Chang Li was pretty much going all out. He'd already offended Liu Xinghan, and what would happen to her in the future was beyond the control of a mere special forces captain like himself. So why should he be polite to this woman anymore? He was genuinely worried that once things got busy here, this shrew might actually cause trouble, which would be a real problem.
"Captain, this...you can't be serious, right!" Wang Peng and Gu Bin were dumbfounded when they heard this. They vaguely knew some of Liu Xinghan's background and knew that this woman was not someone they, as lowly soldiers, could afford to offend. If Chang Li really went this far today, he would have completely offended this woman, and there would be no room for reconciliation in the future.
"Execute immediately, that's an order!" Chang Li was in a very bad mood at this moment, and he almost shouted the words.
"Yes, Captain!" Since it was an order, Wang Peng and Gu Bin naturally did not hesitate any longer. Regardless of Liu Xinghan's cursing, they immediately rushed forward, each grabbing one of Liu Xinghan's arms and quickly tying her up. Finally, without waiting for Chang Li to remind them, they found a wad of cloth and gagged her.
People say three women are like a flock of ducks, but it seems Liu Xinghan alone is worth several flocks of ducks... This girl is making such a racket... It's lucky we're in a cave; if we were outside, she might have caused an avalanche.
Finally, with no one making a fuss, Chang Li arranged for someone else to take the photos. Seeing that everyone was in position, Zhou Ziwei didn't delay any longer. He immediately grabbed the rope end with one hand and the foreigner's belt with the other, and with a slight effort, lifted the two men, who weighed over two hundred pounds, up. He then swayed them slightly in mid-air and whispered, "Go—"
As the low shout rang out, Zhou Ziwei abruptly released his grip on the foreigner's waist. With a "whoosh," the foreigner's muscular body was hurled like a cannonball, instantly traversing the more than ten-meter-wide hot spring pool before landing precisely at the entrance of a cave two meters above the water on the opposite side, where he slammed to the ground with a "plop"...
The entire cave fell silent, with only the faint sound of people gasping for breath.
Because four flashlights were shining on the area at the same time, most people present could see everything clearly from the moment Zhou Ziwei made his move until the very end.
In fact, there were many people who shared the same thought as Liu Xinghan, and none of them believed that Zhou Ziwei really had that much strength to throw a person weighing over 200 pounds that far.
But facts are facts. Even if they are unbelievable, the facts are right in front of them, and they have no choice but to believe them.
Volume Two: The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 367: Three Days Have Passed
Is this considered conducting live experiments? When Zhou Ziwei clearly felt the soul of the foreigner thrown at the cave entrance rapidly withering away until it finally disappeared, he felt like he was part of the Japanese Unit 731.
Using living people for experiments is truly inhumane, but Zhou Ziwei doesn't regret it. After all, someone has to do the experiment. If this foreigner isn't used, he'll have to watch his special forces soldiers die one by one.
Anyway, that foreigner wasn't a good person either. He had previously planned to wipe out everyone here. Now, the tables have turned, and it can be considered a kind of retribution from God!
In less than ten seconds, the foreigner's last bit of soul power was completely drained. This made Zhou Ziwei's heart skip a beat. From this speed, it can be seen that the rate at which a person's soul power is lost under that mysterious power is constant. This means that... the two survivors back then may not have had much stronger soul power than others, but it is very likely that they were much faster than their companions.
If a person's soul power is drained in ten seconds, wouldn't someone who can quickly pass through that dangerous area in seven or eight seconds be able to save their life?
If we calculate it this way, there shouldn't be only one or two people who could successfully pass through that area. After all, nobody is stupid, and this shouldn't be the first time Zhou Ziwei has discovered this situation.
If that's the case, then there might be some other dangers lurking in that mysterious cave.
Zhou Ziwei took a deep breath, and with a sudden jerk of his arm holding the rope, the foreigner, whose head had been drooping, was pulled back by Zhou Ziwei with the strength of one arm, just like a dead dog.
Zhou Ziwei deliberately avoided touching the foreigner's corpse, but instead used a clever trick to fling the dead dog directly in front of Chang Li.
Seeing this, Chang Li quickly stretched out his hands, squatted down in a horse stance, and forcefully caught the foreigner.
After the foreigner crashed into his arms, he was surprised to find that the foreigner, who had been pulled back by Zhou Ziwei with a single arm, seemed to have a terrifying presence, but the force of the impact was not as terrible as he had imagined. All his strength had been wasted.
It seems that Zhou Ziwei's tug had some kind of magic, as it was able to deflect the foreigner's own inertial impact force.
