Zongman, working as a teaching assistant in Trasen

Ignoring Zhenqi's resentful look, Seto Ren shrugged, took another drag on his cigarette, and said with a smile, "Just be open-minded. There's no such thing as regret in this world. Now that you've boarded this pirate ship, don't even think about jumping off. Otherwise, I can't guarantee what you'll become in the end."

"...I know. I still understand this rule."

After another long sigh, Zhenqi raised her head and said in confusion, "I just suddenly feel... I don't know what to do from now on. It's as if everything in the past has become a complete joke, and my whole life has been disrupted..."

"Your feeling is correct. Your life is indeed completely disrupted from now on." Seto Ren thought for a moment, then raised the corner of his mouth and said, "However, I don't think things are as hopeless as you think. Although I have only met your boss a few times, believe me, even in the underworld, there are very few people as strong and gentle as him. You will definitely not suffer any loss if you follow him."

"...Yeah, I know."

Zhenqi nodded in response, and unconsciously recalled in his mind the attitude of Xiaolimao towards him that he had seen during the day.

I hope he can treat me the same way he treats Ogurume... no, if only he could treat me half as well as he treats Ogurume... at least life wouldn't be so difficult.

Why him? Before today, we knew very little about each other, like complete strangers, right?

Pulling her into this world so abruptly, aren't you afraid that she might defect and leak secrets?

With this question in mind, Maki chatted with Seto Ren for a few minutes, but was unable to bring up the issue until Masaru Uozuka Saburo and the others came back from their tour. However, he was indeed not as nervous as before and felt much calmer.

"Well, it seems that he has recovered well. There is a glint in his eyes."

After exchanging a glance with Maki through his gas mask, Uozuka Saburo looked at the smiling Seto Ren beside him, leaned forward and said sincerely, "You are truly a veteran. I'm impressed by your communication skills. Could you please come to our training base occasionally to give a lecture in the future?"

"Haha, then I'll politely decline. I don't want to be on the mind of a bunch of future assassins."

Politely declining the other party's "kindness," Seto Ren patted Maki on the back and said with a playful smile, "And to be honest, you're the one who's more considerate of the newcomers—you secretly came to us to ask for extra overtime for a 'temporary worker', and you're even willing to pay us more for it. It's like an old father preparing a birthday present for his daughter~"

"...That wasn't a request, it was an order, and it wasn't done just for her."

Seeing Zhenqi turning her head around in confusion, and noticing that the male mermaids beside her were also chuckling, Uozuka Saburo couldn't help but curl his lips and said, "It was just a matter of convenience. Don't let me get carried away."

"Yes, yes, I understand."

"Hey Hey."

"Mr. Uozuka, you are a real man."

"......roll!"

Uozuka Saburo, whose face was as thick as a city wall, did not want to argue with this group of people on this matter anymore. He walked straight up to Zhenqi Yizi and handed her two things: one was a small promotional card that seemed to be some kind of medicine, and the other was a yellowed newspaper clipping that looked quite old.

"???What's this?"

"the truth."

Uozuka Saburo didn't waste any words. He didn't have unlimited time tonight. He pointed at two pieces of paper and said quickly, "This one is the factory's external promotional card from back then, and it's the direct cause of your serious accident. And this one is a news report about your 'unfaithful' trainer who, after discovering the truth, single-handedly wiped out the entire group in Fengming City."

“…!!???”

Chapter 195 He already knew everything

His brain instantly went into a state of shutdown. Zhen Qi held up two pieces of key evidence that could allow the police to "convict" all the participants back then. He just stood there blankly staring at Uozuka Saburo. After a long time, he stammered and said:

"I...I don't know what you're talking about. This..."

"Hmm? I feel like I made myself pretty clear?"

Holding his chin and looking at Ma Mun, Uozuka Saburo tilted his head and said calmly: "With your ability to understand, you should understand what I am saying, plus these two pieces of evidence... or are you unwilling to understand?"

"..."

"In that case, let me give you a brief overview of what happened that year, to prevent you from letting your tangled and useless pride deceive yourself and delay our subsequent work."

Picking up his phone, he found a document from the electronic spreadsheet Zheng had just sent him. Uozuka Saburo coughed softly and said, "October 15th, 25:5 PM. Sales target: Dongfeng Dafan; Quantity: copies; Purpose: To win the competition the next day; Primary target: Zhenqi."

"..."

"On October 9th, at 44:10 AM, the target bribed staff to place drugs in the drinking water of other contestants and completed the destruction. Starting at AM, all five subjects experienced severe reactions. The main target lost consciousness and fell, suffering a scratch on the inner thigh from the railing. The effect was significant."

"On October 23th, at 08:1 PM, the transaction was completed. An unrelated person passed by the scene. Observation revealed him to be a middle-aged, intoxicated man, unconscious. This person is disregarded."

