Fifty million a day, trapped in the county town, can't spend it all.

Zhang Yang stared at his phone screen, pondering the message repeatedly, before putting his phone back in his pocket.

Liu Chuang stood behind him the whole time, watching his brows furrow and relax, wondering what he was thinking.

"Mr. Zhang, is there a problem?"

Liu Senran said that there are still people investigating Zhao Yongchang.

"Could it be someone behind Zhao Yongchang? After all, so much time has passed since the account book incident. Given the capabilities of his backers, they should have obtained substantial evidence by now."

"That's possible." Zhang Yang said thoughtfully. "Alright, let's not think about it for now. We'll talk about it when we have definite news. Don't worry about this for now. Security at the mall is your top priority right now. Don't let your guard down just because the storm has subsided."

"clear."

In the afternoon, seeing that everything was stable at the mall, Zhang Yang decided to go back. He had woken up too early this morning and gone through that incident, and now that the tension had eased, he felt a little tired.

Just as Zhang Yang and Liu Chuang were about to leave, Chen Rou ran towards him with a stack of receipts in her hand.

"Brother, the afternoon sales figures are out. They've dropped a bit compared to this morning, but they're still far beyond expectations." She handed Zhang Yang a receipt. "Please sign this receipt; it's the compensation you promised the customer this morning."

Zhang Yang took the pen and signed it. Chen Rou took the receipt and left. Just then, her phone rang again. She took it out and saw that it was an unknown number.

After hesitating for a moment, he answered the phone.

"Zhang Yang?" A deep male voice came from the phone, the tone unfamiliar, with an indescribable sense of oppression.

"Who is it?"

"You don't need to know who I am. I'm here today to tell you something: you don't need to investigate Zhao Yongchang's matter anymore."

Zhang Yang frowned: "Why should I?"

"I have my reasons. You just need to know that Zhao Yongchang will receive the punishment he deserves, but he shouldn't have fallen into your hands."

Zhang Yang was almost laughing in anger. Hearing this, he could roughly guess who the other party was.

"What do you mean by 'falling into my hands'? I have no interest in him."

The other party didn't seem to care whether he agreed or not, and continued, "Just do your own thing. Mou County is so big, it'll keep you busy enough."

Then the call was hung up.

"Mr. Zhang, whose call is this?" Liu Chuang's voice sounded somewhat alert, perhaps noticing that Zhang Yang's expression was off.

Zhang Yang put down his phone and shook his head: "I don't know, maybe you dialed the wrong number."

Although he said that, he was wary. It was unusual that the other party had obtained his phone number so easily.

But judging from the other party's words, it seemed that they didn't have any ill intentions towards me, so I thought, whatever. Someone can help me get rid of Zhao Yongchang, and I'm happy to have some peace and quiet.

But we still need to investigate those who seem to be acting out of nowhere.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yang took out his phone and sent a message to Liu Senran: "I just got a call. Someone told me to stop investigating Zhao Yongchang and said he shouldn't have fallen into my hands."

Liu Senran replied quickly: "Give me the number, I'll check it."

Zhang Yang sent the number over.

At six o'clock in the evening, the mall lights came on.

The setting sun slanted into the ground floor through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting an orange-yellow shadow on the ground. The neatly arranged goods on the shelves shone with a soft, warm light in the afterglow. There were fewer customers now, but some were still queuing to pay. There was also a steady stream of people who hadn't had time in the morning, or who came to the mall to digest their food after dinner.

Zhang Yang said goodbye to Sun Yifan and Chen Rou, saying he had other things to attend to and would be leaving first.

Just as I stepped out of Moore Department Store, Liu Senran sent me a message:

"That number is a virtual number, and its real name cannot be found, but the last location where the signal was detected was in the provincial capital."

provincial capital.

Zhang Yang frowned slightly as he looked at the two words.

The provincial capital and Mou County are hundreds of kilometers apart. Zhao Yongchang has already gotten on the highway and is probably heading towards the provincial capital, but why is the person making the call using a virtual number? And why is he trying to stop me from investigating?

He thought for a while but couldn't figure it out, so he simply put his phone away.

"Let's go, take me home." He glanced back one last time at the crowd surging into the mall, then got into his car and drove away.

......

When Zhang Yang woke up, it was nearly 10 p.m.

When he came downstairs rubbing his sleepy eyes, Zhang Jianming and Chen Xiuyun were eating watermelon and watching TV.

When Chen Xiuyun saw Zhang Yang come out, she greeted him, "Son, are you awake? You must be exhausted today. Are you hungry? What would you like to eat? I'll make you something."

Zhang Yang casually picked up a slice of watermelon and started eating: "I'm not hungry right now, I don't want to eat."

After saying that, he buried his head and started showing off the watermelon.

His father, Zhang Jianming, had started watching short videos at some point and coincidentally came across his company's official account.

Of course, the mall had already closed by 10 o'clock, so there was no more live broadcast.

However, quite a few videos have been released.

Zhang Yang didn't even need to look; he could guess it was one of those videos of long lines for shopping.

"Son, I see there are a lot of people at your mall today."

"Hmm, not bad. There were a lot of people coming to see it for the first time, but there probably won't be as many later on."

His mother, Chen Xiuyun, chimed in, "Son, you're compensating each of those people three hundred today. I saw there were at least several thousand people there. How much compensation are you going to give out? Is there any profit left?"

Zhang Yang smiled and explained the logic to Ms. Chen Xiuyun. The gist of it was that the compensation meant that customers would still end up spending money at his store anyway, so the money would still flow back to him. He would just earn a little less money, but the customer experience would be better, and they would most likely choose to shop at his store again in the future.

Chen Xiuyun nodded repeatedly as she listened. After pondering for a moment, she asked, "Isn't this just a capitalist tactic?"

Zhang Yang almost coughed up blood when he heard Chen Xiuyun's words.

Isn't this subsidizing customers with my own money? Customers benefit, and I salvage my reputation—a win-win situation. How did it become a capitalist tactic?

Just as I was about to say something in rebuttal, my phone rang.

Zhang Yang put the watermelon on the table, took out a tissue to wipe his hands, took out his phone and saw that Liu Senran was calling him, so he answered immediately.

"Old Liu, why are you calling me so late? Is something urgent?" Zhang Yang leaned back on the sofa and licked his lips as he spoke.

Liu Senran's voice came through the background: "Are you free? Come out and sit for a bit, I want to talk to you about something."

Zhang Yang was taken aback by this, and half-jokingly said, "You're asking me out so late at night, are you going to introduce me to some great project?"

This time, Liu Senran was taken aback: "Old Zhang, I won't beat around the bush anymore. I actually have something about the project I'd like to discuss with you. Is it a convenient time for you?"

Hearing Liu Senran say this, Zhang Yang knew that Liu must have encountered some troublesome matter. Normally, people like him from a small town would be approached by others for projects, but this was the first time Liu Senran had taken the initiative to talk about projects in all the time he had known him.

However, discussing projects is fine, especially those that require a lot of manpower, and ideally those that can bring people from other places to Mou County. Zhang Yang likes them all.

"Okay, give me your address, I'll come find you right away."