The Indigenous people gazed at the ruins of the Qinwang Fortress and discovered that this symbol of Black Fire Innovation’s hegemonic rule had been destroyed, which was undoubtedly a shocking event for them, and they couldn’t help but point and discuss animatedly.
"The Qinwang Fortress actually..."
"Are we seeing this right?"
"Quick, go inform everyone in the village!" The people frantically ran into the jungle.
Xu Yang watched the figures that appeared and disappeared.
"Are there many ’Indigenous’ residents on Charo Island? What is their distribution like?" Xu Yang inquired.
"There are at least a hundred tribes; they control the forests and mountains," Manager Ramali, who was quite familiar with the locals, said, "There are 10 million people on Charo Island, about half of them live in the jungles and mountains, and the other half live in coastal areas, in those port cities."
"The rebels stirred up by A40 are these ’tribal people,’ right?" Xu Yang pondered.
"Exactly." Manager Ramali’s attitude had changed; he now considered A40 not as an evildoer and reckless bandit leader, but as a resister against Black Fire Innovation’s brutal rule, even hoping for A40’s swift return. He earnestly wished for the warriors resisting violence to achieve one victory after another.
The ground, bombed not long ago, was still emitting a warm temperature, with no trace of any humans or buildings having existed. Once Aledy had arranged things properly, they returned to Anda Port.
On the way back, Manager Ramali had already received a call from Kabalin, the general manager of the hotel, who had also heard about the destruction of Qinwang Fortress and was now overwhelmed with shock. Of course, he had prepared the best banquet to properly entertain the people from Nestor Corporation, ensuring they received the best reception in Anda Port, in a show of Jinyue Hotel Group’s warm hospitality.
Moreover, Hotel Owner Kabalin mentioned that many big shots in Anda Port wanted to attend the dinner to earn the favor of Nestor Corporation.
"Who will be coming?" Xu Yang sat in the back seat of the car, with Aledy sitting beside him, eagerly looking out of the window at the grasslands and dense forests on both sides.
"Although Charo Island is small, it has quite a few businessmen who have stayed here, including the representative of Southern Territory Rubber Company, Pragya, Charo Island’s preeminent stamp plantation magnate, Halsan, and the president of the Xia People Chamber of Commerce, Huang Yunxuan, and so on..." Manager Ramali chatted away, introducing Xu Yang to the renowned figures in the business community on Charo Island.
Most business people had intricate relationships with Black Fire Innovation, and only those deeply cooperating with it could manage to survive the ordeal. In other words, the current influential figures on Charo Island were probably a group of businessmen with heavy stains on their records.
With a quick search on the deep anonymous web, Xu Yang found a heap of negative news surrounding them.
The Southern Territory Rubber Company had long been engaged in cross-jurisdictional human smuggling, often leaving laborers from other corporate areas to listen to messages of mass recruitment in the Southern Territory, crossing boundaries to board ships ashore; only to fall victim to criminal gangs’ plundering. The lighter consequence was being pushed into factories for hard labor, while the worse outcome meant being dismembered, ending with no trace. They also sold living humans in large quantities to the Intercontinental Medical Research Institute for experimentation. Pragya, as the representative of the Southern Territory Rubber Company, was also expanding the company’s interests in Charo Island.
As for the stamp dealer Halsan, there’s no need to say more; with a massive 150,000-acre stamp industry park in Charo Island, accounting for 33% of all stamp production in the Eastern Hemisphere. For a long time, he had the support of Blackfire Innovation to sell stamps unabashedly; now that Black Fire Innovation was gone, his stamp crops were still in the fields, so he urgently came forward looking for a new backer to avoid his lands in Charo Island being destroyed.
The so-called Chamber of Commerce president Huang Yunxuan was even more ruthless. Initially a sizable Xia People Community in Charo Island and an ordinary businessman, he colluded with Blackfire Innovation to use violence to eliminate competitors in his quest to become the Chamber leader. He scaled up to such an extent that no substantial community of Xia people exists on Charo Island anymore, and Huang Yunxuan has built his business empire on the bones of his own people, proud and content.
However, these three, who spared no cost, with hearts of beasts in human guise, had now become the renowned "strongmen" or local snakes in Anda Port, and even all of Charo Island, continuing to maintain their wealth and power. Now, they wanted to improve their relationship with Nestor Corporation by sharing a dinner.
While Ramali drove ahead, Xu Yang communicated with Aledy in the back.
"We don’t need to attend the banquet; these people are all filthy rich, and associating with them would only bring unclean business. Besides, they’re having dinner with us only because we are the first to arrive. Once other companies land, they will naturally shift their allegiance to those companies because they’re willing to support their businesses. In short, there’s no way we can cultivate a good relationship with these local snakes," Xu Yang said.
"What a pity, I even wanted to try some special dishes at the hotel," Aledy said, puzzled.
"Of course, you can go and eat, as an individual."
"What would happen if I killed them during the dinner?" asked Aledy with a serious tone.
"It might cause some turmoil, but no big issue, as the matters of Charo Island are no longer up to them. It’s those companies that participated in the peace talks that have the say now."
Aledy loaded her handgun with bullets.
At the crossroads on the way to Anda Port, Xu Yang got out of the car and switched to an off-road vehicle.