Release that Man

Today, Xu He still spent his day playing coolmathgames in his office, and the more he played, the more agitated he became. There was still no update to the missing contact from the organization, and because of that, the agitation in Xu He had not stopped.

Many people might think that being the CEO was incredibly great, but in reality, when the support behind him that had been telling him what to do suddenly disappeared, that sense of helplessness and anxiety was not something that could be stomached by anyone. Because now he had to be responsible for every action that he made and the possible failure that might follow along with it. Obviously, Xu He was a normal person who was unable to stomach it.

“Lately, things have been quite chill at the company.” The sound of conversation filtered through the door. Two girls were chatting as they passed by. The one who spoke sounded like she was worried.

“Isn’t that great?” the other girl responded with a smile. “It is rare that we are so free; there is no need to send documents or do filing, so the day is spent surfing the internet and reading the newspaper.”

“You’re right.” The girl’s happiness influenced the other girl. “And there has been no need to do overtime recently. I can make use of the free time to go have dinner with my boyfriend…”

The sound of conversation disappeared as the two girls moved away. Xu He frowned and slapped the mouse on his face out of frustration. He leaned his body back on the chair, and the chair turned him around from the pressure of his weight.

“Such stupidity!” After the chair stopped spinning, Xu He gritted his teeth. It was unclear whether he was scolding the girls who just passed by his door or the contact who had been missing in action.

The normal workers at the company did not know the situation; thus, they did not feel any sense of danger from the disappearance of the contact. For the normal workers, the contact was no more than an agent. Therefore, even if he ‘went on holiday’ for a long time, it would not have caused a ripple. In fact, many people would not have cared about it at all.

Therefore, people naturally would not know that for this period of time, the state of idleness at the company was due to the ‘holiday’ taken by this ‘agent’.

The so-called work at the company was actually a process used to set up the money-laundering. The actual account that could support the company’s normal operations was non-existent. If there was no contact to connect the Xi Hwa Organization and the organization’s bigger roadmap, then no matter how big this shell company looked on the surface, it was actually a mirage that could crumble at any moment.

Just considering that he could go bankrupt and be homeless at any moment, Xu He felt so unsettled. Maybe he should make the decision soon, before the situation with the Xi Hwa Organization was exposed, and quickly sell the company…

Like usual, he spent the whole afternoon teetering between the thought of ‘When is the contact going to return? F*ck, the company is going bankrupt soon!’ and ‘The contact is not going to come back now, is he? I wonder how much the company is worth on the market. Perhaps I should just sell it now.’

When the sound of afternoon break echoed within the company, Xu He snapped back to reality, and he realized that he had once again spent half the day just thinking and did not do anything work-related!

“I can’t do this anymore!” He rubbed his neck that had gotten rigid from maintaining the same posture for a long time. Xu He reminded himself, “By the latest, I have to make a decision by this afternoon. If this is allowed to drag on any longer…”

Xu He understood that it was not wise to dwell on the possibility of this ‘dragging on any longer’. Instead, Xu He smoothed down his shirt and stood up from his table. He covered up his sense of anxiety from before and walked out from the office like nothing was out of place. He planned to find a good restaurant to have lunch to unwind. Perhaps the change of scenery might change his mood as well.

“Good afternoon, CEO Xu.”

“CEO Xu.”

“Good afternoon.”

Various greetings echoed in the office, a mix of male and female voices, some sweet and others not so sweet. There were even some that carried with them a heavy local accent, but the similarity was, there was a sense of respect or even caution and fear within these voices.

He only took several steps, and the personal assistant quickly rushed over to ask, “CEO Xu, do you need to use the car?”

“There’s no need. You can go and take a rest this afternoon. I will find a random restaurant near the company to get my lunch.” Xu He did not mind showing off his generosity and steadiness at opportune moments. Of course, the man also enjoyed the sense of being admired by others. Male creatures were all territorial creatures, and chasing after achievement was their natural instinct. It was no different for someone like Xu He, even if he was someone without much ability. In fact, it was people like him who enjoyed the sense of accomplishment the most.

The assistant answered and was about to leave when Xu He suddenly remembered something, and he turned around to ask, “By the way, did Xu Jian come to work today?”

“Mr. Xu said that he was going out with a friend, and he handed in his holiday slip this morning.” The assistant hurried to answer.

A friend… Xu He studied this term and made a call with a cautious mind. After the call was answered, he could hear the sound of a commotion at a theme park. The endless echoes of excited screams were followed by a familiar female excitedly saying, “Ah Jian, let’s go take a ride on the roller-coaster as well!”

