Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 692 He's an assassin, not Sadako.

In the VIP room of the Cloud Private Club in Jingzhou City, smoke filled the air, and laughter echoed.

Lin Sipeng, with his legs crossed and a cigar between his fingers, was engaged in a lively conversation with several business partners and his latest girlfriend, a Porsche-driving model.

The topic naturally turned to the Microsoft-hired assassin incident that has been making headlines these past few days.

"If you ask me, Microsoft is really a sore loser." Lin Sipeng flicked his cigarette ash, revealing a knowing look, and said, "They must be desperate because they see my brother Yi's Moc-OS system is unstoppable, so they've started playing dirty tricks."

A Mr. Wang, who runs a graphic design outsourcing business, chimed in, "Mr. Lin is right. Business competition has gone so far as to hire assassins. That's really despicable. But Mr. Lin, you have a wide network of contacts and are well-informed at the Momo Technology Industrial Park. Do you know who that assassin was after? Was it Chairman Cheng Yi?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Sipeng shook his head smugly. He lowered his voice, creating an air of mystery, and whispered, "You don't know this. What kind of person is my brother Yi? He's such a cautious person. He always lets his bodyguards eat first, and even when he goes to the toilet, he lets his bodyguards go first."

"Let the bodyguards go first, isn't he in a hurry?" Mr. Wang asked curiously, taken aback.

"Forget it, I'm not talking to you anymore. I've described to you how careful Brother Yi is, and you're asking me if I'm anxious?" Lin Sipeng said irritably.

The other executives couldn't help but mutter a few words about this Mr. Wang.

Mr. Wang quickly smiled sheepishly and said, "Mr. Lin, I'm so sorry, please go ahead and say it. I promise I won't say anything inappropriate."

Lin Sipeng glanced at President Wang with some displeasure and continued, "And do you know how high the security level is around my brother Yi? It's no exaggeration to say that even if a mosquito flies by, they'll pluck it down to check its gender. So, I reckon Microsoft wouldn't be so stupid as to directly target Brother Yi; that would be too much of a fuss. If they really did target Brother Yi, it would be difficult to handle the consequences."

"Mr. Lin is right."

"What President Lin said makes sense."

Several CEOs expressed their strong agreement.

Lin Sipeng took a puff of his cigar, slowly exhaled a smoke ring, and continued his analysis: "I guess they're mostly targeting Yu Sen and Huang Ganping, these key technical personnel. Cutting off Brother Yi's left and right arms would have the same ruthless effect!"

One of the CEOs asked curiously, "Mr. Lin, how do you think this matter will end? I heard the police have laid a massive dragnet; will they be able to catch the killer?"

Lin Sipeng laughed and said, "You don't need to worry about that. With Chairman Gao Yang personally overseeing things, Jingzhou is now a united front. If that assassin dares to show his face, he will definitely not return alive. Besides, what kind of storms hasn't my brother Yi seen? He must have already made arrangements for this little situation!"

His tone was filled with blind faith in Cheng Yi, as if Cheng Yi were a divine being who could calculate everything perfectly.

His car model girlfriend nestled beside him, looking at him with admiration, and said in a sweet voice, "Brother Peng, you know so much, you're so amazing."

Lin Sipeng's vanity was greatly satisfied, and he laughed and said, "That's right, you don't even know who I'm with. Yi Ge and I have been best buddies since college. I know very well what's going on in Momo Group."

He got more and more excited as he talked, and even started to pontificate, "If you ask me, this guy who got targeted is really unlucky. But the fact that Microsoft is paying so much attention to him means he's someone important. I just wonder who it is. Once this is over, I'll have to treat him to a meal to calm him down, haha!"

Gradually, the state of alert in Jingzhou City has lasted for more than ten days.

Public opinion remained in an uproar, with false eyewitness accounts and insider information circulating online every day, but the police still came up empty-handed; the killer named Ona seemed to have vanished into thin air.

As long as Ona doesn't come out, the three parties won't have a moment's peace.

Microsoft was put under intense public scrutiny, its brand image in China plummeted, and Waters is starting to regret his decision.

Cheng Yi was also restless, feeling like there was a pair of eyes watching him from the shadows. Even when he urinated, he suspected someone was in the ventilation hole above his head, just like in the TV shows. Like Waters, Cheng Yi also regretted his plan.

Even Chairman Gao Yang, who had been very excited, was no longer excited, because the pressure was increasing day by day, and the higher-ups and the public were waiting for him to deliver results.

In this strange stalemate, in the Feiyue Brick Kiln Factory in Yueyang City, Hunan Province, which is surrounded by mountains and almost isolated from the world, time seemed to pass more slowly.

