As Luan Yuqing spoke, her gaze intentionally or unintentionally drifted toward a woman in a business suit who was following closely behind Zhou Zhengrui. She appeared to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old.
Sure enough, upon hearing Luan Yuqing's words, the woman's expression immediately changed slightly, and the look she gave Zhou Zhengrui also took on a different tone.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhengrui glanced back at the woman. Seeing her somewhat unnatural expression, his face darkened further. He let out a heavy snort and said, "Assistant Luan, I hope your Zhou Corporation's luck is as good as your smooth talk, otherwise... I don't think your Zhou Corporation can hold on for much longer, do you? According to my calculations, your company's working capital should be completely exhausted, right? If you don't auction off one or two properties, I'm afraid you won't even be able to pay your workers' salaries this month, will you?"
"Well...of course, if you can seize this opportunity today, there might be a chance for a comeback. It's just a pity...one of the major shareholders of our Yuntian Group has a long history of collaboration with Mita Corporation, and he himself has a good personal relationship with Mr. Mita. This time, he has already spoken to Mr. Mita, so...this time, Mita Corporation's partner can only be our Yuntian Group. As for your Zhou family, don't even think about it."
Upon hearing this, Luan Yuqing's expression changed once again, and the disappointment in her eyes was unmistakable.
Meanwhile, several other guests who overheard the conversation also wore the same expression, and some even began to angrily shout, "Honestly, if the two companies have a personal relationship, they can just discuss the cooperation privately. Why do they have to make such a big fuss and trick us all into coming here?"
"Exactly... Isn't this just playing us for fools? No wonder so many people are bidding, and Mr. Mita actually claimed that there would be a result in an hour. This... was obviously decided long ago, so of course we don't have to wait too long. Hmph... We have to question Mr. Mita later. We Chinese are not so easily fooled."
Just as things were in chaos and full of discussion, a clear voice suddenly rang out from the stage. It turned out that the emcee was announcing that the results of the bidding were in. Masao Mita was about to come out to toast the guests and read out the list of winners on the spot.
A moment of silence fell over the entire hall, and everyone craned their necks to look towards the stage...
Volume 2 The Killer's Nightmare, Chapter 372: Murdering His Wife
Under the spotlight, Masao Mita ascended the stage, holding a glass of red wine. As usual, he first exchanged a few polite words with the guests, then symbolically toasted everyone present. With a wave of his hand, a hostess dressed in a Japanese kimono walked up to the stage with a tray covered by a red cloth, taking small, delicate steps.
Masao Mita smiled as he lifted the red cloth from the island woman's tray, then took out a large red envelope. He pretended to show it to everyone before gently opening it.
"Now I announce—the winning bidder for this tender is..."
Masao Mita deliberately drew out a series of long syllables when he said this, and his accompanying translator followed suit, whetting the appetite of everyone in the audience. Then he loudly proclaimed, "The Zhou Group of Dangyang City!"
"Wow—" Everyone exclaimed in amazement at that moment.
If this had happened six months ago, no one would have been surprised that Mita Corporation would choose the Zhou Group as a partner, because at that time, the Zhou Group was one of the top companies in Dangyang, and in terms of strength, it was among the best in the entire province.
However, the Zhou Group is clearly on the verge of bankruptcy, so why would Mita Corporation suddenly choose to cooperate with the Zhou Group at this time?
Could it be that the so-called cooperation is just a smokescreen, and that Mita Corporation's real purpose is to swallow up the Zhou family? Otherwise, these business elites present all believe that their own strength, even if it can't compare to the currently booming Yuntian Group, is at least stronger than the Zhou family! So why did Mita Masao choose the half-dead Zhou family instead of someone else...?
When Zhou Zhengrui heard that it was actually the Zhou family that was announced on stage, his old face immediately turned even uglier than a monkey's butt. He had just made a boast here, and almost half of the audience had heard him say that the winning bid for this bidding conference would definitely be their Yuntian Group, but now... wasn't this just like slapping himself in the face?
What's going on? Didn't that person already speak to Mr. Mita? Given that person's relationship with Mr. Mita, how could such a small matter be impossible to handle? Since Mita Corporation wants to seek cooperation projects here, why not just approach the Zhou family?
Hearing this news, the three members of the Wang family were equally devastated, as if struck by lightning. They couldn't believe it... While facing bankruptcy, the Zhou family had seized this rare opportunity, boarding the Mita family's ship. Now, why worry about domestic distributors and retailers blocking their operations? Let those domestic businesses block them if they want! From now on, the Zhou family is poised to expand beyond China and conquer the world.
There's only one chance like this, and now that the Zhou family has already gotten this precious opportunity, there's naturally nothing left for Xinda Daily Chemicals to do.
