Chapter 240: My Little Brother

After getting in the car, Fang Hong started it and floored the accelerator, and the car shot off with a "vroom vroom vroom."

He even drove one-handed, looking so casual and carefree that Lu Dabo wanted to say something, but still closed his mouth, feeling stifled.

Fang Hong glanced at him: "This car isn't bad, it's my first time driving such a cheap car."

That pretentious remark sent ten thousand grass mud horses galloping through Lu Dabo's heart—a car worth three or four hundred thousand, in his eyes worth only the words "so cheap."

If the other guy weren't his own boss, he'd absolutely kick him out of the car.

Damn, he really knows how to show off.

"Being able to ride in a car driven by the Principal is also my three lifetimes of fortune," Lu Dabo flattered.

"Now that's something I like to hear." Fang Hong smiled—perhaps this was how small-timers survived.

He used to be the same way himself.

After the two bantered for a bit, Fang Hong casually asked, "Do you have a girlfriend now?"

"No, those women would never look at a loser like me!" Lu Dabo said.

"You're driving a BMW now, how could they still not look at you?" Fang Hong found it strange.

"It's exactly because I'm driving a BMW that the women who used to look at me, I don't look at now; and the ones who wouldn't look at me, I can look at now." Lu Dabo's words were a bit of a tongue-twister.

The meaning was simple—before, as a loser, if any woman could take a liking to him, he'd be overjoyed, didn't care what quality the woman was, didn't pick!

But after getting behind a BMW, his standards rose—those curvy, precious beauties still wouldn't look at him.

"What do your parents do?" Fang Hong asked.

"My parents farm back home, and I also have a younger sister in college." Lu Dabo described his family's situation.

Fang Hong nodded, curiously asking, "Your sister's studying, so why didn't you study, and came out to do odd jobs for people?"

He'd looked at Lu Dabo's file before—the guy dropped out in middle school and had been drifting from place to place ever since.

Since he'd joined Yutu, there must be basic information on him.

"Our family's finances could only support one person through college, and my sister had better grades, so we supported her studies." Lu Dabo had no complaints.

Fang Hong said "oh" and didn't ask any more.

He was just making small talk, getting a feel for Lu Dabo's family situation—after all, the guy was his trusted man.

The car entered a bustling downtown area, and the sky outside was darkening.

Soon, following the address Liu Xiaoli had given him, Fang Hong stopped in front of a large building, its exterior lit up in resplendent gold, glittering with the scent of money.

Lu Dabo looked up—definitely a high-class place. At the entrance stood two hostesses in pretty uniforms with tall figures, bowing to them in greeting.

He followed the Principal into the lobby, the polished floor like a mirror, the chandelier above twinkling like a sky full of stars.

He couldn't help but feel some anticipation for the high-class goods!

Following the Principal was pretty good—here he was being taken to experience high-class goods!

Fang Hong said something to a staff member, and the two then entered the elevator.

The elevator was bright inside, the walls like mirrors, reflecting people so clearly you could see their pores.

"Have you studied martial arts?" Fang Hong asked casually.

"Ah, no."

Lu Dabo was a bit absent-minded at first, then came to and said, puzzled, "Who studies martial arts in this society?"

Fang Hong nodded, said nothing, just sized up Lu Dabo—body still fairly sturdy, mainly young and strong.

If the talk didn't work out later, they'd just go straight to force—no point talking so much nonsense.

Better to just have a go at it! Lu Dabo was baffled, not knowing what the Principal was up to. Weren't they here to experience the pleasures of life? Why so weird?

"Ding!"

Just as the two were each lost in their own thoughts, the elevator doors opened.

The two stepped out onto a soft carpet, and Fang Hong spotted Liu Xiaoli from afar—her long hair piled high, with the bearing of a noble lady.

She stood at the door of a guest room, holding her phone, waiting.

It seemed she hadn't gone in—the people inside must be pretty big shots, and the mother and daughter couldn't afford to offend them.

Liu Xiaoli also spotted Fang Hong and Lu Dabo from afar—they'd arrived pretty fast.

"Auntie." Fang Hong stepped forward to greet her. "Finally here, let's go in." Liu Xiaoli finished speaking and prepared to push the door open.

"Wait, tell me what's going on inside first." Fang Hong wanted to be mentally prepared.

Lu Dabo beside him saw Liu Xiaoli and was completely dumbfounded—did Fairy Sister's mom also have this taste?

He looked at Liu Xiaoli's proud, cute face, and at the suite beside them, and couldn't help feeling a bad premonition.

Could it be the Principal and Fairy Sister's mom—WTF!

No way! No way! Is this how high society plays? His illusions shattered all over the floor—should he tell Fairy Sister or not? So torn!

Nobody cared what wild thoughts Lu Dabo was having. He just heard Liu Xiaoli say, "The people coming this time all have a certain status. Xixi and I couldn't handle them, so we asked you to come help."

Couldn't handle them? Hearing this, Lu Dabo felt even worse—Fairy Sister was here too, and seemed like quite a few people. And Fairy Sister was currently "handling" them inside?

How was she "handling" them? His three views shattered all over the floor! Fang Hong said nothing, just listened to Liu Xiaoli speak.

"Fang Long invited Xixi out. The two of them already had some entanglement before, and Xixi couldn't refuse."

Liu Xiaoli first built up some goodwill for her daughter, then said, "Besides Fang Long, there's also Huayi Xiao Wang General Manager, Yaolai Group General Manager Qi, and some accompanying people."

"General Manager Qi? Which Qi? There's even this surname?"