"On October 13th, at 29:3 PM, Export Location No. 2 received the order, with the transaction scheduled for two days later. The qualification review of the transaction partner has begun."

"On October 18th, at 11: PM, the reviewer lost contact. The secondary review tracking procedure was activated, and personnel were dispatched to investigate."

"October 3th, 48: AM, the second-level reviewer returned and prepared to collect GFGHJKHqtwydgKBVUGI."

"...Wait!? What the hell...what the hell is this last part!?"

"Ok?"

Uozuka Saburo gave Maki a strange look, then glanced at the expressions of the others around him. He said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Of course, it's the marks left by the person recording the incident, who was grabbed from behind by the head, pressed hard against the computer keyboard, and rolled around with his face. That's obvious, right?"

"..."

No! It's not obvious at all!

Who the hell could have imagined something as bizarre as rolling your face on the keyboard? Don't use your common sense to equate it with ordinary people, okay?

The punk girl couldn't utter a word of complaint, which made her face turn purple instantly. However, it also successfully made Zhenqi break out of her silent and stiff state and start to accept the reality from the bottom of her heart.

With a slight tremor, Zhenqi slowly picked up the newspaper clipping in her right hand and quickly read the contents in the dim light:

A mysterious person destroyed a drug manufacturing den, and Fengming's largest company went bankrupt overnight?

"......Well."

“Eh hey hey? Don’t fall!?”

As if all the bones in her body were suddenly pulled out, Zhenqi's body softened and she fell backwards. Fortunately, Seto Ren was quick to pull her into his arms, which saved her from hitting her head on the ground and becoming a vegetable, like in third-rate novels.

...But to be honest, the way she looks now, she might really be a bit like the heroine in a third-rate novel who has misunderstood the hero for years, suddenly discovers that he still loves her deeply, and regrets it for the rest of her life...

"He...he...turned out to be...sucking at that time."

Tears welled up like a dam bursting. Maki sank into Seto Ren's arms, murmuring questions, "But why...it's all over, why are you still talking to me like that...telling me to retire, to stop competing...and saying I have no future?"

"Perhaps they don't want to implicate you further in the investigation and expose you to the eyes of those whose interests are damaged and persecuted, right?"

Uozuka Saburo took a drag on his cigarette, then looked at Seto Ren apologetically. "Of course, the main reason was probably because you were so badly injured. That drug—the illegal drug called 'Strange Document' you see now—is highly destructive to the body. If you hadn't been so severely injured and lost so much blood, and the hospital hadn't urgently transfused you with a large amount of pure blood, you might have ended up like the other four contestants, a fate worse than death."

"Life...life is worse than death?"

Zhenqi looked up at Uozuka Saburo with tears in her eyes and asked in confusion.

Although she knew that several people had encountered accidents with her, her attention at the time was all focused on arguing with Takeshita about whether to retire. She didn't pay much attention to the "super lucky ones" who didn't even suffer minor injuries, and she didn't know what happened to them afterwards.

But the next second, she began to be glad that she didn't get to know them out of excessive curiosity - because Uozuka Saburo took the phone and directly brought up a few photos of horse girls on the screen.

What a tragic scene it was... The healthy body became skinny, the beautiful face became haggard and old. She was clearly in the best years of her life, but she was so old that she looked like she would die in the next second.

"This thing was still a newly developed product back then, and its efficacy and side effects were very unstable, which is why they ended up like this."

Placing his phone on the table beside her for her to see, Uozuka Saburo discarded his empty cigarette butt and sneered, "These idiots, even though they're doing such a dirty job, they still maintain such rigorous record-keeping. Not only did they keep a meticulous record of the factory's accounts at the time, but they also followed up on these several 'effective' drug releases for a long time afterwards. Are they really afraid that they don't have enough valid evidence and the sentence won't be severe enough?"

“…Gu.”

Looking at those horrific pictures, Zhenqi suddenly remembered the anxious look of that "unfaithful man" at that time, as if she would die on the spot in the next second...

She couldn't understand why the other party was so adamant, even at the cost of severing ties with her and forcing her to retire, even though the wound was horrific, wasn't serious enough to force her to retire.

It turns out that he already knew everything...

"...What on earth have I been doing all these years..."

Chapter 196: A mere ten billion, what a shit!?

Snapped!Snapped!

"!!?"

"Hey girl, come back to your senses!"

Snapping his fingers twice in front of Zhenqi's words, interrupting her self-pity, Uozuka Saburo stared directly into her glasses and said, "I'm not paying you a 'deposit' to make you pessimistic and lifeless, never to recover and regret your life—don't play those sad culture crap with me, I won't buy it!"

"!!! No, I won't stay depressed like this, you idiot uncle!!"

After breaking free from Seto Ren's arms, Zhenqi raised her hand to wipe away her tears, but the gas mask on her face blocked her eyes. For a moment, she was in a dilemma, wanting to take it off but not daring to.

