The morning mist had yet to clear when Zang Xin walked out of the Soul Guidance Train station.
He pulled his collar tight, hailed a taxi, and gave the address of the East Suburban Industrial Zone.
The driver took another look at him in the rearview mirror. Zang Xin looked visibly troubled, but the driver thought better of asking and simply stepped on the gas.
Zang Xin leaned back in the rear seat and closed his eyes, yesterday morning's call still replaying in his mind.
He had just brewed a pot of tea in his study when his Soul Guidance Communicator rang.
He glanced down at the screen, saw Ling Zichen's name, and pressed the answer button.
He had felt pleased that this girl, who had never been good at expressing herself since childhood, had finally taken the initiative to call him. Before he could speak, an excited voice came through.
"Old Zang! I've got something to tell you!"
Zang Xin settled back into his chair with his teacup, his lips already curving into a familiar smile. "What's got you so excited this early in the morning? A breakthrough in your experiments?"
"Even better than a breakthrough! I've changed jobs!"
Zang Xin's hand froze around the teacup.
He set the cup aside, his tone changing abruptly. "Wait, changed jobs? You're not joking, are you? Where could you possibly go?"
"I went over to Mo Yuan's place. Oh, he's that youngest Level-9 Soul Engineer you mentioned to me before. He wrote a paper related to my research, and his approach was spot-on. I adjusted my experimental parameters according to his proposal, and efficiency jumped by thirty percent!" Ling Zichen rattled on like a machine gun. "And he said he had even more advanced technology there. I thought it was a perfect fit for me, so I agreed to join him."
Zang Xin was stunned. She finally called him for once, only to deliver this piece of "good news"?
"Wait, well... Zichen, you're a young woman. Isn't it a little unsafe to move to a completely unfamiliar place?" Zang Xin tried earnestly to reason with her.
"Oh, don't worry, Old Zang. Sure, going alone might be unsafe, but I didn't go alone!" Ling Zichen suddenly sounded rather smug.
Zang Xin had a sinking feeling.
Sure enough, Ling Zichen added, "Director Li and the others all thought the environment here was great, so they came with me!"
Crack—crash—
He glanced down at the spilled tea, reached for a cloth to wipe the desk, and asked in a low voice, "So how many people from your laboratory left?"
"All fourteen, of course! Everyone left!"
Zang Xin closed his eyes.
I daren't open my eyes. Please let this be a hallucination~
"Old Zang? Old Zang, why aren't you saying anything? You're not angry, are you?"
"...No." Zang Xin opened his eyes. "You've found somewhere good to go. I couldn't be happier for you. Why... why would I... be angry?"
"Great! I'll hang up, then!" She promptly ended the call.
Zang Xin sat in his study, gazing at the fully brightened sky outside. In silence, he finished the last mouthful of tea in his cup, then stood up to book a train ticket.
He could have flown there. After all, a Limit Douluo could fly no slower than a Soul Guidance Train. But considering how embarrassing this affair was, and not wanting to draw too much attention to his arrival, he quietly chose the train instead.
Besides, he had yet to work out exactly what he would face once he arrived.
By the time he dragged himself out of his recollections, the taxi had stopped outside a gray-and-white building in the East Suburban Industrial Zone.
Zang Xin paid the fare, got out, and looked up at the building.
Its outer walls were not particularly new, but they were clean. No dust had accumulated on the window frames, and the ground outside the entrance had been washed down.
He made no effort to soften his footsteps as he pushed through the main doors. The sound of his soles striking the concrete floor echoed distinctly through the empty hallway.
Strange. Extremely strange!
There weren't any security measures here? Had they known he was coming?
Zang Xin went straight up to the fourth floor.
The corridor was quiet, though he could hear the hum of equipment and occasional conversation.
Following the sounds, he reached the door at the end of the corridor. He did not push it open particularly hard, but the sound of it striking the wall rang out sharply across the floor.
The sounds inside the room stopped abruptly.
The first face Zang Xin saw was Ling Zichen's.
She stood at a workbench with an engraving knife in her hand, its tip still suspended in the air, as though she had been interrupted halfway through her work.
The instant she saw him, a flicker of guilt crossed her face. Then her expression returned to normal, and she even waved. "Old Zang, what brings you here?"
