Chapter 81
Blake left first, instructing his bodyguards to turn off the jarring alarm in the building to avoid being bothered by it.
In the lobby on the first floor, a security guard was waiting for his colleague, who had been electrocuted, to arrive by ambulance. Upon seeing the two intruders come down, he quickly stood up and raised his stun gun.
But he quickly recognized Miss Beatrix walking ahead of the intruder, and his expression froze. So she had a powerful backer; no wonder she was so arrogant.
Little did they know that it wasn't the leader who supported those behind, but rather those behind who supported the leader.
Beatrix walked out of the Commercial Union Building and onto the street. Breathing in the cool air, she even punched the air a few times, completely disregarding her image.
The more frustrated I felt when my relatives ganged up on me in the meeting room, the more relieved I felt when I saw their sullen faces.
This feeling can only be described in one word.
Cool!!!
Beatrix released all the pent-up emotions from her chest, turned around, and tossed her hair back to look at the two of them:
"Haha, please excuse my poor appearance. It's almost noon, let's go grab a quick lunch together."
As a professional freeloader, Shi Lei naturally had no reason to refuse such a good deal. He glanced at Texas and saw her nod in agreement, so he helped her agree.
"Alright, then I'll gladly accept your offer."
There are many restaurants around the Lungmen Guard Department, although they may not be as upscale or sophisticated as those in the Core City. However, the quality and reputation of these century-old establishments are still trustworthy.
After taking their order and the waiter left, Beatrix interlaced her fingers and smiled at the two people opposite her:
"You've been a great help today. I'll have the Butler transfer the payment when we get back."
After hearing her arrangement, Shi Lei shook his head and politely declined:
"In the past, it was a commission; you were paid a certain amount of money and that's how much you would do. Today, it's different because a friend is in trouble and comes to help. If you talk about money, you're being too formal."
He felt he was just there to lend a hand and didn't lift a finger the entire time. Texas only knocked out two bodyguards; she didn't kill them at all.
Making money like this is too easy.
Moreover, the two parties had not entered into a contract beforehand; the rescue was entirely out of friendship.
Seeing that things had come to this point, Beatrix didn't want to continue discussing payment. If she really wanted to pay, she could just slip in more money when assigning future tasks. There was no need to emphasize it here and cause any unpleasantness.
"Hahaha, alright then. As your friend, I'll have to toast you."
After dinner, Beatrix stared at the sunlight reflecting off the window. She shielded her eyes with one hand, looked up at the sky, and suggested:
"The weather is so nice. Why don't you two skip going back to the office and have some tea and soak up the sun together this afternoon?"
Shi Lei is still at work, but he's free to do whatever he wants when he's not on a assignment. Just remember to clock in at 5 PM.
Since taking on his first big order, he has never done any regular delivery work again. The main reason is that the profit per order is too low, so he simply outsourced them all to Fengchi Logistics.
Shi Lei figured he had nothing else to do that afternoon, so after getting Texas's consent, he agreed.
"No problem, it's good to get some sun."
The three of them chose an open-air teahouse and sat there basking in the sun, feeling quite content. It was a pity they didn't have enough people, otherwise they could have made a table to play mahjong.
After an unknown amount of time, Beatrix seemed to suddenly...
Then, as if remembering something, he apologized:
"I just realized that you've probably been dragged into this. If the Schwayer family retaliates against you in the future, please let me know."
Those uncles and elders lacked the ability to resist, but they harbored the intention to engage in underhanded tactics and do bad things in private...
Not only does it exist, but it's also very large.
Arrogance and prejudice might make them disdain investigating the backgrounds of the weak. To these nobles who have long lived in the Core City and never lifted a finger, Penguin Logistics, no matter how powerful, is just a logistics company.
Upon hearing this, Shi Lei smiled, thinking that Beatrix was worrying unnecessarily, and offered words of comfort:
"Don't worry, nothing will happen."
Not long after, he received a call. Seeing Isu's contact name, he guessed that a big order had come to his door.
To let Texas hear the contents of the request, he pressed the speakerphone button and selected public playback:
"Hello?"
Isu is usually very busy and values efficiency. As soon as the call connected, he got straight to the point:
"Zhongli, someone just contacted an assassin organization and hired someone to assassinate you and Texas. One of the assassins, not wanting to be implicated, leaked this information to me..."
Shi Lei chuckled upon hearing this. So there really were some idiots retaliating? When it came to fighting, he feared no one. And when it came to money and status, the Emperor was no pushover either.
Who placed the order?
"I don't know, we're still investigating. The head of the assassin organization provided the remittance slip number for the employer's deposit, and so far we've only found that it belongs to a company under the Schwayer Group. I'll contact you again once we've confirmed it."
Beatrix was furious. These relatives were incredibly audacious. She'd just been humiliated in the morning, and now they'd hired assassins to carry out a murder in the afternoon. If they hadn't been on the phone, she would have cursed them out.
"Okay, I understand, thank you."
Seeing Shi Lei hang up the phone, Beatrix immediately stood up, looking extremely angry.
"Hiring someone to commit murder is illegal. Even if the attempt to hire someone to commit murder fails, it still constitutes intentional homicide. As long as evidence is found, the suspect can be arrested by calling the police!"
Although she is a senior superintendent in the Lungmen Guard Department, she is in charge of financial auditing. Arresting criminals requires the help of Chen and Hoshiguma's Special Inspectorate.
Seeing Beatrix's agitated state, Shi Lei, the person directly involved, acted as if nothing had happened:
"Oh, sit down and have some tea to calm down. Isu will let me know when there are results."
He had been with Penguin Logistics for over three months and had great faith in the logistics manager's abilities. If Isu couldn't be traced, he probably wouldn't be able to find out either.
