Liu Chen sat in the tea house, looking at the man before her who, though appearing to be in his early forties, had almost completely white hair.
"I apologize, Miss Liu. My son was too reckless. Actually..."
Wang Yi's face went white when he heard his son chasing after their customers to ask if they were interested in investing. That brat always caused him trouble.
Indeed, he had been experiencing some cash flow problems, but he believed he could manage them. His good-for-nothing son, Wang Dun, brazenly asking about investments – if outsiders knew, wouldn't they seize the opportunity to extract a hefty price from him?
This child, though well-intentioned, had truly landed his father in hot water!
Liu Chen saw the dejected expression on Wang Yi's face and waved her hand.
"Boss Wang, you misunderstand. I do have intentions of investing in the catering industry. If you want investment, I'll invest in you."
"I... Huh? Liu, Miss Liu, are you saying you, you really plan to invest in our Grandma's Home?"
"Yes, I have great confidence in your business philosophy."
After all, within the next decade, Grandma's Home would not only open branches all over China but also establish a company and develop several of its own catering brands.
In ten years, opening over two hundred stores nationwide and employing over eight thousand people was a successful business case.
When Wang Yi heard about his business philosophy, his expression softened.
Grandma's Home had reached a significant ceiling in its development. This invisible ceiling constantly loomed over him. Three years ago, he had reorganized all branches based on the principles of clothing brands.
However, he felt it wasn't enough. Wang Yi couldn't pinpoint exactly what was lacking.
His desire to seek financing now was to further deepen his business reforms.
Seeing Wang Yi's silence, Liu Chen recalled the chain restaurants located on the top floors of shopping malls that she had eaten at during company gatherings in later years.
"Boss Wang, I can invest in you, and I only require dividends. Of course, regarding the business model, I noticed today you're using manual ordering for dishes, right?"
Liu Chen posed a question to Wang Yi. When it came to business matters, Wang Yi's curiosity was immediately piqued.
"Yes, Miss Liu. Do you think there's a problem with the ordering method?"
Liu Chen shook her head slightly:
"It's not a problem, but I feel that since it's 2010, there might be a more efficient way to order."
"More efficient?" Wang Yi looked puzzled. Even he, who had been in the catering business for over a decade, didn't know of a more efficient ordering method.
Wang Yi even suspected that Miss Liu might be teasing him.
"Have you heard of an electronic device called an iPad, Boss Wang?"
Liu Chen's question left Wang Yi utterly bewildered. They were discussing ordering, so why had the conversation shifted to electronics?
"Manual ordering is prone to errors. Tablet ordering eliminates that. As long as we have our own ordering system, we can also introduce membership points, and in the future, use points to offset cash. Boss Wang, what do you think of my suggestion?"
-
It was late at night, and the diners had long since returned to their hotels.
Keke had also returned to her room.
"No way, why aren't they back yet? Eating dinner for that long? What are they? Catching chickens fresh from a farm to make chicken soup?"
Keke continuously massaged her hair with her hands. Whenever she felt stressed, she would instinctively scratch her scalp. She had worked extremely hard to break this habit, almost ruining all ten of her fingers.
But now, even though nothing had happened, Keke's heart was racing, feeling a sense of dread that something bad was about to occur.
"Lily, if, I mean, if we fail, what happens then?"
This was the first time Keke had contemplated failure. In every previous mission, she had treated it as a game. If the game couldn't be completed, at worst, she would die. After all, there was nothing in this world she cared much about.
The taciturn Lily remained silent, as usual.
Just as Keke stood up, intending to go to the restroom, Lily spoke:
"If we fail and get caught, it wouldn't be so bad."
Hearing this, Keke's urge to urinate instantly vanished.
"Are you crazy? If we're caught, we don't have the antidote. What happens if the poison takes effect?"
"Completing this mission also means death."
Lily said this with such certainty that Keke momentarily believed her, and then took two steps back.
