Negotiating conditions
Huang Zhongqian was sitting at home when the telephone kept ringing.
He was already used to these noises.
Holding a watering can, he gazed at the large-leaved dragon scale clover plants by the window while watering the monstera plants. How leisurely!
As evening approached, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in."
Xiao Zhang pushed open the door and walked in.
"How is it? Everything is settled." The elder at the table held a calligraphy brush, just finishing the last stroke of the brush, and looked up at the person.
"Deputy Director Liu, Staff Officer Lin, and Secretary Wang have all been released on bail at the police station."
"Are you willing to accept the charges they've been given?"
"They have no choice but to accept it. The facts are clear, and no one dares to say no."
"How was it? Did you enjoy it?" Huang Zhongqian patted the man who stepped forward on the shoulder.
The elder's question seemed casual, yet it carried a hint of thoughtfulness.
"I wouldn't say, but is it permissible within the law to arrest people without evidence like we have?"
"What do you mean by 'allowed' or 'not allowed'? What are those people if not testimonies? People like them aren't clean, and they can't even remember who bribed them."
As Huang Zhongqian spoke, he continued to dip his head in the millstone.
"But so far, none of them have confessed."
"Regardless of whether he confessed or not, keeping him locked up is the priority. We can always release him later. As for time, let's stall for as long as possible..."
As they were talking, the cell phone next to them started ringing again.
"Boss, this phone call..."
"When lions get desperate, they'll open their mouths. Just ignore them and let them cool off for a few days. Once they've calmed down, their tails will naturally show."
"But I'm worried about your authority..."
"They are all empty names, ephemeral things. Caring too much about them will not be a good thing."
Xiao Zhang stood to the side, watching Huang Zhong write with his head down, and lingered there for a long time before leaving.
"What's wrong? Is there anything else?" The old man didn't even look up; his hand, still steady and strong, remained as he wrote.
“Boss, I’m worried that you might make a mistake because of Fan Siwen.”
"You're worried that little brat will try to trick me?" The person who spoke chuckled. "He wouldn't dare. He plans to use me as his backer, just to achieve his goals. As for methods, he doesn't seem to have any. All his plans are written on his face."
"You figured out his purpose?" Xiao Zhang frowned.
“He wants to fight alongside Song Yize, but I won’t let him succeed.”
As he spoke, he put down his pen and wrote another character.
"The young man is loyal, but his sharpness is questionable. If he doesn't hone his skills, he's bound to make mistakes at crucial moments."
“He’s been yelling at people outside every day now, and the whole floor knows there’s someone locked up there.”
Huang Zhong didn't reply to him immediately. He patiently finished writing the whole thing, then looked up, put down his brush, and said to the man, "Here's what you do. Give him a stack of paper, cut it into small squares, and tell him to fold airplanes. Tell him to let him out when he's done."
"That can be done very quickly."
"It's fast for you, but it's also a challenge for him."
"What if he finishes folding them?"
"I have my own plans after I finish folding them."
"yes."
Xiao Zhang left after saying that.
Huang Zhongqian's phone rang again.
Huang Zhongqian picked it up and looked at it, then couldn't help but laugh. "Now you're in a hurry. It's much easier to identify yourself than to investigate."
After the phone rang several more times, I finally picked it up and answered it.
"Hello."
"He's clearly not taking us seriously. The high-ranking officials he arrested weren't treated like human beings."
"If he dares to arrest people, so do we. We'll find a pretext to take Zhang Qishan away. At worst, we'll fight to the death, and neither of us will get away unscathed."
"Everyone, calm down. I know your people have been taken away and you're upset, but have you thought about how they got hold of your incriminating evidence in the first place?"
"You ask us, but we don't know. We've cleaned up the mess perfectly. There's nothing left for him to use against us."
"If that's the case, is it possible that they have no evidence at all?"
"You mean they're arresting people arbitrarily? They wouldn't dare even if they had eight lives."
"Did you get through to Huang Zhongqian on the phone?"
"The line is busy; no one can get through."
"I heard that he used a helicopter to capture someone overnight the night before last."
"Are you trying to say that the undercover agent who escaped from the lab before?"
What is this person's relationship with us?
"Don't you think about it? Song Yize has disappeared, so why is he still clinging to the people on that project?"
“When I visited last time, I asked him about it, and he said that we cannot allow our country’s intellectual property to be leaked.”
"The reasons seem plausible."
"Don't even mention that time you went to confront them with such conviction, and then what happened? You came back looking utterly defeated."
"That's not..."
"Stop arguing. If you keep arguing, both of you get out."
"Do you think Song Yize might have been secretly hidden away by Old Huang?"
"What? There's such a thing!"
"If that's true, then we'll have something on him. This time, not only will the people around him be out of a job, but he himself won't be able to protect him either."