Inside the house, brick kiln owner Dong Dazhu was playing cards with several of his trusted henchmen from the same village. A pile of cheap cigarettes and peanut shells lay on the table.

Outside, there were sounds of workers toiling away on machinery and the occasional shouts and whippings from the overseers.

"Damn it, my luck is really bad today." A henchman nicknamed Skinny Monkey cursed as he threw down his cards, clutched his stomach, and stood up, saying, "I can't take it anymore, I need to go to the toilet."

"Damn it, are you trying to escape by shitting yourself?" Dong Dazhu cursed.

"How could that be? I have poop in my belly, that's why I have bad luck. Once I've relieved myself, I'll come back and beat you all." After saying that, the skinny monkey grabbed a stack of old newspapers that someone had brought in from the corner of the wall, crumpled them up a few times, and then rushed to the stinking outhouse in the corner of the yard.

Squatting in the makeshift pit, Skinny Monkey listlessly flipped through the crumpled newspaper in his hand.

This is the provincial newspaper from a week ago, brought back by an old man who went to the market and brought back roasted peanuts. It contains the same old news about certain leaders' inspections.

He looked around aimlessly until he reached the middle section, where missing person notices and lost item announcements were usually posted.

But today, an arrest warrant has appeared.

"Which unlucky bastard has been wanted again?" Skinny Monkey carefully examined the wanted poster, and for a moment, even the shit he had just excreted seemed to float in mid-air.

His gaze was fixed on the black-and-white photo on one of the wanted posters.

The person in the photo has a slightly vacant look in their eyes and an ordinary face, but that outline, that nose and mouth...

"Holy crap, what a coincidence!" Skinny Monkey's heart skipped a beat.

He rubbed his eyes hard and leaned closer to take a closer look.

That's right!

Although the photo makes him look uglier than he actually is, that ordinary face that you wouldn't notice in a crowd is clearly that of the big, dumb guy they brought in a dozen days ago who couldn't even speak properly.

The words on the wanted poster made him gasp in horror:
[Wanted Notice]

Ona, male, Thai national, professional assassin, extremely dangerous.

The perpetrator may be staying in our province with the intent to commit serious violent crimes.

This person is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and weapon fighting, and has a ruthless personality...

If you spot this person, do not act on your own; call the police immediately!
The police will offer a substantial reward to anyone who provides valid leads leading to the arrest of this criminal!
"A... a professional assassin? Extremely dangerous?" Skinny Monkey felt it was a bit abstract.

Thinking back to that big, dumb guy who was splashed with lime in the eyes, knocked unconscious with bricks, and then dragged in like a dead dog, who had spent the last few days burning bricks and being beaten, starving to the point of having glazed over and barely able to speak…

He's a damn professional assassin? And an extremely dangerous one at that?
"Isn't this pure nonsense?" Skinny Monkey was somewhat skeptical of the description on the wanted poster.

Because his dream was to become a professional assassin.

If a professional hitman is this bad, he might as well continue being the foreman of his brick kiln.

"Huh? One zero, two zeros, three zeros..." "Holy crap, there's another 500,000 bounty? Is that for real?" Skinny Monkey saw the last part and realized there was still a 500,000 bounty.

This was the first time he had ever seen such a high bounty.

If the bounty is discovered by other people at the brick kiln, it will cause a big problem.

Skinny Monkey quickly pulled up his pants, scrambled back to the work shed, slammed the crumpled newspaper down in front of Dong Dazhu, pointed at the wanted poster with a trembling finger, and said in a shaking voice, "B-Big Brother! Look, look at this, that...that idiot...he...he's worth 500,000!"

"What idiot?" Dong Dazhu frowned slightly.

Skinny Monkey said, "It's that idiot from out of town we arrested a dozen days ago. The newspapers said he was a wanted criminal and a professional assassin with a hefty bounty on his head."

"Are you bragging?" The other two people at the card table stared wide-eyed and leaned over to look at the bounty poster that Skinny Monkey was pointing to.

Upon seeing the contents of the bounty poster and the photos, a look of greed appeared in both of their eyes.

It really is 500,000.

For them, 500,000 is undoubtedly a huge sum of money that can change their destiny.

Dong Dazhu's expression also changed drastically, and his breathing became noticeably heavier, but soon, that trace of greed was suppressed by a deeper fear.

He suddenly raised his head, his fierce gaze sweeping over the skinny monkey and his two other henchmen, whose eyes were also gleaming with greed.

