ECG -Chapter 144 Asking for an Exorbitant Price

Lin Hao walked out of the theater building. In the courtyard, there were several towering trees, and surrounding these trees were circular flower beds.

He found the thickest tree and sat down beside the flower bed. Just as he lit a cigarette, his phone rang.

It was Wu Xiaozhou.

“Xiaowu, what’s up?”

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“Haozi, just now six thugs from society came to the school looking for you!”

Lin Hao was stunned. “Looking for me?” After asking, he immediately understood. It must be Li Lang.

“Yeah. They wandered around the practice building for a long time, asking everywhere about you. They left when they couldn’t find you. On the way, they even groped the thighs of several female students.”

Lin Hao frowned. What a bunch of scoundrels!

“Xiaowu, don’t go looking for them, and don’t get involved in this matter either. I know who it is. I’ll handle it myself!”

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Wu Xiaozhou hesitated for a moment. After hearing about it, he had immediately started searching around for those people, but he was still a step too late. They had probably already left. Hearing Lin Hao say this, he could only helplessly agree.

“Alright!”

Lin Hao hung up the phone and quietly thought about how to deal with this matter.

Li Lang really had a beautiful dream—he still wanted to cooperate with him. Was his brain squeezed by a door or something?

Using force and fighting them head-on was definitely the worst option, but what other good solutions were there?

If Fourth Sister were still here, this kind of thing would never have happened. Even if Li Lang dared to sell pirated discs, he wouldn’t dare come looking for him so openly. If he found Fourth Sister, Li Lang might even have to compensate him for part of the money.

But Fourth Sister was already gone.

Thinking of this, his mood sank.

Afterward, he sorted out the relationships involved.

Zhou Dongbing had a good relationship with He Qing, while Li Lang’s brother-in-law Ma Dayao was also an old friend of He Qing’s. At Fourth Sister and He Qing’s funeral, he had personally seen how the people from the underworld in the provincial capital greeted Zhou Dongbing. Ma Dayao included—they were all extremely close with him.

Should he ask Zhou Dongbing for help?

Last time, when Sun Xiaowei plagiarized the song “Father,” he had also asked him for help. That man had even found a lawyer for him in Yanjing. He couldn’t possibly trouble him every time something happened.

After thinking it over again and again, there were only a few ways to solve this matter:

The first was to fight violence with violence. But he was alone, and he didn’t want Wu Xiaozhou and the others to get dragged into it. As the saying went, even a fierce tiger couldn’t withstand a pack of wolves. If they really fought, the one who would suffer was still him. Besides, these street thugs had nothing but time. If he got entangled with them, it would really become an endless hassle.

The second was to use his connections in society. But among the people he knew from that world, aside from Fourth Sister, there was only Zhou Dongbing.

The third was official channels. There were two people he could possibly rely on: one was Xiao Yuan, the secretary of Xia Yumeng’s father; the other was Zhou Xiaopeng, the man Qin Ruoyun had brought along that time when they ate hot pot. This person clearly held a high position.

He didn’t want to ask Xia Yumeng to look for Xiao Yuan. After all, he was her father’s secretary, and they weren’t even married yet. If he went to trouble him whenever something happened, what would Xia Yumeng’s parents think?

Zhou Xiaopeng seemed like a good person, but as the saying went, deep conversations with someone you barely knew were inappropriate. They had only met once, and that time he had also rather tactfully refused Qin Ruoyun’s request to sign the [Black Fox] band. If he asked him for help now, then next time he wouldn’t be able to open his mouth to refuse them.

Call the police?

If he had solid evidence that Li Lang was selling pirated goods, then he could report him and have him arrested. But with Ma Dayao’s social connections, this matter would most likely just end with a fine.

If he involved the authorities, he had to do it in one move. If he failed to crush Li Lang this time, things would become troublesome afterward. With his current ability, he couldn’t withstand the constant harassment from these street thugs. By then, he would still have to trouble Zhou Dongbing.

Lin Hao smoked three cigarettes in a row and sighed. Improving his own strength was the most important thing. Even just having fame and money wasn’t enough!

After thinking it over, he could only stabilize Li Lang first and then find another solution.

He took out his phone and called Li Lang back.

“Mr. Li, I heard you went to my school looking for me?”

Lin Hao was very polite, even addressing him as “Mr. Li.”

Li Lang hadn’t expected Lin Hao to call him himself.

“Yeah, where are you?”

“I’m in Shanghai participating in a competition!”

Li Lang wanted to catch Lin Hao and teach him a good lesson, then threaten him into cooperating with him. But Lin Hao’s phone call had come so unexpectedly that he was left muttering, not knowing what to say.

“I tossed and turned all night and couldn’t sleep. I thought about it, and I feel President Li’s suggestion really isn’t bad!” Lin Hao said sincerely, a smile on the corner of his mouth.

