Arknights, but the family has fallen again

But when all this really happened before his eyes, Shi Huaiya still felt a sense of powerlessness. This powerlessness came from a person, a person who was almost always right...

Adams Swire.

Beatrix Swire's grandfather, the current ICU commander and fountain strategist of the Swire family.

With his extraordinary wisdom and strategic vision, forty years ago when the Victorian Empire was still at its peak, Adams moved the Shi Huaiya family's assets and took root in Longmen.

And such a person, when Wei Yanwu began to use extremely violent means to clear the obstacles for Chen Huijie's "succession"... fell to his knees.

Considering that he seems to have barely spoken a few words in a year, his decisiveness now makes one wonder whether he had a plan in place.

Shi Huaiya was wearing the uniform of the Guard Bureau. A large number of Guard Bureau agents who were assigned due to "procedural issues" cooperated with the Longmen soldiers to seal off the hospital.

Layer upon layer of private soldiers tightly and arbitrarily guarded a door, but they all lowered their heads to prevent themselves from looking aggressively at this "traitor".

Shi Huaiya opened the door with his own hands.

The smell of disinfectant rushed into the little tiger's nostrils, and the fear of childhood faintly stimulated Shi Huaiya's nerves again, and she subconsciously shook her tail.

But she quickly regained her composure.

The man lying on the hospital bed squeezed out a few words from his lungs.

"I didn't expect you to be so brave as to come and see me now."

"I was mistaken."

In front of his "rebellious" heir, he displayed a calmness that was inconsistent with his illness.

Shi Huaiya remained noncommittal and said, "The chief of your guards was the first one to be apprehended."

"Of course."

Due to Longmen's uniqueness, the Shi Huaiya family has a huge influence here. In some ways, this influence even predates Wei Yanwu's arrival.

No matter how hard he tried to pretend, Adams' illness and fatigue were repeatedly revealed in his words and actions.

"Victoria has always had stories about the Lion King," said Shi Huaiya, "especially the part where he was killed by his own son. I'm actually curious how the story would have developed if it had been his grandson."

“Patricide is an eternal motif.” Adams paused for a long time, without leaving even a long pause in the sentence: “It is about breaking authority and becoming authority. It has nothing to do with specific blood ties.”

Sometimes getting rid of something leads to getting closer to it, and resistance is another way of following it. The opposite of fear is not contempt, but forgetfulness.

Shi Huaiya finally confirmed her judgment: her "rebellion" against the family atmosphere was also within Adams' expectations.

"Existence is everything? Huh?"

Adams still prepared for a long time and uttered a fluent sentence: "The complete change of hands of Longmen has long been destined, but a Shi Huaiya will be truly accepted by Da Yan tomorrow."

"This wasn't your original intention."

After a while, Binghu said, "I don't deny it."

The little tiger has made up her mind: she loves this job and will never give it up just because of the reversal against Adams.

"I like this job, not because I hate you."

Adams was noncommittal: "That wasn't the intention, but it happened."

Shi Huaiya's affection for the Guards comes from a kidnapping incident in her childhood, when a tall "hero" saved her from danger.

"You fought him for so long, yet you didn't anticipate that Ursus would bring the court down to its knees, giving him an excuse to take control of the army."

Shi Huaiya's vision naturally has its limitations.

It was like she was confused about the logic of Wei Yanwu's actions, and her judgment on the relationship between Wei Yanwu and the court of Dayan was inaccurate.

"The army? No, he's anxious." Adams said, implying, "Even more anxious than I am."

Tsk!

This kind of riddle-like dialogue was somewhat annoying to Shi Huaiya.

As Wei Yanwu's biggest rival in Longmen, Adams has a small flaw: he is dying.

You won't live for another three hundred years, right?

Although his final breath was somewhat prolonged, Wei Yanwu did not believe he could outlive Adams. Therefore, in his original power struggle logic, his approach to Adams, the Shi Huaiya family, and the Business Federation was primarily to cooperate—essentially, to "outlive the old man."

However, the originally long-term struggle broke out in a short period of time due to the Qicheng incident.

Because the information obtained is greater than in the original world line, the decision-making time is longer than in the original world line, and there is even a possibility that Tallulah will survive and regain her sanity...

This one gamble could almost make up for all the mistakes Wei Yanwu made in the first half of his life.

No, you have felt guilty towards your sworn brother and your sister in the first half of your life.

Also, what should I do about the debts I owe in the second half of my life?

In short, all this made Wei Yanwu's determination to "sacrifice himself" even stronger, and he even began to plan and pave the way for the future of Chen Huijie and Tallulah.

All he could leave for these two "girls" was Longmen.

In the future, Longmen's commercial attributes will be weakened, while its logistics and production hub components will be strengthened. In this way, the Adams Business Association will be too strong, and the Adams-less Business Association will be too stupid, both of which will pose a threat to the two girls.

In a short period of time, actively and completely expelling or eradicating the Shi Huaiya family's power would be not only too risky but also yield little benefit. Promoting Beatrix Shi Huaiya and opening up her glass ceiling would, to a considerable extent, eliminate this...threat.

After all, Adams left Victoria not to become a local tyrant in Longmen.

The little tiger turned and left the luxurious ward, leaving behind his last words: "Just as you guessed, I will not take care of the Shi Huaiya family."

Behind the door that she closed casually, the sound of the sick tiger's laughter, which was so mournful due to his sick body, could be heard.

So good.

Chapter 166: Butterfly Flutters Its Wings

March 1097, 1, early morning.

