Chapter 60 : Chapter 60
Chapter 60: You Know Me?
At Fatty’s command, the burly men swiftly swept up all the cash from the counter,along with every valuable item in the shop, like a whirlwind.
But as long as they slapped on official seals, then it became an official act, perfectly justified!
They were obviously not doing this for the first time.
Sitting in the truck, Yang Yourong looked through the window at the owner of the shop directly across from them and gave him a meaningful look.
The owner immediately blinked back at her without changing his expression.
He was the owner of a fruit and pastry shop.
Under ordinary circumstances, he got along very well with Chen Jinshi’s family.
Even though he did not dare provoke this fat man right now, Chen Jiafeng and Chen Jiaqi were not here.
Yang Yourong was asking him to help keep an eye on the children.
Not long after the two vehicles drove away, Chen Jiaqi and Chen Jiafeng came jogging back with their schoolbags on.
The school was not far away.
Coming home for lunch was their habit.
The moment the two of them ran up to the door, they both froze.
They stared at the seal on the entrance for a long time in shock.
“Sis! We didn’t come to the wrong place, did we?”
Chen Jiafeng asked in a daze.
Chen Jiaqi, on the other hand, was so anxious that she rushed forward and pounded hard on the door.
“Mom! Dad!!”
When no one answered, she panicked and reached out, intending to tear off the seal.
“Don’t tear it!”
Suddenly, the voice of the auntie from the fruit shop across the street came from behind them.
The two turned around and saw that the things in front of the fruit shop had all been cleared away, and only half the door was open.
The fruit shop auntie was beckoning urgently to them.
“Quick, come over here!”
The two hurried over to the fruit shop.
The auntie pulled them both inside and shut the door with a bang.
“Auntie Lin, what happened? Where are my parents?”
Chen Jiaqi asked anxiously.
“It was Commerce and Industry enforcement. They came to inspect your shop just now and took your parents away!”
“And your eldest aunt too!”
the auntie explained patiently.
“On what grounds did they arrest them?” Chen Jiafeng instantly exploded in anger.
“I’m not sure either, but from what your eldest aunt was shouting at the time, the Li family was probably involved in this.”
As she was speaking, Chen Jiaqi had already taken out her phone and started calling her parents.
But she found that all their phones had been turned off.
Worry threw her into complete confusion, and Chen Jiaqi burst into tears on the spot.
“What do we do? What do we do??”
Her mind was in complete chaos now, and all she could do was call the numbers over and over again.
Auntie Lin was a decent person. She did her best to comfort the two of them.
“Do not panic. You absolutely mustn’t panic at a time like this. Think carefully. Do you know anyone else?”
“Someone who can save your parents.”
“Cousin!” Chen Jiafeng suddenly shouted.
“Where’s my cousin? He wasn’t taken too, was he!?”
“No.” Auntie Lin shook her head.
Her eyes lit up as well.
“That’s right. Your cousin was the champion of the Abyss First Battle. He must know some people.”
As Chen Jiaqi dialed the number, she cried and said,
“My cousin definitely won’t let them off!”
...
At Cloudpeak Restaurant, inside a luxurious yet cozy private dining room, Li Mu, Zhang Zhiwei, and Lu Chenfeng were drinking together.
Zhang Zhiwei had arranged this restaurant as well.
Because the place belonged to his family...
The Zhang Group had three major pillars.
Energy metals, medicine, and catering.
To use Lu Chenfeng’s joking summary, they made money from the Abyss below, from ordinary civilians in the middle, and from Martial Artists above.
The idea was simple: nobody escaped their grasp.
Although the Zhang Group was not the very best in any of those three fields, they all supported one another while remaining at the top tier, allowing the massive behemoth that was the Zhang Group to stand firm.
The table was full of exquisite and expensive dishes, and the three bottles of wine were the sort that ordinary people would never even see in their lives.
Originally, Li Mu had planned to properly sample the wine today.
