It had to be said that even after taking NZT-48, one still couldn't control people's hearts.
Was this a limitation of NZT-48, or was it simply that the human heart was impossible to fathom?
The strong smell of smoke made Chen Chen cough softly. As he watched Guo Dazhuang turn and leave, a flash of bloodlust appeared in his eyes.
Although the three of them had previously compromised for the sake of profit, just as Chen Chen had predicted, he had clearly failed to account for someone like Guo Dazhuang.
Perhaps it was precisely this stubborn, unyielding spirit that had made him one of the senior members of Anonymous, the world's largest hacker organization, as well as the head of a company worth over a billion yuan?
Guo Dazhuang's refusal had sounded an alarm for Chen Chen's increasingly inflated mentality.
Clearly, he had touched Guo Dazhuang's sore spot.
However, if Guo Dazhuang had merely been unwilling to invest, Chen Chen wouldn't have made things difficult for him. He didn't need Guo Dazhuang's assistance, and could even have backed down and apologized on the spot.
What Chen Chen hadn't expected was that Guo Dazhuang wasn't only prepared to fight him to the bitter end—he had even threatened him with his parents.
And that had touched Chen Chen's sore spot as well.
Thus, a life-and-death struggle had emerged just like that.
Sometimes, clashes between life and death lasted only an instant.
Chen Chen silently crushed out his cigarette, then stood up and pulled open the private-room curtains to look down.
Below, Guo Dazhuang's steps were somewhat strange. He silently walked out of Mickey Coffee House, then continued without pause toward the road.
The road was packed with traffic. Countless vehicles came and went in an endless stream.
Yet Guo Dazhuang seemed not to notice them at all. He crossed the sidewalk and walked straight toward the opposite side of the road.
One car, two cars, three cars...
One sedan after another brushed past Guo Dazhuang. Their horns blared sharply, but Guo Dazhuang seemed possessed, completely ignoring the dangers around him.
Crash!
At last, as Guo Dazhuang crossed the divider in the middle of the road, an SUV failed to brake in time and sent him flying with a brutal impact.
The screech of brakes rang across half the street, and countless people instinctively looked toward the source of the sound.
At that moment, Chen Chen pulled the curtains shut again. He snapped his fingers and smiled toward the door.
"Waiter, the bill."
"Ring-ring!"
As Chen Chen rode his electric scooter back toward his warehouse, his phone suddenly rang.
Upon hearing the ringtone, Chen Chen couldn't help frowning.
The ringtone he had set would sound only when X contacted him.
Before leaving, Chen Chen had put X into sleep mode to prevent any accidents while he was away.
There was only one situation that would awaken X from sleep—the warehouse had a visitor.
Chen Chen had installed more than a dozen surveillance cameras around the warehouse, positioned at perfect angles to one another. Moreover, the cameras were directly connected to X's processor.
As long as the surveillance footage detected any stranger, X would awaken from sleep and contact Chen Chen immediately.
Chen Chen stopped his electric scooter by the roadside and quickly pulled out his phone for a look.
X had sent him more than a dozen screenshots taken from the surveillance footage.
In the first image, a girl wearing a white T-shirt and denim shorts was getting out of a red sedan. She was tall and slender, but her features were somewhat blurry because of the image quality.
In the second image, the girl had arrived in front of the warehouse and was gently knocking on the roll-up door.
In the third image, apparently realizing that no one was in the warehouse, the girl sat on the slope in front of the entrance and took out her phone.
In the fourth image, the girl had put her phone away again.
Chen Chen shook his head slightly, stuffed the phone back into his pocket, and started the electric scooter again.
The girl who had come was none other than Xia Yin.
Chen Chen had deliberately chosen that godforsaken warehouse as the company's location. He had no idea how Xia Yin had found it. Judging from her conflicted expression in the surveillance screenshots, she seemed to be hesitating over whether to contact him.
Why bother?
Chen Chen sighed inwardly. A simp gets no home...
It wasn't until an hour later that Chen Chen finally made it back to the warehouse. Even with the wind from riding the electric scooter, the scorching sun had left him parched.
But Chen Chen hadn't expected to see a red Mercedes sedan parked by the roadside as he turned around the intersection behind the warehouse.
At the same time, Xia Yin raised her head in front of the warehouse and looked over toward him.
Xia Yin was wearing a white T-shirt and blue denim shorts. As she sat on the ground, the shorts tightened around her, emphasizing the long lines of her legs.
At that moment, if anyone asked Xia Yin what her special talent was, Chen Chen could answer with absolute certainty: her legs were exceptionally long.
Looking at the girl before him, radiating youthful vitality, Chen Chen shook his head and said helplessly, "You haven't left yet?"
"What do you mean by that?"
Xia Yin quickly stood up, complaining as she dusted off the dirt on her rear, "I only just got here!"
Chen Chen parked the electric scooter beside the warehouse and took out his key. "How did you know I was here?"
"Brother Wei told me."
Xia Yin ran proudly to her car and made a victory sign. "I only came here to show off to you. Do you see this new car?"
"Your car is really white—oh, no, I mean, your legs are really new..." Chen Chen deliberately made a dirty joke.
Xia Yin blushed at his words and hurriedly changed the subject. "This car was a special reward from my dad because my paper was published in Cell."
I knew it!
With an expressionless face, Chen Chen turned around and pulled open the roll-up door. "Auntie, I still want to work hard for a while. Go find some young man who doesn't want to work hard."
"What auntie? Do I look that old?"
Xia Yin puffed out her cheeks and shouted angrily, "I'm only three grades above you! And I started school a year early, so strictly speaking, I'm only two years older than you!"
"You're obviously a fifty-eight-year-old auntie, okay?"
Chen Chen entered the warehouse, pulled a bottle of Wahaha mineral water from beneath the bed, unscrewed the cap, and gulped down half the bottle before stopping. "Auntie, want me to pour you a cup of Cappuccino?"
"What Cappuccino? I don't drink coffee." Xia Yin looked confused.
"See? You don't even know this basic common sense. That's why I said you're an auntie." Chen Chen looked down on her. "Do you know Brother Kai?"
Xia Yin shook her head blankly.
"Do you know Her Highness Qiao Biluo?"
Xia Yin shook her head again.
"If you don't know anything, you need to study harder. You're always talking about getting recommended for graduate school until you've studied yourself stupid!"
Chen Chen tossed Xia Yin a bottle of mineral water and said disdainfully, "Go away. You and I aren't from the same world!"
"Are you sick?"
Xia Yin finally lost her temper and hurled the mineral water bottle at Chen Chen's head. "I came all this way to find you, and you keep snapping at me! What exactly is wrong with me? Why do you always treat me like this?"
Chen Chen rubbed his head, still refusing to back down. "I just don't like you acting like such a simp. If you've got the guts, then don't be a simp!"
"Ugh..."
Xia Yin's face flushed dark red. She took a deep breath and said solemnly, "But if you don't genuinely like someone, who would be willing to be a simp? Besides, I've given up my recommendation for graduate school!"
Only then was Chen Chen startled. He looked up and asked, "Why did you give it up all of a sudden? Didn't you already submit your application for the academic-talent recommendation?"
"But I thought it over afterward and ultimately changed my mind."
Xia Yin lowered her head. "I suddenly came to my senses. I know I definitely won't pursue a career in biology in the future, so why waste my time? Besides, the only reason I wanted to go to graduate school was to spite my dad. Now that our relationship has eased, there was even less reason for me to go."
"True. I'm just a poor kid, so I can't understand the thoughts of a rich woman like you." Chen Chen stroked his chin and nodded thoughtfully.
Before you continue