Xu He understood the situation instantly. “You asked for a day-off to go to theme park with Xiao Shuang?”

Like a young teen caught red-handed with his girlfriend, Xu Jian sounded flustered. “Er… Hmm, actually, this is the first time. After all, I realized that there is not much to do at the company.”

Yes, there was indeed nothing to do at the company. In fact, Xu Jian could have asked for a long holiday to go for a honeymoon, and it probably would have been approved.

Xu He sighed to himself and was about to say, ‘It’s nothing, have fun, you two.’ However, he was struck by inspiration and quickly asked, “How is your relationship with Xiao Shuang coming along? Has she brought you meet her friends?”

Huh? Xu Jian turned subconsciously to Ye Shuang, who was next to him. Sister Shuang naturally had overheard the content of the conversation. She licked on the ice cream in her hand and used her cute voice to talk about some unimportant things, but at the same time, she pulled out a pen and wrote down on the ice cream wrapper—You’ve met some.

“…I’ve met some of them.” Xu Jian looked at the handwriting that was filling up the wrapper, and after a brief hesitation, he repeated the words that he was supposed to. At the same time, he also added some intonation to his words so that they would sound more natural. “Xiao Shuang has a few good friends that she normally hangs out with. They are Anthony, who is currently working at An Corps, and Yao Zhixing… but I am not that familiar with them.”

Xu He, who originally wanted to find the opening through Xu Jian, instantly cancelled his thoughts once he heard these two names. “Anthony and Yao Zhixing… Good, good, young people should make more connections when they can.”

After leaving behind this comment that did not seem to be connected to anything, Xu He ended the call. Xu Jian held the phone and asked, “Why did you want me to say I know them?”

“If you did not have any progress after so long, then your uncle probably would not have the patience to let you continue hanging out with me.” Ye Shuang put the pen away and pouted to say, “But if you gave some other names, I cannot be confident that your uncle would not be mad enough to ask you to get all of us out for dinner with the reason that we should try to communicate more, to improve our relationship… You have to understand that your uncle is trapped inside the Xi Hwa Organization, which is now no different from a prison, and he has been scratching his head, trying so damn hard to jump out.”

Since Xu Jian had gotten to know Anthony and Yao Zhixing through Ye Shuang, then it meant that Xu Jian’s effort was not wasted. But at the same time, Xu He naturally knew a thing or two about Anthony’s ability. After all, they were in the same business, and An Corps was a company that the Xi Hwa Organization had tried in the past to infiltrate before. Given the fact that Anthony was still working at An Corps, which had some awkward history with Xu Jian aside, Xu He had been following Anthony’s results since he joined An Corps, and the man understood that it would not be easy to pull one over the young man.

Yao Zhixing was even worse. The man was famous for his brusque straightforwardness. If he was not happy, he could ignore your face and turn fully on you. The Xi Hwa Organization had interacted with Yao Zhixing before, and they had their skin pulled apart and dropped on the street to be laughed at by others. That memory was the darkest stain in Xu He’s heart, and thus, he naturally would not include Yao Zhixing into the list of possible candidates for him to swindle.

Both names were people that Xu He had to be cautious around, so he would not make a request for them to meet or ask Ye Shuang to introduce him to them. Regardless, Xu He’s hope was still on Xu Jian; he hoped that he could get to know a few more people through Ye Shuang… It would be best if the people were the kind who had plenty of money and could be tricked easily. That way, he would be able to find a lifeline for himself. He would sell the Xi Hwa Organization, this mess that he was holding, as soon as possible and escape as far as he could…

After the phone call, Xu Jian and Ye Shuang stayed at the theme park, but they did not line up for theme park attractions. Instead, they sat in the theme park’s café, and each of them took one side of the table, focusing on their phone and laptop.

Xu He followed his original plan and went for lunch. According to his habit, if he was having lunch near the company, there were actually only a few choices to pick from. The Chinese restaurant was full, the Thai restaurant did not have a private room, the Japanese restaurant…

After eliminating some of the choices, Xu He ended up choosing to have his meal in a western restaurant. After enjoying the scrumptious meal, Xu He raised his hand to get the waiter’s attention so that he could pay his bill. However, as his hand reached into the air, his other hand went to his pocket, and Xu He froze.

The well-trained waiter had already walked over and asked with a polite smile, “Sir, how may I help you?”

Xu He froze for a moment before asking, “I’m sorry, but can I know where the bathroom is?”

The waiter looked at this customer who looked quite familiar. Even though he was confused, he answered with the professional smile on his face, “Just take the corridor on the left. When you reach the potted plant, turn left and keep on walking.”

