The First Order

Luo Lan looked at the middle-aged man standing at the entrance of the villa. The other party was wearing a trim suit with his tie secured close to his chest with a golden tie clip. He had seen him before, but only in a photograph.

Zhou Shiji looked calmly at Luo Lan and asked, “Did you have to knock out an entire company of my soldiers if you were just going out for a stroll?”

“Haha, it’s all a misunderstanding.” Luo Lan laughed it off.

Luo Lan realized Ren Xiaosu already intended to let him come back here. Otherwise, Ren Xiaosu, who was known to be someone decisive, would definitely not knock the soldiers out but kill them all instead.

But if he killed these soldiers, there would be no way for the matter between Luo Lan and the Zhou Consortium to be resolved.

It seemed that Zhou Shiji also did not intend to further investigate the matter. As the neighborhood of Houguan Lake was quite important, there were many surveillance cameras around.

Someone had already pulled the surveillance footage from earlier. However, they discovered that not even the surveillance cameras could capture the attacker’s image clearly.

What Luo Lan did not know was that Zhou Shiji’s official residence was also in the neighborhood of Houguan Lake. It was just a simple house. Awhile ago, Zhou Shiji did not even hear any noise. He only found out about the big mess in the neighborhood after someone informed him Luo Lan had fled.

If this person had been here to assassinate Zhou Shiji, what would have happened?

However, Zhou Shiji did not seem to feel that this was the most important matter. He looked at Luo Lan. “Did you kill Zhou Xilong?”

“Of course not.” Luo Lan was now in high spirits. “I have a flash drive that contains evidence that the director of the Public Order Division colluded with hitmen from the Anjing House. The corpses of the assassins responsible have also been found!”

Zhou Shiji took the flash drive from him but did not say anything for a long time. He pondered things before saying, “As expected of someone with Boss Luo’s reputation. To think that you actually have such great influence in our Stronghold 73. We couldn’t even find the assassins, yet you managed to do so.”

This was obviously not a compliment. Zhou Shiji suspected that the Qing Consortium must have planted a large number of spies in the Zhou Consortium!

“That’s really not true….” Luo Lan smiled in embarrassment and said, “It was all thanks to the help from a friend who happened to pass by. He was the one who helped to find the evidence.”

“Then what’s Boss Luo’s purpose in coming to our Zhou Consortium?” Zhou Shiji asked noncommittally.

“To make friends!” Luo Lan chuckled and said, “It’s to make friends, of course!”

“Then why didn’t you come to me but Zhou Xilong? Am I not worthy of being your friend?” Zhou Shiji asked.

Luo Lan was embarrassed again. ‘Does Zhou Shiji not know how to carry a conversation? Must he always say everything so sarcastically? No, that’s not it!’

Luo Lan suddenly looked up at Zhou Shiji. “I thought Brother Zhou would be unwilling to be friends with our Qing Consortium.”

“How could that be?” Zhou Shiji finally laughed. “Of course it’s better to have more friends. The fewer enemies there are, the better.”

Luo Lan finally understood that Zhou Shiji was taking the initiative to form an alliance with the Qing Consortium. But why? Wasn’t Zhou Shiji the leader of the Zhou Consortium’s conservative faction?

The two of them did not waste any more time and went straight into the villa.

It was not until an hour later that Luo Lan finally realized that even though Zhou Shiji, a conservative leader, did not like the idea of dealing the first strike in a war, he understood the concept of self-preservation. He was willing to face war for the sake of protecting his consortium. There was essentially no conflict between the two positions.

Furthermore, he was actually very worried about the Wang Consortium.

When both sides had a common imaginary enemy, the conversation would go much smoother.

Zhou Shiji sat on the sofa and said calmly, “Although I didn’t like Zhou Xilong’s political views, he was still an important figure of our Zhou Consortium. So he can’t just die for nothing. A lot of people say the Anjing House is a righteous organization, and they only kill those who deserve to be killed. However, they do not have the right to be a judiciary.”

“I agree.” Luo Lan said with a chuckle.

Like Zhou Shiji, Luo Lan was not fond of the Anjing House either, because he might be on the Anjing House’s list of assassination targets at some point in time. Those in power utterly loathed a mysterious and powerful organization like them.

If the organizations had different standpoints, it would inevitably lead to differences and conflicts.

Was Zhou Shiji in the wrong? Of course not. Why should his Zhou Consortium get judged by others? It wasn’t like the Anjing House would be impartial enough to ensure that their judgment was not biased, right?

Was the Anjing House in the wrong? They wouldn’t think they were wrong either. Since there was no one to punish the rampant villains of this era, they would have to step in to punish them.

Ultimately, it was because there were no longer any fixed moral criteria in this era, and the judicial system had crumbled long ago.

The flash drive in hand, Zhou Shiji looked at Luo Lan. “Who gave you this audio recording? This friend of yours is really impressive. Why didn’t you invite him along to our chat? I didn’t expect the Qing Consortium would have a powerful character like him.”

“Haha, he’s not from our Qing Consortium.” Luo Lan laughed it off and said, “And he should’ve left Stronghold 73 by now. As for where he’s gone, I’m not sure either. But there’s no doubt about whether he’s powerful. At the very least, he’s worthy of my admiration.”

Zhou Shiji was clearly taken aback for a bit. Based on what Luo Lan had said, this mysterious uninvited guest was not a member of the Qing Consortium? Was he an independent powerhouse then?

…

At this moment, Zhou Yingxue was driving an off-road vehicle back to the black market. It was the vehicle that Wu Tong and the others hid in the wilderness. Now that Wu Tong had died, Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu would naturally take the car.

It would take at least three days to return to the black market from Stronghold 73 as the total journey was 678 kilometers. This was mainly because the condition of the roads was not good. Otherwise, they could have arrived back in a day.

Zhou Yingxue had a look at Ren Xiaosu, who was sleeping soundly in the front passenger seat next to her. She curled her lips and muttered as she drove, “To think that I’m the only person driving the entire way of the journey. How dare he claim that it’s for my own good that he’s not driving! Excuses! Men are all liars!”

“What are you mumbling about?” Ren Xiaosu’s voice drifted over from the passenger seat.

Zhou Yingxue exclaimed in her head, ‘Wasn’t Master snoring just now? Was he pretending to be asleep?!’ She quickly explained, “I didn’t say anything. I was just complaining that the road’s a little hard to travel on….”

Next to her, Ren Xiaosu reclined all the way back in the passenger seat and leaned back with his arms behind his head, using them as a pillow. He could not get any more comfortable than this. He suddenly asked, “Is your superpower only limited to producing those three types of seeds? Why does it feel so weak?”

Zhou Yingxue said unhappily, “Master, don’t go too far with your criticisms. Aren’t you a little too much for bluntly saying I’m weak?”

“Alright, you’ve driven for quite a while already. Find a place where we can stop for a break.” Ren Xiaosu said, “I wanna see what you can do with your superpower.”

Ren Xiaosu had not planned on forming a team with Zhou Yingxue for the long term, so he did not care about her superpower before this.

But since he decided to form a team with Zhou Yingxue and get her into the Anjing House, he had to get a better understanding of her superpower. He also had some other plans.