What Exactly Was Ajie Doing?

"They also said that if I joined now, I could go to college for free and learn all kinds of skills!"

"And, and he said he could pay me a salary—five times what I make now!"

"Most importantly, he said my grandpa could get free medical care, and..."

Patiently listening to Rui Mengmeng's story, Ashe stood still.

She kept repeating, "Mm-hmm."

"And then?"

Her simple responses showed that she was listening and agreed with what Rui Mengmeng was saying.

As Rui Mengmeng kept adding "and," her story became a little jumbled.

Most people might have gotten impatient or frustrated by now.

But Ashe didn't.

She simply responded to Rui Mengmeng's account with the simplest words, encouraging her to go on.

Because Ashe knew that this jumbled way of talking...

was when Mengmeng was most sincere, with no ulterior motives in her heart.

It was because she truly saw you as someone close that she would anxiously try to tell you everything she knew and everything that had happened, all at once.

"So, Sister Ashe, what should I do?"

"I mean, I'm kind of tempted, but that man in black really doesn't look like a good person."

"I just watched a public-service legal program, and that guy in black seemed like a gangster."

After patiently waiting for Mengmeng to finish,

Ashe finally understood what was going on.

The cause and events were simple. Earth was putting together Xiong Bing Lian, so Ajie was going down the list to recruit people.

But Ashe had no idea what Ajie was thinking.

She didn't know whether her arrival had changed how things unfolded.

Maybe in the original story, Rose had gone to recruit Rui Mengmeng, but now Ajie was the one doing it.

That bastard Ajie was still wearing his flashy black suit and sunglasses.

He'd gone to recruit Rui Mengmeng.

Maybe that outfit didn't matter to most people.

But for a simple girl like Mengmeng—

someone who still saw the world in simple terms of good people and bad people—

Ajie's flashy getup, combined with recruitment terms that sounded like a gift from heaven,

had made the innocent, straightforward Mengmeng think she'd run into a scammer trying to rope her into a pyramid scheme—or some kind of criminal gang.

She hadn't called the police only because Ajie had sounded so confident and had all the proper credentials, which left Rui Mengmeng feeling unsure.

A scam? No. A con? No. Everything he said sounded completely legitimate.

So, after thinking it over, Rui Mengmeng had decided to call Ashe.

She wanted Ashe, who had helped her so much over the years, to help her decide.

"Okay, how about this, Mengmeng? You said that man in black, the one calling himself Ajie, was going to meet you again later, right? Send me the address."

"I'll come find you, and then we can meet him together."

"Okay, Sister Ashe. I'll send you the address. See you soon."

"Mm-hmm, sounds good."

After hanging up, Ashe shook her head. She really couldn't understand Ajie. Had he not read Mengmeng's personality assessment or her profile?

Maybe he hadn't. Otherwise, the recruit who should have been easiest to sign up in the original story, Rui Mengmeng,

wouldn't have turned into a challenge after he'd already gone to see her two or three times.

With a sigh, Ashe realized she might also have been too confident in Ajie's powers of persuasion.

After all, the original story had shown him successfully talking Ge Xiaolun into joining.

Maybe Ajie's silver tongue only worked on Ge Xiaolun.

Thinking it over, Ashe figured this interpretation also explained why, when Ajie had tried to recruit Zhao Xin,

Xin Zhao had thrown that jab at him:

"Hey, see this? Bought it last year. (Fuck you.)"

Mm, that made sense.

As for why Ashe was going to accompany Rui Mengmeng herself to discuss joining Xiong Bing Lian,

instead of simply telling Mengmeng that she was at Super Seminary too and that Ajie could be trusted—

the reason was simple.

She also wanted to take care of the issue of compensation, which the original story had treated as a throwaway joke about Xiong Bing Lian's past.

She'd make sure Ajie followed through on every promise he'd made to Mengmeng.

In the original story, Rui Mengmeng had anxiously asked when she'd get paid.

That alone showed that Xiong Bing Lian, hastily assembled as it was,

hadn't sorted out its compensation package properly.

Although the unit spared no expense when training its members and provided them with the best of everything,

Xiong Bing Lian's members were undoubtedly poorly compensated by ordinary standards.

Perhaps they thought that with great changes on the horizon, those things were about to become unimportant.

Perhaps they thought that training Xiong Bing Lian meant setting aside worldly concerns, so they hadn't put those arrangements in place right away.

But Ashe believed that if you made a promise, you should keep it. And what you considered unimportant

might be something someone else longed for.

Especially for a simple, straightforward girl like Mengmeng.

She snapped her fingers, and purple light wrapped around her in an instant.

Her clothes, rumpled from training, became as good as new.

Ashe casually took a coat from Dark Plane Space.

She sent Qilin a message,

then headed for the entrance to Super Seminary.

She was going to Rui Mengmeng's location.

Just then, Rose came out of the bathroom.

Having composed herself,

she looked at the message Ajie had sent her on her phone.

Her brow furrowed.

"How did those two targets end up meeting and getting into a fight?"

"Honestly, Ajie. How did you manage that?"

Her voice carried a hint of exasperation.

Still, Rose planned to go to the police station and help Ajie get her two future teammates released.

She quickly got dressed and ready,

then hurried out—and ran straight into Ashe.