At ten that night, in a guest room on Mount Longhu.
Feng Zhenghao sat in a chair sipping tea, still waiting for word from his subordinates.
"If you came in the depths of winter~~~"
The instant his ringtone sounded, he picked up his phone to check, but the screen didn't show a subordinate's name.
Instead, it showed a string of unreadable asterisks.
1**********
"Gulp!" He swallowed, his throat tightening.
As an old hand in business, he knew all too well the rank and significance of a number like this.
Repeating-digit numbers meant knives, guns, and cannons.
But asterisks?
Those belonged to people in the heavens!
Feng Zhenghao steadied himself. Not daring to delay, he immediately answered, even his voice turning far more meek:
"Hel... hello? This is Feng Zhenghao. May I ask who you are?"
After the call connected, a long moment passed before an elderly man's strong, resonant voice came from the other end. "Niu Anshan, director of the National Security Special Affairs Bureau."
Those few words sent Feng Zhenghao straight to his knees.
Niu Anshan?!
The National Security Special Affairs Bureau?!
Within a few short seconds, Feng Zhenghao reviewed everything he had ever done, even recalling his petty childhood thefts.
To put it nicely, the Special Affairs Bureau had been established to handle ordinary incidents. To put it bluntly, it was the iron club that kept superhumans from causing trouble.
Bare your teeth, and they would beat you straight to death.
Feng Zhenghao's head felt ready to split, but he feared that replying too slowly would make the other party question his attitude.
"D-Director Niu, may I ask what I've done wrong?"
"We ordinary citizens know our duty. We absolutely follow orders!"
There was only breathing on the other end, as though he were considering something.
"Stop investigating Liu Guanyi. As for the small fry you bribed, I can't be bothered with them. You capitalists, you capitalist roaders, always love doing this sort of thing."
Capitalists?!
Capitalist roaders?!!!!!
Oh noes!
My career!
My life!
That single remark frightened Feng Zhenghao into a stress response.
"No, no, no! Director Niu, please don't think that! We're a national enterprise, an enterprise of the people. We would never be lackeys of capital!"
"Even if you held a knife to my neck, I wouldn't dare be a capitalist!"
"As for Liu Guanyi-er, no, young Comrade Liu-I swear I won't entertain another thought about him. Rest easy, please, rest completely easy!"
"We humble entrepreneurs of the people would never dare entertain improper thoughts."
"Besides, as a son of Longguo, my heart is devoted to serving my country!"
But the man on the other end couldn't even be bothered to respond and simply hung up.
It was as though Feng Zhenghao had taken a trip to death's door. Cold sweat had soaked the back of his shirt, leaving it plastered to his skin.
The Four Great Families?
Mount Longhu?
The Ten Elders?
Before someone of this rank, they didn't mean shit!
No matter how powerful superhumans were, they still lived on this country's soil!
Qi, techniques, and bloodlines could defeat ten or a hundred experts, but could they fight the entire machinery of the state?
An enterprise built through three generations of struggle might be reduced to nothing by a single word from someone in the heavens!
No matter how far your influence reached, you still had to spend money, eat, and live.
Since ancient times, commoners had never fought officials. That wasn't just an idle saying.
However mighty Mount Longhu was, one word from the authorities could still turn it into a tourist attraction.
Had this been a few decades earlier, being branded feudal would have left it waiting for the end.
Elsewhere, Xu San, who had also been investigating, wasn't doing much better.
Zhao Fangxu had practically scolded him to death. He was one step away from flying over to have a one-on-one fistfight with him.
Is there anyone you wouldn't dare investigate?!
Should I give you my position while I'm at it?!
I spent over an hour being interrogated over the phone!
A whole hour and more!!!
Those words still rang in Xu San's ears, replaying over and over in his mind.
Especially the final sentence: from now on, that man would be a temporary worker at Nadutong.
That statement didn't merely mean what it said. It had a deeper meaning.
He had been sent down from above.
By contrast, Zhang Chulan lay in the bedroom, two trails of clear tears running down his face.
Hehehe, so none of them are virgins anymore... Which means I'm the only eternal bachelor...
No wonder. No wonder...
What does that prick being a virgin have to do with me?! Zhang Chulan, what the hell are you crying for?!
I'm preserving my purity! I'm keeping myself clean!
Zhang Chulan suddenly turned his face toward Wang Zhuo, who had taken off his eye mask to sleep beside him.
Wait, what if this guy is too...
But when he saw those long white eyelashes and that completely uncovered face, the last shred of hope in his heart couldn't hold up.
Motherfucker, how can anyone be that damn handsome? So the eye mask was sealing away his looks, huh?!
Damn it! I can't accept this! I can't accept it!
Just as he furiously bit down on his blanket, the wooden door creaked open.
Zhang Chulan jolted all over and immediately looked toward the doorway, afraid some stranger had come in.
Feng Baobao poked her head inside, her furtive eyes sweeping around before settling on him.
"Who's there?!"
"How dare you barge in during broad daylight... in the dead of night?"
The superhumans woke one after another and watched the doorway warily, looking ready for a fight.
"Zhang Chulan! Come out and follow me." Feng Baobao paid no attention to the startled group.
Zhang Chulan froze. "What are we doing this late, Sister Bao'er?"
"Never you mind. Hurry and follow me."
Once the two left, the group lay back down, grumbling and cursing.
"Son of a bitch, barging in at this hour! Scared the hell out of me!"
"That's nothing. I was having a wet dream, just about to get some, and she scared me limp!"
"Oh myyy, what are you doooing, disturbing my beauty sleep~~~" The burly man with a full beard and a buzz cut whined a few times, drew his long white socks back beneath the covers, and went back to sleep.
"..."
The person beside him immediately moved away from her, looking as though he had seen a ghost.
Compared with Feng Baobao, this one was even more fucking terrifying!
Yet none of them noticed that another person, who had been sleeping by the door all along, had also disappeared.
And disappeared without a sound.
"Sister Bao'er, where are we going?"
Zhang Chulan and Feng Baobao threaded through the dense woods on the mountain's rear slopes. People were practically never likely to come here; jagged rocks littered the area, and visitors were few and far between.
Feng Baobao ran swiftly. "You kept looking distracted today after finding out who your opponent was. I heard that Shan Shitong's a tough one. I figured you'd take quite a beating, so I..."
"We're here!"
"Look..."
The two stopped at a deep pit by a broken cliff, where Shan Shitong lay trussed up bondage-style, with several turns of filthy rag wrapped around his mouth.
At the sight of people approaching, he whimpered frantically, but his mouth was completely gagged, and he couldn't get out a single complete sentence.
All he could do was stare fixedly at them with eyes that held thirty percent terror, thirty percent resentment, and forty percent fury.
Zhang Chulan, who had been so frightened that a snot bubble had emerged, came back to his senses.
"Holy shit, how the hell can one eyeball express that many emotions?!"
At that, Shan Shitong writhed frantically on the ground like a silkworm pupa, terrified that Zhang Chulan would do something underhanded to him.
Seeing him scared utterly witless, Zhang Chulan couldn't really say anything.
Meanwhile, Feng Baobao had already started digging with a shovel she had stolen from who knew where. "Don't panic. I just need to bury him. As long as I leave his head out, he definitely won't die."
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