Everyone got a taste of the freedom of no longer having the great mountain named Feng looming over them. Of the qualified biology expert teams in the country, they excluded the one conducting surveys for the authorities and contacted the rest one by one.
For some reason, several teams initially said they were available and could come over before being told it was a Xia Group project. But as soon as they heard Xia Corporation, they all changed their tune, saying something had suddenly come up.
This made everyone in the Marketing Department realize that even if their proposal covered every angle and accounted for everything, none of that mattered when it came to actually putting it into practice.
Everyone turned their attention to the last biology expert. He was very young, but had made his name early, earning dual PhDs by twenty-two. He had devoted himself to biology research ever since, publishing two or three SCI papers almost every year. He was so prolific that even the industry's old hands feared him.
They had kept him for last precisely because his reputation was so impressive, saving him for the grand finale.
"He's the last one. Do you think he'll agree?"
"Whether he agrees or not, we have to give it one last shot. Better to get it over with. If this doesn't work, we'll just have to put our heads on the chopping block and ask President Xia for an overseas team of experts."
"All right, stop looking so miserable. Hurry up and call."
The call went through, and the other party picked up after two rings.
A young man's voice came through. "Hello, this is Li Yang."
"Hello, Professor Li Yang. I'm an employee of the Marketing Department at Xia Group's Lanhai branch. My surname is Lan. Regarding..." After rattling off an explanation of what they wanted him to do, Lan Hai finally asked, "Would you be able to take this on?"
Li Yang clicked his tongue inwardly. That guy really had predicted it. What was he supposed to do about how annoying that was? But when he remembered that Xia Qinghe would only invest in his subsequent homologous gametes project if he handled this properly, he had no choice but to swallow his irritation and acknowledge the guy's uncanny foresight.
Li Yang could already imagine how smug Xia Qinghe would be the next time they met.
Still, Li Yang made a few excuses to Lan Hai before finally swallowing his anguish and accepting the commission.
Thinking of the price Lan Hai had offered, then of how that money would only pass through his hands before returning to Xia Qinghe's pocket, left him feeling particularly miserable.
But what choice did he have? To resolve the conflict between his father-in-law and them, he had to pursue the homologous gametes project. And from launching the project through the long process of experimentation, even billions would not cover the costs.
Of all the people he knew, only Xia Qinghe had the wealth to fund his experiments without interruption.
Xia Qinghe did not leave after reading the proposal. He had brought a team with him this time, and Feng Chuyue's absence made it the perfect opportunity to check the accounts.
With a wave of his hand, the team he had brought moved straight into the branch's Finance Department, tossed its staff out, and began examining the ledgers.
Anxious as the Finance Manager was, there was nothing she could do. She had neither the authority nor the ability to stop headquarters from auditing the branch's accounts.
She hurried into the restroom and desperately called Feng Chuyue, but no one answered.
"Ah! Who are you people?" The woman's face drained of color as she screamed.
Chen Xiaohua picked at an ear and signaled behind him with a glance. A group of men in suits came forward and dragged Feng Chuyue off the bed.
At another glance from Chen Xiaohua, two others rushed over and pinned the woman down through the quilt. "Scream again and we'll kill you."
The human screaming chicken let out one more squawk, then stifled it in her mouth, not daring to make another sound.
Looking at the fat sausage that was Feng Chuyue, Chen Xiaohua expressionlessly hooked the clothes on the floor with a foot and tossed them over that greasy body.
"President Feng, didn't you take sick leave? How did you end up taking it in a woman's bed?" Chen Xiaohua had gone to considerable trouble to find this fat worm. He wondered whether Young Master Qinghe would lose his temper.
Thinking of Xia Qinghe's temper, Chen Xiaohua could not help sighing.
Children who grew up under intense pressure really did turn into lunatics. Xia Qinghe was living proof.
Feng Chuyue's heart lurched. He knew Xia Qinghe was like a rabid dog, but he had never imagined his reach was already great enough to track him down.
His hands hurt unbearably beneath the weight of the legs and feet pinning them down, and cold sweat poured down his fat face. "I don't know what you're talking about! Let me go."
Chen Xiaohua ignored Feng Chuyue's attempt to play dumb and gave the order to take him away. Before leaving, Chen Xiaohua glanced back at the woman huddled in the corner, but ultimately said nothing and walked straight out.
"President Xia, we've found him. Shall we bring him to the company?"
No sooner had the words left Chen Xiaohua's mouth than Feng Chuyue, bare-chested in a pair of oversized boxer shorts, broke free of the bodyguards' grip and fled with his hands over his head.
Chen Xiaohua put away the phone, on which he had never even dialed a number, and exchanged smiles with the others. "Come on. Follow him."
Working for President Xia really was making Chen Xiaohua a better and better actor.
The men took off their suit jackets, revealing casual clothes underneath, and followed at a leisurely pace. Chen Xiaohua went to get the car and trailed them at a distance.
Having finally broken free of those men and escaped, Feng Chuyue was like a startled bird, with no idea where to go.
"Hello, do you need help?" A passerby saw his hands bound with a zip tie and how little he was wearing, and approached to ask.
Feng Chuyue spat, in no mood to deal with these so-called good Samaritans. "Mind your own business."
The passerby bristled at having their kindness thrown back in their face and left with a parting remark: "Ungrateful bastard."
Only then did Feng Chuyue remember that he did not have his phone and could not make a call. He regretted driving the passerby away a little, but there were countless people on the streets, and plenty of busybodies among them. He did not need that particular one.
He found a spot and crouched down, biting at the zip tie and grinding it against a stone by the roadside. It took him ages to get it off. Without any hesitation, he entered a roadside tobacco and liquor store and borrowed the owner's phone to make a call.
But no matter how many different numbers he tried, all he got was a message saying the number he had dialed was not in service and asking him to check it before dialing again.
"Fuck." Feng Chuyue raised the phone, about to smash it.
"Fuck, what the hell are you doing?" The person who had lent him the phone quickly snatched it back. They had finally done a good deed for once, only to run into a lunatic and nearly lose their phone.
After taking the phone back, the owner drove him out of the store.
Left with no choice, Feng Chuyue walked a little farther and ran into patrol officers. Someone had already called the police, reporting a man behaving indecently in public, wandering the streets in nothing but his underwear.
The police soon took him back to the Police Station. When questioned, Feng Chuyue only dared to say that his wife had caught him in bed with another woman, and he had run out before he could get dressed.
To verify his story, the police had him call his wife.
When Yu Youyou received the call, she froze for a second before launching into a torrent of abuse. "He had the nerve to call the police? Why didn't he just die on that woman's belly? He deserves to make a disgrace of himself. When I see him later, I'll kill him!"
With that, she hung up and frowned, her well-maintained face showing no trace of age. After considerable thought, she took a phone out of the safe, dialed a number, and explained the situation.
A strange electronic voice soon came from the other end. "We're abandoning him. He's been exposed."
"Yes." Yu Youyou hung up and left the house in her high heels.
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