Chapter 147: Step Aside, Let Me Handle This!
"If I take the money, I'll do the job properly. That's how I work. But I expect you to be equally upfront—tell me exactly what the job entails."
Li Tang made his stance clear once again.
His attitude was so strong and unyielding, it hardly resembled the usual submissive tone of someone trying to land a contract.
If Parker were a more short-tempered client, he probably would've stormed out by now.
Yet instead, faced with Li Tang's firmness, Parker restrained himself.
He changed his demeanor, putting on a new face—polite and gentlemanly.
It was clear he desperately wanted to work with Li Tang.
"Alright, I'll tell you the truth," he said.
"We need to modify some data, and we need a Chinese engineer to sign off on it. But that old man refused to cooperate.
All he had to do was sign a few names, and he could've earned a million yuan. So easy!
But no—he's a fool. He turned it down!"
Li Tang's heart skipped a beat.
"What kind of data are you trying to modify?"
Parker knew that if he wanted someone's cooperation, honesty would get him further.
There was no hiding it. People weren't blind—they'd see what they were signing.
Rather than conceal the truth, it was better to spell it out and offer enough money to tempt the other side.
"We believe some of the assay results from the drill cores were incorrect.
After applying the world's most advanced theoretical methods, our geologists decided to revise them to better reflect the 'actual' values.
This is a growing trend in the West.
Chinese geologists aren't familiar with this methodology."
Parker laid it all out, though his words were laced with vagueness.
Li Tang cut to the chase:
"So, you're trying to alter the assay results."
"We're applying scientific corrections," Parker insisted, still pushing his ridiculous theory.
But Li Tang was a professional. He coldly replied,
"Chemical assay data is the most authoritative evidence in determining whether a drill hole hit ore.
It's stamped by accredited labs. You think it's something you can just 'correct'?"
He wasn't stupid.
But this guy was clearly treating him like one.
And forget "the West"—not even on the moon would anyone dare to tamper with official assay results under the guise of "advanced science."
Parker was clearly trying to commit fraud—to fabricate false resource data.
And once Li Tang signed off on it, if the truth ever came out, he'd be forever blacklisted from the industry.
His professional reputation would be ruined.
"Money!"
Parker waved the cash in the air.
"You work for us, do as we say, and I'll give you a million yuan!"
"Shut up."
Li Tang stared him down, then suddenly switched to Mandarin and cursed,
"You piece of foreign trash!"
Parker didn't understand what he said, but Alice—who was fluent—clearly did.
She looked at Li Tang in shock and reminded him,
"Please, show some respect."
"Not knocking your teeth out is the only respect you're getting."
Li Tang was livid.
This wasn't a business proposal. It was a trap.
There's a saying:
"When a friend arrives, offer fine wine; when a wolf arrives, ready the shotgun."
He wasn't someone to be bullied.
Suddenly, all the fragmented memories in his mind started to align.
Everything clicked into place.
"Baika Gold Mine…"
He muttered to himself.
No wonder the name had sounded so familiar earlier.
He hadn't worked on the Baika project before, nor visited the site, and didn't even know much about its geology.
But the mine was infamous.
If history hadn't changed, at some point in the future, Parker would stand in front of the media, waving a falsified assay report, and announce the discovery of a high-grade gold deposit at Baika.
Xinan Resources' stock price would skyrocket—multiplying several times over.
And with insider knowledge, Parker would sell off his shares and pocket a massive fortune.
At one point, Baika was touted as having more than 400 tons of gold—allegedly China's largest gold deposit.
But to put it in perspective, even China's largest verified gold deposits don't exceed 150 tons.
Eventually, the fraud was exposed.
The truth came out: Baika's actual reserves were just 20–30 tons—a mid-sized deposit with average grade.
Parker, Xinan's CEO, was banned for life by Canadian authorities from any future involvement with publicly traded mining firms.
Li Tang stared at him, taking in his appearance once more—those shifty eyes and smug expression.
He didn't usually judge people by their looks.
But this time, Parker's face seemed to perfectly match his rotten character.
"Perfect fit," Li Tang thought, lips curling into a sarcastic smile.
This clown had picked the wrong person to mess with.
Parker mistook Li Tang's silence for consideration.
"You've thought it through?"
"Yes," Li Tang nodded, took a long sip of water, then said calmly,
"I understand everything now."
"You're a smart man!"
Parker grinned and lifted his coffee mug—only to find it snatched away.
He looked up and saw Li Tang holding it.
"That cup costs over 50 yuan," Li Tang said as he placed it far away on the desk.
"You're not drinking it. You don't deserve it."
"I'm offering you a million, and you won't even let me have a cup of coffee?" Parker was furious.
"I'm the client. You need to adjust your attitude—or you won't make any money."
"Go f*** yourself."