"You're talking nonsense! The boss said that after this mission, we'd retire with a hundred thousand US dollars. Weren't things like this for others before? Don't you remember, Sister Zhizhi?"
The more Keke spoke, the more confident she became. She took two steps forward, then walked back to where she had been standing.
Lily, however, slightly raised her head, shifting her gaze from the monitor to Keke's face, her expression blank:
"Sister Zhizhi once asked me to help her keep an anonymous bank card. This card contained a million US dollars. For three years, not a single cent from this card was touched."
Keke's face changed dramatically upon hearing this.
In her memory, Sister Zhizhi was a sexy and fiery Western woman with an insatiable desire for spending.
She loved shopping and buying things. Keke had always thought that Sister Zhizhi hadn't contacted her for years because she was worried about being discovered by the boss.
After all, she had personally seen the boss administer the antidote to Sister Zhizhi!
That's right! The antidote!
"Then what about the antidote! The boss showed us a video of Sister Zhizhi after she took the antidote. You said that video wasn't faked, and the time wasn't manipulated!"
Keke, like a drowning swimmer, desperately clung to a lifesaver, wanting to prove her assumptions correct.
"Perhaps, Sister Zhizhi was not truly free at that time. Otherwise, she would have definitely used this money."
No matter how many lifelines she grabbed onto, in the face of reality, they were like duckweed on a pond, sinking deeper the more she grasped.
Keke suddenly sank to the floor. The central air conditioning made the marble floor icy cold.
"We're finished."
Keke finally echoed Lily's earlier sentiment. But then, Keke became confused:
"Since we're going to die anyway, why bother completing the boss's mission?"
Lily glanced at Keke:
"Don't you want to die with us?"
Lily's words silenced Keke. To be honest, perhaps because she had known about her impending death for such a short time, Keke hadn't truly equated death with herself yet.
Now, Lily's words reminded Keke. She was going to die. What did she want to do before she died?
"If I had known I was going to die, I would have gone for a walk by West Lake with you."
Keke felt a twinge of regret and sat down next to Lily.
"We can still go now, as long as we finish before the target assignment."
Before she could finish speaking, Liu Chen's image appeared on Lily's computer screen.
Keke also saw it. She stood up and patted Lily's shoulder:
"Looks like there's no chance."
With that, Keke began packing her suitcase.
Her objective was to incapacitate the target and transport them in the suitcase. If the target didn't fit, she was to dismember them. As long as the target was alive and their mind intact, the mission could be completed.
"Ten minutes. If I'm not out of the room by then, you remember to leave directly. Lily, please remember to take a walk by West Lake for me."
Lily remained silent. Keke didn't know if she had agreed or not. Watching the target enter the room on the monitor, Keke, without looking back, pulled her suitcase and left.
Lily watched on the monitor as Keke, pulling her suitcase, reached the 28th floor and entered the target's room.
-
When Liu Chen opened the door, Ren Yu was standing by her side. Therefore, the surveillance camera couldn't see that Liu Chen had wrapped her hand in thick tissues before opening the door, as if she had a premonition.
After entering, Liu Chen and Ren Yu quickly put on masks. Standing by the window, Ren Yu, wearing plastic gloves, slightly opened the window. Soon, the warm air from outside rushed in.
Liu Chen went into the bathroom and removed the five diffuser sticks, then covered the aromatherapy bottle with a plastic cap.
Once everything was done, Liu Chen and Ren Yu stood by the door, waiting for whoever was coming to claim their prize.
As Liu Chen waited in the room, she felt a sense of drowsiness. She couldn't help but be shocked by the colorless and odorless anesthetic. The fact that it could make her feel drowsy just by volatilizing in the air made her realize that if she hadn't isolated herself beforehand when opening the door, she would have collapsed the moment she entered.
Noticing this, Liu Chen's expression grew even graver.
As Liu Chen pondered how the perpetrators obtained such potent anesthetic, footsteps were heard outside the door.
