"Mom, no need."
Chen Jinzhao knew his mother was not one to lie. Having reached this point, it was essentially the truth.
He just hadn't met this uncle, not even knowing what he looked like.
He was certain that this uncle was either wealthy or powerful.
To confirm his inner thoughts, Chen Jinzhao tentatively asked, "Mom, what does my uncle do now? Is he in China or abroad?"
Li Qiurong answered everything, "He's the CEO of a company in China."
"I'll give you his contact information. He said if you ever run into trouble in the future, you can always find him."
"I understand," Chen Jinzhao nodded.
"Mom, I'm busy with work. I'll call you again if there's anything."
"Okay, goodbye."
Chen Jinzhao pulled the phone away from his ear, his furrowed brow not easing one bit. He couldn't quite accept the sudden appearance of an uncle.
After a moment of thought.
He picked up his phone and typed his uncle's name into the search engine. No results matched.
Tao Qiyue, dressed in a white dress, walked over and entered Chen Jinzhao's line of sight. A thought flickered through Chen Jinzhao's mind as he asked, "Officer Tao, could you do me a favor? I want to look up someone named Li Qiutao."
"He's my uncle."
Tao Qiyue tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and readily agreed.
"You should stop calling me Officer Tao. It's after work hours, you can just call me Qiyue."
Chen Jinzhao agreed.
A few minutes later, Tao Qiyue received a message from a colleague and looked at Chen Jinzhao with surprise, "Your uncle's background is quite substantial. Take a look for yourself."
Chen Jinzhao took the phone and looked intently at the message.
"Chen Qiutao, male, 48 years old."
"Gave up foreign nationality ten years ago to join our country's citizenship. Currently a board director of a certain group. Marital status unknown."
Even the system couldn't fully ascertain Li Qiutao's background, indicating he was indeed a person of significant standing.
"That group is worth hundreds of billions, isn't it? No, maybe far more," Tao Qiyue murmured. "If you're close to your uncle, he might be willing to lend you money."
Chen Jinzhao snapped back to reality and shook his head, dismissing the idea.
Even if he had the money and was willing to lend it, Chen Jinzhao wouldn't ask.
Firstly, he had never met his uncle, let alone been close to him. Who would lend such a large sum of money to someone they didn't know? Secondly, Chen Jinzhao never liked to trouble others. His uncle had only visited his mother once in all these years, which made Chen Jinzhao feel uneasy.
He decided to just pretend this uncle didn't exist.
Now that Chen Jinzhao had five million yuan, things were much easier.
He would act tonight!
In the afternoon.
Just as the two were about to head to Ningcheng Steel Plant, Chen Jinzhao's phone suddenly rang.
Seeing the caller ID, Chen Jinzhao answered immediately without hesitation. Dog Grandpa's voice came from the other end, "Young Master Chen, Li Xiaozhong is here again. How should we handle it?"
"Tell him to come to Guojin Center to find me," Chen Jinzhao instructed.
"Yes!"
Tao Qiyue looked at Chen Jinzhao, noticing his unhappy expression. "What's wrong?"
Chen Jinzhao told Tao Qiyue about Li Xiaozhong's situation. Tao Qiyue said indignantly, "If Ning Fei really did this, it's too much. He has no regard for the law!"
"You're just finding out now?" Chen Jinzhao sneered.
To deal with someone like Ning Fei, one needed to use more violent means of counter-attack.
After more than ten minutes.
Chen Jinzhao saw Li Xiaozhong limping from a distance. He frowned slightly and immediately went to meet him. "Li Xiaozhong, what happened to your injuries? Did Ning Fei do this?"
Li Xiaozhong looked troubled and hesitated to speak.
Chen Jinzhao knew he was concerned about Tao Qiyue's presence, so he helped him to a seat in a coffee shop at Guojin Center. "This is Tao Qiyue, the captain of the Municipal Bureau's Criminal Investigation Detachment. She recently retired from the military. You know about Yu Shenxing's case a while back, right? Qiyue cracked it. So, you don't need to worry."
Li Xiaozhong looked surprised.
His worries gradually faded.
He sighed and said, "I don't know the other party's identity, but it's very likely related to Ning Fei. When the incident at Linxi Villa happened, Ning Fei was furious and fired me. Two days later, when I returned home, I found a group of people there. They controlled my wife and daughter, preventing me from retaliating, and then they deliberately broke my tibia."
Tao Qiyue gasped and instinctively looked at Li Xiaozhong's leg. "Why didn't you go to the hospital?"
Li Xiaozhong's face grew even more distressed.
Chen Jinzhao made a swift decision, asking Tao Qiyue to call a ride-hailing car, planning to take Li Xiaozhong to the hospital.
Li Xiaozhong quickly waved his hands, "Mr. Chen, there's no need for that. I do have something to ask of you this time, but it's not because of my injuries. I want you to arrange a security guard job for me."
"Didn't you say before..."
Chen Jinzhao was taken aback.
So it was just this small matter?
"We'll talk about the job later. You helped me, and I won't treat you unfairly. But you're still healing from a fracture; they won't hire you in this condition," Chen Jinzhao pointed out the problem, making Li Xiaozhong's face turn slightly pale. After a moment of hesitation, he said with embarrassment, "Then, I won't trouble Mr. Chen anymore."
Li Xiaozhong stood up, about to leave.
Chen Jinzhao grabbed his arm and frowned, "If you don't get medical attention and correction in time, your lower half will be ruined for the rest of your life."
"Are you willing to accept that?"
Li Xiaozhong's body trembled. He was speechless.
Tao Qiyue turned to Chen Jinzhao, informing him that the ride was here and they should go to the hospital first before making further plans.
Chen Jinzhao nodded and said to Li Xiaozhong, "This is an order."
"As for the money..."
"You don't need to worry about that; I've got it covered."
Li Xiaozhong, a grown man in his twenties, began to weep upon hearing Chen Jinzhao's words. It was partly out of gratitude, and partly because he felt so pathetic.
On the way to the hospital, Chen Jinzhao couldn't help but ask Li Xiaozhong why he had fallen into such dire straits.
With his skills in the military, he could have easily stayed there.
Li Xiaozhong choked back a sob, "Three years ago, I received a call from home while I was in the army, saying our home was forcibly demolished by the Jiangnan Real Estate project team, which led to my mother's accidental death. I rushed back immediately, only to find those scoundrels causing trouble on my mother's seventh-day mourning. In a moment of impulse, I killed three of them. My former commander tried his best to protect me, but Jiangnan Real Estate was powerful and found many reporters to cover the incident, causing a huge public outcry online. I didn't want to make things difficult for my old commander, so I retired."
"Because of my record, the retirement pay I received was not much, and my daughter contracted acute leukemia."
"All that money was spent on my daughter's treatment, and she's still not getting better."