Chapter 46: The Theory of Being Impressive

"Second Brother, there's a fight up ahead!"

Seeing the crowd around the bus, Li Pi stood up on the motorcycle's rear seat, stretched his neck, and concluded something.

Li Xian nodded, parked the motorcycle by the roadside, and walked up ahead.

Since getting the motorcycle, he hadn't seen Old Zhou and Zhou Yun for a while. With the commotion, he was worried that something had happened to them.

However, when he arrived at the scene, he realized that it wasn't Old Zhou and his daughter who were in trouble.

In the middle of the forest farm's main road, the old red tour bus was awkwardly blocking the path of a tractor with a trailer.

On the tractor, a few students around Li Pi's age were shivering. Among the crowd, three rough young men were holding one of the students by the collar and shouting.

"Damn it, you're running an illegal operation and still have the nerve to argue? You say you're just giving a ride to people from the village, but if everyone did what you're doing, what would we bus drivers do?"

"Exactly! Damn it, hurry up and pay the fare! Otherwise, we're taking you to the transport management station!"

"Yeah, pay the fare or we'll go to the transport management station!"

The person being held by the collar was none other than Wang Laosan.

At this moment, Wang Laosan's face was red, and his companions were clearly angry. When they heard the threat of going to the transport management station, they immediately started shouting:

"Why should we pay you? The kids didn't even ride your bus!"

"Transport management station? Fine, we'll go! You think we're afraid of you? We're just giving these village kids a lift. Since when did this become a crime?"

"Damn it, it's the holiday season. The kids are back home and don't want to spend money on the bus. What's wrong with giving them a ride? When Old Zhou was around, he never cared about this!"

One of the young men, who had a wallet slung around his waist, sneered and said, "Shut up! Old Zhou was just a driver for the bureau. He got paid the same whether he had more or fewer passengers. Now this route belongs to us, and if you're stealing passengers, you're taking away our fare!"

At this point, Li Xian had a rough understanding of the situation.

It was National Day, and students from the Forestry Bureau had just finished their break. Some kids from poor families, not wanting to spend money on the bus, were walking home.

Although the Forestry Bureau was over thirty kilometers from the 89 Forest Farm, many kids did just that during the holidays. For example, Liang Yong would walk along the small railway to get home, taking a whole day to reach his destination.

It seemed that Wang Laosan and his group had encountered these kids while returning from work and decided to give them a ride, which had caused trouble.

Understanding the situation, Li Xian stepped forward.

Although Wang Laosan and his group were shouting bravely, they were just honest farmers. When threatened with the transport management station, they were actually scared.

To them, Li Xian was someone who had seen the world, was resourceful, and was now the boss of a company—an impressive figure.

Seeing Li Xian part the crowd and approach, Wang Laosan seized the opportunity and shouted, "Second Brother, you're educated. Help us out here—do we really need to pay them for the fare when the kids didn't even ride the bus?"

Li Xian waved him off and walked up to the young man holding Wang Laosan by the collar. Without saying a word, he directly grabbed his hand and forced it open.

The three young men's expressions changed when they saw Li Xian. They were momentarily confused about his intentions.

Looking at these rough characters, Li Xian smirked and asked the crowd, "Where are we right now?"

The question left everyone puzzled.

Wang Laosan hesitated and replied, "The 89 Forest Farm."

Li Xian turned around and gave him a stern look, exasperated, "The 89 Forest Farm is what?"

"Home…" Wang Laosan felt uneasy under Li Xian's stare and answered quietly.

"At home, and you're still talking reason with them? Talking reason my ass! Being bullied at your own doorstep at your age?"

His scolding made Wang Laosan and his companions flush with embarrassment. Even the onlookers turned red-faced.

The younger crowd clenched their fists, stirred up by his words.

Seeing this, Li Xian felt reassured. He turned to the three young men and shouted, "Want the fare? Go screw yourselves! Get lost!"

"Damn it!" One of the young men, enraged by Li Xian's aggression, immediately swung his fist at him.

But Wang Laosan and his group, who were initially intimidated by the young men's arrogance, now rallied to Li Xian's side. They surged forward, punching and kicking the young man, who was soon beaten to the ground, with dust flying everywhere.

Seeing things getting out of hand, the young man with the wallet shouted and ran back to the bus, locking the doors.

As the bus started up and the driver's window opened, the young man pointed at Li Xian and shouted a threat before running off in a hurry.

Watching the bus leave in a cloud of dust, Li Xian clapped his hands.

Turning back to Wang Laosan, he thought, "You were so bold when you caused trouble for our family, but now you're just a coward when facing outsiders. What happened to that bravado?"

But it was pointless to say this now.

The people from the forest farm were honest and timid. In the past, this would have been acceptable, but now that he had formed a renovation team, such situations would inevitably arise.

Being timid would only lead to suffering.

Seeing the bus leave with silly smiles, Li Xian was furious. "Remember, when dealing with conflicts outside, if you're in a group, don't try to reason with unreasonable people. When you're alone, don't waste your time trying to reason even if you're right."

Wang Laosan and his group thought for a while and finally understood the somewhat convoluted advice, agreeing that it made sense.

Seeing that they had grasped the essence of the lesson, Li Xian sighed and added, "Also, on your own turf, you set the rules! Got it?"

"Got it, got it!"

The group nodded vigorously, like chickens pecking at rice...

Li Xian rolled his eyes, waved his hand to disperse the crowd, and returned to the motorcycle.

He noticed that Li Pi was looking at him with stars in his eyes.

"Second Brother, you were awesome just now!"

Li Xian snorted and imparted some wisdom to the still naive Li Pi, "Li Lao Si, if you don't want to get beaten up in the future, remember this: being impressive works when you're surrounded by people, but if you try to act tough when you're alone, you might end up getting beaten up. Understand?"

Li Pi contemplated for a moment... After a while, he gave a thumbs up and grinned widely.

"Second Brother, that's some impressive advice!"