At the moment he woke up, Zhou Sheng took off the Golden Crow Wheel and handed it to Yu Hao. Yu Hao understood his intentions and threw it into the gap near the mattress, and it had fallen straight behind the bedside table. Following which, Zhou Sheng took out an almost identical replica at lightning speed and placed it under the blanket.
Zhou Sheng said, "The one returned wasn't the bait I threw out. Someone must be investigating this."
Yu Hao understood. The other party was targeting the Golden Crow Wheel! They arrested Zhou Sheng and took the Golden Crow Wheel away, but they didn't know that they had already worked together to switch the item with a fake. So the imitation was taken away, and after the second switch, the imitation had turned into another imitation, and the new imitation returned to Zhou Sheng's hands.
Yu Hao, "......"
Yu Hao thought, 'the law may be strong, but outlaws are ten times stronger.' After the other party took the imitation away, he wondered how things would develop from now on.
"This signal's a bit complicated." Chen Yekai said.
"Un." Zhou Sheng drank his coke through a straw and tossed the fake Golden Crow Wheel around in his hands.
"How did you manage to sense all this?" Yu Hao thought that Zhou Sheng really was too smart.
Zhou Sheng looked up with a hint of a smile in his eyes. He slightly raised an eyebrow, just like when they were still studying to mean, 'see how amazing I am now?'.
Yu Hao nodded, his gaze filled with worship.
Chen Yekai said, "This is also a message the other side is transmitting to you."
Zhou Sheng uttered another "un," and the furrow between his brows smoothed out. Yu Hao said, "Wait, there's a discrepancy between our IQs, could you make it a little clearer?"
Zhou Sheng explained, "How many people in total know about our trip here? Your boss, lady boss, Jin Laoshi, Huang Ting, Xiao Ou, that's it. I didn't tell anyone in my company."
Chen Yekai said, "Exclude them one by one, and exclude the three from the newspaper first."
Zhou Sheng said indifferently, "We can't exclude Jin Laoshi completely, but the possibility is very small."
"Extremely small." Chen Yekai said, "That person was hired by Lin Ze in advance. If he was an undercover, it's impossible for Lin Ze to not know. And as soon as Lin Ze knows, his lover would offer up constant reminders of the details of Yu Hao being followed."
"What details of being followed?" Yu Hao said, "Lady boss never reminded me of that."
"The bald man who wears a wig." Zhou Sheng reminded, "The same person appeared in two photos, did you forget?"
Yu Hao, "!!!"
It was such a trivial matter that happened so long ago, but Zhou Sheng actually remembered!
"Lin Ze told me before, Situ Ye had left his home, and his family has always wanted to take him back." Chen Yekai said, "Should be intuition."
Zhou Sheng said, "Your lady boss' anti-investigation abilities is pretty strong...un, so those from the newspaper are temporarily excluded. I won't exclude the possibility of Jin Laoshi being bribed after getting to know you, but we won't worry about that first."
Yu Hao said, "I've thought about this in the bureau; Qihang shouldn't have either."
"He consulted his classmates before." Chen Yekai said, "But his classmates shouldn't know who it is. So only one person could have betrayed you both — Huang Ting bro."
Yu Hao let out a prolonged breath, so it was as expected.
Zhou Sheng said, "He has been paying attention to us for several years. Combined with the job he introduced to me, he probably did so with the purpose of monitoring me."
Yu Hao asked, "So what message does this convey?"
Chen Yekai said, "Take advantage of this opportunity. Zhou Sheng would discover the plan of taking the Golden Crow Wheel away sooner or later; this couldn't be concealed from him. Huang Ting's purpose for doing this was to give us a warning: let the Golden Crow Wheel be separated from people; he hopes that we won't use it again anymore."
Zhou Sheng said, "And he may have made some deal with his superior. Take the Golden Crow Wheel away so as to protect us, then he thought that it wouldn't concern the three of us anymore."
Zhou Sheng opened up the lid of his cup and crunched on a few pieces of ice, "So very naïve."
Chen Yekai sighed and frowned, "He has always been naïve."
Yu Hao frowned deeply. He knew that just holding the Golden Crow Wheel was useless. Even if Huang Ting had gotten the real Golden Crow Wheel and handed it to the organization, they wouldn't be able to learn anything about it at all. However, when he thought of the scene with a group of people gesticulating at a handicraft without a single clue as to what was going on, Yu Hao couldn't help but want to laugh. This was practically a prank Zhou Sheng was playing on them!
"I can't." Yu Hao said, "This matter is both infuriating and amusing..."
Chen Yekai couldn't help but laugh as well. Only Zhou Sheng fiddled with the straw in his hand and said, unconcerned, "A bunch of bastards."
Chen Yekai said, "I didn't expect even him to...ai. I just can't figure out how he's so certain about this."