At the critical moment, it was the good-natured Zheng who took the initiative to step forward and gestured that the exhaust fan had been turned on when they came in just now, and taking off the gas mask now would not let her inhale more toxins and cause a recurrence of old injuries.

“Hiss—ha…”

There was still an uncomfortable smell in the air, but it no longer had the burning sensation it had at the beginning. Zhenqi let out a long breath, wiped away her tears, looked up at Uozuka Saburo, who was a head taller than her, and asked, "I... I'm not as bad as you say! Just give me any orders, Boss Uozuka!"

"......puff!"

““Puhahahahaha!!!”””

“…What are you guys doing?! This is so annoying!!”

After laughing for a long time, and also in order to make Zhenqi Yizhi temporarily forget his "loss", Uozuka Saburo finally looked at his watch, coughed lightly and started to talk about business.

Isn’t there a saying that goes, when you get busy, all the unhappy things will be forgotten—you won’t have time to think about them at all?

As a good boss who always cares about his subordinates, of course Uozuka Saburo must prepare sufficient and fulfilling work for these subordinates in the true sense?

"Then, start smashing it."

"......Eh?"

Looking at the red fire axe in his hand, Zhenqi was confused and couldn't say a word when looking at Uozuka Saburo.

Afterwards, she was kicked on her delicate buttocks by the completely "familiar" Uozuka Saburo, and her hot pants were almost torn apart.

"If the boss tells you to go, you have to go! Even if you have doubts, you must not stop what you are doing—this is common sense!"

"Eh? But I..."

Zhenqi glared at Uozuka Saburo angrily, then looked at the assembly line factory, which was not large but definitely not small, and said, "What should I... smash?"

"Everything as far as the eye can see."

“…Ehhhhhhhh!!???”

After looking back and forth several times and confirming that Uozuka Saburo was not joking, Zhenqi opened her mouth and wanted to ask a few more questions, but suddenly remembered the other party's "teaching" just now. She had to grit her teeth, make up her mind, and swing the axe to chop at those machines that she couldn't understand!

Boom!

......

......

"Ohhh! As expected of a horse girl, this power is really powerful!?"

Four members of the Setouchi Mermaid Group and one member of the Black Organization leaned side by side on the second-floor railing, watching Shinki chopping with increasing vigor, like a human crusher. They sighed, "With all that strength, it's a waste of talent not to go to the construction site and move bricks."

"Well, I sometimes think that," Uozuka Saburo shrugged. "But from my observation, while these beastgirls have high indicators in all aspects, their endurance isn't particularly outstanding. If they were to do this kind of physical work, they might not be able to last as long as some of the veteran construction workers."

"Hahaha~ You guys are really joking when you ask Ma Niang to move bricks at the construction site."

Seto Ren looked at Shinki Ichi, who seemed to be venting all her dissatisfaction, and said to Uozuka Saburo with a teasing look, "But then again, you're really willing to spend so much to win this little girl's heart. Excluding the value of the fixed assets themselves, the products produced by this assembly line alone would generate at least hundreds of millions of yen in net income each year. You're just giving it away to a little girl to use as a toy for venting. Your organization really has a lot of money~?"

"Humph, stop making sarcastic remarks. I know what you're thinking."

Glancing at Seto Ren, whose words were full of hidden meaning, Yu Zhongsa snorted coldly and said nonchalantly, "You're using this as a bargaining chip in exchange for further development of your Setouchi Group in Saitama. This deal has already been reached since I just finished reading it. Don't worry about me deliberately cheating - I've never considered using this stuff in a normal way."

"...Oh? This really surprises me!"

Seto Ren said in surprise, and several male mermaids next to him stared at Uozuka Saburo with wide eyes, as if they were looking at some incomprehensible alien, which was ridiculous.

To be honest, although the Setouchi Group has never been involved in similar industries for various reasons, it is not completely ignorant of them and is very clear about the value contained therein: it can bring not only monetary benefits to its owners, but also a kind of connection, a deterrent, and a display of strength.

And if it is operated properly, or if one or two knowledgeable technical personnel are recruited, it can play a greater strategic role and turn people into the "God" of the relevant audience!

Even if it cost 1 billion yen per year, the Setouchi group wouldn't be willing to part with it. But this man in front of them actually said no and just refused it?

It is definitely impossible for him to be stupid. If even this calculating old code member is stupid, the so-called Black Organization will definitely not be able to develop into its current scale... But if you say he is smart, what is he trying to achieve?

Rubbing his slightly stubbled chin, Uozuka Saburo glanced at the confused people, curled his lips, and shook his head slightly. He said, "You guys—maybe excluding Mrs. Seto—are still a little too narrow-minded. A special illegal drug production line that only generates 100 million yen a year, but requires ten times the effort to manage and operate, and may cause countless troubles and enemies, has blinded your eyes? Really..."

"Huh!? What the hell do you mean? Are you looking down on us?!"