Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
Since this path seems temporarily blocked, let's take the route of Mayor Xu for now.
I made a call to Xu Qingyu; there is a girl who enjoys playing games and hopes to spar with him to exchange skills and experiences, such as the various knotting techniques with ropes.
Xu Qingyu chuckled lightly, "Zheng Nan, I've never felt so delighted by gifts before. Haha, alright, you set the time and place, and I'll go confess!"
People are very deceptive; everyone wraps their truest selves in layers, showing only a fabricated side to others. Only those who are particularly close can see the real side, and what I see now is Xu Qingyu's most genuine self.
In the afternoon, Xu Qingyu entered the room prepared for him at the Marriott Hotel wearing a mask. Fatty and I waited downstairs in the lobby, smoking in silence. During meal times, Xu Qingyu didn't call us to bring food up, which made me a bit anxious about whether he would do his best to complete the task I assigned to Lily Baby.
After smoking two packs of cigarettes and taking turns going out for a meal, it wasn't until the early hours of the morning that Lily Baby called me to say that Xu Qingyu had already retreated. Her voice was quite excited, as if she had just stolen three hens.
Before long, I saw Xu Qingyu approaching with unsteady steps while wearing a mask. He reached out to pat my shoulder but stumbled slightly and almost fell. I quickly supported him and laughed, "Old Xu, are you alright?"
Xu Qingyu shook his head and smiled, "It was fun, but I couldn't handle her antics. I went up and didn't stop at all; I'm getting old, my stamina can't keep up!"
After resting for a while, he hurriedly left.
Fatty and I were astonished; he had been going non-stop from the afternoon until the early morning and still claimed he wasn't in good shape. Xu Qingyu truly has exceptional abilities.
When we reached the room and knocked on the door, Lily Baby opened it wearing nothing. Seeing me, she smiled and said, "Please check the goods!"
Seeing this situation, I turned to Fatty and said, "You wait outside for me!" Regardless of his reaction, I pushed him outside and closed the door. Then I stepped closer to carefully examine Lily Baby's body—quite impressive.
According to our plan, when things were getting heated, Lily Baby would apply a special oil all over her body. The main feature of this oil is that it leaves marks; whenever Xu Qingyu slapped her, it would leave handprints. Judging by how Lily Baby's body was covered in Xu Qingyu's handprints at this moment, this plan was undoubtedly successful. Old Xu, we both got what we wanted; you can't blame me!
I found a few of the clearest handprints and took photos with my phone.
"How is it? Are you satisfied? Who is this person? They haven't taken off their mask from start to finish," Lily Baby said, showing off the handprints on her body while curiously asking, "This guy, despite looking like a bundle of meat, actually knows quite a lot. He's truly a rare good opponent! Ghost Brother, can you introduce him to me? I'll refund you the nine thousand."
I finished taking the photos and chuckled, "Lily Baby, it's best if you don't ask who this person is; I'm doing this for your own good. However, I will pass on your compliments to him. If he's interested, I think you'll have a chance to continue sparring; it might even turn into a long battle."
Lily Baby rolled her eyes at me, then struck a flirtatious pose and said sweetly, "Ghost Brother, do you want to join in?"
I quickly opened the door and fled, hearing Lily Baby's giggles behind me.
...
Back home, I logged onto my computer and greeted 'Isolated from the World.' After half a minute, 'Isolated from the World' replied, "Manager Zhong, what's the good news?"
"I've got the fingerprints," I said as I uploaded the photos from my phone to the computer and sent one to 'Isolated from the World.'
"Good, not bad. I didn't expect you to be such a good helper!" After receiving the photo, 'Isolated from the World' sent a satisfied emoji. "What should we do next? I'll contact you in a couple of days. Are you missing Yang Guo'er? Let me send you another photo."
I stared blankly at the computer screen for a moment, suddenly feeling an odd sensation wash over me. I couldn't pinpoint its source but felt uneasy all over, as if I had overlooked something very important.
After a while, a photo came through. It was still that room, but this time Guo'er was holding that book from Star City University and reading. From the photo, Guo'er looked much thinner.
I transferred the photo from my computer to my phone and lay on the sofa looking at Guo'er's picture before drifting off to sleep.
A couple of days later, Lingfeng called me. They had found the server for Human Game Website and were preparing to attack the database. Although I was not well-versed in computers, I couldn't help but ask, "It took so long just to find one server address; is your 'Unique Wonder of the Ages' just sitting around doing nothing?"
"Unique Wonder of the Ages" is a nickname I privately gave to Cui Gu Yi. Although the nickname is a bit long, it is quite vivid, and this is the consensus among the three of us.
"I don't understand this either; she just is who she is," Lingfeng said with a bitter smile, then asked, "Have you checked all the teachers' houses?"
I replied gloomily, "Yes, I've checked them all..."