Occasionally, wisps of green smoke floated above the mug, and the sour aroma of instant coffee drifted in the combat meeting room.

A seemingly sick hand brushed across the rim of the cup, and the nun presented the cheap coffee, breakfast and midnight snack to Otto with satisfaction and thoughtful courtesy.

"My lord."

On the personal terminal, several soldier cards representing Team W are moving, while at Longmen, Di Ling is wearing a "sleeping dream device" and is constantly searching for real-time business intelligence.

Facility No. 14 is quite a distance away from Longmen. To rely on the extremely high-latency intercity network at this scale to accurately grasp the market...this is a great test of Otto's predictive ability.

But he was totally unwilling to waste his brain threads on such things.

So you're wasting people's valuable brain power here, right?

"Let it go for now." Otto ordered without thinking.

Ghost Shark had no objection and immediately retreated to Otto's side.

Otto's eyes seemed distracted yet focused because his attention was largely focused on the girls far away.

Ghost Shark leaned over, and a few wisps of cold fragrance penetrated into Ott's ear canal: "My Lord, do you need a shoulder massage?"

Otto still said "hmm" without thinking.

In the conference room, the camera flashed red.

The near-ground aircraft drew a graceful arc, and including W, this team of Sarkaz in Rhodes Island uniforms floated into the core city like dandelions.

In mid-air, W threw an Originium bomb into the air and then excitedly detonated it. This unique bomb raised a large amount of smoke and dust, creating a thick fog.

Soon, stars began to light up in the core city, and sporadic city defense weapons attacked from the core city.

If the density of these weapons is sufficient, it is not completely impossible to damage near-ground aircraft by overcoming the interference of smoke, but it may not be complete.

Ott took a look at the Sarkaz girl and guessed that under the current circumstances, the mathematical expectation of those "thugs" who "mysteriously" manipulated the city defense weapons to hit the near-ground aircraft was almost zero.

This series of plans had been implemented long before Otto woke up. Black Snake and the Third Army had not expected that the core city would have to fight an air defense battle...

Now, firstly, they don’t have enough elite warlocks to operate the city defense weapons, and secondly, there are even fewer people near the city defense weapons.

The "Operators" descended from the sky and, after breaking through the core city's anti-aircraft firepower at lightning speed, these Sarkaz brandished their heat-driven axes and, with the assistance of Ott, quickly relied on the airflow to correct their direction and slow down their speed.

"Boss! Team A-choo (α) didn't find the landmark!"

"Gossip Team (β) found it!"

“…Sizzle…Gaga…Sizzle…Kill!”

Even for Ott, getting these Sarkaz, whose culture level was burning books and burying scholars, to precisely land at a designated location would require considerable effort. Their job was to draw enemy fire for W, just enough to avoid falling into the air.

"Attention! You will now be strengthened by me, and your damage capability will be greatly increased. In bright light, this increase will not only be further increased, but your accuracy will also be greatly improved."

"Then?"

"Be careful not to get hurt."

Because "Disma's Head" also has a negative attribute "-10% maximum health".

"Humph."

The Sarkaz girl responded in this way, but the corners of her mouth curved into a grin.

She threw a bomb at the bewildered white-masked thugs in front of her, hiding her shy smile in a frenzied performance: "Surprises are everywhere, take them as you please~"

W seemed to have completely misunderstood.

Ott raised his head, relaxed his muscles slightly, and then stuffed the bread and coffee into his mouth.

Although it's not as abstract as eating instant noodles, this way of eating is somewhat...

A few drops of coffee naturally overflowed and hung at the corners of Otto's mouth.

The nun stretched out her slender fingers and boldly wiped the coffee from the corner of the "master's" mouth.

Ott gave her a blank look, which seemed to encourage the nun.

Ghost Shark's mouth opened slightly, and a few silver threads clung to her tongue and oral mucosa. As expected, she stared at Ott and slowly put the drop of coffee into her mouth.

suck.

Ott shook his head suddenly again to wake himself up.

He chewed quickly, ground part of the bread into a paste, and swallowed the sweet-tasting blood sugar supplement.

Longmen Office.

"...but our market value..." a Kuranta argued.

Di Ling interrupted her coldly: "What we need are supplies, not numbers in the account."

"Besides, your industry was not on the acquisition list from the beginning."

Caprini's cold voice sounded full of irony in Kuranta's ears: "If the stock price and market value were useful, you should still be in Victoria."

Kuranta swore, "Just wait! If you don't buy it, there will be plenty of people who will!"

After saying that, she fled from the office.

But when she opened the door, she saw her competitor waiting to come in...

The office door was quickly closed by the competitor in a vigilant manner.

They are not Shi Huaiya's family business, why are they in such a hurry to run away?

She stared at the door in a daze for a long time.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she vaguely realized something was wrong.

Just as Kuranta was stunned, the door opened again.

Her competitor...had already made a contract.

Something must have happened again.

When the competitor passed by Kuranta, he cursed: "You even want to come here, isn't it enough that you, the Shi Huaiya family, sold us out!"

Kuranta suddenly understood.

After seeing off the last guest this morning, Di Ling collapsed exhaustedly on Otto's simple office chair, like a puddle of mud.

Doberman pushed the door open and shouted, "Doc Otter, the winter soldier's training needs to add another one..."

"..." Du Bin looked at the exhausted Earth Spirit, then carefully examined the Dream Instrument before asking in surprise, "Earth Spirit? Did Doc Otter leave?"