Vangu

“This way, please.”

President Song led Qi Yuan into the depths of the corridor, then he pushed open the door to the last private room.

“Brother Xiong, Anzhi, take a look what a fine day it is today, we have a distinguished guest visiting.”

Wu Xiong and Kong Anzhi put down their wine glasses. The two of them got up to greet the guest, but their expressions froze for a moment when they saw who it was.

“What a rare visitor indeed.”

“I’ve long heard of your great deeds, and today I finally get to meet you.”

“Still, they didn’t say anything specific. Why did Qi Yuan come to see them?”

Big talkers, little doers.

Qi Yuan nodded calmly in greeting, “Sorry to disturb you two.”

“No, not at all.”

The two of them smiled brightly, but their eyes drifted toward President Song.

“Old Song, what’s going on?”

Song Jing shook his head and said, “Come, let’s sit and chat.”

“We wouldn’t dare accept such an honor.”

The three men were well informed. Things went smoother than imagined, and Qi Yuan didn’t want to waste time or interfere with their business.

Keep a line open for future relationships.

He had just sat down when a glass of wine was placed in front of him. Qi Yuan quickly waved it away, “No need, I’ll only take a few minutes of your time to say what I came here for, then I’ll be on my way.”

They came from the same family, but Qi Yuan’s emotional intelligence was still a bit higher than the rest of his family. He knew how to make small talk, but he reacted poorly in the moment, otherwise he wouldn’t have just parroted his teacher’s words.

Moreover, he had always believed in a simple truth: Proper socializing benefits you, excessive socializing harms you.

He could make others more comfortable, but why make himself exhausted?

Finding a balance where both sides could save face and move on.

That's good enough.

These three reacted quickly as well. To become local overlords, they knew how to match their words to each personality.

Since the Golden Eyes wanted to be brief, they wouldn't insist on being annoying hosts. All three put on listening faces.

Wu Xiong, as representative, said "Please go ahead."

“Thank you. Let me ask, were the Hibiscus Noodles your own research product, or did someone else sell it to you?”

Qi Yuan cut straight to the core without beating around the bush.

“This...”

The three men's faces didn’t look good. The beauty salon was just investigated by the Patrol Team, and now Qi Yuan showed up at their door. Anyone could guess the connection.

They respected the strong, but that didn’t mean they’d smile after being slapped.

No matter if it was true or not, Wu Xiong immediately denied it and brushed it aside.

“You jest. Hibiscus Noodles are mutated plants, they have no relation to human bones.”

“Yes, we’ve sold a lot of Hibiscus Noodles with no problems at all.”

“And we’ve never fed any corpses.”

President Song and Kong Anzhi chimed in to add details.

After speaking, they were certain Hibiscus Noodles couldn't be implicated.

This was a big deal, so the alertness of the Patrol Team and Golden Eyes was understandable. Since it wasn't a deliberate targeting of them, the three let go of their earlier displeasure for now.

Qi Yuan remained silent, quietly listening to their thoughts and piecing together useful information from the fragments.

The atmosphere chilled again. Wu Xiong and the others grew somewhat uneasy.

Unlike earlier when they had taken the initiative to demonstrate their power, this time they were passive.

A few awkward glances were exchanged in the silence.

Under the tense atmosphere, they also started reflecting whether they had overlooked any suspicious points, or if there was anything off about the Hibiscus Noodles.

So they discovered in horror that there were indeed many questionable things.

Fan Gu, the supplier, had said the delicate flowers needed professional care. They needed to provide Fan Gu with customer lists for home visits and maintenance.

Additionally, Fan Gu mentioned that to protect trade secrets, they would need to provide transportation channels for him. Thinking carefully, these channels included hospitals, funeral homes, and routes in and out of the city.

They had coveted Fan Gu's trade secrets before, but failed in their attempts to steal them several times. His strength was considerable.

Now in retrospect, with such great power, why didn't he cooperate with officials?

Instead he approached them specifically.

For certain reasons, mass production of the plants was not possible. But what were those reasons?

And so on. The three felt chills down their necks.

They had been living well as local emperors in Qipan City. Raising monsters brought them no benefits, only harm.

Getting involved in something this big meant they couldn't even keep their Esper identities.

Dragon Country had zero tolerance for raising monsters.

They could investigate this matter later, but for now they absolutely could not admit to anything.

However, Qi Yuan leisurely spoke words that made their hearts tighten.

“The intel I received said that you provided them a route including hospitals, funeral parlors, and exits from the city. And you say there's no problem with this?”

It was intel he just received, so Qi Yuan used it directly.

These people still wanted to conceal information and sever ties, unlike him pretending to be arrogant. They really saw themselves as ancestors.

Qi Yuan found his own mentality wasn't as good as he thought.

The three were crafty and still didn’t plan to cooperate even after he pointed out the problem. They just wanted to shift blame.

Initially he had only come to gather some information without risk, and now he was certain something was wrong.

Qi Yuan didn't want to beat around the bush with them. He said it straight: “Report it now. If there really is a problem, you can redeem yourselves. But if you delay and cause serious losses, I will report you to the Patrol Team.”

After speaking, Qi Yuan realized he was getting carried away and not being rigorous enough, so he added, “Of course, it would be best if there is no problem.”

Having obtained the information, he had shot his mouth off. What was he waiting for if not a quick escape to seek the authorities’ protection?

After he left, Song Jing and Kong Anzhi looked to their big brother, waiting for his decision.

Wu Xiong was silent for a long time. He picked up the wine bottle on the table and chugged half of it, then smashed the bottle down.

“Find Guo Bureau!”

“Brother Xiong, should we really do this?”

“Yes, the Patrol Team must be even more anxious than us. We can still negotiate if we drag our feet.”

Wu Xiong raised his hand to stop their words: “The Eldest Young Master Qi already found out about our transportation route with Fan Gu. Do you still want to cling to false hopes and cut off your own retreat?”

President Song and the other opened their mouths to speak, but were interrupted by Wu Xiong again.

He pointed at the table, breaking down his concerns for them to understand.

“Young Master Qi came today to remind us to cooperate properly, redeem ourselves, and they’ll let us off easy afterwards. Losing face is a small matter, think carefully, if something really happens, even if we run away, can we defend against the Qi family taking revenge?”