Fang Hong knew about the others, it was just this "General Manager Qi" that sounded oddly familiar.

He seemed to have heard of him, the impression was fairly deep, but for the moment couldn't recall—seemed like something from quite a while back.

"It's the 'Qi' character that has a silk radical underneath. He used to be in the jewelry and luxury car business, and recently connected with Fang Long and Huayi, preparing to enter the film industry. That Yaolai Cinema is a joint venture of the three parties, his full name is Qi Jianhong." Liu Xiaoli gave a rough introduction.

Hearing his mother-in-law say this, the person came to Fang Hong's mind.

And in his mind, there was also very clear information on him.

You couldn't not know — this person caused such a huge stir back then.

It's just that after going bankrupt in '18, he vanished from the scene and no one brought him up again, but in that era he was still very prominent.

Essentially, Fang Long didn't just link up with this person recently — they were in contact as far back as '97, and by '08 they had already started doing business together and running a cinema.

That would be the famous Yaolai Cheng Long Cinema! Later generations may not know it, may never have heard of it, but over these years this cinema has been incredibly hot, very much breaking out of its niche.

Hua Yi also put out 210 million, taking a 20% stake — that's why the three of them were bound together.

It's just that Fang Long's tie with him went even deeper — he even called him his "iron brother"! How deep was the bond? Take this example: Qi Jianhong has a daughter named Qi Meihe, and this girl was taken by Fang Long at age ten to sing "The Nation" on CCTV! The little girl in red standing right next to Fang Long! This girl loves chasing stars — Fang Long took her to South Korea to take a photo with Li Minhao, and also got a photo with the then-explosively-popular EXO, and for that she was even torn apart by their fans.

This company later signed Toothpick, was praised by Xing Ye, supported by Feng Kuzi, brought along by Fang Long, and starred Liu Tianxian — basically half the entertainment circle was licking his boots.

Thinking about it now, it's really quite sigh-inducing! And thinking about Fang Long as a person — it's truly hard to sum up in a word!

Moreover, this matter can't be dug into too deeply — one can only say how tangled the interests in this circle are, how deep the waters run, things that simply can't be explained to outsiders.

Liu Xiaoli saying she couldn't handle it is true; Liu Tianxian saying she sometimes can't help herself is also true!

Looking at it from a God's-eye view, Liu Tianxian really has it tough in a circle like this — if she hadn't held onto her original aspirations, she would have long since gone along with the corruption.

In a circle like this, hardly anyone can hold firm — the temptations are too great: the lure of money, the lure of resources, the lure of honor.

Any one of them alone can save a person decades of struggle.

Back to Qi Jianhong — not only is he Fang Long's iron brother, he's also Xiao Wang's General Manager's brother, Feng Kuzi's close friend, and the "Little Brother Qi" in Fan Xiaopang's mouth! When this company went public, it tied in a whole roster of big-name stars — Huang Xiaoming and Ceng Aizi were among them, along with several bigwigs of the circle.

It's all fucking tangled up in利益!

It's just that after Toothpick fell, this company went bankrupt, and then it was the monkeys scattering when the tree fell.

"I get it, Auntie!" After hearing her out, Fang Hong roughly understood the entanglements involved.

Fang Long has cooperative relationships with Hua Yi, Yaolai, and Emperor Entertainment — this person is the纽带 linking those three parties, and now he wants to pull Liu Tianxian back in to make money for them.

There's also the possibility that Liu Tianxian is just a gimmick — that they want to draw out the Principal?

The current Fang Hong, apart from Liu Tianxian, no one can catch even a glimpse of him — the kind you can't even get an appointment with.

No choice — Fang Hong's goal has always been clear: if he's going to deal with anyone, it's with companies and people at the level of Tencent and Wanda.

He simply won't bother with these entertainment-circle types running around making connections everywhere — they're destined to be swept into the garbage heap!

"If you think it's troublesome, if you think this matter is hard to handle, you can say so — no need to be so为难." Liu Xiaoli felt a little guilty about it.

She had called Fang Hong here precisely to have him play the bad guy, to block those demons and monsters, so her daughter wouldn't get hurt.

The people inside could be said to represent half the entertainment circle across the three regions — they're the kind of people everyone has to curry favor with, and Fang Long is still a name-card-level figure.

It's that you simply can't touch him by nature!

In this day and age, whoever ran into such a lineup would have to give them a wide berth.

"It's nothing — this kind of thing is nothing to me. I don't care about offending anyone a little deeper, and I don't care about gaining two more enemies."

Fang Hong said, then clapped Lu Dabo on the shoulder: "Even if they all come at me together, I still have my little brother."

Lu Dabo had been in a state of shock and bewilderment, and feeling his shoulder suddenly clapped, he jolted awake.

"P-p-principal, I can't do it!"

Hearing the names of those figures gave him the jitters — those existences he could only hear the names of before, could only look up at from below, never dared to even imagine.

Now hearing he was supposed to go up against those people, it felt a bit fantastical! "What are you afraid of? We have thousands upon thousands of brothers — these people are our backing."

Fang Hong put on a stern face: "Following me, you can't say you can't!"

"Alright, alright then!"

Lu Dabo figured it out — today he wasn't here to play with the high-end goods at all.

He was dragged here to act as a bodyguard — why didn't they say so earlier? If they had, he could have brought two more strapping brothers! Liu Xiaoli glanced at the two of them, felt they were just joking, and sighed that Little Fang was really magnanimous — she herself couldn't manage that.

Actually, Fang Hong's deeper meaning was that his ranks were庞大, and he had a web of intricate connections — he simply wasn't afraid of those people.

(End of chapter)