Gently setting the foreigner down, Chang Li realized something was wrong with him. He reached out and touched the foreigner's mouth and nose, then checked his heartbeat and pulse. He exclaimed in shock, "He's dead... he... he's really dead."
Zhou Ziwei nodded slightly and said, "I think you should be able to finish your task with this video, right? As for how to explore this strange cave, that's someone else's business. The expedition team seems to be waiting at the outpost down the mountain! Hehe... Now you just need to guard this cave and make sure that no one discovers or damages it."
Chang Li nodded gratefully to Zhou Ziwei and said, "Thank you so much for your help, Director Zhou. If it weren't for you, not only would we not have been able to find this place even if we searched for a year, but we would probably have died at the hands of those two foreigners and those two traitors. Thank you, Director Zhou!"
Zhou Ziwei smiled and exchanged a few polite words, then turned to look at the dark, mysterious cave entrance, a faint longing rising in his heart.
Should he go in and explore first? If the danger at the mysterious cave entrance was only the absorption of soul power, then it wouldn't be a problem at all. But if there were other dangers inside, then…
Zhou Ziwei shook his head slightly. He realized that he was becoming more and more timid. Logically speaking, since two ordinary people had managed to come out alive before, he should not be in too much danger here, given his strength.
For some reason, when looking at the cave entrance, Zhou Ziwei always felt a sense of unease, which made him feel an indelible fear of the deep cave.
Forget it, let's wait and see! Anyway, I've already memorized the location of this mysterious cave, and I can go in whenever I want. Even if there are a few people guarding it, it won't be a problem for me, who is proficient in Japanese ninjutsu.
As for that small team that's always ready to go on an expedition...
Zhou Ziwei shook his head inwardly. He was almost certain that, given the skill level of those people, it was unlikely that anyone would survive.
Sigh... those people were all exceptional talents in their respective fields. If they all perished here while exploring some ghostly cave with questionable usefulness, it would be a significant loss for the country...
Having resolved this matter, Zhou Ziwei had essentially completed the task entrusted to him by his old commander. Now he could simply pack his bags and leave this damned snow-covered mountain.
However, because he was still tempted by the mysterious cave, Zhou Ziwei was not in a hurry to leave Kashmula Mountain. But these past two days, without having to go up the mountain to endure the cold, Zhou Ziwei began to use his private plane to take Wang Xuewei on a real tour of the endless Kunlun Mountains every day.
The report on this operation has been carefully prepared and submitted by Chang Li, along with the video of foreigners being subjected to live experiments filmed at the entrance of the mysterious cave.
The report was transmitted directly to Beijing via a dedicated satellite line, after which they remained on standby, awaiting further orders from above.
After that, all the special forces soldiers were divided into two shifts, taking turns guarding the entrance and exit of the mysterious cave, and not allowing anyone to appear nearby.
The team, which originally consisted of fifteen people, suddenly lost three members. Two of them were traitors who colluded with foreigners, and the other was Liu Xinghan, the young lady who had repeatedly clashed with Zhou Ziwei.
In fact, Chang Li was well aware that trouble would inevitably come to him soon after Miss Liu returned, but he didn't care. Anyway, he was not young anymore, so even if he was sent back to his hometown, it wouldn't matter. At worst, he would just have to take off his military uniform.
He was somewhat worried for Zhou Ziwei. Miss Liu was known for her petty temper, and now she had been slapped twice by Zhou Ziwei in front of so many people. Given Liu Xinghan's personality, she probably wished she could just kill Zhou Ziwei to feel satisfied.
However, Chang Li thought that Zhou Ziwei was so young that he could become a deputy director, so he must be a princeling with a very powerful background. In addition, with Zhou Ziwei's mysterious and unpredictable abilities, he probably wouldn't be too worried about Liu Xinghan's revenge.
After continuous expansion, Yuntian Group has basically monopolized the sales channels for various health products and daily chemical products in Dangyang City and all surrounding cities. All distributors and retailers have signed an agreement with Yuntian Group, which contains a strange provision that prohibits them from engaging in any form of agency or sales activities with other manufacturers in Dangyang City that produce similar products.
Besides this, the various conditions offered by Yuntian Group are extremely tempting to distributors and retailers.
After all this turmoil, the Zhou Group and the Wang family's Xinda Daily Chemicals were completely isolated. The products in the warehouse were piling up, but not a single sales agency agreement had been signed. The Zhou Group was in a better position, as it still had a large sum of money left by Zhou Ziwei a few days ago to support it. However, Xinda Daily Chemicals had to stop production because it had no money to buy new raw materials and its warehouses had no room to store finished products.
