Chapter 358: Impending Storm

Inside a building next to the Law Enforcement Agency.

"The fallout from most of the incidents has been handled. Zhao Jiucheng will be suspended for a while, but Jia Wei is also one of ours, so the impact won't be significant."

"Although the leader of Intellect Brain wasn't the mastermind, he voluntarily confessed to a few other crimes, so he was still arrested."

"Tianwei's popularity is skyrocketing right now. Because of this incident, the status of those bionic species celebrities has taken a massive hit. The Sanitarium's reputation is firmly established as well. Tomorrow is the internal councilor election. With the Sanitarium acting as your mouthpiece, a single word from you is enough to dictate the councilors of Muke District."

"However—the line of people waiting to treat you to dinner stretches several months out. Here is the list."

Zeng Qing handed an excessively long list to Yan Jing, her tone laced with gloating.

"I'm not seeing any of them."

But clearly, Yan Jing's approach exceeded her expectations.

"...These are the bosses of every major corporation in Muke District. Even if you only scrape a little off the top, it would be an astronomical figure."

Seeing that Yan Jing truly had no intention of meeting them, Zeng Qing started to get anxious.

"You control nearly half of Muke District now. It's time to start raking in the money."

"Wasn't making money your goal from the very beginning?"

Yan Jing extended his index finger and wagged it gently.

"I won't be attending any of these business meetings moving forward. You and Mao Si will take my place."

"..." Zeng Qing was momentarily stunned.

"Then who makes the final call?"

"Mao Si will take the lead, and you will assist him. Mao Si gets the final say."

Yan Jing replied.

Zeng Qing's mind was far from calm.

This was essentially Yan Jing delegating his authority. Chen Xiaojing was locked up, Zhou Mo was gone, and now Yan Jing was handing power over to her. This effectively placed her in a position second only to one person, yet above ten thousand others in Muke District. Logically speaking, she should be thrilled.

But...

They were right in the middle of a massive upward trajectory. Yan Jing had absolutely no reason to give up his power now.

"You want to step away?"

"Impossible."

"Then you still want to stir up trouble?"

She stared at Yan Jing in disbelief.

"That's a harsh way to put it."

Yan Jing offered a faint smile and waved his hand. "This is called scaling new heights."

"I'm requesting to get off this ride." Zeng Qing made a rare joke, but clearly, it wasn't a funny one.

Yan Jing reached out and wrapped an arm around the conflicted Zeng Qing's shoulders. Pointing at the dazzling nightscape beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, he chuckled.

"Look at it. Just look at it, Zeng Qing. Didn't you say you wanted to reach the pinnacle? As long as you work hard, all of this is yours."

"This requires risking my life." Zeng Qing was truly frightened. She tried to squirm out of Yan Jing's grasp.

Lately, she had been dreaming about Chen Xiaojing and Zhou Mo every time she slept.

She knew very well that the man beside her wasn't some harmless husky, nor was he one of those foolish dogs that knelt at her feet wagging their tails for pity. He was a lion, vastly more dangerous than any wolf.

With a lion around, you didn't need to worry about wolves harming you, its feeder.

But what if, one day, the lion decided it wanted a different feeder?

She was genuinely terrified, but Yan Jing merely smiled.

"You don't have a choice, do you?"

Zeng Qing didn't know how she walked out of Yan Jing's office, only snapping back to reality when Mao Si's raspy voice grated in her ear.

"What did he tell you?"

She finally woke as if from a dream and looked at Mao Si.

"Nothing much. He doesn't plan on letting either of us off the hook."

According to Mao Si's own account, he was in the same boat as her, having been kidnapped and brought here by Luo Sheng.

"Then we just take it one step at a time."

Mao Si leaped onto Zeng Qing's shoulder.

"There are plenty of people who want to kill him anyway. Maybe he'll just die one day."

"If he doesn't die, then all we can do is try our best to handle things beautifully so he doesn't kill us quite so quickly."

"But if he doesn't die, and we don't die either, then we've got it made!"

"I suppose that's our only option." Zeng Qing suddenly felt as if she had met a kindred spirit.

Although the cat beside her had a grating way of speaking, compared to the utterly unfathomable Luo Sheng, he felt much more real. "Let's go. He also told us to arrest Zhou Mo's corpse as if it were a living person."

"Why are you still holding a document?" Mao Si glanced at Zeng Qing's hand.

