Chapter 30: Violent Demolition? I'm Giving You Life-Saving Money!
In the early morning, a layer of grey haze shrouded the sky over the West Suburbs Chemical Industrial Park.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of sulfur and metal oxides. This industrial waste, accumulated over many years, had caused the vegetation within a few kilometers to take on a sickly, scorched yellow hue.
Lu Shixuan sat in the back seat of a black Range Rover. He had casually driven it out of the garage earlier, reasoning that "the ferrari's chassis is too low, I'm afraid the mud here will dirty the rims."
He rolled down the window and looked at the dilapidated factory buildings and a few low-lying bungalows in the distance that were still emitting smoke. His eyes were full of disdain.
"Chu Yaoyao, is this the 'paradise' you were talking about?"
Lu Shixuan fanned his nose in disgust, pointing at a stinking ditch glowing green not far away.
"This Young Master came here to build a stray dog shelter, not to be a manure scooper."
"Even dogs wouldn't want to stay in this hellhole. Only a bumpkin like you would think there's investment value here."
Chu Yaoyao sat beside him, holding a thick stack of planning sketches.
She had already grown accustomed to Lu Shixuan's rhythm of "scolding first, doing later."
She turned her head to look at Lu Shixuan's face, which was written all over with "I'm very unhappy," but an imperceptible curve formed at the corner of her mouth.
Because that familiar inner voice had already started firing off in her mind like a machine gun.
[Fuck!]
[This place is even worse than I imagined!]
[This isn't a chemical park; this is clearly a toxic powder keg!]
[The groundwater has been completely permeated by heavy metals. Why are those few households of villagers still drinking well water?]
[Look at the dried vegetables being sunned at that doorstep; they're covered in lead-containing dust. Eating that, they'll definitely get leukemia within three years.]
[System!]
[In that planning map you gave me, can that 'Deep Soil Replacement Plan' really be done for only five hundred million?]
[No, I have to hurry and drive these people away. They can't stay for even one more minute.]
Lu Shixuan suddenly pushed open the car door. His leather shoes stepped onto the greasy mud, making a tooth-aching sound.
Several burly men wearing worn-out camouflage and carrying steel pipes were standing crookedly, blocking the main gate of the chemical plant.
The leader was a one-eyed man with a face full of scars, nicknamed "Mountain-Drilling Leopard." He was a well-known local thug in the area, specializing in occupying abandoned factories to collect "management fees."
"Yo, where did this pretty boy come from?"
One-Eye spat out the cigarette butt in his mouth and squinted at Lu Shixuan, weighing the steel pipe in his palm.
"This factory is under our Brother Leopard's management now. If you want to go in, pay a five million toll first."
Lu Shixuan sneered; this was exactly the line he was waiting for.
He strode forward, pulled a stack of checks directly from his pocket, scribbled a few zeros, and then arrogantly slapped them against One-Eye's face.
"Five million? This Young Master will give you ten million!"
Lu Shixuan pointed at One-Eye's nose, his tone arrogant to the extreme.
"Take the money, take these rotten sweet potatoes and smelly bird eggs of yours, and get lost right now!"
"Also, those few households back there—This Young Master finds them an eyesore; they're blocking my Feng Shui."
"Give each family one million in demolition compensation. They must pack up and leave within ten minutes. If they stay a second longer, I'll have the excavators bury them along with their houses!"
The entire scene fell into a dead silence.
One-Eye caught the ten-million-dollar check, his hands shaking.
He had been acting like a tyrant here for so many years, but this was the first time he had seen such a "violent demolition."
No bargaining, just throwing money?
And throwing it so unreasonably?
Not far away, the few old farmers who had planned to resist the demolition dropped their hoes on the ground when they heard the astronomical figure of "one million."
Their broken houses were worth fifty or sixty thousand at most.
Lu Shixuan looked at the stunned expressions of the people around him and felt ecstatic inside.
[Haha!]
[This play of 'oppressing the commoners' is in the bag!]
[I don't believe that this kind of behavior of forcibly driving people away doesn't count as being a bully!]
[Eldest Sister must be watching the surveillance right now. If she finds out I'm being such a spendthrift, she'll definitely revoke my authority.]
However, in the surveillance room of the Lu Family Manor.
Lu Qingwan looked at Lu Shixuan's posturing on the screen, her eyes heating up slightly.
She was holding a geological report that Lu Anran had just retrieved.
"Unidentified geological fissures discovered beneath the West Suburbs Chemical Plant. Due to long-term chemical erosion, there is a risk of collapse within the next 48 hours."
This was the conclusion Lu Anran had simulated through satellite data.
And Lu Shixuan clearly knew about it long ago.
