Chapter 405: Someone Got Angry for the First Time

"Mr. President!"

Ding Xunchun looked at Quan Dazhong in disbelief, refusing to believe he would issue such a cruel order.

When Quan Dazhong first took office, he declared that every resident would be able to afford real meat instead of gnawing on synthetic bread.

At the time, those words had sounded so inspiring, especially after the previous president's inhumane cruelty.

But now, combined with the meaning behind this painting, that declaration carried a layer of dark humor.

The way to ensure all residents could afford meat was to kill off everyone who couldn't? What kind of joke was this?!

"Mr. President, please reconsider!"

Ding Xunchun bowed his head, his voice earnest.

"Reconsider what?"

Quan Dazhong asked.

"Reconsider... this decision."

Ding Xunchun frowned, forcing himself to speak.

"What decision?"

Quan Dazhong asked again.

"The one... the one..."

Ding Xunchun's eyes darted around before he gritted his teeth. "The decision to leave the citizens to die naturally."

"Who said I made that decision?"

"Huh?"

Ding Xunchun looked up, a flash of confusion in his eyes. Across from him, Quan Dazhong's gaze was ice-cold. "Who told you we were abandoning the citizens? Who said that?"

"No... no one!"

Ding Xunchun's heart skipped a beat. He lowered his head and spoke.

"My apologies, Mr. President!"

A few seconds of silence followed. Ding Xunchun kept his head down, not daring to move an inch.

Suddenly, white cigarette smoke drifted into his line of sight.

"Think about my intentions a little harder."

Quan Dazhong's voice drifted down from above.

As Ding Xunchun hesitated, Quan Dazhong spoke again with a sigh. "Zhu Qiao recently... I know he's getting old... he doesn't understand what I mean..."

"...There are some things... I can't state explicitly..."

Ding Xunchun's gaze sharpened, and he nodded. "I understand what you mean. You want to..."

He looked up at Quan Dazhong.

Quan Dazhong neither nodded nor shook his head. "Do as you see fit."

"Understood."

Ding Xunchun nodded and hurried away.

After Ding Xunchun left, Che Taizai stepped forward and refilled Quan Dazhong's tea.

"You've worked hard, Mr. President."

"Taizai, go tend to your business. Make sure you handle that previous matter properly."

"Understood, completely understood."

Che Taizai took a deep breath and walked out of the room.

The door clicked shut once more.

Under the dim yellow light, Quan Dazhong reached up and tore off his own face.

Beneath it was a hideous visage covered in black fur.

The corners of his mouth curled into a smile as he took heavy gulps of fresh air, untainted by the mask.

The presidential election was only a month away.

Yet his four subordinates still treated him with the utmost respect. This was an omen of a successful election.

This time, the winner would still be him.

"Hehe... hehehe..."

"Hahaha!!!"

His suppressed chuckles gradually evolved into unbridled, manic laughter. Under the dim light, the president of the Peace Heavenly Kingdom presented a truly bloodcurdling sight.

"Enough."

—

1

Yan Jing opened his eyes.

He had rested for a full hour and was now genuinely feeling much better.

"Time to bounce back!!!"

He stood up from the sofa just in time to see Zeng Qing walking through the door.

The two locked eyes and blinked at each other.

"I feel awful..." Yan Jing said sluggishly.

"Stop pretending, I saw you," Zeng Qing said, scooping Yan Jing up and placing him on her shoulder.

"Go, go, go!!!"

A woman on the upswing of her career could always burst with extraordinary drive.

"You could say I've basically secured a firm foothold in the company now."

Zeng Qing tried her best to suppress her rising smile, speaking in a calm tone. "Everyone involved this time has been fired, including the higher-ups. Seventeen aunts were fired, twenty-four uncles were let go, and eight or nine grandfathers and grandmothers were sacked."

To say she wasn't feeling smug right now would be a lie.

Just thinking about those usually haughty, septuagenarian and octogenarian elders calling her, crying and blubbering all over the place, made her want to laugh.

How many compromises had she made to take office? Begging everyone, forcing smiles, swallowing her pride—wasn't it all for today?

But...

It still wasn't enough.

Just now, her father had called. Reading between the lines, he still didn't treat her as a true equal.

But this couldn't be rushed.

Nuochen Biotech had stood tall in the Peace Heavenly Kingdom for so many years; its foundations couldn't be shaken overnight.

"What do we do about this current situation?"

Zeng Qing looked at Yan Jing. "I've already made the personnel arrangements and preparations for the donation, and I plan to throw in a massive number of people."

"But... we still have to wait for the right moment."

Hearing this, Yan Jing asked, "Do you have a more detailed plan?"

"Here's what I'm thinking."

Zeng Qing explained, "First, we donate the funds and send the people out, but we don't play this card publicly just yet."

