No one was on guard.
The bodyguards just wondered when the company had gotten a band, and then they lost control of their bodies.
They formed two lines, neatly entered two elevators, pressed the malfunction code, and then simultaneously passed out inside.
The elevator doors closed afterward, displaying the message “Out of Service.”
At the stairwell, Bai Xiaoya quietly peeked out: “All taken care of?”
Su Qingyu’s golden hair bobbed out right after: “Looks like it.”
To be honest, it was a bit of a relief, beyond their expectations.
“Let’s go,” Bai Xia stepped out of the hallway directly, “The trial is about to begin.”
The girl had specifically worn a shirt with two pockets today, the pocket on the left holding the Pocket Watch, and the right one holding some small gadgets.
Inside the office, Zhang Cheng noticed footsteps outside the door before everything suddenly went silent, an uneasy feeling stirring in his heart.
He called the Captain of the Bodyguards’ name twice with no response, hurriedly picking up his phone.
Click!
“Damn, Bai Xia, you have this trick too? I thought you could only open my bedroom door, didn’t expect you to open the door of a big company as well.”
The voice was soft and cute, but it shocked Zhang Cheng deeply, making him want to quickly dial the number.
Bai Xia saw his movement as soon as she entered, said nothing, pinched a card from her pocket with her right hand, then threw it fiercely.
Whoosh—
“Ah!”
Zhang Cheng’s phone fell to the ground, a bloodied wound appeared on the back of his hand.
Su Qingyu looked at the black-haired girl in shock, not expecting her to have this skill.
Strange, then how did you lose to the big-breasted girl?
Bai Xiaoya cautiously entered the room, sizing up Zhang Cheng.
Just as described in the Information, he looked like an ordinary middle-aged man in his early thirties—one who could easily be lost in a crowd, with a style somewhat reminiscent of her previous life’s superior.
He was half-sitting on the ground now, pressing on his bleeding hand, nervously staring at the three girls.
“You’re from the Management Family?”
“Something like that,” Su Qingyu answered sheepishly in a low voice, suddenly snapping to scold, “Now we’re the ones asking questions, what are you asking for!”
Though her scolding looked cute, given the current situation, it really scared Zhang Cheng.
In movies and TV shows, those seemingly funny characters in mysterious dark organizations were usually cold-blooded killers…
“What do you want to know,” Zhang Cheng wiped sweat from his forehead, “I’m just a gatekeeper left behind, I don’t know much.”
“Hehe, everyone says that.”
Su Qingyu was about to apply more pressure but noticed Bai Xia waving at her, signaling that she would take over.
At that moment, the Pocket Watch showed fear occupying two-fifths of the dial, one-fifth was nervousness, about one-tenth was luck, and the rest was… loyalty.
Well, people who had been through the underworld liked this so-called code of honor.
Bai Xia’s slender finger pressed the minute hand’s blade, gently scraping away the luck portion first.
“Let me introduce myself; you might not know me well,” the girl said softly, “but you definitely remember that couple from Baibai Trading.”
Zhang Cheng stared at the Pocket Watch in her hand, shocked beyond belief: “You are…”
On the dial, the surprise color from the newcomer immediately snatched a section, while luck rapidly dwindled.
“I’m their daughter,” Bai Xia said.
“I am too,” Bai Xiaoya muttered quietly from the side.
Halfway through scraping the blade, all the luck vanished, Zhang Cheng’s head drooped, his eyes losing their spark.
The moment he learned Bai Xia’s identity, he knew things would not end well.
“Then let’s talk about it—the past, and where those two cowardly fugitives are hiding.”
But Zhang Cheng didn’t say a word.
Bai Xia looked down at the Pocket Watch, clicking her tongue in surprise.
The rest of the dial was occupied by fear, only the loyalty sector was slightly cut, nearly unchanged.
The girl chuckled softly.
“Father once told me, information gap is a very powerful force. He used it to build his fortune, you used it to threaten and intimidate him, and then plundered everything.”
Without a word from Bai Xia, a cold sweat formed on Zhang Cheng’s face.
His heart was filled with fear, but he stubbornly kept silent.
“But on the last day, father told me he suddenly understood one thing—the information gap is powerful, but what’s even stronger is the content of the information itself.”
She held the Pocket Watch and slowly turned the dial in front of Zhang Cheng.
“Back then, you made a big deal about the Pocket Watch’s news, and now, it’s right before your eyes. Feel it well.”
The minute hand’s blade cut through the loyalty slowly, but it was smooth like a hot knife through butter.
Zhang Cheng’s vision blurred.
Since childhood, he had followed Xing Luo and Long Shenyuan, two brothers, traveling around—not extensively, but to many places and doing many things.
They ran small gambling dens, nightclubs, lent at high interest, and countless violent incidents.
On those moonlit nights, Zhang Cheng lay in bed with closed eyes, often thinking of the three brothers drinking large bowls of alcohol and eating big pieces of meat, enjoying life.
But now, those scenes rapidly peeled away, replaced by images he never voluntarily recalled—passersby collapsing in blood from violence, people kneeling in debt and begging for mercy, and those who went insane or jumped off buildings because they couldn’t repay the loans.
Zhang Cheng’s breathing slowed, yet the air-conditioned office felt like drowning.
Bai Xia glanced at the Pocket Watch. Due to the principle of a spiritual vacuum, after other parts were cut away, the remaining fear quickly seized the entire dial.
“Can you speak now?”
The soft question nearly made Zhang Cheng jump.
“Y-yes, yes! I’ll talk, please don’t kill me!”
The man, dominated by fear, lay on the ground, crying while telling the story from back then.
It turned out they were not the first masterminds; someone had approached them first, asking them to cooperate in bringing in some goods.
Those people called themselves the Association and possessed mysterious items.
Bai Xiaoya turned to look at Su Qingyu, who frowned and shook her head to indicate ignorance.
“…We contacted Baibai Trading and did a deal with them, hiding the Pocket Watch among normal goods and smuggling it in. But they didn’t expect that no one could successfully control the Pocket Watch, so the treasure immediately became a hot potato.”
“The ownerless Pocket Watch would sporadically rebel in crowds, so they could only leave it in that batch of goods and abandon it.”
“At that point, we came up with a good idea. Since we couldn’t get the most precious Pocket Watch, we didn’t want the trip to be in vain, so we set our sights on Baibai Trading’s wealth.”
Zhang Cheng hesitated to continue, nervously looking up at Bai Xia.
“Say it.”
“Y-yes!”
Frightened by a single word from the girl, he shivered and hurriedly went on: “A few days later, the Pocket Watch rebelled again, and employees unloading the warehouse were injured, causing significant losses, but Baibai Trading had no idea what happened. So we went to confront them.”