Zang Xin was silent. Zang Xin said nothing...
His gaze passed over Ling Zichen and swept across the entire laboratory.
People occupied more than a dozen workbenches, some studying documents, others assembling equipment.
A faint scent of rare metals hung in the air.
Zang Xin recognized several of the faces.
Director Li, in particular, was one of the Tang Sect's old hands.
Old Li looked up from his drawings and met Zang Xin's eyes without the slightest panic. "Er, Sect Master, what brings you here?"
Zang Xin looked at a few more familiar faces. They quietly lowered their heads, clearly guilty, but not at all regretful.
Wait, what kind of new brainwashing technology was this? Your old boss was standing right in front of you, and you barely reacted?
Zang Xin's expression stiffened, and he quietly closed the door from outside.
Forget it. Just pretend I never came...
Ling Zichen froze for a moment, then immediately put down her engraving knife and ran after him.
By the time she reached the corridor, Zang Xin had already taken seven or eight steps away. She hurried to catch up. "Old Zang, I—"
"I'm going to see him." Zang Xin did not turn around, his voice flat. "You stay put."
"No! You're a Limit Douluo! What if you hurt him?"
Hiss—
Hopeless...
Zang Xin's heart gave a painful twitch, and he stiffly forced out a reply. "Don't worry. I know when to stop."
Ling Zichen opened her mouth, but ultimately stopped.
She watched Zang Xin's back disappear into the stairwell, her fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes.
Mo Yuan was sorting drawings in a temporary office on the second floor of the main factory building.
Suddenly, a mental power alarm beside him went off, indicating that someone was scanning the area with mental power.
"He got here that fast?" Mo Yuan sighed. At this hour, Zang Xin was the only person who would come looking for him.
Still, he would deal with whatever came his way and stick to his course.
Sure enough, less than half a minute later, someone knocked on the door.
Mo Yuan looked up. "Come in."
The door opened, revealing a handsome middle-aged man in a dark gray robe.
The moment he entered, Zang Xin's gaze locked firmly onto Mo Yuan without so much as a glance at his surroundings.
If looks could kill, Mo Yuan would already have been sliced into a thousand pieces.
Mo Yuan put down his pen and leaned back in his chair without rising.
"Hall Master Zang Xin? Or should I call you Passionate Excellency?" His tone was unhurried. "For the record, I'm male, and I like women. Could you stop staring at me?"
Zang Xin finally lost his composure.
"You've gone too far!"
"Too far? How so? They were just researchers at the Xuan Shi Tang Sect Company, weren't they? Isn't moving to another laboratory perfectly normal?"
"I raised that girl for over a decade. I watched her grow up!" he said. "I watched every step she took from a junior researcher to the heart of her laboratory. The equipment she used, the people she led, the projects she researched—all of it came from the Tang Sect. You poached her and her entire laboratory with a single paper. Don't you think you owe me an explanation?"
Mo Yuan met his gaze. "Hall Master Zang, let me confirm something first. Is the Radiant Tang Sect an independent legal entity registered in Mingdu?"
Zang Xin's brows shifted slightly. "Yes."
"Do its employees have their own employment contracts and the right to choose where they work?"
"...Yes."
"Then it cannot be considered an internal branch of the Tang Sect, can it?"
Zang Xin fell silent for a moment, then nodded. "The Radiant Tang Sect is indeed not a department under the Tang Sect's direct jurisdiction. You exploited that loophole."
"I won't deny it," Mo Yuan said. "But Ling Zichen's reason for leaving has nothing to do with where she came from. It has to do with where she can do what she wants. After all, the technology here is far more advanced than yours, isn't it?"
"Heh..." Zang Xin raised his eyes, his dark gaze settling on Mo Yuan's face again. "Very fine sophistry. But now that I'm here, you owe me an explanation one way or another. Or, shall we say, how do you intend to convince me?"
He knew perfectly well that, given their current attitude, getting those people to return was impossible. All he could do was see whether he could secure some benefits instead.
"Oh? Convince Your Excellency? But as I recall, the Tang Sect isn't exactly innocent either. Shall I refresh your memory about some of the top-secret files I saw in the Tang Sect's internal database?"
Mo Yuan smiled and forced out a few words. "For example... arms—"