Mister Li, the Heart Bandit

Panda Novel

Li Shaogan was stunned in disbelief. "No way!"

Back then, everyone was looking at him like a piece of trash with no hope of salvation.

Li Shaoling merely pried his fingers away and straighten the wrinkles over his coat and calmly said, "Believe it or not, that's up to you."

"That said, you mustn't forget that just as I could restore the family, I could have them fall too." Li Shaoling stood by the window and overlooked all that was beneath his feet.

Beneath clouds of gloom, his side profile reflected darkly as he spoke unemotionally. "I can let you take my place, but you would have to tell the Qiao family to leave."

There it was: that eternally unaffected kingly attitude of Li Shaoling which Li Shaogan hated to death.

He was the only child of direct descent in the Li family! What right did that bastard have to stand taller than him?

Did he even have a place in the family?!

"You think I would listen to you?!" Li Shaogan narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Dream on!"

The Li family never afforded him any warmth even though he was born and raised amongst them. It could fall for all he cared!

"Do as you wish."

Li Shaoling did not waste any more words with him, and turned to leave.

He did not need the Li family any longer, nor did he care.

He never considered himself a part of them, so Li Shaogan could destroy them or whatever he liked—it had nothing to do with him.

"President Li, what was going on!?" The assistant had been putting his head on the door, almost knocking into Li Shaoling when he opened the door.

He scratched his head awkwardly, having heard the entire conversation between the brothers.

Their exchange really opened new horizons for him, and he finally understood the true meaning of the phrase 'digging your own grave'.

"President Li, about just now… I'm sorry." The assistant suddenly felt that his own attitude towards Li Shaoling had been too much.

Li Shaoling merely offered a grunt in return and took the elevator downstairs.

"Where are you going, President Li?" The assistant asked.

"Home."

"Huh? What about the company?"

Li Shaoling shot him an icy glare. "It has nothing to do with me."

***

The ground floor lobby of CBS Tower.

The stockholders had been held in the lobby and unable to leave. They swarmed towards Li Shaoling the moment they saw him arrive, as if they had finally found their savior.

"President Li, what should we do?!"

They usually acted like tigers, but the moment things became awry just like today, they all promptly became paper tigers.

Li Shaoling frowned. "I've resigned as president of CBS, effective today."

Too many people wanted him dead in that seat, and it was much better to throw his hands up and concede.

With a child, with Ji Weixi, he had obtained things that he cared about.

Nonetheless, his words left the entire scene in an uproar.

"Bad news, President Li!" That was when another man dressed in western clothing approached him with a grim look.

The man then put his hand at his sides as he bowed ninety degrees and exclaimed in anguish. "We have just received word… the Old Madam… the Old Madam has passed away!"

Li Shaoling was surprised for the briefest of moment before he reverted to his usual apathy.

Old Madam Li actually died.

But that's nothing to be surprised about: she was already extremely lucky to survive until now.

Beep—

Just as everyone were too stunned to react to the turn of events, a curious sound echoed from somewhere.

It was positively rhythmic.

Beep—

"What's that sound?"

"Why am I hearing… a bomb?!"

The crowd panicked instant someone said that, and they swarmed to the main entrance, slamming the doors as they tried to leave.

However, the black-clothed people the Qiao family sent had sealed the doors, and retreated after they noted the time.

Those actions made everything clear: the Qiao family wanted Li Shaoling dead.

Naturally, Li Shaogan wanted him dead too—and he must have fled early on.

For one person, they would bury the entire core of CBS with him.

Beep-beep—

The bomb timer was ticking even quicker.

It was about to blow.

But while everyone was frightened out of their wits, Li Shaoling had picked up a fire extinguisher and smashed the doors, but the glass was bulletproof and too sturdy.

Nonetheless, he continued hitting well shouting coldly, "Come help if you don't want to die!"

Bunch of idiots!

All of them worked together now, and cracks started to appear over the doors. It was just about to shatter.

Beep-beep-beep—

The beeping became even more rapid.

Li Shaoling took one step back and brought the glass down with a whirling kick, and the crowd all ran outside as hard as they could.

They were just six meters away when it happened.

Boom—

The thunderous explosion rumbled beyond the horizon. Fire, light, concrete, and dust shot across every direction as the dozen-floor building crumbled resoundingly. The billowing smoke seemed to engulf the clouds, leaving a sight as horrific as the apocalypse.

Li Shaoling slammed heavily on the ground several meters away, his body laden full of concrete shards and debris. The explosion had left his ears ringing, and the worlds seemed to be spinning around him as he tried to stand up. In his head, nerves were being violently pulling at themselves to the point that it could burst.

His strength left him and he slammed down heavily once again, his dark eyes tightly shutting as he vomited a mouthful of blood, while his mind slowly played back fragments of memories.

He saw one, and remembered that it was just one year after he lost his memories.

At the time, he had stumbled upon an exchange between Wilson and Old Madam Li.

"Madam, what if young master finds out what you did someday!?"

"He would know eventually, but I… I did that for his own good!"

Wilson sighed. "Madam, you shouldn't have sabotaged the car just to make him amnesiac…"

Old Madam Li did no say a word, but Li Shaoling knew right then that his grandmother did not merely want him to lose his memories.

She wanted him dead.

But somehow things turned out that he ended up losing his memories but not his life.

He recovered for a moment just then, but was still unable to hear the surrounding groans and blood-curdling screams—his eardrums felt as if they were stabbed by a knife so painfully that he was about to faint.

Suddenly, another familiar yet mysterious scene appeared over his eyes.

There was a sea of flames.

He was eight years old, and witnessing firsthand the terrible death of his own mother.

The fierce-looking man was approaching with every passing step, while he kept shrinking to escape him. Even so, his back soon met the wall—with him having nowhere to run, the man promptly caught him by the neck and choked him forcefully.

He was suffocating when a girl stumbled towards them, and tried all she could to pry off the man's hands.

"Daddy, let him go!"

"Daddy, I'm begging you! Please don't kill Brother Lin…"

The girl was just around six. When she realized what she did wasn't working, she opened her small mouth and bit down on the man's hand, and it was in that pain that the man let him go.

"Brother Ling, run!" The girl firmly pushed him outside, towards the blue skies.

He was raggedly thrown outside, watching as the whole building crumbled while man and girl was instantly drowned away…

The images played out one after another, almost resembling a movie.

Li Shaoling lay down on the cold ground as fiery light cracked and burned around him, unable to hear the sirens of the arriving ambulances.

He stared out blankly, his gaze greying and empty without a focus.

It was hopeless.

"Ji… Weixi…" He whispered, his words scattering to the wind.