"Keep going." A flash of approval passed through Yan Jing's eyes.

"Timing. Timing is everything."

Zeng Qing continued, "After everything that's happened these past two months, I feel like you don't always have to show your full hand right out of the gate. Knowing how to endure, waiting for the right moment, and playing a comeback card when our backs are against the wall is often much better than drawing swords at the very start."

"We already know a few things and have seized the initiative. We don't need to announce this to the public to reap plenty of benefits. For example, we can have mindless mechanical bodies do the main work and make everyone wear specially reinforced protective suits."

"Uncle Rat clearly has a scheme for this incident. Whether it's because I made him a promise, or to wait for a better opportunity, we should wait until tomorrow to see how things play out."

"On top of that, we need to aim higher."

"Just like you said, Mao Si, sitting in this position, money is no longer what we should be thinking about."

"It's still worth considering." Yan Jing stretched out a paw. "Give me a million eerie points. I'm a cat."

Zeng Qing rolled her eyes at him. "I'll transfer it to you later. Listen to me first."

"Who is above me? My father. And who's above him? Nobody, really. Mao Si, I'm not bragging, there really isn't anyone. President Quan has indeed been in office for a long time—about fifteen years? But our Nuochen Biotech has been around for centuries."

"Even this country's president fundamentally can't compare to Nuochen Biotech, yet to some extent, he really can influence us."

"Uncle's scheme obviously isn't aimed at my level. He didn't even try to buddy up to me. Of course, I'm not bragging about that either. For instance, if all Uncle wanted was for Assemblyman Crocodile to become a Heavenly Kingdom assemblyman, the current me absolutely has the power to make that happen."

"But he hasn't contacted me, which means it's highly likely that whatever he's planning, I can't help him with."

"So... I'm guessing what he's plotting is..."

Zeng Qing didn't finish her sentence, leaving a perfectly timed dramatic pause. She looked at Yan Jing expectantly, waiting for his response.

Yan Jing blinked, then opened his mouth and hollered at the top of his lungs, "Off with her head!!! Drag this person out and chop off her head!!! Somebody come quick, we've got a—Mmph mmph mmph!"

Zeng Qing's heart skipped a beat, and she hurriedly slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Don't yell, don't yell, I didn't say anything!"

A few seconds later, Yan Jing quieted down, and the two stared at each other.

Then, Yan Jing broke into a smile. "Alright, you did well, Zeng Qing. Do as you see fit."

"Really?!"

Hearing Yan Jing's approval, Zeng Qing could no longer suppress the corners of her mouth. In her memory, even her own father's praise hadn't made her this happy.

This was validation from a friend she truly admired.

"Waiting. Waiting is important."

Yan Jing smiled.

"If you ask when the grapes will fully ripen, you must wait, and wait some more."

Yan Jing switched to his identity as Luo Sheng. He had just received a message from Xiao Xin, the guard.

A surge of weird energy erupted from his chest, transforming into a beautiful silhouette.

"Turn back into a cat for a second. Let me hold you this time."

Someone was jealous. Or more accurately, a certain bird was jealous.

"Xiao Yu, don't you hate cats the most?"

Yan Jing chuckled.

"Since it's you, I'll reluctantly accept it." Fei Yu naturally linked her arm through his, speaking softly, "Do you want to be the Domain Chief of this Domain? The so-called... president?"

"I have no such desire."

Yan Jing shook his head.

He didn't like this Domain.

It would be one thing if most people were turned into vegetables.

"Even I can't change this place, because I don't like it here."

"But if it were someone else, it might be doable."

"But the crux of the problem now is... someone is looking for me..."

Xiao Xin materialized in the air, flapping its translucent little wings, and handed a camera to Yan Jing.

"Iya, iya~" Compared to a few months ago, it looked even more adorable now, as if carved from pink jade, its whole body emitting a soft fluorescent glow.

This was thanks to Fei Yu and the Fear Bird. Over this period, not only had Xiao Xin gotten faster, but the weight of the items it could carry had also increased significantly.

Even with Yan Jing's strength remaining unchanged, it could already carry four or five times what it could before.

Coupled with Yan Jing's own increase in strength, Xiao Xin now had absolutely no problem transporting half a ton of goods.

If the minor cultivation assistance from Minhu was factored in, that weight could be multiplied by dozens of times.

Yan Jing watched the footage on the camera, playing it at three times the speed.

It showed a group of men in black. The leader wore black clothes with a black cross on his chest and a baseball cap on his head.

The men were dragging a figure into a room, before proceeding to brutally beat him.

"Talk! Where is the man called Mr. Luo?"

"Mr. Luo? Who is Mr. Luo?"

The figure tumbled out of his chair onto the floor, blood pouring freely from his right eye.

