Chen Chen arrived at Mickey Coffee Shop first.
As an upscale tea shop, Mickey Coffee Shop had private rooms that other coffee shops didn't. Each room had its own theme, and Chen Chen had booked the Miao Miao House room several hours earlier.
After arriving, Chen Chen checked the time, then called over a server and told him to cut the power to the room after Chen Chen sent him a text.
The server had never received such a strange request, but the customer was God. With Chen Chen's 100-yuan tip in hand, he patted his chest and promised to do exactly as asked.
Then Chen Chen drew the curtains and turned on all the lights, before waiting in silence.
A little over ten minutes later, footsteps sounded outside the room, drawing closer...
"How many are in your party?"
As soon as Zhan Fei stepped into Mickey Coffee Shop, the greeter came over with a broad smile.
"I'm here to meet someone. My name is Zhan Fei."
Zhan Fei spoke with a sullen expression. Since he'd been coerced into coming, he wasn't about to be friendly to the greeter, either.
"Certainly. Your room is called Miao Miao House, and a gentleman is already waiting for you. Please go straight ahead."
The greeter smiled and pointed Zhan Fei down the hall. Several doors were indeed shut at the far end.
Zhan Fei snorted and strode over to the door. After a moment's hesitation, he steeled himself and turned the handle.
The room wasn't very bright.
Though it was midday, with the sun at its fiercest, thick curtains blocked out all the sunlight. Only a few incandescent lamps overhead were lit.
In the light, Zhan Fei saw a young man, around twenty years old, sitting quietly at a round table in a European medieval style and watching him.
Zhan Fei had never believed in the whole idea of "presence." In his view, what people called presence was just the effect of dressing well. Wear expensive clothes, have a decent figure and handsome features, and people would get the impression that you had presence.
But now Zhan Fei realized that this mysterious, hard-to-explain quality really did exist.
The young man before him looked to be about twenty—very young indeed—but his eyes shone like the stars.
At a glance, Zhan Fei almost felt as if he were about to fall into a black hole...
The young man wasn't especially handsome, and he wore ordinary casual clothes. Yet there was something about him that set him apart, something impossible to put into words.
If Zhan Fei had to describe it, he'd call it something like confidence.
The young man's overwhelming confidence gave him an unusual magnetism. Though he was dressed like an ordinary person and wasn't particularly handsome, he radiated a brilliance that outshone even a celebrity's!
Facing a young man who seemed more than ten years younger than him, Zhan Fei's breath caught. The questions he'd prepared stuck in his throat.
"Mr. Zhan, come in."
The young man looked Zhan Fei over from the doorway, then broke into a smile. "Come sit down. There's no need to be so formal with me."
Formal? My ass.
Zhan Fei opened his mouth, then suppressed the urge to curse. Since he didn't know what the other man was capable of, he'd better be careful.
With that in mind, Zhan Fei walked into the Miao Miao House room and sat opposite the young man.
"Would you like something to drink?" The young man tossed him a menu.
"Just a cappuccino." Zhan Fei didn't take it, answering offhandedly.
"Waiter?" The young man immediately called toward the door. "Bring the auntie... this gentleman a cappuccino."
Having just come in from outside, Zhan Fei found the dim light a little hard to adjust to. He frowned and stared at the young man across the table. "Are you X?"
"Yes, I'm X."
To Zhan Fei's surprise, the young man readily admitted it. "I was the one who contacted you this morning."
You call that contacting us? That was threats and extortion!
Zhan Fei grumbled inwardly, but said, "You said you'd called in King and the others, too. Where are they?"
"They're all late."
The young man shrugged. "But it's fine. King has been watching this place from the restaurant across the street for half an hour, and SB and CZH will be here in a few minutes."
He even knew King had been secretly watching from across the street?
Zhan Fei frowned, but then remembered that this X could even hack cell towers. It wasn't surprising that he could identify them by tracking their phones.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, another pair of footsteps approached. Two men walked in together, both wearing glasses and with slightly balding heads.
Zhan Fei didn't know them, but given what X had said, they were clearly the famous SB and CZH.
The two seemed to have known each other for a long time, and had come together. Given that they both wore thick-lensed glasses and had so little hair, they certainly fit the Central Continent Region saying, "Birds of a feather flock together."
As soon as they entered, they glanced at Zhan Fei and then ignored him, fixing their grave gazes on the young man across the table.
"Get to the point. What do you want us to do?"
One of them spoke without a trace of courtesy. "If you think you can use our identities on the Dark Web to threaten us, you're in for a disappointment. We aren't afraid of threats. At least we haven't done anything truly heinous."
"I have no such intention."
The young man shrugged and looked toward the doorway. "Since you two are here, King, why don't you come in as well?"
Zhan Fei and the other two quickly turned around. Sure enough, a middle-aged man in a suit had appeared in the doorway without anyone noticing.
The newcomer had a lean face and a straight build. His expensive clothes made it obvious that he was someone of importance.
And yet, for some reason, when he faced the young man across the table, his presence was completely overwhelmed.
"Are you really X?"
Ignoring the three people in the room, the middle-aged man strode in with his head held high and stared at the young man. "The company representative I found on the government website really is you?"
"It really is me." The young man smiled helplessly. "I know it's hard for you to believe, but that's all right. Once we've reached an agreement, we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other better."
"I never said I was going to work with you," Zhan Fei snorted.
"Of course. If you still don't agree after I've explained my terms, you can leave."
The young man across the table smiled. "I promise I won't threaten you again."
"Do you mean that?"
"I do."
The young man nodded solemnly. "First, let me introduce myself. My name is Chen Chen, and my name on the Dark Web is X. Of course, none of you have heard of me. I'm just a nobody, not worth mentioning."
The four men couldn't be bothered to respond to his polite words. If he was a nobody, there really weren't any important people on the Dark Web.
If X hadn't threatened them, his skills alone would probably have won all four of them over long ago.
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