As soon as Zhao Yicheng put down his phone, a little head restlessly nudged its way over.
“Don’t you always say I’m your precious? Then why am I only worth five million? Just five million? That wasn’t even enough for me to buy a few cars back in the day.”
Mini Xu pursed her lips, flashing pearly teeth and a sulky pout, clearly dissatisfied with Zhao Yicheng’s earlier bargaining.
How could she not even beat Wang Cai?
Also, who is Wang Cai, anyway?
Zhao Yicheng’s large, well-defined hand patted her little head, and he chuckled, “That’s called the art of negotiation. Otherwise, if the other side keeps fixating on it, the price you get might not even be this high.”
“Then what’s my value in your heart?”
Mini Xu’s eyes sparkled as she asked curiously.
“Hmm…”
President Zhao pondered for a moment.
“Well… I guess about the same as Wang Cai.”
“What do you mean?”
Mini Xu’s eyes went wide.
“Are you saying I’m about the same as a dog?”
“Then Garfield.”
Zhao Yicheng probed.
Thinking of that fat orange tabby at the villa who couldn’t do anything but never left a scrap of food, he realized there really were quite a few similarities.
Mini Xu put her hands on her waist and snorted, “Hmph, that’s a bit better.”
Seeing her acting so smug, Zhao Yicheng’s lips twitched uncontrollably.
So silly.
Apparently, after [Self-Splitting], not only did her height shrink, but her intelligence was also halved.
With that thought, he took another old mobile phone from the drawer and dialed a hidden number.
It wasn’t for the sake of being mysterious—some things can’t be done in the light, so you have to use methods just as shady.
Is it dirty?
A bit.
But Huayuan Federation was never built on clean foundations; you could say it’s just the way things are here.
Uh… you could also call it a historical leftover.
“What are you doing? Aren’t we supposed to go to the bank, get the money, and then use it to save the other me?”
Mini Xu tilted her head in confusion, a little dazed yet puzzled, watching Zhao Yicheng unhurriedly dial the number.
Zhao Yicheng dialed, but the other end remained silent.
He frowned, but knew there was no use being anxious, so he looked at the adorably dumbfounded Mini Xu and patiently explained,
“I happen to have someone nearby. I’ll send him to fetch the money. We’ll go straight to the site and meet him there.”
But after a long while, the phone still hadn’t connected.
Only the mechanical beeping echoed again and again in the quiet room.
Zhao Yicheng’s brow knit tighter.
At this hour, his task should have been completed.
Unable to answer—did something unexpected happen?
Or did Chen Kedi over there already decide to go back on his word, swallow the money, and kidnap the person too?
“Who are you calling?”
A childish voice suddenly piped up by his ear.
“Li Yuan.”
Mini Xu froze, then followed up, “Is he your black glove?”
“You could say that.”
Zhao Yicheng nodded.
He put down the phone and looked at Mini Xu, rubbing her head.
“What? Did you see him get caught too?”
Mini Xu remembered that round of the Great Hibernation Spell.
She touched her nose, a little embarrassed.
“Um…”
“He… should still be asleep.”
***
Tianlin City, old district.
In a room inside a shabby parking lot beneath a dilapidated building.
After receiving some information from the other side, Xu Yinsheng sat in an iron cage, realizing she’d accidentally completed the Achievement: Striking My Own Teammate.
Damn!
She rubbed her forehead.
As expected, she really wasn’t cut out for detective work.
Chen Kedi also put down his phone.
He crouched beside her, eye level with the caged figure, and spoke politely, “Miss, do you have any questions you’d like to ask?”
“Of course I do.” Xu Yinsheng gathered her thoughts, ignoring Chen Kedi’s handsome face, and glanced at someone in the crowd.
“I just want to know, why betray me? And to think I considered her a friend.”
She didn’t say it outright, but the hint was clear.
Just a hair’s breadth from directly calling names.
Jin Xinnuo’s expression grew odd among the crowd.
Her lips moved, but in the end she said nothing, just stood there silently.
Seeing this, Xu Yinsheng said nothing more, turning back to Chen Kedi and getting straight to the point, “I may not be well-read, but I know this much: ‘The world hustles and bustles for profit; the world scrambles for gain.’”
“Five social insurances and one housing fund, a million annual salary—it might not be the pinnacle of life, but it’s the dream of most ordinary people. I have only one question: what did you use to buy her off, that she’d throw all that away?”
Faced with her questioning, Chen Kedi answered blandly.
“Westcom Sicom. Market price, two hundred thousand. In my hands, just fifty thousand, and the efficacy reaches ninety percent.”
As soon as he spoke, Xu Yinsheng understood.
Jin Granny had serious cardiovascular disease, and Westcom Sicom was a miracle cure for such illnesses.
Normally, a box of Westcom Sicom sold for two hundred thousand—worth its weight in gold.
Even with a million a year, Jin Xinnuo couldn’t withstand that money pit.
Everyone has a weak spot.
And Jin Granny was Jin Xinnuo’s weak spot.
Xu Yinsheng might not have a soft spot herself, but she’d certainly tasted “poverty.”
Ever since that time she had to starve and survive on pig trotter rice, she’d become an expert in saving food without a teacher.
“Miss.” Chen Kedi suddenly spoke, “If I gave you a chance at freedom, how would you choose?”
Xu Yinsheng looked up at him, a suspicion rising in her heart.
“Freedom? What are you getting at?”
“I’m not lacking that five million. I just want to see if I can save a fallen soul,” Chen Kedi said quietly.
“For me, when someone loses their basic dignity and spirit of resistance, it means they’re no longer human.”
“You know the fate of your predecessor. Yours won’t be any better. Hanging your entire life on a single man— is that really what you want?”
No way! Of course not!
Xu Yinsheng silently rolled her eyes.
If she had even a sliver of hope of escaping, she would’ve run off long ago, leaving Zhao Yicheng to stew in repentance by himself.
But she didn’t, so she could only keep biding her time.
Xu Yinsheng knew that if she so much as showed she wanted “freedom” now, the other side would definitely spirit her away, just like on the cruise ship before.
Saving the last bit of humanity in a slave girl.
Thinking back, she still owed it to Chen Kedi’s words from back then that she hadn’t been tamed into a docile housecat yet.
Be human, not a beast!
But now, Zhao Yicheng was listening in on everything.
Yes, on the other side, Zhao Yicheng was holding the magi-puppet control panel and monitoring the whole conversation.
For these high-tech magi-puppets, that was a trivial task.
If Xu Yinsheng so much as dared to reveal even the slightest hint of escape, her end would not be pretty…
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