Chapter 24: Gambling

  This lie seems harmless, but in fact it's a gamble. Are you really going to put all your eggs in Zhou Jian's basket? If Zhou Jian can't get the formula back, even his own backup plan for "Shen Mo" will be affected.

  Chu Qingyun can now only contact Zhou Jian through Tianxun, and she doesn't know how confident Zhou Jian is.

  She thought for a moment and picked up the phone, but hesitated to dial the number. This hesitant expression was rarely seen on Chu Qingyun, who was usually decisive.

  After exactly ten minutes, Chu Qingyun dialed the secretary's phone number. "Hello, Xiao Su, help me notify a few directors to hold an online meeting. I have something to announce."

  Hanging up the phone, Chu Qingyun felt that her hand was a little wet. In the end, she chose to believe Zhou Jian and accompany him in this gamble.

  Chu Qingyun released this false news and then opened the stock market, nervously staring at the K-line chart of Yuntai Company's stock.

  The next day, the company's stock price rose from HK$1.22 to HK$1.23 as expected by Zhu Liyun, but the increase was small, and it seems that most investors and dealers still took a wait-and-see attitude towards this news.

  Looking at this figure, Chu Qingyun smiled bitterly. The stock price of Yuntai Company had once reached HK$24.3 per share, but due to the loss of its main product, Mifeng, the stock price has now fallen to HK$1.2, a decline of 95%.

  At this time, Jiubao Mountain Villa District ——

  The young master of the Chu Tian partnership is hugging with the maid on the bed, while Zhou Jian is squatting in the attic of the villa like a patient hunter.

  This young master is named Sun Yaozu. He grew up in the UK since he was a child and is a typical second-generation rich kid who can't do anything except play with cars and women.

  At this time, he was doing well, but the phone rang. Sun Yaozu originally didn't want to answer it, but when he saw the number, he was startled. It was a call from his father, Sun De Guang.

  He immediately pushed away the maid who was flirting with him and picked up the phone, respectfully saying "Dad."

  Zhou Jian immediately perked up his ears, guessing that Sun De Guang made this call because Chu Qing Yun announced the news of finding the secret formula, and he hoped to find the hiding place of the secret formula from their conversation.

  The killer's hearing was excellent, and Zhou Jian could clearly hear the low voice coming from the other end of the phone, "Has anything happened at home in recent days?"

  "There's no way, with two masters from the Golden Gate around, nothing will happen."

  "Uh-huh, report any unusual situation to me at any time. You stay home and be low-key for a few days, I still have some things to deal with in Peng City, and I'll be back in two days."

  "Okay, Dad, don't worry, I'm studying MBA by myself every day now. Bye, Dad."

  The conversation ended there, and Zhou Jian felt a little disappointed in his heart. He was afraid that Sun De Guang had not told anyone else about the hiding place of the secret formula, even if he really did tell someone else, he would not choose Sun Yao Zu, who only knew how to play with women, even if he was his own son.

  Sun Yaozu hung up the phone and couldn't wait to re-enter the warm body of the woman below him, causing her to giggle continuously. "Hehe, didn't you just say on the phone that you wanted to study for an MBA?"

  "Haha, little vixen you want to teach me MBA, I'll definitely learn well."

  "Hehe, I can only teach young master about human physiology, ah..."

  The conversation between the two was drowned out by the soul-stirring moans, and if Sun De Guang knew, he would have no idea what to think. However, at this moment, he didn't have the heart to care about his son's problems either, today's online meeting had left him feeling somewhat uneasy.

  What is this little girl Chu Qingyun's intention, Sun Deguang believes that the secret recipe will not be lost under his own protection, so where did Chu Qingyun's so-called secret recipe come from, is she lying?

  It's unlikely, even if she puts on a calm demeanor, but paper can't wrap fire for long. Without a magic formula, her lies will be exposed in just a few days, and when that happens, she'll only be drinking poison to quench her thirst, and will end up dying an even more miserable death.

  Was she bribing the bodyguard she had hired to watch over the secret formula? Although the bodyguards he had hired did not know where the formula was, Sun De Guang still felt uneasy and planned to return to Hong Kong soon to take a look at the situation.

  Sun De Guang's investments involve hotels, heavy manufacturing and biopharmaceuticals. He made his fortune in the hotel industry, but now the development of the hotel industry has reached a bottleneck. It is not difficult to make some small money, but it is unlikely to achieve great development. Heavy manufacturing belongs to real industries, which have low profits and require a lot of time accumulation to develop. Therefore, he is most optimistic about biopharmaceuticals, as one of the sunrise industries of this century, he is very optimistic about its prospects.

  Just wait and see how many more days this little girl can struggle...