An idea immediately struck Yu Hao. He murmured, "Qihang's memory has already been burnt."
"Wu." Zhou Sheng said, "So no matter how flawless Huang Ting's deductions are, he has no way of confirming it."
Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai's conversation on their way here had given Yu Hao some kind of vague inspiration. He continued, "But that memory didn't truly disappear. It just turned into fragments that are buried in the subconscious."
"Yes." Chen Yekai said, "Unless like how we woke Liang Laoshi up, by entering his subconscious and restoring his memory..."
Yu Hao said, "What if there's another way that we don't know of?"
Zhou Sheng turned around abruptly to look at Yu Hao.
Yu Hao explained, "What I mean is, perhaps we could have neglected a lot of techniques in reality, like drugs and such. They have a direct effect on people's memories, or perhaps...hypnosis? Hypnosis!"
Chen Yekai muttered, "There is that possibility..."
Zhou Sheng said, "If that really was the case, then Huang Ting knows everything. Fuck!"
Yu Hao grabbed at the thought that flashed through his mind, "Right? It's possible, right? For example, hypnotherapy can make people recall childhood memories that they had forgotten. If Huang Ting took Ou Qihang to participate in a hypnosis diagnosis and regained some piece of information, while Ou Qihang doesn't know it himself, then wouldn't Huang Ting be very clear about everything?"
Zhou Sheng said, "Yes, that's very possible. Erasing his memories was a mistake."
Chen Yekai said, "We still have another way now: we can enter Huang Ting's dream and forcibly erase this portion of his memories as well."
"One after another." Zhou Sheng said, "When you uproot a radish, the mud is taken out along with it. How many more people's memories would we have to erase? The crux is that we still don't know how many people know about this secret. But there's still one thing that's good about Huang Ting that bastard, he didn't arrest us straight away. He just took the Golden Crow Wheel."
Chen Yekai said, "He probably hasn't revealed too much to his superior."
Huang Ting still wanted to protect them. Otherwise, taking Zhou Sheng back straight away to study him along with the Golden Crow Wheel would have been much more straightforward.
"It's not that they don't want to, I'm guessing they don't dare to. They may have wanted to round me up too." Zhou Sheng said, "They don't dare because they're afraid of Yu Hao."
"Afraid of me?" Yu Hao was baffled, "Why?"
"You're a reporter ah." Zhou Sheng said, "You have Lin Ze and Qinghua Times backing you. If it really were exposed, it's absolutely no small matter."
Chen Yekai said, "No one would believe it even if it were reported. If they really wanted to suppress it, they would do it by any means necessary."
"No." Zhou Sheng spun around the straw he clamped between his fingers and said seriously, "Think about it carefully. For Huang Ting, the fewer people who know about the matter regarding the Golden Crow Wheel, the better. Any kind of uncontrollable variable could set off a violent storm."
"That's true." Chen Yekai said, "Once Lin Ze and the rest knew about the inside story, it would be just like the rumors regarding the Pisces Jade Pendant. If they wanted to clean it up, it would be very difficult."
"We can't use the Golden Crow Wheel again in the short run."
"They'll realize it's a fake too." Yu Hao said, "Can't hide it from them for long."
"So we need to keep thinking about countermeasures," Zhou Sheng said, "Just watch and see if Laozi won't screw them to death. Babe, are you done eating? If you're done let's go ba, we'll talk about it again after taking Gege home."
This was an interlude that caught them by surprise. A crisis had befallen them so abruptly; Yu Hao still felt quite apprehensive at first, but indifference was all he saw in Zhou Sheng's eyes, and he had even used the words 'screw them to death,' seeming very much like Satan. Before they left the restaurant, Zhou Sheng patted Yu Hao, "Don't worry, I can deal with it."
"The opponent is Huang Ting." Yu Hao said, "And we don't know how many people are behind the scenes."
"Huang Ting is also human." Chen Yekai was quite calm, "All humans have weaknesses. They were in the dark at first, while we were the ones out in the open. Now that they're out in the open, they've lost their upper hand, so there's no need to be afraid."
Zhou Sheng smiled, "That's right. Laozi has a 180 IQ, let's go!"
Yu Hao, "......"
Zhou Sheng put on a pair of sunglasses and played some music in the car. In the future, no one knew if they would go too far, but Yu Hao knew that at least this time, Zhou Sheng had fooled Huang Ting without batting an eyelid, and it was really **.
"Focus."
When arriving at Lang Hui, Chen Yekai reminded Yu Hao, and he immediately curbed his thoughts and temporarily shoved everything that had happened today out of his mind. The most important thing they had to do was to find Fu Liqun.
"Life is like a play, it all depends on acting." Zhou Sheng said, "Start!"