"Five hundred thousand? Hmph!" Dong Dazhu sneered, slamming the newspaper heavily on the table, and roared, "You fucking only saw the money, didn't you see the word 'police' following it?"

He lowered his voice, a hint of ruthlessness in it, and said, "Don't you know what's going on in our kiln? Illegal detention, forced labor—have you all forgotten how that idiot who tried to escape two years ago died? If we hand this guy over, and the police trace it back, forget about 500,000 yuan, every single one of us will be in jail and facing execution!"

These words were like a bucket of cold water, instantly sobering up the group who had been blinded by the bounty.

The skinny monkey's excitement froze, replaced by a wave of fear.

They then realized that their own conduct was not clean either, and they were not worthy of such a high bonus.

"Then...then, brother, what...what do we do?" One of the henchmen swallowed hard and asked with difficulty, "We can't just keep him alive, can we? He's a wanted criminal, and a...assassin!"

The word "assassin" struck him as absurd; it felt like something out of a TV drama.

Dong Dazhu's eyes were sinister, and his face twitched a few times. After a while, he suddenly stood up, spat, and cursed, "Damn it, I don't care what kind of damn assassin he is. When he comes to my territory, dragons have to coil up and tigers have to lie low. Let's just go all the way and eliminate any future troubles."

A fierce glint flashed in his eyes as he said, "Skinny Monkey, Pockmarked Man, you two go and deal with him. Throw him into that well in the back. Be careful with your hands and feet, tie him to a rock so he doesn't float to the surface."

Skinny Monkey and his henchman, Pockmarked Man, exchanged a glance. They both saw a hint of hesitation in each other's eyes, but more so, they were afraid of Dong Dazhu and concerned for their own safety.

"Understood, brother!" The two gritted their teeth and nodded emphatically.

At this moment, Ona, along with several other workers with blank expressions, was mechanically carrying fired bricks out of the kiln under the supervision of the overseer.

His movements were slow, and his eyes could only see blurry light and shadow due to the damage from the lime. More than ten days of hunger and beatings had also made him somewhat weak.

His mind was in a daze, and only the instinct to survive remained.

At this moment, Skinny Monkey and Pockmarked Man came over and whispered a few words to the overseer.

The overseer nodded, then pointed at Ona with his stick.

Before Ona could react, the skinny monkey and the pockmarked man roughly grabbed his arms from either side.

"Come on, I'll give you something easier," the skinny monkey said, but he used all his strength in his hands.

Ona instinctively sensed danger and began to struggle, cursing in slurred Thai and broken Chinese.

But he was shackled and handcuffed, and his resistance was seen as utterly futile by the two men.

"Damn it, still not behaving!" Ma Zi cursed, stuffing a tattered, sweaty rag into Ona's mouth, and then covering his head with a dirty burlap sack.

The world was plunged into darkness in an instant.

Ona was dragged and pulled by the two men, stumbling and staggering, towards the back of the brick kiln.

His blurry vision peered through the gaps in the sack, and he could only see the uneven ground beneath his feet.

Soon, they arrived at the well that was responsible for cooling the red bricks.

The wellhead was dark and bottomless, exuding a cold and damp atmosphere.

Without the slightest hesitation, Skinny Monkey and Pockmarked Man swiftly and firmly tied the red bricks they had prepared beforehand to Ona's shackles.

Ona felt death approaching, and he let out a desperate whimper, his body twisting violently in his final struggle.

However, everything is in vain.

"Get down!" Skinny Monkey and Pockmarked Man exchanged a glance and pushed each other forcefully.

The heavy body, dragged by the red bricks, quickly plunged into the dark well opening.

With a muffled thud, the well surface quickly returned to calm, with only a few ripples spreading across the dark water.

Skinny Monkey and Pockmarked Man peered down into the well to make sure everything was alright, then breathed a sigh of relief and dusted off their hands.

"Damn it, a professional assassin, huh? Pah!" Skinny Monkey spat into the well, as if trying to hide his slight unease.

"Alright, hurry back and tell your brother it's all taken care of." Pockmarked Man pulled Skinny Monkey along.

Skinny Monkey looked back at the well with some unease. Looking at the still calm surface of the well, he still felt a little panicked.

His dream was to be a professional assassin, but subconsciously he didn't think being a professional assassin was that bad.

"What are you looking at?" Pockmarked man asked, seeing the skinny monkey's anxious expression. "It's not the first time, what's wrong? Are you nervous?"

"Do you think that guy might climb out of the well?" Skinny Monkey asked.

"Damn it, do you think he's Sadako? I think you're crazy," Pockmarked Man couldn't help but curse.

(End of this chapter)