  ……

  Sun Yaozu entwined with the maid Xiaolan for half an hour, finally ending this great war. After that, Sun Yaozu went to take a bath. Zhou Jian thought he was going to sleep, but unexpectedly, he took out his phone and started making calls again.

  He didn't care at first, but when Sun Yaozu called out "Qingyun" in a mushy tone, Zhou Jian started to pay attention. Qingyun? Could it be Chu Qingyun?

  "Light cloud, you understand my intention, I used to be not very good, but for marriage, I am serious. As long as you follow me, I will help you through the difficulties. You should consider not only yourself, but also your sister. How long can YunTai company hold on? What about you and your sisters in the future? If you agree with me, I will ask my father for funding, we will develop YunTai company together, and you can continue to be the manager..."

  "Damn it!" Sun Yaozu slammed down the phone, apparently he had been hung up on.

  He was smiling foolishly under his breath: "What's wrong, has the invincible Young Master Sun met with a setback again?"

  "Hmph, think she's so high and mighty? Just wait and see, this pretentious woman will soon be left with nothing. And when the time comes, she'll still be at my mercy. She also has a younger sister... Mph, I've never had sisters before, let's see how long her haughty face can last when they're both under me."

  "You're so bad, young master."

  "Bad? I'm doing this because I have a good heart, after all they are the daughters of Father's business partner. That old man is gone, and I took them in, isn't that a good deed?"

  Zhou Jian thought of what Xiao Bai Tu said, that there was a little turtle in Lao Wu Gui's family who always had a crush on her sister.

  So that's how it is. You're out of luck if you run into me. Even if I couldn't steal the secret formula, I can still do something to you so that you won't be able to become a woman in the future.

  Time flew by for three days, and during these three days, Zhou Jian only ate two meals a day. Although his Ghost Killer avatar could eat, his physical body would still feel hungry, so he had to temporarily leave the avatar to eat while wearing the gaming headset. At this time, the Ghost Killer was very vulnerable, so for safety reasons, Zhou Jian always chose to hide in the villa's attic after midnight to eat, and he wolfed down his food.

  Because he needs to monitor for a long time, Zhou Jian's rest time is very short every day. Fortunately, when he was young, his father, who was a doctor, taught him a set of health-preserving methods because of his weak body, and barely managed to hold on.

  For three days, nothing happened at the Jiuzhu Villa. Two ancient martial arts masters took turns keeping watch in the villa, but unfortunately, even with their excellent martial arts skills, they couldn't detect Zhou Jian sneaking around.

  Zhou Jian, who had made long-term preparations for battle, brought enough magical potions with him in the game. Notably, Zhou Jian's stealth skill successfully leveled up two levels over the past three days due to his constant use of it.

  Stealth is a very difficult skill to train in "Shén Mó", and the upgrade depends not on the number of times stealth is used, but on the total duration of using stealth.

  Level 0 stealth upgrade to level 1 requires twelve hours of stealth, while level 1 upgrade to level 2 requires a total of seventy-two hours of stealth.

  After entering stealth state, the thief's movement speed will be reduced. If 0-level stealth is used, the speed reduction is 30%, while 2-level stealth only reduces speed by 10%. In addition, when a thief breaks out of 2-level stealth and makes their first attack, they can increase their attack power by 50%. When combined with the backstab skill, this one hit's damage should not be underestimated.

  ……

  These three days were absolutely a kind of torture for Chu Qingyun, the stock price of Yuntai Company had risen to 1.36 Hong Kong dollars, but the higher it rose, the more anxious Chu Qingyun became.

  She rubbed her temples and put down her pen. At this moment, a knock at the door came from outside the office.

  "Please come in."

  "Manager Chu, Mr. Liu from Huadu called and asked when the one hundred boxes of new medicine he ordered will arrive." Su Xiaoqian, Chu Qingyun's secretary, walked in with a stack of files.

  Chu Qingyun felt a wave of annoyance in her heart, these people were even more annoying than flies. "Didn't I say it many times before? The factory is still testing equipment and will officially start production in a few days."

  "...on the board of directors' side..."

  "So it is said."

  "Director Sun will return to Hong Kong Island tomorrow."

  Chu Qingyun's eyelid twitched, Sun Deguang was finally going back to Hong Kong Island, but her voice remained calm, "Mm, I know, you can go out first."

  After Su Xiaoqian left, Chu Qingyun signed a document she had just received and left the company, started her white Audi, and drove home.

  Just out of the company, Chu Qingyun's mobile phone rang, and when she looked at the number, it was a call from the detective agency.

  These days, Chu Qingyun has been entrusting a detective agency to observe Sun De's every move. If there is any major change, they will notify her.

  After connecting the phone call, a low voice came from the receiver, "Miss Chu, I'm very sorry, but I think our cooperation is going to end."

  "Why?"