"A Xuan... he's saving lives."
Lu Qingwan's voice was a bit hoarse.
"He knew those villagers wouldn't leave easily, so he deliberately used this 'bully' method to force a huge sum of money on them that they couldn't earn in a lifetime, forcing them to leave the danger zone immediately."
"He even used ten million to shut up those local thugs so they wouldn't cause trouble."
Lu Hongyi stood to the side, clutching a walkie-talkie, her eyes full of pride.
"Eldest Sister, my people are ready."
"As soon as those villagers evacuate, we will immediately seal off the scene."
"This 'bully' role A Xuan is playing is truly one of great benevolence and righteousness."
At the entrance of the chemical plant.
Seeing the villagers still hesitating, Lu Shixuan jumped onto a large abandoned rock in frustration and pointed at the elderly and children, cursing loudly.
"Can't you understand human speech? This Young Master has plenty of money and just wants to build a dog kennel here!"
"You poor ghosts staying here will affect my dogs' mood!"
"Get lost already! Take the money and go buy a big house in the city, don't be an eyesore here!"
While he cursed, he inadvertently swept his gaze over a patch of ground nearby.
The God-level Architectural Planning technique was warning him frantically.
The color of the soil there had turned a bizarre dark purple, a sign that underground biogas mixed with chemical waste was about to erupt.
[Dammit!]
[Only five minutes left!]
[Why aren't these old stubborns leaving yet?]
[Do I have to resort to violence?]
Lu Shixuan suddenly snatched a megaphone from a bodyguard's hand and let out a final "roar" at the crowd.
"Three minutes! Last three minutes!"
"Whoever leaves first, I'll add another five hundred thousand as a 'moving fee'!"
"Whoever leaves last won't get a cent and will have their legs broken by me!"
Under heavy rewards, there will surely be brave souls.
Under the impact of "1.5 million," several households practically scrambled to run out, fearing that this lunatic Lu Shixuan would go back on his word.
One-Eye also knew when to quit and slipped away with his subordinates trailing behind him.
Just as the last household evacuated to a safe zone five hundred meters away.
"BOOM—!!"
A dull, massive explosion came from deep beneath the chemical plant.
Immediately after, the ground where the bungalows had just been situated actually collapsed like tofu, forming a bottomless black hole.
Dark purple toxic gas spewed out, instantly corroding the surrounding broken walls and debris.
If those people had still been in their houses, there probably wouldn't even be bone fragments left by now.
The villagers who had fled to the distance stared blankly at this scene, then all looked together at Lu Shixuan standing on the rock.
A life-saver.
How was this a bully?
This was simply a living Bodhisattva descended to earth!
Lu Shixuan stood on the rock, looking at that black hole, his whole being numb.
[Fuck... it collapsed?]
[System, your calculation was way too accurate, wasn't it?]
[I just finished scolding them and the houses collapsed. How am I supposed to explain this?]
[I just said I was going to build a dog kennel!]
Chu Yaoyao walked over, ignoring the pungent smell around them, and gently took Lu Shixuan's hand.
She looked up at the young man's face, which was written with "life is meaningless," and her smile was as bright as a flower.
"Young Master Lu, it seems your dogs will have to find another place to live."
"Shut up!"
Lu Shixuan shook off her hand in embarrassed rage and shouted at the air.
"What are you looking at? The houses collapsed because the quality was poor. What does that have to do with me?"
"My ten million was spent in vain! This Young Master is in a terrible mood right now!"
Ding!
Detected that the host has completed the 'Violent Demolition and Extravagant Waste' task.
Since the host successfully saved thirteen lives and pre-emptively triggered the ecological crisis in the West Suburbs, gaining valuable time for the government's subsequent treatment.
System Judgment: The host is not only a bully but also a savior with a God's-eye view.
Reward: 15 million in cash.
Reward: God-level Environmental Governance Technology (Advanced Version).
villain points: -10,000 (host, your status in the hearts of the people in the West Suburbs has already surpassed that of the Earth God).
Lu Shixuan sat down on the rock and, looking at the dust flying in the air, let out a soul-searching question.
"System, I really just want to be a villain. Why is all of humanity acting against me?"
At this moment, Lu Qingwan's phone call came through.
"A Xuan, well done. That pit in the West Suburbs, Eldest Sister has already helped you fill it."
"Additionally, those thirteen households of villagers jointly sent a silk banner to the company. On it, it says..."
"Says what?" Lu Shixuan gritted his teeth.
"It says: Young Master Lu is truly a Chaos Demon King... the life-saving and hardship-relieving version."
Lu Shixuan: "..."
I fucking want to die, don't anyone stop me!