After all, he had unlocked Wine-Borrowed Might.
But after one small cup of liquor went down, Li Mu was dumbfounded!
He had thought of everything, except for one thing.
This Divine Ability had not increased his alcohol tolerance.
Li Mu simply...
had no tolerance for alcohol at all!
One cup of strong liquor, and Li Mu already felt as though he were floating into the clouds.
Still, it had to be admitted that wine truly loosened people up.
After two cups, the atmosphere among the three of them had already become much more relaxed.
They chatted, joked around, and talked about everything under the sun.
Seeing that Li Mu could not hold his liquor, Lu Chenfeng kept secretly trying to get him drunk on purpose.
But most of those attempts were stopped by Zhang Zhiwei.
After several rounds of dishes, Zhang Zhiwei turned to Li Mu and asked,
“I heard you were promoted to Junior Wolf Guard?”
“Oh? Your information network is pretty impressive.”
Li Mu was a little surprised.
Zhang Zhiwei smiled and shook his head.
“It is not exactly a secret. A lot of Reserve Force soldiers saw it, didn’t they?”
Li Mu nodded and asked, “The two of you aren’t planning to head into the Abyss?”
Lu Chenfeng slapped the table.
“Who said I’m not? I’ve been planning to! I’ve just been busy breaking through these past two days!”
“To be honest, that monster helped me a lot with my breakthrough after I came back!”
“The insights gained from actual combat are so much better than self-cultivation!”
“Once you’ve experienced it, you can’t stop!”
“After that, normal cultivation just feels unbearably slow, so I’m joining the Reserve Force tomorrow.”
“My old man says I was born to be an officer!”
Lu Chenfeng stated his intentions at once.
Zhang Zhiwei smiled faintly.
“Same.”
Even if Li Mu had not brought it up, the two of them had been destined to join the Reserve Force anyway.
Lu Chenfeng’s father was the Minister of the First Branch of the Law Enforcement Department.
He ranked only one level below Bai Tiewei.
As for the Zhang Group behind Zhang Zhiwei, its three major industries covered an extremely broad range.
But it had been unable to advance any further precisely because it lacked a military background in the Abyss-Suppressing Army.
Why did every family and every power want to extend its hand into the Abyss-Suppressing Army?
First, because of profit.
Enormous profit!
Although there were many civilian Martial Artists who also entered the Abyss to clear monsters, they produced far fewer resources than the soldiers of the Abyss-Suppressing Army.
Monster remains, medicinal herbs, crystals, energy bodies, metals, and so on.
The soldiers of the Abyss-Suppressing Army turned these things in in exchange for Merit, to raise their status, and for Contribution Points, to purchase finished military resources and strengthen themselves.
Meanwhile, the Abyss-Suppressing Army developed, processed, and manufactured those materials into usable supplies, then fed them back to its soldiers.
Hidden within that entire cycle were immense profits.
And who handled the processing and manufacturing?
Ordinary factories?
Those were military supplies. If military industry enterprises existed, then naturally military industry enterprises had to be used.
And if there were no military industry enterprises, then only top-tier civilian companies could be trusted to handle contract manufacturing.
The profits involved were enough to drive any force insane!
And if one wanted to obtain permission to manufacture for the Abyss-Suppressing Army, or even establish a military industry enterprise, then doing so without a military background was pure fantasy.
Second, there was the military’s overwhelming combat power.
If a family had the military standing behind it, then even if that family did not itself possess any overwhelmingly powerful Martial Artists, it could still stand firm.
Because the military districts were usually united like a solid block of iron. No one dared test how hard they really were.
As for the current Zhang family, it was still relying on Zhang Zhiwei’s grandfather’s combat strength to hold everything up.
Depending on a single lamp like that was nowhere near enough.
Zhang Zhiwei was the hope for the Zhang Group to open the gates of the Abyss-Suppressing Army.
Just as the three of them were chatting enthusiastically, someone suddenly knocked on the door.