"Oh, this. I completely forgot—"

Zeng Qing raised the document.

This document wasn't particularly important, so she had placed it behind the meeting list.

Later, because of Yan Jing's relentless barrage of words, she forgot to hand it over entirely.

"What kind of document is it?"

"It's an inspection report on the Happy Water that I had someone look into earlier."

"That does sound pretty unimportant. There's hardly any need to report it."

"Right." Zeng Qing nodded.

"It's just a little strange. According to what was said initially, there should be three different varieties of Happy Water: normal Happy Water, illicit Happy Water, and the Seven Stars version of Happy Water."

"But in reality, that isn't the case?" Now, even Mao Si was a little curious.

Zeng Qing shook her head, her expression baffled.

"When the tests actually came back, there were four."

"Furthermore, hasn't Zhao Jiucheng been suspended? Right before his suspension, he told me something—"

Several minutes later.

Several news articles hit the headlines once again:

[Zhou Mo Confesses to Colluding with the Law Enforcement Agency in Recent Years]

[Zhou Mo Admits Song Haozhe is the Man Behind Him]

[Zhou Technology Announces Severing of All Ties with Zhou Mo]

[Zhou Mo's Statement Hints Once More at Song Haozhe's Suspected Connection to Happy Water]

Reading these news articles, Song Haozhe was so furious he was nearly driven mad.

He couldn't understand why things had deteriorated to this point.

In just one short month, he had lost nearly everything. Now, all he had left was a bunch of social media assets under his control. He had just gotten off the phone with several people in his network, and he could clearly feel their deliberate attempts to distance themselves from him.

Things had been especially tense lately, making it completely impossible for him to sell illicit Happy Water. And without the illicit Happy Water, his value plummeted drastically.

"Fuck! Fuck!!"

He snatched a gun from the wall and unleashed a barrage of bullets into his office desk. Amidst the roaring gunshots and flying wooden splinters, he finally managed to calm down a little.

"It has to be that bastard surnamed Luo—"

His face was profoundly gloomy as his right fist clenched tight.

Murderous intent had already taken root in his heart.

"Red Dog! Red Dog!!!"

He shouted toward the door, calling for his bodyguard.

The door soon opened, but it wasn't the tall old man with slicked-back hair he had expected. Instead, it was someone he never would have imagined.

"It's been a long time, Haozhe."

It was a man with a complexion as pale as moonlight. His hair was impeccably styled, and every movement he made exuded the aura of a noble young master.

"...Brother??"

Song Haozhe's voice trembled slightly.

"You still know to call me brother. Not bad."

The man chuckled. He reached out and patted Song Haozhe's head as if he were petting a lapdog.

"Your luck isn't bad. The Family has taken over from here on out."

"You don't need to worry about it anymore. Go home."

"Go home?" Song Haozhe's expression shifted, and he immediately protested.

"No, Brother, I can't go back! I can handle this on my own! I'm just a little bit away from— Urgh!!!"

The man drove a fist into Song Haozhe's abdomen, causing stomach acid and blood to spray out. He wiped his soiled hand on Song Haozhe's face and smiled.

"These are Father's orders. Are you trying to make things difficult for your older brother?"

"Hmm?"

He reached out and pinched Song Haozhe's chin.

"Haozhe, I won't bother asking what you've been doing out here all this time, but why are you still so childish?"

"Do you even know what kind of enemy you are facing? Hmm?"

"That is no small fry."

The man leaned in close to Song Haozhe's ear.

"That is a wolf. And to deal with a wolf, you have to use a hunting rifle."

"Otherwise, if it takes a bite out of you, it will hurt a lot."

At almost the exact same time, Zeng Qing had just parked her car.

A figure stepped out from behind a pillar, approaching the driver's side window to look at her.

"It's been a long time, Ah Qing."

It was a squinting Rabbit Woman, possessing a well-endowed chest and plump thighs, but bearing the head of a rabbit.

Zeng Qing's face darkened.

"Why are you here?"

"Oh my, Ah Qing. You haven't been away from home for so long that you can't even recognize your older sister, have you?"

The Rabbit Woman smiled, but she dispensed with any further pleasantries and cut straight to the chase, her ruby-like eyes betraying a nonchalant murderous intent.

"Have the man backing you pledge his loyalty to our Nuochen Biotech."

"Give him five days to think it over. If he hasn't thought it through after five days..."

"Then that will be the end of the line for him."