After pondering for a moment, Lingfeng suddenly said, "Zheng Nan, is it possible that this book was designed by an advertising company hired by Star City University? Could it be that this advertising company kept a copy for themselves as a sample or something?"
Oh, that is indeed a possibility. Following Lingfeng's line of thought, I think the printing factory might be more likely. After all, for them, the costs of producing the prints and labor are already accounted for; as for the paper, the difference between printing five copies and six copies is just a bit of ink.
Thinking of this, I immediately took action. First, I called Kong Xuan to ask if he had Director Huang's phone number. Kong Xuan replied in surprise, "No. Why do you need that?"
"I need to discuss something with him. Since you don't know, I'll find another way." I hung up and pondered for a moment before taking a taxi directly to Star City University.
After asking several people, I finally found Director Huang's office. I knocked on the door, and a gentle voice came from inside: "Please come in!"
"Director Huang, hello! You should remember me," I said as I pushed the door open with a smile.
"I remember! What do you need?" Director Huang adjusted his glasses and looked at me suspiciously.
"I am Kong Xuan's disciple. The book my master helped you bless last time has encountered some issues." Knowing how to speak to different people is a basic survival skill in today's society, and I have quite an understanding of this.
"What kind of issue?" Director Huang immediately became anxious and stood up.
"Don't get excited, Director Huang. It's actually not a big problem. After helping you with the ritual last time, my master felt that something was off. Later we found out it was an ink issue. It's not a big deal; you just need to tell me which printing factory it was so I can get some ink to help my master find the source of the problem and perform another ritual to resolve everything." My expression was both serious and casual; such expressions often lead to suspicion.
"It’s the Four Color Printing Factory!" Director Huang breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this and sat down, then nervously asked, "There won't be any problems with the production, right? This is meant to secure the family legacy!"
"Absolutely no problem!" I thumped my chest confidently.
After leaving Director Huang's office, I took a deep breath. The first step was accomplished; next, I needed to find the master at the printing factory.
I dialed a hotline to ask for the phone number of the Four Color Printing Factory and made the call.
"Hello, is this Four Color Printing? I have a batch of booklets that need printing."
"Oh? How many do you need?" The voice on the other end was a woman, sounding weak and unenthusiastic. It was understandable; usually, large companies have designated printing factories, and only small jobs would call in for orders. A commission of a thousand yuan wouldn’t even cover a lunch box.
"Size 16 open, 60 pages, cover with 300-gram coated paper with special silver foil stamping, inner pages in four colors using 157-gram matte paper. Saddle-stitched, printing 100 copies. Please calculate the price for me; I'll call you back in ten minutes." After saying this, I hung up. With that string of technical terms thrown her way, I wasn’t worried she wouldn’t take the bait.
Sure enough, about five minutes later, my phone rang again. The woman sounded much more energetic: "May I ask your surname, sir?"
"No need for formality; just call me Zhong! Zhong as in the clock."
"Mr. Zhong, here’s the deal: if we don’t issue an invoice, the unit price is 15 yuan per copy. Ahem, that’s the external price; I’ll refund you a yuan later." The woman shamelessly mentioned the kickback.
"Alright, we can discuss that later," I replied casually. "I need to see your machines first; my boss cares a lot about print quality. Give me your address so I can head over."
The woman provided an address: "Mr. Zhong, you can just call me Liu. I’ll give you a call on your mobile when I’m ready; just call me when you arrive."
I smiled and agreed.
Half an hour later, I pretended to appear in the Printing Workshop, looking at the massive Heidelberg Printing Press and the workers busy at the machine, with the noisy sound of machinery running in my ears. I shouted, "Where's the master printer?"
Liu pointed to a middle-aged man operating the Stage and said, "This is Wang Min, Master Wang."
Walking up to the control panel, Master Wang was using a magnifying glass to inspect the halftone dots. When he saw us approaching, he didn't pay much attention and continued with his work.
After chatting casually for a bit, I said to Wang Min, "Master Wang, I'll be honest with you. Our Boss decided to come to you after seeing the book Star City University. He thought the printing quality was excellent. The previous printing factory we worked with had terrible quality; the text was all smudged."
Master Wang chuckled, "We use German machines here; quality is guaranteed."
"Right, that book was indeed well printed. I think it was five or six copies?" I said casually.
"I printed eight copies!" Master Wang laughed. "The cost is about the same for five or eight copies. What if something goes wrong during binding? Believe it or not, one did get damaged during binding, so we only ended up with seven finished copies. I delivered five copies and kept one for myself. Tsk tsk, I'm also a fan of Star City University; this fulfills a dream of mine!"
"What about the other one?" My heart started to race a bit.
"The other one? A buddy of mine took it. He's a police officer and apparently gave it to his superior, Captain Ling from the Public Security Team!" Master Wang laughed.
Captain Ling from the Public Security Team? Damn, isn't that Lingfeng?
Comment 0 Comment Count