Chapter 135: That brat is playing me!

"Are you sure you are not joking with me?"

"Every single material supplier in the surrounding area is under our control. Absolutely no one would choose to cooperate with him."

Leng Tianyi stared at Leng Ningxue with wide eyes, still unable to believe the intelligence he had just received.

He had originally thought that this joint effort by the four major families to deal with a mere Lin Li would go off without a single hitch.

Yet who could have expected that so many twists would occur, turning out a reality completely different from his earlier presumptions?

"I have told you everything I need to tell you. Whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you. However, I advise you not to underestimate Lin Li's capabilities; this fellow is far more difficult to deal with than you imagine."

Seeing that Leng Tianyi still remained entirely incredulous about the current situation, Leng Ningxue simply offered a faint remark from the side.

From Leng Ningxue's expression, Leng Tianyi knew she was most likely not joking. At least on this matter, there was no reason for her to lie to him.

If things truly stood as she described, it meant that every decision they had previously made was nothing short of a joke.

Under such circumstances, the consequences for them would be even more severe.

"Lin Li must have anticipated that we would pull a stunt like this long ago, and he has already made preparations in advance."

"The only reason he hasn't struck back until now was simply to let the public pressure build up."

"It's not that this kid had no way to resolve the issue, but rather that he wanted to settle it under the most favorable conditions."

Although this sounded a bit like a conspiracy theory, he had to admit that if all of this were true, it meant they had all been played for fools by Lin Li.

Yet at this moment, he truly lacked any particularly good methods to resolve these complicated matters.

At this thought, a massive headache washed over Leng Tianyi.

He had thought everything was proceeding according to plan and that resolving these issues would be effortless.

Never did they anticipate that things would turn out to be infinitely more complicated than imagined.

"Anyway, this is the intelligence I was able to gather. As you know, I have a cooperative relationship with Lin Li, so I do not wish for the Leng family to be dragged down by this."

"As for everyone else, it has nothing to do with me."

Leng Ningxue spoke with absolute indifference.

She naturally left the remaining issues unsaid.

She trusted that by this point, Leng Tianyi already knew what he ought to do.

The four major families had previously believed they still had ways to handle Lin Li, but after receiving this intelligence, they would surely wake up to their actual plight.

Perhaps they still possessed quite a few tricks up their sleeves, indeed.

However, their opponent was equally formidable.

To continue treating Lin Li as an adversary who could be easily crushed would be a grave mistake.

Meanwhile, Ning Yurou had naturally learned of this situation as well.

When she relayed the news to Ning Rusheng, the latter was deeply shocked.

"I never imagined that Lin Li's composure and fortitude would far exceed anything we anticipated."

Anyone else targeted so aggressively by the four major families would surely be in a state of immense anxiety by now.

Yet from Lin Li's side, not the slightest hint of tension could be felt.

What kind of methods this young man truly possessed remained unclear to them.

It could be said that Lin Li's move dealt a sudden, vicious backstab to many people. Not only the four major families, but even Ye Aotian was utterly unprepared for this.

In Ye Aotian's original plan, he had no intention of letting the four major families learn the truth of the situation.

After all, if the four major families found out that Lin Li had already secured new material suppliers, their so-called suppression would cease to exist, and those families might even rush to offer donations at the very first moment.

Should that happen, all of Ye Aotian's prior plans would utterly fail.

And he would become a complete and utter laughingstock.

Therefore, Ye Aotian would certainly spare no effort to prevent this situation from happening.

Everyone in the four major families already knew that Ye Aotian had caught wind of this news beforehand.

Yet he had deliberately kept the truth from them.

No one here was a fool; naturally, they could all see right through Ye Aotian's hidden agenda.

Thus, cutting Ye Aotian out of the loop, the four patriarchs of the major families gathered together once again.

"We originally thought Ye Aotian stood on the same front as us, but looking at it now, that doesn't seem to be the case."

Ning Rusheng glanced at Leng Tianyi and said indifferently.

Beside him, Lin Yousheng and Xiao Qimin both nodded in strong agreement.

"Regarding the fact that the Qin Group has already secured subsequent material supplies, I believe everyone here is aware of it, right?"

Lin Yousheng widened his eyes.

"Huh? I had no idea."

Even Xiao Qimin shook his head; only Xiao Mei'er was privy to this matter.

Leng Tianyi and Ning Rusheng sighed heavily.

"We only just received the news as well. That kid Lin Li started laying out his plans in secret a long time ago."

"That's why our so-called suppression never truly existed. The only reason he didn't strike preemptively was to pile up public pressure against us."

Having weathered countless storms, these men were seasoned veterans. With just a brief description, they could roughly piece together what Lin Li was plotting.

Yet right now, they had to admit that this young man had indeed dealt them a massive, unpleasant surprise.

Under these circumstances, they were utterly clueless as to how they should respond moving forward.

"Who would have ever thought that this brat could pull off something like this? For us right now, this is a terribly troublesome dilemma," Lin Yousheng said abruptly.

"Actually, how Lin Li arranges things doesn't really matter. After all, if he lacked even this much capability, it would be a pipe dream for the Qin Group to complete the Tianxin District project."

"The crucial point is that when such a major event occurred, why didn't Ye Aotian ever notify us?"

As he spoke, his gaze shifted toward Leng Tianyi in the distance.

"Prior to this, you kept insisting that Ye Aotian was standing on our side, and that no matter what happened, he would be the first to offer us unconditional help."

"It was precisely because of this reason that we chose to stand in direct opposition to Lin Li."

"Yet now, when such a monumental thing has happened, he didn't even bother to tell us. I'd love to know what the reason for that is?"

Leng Tianyi fell silent. He had indeed been backstabbed by Ye Aotian in this matter; had Leng Ningxue not informed him, he might still have been kept completely in the dark.

The anger of the men before him was entirely justified.

Placed in their shoes, anyone would harbor the exact same resentment.

Everyone understood Ye Aotian's true intentions all too well; they were simply choosing not to voice them out loud just yet.