Xu He nodded and then stood up with as small a movement as he could and headed to the bathroom. The waiter stood where he was and waited for a while. He noticed that the gentleman’s plates were already empty, and he appeared to have been asking for the bill earlier… Considering that Xu He might return soon and ask for the bill, he decided to stand there and wait for him to return.

However, one minute passed, two minutes passed… Half an hour passed, and he still did not see the customer from earlier. It was then that the waiter finally noticed that something was not right.

Constipation? That did not seem like it.

The waiter thought about it and walked quickly to the bathroom. After he entered the bathroom, he knocked on the cubicle door one by one. “Hello, is anyone in there?”

“What do you want? You want to borrow some toilet paper?”

“Pfft! Hua la la la la la!”

“Wait a minute!”

“Didn’t I tell you to wait a minute‽”

“Again‽”

Many different voices answered him, but the waiter did not hear the voice of the gentleman from earlier. Finally, the waiter started to panic. He apologized profusely to the customers in the bathroom and then rushed to find the manager. “Manager Zhang! There’s a customer who escaped without paying!!”

…

“I will never lend you my car! No way!” Yao Zhixing growled angrily. His face was colored with determination that said this was a decision that could not be negotiated. His hand gripped the car key tightly, and he said in a tone that brooked no argument, “I normally will not say anything if a friend asks to borrow a car, and I will never ask about what you’re planning to do, but…”

Yao Zhixing took a deep breath. He tried his best to calm down, but that did not seem to work. After a pause, he finally lost his temper and roared, “You people never said it would be so smelly!”

“Oh, that is purely an accident.” Cedrick used his hand that was not holding Xu He to scratch his hair, and there was an awkwardness on his face. Even the volume of his voice dropped several degrees. “I really did not expect that he would use the toilet for real… I thought he was only going to the toilet to call someone to ask for some money.”

Xu He was someone who valued his face above anything else, so he would never allow himself to do anything that might injure his image. With that idea in mind, with the waiter just standing next to him, Xu He naturally would not take out his phone to ask someone else to send some money to him so that he could pay the bill… Therefore, with that analysis in mind, the chance of Xu He going to the toilet to make the call for help was incredibly high.

After analyzing Xu He’s personality and psychology, Cedrick had predicted that there was a very high chance for his plan to succeed. Yet, to his surprise, while Xu He did follow his plan, after he got into the toilet, the man’s stomach really did start to rumble…

Helping the man pick up his pants was his limit, but to have Cedrick help the man wipe his butt? Hell would have to freeze over first!

The embarrassed Cedrick tried his best to argue logically with Yao Zhixing. He tried to rely on all the logic and reason that he could garner. The original plan was to use the man’s car to transport the unconscious Xu He out of San Lin City and then use the highway to move him toward Chaohai. There, he would get on the yacht, and they would be sent away from the mainland. Every step of the plan had been done, but who would have thought that Yao Zhixing would suddenly go berserk?

“At a time like this, just try to resist your urge for cleanliness!” Cedrick gestured and made a helpless expression. “You have to understand that the person who needs to suffer days of being trapped in the same space as the man is me! My fate is even worse than yours, and you don’t see me complaining, do you‽”

“This is not an issue of cleanliness that we’re talking about!” Yao Zhixing tried but could not keep his patience in check. “I just bought this car the middle of last year, and I’ve not personally ridden it more than a few times. After lending it to you, do you think I’ll still want the car back or not?”

There was no way he was going along with this.

“Give me the phone, I’ll talk to Xiao Shuang myself!” Yao Zhixing gritted his teeth.

Cedrick looked at him silently for three seconds. “You yourself have the lady’s contact number, don’t you?”

F*ck me! This is the worst! Yao Zhixing slapped his head and then glared fiendishly at Cedrick before taking out his phone. He made the call with a speed dial, and when Ye Shuang picked up the call, without waiting for the girl to say anything, he launched into the offense first. “Xiao Shuang, it is not that I’m trying to make things difficult for you. I can do anything else that you want from me. Even if you wanted me to be your human shield, I would not have hesitated! But that petty thief wants to carry this old man whose butt is not yet wiped into my car. Tell me, do you think I can still race with this car in the future?”

If he really compromised this time, Yao Zhixing would have a trauma even sitting in the passenger seat in the future.

The other end of the line was silent for more than a few seconds. Finally, the confused Ye Shuang asked in a tone that was fraying, “What do you mean by the butt is not yet wiped?”

“He dragged the man directly out from the toilet!” Yao Zhixing roared angrily. “The man was in the middle of pooping! Do you know that? His ass is not even wiped!”