"You need evidence to support your claims. Do you have any evidence?"
"He also arrested people without any evidence!"
How do you know there's no evidence?
Everyone fell silent.
Nobody knows whether he has any evidence this time, but how will they get their hands on any evidence about him?
Inside the cave at the bottom of the mountain.
Of the group of people who lost internet access, the two others, apart from the young man, were somewhat depressed.
Not only has Mo Yang's hard-won path to wealth been cut off, but he can no longer even find any news reports to understand the scale of that company's development.
The girl here also seems to be filled with worries.
The next day, when connecting the experimental equipment, Chen Lili asked the young officer next to her, "Can we go out for some fresh air? We've been locked up here for many days. If this continues, people will go crazy."
"We need to report this through multiple levels of government."
"Alright, then I'll leave it to you all."
A young man overheard this and spoke up in his defense.
Mo Yang glanced at the girl's indignant expression and secretly made an application to Huang Zhongqian at the bottom of the work report document column, along with inquiring about Fan Siwen's whereabouts.
"We're just one final step away from completing the final instrument test start-up – the final energy supply system. Everyone's been cooped up here for too long; could we please go out for some fresh air? We can't take it anymore."
The next day, Huang Zhongqian replied to him.
"Now is the crucial moment before success; let's not let all our efforts go to waste."
Upon receiving the reply, Mo Yang sent another message asking, "Then send us a replacement batch of people and send them back. At this pace, anyone can come."
Another day has passed.
Mo Yang received a message.
“There’s an undercover agent among you. I’m not sure what his identity is. All we can do right now is maintain formation.”
Upon seeing this, Mo Yang was shocked once again.
Not again?
Back then, in the research institute, so many people couldn't find the answer.
Now that they've moved them to this godforsaken place, why are they resorting to this trick?
There were only a few of them in total.
Feeling indignant, but with no other options, he could only hope that a time machine would be invented so he could escape this place as soon as possible.
They now only have one final battle left. The energy hurdle is something they can overcome easily, but if they can't, all their efforts will have been in vain.
At this moment, Mo Yang desperately wanted Fan Siwen to return. Firstly, he wanted to know what was going on with Fan Siwen in the future. Secondly, he hoped to see him one last time before traveling back in time; if Fan Siwen wished, he could take him to the future.
Time ticked by, and Fan Siwen had never felt so anxious.
At this moment, I wish I could grow eight hands and forty fingers, and just fold them up.
I don't know who came up with this terrible idea. Why bother folding paper airplanes when you have nothing better to do?
He's never been this serious in his life.
The mountain of paper had been partially folded away.
Fan Siwen was so exhausted that she lay down.
This is absolutely inhuman.
He was definitely taking revenge on himself.
There's no escaping it.
What other choice was there? In order to gain freedom, they had to keep folding.
For several days, Fan Siwen diligently and attentively folded airplanes. Later, he seemed to have found the trick to folding airplanes, knowing how to fold one in just one step.
Seeing that the paper was two-thirds full, Fan Siwen threw down the paper.
He felt like he was going to throw up.
He never wanted to see those planes again.
He vowed that if he could turn back time, he would never again act so impulsively and recklessly.
Looking at the planes scattered all over the ground, there was almost no place to stand.
For the first time, Fan Siwen felt that she was captivated by something.
On the last day, with only a tiny bit of KPI left to achieve, it was time to get to work.
For the first time, Fan Siwen discovered what it felt like to be surrounded by the fruits of his labor. Especially as the countdown reached its final 100 pages, he was simply overjoyed.
When the countdown reached the last 50 photos, Fan Siwen felt somewhat numb.
So much so that after folding them all, Fan Siwen's first reaction was that he needed to get a good night's sleep.
I slept straight through until evening.
Looking at the paper airplanes scattered all over the floor, Fan Siwen knocked on the door. "I'm done folding them."
In Huang Zhongqian's office.
"It seems you are trustworthy. You have diligently completed the tasks assigned to you over the past few days."
"You didn't count the number, how do you know I didn't throw away some of the paper?"
"The fact that you can say that proves you didn't do it, right?"
Fan Siwen pursed his lips. He had thought about it, but the cardboard was so thin and fragmented that there was nowhere to hide it. He had even considered flushing it down the drain, but it didn't work.
"So, did you keep your promise to me?" Fan Siwen retorted, refusing to back down an inch.
"Since I've agreed to your request, I will make sure they are powerless to do anything about it."
Fan Siwen thought about it and concluded that it could be considered a small success.
I couldn't help but feel a surge of joy.
"What do you want to do next?"
Huang Zhongqian looked at the young man in front of him, his eyes crinkling with laughter, and couldn't help but move the corners of his mouth as well.
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