  "This afternoon, my partner was tracking the target as usual. However, he had only been following for less than ten minutes when he was discovered by a dark and thin middle-aged man next to the target. Then, my partner's arm was broken. Sorry, we can't continue this mission."

  "How could it be discovered?"

  "He's not as skilled as others, but that dark and thin middle-aged man is Thailand's most notorious bounty hunter, nicknamed 'Hunting Dog' Bayu Padung. He used to roam around the Golden Triangle in Myanmar, killing countless people, a truly dangerous character. My partner was subdued by him almost without any resistance, luckily we were in a crowded area at that time, so the target didn't want to cause trouble and didn't let Bayu make his kill, otherwise with Bayu's ruthlessness, my partner would definitely not have made it out alive."

  Ba Yu... Ba Da Feng! Chu Qingyun's heart suddenly shrank, Sun De Guang actually invited this fugitive over!

  Chu Qingyun had once thoroughly and meticulously understood the Bounty Hunter Organization. The name Bayu was like thunder in the bounty hunter world, it was said that he could fight a tiger with his bare hands, his Muay Thai skills were extremely ruthless, his joints as hard as steel, he liked to use his elbows and knees to attack the enemy's vital points.

  There are too many rumors about Bayue. In the Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Bayue once killed 32 mercenaries with his bare hands in a shootout with a drug lord, and later shot and killed the bodyguard of the Myanmar drug lord, a high-ranking martial artist from Indonesia.

  Ba Yu's killing efficiency is extremely high, and he always attacks the vital parts. The deceased often have their necks twisted or their laryngeal prominence shattered. Conservatively estimated, he is a mid-to-high-level master of the underground world.

  It's bad, Sun De Guang is about to return to Hong Kong Island, he will definitely bring Ba Yu back this time, what about Zhou Jian...

  Must inform Zhou Jian!

  Chu Qingyun directly hung up the phone of the detective agency and started dialing Zhou Jian's number, but what Chu Qingyun got was always: "The other party is not in the service area."

  This idiot didn't even activate international roaming before leaving.

  Chu Qingyun stepped on the accelerator and sped up, wanting to hurry home and log into "Shenmo" to inform Zhou Jian.

  Five minutes later, Chu Qingyun arrived home. At this time, Chu Keke had already returned from school. She saw her sister's urgent appearance and asked: "What's wrong, sister? What happened?"

  "Nothing, go play your game quickly." Chu Qingyun didn't want to tell Keke about these things. She regretted letting Zhou Jian go to Hong Kong Island. Previously, she hadn't thought that Sun Deguang would be so cautious as to spend a lot of money to hire the hunting dog Ba Yu.

  But Zhou Jian was just a young man who had just started his career, although he had some skills, how could he deal with the experienced and ruthless Ba Yu.

  Logged in to "Shenmo", but Zhou Jian was not online, Chu Qingyun was anxious to death, left a message for Zhou Jian with Tianxin, but what if he didn't log on forever?

  Chu Qingyun sent all of Ba Yu's information to Zhou Jian. Her intention was to let Zhou Jian give up the mission and return directly, and if Zhou Jian didn't listen to her advice, at least let him understand Ba Yu's strength, so as not to die in vain.

  Chu Qingyun no longer dared to imagine the consequences, with Sun Deguang's strength, it was too easy to make a young man who had no reputation and was not a Hong Kong citizen disappear silently.

  Chu Qingyun, who had never believed in God before, also started praying, "Zhou Jian, Zhou Jian, please don't get into any trouble."

  ……

  Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peak Villa ——

  These days, Sun Deguang's eyelids have been twitching violently. He always feels that something is going to happen and he can't figure out what kind of trick Chu Qingyun is playing.

  The factory is indeed debugging equipment, seemingly preparing for production. This little girl has also been acting as if she's got everything under control these past few days. Does she really have a secret formula? Although the location of the secret formula is very secure, it's always better to be safe than sorry. If someone on the inside were to steal it and with Chu Qingyun hiring top-notch bounty hunters to help, there's a slight possibility that they could succeed in stealing it.

  Chu Qingyun is not a fool who ties herself up, even if she doesn't have a secret formula now, she will definitely take action against herself within a few days. If Chu Qingyun plans to do so, what is her trump card? What can she rely on to deal with herself?

  Sun De Guang has been in the business world for many years, from being bold and daring when he was young to becoming more cautious as time went on. Although his rational mind told him that Chu Qing Yun would definitely lose, he still had a thrilling feeling, not knowing what trump card the other side held. This feeling made Sun De Guang unable to eat or sleep well.

  Finally, Sun Deguang still managed to invite Ba Yu Badaweng through connections. He planned to retreat to his own old nest and not go anywhere for a few days. As long as he could hold on for a week, he would win.

  He didn't trust himself and with Bai Yu personally guarding the villa, things would be lost under his nose.