Li Tang cursed him outright.
"What did he say?" Parker asked, confused.
Alice frowned and didn't translate.
Instead, she spoke in Mandarin, warning Li Tang,
"If you want a deal, you need to be respectful."
"Your very presence here is the biggest sign of disrespect," Li Tang snapped.
He suspected she, too, had been deceived by Parker.
He walked up, leaned down, and glared into Parker's eyes.
"Get out."
This wasn't a misunderstanding.
It was a calculated scam—and he wasn't going to smile and play along.
If he weren't still thinking rationally, he would've already thrown a punch.
"Oh my God, you're completely irrational!"
Parker was stunned by the intensity in Li Tang's eyes.
He felt as though an icy blast was pouring from this young Chinese man's stare.
Terrified, he stood and began gathering his things.
But he couldn't swallow his pride.
Arrogant to the bone, he lashed out,
"You're rude!
A million yuan could make you royalty in this poor country!
You've offended the gods! You've thrown away your one chance! You'll be poor forever!"
"You're just like that old fool!"
At this point, he was basically calling Li Tang a moron.
"One more word and I'll beat your face in," Li Tang said, furious but holding back—for now.
Seeing his expression, Parker and his two assistants scrambled out the door, breaking into a jog through the open-plan office.
Still, Parker couldn't help himself.
Just before exiting, he shouted back:
"You Chinese savages are nothing but monkeys! You deserve to live in trees and starve forever!"
That was it.
From the start, Parker had treated Li Tang with condescension—like he was doing him a favor by offering a partnership.
Li Tang had tolerated a lot.
But that final insult?
That broke the last thread of his patience.
"Stop him!"
Li Tang dashed out like a sprinter.
Inside the office, his chair still spun from the sudden movement.
BAM!
A heavy thud echoed through the building.
Li Tang's fist landed square on Parker's mouth.
Crack!
"AHHHHHHHHHHH—!"
Parker let out a shrill, agonizing scream as two front teeth flew across the polished tile floor, leaving behind a trail of blood.
"Woooooo—"
He clutched his mouth, sobbing in pain.
Then he looked up into Li Tang's eyes—and shrank back in terror.
"I'll give you something to really cry about!"
Li Tang leapt forward and straddled Parker, fist raised high, ready to strike again.
"Let me at him!"
A loud voice rang out from behind.
A figure burst onto the scene, swinging a chair like a hammer and smashing it down on Parker's curled-up body.
If Li Tang hadn't dodged in time, that chair might've hit him.
He looked up.
It was none other than He Runqi!
He hadn't been part of the earlier conversation—he'd been helping the new hires unpack desks and chairs.
But when he saw the commotion near the elevator, he'd grabbed a chair and charged in.
One hit wasn't enough.
He picked up the chair and raised it again.
"Enough!"
Li Tang saw that He was even wilder than he was.
He quickly grabbed He Runqi's arm to stop him.
A quick scuffle was one thing—but if Parker ended up brain damaged, they'd be in serious trouble.
"What happened?" He Runqi asked, still itching for more.
"You guys looked all friendly earlier. I even went downstairs to buy expensive foreign coffee for them."
From the open office area, he had seen the initial calm through the glass.
"You didn't hear the crap he was spewing?"
Li Tang shook his aching hand.
"I heard. That's why I came to help.
If this happened in our village, we'd break his jaw for talking like that," He said angrily.
"His teeth are already out."
"Why'd it turn into a brawl?" He was still confused.
"The guy tried to scam us. I said no. He got offended."
Li Tang shook his head in disbelief.
"I don't know where that guy got his inflated ego."
Once he calmed down, He looked at the pale-faced foreigners.
For the first time, he seemed a little nervous.
"These are foreigners… now what?"
In China, foreigners were often called "distinguished guests" and treated with courtesy.
There had been a time when many Chinese harbored a deep sense of inferiority toward the West—questioning even their own 5,000-year-old civilization.
But that wasn't due to culture—it was poverty.
When your own people wore rags and faced off against well-dressed foreigners, it was easy to feel lesser.
But that era was ending.
With a richer, stronger nation, Chinese people now stood tall wherever they went.
Li Tang understood why Parker dared to act so arrogantly in China.
He was used to being flattered wherever he went.
All that praise had gone to his head.
Li Tang wasn't looking for trouble—but he wasn't afraid of it either.
"It's fine."
He waved it off like nothing happened.
"You're bleeding!" He Runqi gasped.
"Haven't been in a fight since elementary school,"
Li Tang said, wincing as he looked at the deep gashes on his knuckles—probably from slamming into Parker's teeth.
Still, he smiled and joked:
"Look at those two deep marks. I'll probably need a couple of rabies shots."
"For real!" He Runqi nodded solemnly.
The other employees finally caught up and gathered around, backing them up.
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