Instead of worrying about who hired the killer, we might as well sit down, bask in the sun, and wait for the opportune moment.
March 2nd, 1:40 pm
Exusiai sat listlessly at her workstation, glancing at the workstation next to her, and complained to Croissant:
"Why haven't Zhongli and Texas come back for so long? Could they be having a party behind our backs?"
"Who holds a party in the middle of the day? Judging from how fast he ran, something must have really happened."
Exusiai sighed. She was in the bathroom at the time, and when she came back, the person had disappeared.
The Emperor, carrying a thermos, came over to get some water. He had just finished drinking the bottled water in the office and, seeing this, began to scold:
"Stop slouching at your desk all day, looking so listless. Hmm? The guests are here."
Bite!
The elevator doors opened, but Mudrock stepped out.
She wanted to meet her employer, but was dissuaded by the infected person, who said the employer wouldn't easily show up. Making contact rashly would only alert the suspect and cause the lead to go cold.
Mudrock had no communication devices, let alone Shi Lei's phone number. She even borrowed a phone from an infected person to register for the assassin organization. She rushed to the warehouse but couldn't find him, so she quickly ran to the company to warn them.
Where is Lord Shi Lei?
Exusiai recognized the other person and waved in greeting:
"He had something come up this morning and went out."
"Oh no! Someone is trying to assassinate Lord Shi Lei! We must warn him immediately! We can't let him be assassinated!"
The Emperor stared wide-eyed at the penguin, slowly turning his head. He looked utterly incredulous, as if he'd heard something out of a fantasy.
"What did you say?!"
After listening to Mudrock recount the whole story, the Emperor gripped his thermos and let out a cryptic howl:
"***, who's the blind fool who dared to touch my people?"
131. Insubordination
The Emperor is extremely protective of Penguin Logistics employees. Forget assassination, even the slightest mistreatment will provoke its retaliation.
It seems there's no concept of holding a grudge overnight in the Emperor's dictionary; if you dare mess with my people, I'll mess with you.
It wasn't worried about Shi Lei's personal safety; there were very few people in Lungmen who could possibly break through the shield.
The problem is that his shield can be refreshed at any time, unless it is broken by a single move.
To achieve this effect, sufficient preparation time is required. If he can re-establish a shield the instant the shield shatters, all the previous preparations become meaningless.
This ability to combine offense and defense is completely unreasonable and has no weaknesses whatsoever.
The Emperor was furious that some fool dared to hire an assassin to kill one of his employees. How could he not retaliate?
After taking out his phone, he didn't call Shi Lei, but instead called Isu, who was in charge of intelligence gathering at the company.
The call was connected very quickly.
"Someone hired"
Did you know that an assassin tried to kill Shi Lei and Texas?
Isu thought it was something else, but upon hearing it was this, he immediately replied:
"Yes, I'm helping Shi Lei and Texas track down their employer. We've confirmed that the remittance came from the Schwayer Group, but we haven't identified any suspects yet."
Upon hearing this, the Emperor became somewhat angry:
Why didn't you tell me about this?
Isu wasn't the type to cower and back down; he wouldn't tolerate the slightest grievance and retorted:
"At the end of last month, you said that you wanted to focus on creating music and not to be disturbed unless there was a major event. I thought Shi Lei would be safe, so I didn't notify him."
The Emperor was momentarily speechless, recalling that he had indeed said such a thing. If he dared to renege, Isu could hack into the Lungmen Communications Bureau and retrieve the recording for a confrontation.
"Okay, then you investigate first. Once you confirm who hired the killer, remember to notify me immediately."
After saying that, it hung up the phone. Looking at its two employees, Exusiai and Croissant, it instructed them:
"I still have some things to take care of. You two take this Miss to find Shi Lei. Don't worry about being implicated. I'll back you up."
"Received, boss!"
Exusiai saluted, then cheerfully pushed Croissant and Mudrock towards the elevator. Staying in the air-conditioned office all day was unbearably stuffy.
Now that someone is causing trouble for Penguin Logistics, they're just asking for a beating. How can we not go and confront them?
After the three of them left the building, Croissant took out her phone and dialed Shi Lei's number, jokingly saying with a smile:
"Hey, where are you? I heard about the assassin thing. You didn't even bother to include us when you caused trouble."
"Haha, I didn't cause any trouble. Besides, I'm the one who got messed with, okay?"
"Hehe, that's hard to say. Where are you now? Mudrock is at the company, we'll bring her over."
Mudrock is there too?
Shi Lei was slightly surprised. Wasn't his relative supposed to live in the Lower City? How did she end up at the company?
"Okay, then come over directly. We'll meet at the entrance of the Lungmen Guard Department building later."
Croissant hung up the phone and drove her orange pickup truck out of the parking lot behind the building. Seeing Mudrock open the car door and prepare to get into the passenger seat, she tilted her head slightly and reminded her:
"Excuse me, this is Shi Lei's reserved seat."
"Oh, I understand."
Mudrock, being quite sensible, switched seats with Exusiai in the back. Since she moved slowly in her hazmat suit, and even slower using the Colossus as a mount, she removed the suit before setting off and took a taxi to Penguin Logistics, which cost her a considerable sum.
Compared to the painful fare, Lord Shi Lei's safety is definitely more important.
Exusiai turned slightly to the side, secretly observing the beautiful Sarkaz girl.
Her exposed arms were smooth and white, like a work of art. Her Blackhorn and white bangs only added to her allure. And that black short-sleeved T-shirt, it looked so bulky on her...
Exusiai looked slightly surprised, glanced down at herself, and immediately gave up the idea of speaking.
Why is there such a huge difference between people?
Croissant stopped her car at the intersection and, taking advantage of the brief pause, asked:
"By the way, don't you work under the Rat King? Did you talk to him about what happened today?"