The Pharmacists Competition's Nameless Champion
At those words, the arena fell silent for a moment, then erupted in thunderous applause.
"Holy shit! The Su Family's young master really sees the bigger picture!"
"Anyone else might not give up a championship already in their hands, even if they knew they weren't as good!"
"Just what you'd expect from someone raised by the Su Family. That magnanimity is incredible!"
"..."
The chief judge looked at Su Mo, his eyes full of approval. After exchanging glances with the veteran pharmacists beside him, he raised the microphone again. "Excellent! Well said-the most accomplished should come first! Following renewed deliberation by the judging panel, the final championship of this Six-City Young Pharmacists Competition goes to the anonymous contestant!
"He is also the first nameless champion since this competition was founded!"
In an instant, waves of applause rose, each louder than the last.
Watching the scene, Su Mo thought to himself that he had never taken this championship seriously at all.
The title of Six-City Young Pharmacists Competition champion was something he could take or leave.
But using the gesture of yielding the championship to give Lin Hao face was a deal well worth making.
Uncle Fu stood beside him, watching his young master's composed expression, and nodded inwardly in approval.
Before the clamor in the arena had died down, the various parties gathered around the judging panel had already quietly left.
The representative of Wansheng Pharmaceuticals, the largest pharmaceutical company in the six cities, urgently told his subordinate, "An annual salary of ten million! A dedicated laboratory! A full set of top-of-the-line potion-making equipment! As long as that genius is willing to come, he can name his terms! Mobilize every store and channel we have in Jiang City right now and find that boy in the black face covering!"
The representative from the Qingyang City Lord's Manor had already gotten into a car. In a grave voice, he told the person on the other end of the phone, "Find a way to contact the Jiang City Exit-Entry Administration Office. Pull the information on everyone under twenty who entered the city over the past week and screen them all! Even if we have to dig three feet into the ground, we must find this pharmaceutical genius!"
Someone from an established family also called his family head. "...Family head, I think we could consider starting with that Zhou Mingxuan from Linshui City. He probably knows something."
Noon, at the mining district's family housing compound.
The midday sun blazed fiercely, baking the ground until it was hot.
Lin Hao climbed the stairs with a hand against the peeling wall. Every step sent a stab of pain through his head.
His hand unconsciously pressed against his trouser pocket. Feeling the two vials containing the Primordial Qi and Blood Potion seemed to ease even the stabbing pain in his head a little.
Originally, he had planned to take the Primordial Qi and Blood Potion and start cultivating as soon as he got home.
Now, though, all he wanted was to collapse into bed and sleep for two hours first.
Reaching his front door on the fourth floor, he stopped and rubbed his cheeks, suppressing the fatigue and discomfort in his eyes. He forced an easy smile before taking out his key and opening the door.
But the smile on his face vanished the moment he opened it.
Normally, at this hour, the hum of the range hood and the aroma of cooking should have drifted out of the kitchen. Today, however, it was unusually quiet.
In the living room, Lin Rongshan sat on the left side of the sofa. The cigarette between his fingers had already burned down to a long column of white ash.
The cigarette butts in the glass ashtray before him were piled into a mound.
Li Xiulan sat beside him, her eyes red and her face weary.
Throughout the living room, the only sound was the "tick, tick" of the second hand on the old wall clock.
"Dad, Mom, what happened?" Lin Hao closed the door and hurried inside, momentarily forgetting even the pain in his head.
Lin Rongshan looked at Lin Hao, his voice somewhat hoarse. "Xiao Hao, your cousin Qingqing... was taken away by the Martial Arts Discipline Inspection Bureau."
Lin Hao's heart sank sharply, and he hurriedly asked, "The Discipline Bureau? How is that possible? We all know what kind of person my cousin is. She's always done everything by the rules. Why would the Discipline Bureau take her away?"
Lin Rongshan sighed and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray. "It's about that security position at the industrial park in the east of the city. Someone reported it.
"They said your cousin bent the law for personal gain, using her authority as captain of the martial arts branch bureau's Third Unit to coerce Zhang Mao, the head of the industrial park's human resources department, into breaking regulations to arrange a permanent staff position for you, and promising him benefits afterward.
"Zhang Mao is now adamantly insisting that he had no choice, that he was forced to put you through the public notice process. He said your qi and blood weren't even 0.5, nowhere near the position's recruitment requirement of 0.9."
"How could this happen?" Lin Hao was startled, and his breathing quickened. "My cousin exchanged her second-class merit from the Jiang City Martial Arts Bureau for that opening. How does that count as favoritism?
"No wonder. I heard Jiang Chao say earlier that the public notice had already gone up. I was wondering how it had happened so fast."
Li Xiulan spoke then, her voice slightly choked. "That Zhao Man must be behind this. There's a vacant deputy director position at the branch bureau right now, and only your cousin and Zhao Man, the captain of the Second Unit, are competing for it. Zhao Man can't match your cousin's battle merits or strength, so she's resorted to these schemes!"
Lin Hao's brows knitted tightly. He had heard his parents mention the name Zhao Man before.
At his cousin's branch bureau, Zhao Man was notorious for currying favor and chasing advancement. She had little ability, but she was very adept at crooked tricks.
"To keep that opening for you for another month, your cousin went to Zhang Mao to arrange an extension," Lin Rongshan continued, his voice full of helplessness. "Zhang Mao said the industrial park had a rule requiring a thirty-thousand-yuan performance bond for deferred reporting.
"If you reported on time, it would be refunded in full. If you missed the deadline, it would be turned over to Jiang City.
"Your cousin didn't think much of it and transferred thirty thousand yuan from her personal funds into the account he gave her.
"Now that money has become the bribe your cousin paid him. Along with his testimony, they have both a witness and material evidence."
"What a joke." Li Xiulan gripped the sofa's armrest hard. "Thirty thousand yuan? To get a permanent security position? Forget thirty thousand-even with a hundred thousand or a million, so many people fight until their heads split and still can't get that opening. Who would believe that was a bribe?"
Lin Hao sat down and leaned back against the sofa, giving his already fiercely aching head a moment to recover.
"This happened because of me. I'll go to the Discipline Bureau and explain."
Lin Hao opened his eyes, his tone firm. "I'll tell them I did everything."
"Have you lost your mind?" Li Xiulan immediately said anxiously. "Have you thought about the consequences? Your Martial Artist Examination is coming up. How could you do something so foolish? If anyone goes, it should be me! I'll say all of this was done by me, your mother, and had nothing to do with any of you!"
"At a time like this, stop arguing over that." Lin Rongshan stopped them both in a grave voice, his eyes full of exhaustion. "This isn't something we can resolve by having someone rush out and take the fall. The Discipline Bureau goes by evidence, not by whoever steps forward to take responsibility.
"If you rush in now and say you did everything, you'll only drag yourselves down too. It won't help your cousin in the slightest."
"Dad, I have an idea."
Lin Hao looked at Lin Rongshan and said seriously, "The core of what Zhang Mao and Zhao Man are insisting on is that my cousin broke recruitment regulations by hiring someone unqualified, bending the law for personal gain. Then what if I meet the recruitment requirements?"