The Wang family members sat motionless in the meeting room, exchanging bewildered glances. After a long while, Wang Guohui coughed lightly and asked his eldest son, "Have you contacted the Zhou family? What was their response?"
Wang Guohui's eldest son gave a soft snort and said, "They only said that Zhou Ziwei took my little sister to Switzerland to see the snow. He said before she left that someone would come to our door to seek cooperation in three days. As for the specifics, they didn't say anything... My little sister seemed to have said something similar before, but I think our brother-in-law might have run away with the money. Otherwise, these three days would have passed long ago, so why hasn't the Zhou Group made a move at all?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Guohui gently shook his head and said, "Impossible... What money could Zhou's Group possibly have that he could abscond with? Unless he mortgages all his real estate to the bank, he could only get a few hundred million in loans. But... such a big operation, we couldn't possibly not have heard a word about it, could we?"
“Sigh…the workers’ wages haven’t been paid this month, and just now a few worker representatives came to make a scene. Dad, what do you think we should do? Should we put out some money first and give each worker a minimum living allowance? Otherwise, if all the workers in the factory start making a scene, then I’m afraid…” Wang Guohui’s eldest daughter said helplessly.
She's in charge of production management at the company, so if these workers want to cause trouble, they'll naturally come to her first. They've been driving her crazy these past few days.
“Loaning money…where else can we go to dump money?” Wang Guohui said dejectedly. “It’s all because of that guy Zhou Ziwei. Once we were fooled, the chairman of the Zhou family started making some big moves, kicking out all the shareholders except for the brothers. He offended so many people. What good will that do him?”
Now look what's happened... Not only is the Zhou family being suppressed by the Yuntian Group to the point of being unable to raise their heads, but even our Xinda Daily Chemicals is suffering collateral damage... Hmph... Xuewei is so disobedient. Before, I always heard her complaining that she wasn't happy with Zhou Ziwei, but now she refuses to divorce that man... I really don't know what this girl is thinking. Is she deliberately going against her father...? Isn't she?"
Wang Guohui's eldest son gently stroked his chin and said in a deep voice, "How about... we spread the word here that my sister has already divorced that brat Zhou Ziwei? That way... Yuntian Group shouldn't blockade our Xinda Daily Chemicals anymore! As for how to resolve this matter later... I guess when my younger sister comes back and hears all the rumors going around, she probably won't have the face to stay with that Zhou guy anymore!"
Wang Guohui hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, then gritted his teeth and said, "Alright! It seems we have no other choice now, so let's do as you say! We must spread this news throughout Dangyang as soon as possible within the next day or two, so that Xuewei will have no way to turn back after she returns."
Inside the largest three-star hotel in Dangyang City, Mita Risa knelt on the carpet, hugging her knees. Bored, she flipped through various cable TV channels with the remote control, but after a while, she couldn't find a single program that interested her. Frustrated, she threw the remote control aside and asked a tall, middle-aged man standing at the door, "Seventh Uncle, is there still no news about Zhou Ziwei?"
“Yes, Miss…” The middle-aged man bowed slightly before replying, “Our people have preliminarily determined that after Mr. Zhou left Dangyang, he made a high-profile appearance in Beijing with his wife, and even had a conflict with Hong Er Shao, one of the four famous young masters in Beijing. Then, Hong Er Shao was inexplicably shot dead by one of his bodyguards when he returned home. Many people suspect that this matter is related to Mr. Zhou… Afterwards, General Hong, the head of the Hong family, was furious and sent a large number of people to kidnap Mr. Zhou and Mrs. Zhou… However, on the way, they encountered several armed helicopters, who rescued Mr. Zhou and Mrs. Zhou, and since then… their whereabouts are unknown!”
Upon hearing this, Risa Mita gently rubbed her fair, snow-white cheeks, a faint smile slowly curving her lips. A hint of hidden embarrassment and anger flickered in her eyes. She gave a soft hum and said, "Seventh Uncle... do you think... could Zhou Ziwei... could he have been secretly killed by the military...? Hmph... with that awful temper, probably no one would like him! Maybe he offended more than one big shot in Beijing. If that's the case... hehe... otherwise, how could such a grown man just disappear into thin air?"
The middle-aged man, addressed as Uncle Seven, trembled slightly, a barely concealed fear flickering in his eyes. He then gently shook his head and said, "Miss, Mr. Zhou... it's best if we don't discuss Mr. Zhou's affairs too much! Otherwise, if your disrespectful words to him reach his ears, I'm afraid..."
