioned anything about it. The next day, she was back to her usual self at work.

Li Dong met with her several times, wanting to say something, but he didn't know how to start. Eventually, he stopped thinking about it altogether. No matter what Shen Qian meant, as long as that person didn't bring it up, he would pretend not to know. Overthinking wouldn't help.

Over the next few days, Li Dong got busy again.

Since the plans for the distribution center and the Yuandong Building had already been revealed, it was time to implement them as soon as possible.

While Li Dong was busy inspecting potential sites for the distribution center, he also had to deal with Hu Sicheng and others.

Everyone else was easy to dismiss, but Hu Sicheng was somewhat troublesome.

It wasn't that Hu Sicheng was being overly persistent; it was that the Yaohai District government offered quite an attractive deal to keep Far East's distribution center.

Their sincerity made it difficult for Li Dong to refuse outright.

In fact, if the southern suburbs couldn't offer a comparable deal, Li Dong was prepared to negotiate seriously with the Yaohai District government.

The incentives offered by Yaohai District weren't many, but each one was enticing to Li Dong.

First, there were land incentives.

Second, there were tax incentives.

Just these two alone, if the Yaohai District government could fulfill its promises, would save Li Dong at least fifty million yuan.

The district government was determined to keep Far East, and even the district chief had personally come to Far East's headquarters to negotiate with Li Dong.

The conditions offered made Li Dong hesitate.

The southern suburbs were good—plenty of land, sparse population, and convenient transportation.

But if Yaohai could offer policies, it might not be any worse than the southern suburbs. Not to mention, the land prices alone were not comparable.

While waiting for negotiations with the southern suburbs, Li Dong received a call from Meng Qiping, whom he hadn't seen in a while.

...

At Jiangda (Jiang University).

At the north gate.

When Li Dong saw Meng Qiping, the guy was squatting at the gate, smoking.

While smoking, he was also leering at the passing girls with a lewd gaze.

When Li Dong arrived, Meng Qiping was drooling over a busty beauty and didn't even notice Li Dong.

It wasn't until Li Dong tapped him on the shoulder that Meng Qiping quickly pulled his gaze back.

Seeing that it was Li Dong, Meng Qiping grinned wickedly, "Dong Ge, did you see that? 36D! Our Jiangda is really full of hidden talent."

Li Dong rolled his eyes at him and said irritably, "What's wrong with you? Only looking at the chest and not the face? Be careful, or Cheng Nan will kill you if she catches you."

"Hey! Don't mention Cheng Nan."

Hearing Li Dong mention Cheng Nan, the chubby guy sighed.

Li Dong, curious, asked, "Did you break up?"

"No!"

"Then why the sigh?"

"It's almost like we did." Meng Qiping sighed again.

"Stop being so mysterious. What's going on?"

Meng Qiping shook his head, sighed dramatically, and stayed silent. Seeing this, Li Dong turned to leave.

The chubby guy panicked and quickly grabbed his clothes, "Dong Ge, I haven't told you yet. Don't leave."

Li Dong glared at him and said, "Are you going to talk or not? I have things to do. Do you know how much money I lose every minute? Because of your call, I've already lost millions!"

Meng Qiping didn't care about this, but a few girls passing by burst out laughing.

Li Dong turned to look and saw a somewhat familiar face among them.

It was Su Yu, the girl who had asked him to help move books last time. But since they weren't that close, Li Dong just nodded at her without saying anything and dragged the chubby guy away.

After they left, one of the girls next to Su Yu asked, "Su Yu, do you know him?"

Su Yu smiled lightly, "We've met a few times. He's a sophomore senior."

"Hehe, that senior seems interesting. Was he trying to make you laugh?" the girl teased.

Su Yu shook her head without saying anything but felt a bit curious about Li Dong.

...

After dragging the chubby guy to a nearby milk tea shop and sitting down, Li Dong asked again, "So, what's going on? If you've broken up, I'll join you for drinks tonight to drown your sorrows."

The chubby guy, both amused and exasperated, said, "I do have worries, but we haven't broken up."

He then explained what had happened and sighed again, "Now Nan Nan is ignoring me. What should I do?"

At this moment, Li Dong was in shock!

It took him a while to look at the chubby guy with an odd expression and say, "You're something else. You still have the mood to ogle women at a time like this?"

Meng Qiping, frustrated, said, "Let's not talk about that. Help me come up with a plan."

"What plan? I haven't experienced anything like this. This is your mess, and you're expecting me to clean it up?"

Li Dong then teased, "Why not just keep them both? Have the best of both worlds, like a harem."

The chubby guy glared at him and snapped, "I'm serious!"

"Serious, my foot! You've even got a kid on the way. What's the point of asking me for help now?"

Li Dong scolded him. Even he, a billionaire, hadn't done something like this, but the chubby guy managed it so effortlessly. Li Dong didn't want to deal with it at all.

The situation wasn't even that complicated.

This chubby guy had recently made some questionable friends and started frequenting bars at night.

Bars attract all sorts of people.

One thing led to another, and this guy somehow got involved with a woman who often went to the bar.

It's surprising that she even took a liking to him. After sleeping together a few times, things escalated, and now she was supposedly pregnant with his child.

Just yesterday, this woman showed up at the chubby guy's place, where she met the "main wife" and the "mistress."

There was no dramatic showdown, no fiery confrontation. The woman simply left after meeting Cheng Nan.

Cheng Nan didn't resort to any drastic actions, nor did she say anything to the chubby guy. She just moved back to her dorm that same day.

Of course, in Li Dong's eyes, this was worse than beating or scolding him.

Cold violence is more terrifying—it's almost like a breakup. Only this chubby guy is stubborn enough to think there's still a chance.

"Dong Ge, you're resourceful. Can you help me just this once?" The chubby guy pleaded pitifully.

Li Dong asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Just talk to Nan Nan for me. Get her to meet with me. She won't even see me now."

"And what good will that do? What about that other woman? She's got your child now. Why not just break up with Cheng Nan and live with the other woman?"

"Dong Ge!"

The chubby guy snapped angrily, "I'm serious! I was just fooling around with her. It was a one-night stand, you know? The kid might not even be mine…"

Perhaps his voice was a bit too loud because the small milk tea shop suddenly fell silent.

Regardless of gender, everyone was now looking at the chubby guy with strange expressions.

Seeing this, Meng Qiping angrily shouted, "What are you looking at? Never seen a handsome guy before?"

Now, the stares became even stranger, and Li Dong also received quite a few disdainful looks.

But neither Li Dong nor Meng Qiping cared since no one knew them anyway.

Seeing that the chubby guy was genuinely anxious, Li Dong said, "There's really nothing I can do to help you. At most, I can call Cheng Nan and try to talk her into meeting you. If she refuses, I'm out of options."

Honestly, Li Dong didn't want to get involved in this. It made him uncomfortable.

If you can't keep it in your pants and mess up, then you should be prepared to take responsibility.

If you're capable enough, have as many wives and concubines as you want—no one will care.

But if you don't have the ability and still mess around, then refuse to take responsibility afterward—that's just wrong.

However, the chubby guy was Li Dong's only real friend in Pingchuan, so after thinking it over, Li Dong added, "If you need money, just let me know. But other than that, I really can't help."

Hearing this, Meng Qiping sighed and muttered, "Fine, I'll just take it one step at a time."

Li Dong said nothing more.