As soon as the words left his lips, Zhou Jian unhesitatedly pulled out the surgical knife he had previously swiped, cutting toward the wrist of his own right hand that was holding Song Xue’er’s little hand.
"What are you doing? A lover’s suicide?"
Time seemed to undulate before the blood-soaked Zhou Jian suddenly heard a familiar voice resonate by his ear; he strained to look toward the door and through the haze, saw two strangers dressed in black suits, wearing black sunglasses, walking into the ward.
Following them, a young man wearing denim, all smiles, as if with a halo above his head, appeared between the two men in black.
"Have the Ox-head and Horse-face become so fashionable these days?"
Zhou Jian exclaimed in surprise, then weakly closed his eyes, losing consciousness.
Inside Jack’s office, Qin Aotian sat opposite Jack, chuckling as he put down his phone and looked at Jack, saying:
"Dear nephew, it’s all taken care of."
"Are that pair of dogs dead?" Jack asked with a malevolent tone.
"The woman got hit by a car, was sent to the hospital, but attempts to save her were futile; the man seems to have slit his wrist at the hospital, in an act of love-suicide."
Qin Aotian put away his phone, saying indifferently, as if killing two people was but a trivial matter to him.
"Good. It’s a good death!" Jack nodded viciously, grinding his teeth as he said:
"I trusted Song Xue’er so much, that bitch dared to collude with Zhou Jian to set us up, this is really letting her off easy! If it weren’t for me not having fully recovered yet, I would have killed her myself."
"Forget it, they were nothing but ants. The urgent task at hand now is to continue expanding the production scale, taking advantage of the popular trend of yesterday’s Singles’ Day, to continue selling a large quantity of New Detoxification Liquid. Only by doing this can we quickly recoup costs and make more profits."
Qin Aotian said with a smile, his tone solemn.
"I know, right now..."
Jack was just about to speak when the office door was pushed open.
"What the hell are you guys doing?" Long Duba walked in, looking displeased, and said:
"We had an agreement that after I helped you produce the Singles’ Day products, my task would be complete. Why are you expanding production again?"
"Brother Long, please calm down." Qin Aotian quickly stood up to offer Long Duba a seat, saying in an ingratiating manner:
"There has been a little accident. We didn’t expect the Detoxification Liquid to be so popular. With our limited stock, we had no choice but to expand production to make money."
"Haha, what does your making money have to do with me? I only get a fixed salary."
Long Duba sat down in the chair with a disgruntled expression, "I am an important figure in the Poison Sect, and there are many things I need to do there. Now, I’m stuck here because of you guys, what’s the meaning of this?"
"Mr. Long, it’s a matter that can’t be helped. Only you can prepare the raw Detoxification Liquid; if you leave, our company is finished."
Jack also lowered his stature, imploring earnestly, "As for the matter of remuneration, we can discuss. If you stay, we can offer an additional twenty million on top of the thirty million base."
"Cough, cough!" Hearing this, Qin Aotian coughed loudly, trying to interrupt Jack.
"What thirty million?"
Realizing something was amiss, Long Duba stared at Jack and asked.
"It’s nothing. What Jack meant was that your salary could be raised by thirty million, which is ten million more than twenty million." Qin Aotian quickly interjected.
"Hold on, what I’m asking is, what thirty million?"
Long Duba completely ignored Qin Aotian, fixing his gaze on Jack and demanded, "This guy spent ten million to bring me here, what did you mean by thirty million just now?"
Jack was momentarily taken aback, then his expression darkened as he looked at Qin Aotian, having realized that he and Sun Zhuangjia had been double-crossed by Qin Aotian.
With an awkward laugh, Qin Aotian wished he could kill Long Duba right then, as he didn’t expect to be exposed here.
If the Singles’ Day money had come in, no one would care about this ten million. But the current situation was that the funds hadn’t arrived, everyone was losing money, and here he was, a partner skimming from his peers. It was quite disgusting.
"Senior, Uncle Qin said he asked you over as a technical consultant, and you charged him thirty million. How come it’s only ten million?"
Jack questioned through gritted teeth, word by word.
"Go to hell!" Having heard this, Long Duba exploded, pointing at Qin Aotian and bellowed:
"I only charged you ten million, and you told them it was thirty million? Where did the remaining twenty million go?"
"Cough cough, Brother Long, don’t get agitated. The remaining twenty million is also in your account, it will arrive shortly."
Qin Aotian hurriedly tried to calm Long Duba, realizing he had to cough up the profit he had swallowed!
"Swindlers, all of you guys are swindlers." Long Duba stood up abruptly, his teeth clenched as he said, "I disdain to associate with you, and I don’t want your stinking twenty million. I’m going back to Poison Sect right now."
"Senior, you can’t leave!" Jack quickly stood up and called out.
"Brother Long, I really didn’t mean to cheat you out of your money," Qin Aotian earnestly grabbed Long Duba, whispering:
"When you initially asked for ten million, I didn’t hesitate to agree. The extra money was what I made from them. You can’t blame me, right?"
Long Duba snorted coldly, after a moment of thought he seemed to concede that there was logic to what Qin Aotian had said. Initially, he had only asked for ten million, and how much Qin Aotian could make was his own business.
At this moment, Long Duba finally understood what Tang Ming meant by "you’re such a loser". Here he was, working his butt off for ten million, while Qin Aotian had done nothing and earned a clean twenty million. It was infuriating.
"Fine, since that’s the case, I won’t hold back with you guys."
Long Duba sat back down, greed flashing in his eyes.
Seeing his posture, Qin Aotian and Jack both realized trouble was brewing, as Long Duba was likely to make outrageous demands.
"Senior, how much compensation do you need to continue helping us produce Detoxification Liquid?" Jack asked timidly.
"It’s impossible for me to stay. I am a man of Poison Sect, I can’t serve a small broken company forever," Long Duba shook his head, waved his hand, and declared:
"However, I can sell you the formula for the New Detoxification Liquid concentrate. This way, you can produce the Detoxification Liquid yourselves."
"That would be fantastic!"
Qin Aotian and Jack were ecstatic. If they could buy the Detoxification Liquid technology outright, they wouldn’t have to kowtow to Long Duba anymore.
"Hmph, that depends on whether your offer is good enough. Otherwise, I could sell the formula to any family and they would appreciate it!" Long Duba threatened, not mincing words.
"May I know how much you plan to sell it for, Senior?" Jack asked tentatively.