"What's there to be afraid of? What can he do to me again?" Mita Risa said, subconsciously touching her sexy and alluring buttocks, a hint of shame and anger in her eyes.
Seeing Risa Mita making such a seductive move in front of him, Uncle Seven's eyes widened slightly, and he swallowed hard before finally managing to look away and whisper, "Miss... about what Mr. Zhou asked us to do..."
“Let’s wait for now!” Risa Mita waved her hand lightly and said, “Since he refuses to show himself or even send a message, why should we do anything that would be a loss for us? Hmph… Anyway, our people are already here. If things are delayed, it’s his fault, and it has nothing to do with us… Hehe… I’ve heard that the Zhou Group and Xinda Daily Chemicals are in serious trouble. Hmph… We don’t need to do anything to harm those two companies. We just need to stall as much as possible… Maybe if we stall for ten days or half a month, those two companies will go bankrupt… Hahaha…”
“Miss… this… if such a thing really happens, I’m afraid…” Uncle Qi had witnessed Zhou Ziwei’s terrifying power firsthand. Hearing that Mita Risa actually wanted to use such a method to retaliate against Zhou Ziwei, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He shook his head slightly and said, “I’m afraid that if Mr. Zhou returns safely after a while and finds that these two companies no longer exist, then… he will definitely unleash all his anger on our Mita family. Then we…”
A slight look of fear appeared on Mita Risa's face, but she gritted her teeth and said, "I don't care... Anyway, we didn't do anything wrong. I've been staying in this lousy little city just to confirm him one last time... Hmm... There seems to be a Xinda Daily Chemical Company and a Xinda Chemical Company in Dangyang... Hehe... I forgot which company he was talking about, so I couldn't carry out the things he arranged, and I had no choice but to wait for him here... And who told him not to come back, not even to make a phone call... Hmph... If he drags those two companies down, that's his fault, what does it have to do with me?"
Uncle Qi paused slightly upon hearing this, then sighed softly. He knew that Mita Risa harbored extreme hatred for Zhou Ziwei, and getting her to wholeheartedly serve him wouldn't be easy. It seemed that the family head's decision to send Mita Risa to handle this matter was a fatal mistake... Should he speak to the family head? Otherwise, if they really angered that scoundrel, the consequences might be beyond what the Mita family could bear.
Volume Two: The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 368: New Product Marketing
A few people sat in the Zhou Group's conference room, looking at each other in silence for a long time.
Normally, the Zhou Group's highest-level conference room would gather at least a dozen people when important decisions were made, but now only Zhou Zixu, Luan Yuqing, the general manager of the health products company, and the director and deputy director of the group's business development department were present.
The current situation of Zhou Group's newly developed product, Life Spring Health Sports Drink, is similar to that of Xinda Daily Chemical. Recently, they have been working overtime to produce it, and the finished products have filled several large warehouses in the company. They have even borrowed half of the warehouse of a pharmaceutical factory under Zhou Group, which is also almost full.
Up to this point, the company had not sold a single bottle of its products.
Although the unique fragrance of this Fountain of Life and its amazing ability to quickly refresh the mind fill everyone who tries it with confidence in this new product, even the best product cannot gain recognition until it can be sold.
Suppressed by Yuntian Group in various ways, Zhou's Group's already paralyzed sales network has completely collapsed. In addition, the sensational accident involving Zhou's health products some time ago has made even distributors unaffected by Yuntian Group avoid them like the plague. No matter how generous the conditions offered by Zhou's Group are, even if Zhou Zixu simply offers free distribution or promises high listing fees, not a single distributor or retailer has any interest in Zhou's Group's health products.
It's not entirely their fault, really. After the incident with the aphrodisiac supplement produced by Zhou's last company, many retailers were also involved in numerous lawsuits, and some even had to pay compensation.
And that incident happened less than two months ago. The wounds from the last time haven't even healed yet. With the previous example still fresh in everyone's minds, who would be willing to take the risk again?
When Zhou Ziwei returned last time, he claimed that he could solve the problem and that major distributors would naturally come to him for cooperation after three days.
The company's senior employees didn't know much about this elusive chairman. They only knew that this young master Zhou was the most notorious spendthrift, womanizer, and gambling addict in Dangyang. However, they recently learned that the amazing formula for the Fountain of Life was actually developed by this spendthrift. This made them wonder whether the chairman was a good-for-nothing or a genius, so they didn't know whether to believe Zhou Ziwei's words.
Zhou Zixu was skeptical of Zhou Ziwei's words, but out of respect for his elder brother, he always strictly followed Zhou Ziwei's decisions without any compromise.