The room immediately fell quiet.
“Come in,” Zhang Zhiwei said.
A lobby manager entered from outside. Bowing apologetically with a smile, he said,
“My apologies for disturbing the pleasure of our two honored guests.”
Then he turned to Zhang Zhiwei.
“Young Master, Vice Minister Li Cangcai of the Commerce and Industry Department, and Vice Minister Zhao Jinhe of the Law Enforcement Department...”
“They just happen to be dining here as well. They said they saw you a moment ago and would like to come over and offer a toast.”
Zhang Zhiwei immediately frowned.
Lu Chenfeng also muttered irritably, “Annoying.”
That Zhao Jinhe was one of his father’s subordinates, so he was obviously here because of him.
And that Vice Minister from the Commerce and Industry Department had even more reason to curry favor with Zhang Zhiwei.
His chances of securing a full appointment in the future depended in part on how many large companies were in his hands.
Who did not know that the Zhang Group had a single precious heir among its vast holdings?
Zhang Zhiwei had been raised so indulgently that if he wanted stars, his parents would never give him the moon instead. If he decided he wanted to sell the Zhang Group itself, they would probably let him!
The two of them both looked at Li Mu.
Li Mu spread his hands. “I don’t mind. They’re here to cling to your thighs, not mine. I can’t exactly get in the way. I’ll just sit off to the side.”
As he spoke, Li Mu leaned his chair back, wearing an expression that said it had nothing to do with him.
Only then did Zhang Zhiwei say, “Let them in.”
No matter what, the two men were still elders. Zhang Zhiwei was not the sort of person who was wildly arrogant or haughty.
Very soon, two middle-aged men entered with several subordinates behind them.
These people were all dressed in administrative uniforms as well, clearly from other departments.
The moment they entered, all of them wore ingratiating smiles.
“Hahaha, I thought I must have been mistaken just now, but it really is Young Master Zhang!”
Li Cangcai had a broad, square face and an old-fashioned, steady bearing. Holding a wine glass, he spoke with a genial smile, looking very approachable.
Zhao Jinhe, meanwhile, locked onto Lu Chenfeng the moment he stepped inside.
“Haha, Young Master Lu, you’re here too... Ah! Young Master Lu, what happened to your arm!? Which bastard injured you?”
Lu Chenfeng’s face immediately darkened.
“Shut up! I got hurt in a normal spar.”
Zhao Jinhe’s old face reddened, and he laughed awkwardly without taking offense.
After all, everyone knew this was just Lu Chenfeng’s personality.
Zhang Zhiwei, however, rose politely with a smile and said, “I didn’t know Vice Minister Li and Vice Minister Zhao were here. My apologies. Which private room are the two of you dining in? Today’s meal is on me.”
“Young Master Zhang is most generous. We just came to ask for a cup of wine. I wonder if...”
Li Cangcai said with a smiling chuckle.
After all, his subordinates were standing behind him. Calling it “asking for a cup of wine” preserved at least a bit of dignity.
And being able to establish any connection at all with the young master of the Zhang Group was itself a kind of prestige.
The small officials behind him, the supervisors and directors who usually swaggered about everywhere, could not even get a word in.
But before he could finish speaking, he noticed someone else seated by the wall.
The instant he saw clearly that it was Li Mu, both Li Cangcai and Zhao Jinhe were greatly alarmed.
“Wolf Guard Li... Junior Wolf Guard Li!”
“Ah, my deepest apologies! My old eyes must be failing me! I actually failed to notice Junior Wolf Guard Li!”
“Forgive me, forgive me!”
Li Cangcai hurriedly explained in a flustered panic.
That reaction left both Zhang Zhiwei and Lu Chenfeng stunned.
Li Mu was stunned too.
“You know me?”
Li Cangcai’s old face split into a broad smile.
“Of course I do! At Deputy Commanding Officer Wang’s banquet!”