“Really?” Li Lang was overjoyed. If Lin Hao could think this way, that would be great. They could solve things peacefully without losing face. This was what they called making money through harmony!

“Really!” Lin Hao continued. “However, thirty percent is too little. I think President Li isn’t being sincere enough!”

“Then tell me what you want!” Li Lang could barely hide his excitement.

“Forty percent. And it has to be forty percent of the sales revenue! I’m only responsible for recording. I won’t care about anything else, but I need to know the production quantity and sales figures clearly!”

Li Lang was only afraid Lin Hao would ask for fifty percent. After all, Lin Hao only had to move his mouth and had no costs, while he himself had huge expenses. From recording to manufacturing, then printing the covers, and sending those younger guys out to run the market—everything cost money!

Now that he heard Lin Hao wanted forty percent, he stopped hesitating.

“Fine, then it’s a deal! When are you coming back?”

“Today is only the first day of the competition. There are still a few more days. I’ll contact you after I return!”

After both sides hung up, Li Lang happily slapped Hou Biao’s thigh and burst into laughter.

“It’s done! This kid even said he tossed and turned all night and couldn’t sleep—what a load of crap! Someone from his school must have told him we went looking for him. He got scared! Damn it!”

Hou Biao asked, “He agreed just like that?”

He found it somewhat unbelievable. He still remembered what happened that night last winter very clearly. Lin Hao and the others had all been drunk senseless, yet every single one of them had rushed forward to fight.

Those people didn’t look like the type who were afraid of trouble. How could they hear that someone had gone to their school looking for them and immediately become scared enough to agree?

Li Lang curled his lips. “How could he agree that easily? He wants forty percent of the sales revenue!”

Hou Biao sucked in a breath.

The difference between net profit and sales revenue was huge. If Lin Hao wanted forty percent of the net profit, they could manipulate the costs and claim whatever amount they wanted to spend.

But sales revenue was troublesome. After all, Lin Hao could simply look at how many copies were produced. That calculation was easy, and there was no way to cheat.

Lin Hao’s outrageous demand had eliminated the two men’s suspicions.

As the saying went, apply knowledge flexibly. Lin Hao had learned this trick from the Qin general Wang Jian.

Before setting out for war, Wang Jian made a request to Qin Shi Huang, hoping that he could be granted more fertile farmland and that some members of his clan could receive official positions.

Qin Shi Huang said that after winning the war, he would make him a king and grant him noble titles. But Wang Jian refused and only asked for farmland and some official posts.

Qin Shi Huang had no choice but to agree.

After setting out for battle, Wang Jian continued sending memorials requesting more farmland, and he did so more than once.

Some of his subordinates were confused. Being made a king and receiving noble titles was such an honorable thing. After all, only after winning a great victory would it be reasonable to ask for such rewards.

But Wang Jian told them that he was doing this to preserve his own life—to make Qin Shi Huang believe he was merely someone greedy for wealth.

Later, after Wang Jian conquered Chu, Qin Shi Huang indeed granted him a large amount of farmland.

Wang Jian had made outstanding contributions to Qin, but he did not become arrogant because of his achievements. Instead, he resigned from office and returned home. He knew that his achievements had already made the emperor wary of him, and he could no longer hold military power. It was better to withdraw while he still could.

Although Lin Hao’s situation was different from Wang Jian’s, he understood that only by showing his greed would he make Li Lang believe him.

……

Lin Hao glanced at his phone to confirm it was still on vibration mode before putting it back into his pocket.

He stood up, patted the dust off his backside, and walked back into the theater.

At noon, he ate several baskets of steamed soup dumplings at a small restaurant nearby. They tasted pretty good.

A little after three in the afternoon, the list of contestants advancing to the second round was released. There were three people in total, and the first name on the list was his.

Everything happened exactly as expected. Lin Hao wasn’t particularly surprised.

After leaving the theater, he walked along while calling his teacher Fan Gang and Xia Yumeng separately. Then he started wandering toward the Huangpu River.

With nothing to do and no worries on his mind, he wanted to stroll to the river and look at the night scenery.

Wan Yong’s girlfriend Chen Chen had also advanced to the second round. After spending some time celebrating with her, Wan Yong held her hand, and the two of them planned to go shopping.

Chen Chen was very happy, hopping and skipping along the way.

But Wan Yong kept thinking about how to mess with Lin Hao and how to make him suffer.

Back then, if it hadn’t been for Lin Hao, he would have been earning 150 yuan a day at the ferry crossing and living quite comfortably. But because of him, he had become a laughingstock!

After that night, it didn’t take long before the whole school was buzzing with rumors. Everyone was saying that he had plagiarized someone else’s song, and some even said he had been beaten up badly by people from the bar…

How could he possibly still have the face to stay there?