However, the three days that Zhou Ziwei had mentioned earlier had passed, and no distributors had come to him on their own initiative, which made Zhou Zixu doubt Zhou Ziwei's words again.
Since three days had passed and Zhou Ziwei was not in Dangyang and could not be reached by phone, Zhou Zixu had no choice but to convene this meeting to discuss how to expand the sales channels for the product.
However, given the current predicament, everyone knows that this is not an easy task. Zhou's has already made the biggest concessions and offered the most favorable conditions to various distributors and retailers, but still no one is willing to cooperate with Zhou's, which makes it difficult for them to come up with any better solutions for the time being.
Zhou Zixu sat in the main seat and waited for a long time. He saw that the head and deputy head of the business development department, as well as the general manager of the health product company, were all deep in thought, but no one said a word for a long time. Zhou Zixu was furious, but he couldn't say anything.
In fact, he understood that the two managers in the business development department were not capable of holding the positions. It was just that a few days ago, the original head and deputy head of the business development department had been poached by Yuntian Group with high salaries.
Left with no other choice, Zhou Zixu had to temporarily promote these two, but now it seems... his judgment was quite questionable...
The general manager of the health product company did say a few words, but it only made Zhou Zixu feel more like punching someone, because the guy kept talking about how to advertise and how to promote.
One minute he's talking about getting Feng Xiaogang to shoot an ad, the next he's talking about getting Gillian Chung to be his brand ambassador. When he mentioned getting Gillian to shoot the ad, he unconsciously revealed a lecherous look, his desire to sexually harass the female celebrity practically written all over his face. He even talked about some details of the ad shoot... such as how much clothing she should wear, or whether she should be fully clothed or just casually dressed... and his idea of having Gillian dress up as a cavewoman by sticking a few leaves on her clothes.
However, after Zhou Zixu forced himself to listen to the general manager's words and asked him if he had anything to add, the general manager shook his head and only said that he had Gillian Chung's agent's contact information and that if the company adopted his suggestion, he could contact Gillian Chung at any time to discuss the matter.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Zixu almost smashed the teacup he was holding onto the guy's balding head. Anyone could see through his filthy intentions. But this guy should take a look in the mirror and see what he looks like! Does he think he's Edison Chen? Everyone wants to sexually harass a star like Gillian Chung, so why would she allow that for a mere advertising endorsement? Besides… even if she did allow it, it wouldn't be your place as the branch manager, would it?
However, these were not the main points that Zhou Zixu wanted to focus on. The main point they were discussing was how to get the company's stockpiled products out of the warehouse and into the terminal sales channels in various regions.
Currently, no distributors or retailers are willing to sell Zhou's products, so Life Spring health sports drink cannot enter the shelves of major shopping malls and supermarkets.
In this situation, what use would it be if the Zhou Group spent a billion yuan on advertising and promotion? Even if the whole country knew about the existence of the Fountain of Life, but no one could buy it, wouldn't the product still not sell a single bottle? Wouldn't all the advertising money be wasted?
Zhou Zixu suppressed his anger, coughed lightly, and said, "Does anyone else have any other ideas?"
Upon hearing Zhou Zixu's question, the two newly appointed heads of the business development department were eager to make a good impression on the second boss, but unfortunately, they couldn't come up with any constructive ideas. They could only shake their heads helplessly, their faces turning red with frustration.
Zhou Ziwei sighed softly, and was about to adjourn the meeting when Luan Yuqing suddenly spoke up, "I do have a suggestion... oh, but it's not my idea, it's Liu Xiaofei's... Last night when we were chatting, she casually offered some advice to our company. However, she didn't want me to tell you, saying that she believed the chairman said he could handle this, so it definitely wouldn't be a problem. Even though three days have passed, it might just be due to some delay. If we wait a couple more days, she believes the current predicament will be over immediately. Therefore, she said her suggestions wouldn't be very useful, and her ideas would require a larger investment, so she believed they wouldn't be as effective as the chairman's solution."
Zhou Zixu knew who Liu Xiaofei was, of course, but he was quite disapproving of his older brother's new "girlfriend" who had suddenly been brought home. He felt that his older brother already had a sister-in-law, Wang Xuewei, and shouldn't be flirting with other women outside. Moreover, even if he had, he shouldn't have brought her home so openly.
Moreover, he had heard that this man's new girlfriend used to be a police officer in the south. How could a police officer understand economic matters? Therefore, when Zhou Zixu heard that the suggestion was made by Liu Xiaofei, his interest naturally waned.