Chapter 866

On the first floor of the villa, in the living room.

There were four people in the living room: Pang Tian, Regional Director of the Lei Ting Martial Arts Guild in Shanghai, Ma Shan, Regional Director of Jiangsu Province, as well as Xu Jingming and Ling Shuang.

Song Qiuyun and Jiang Chuxuan were still in the training room, and since they had not yet joined the Lei Ting Martial Arts Guild, they did not participate.

"Inspector Xu, I am Pang Tian, Regional Director of the Shanghai area."

"Inspector my lord, I am Ma Shan, Regional Director of Jiangsu Province."

Both Pang Tian and Ma Shan rose from their seats and respectfully introduced themselves.

Although Xu Jingming may already know them, the proper procedure still had to be followed.

"Don't be formal, please sit."

Xu Jingming nodded slightly and said casually.

"Inspector my lord, you are young but already accomplished; as your subordinates,"

"we will follow any direct orders without hesitation."

"Of course, if we do anything poorly, please remind us—we will certainly correct it."

Pang Tian immediately revealed his intent.

Loyalty!

He must make this newly appointed young inspector notice it.

"Is that so? Actually, I do have some questions for you." Xu Jingming replied indifferently.

"Inspector my lord, please ask," Pang Tian hurriedly said.

"I heard you've been close to Deputy Director Hu Jinyu—is that true?"

Xu Jingming looked at them and asked.

Yet this simple question instantly froze Pang Tian and Ma Shan's expressions, drenching them in sweat.

They hadn't expected Xu Jingming to be so blunt, with no preamble at all.

As for how to answer this question, it left them deeply troubled.

If they admitted it, they might be targeted by Xu Jingming later.

If they denied it and Xu Jingming found evidence, it would be even worse.

"Report, Inspector my lord: it is true, but our cooperation was strictly within normal work boundaries—nothing else."

After a moment's hesitation, Pang Tian spoke up first.

Since they had chosen to realign themselves, these matters would inevitably have to be clarified sooner or later.

Ma Shan also realized this and quickly added: "Inspector my lord, my situation is much the same."

"You're quite honest."

Xu Jingming smiled, took a light sip of tea, and spoke in a low, powerful voice:

"I don't care how you two were connected to Hu Jinyu in the past."

"From now on, I require you to sever all ties with him."

That old bastard Hu Jinyu.

Since I joined the Lei Ting Martial Arts Guild, he's been stirring up trouble—and now that I finally have the chance, I won't let him off.

First, I must firmly seize control of Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Suzhou-Hangzhou.

"Rest assured, Inspector my lord—we will terminate all cooperation with Deputy Director Hu."

Seeing that Xu Jingming had no intention of punishing them, Pang Tian and Ma Shan quickly replied.

"Besides Hu Jinyu, the same applies to the Li family."

Xu Jingming spoke again: "How many members of the Li family are there in the Lei Ting Martial Arts Guild's Shanghai and Jiangsu regions?"

"The Li family doesn't have many, but they hold key positions."

"In Shanghai, one-fifth of all positions above supervisor are held by Li family members,"

Pang Tian replied after a moment's thought.

"Jiangsu's situation is better, but there are still quite a few Li family members."

Ma Shan added immediately.

"One-fifth? The Li family's reach has extended this far!"

Ling Shuang snorted coldly, her beautiful eyes now glinting with icy disdain.

One-fifth of the numbers was enough for the Li family to cause considerable mischief in these regions.

"Thankfully, we've already removed the Shanghai Inspector—otherwise, if Liu Shan had taken over, the situation would've been even worse."

Ling Shuang thought silently.

At this moment, Xu Jingming turned to Pang Tian and Ma Shan and said:

"I give you one month to remove every single Li family member from your respective regions."

The Li family and Hu Jinyu are cut from the same cloth; since you must sever ties with Hu Jinyu, you must also expel the Li family.

"Remove them all?"

Pang Tian and Ma Shan were stunned—they realized Xu Jingming intended to fully confront the Li family!

More critically, this task would fall to them to carry out.

Once they completed it, they would be irreversibly aligned against the Li family—with no possibility of future cooperation.

"What? Are you unable to accomplish this?"

Xu Jingming looked at them, speaking calmly.

Realigning oneself isn't that simple—if you don't make Hu Jinyu your sworn enemy, I won't consider using you.

"No problem—in one month, you won't see a single Li family member anymore!"

Ma Shan gritted his teeth and gave his word on the spot.

In fact,

replacing so many people within a single month was indeed a bit difficult.

But for the sake of Xu Jingming—

"Same on my end." Pang Tian caught on and hurriedly said.

"Very well, then here's to a pleasant cooperation."

Only at this moment did Xu Jingming finally show a smile, shaking hands with each of them in turn.

Of course, whether they ended up enemies or friends still depended on the results a month from now.

"By the way, the regional president of Suhang Province didn't come with you this time?"

Xu Jingming asked.

"This time it's just me and President Ma; we didn't notify him."

Pang Tian said cautiously.

After what had just happened, he no longer dared to treat Xu Jingming as some inexperienced young whippersnapper.

"Makes sense—he's one of the Li family's people to begin with."

Xu Jingming shook his head.

To take control of Suhang Province, that Li family regional president would definitely have to be kicked out.

Only he'd just taken office, so there was no harm in waiting a while, getting familiar with the position, and then making his move.

"Well, let's leave it here for today. See you at the banquet tonight."

Seeing Xu Jingming had issued a dismissal, Pang Tian and Ma Shan promptly took their leave.

Once they were outside the villa's main gate, the two of them exhaled in unison.

"What? You look pretty stressed, President Pang." Ma Shan couldn't help but tease.

"Obviously—are you not stressed?" Pang Tian rolled his eyes.

"Stressed? Of course I'm stressed."

Ma Shan gave a sly chuckle, then sighed:

"I thought this Xu Jingming would be easy to fool, but who knew he'd throw us a tough problem right off the bat.

A month from now, if we haven't cleaned out the Li family's people, the two of us are in for some serious trouble."

"Ain't that the truth."

Pang Tian's face was full of feeling too. "This Xu Jingming—not only is his talent great and his strength formidable,

he's even this sharp in handling things. It's simply unbelievable."

An unstoppable momentum, every bit of brilliance on full display!

That was his first impression of Xu Jingming.

Though it was understandable—achieving this kind of success before turning 21 was indeed something to be proud of.

As for today's meeting, the objective had been met: they'd realigned themselves.

Only the price paid was far higher than he'd imagined......

PS: Working overtime at the company, still just one update. The program keeps throwing bizarre errors, the boss is waiting to demo it for the client, the pressure's about to blow (rough going).