Faced with his denials, the men in black raised their fists and delivered another savage beating.

They beat him until he was covered in blood, unable to move on the floor, yet he still refused to say a word.

Finally, the leader lost his patience. He had his men tie the bloody figure to the stool, then took a hammer from someone else and walked over.

"Speak. Where is Mr. Luo..."

"I don't know..."

Li Zhiyuan said weakly.

He really didn't know. And even if he did, he wouldn't tell them.

In his eyes, Luo Sheng was a good person.

And a wealthy good person at that.

If the former was already rare in the Peace Heavenly Kingdom, the latter was practically unheard of.

If he talked and admitted he had ties to Mr. Luo, what would happen to the old, weak, and sick people in the nursing home? They would definitely be rounded up and tortured for confessions too.

As long as he kept his mouth shut, the other side would still have some reservations.

But he was clearly mistaken.

The next second, the hammer slammed heavily onto his palm. The agonizing pain made him thrash violently in the chair, veins bulging all over his body.

"Are you going to talk or not?!"

Another hammer blow.

Another miserable scream.

"Talk!!"

The man swung even harder, as if Li Zhiyuan's resistance had completely enraged him.

"Talk!!!"

With this strike, Li Zhiyuan's hand hung limply, completely devoid of support.

The hand was utterly shattered.

And he had passed out from the sheer pain.

But the other side obviously had no intention of stopping, ordering someone to fetch water and a stun gun...

The video ended there.

The depths of Yan Jing's eyes turned as cold as seeping frost.

"Let me handle them,"

Fei Yu said softly from beside him.

Over the past month or two, she had also made remarkable progress.

But Yan Jing shook his head. "I'll do it."

At the bottom of his heart, the Fear Bird muttered, "These unlucky bastards... Of all the days, they had to pull this crap on the day this guy is in his absolute worst mood."

Splash.

A basin of water washed over him, and Li Zhiyuan jolted awake.

Looking at the man holding the stun gun in front of him, he suddenly gave a weak smile. "I know which department you're from..."

"Ahhhhh!!!!"

Before he could finish, the stun gun shocked his body. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. The blood streaming freely over his skin seemed to turn black and reek in that instant as Li Zhiyuan's body convulsed violently.

"You're the Security Department—"

"Ahhhhh!!!" Another agonizing scream rang out.

Li Zhiyuan's mouth gaped wide. Giving him no time to breathe, his tormentor drove the stun gun into him again.

After this shock, he was practically speechless. His mouth hung open, saliva dripping uncontrollably down his chin, his eyes bulging as he gasped frantically for air.

"Listen up."

The man's expression was cold as he used the tip of the stun gun to tilt Li Zhiyuan's chin up. "You pieces of trash, garbage, rats, scum, dregs... you'd better behave yourselves."

The man's voice climbed higher and higher.

"Do you think I have nothing better to do? Huh???"

"Huh??? Talk." Seeing Li Zhiyuan not responding, the man backhanded him with the baton, smashing it directly against Li Zhiyuan's jaw.

"Speak!"

"I really don't have the time to mess around with you trash, you hear me? There's a virus out there, and I'm afraid of getting infected too."

"You hear me? Trash! Trash! Speak! Trash!!!"

The man whipped the stun gun repeatedly across Li Zhiyuan's face.

Finally, he impatiently brushed back his hair. He was just about to speak when suddenly, the door behind him swung open.

"Who opened the door—"

Before he could finish, an immense force slammed into him from behind, caving his back in and smashing him viciously into the floor.

The surrounding men didn't even have time to react. They only felt a gust of wind blow past, and the next thing they knew, their leader was sprawled on the ground, covered in blood, his eyes wide with terror.

Beside him stood an elegant, curly-haired man in a suit, his face completely frigid, his foot planted squarely on the leader's back.

"Shoot, shoot!!!"

The leader shrieked in panic. But when his subordinates reached for their guns, they realized that the weapons at their waists had somehow been snapped perfectly in half.

Instantly, a freezing chill washed over every man in the room.

The curly-haired man raised his head. As his gaze swept over them, everyone's hearts tightened involuntarily.

Before anyone could react, the most brutal display of violence unfolded.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The curly-haired man grabbed the leader by the leg.

The leader's body became like a torn sack of grain, constantly flipping through the air and smashing heavily into the floor over and over again.

"Speak."

The curly-haired man repeated, his face as cold as frost.

"Speak."

It was just like the scene from moments ago playing out all over again.

"I told you to speak."

The leader's teeth were smashed out.

Followed by blood, gastric acid, and unidentifiable fluids...

And then, internal organs crushed into paste.

"I told you to speak."

Yan Jing lowered his body and whispered into the ear of the man, whose face was twisted beyond recognition and whose eyes were filled with absolute despair.