Yu Hao forgot about the crisis with the Golden Crow Wheel that he was so preoccupied with for a moment and couldn't help but want to laugh. Zhou Sheng pulled down his shirt collar and changed into a casual suit. He took out a pair of non-prescription glasses from his bag to put on, then smoothed his hair down as he looked into the rearview mirror. Chen Yekai got off from the driver's seat, opened the door, and Zhou Sheng helped Yu Hao down. Evidently, he had resumed the mannerisms he had assumed in Yun Lai Chun.
"Um...We're changing the script again?" Yu Hao hadn't reacted yet.
"Fooling passers-by is doable." Chen Yekai said, "But not the boss. I'm too much of an intellectual."
"And so we're wealthy landowners?" Zhou Sheng adjusted his shirt's sleeves as he walked and said to Yu Hao, "Do I look like a private entrepreneur?"
"No, no." Chen Yekai said.
Yu Hao said modestly, "Chen Laoshi is a capitalist upstart, we can't match up."
Chen Yekai said, "Talk nicely, don't scold people."
Zhou Sheng couldn't help but burst into laughter. Yu Hao heard Lin Ze mention before that public business numbers usually have certain codenames that were tacitly agreed upon. They would refer to village and town landowners as 'private entrepreneurs,' investors as 'financial giants,' while 'capitalist upstarts' were young nouveau riche who cheat other people of their money on the internet.
Chen Yekai took a few steps forward and pressed the elevator button for Zhou Sheng. He went to the front desk and took out the documents for the visit while Yu Hao held up his Hasselblad and took photos for Zhou Sheng at the company's entrance. With the sudden arrival of these three people, the front desk was caught completely off guard. A group of core members of the pyramid scheme were still conducting a brainwashing exercise with the song《Grateful Heart》inside, and they were all stunned at once.
Chen Yekai said, "We have an appointment with Director Huang at 10 AM."
"But there's no appointment?" The front desk was completely baffled, quickly made a call to confirm, and asked Chen Yekai to wait for a moment. So Chen Yekai's expression turned a little ugly as he stood at the entrance of the company. Zhou Sheng and Yu Hao waited very patiently in the corridor.
Yu Hao touched Zhou Sheng's collar. He didn't expect that he would once again see this guy put on his Young Master bearing because of this incident and was a little pleasantly surprised. Zhou Sheng studied Yu Hao with a smile, as if he wanted to bow down and kiss him, but he was afraid of the people outside.
Chen Yekai's voice travelled from the inside, sounding a bit impatient, "Are you done yet?"
Zhou Sheng took this chance to lean down and kissed Yu Hao's cheek. The front desk saw Chen Yekai holding a portfolio and was completely dumbfounded. They were really afraid that this group had been dispatched here by the government, so they hurriedly said, "Please sit here, we'll inform Director Huang at once."
"Director Zhou." Chen Yekai looked at his watch and pushed the door open to walk out. He said to Zhou Sheng, "They didn't make an appointment, do we still talk?"
"We're already here anyway." Zhou Sheng said casually, "Let's go in and sit down for awhile ba, don't make things difficult for the front desk."
Chen Yekai pushed the door open, and Zhou Sheng walked straight in. As soon as the front desk saw Zhou Sheng, their eyes lit up, and another female supervisor came out. Everyone was obviously baffled, but they didn't ask any more questions and invited the three of them to sit in the reception room first. The supervisor said, "Director Huang is currently in a meeting. And you are..."
"Our head office called you the other day." Chen Yekai said, "We wanted to come and find Director Huang to talk about the problem regarding the dealerships. Did a problem occur in the middle of the supply line?"
Zhou Sheng didn't drink any water after sitting down. He looked around, and Yu Hao entered his role very quickly too. He hurriedly took out his phone and asked into his phone, "Who's in charge of contacting Lang Hui from the Ministry of Commerce? Why doesn't this side know anything?"
"Which company are you from?" The supervisor stood with a slight bow, and her posture was perfect as she asked Chen Yekai.
Zhou Sheng casually took a newspaper from the coffee table and started flipping through it.
"Ying City's Yun Lai Chun." Chen Yekai took a letter of introduction out of his portfolio and handed it to the supervisor. The supervisor immediately said, "Yun Lai Chun! I know you guys, the food and beverage corporation!"
"This is our young Director Zhou." Chen Yekai introduced.
Zhou Sheng said to Yu Hao, "You don't need to ask anymore, this is so damn messy. Let's talk again when we get back."
Yu Hao answered, "It's time to go home for the New Year."
The supervisor took a picture of the letter of introduction and said, "I'll inform Director Huang straight away. I apologize for the inconvenience."
Zhou Sheng nodded at the supervisor and said, "It's okay, it's the same if we talk now anyway. I'm only staying in Nanlu for two days."