The approaching person seemed somewhat flustered, walking at a quick pace.
"Click."
The sound of the door card sensor echoed. Liu Chen held her breath as the hotel room door slowly opened. Then, a dark-skinned woman, pulling a 28-inch suitcase, entered with a somewhat panicked gait.
The door quickly closed.
Liu Chen recognized the woman. She had been queuing behind them for registration. She had a companion.
Liu Chen moved.
Although Liu Chen's physical fitness, trained by the enhanced Eight Brocades and swimming, wasn't exceptional, Ren Yu clearly surpassed Liu Chen's expectations.
The moment Liu Chen moved, Ren Yu also reacted. He moved faster than Liu Chen, leaping forward to tackle the person from behind, knocking her to the ground, and forcefully pinning her arms behind her shoulders.
Because everything happened so quickly, before Keke could press the anesthetic dart on her wrist, Liu Chen had already caught up and used a plastic buckle, commonly found on shoes in later years, to tighten her wrist.
This plastic buckle had a characteristic: the more one struggled, the tighter it bound.
After struggling, Keke quickly realized this fact. By this time, Liu Chen had gone outside and brought in Dongtian and Xiatian, who were knocking on the door.
"We saw the monitor and came over. The other two are chasing her accomplice."
"You can see the monitor?!" Keke's voice was filled with shock and disbelief. In just an hour, she had received too much information, and her mind was in utter chaos.
One moment, she thought it was the boss's scheme, betraying her and Lily. The next, she thought it was Lily's scheme to get them caught and make them reveal the boss. Then, she thought it was a trap set by the target, who had discovered her and Lily long ago.
With these three thoughts swirling in her mind, Keke felt an unbearable headache.
Liu Chen looked at Keke's bewildered expression and felt a bit speechless.
"What's wrong? Can only criminals use high technology? Can't us upstanding citizens? I see you didn't do a very thorough job when preparing your profiles. Do you know who my target is?"
Keke's mind was a jumbled mess. After a moment of silence, she understood.
This mission, they had failed from the very beginning.
Even so, she still didn't understand:
"A wealthy person who owns a company?"
Liu Chen smiled upon hearing this:
"It seems you've been deceived. Your companion didn't tell you that my target is the founder of a game company, and its firewall is a challenge that hackers worldwide love to take on."
As Liu Chen finished speaking, she received a call. It was from the Ministry of State Security, requesting Liu Chen's cooperation in handing over the apprehended criminal.
Liu Chen naturally agreed. She had no interest in keeping the woman who was pushing the suitcase. However, Liu Chen paused and reminded the person from the Ministry of State Security on the phone:
"The anesthetic in this room seems quite unique. I suggest you collect it for analysis."
As for Liu Chen herself, she had already poured some of the anesthetic liquid from the aromatherapy bottle into her own glass vial. This small glass vial was currently nestled in her system backpack.
Upon hearing Liu Chen's emphasis on the anesthetic, Keke completely gave up struggling.
When you are prepared to neutralize a target, only to discover that the target has already seen through your every move, and you yourself have only a few days left to live – honestly, where you die doesn't matter.
After handing Keke over to the Ministry of State Security personnel, Liu Chen had to check into another room at the hotel late at night because the Ministry of State Security needed to collect evidence and samples from the hotel room.
A walk by West Lake, discussing investment matters after dinner, entering a room to apprehend a criminal. After all these activities, it was past eleven o'clock at night when she finally stepped into her new room.
Liu Chen quickly took a shower and, wearing her pajamas, rolled into bed. Soon, her long, steady breaths could be heard from under the covers.
When Ren Yu emerged from his shower, he saw Liu Chen wrapped tightly in the blanket like a silkworm, only her messy hair sticking out like wild tendrils on the pillow.
Ren Yu untied the belt of his bathrobe, lifted the blanket on his side, and lay down.
He turned to his side, looking at Liu Chen's sleeping face, and sighed softly:
"Goodnight, my brave princess."