Xingyan Group

At the foot of the Taihang Mountains in Nanhe Province, Huaxia, a straight road cut between a lush forest and the surrounding greenery. Two buses were moving slowly along it.

From the lead bus, conversation rose in bursts.

"Chenxing, you'll be in charge of phase two of the base when the time comes. Feel free to make any changes you think are needed. Uncle Chen and I trust you completely."

A middle-aged man with a slightly aged face and dressed in a light gray suit leaned his elbow on the armrest and turned to look at a young man seated across the aisle.

The young man looked much like an ordinary college student who hadn't yet entered the working world, but there was something hard to put into words about him. He seemed confident, yet also carried a hint of modesty.

Lin Chenxing was Xingyan Group's vice president of technology and one of its shareholders. Thanks to his advanced technical vision and the cutting-edge technologies he had developed, Xingyan had grown in just a few years from a large chemical company with influence limited to a single city into a major group spanning chemicals, new materials, pharmaceuticals, and energy. It was even continuing to expand into new fields.

"Brother Gao, if it's just a few minor changes, I'll make the call myself. But the last temporary adjustment affected all sorts of things. It wouldn't be right not to discuss it with you first," Lin Chenxing said with a smile, unconcerned.

The middle-aged man known as "Brother Gao" was Gao Zheng, one of Xingyan Group's founders and its current chairman. He waved a hand and pointed at the television on the bus.

"If it weren't for the integrated screening and inspection equipment you had installed at the entrances and exits, and all the protocols you put in place at the base, our group wouldn't have managed to advance instead of retreating during the massive R Virus outbreaks around the world. We even weathered this wave of RR Virus."

"You may still be a student, but I, Gao Zheng, admire you more than I can say."

"This wave of RR Virus seems to be almost over. After all, the death rate was already so high, and most of the survivors have developed immunity."

"Now that we have this foundation, our group's future looks wide open."

Gao Zheng spoke at length, and the other passengers in the bus kept nodding along.

In 2013, the R Virus broke out and rapidly evolved into more than twenty variants, spreading across the globe. Every country reported deaths.

In 2014, the concerted efforts of nations around the world brought the R Virus under initial control. In many countries, it appeared only sporadically. Only the United States, where people cherished freedom above all else, and Tianzhu, where racial hierarchy was most entrenched, still suffered large-scale outbreaks.

In 2015, in Tianzhu, where the population was dense and control measures were ineffective, the R Virus finally produced its most terrifying variant after evolving through dozens of generations. It was dubbed the RR Virus!

After infection with the RR Virus, the death rate was extremely high, reaching nearly 30 percent. In just three months, according to later statistics, almost two billion people worldwide perished during that period, in addition to the enormous number of animal deaths!

A man with hair just beginning to turn gray picked up where Gao Zheng had left off. "That's right. Little Lin was also one of the best at Jiangzhe University."

The man was Jin Zhenwei, Lin Chenxing's advisor at Jiangzhe University and the dean of the School of Chemical Engineering. He was leading the school's professors and students on a visit to Xingyan Group's base, where they would establish a project partnership with the company.

"His graduation project was entirely his own work, from the proposal to the experiments and the final report. The process even inspired many of the professors at our research institute."

"Forget the students in his year—even among the students I taught seven or eight years ago, few have achieved what he has."

"And I've rarely met anyone his age who understands health and wellness so well. He knows how to take care of himself, and his Taijiquan is so good he's become the best practitioner of it at our university. Plenty of teachers and students are learning from him."

Gao Zheng clapped his hands when he heard this. "Chenxing really is good at Taijiquan. The directors at Xingyan started learning it with him, and he picked it up the fastest. And Taijiquan isn't all he knows—he also learned Military Boxing from Old Chen."

Lin Chenxing merely shook his head slightly. After all, he knew why he was ahead of everyone else. That was the greatest secret he had kept since birth.

At the front of the bus, a bespectacled man who looked like a secretary nodded emphatically. "Exactly! President Lin is the person we junior employees admire most."

Gao Zheng teased him with a laugh. "He Kun, you rascal. If he's the one you admire most, what about me and President Chen? Be careful, or I'll tell President Chen later and have him fire you."

"Director Gao, I'm just telling the truth. Even if President Chen were here, he'd agree. And don't tell me you disagree."

He Kun replied without a care.

He Kun was the general manager's secretary at Xingyan Group and had held the position ever since the group's reorganization. At the general manager's request, he was now traveling with Gao Zheng and Lin Chenxing to meet the party arriving from Jiangzhe University.

Gao Zheng was about to respond when the bus suddenly braked hard and came to a rapid stop.

The passengers looked out the windows and saw a pile of sizable rocks and a fairly thick tree lying across the road ahead.

The bus was right at a sharp bend, and the driver hadn't spotted the obstruction until he started turning. Fortunately, he hadn't been driving fast, so the bus didn't hit it.

The passengers on both buses got out. Under He Kun's direction, they set up warning signs at either end of the road, then worked together to move the rocks and tree to the roadside.

Before long, they had nearly cleared the rocks and tree from the road. He Kun looked in both directions and saw that there were no other vehicles waiting nearby.

"Good thing there aren't many people using this road, or we'd have a traffic jam."

"Though it's hard to have many people around these days. So many have died because of that damn virus."

He Kun sighed, his eyes briefly clouded with sadness. It soon passed, and he looked toward Gao Zheng and the others, who were resting nearby. He waved and called out, "Director Gao, President Lin, Dean Jin, we're almost done. We can set off. If we don't get moving, President Chen will be cursing us behind our backs."

Gao Zheng and the others had been discussing the details of the base expansion. At He Kun's call, they looked over at the employees clearing away the last of the branches and leaves, exchanged smiles, and headed for the bus.

"That rascal He Kun. If he weren't so quick on the job, I'd have fired him ages ago for that mouth of his."

Gao Zheng said this, but his gaze at He Kun was full of approval.

"Director Gao, I heard that! If you keep talking about me like that, I'll fire you, the big boss!"

He Kun wouldn't let the matter drop and complained half-jokingly to Gao Zheng.

Amid a burst of laughter, everyone got back on the buses and continued toward their destination.

But not long after the buses had left, several wolf howls rang out from the forest on the mountainside, accompanied by the sound of trees snapping and something tumbling down.