If they miss this opportunity, Xinda Daily Chemicals may really have no choice but to go bankrupt.
However, Wang Guohui quickly thought that Zhou Ziwei, his son-in-law, was currently in charge of the Zhou family business. In Xinda Daily Chemicals, Zhou Ziwei also held 49% of the shares. It could be said that Zhou Ziwei was the largest shareholder of Xinda Daily Chemicals. So... was it possible for him to persuade Zhou Ziwei to simply merge Xinda Daily Chemicals into the Zhou Group?
In this way, although Xinda Daily Chemicals will immediately change its ownership to the Zhou family, and the status of the father and sons in Xinda Daily Chemicals will plummet, even so, it's still better than watching Xinda Daily Chemicals go bankrupt!
At this moment, Luan Yuqing felt as if she were dreaming. She never expected that such a good opportunity would actually fall into the hands of the Zhou Group like a pie falling from the sky.
Because Liu Xiaofei's proposed retail franchise chain store plan has officially begun to be implemented, the entire senior management of the Zhou Group is now extremely busy. Zhou Zixu even went to Shuangxing City, the provincial capital, to personally supervise the establishment of the retail franchise chain store. So when news suddenly came from Dangyang City today that Santian Co., Ltd. was seeking a business partner locally, Zhou Zixu didn't even have time to rush back.
Moreover, the Zhou family now has a clear goal to strive for. It's not that they don't want this opportunity to cooperate with the international conglomerate, but they won't place all their hopes on it like the Wang family did.
For the Zhou family, rather than pinning their hopes on a slim chance of cooperation, it would be better to develop their retail franchise stores in a down-to-earth manner. So after receiving the news, Zhou Zixu simply had Luan Yuqing discuss it with a few senior executives of the company and casually put together a letter of intent for cooperation. Then, Luan Yuqing represented the entire Zhou family at the bidding meeting.
Basically, Zhou's mentality was to kill two birds with one stone. The retail franchise store business was a double-edged sword, as it was their livelihood, so they couldn't stop it under any circumstances.
The cooperation opportunity for Mita Corporation is naturally a fat rabbit.
Ideally, they would catch the rabbit while gathering hay, but if the rabbit is too hard to catch, they would not give up gathering hay to chase after a rabbit that they might never catch.
However, Luan Yuqing never expected that after receiving Zhou Zixu's call, since she couldn't find the department head in charge of the company's external cooperation business, she had no choice but to find a cooperation intention letter online, make some minor modifications, and then print it out carelessly.
It's safe to say... the letter of intent that Luan Yuqing just submitted was a complete sham to fool the Japanese. She never imagined that this letter of intent she casually copied from the internet would actually win the bid... Oh my god... what should she do now? She vaguely remembered that the letter of intent she copied from the internet was about a cooperation agreement for the production and marketing of pig feed... God be my witness, she really didn't expect that such a piece of junk could win the bid...
This is truly unbelievable! How could Mr. Mita possibly be interested in this pig feed collaboration project?
What should we do next? Are we really going to start a pig feed project? But it seems that the Zhou Group doesn't have a feed company... Are we going to convert the pharmaceutical factory into a feed factory?
Luan Yuqing sat there with a blank expression until the emcee of the bidding meeting called out three times on stage, at which point she finally came to her senses.
Although she had no idea what to do next, now that she had secured the project, she had to accept it first, otherwise...
Having no other choice, Luan Yuqing could only force a half-dead smile, stand up, and walk onto the stage amidst the envious, jealous, or malicious gazes of countless people, representing the Zhou Group and Masao Mita in a very formal handshake.
Luan Yuqing didn't have a good impression of the Japanese, especially since when Masao Mita came on stage, his lecherous eyes kept scanning her more prominent parts, which made Luan Yuqing frown slightly.
Therefore, she tried to pull her hand back after they had only lightly shaken hands.
Unexpectedly, Masao Mita refused to let go, and she struggled twice but could not break free.
Luan Yuqing felt both ashamed and angry. Just as she was about to explode, she heard the emcee next to her tell her to turn her head forward and keep her pose. It turned out that she was posing for the reporters to take pictures...
Left with no other choice, Luan Yuqing had to suppress her disgust and hold her hand for a few seconds while the reporters took plenty of photos of her shaking hands with Mita Masao before he finally let go.
Masao Mita seemed to sense that the beautiful woman representing the Zhou Group was somewhat displeased with him, and he immediately felt uneasy.
Since Zhou Ziwei had greeted Mita Masao, he no longer concealed his true identity. Now, of course, Mita Masao knew that Zhou Ziwei was the chairman of the Zhou Group.
Since this beautiful woman in front of him could represent the Zhou Group to sign the agreement, she must be a very important figure in the Zhou Group. According to the Japanese habit... then if she is not a relative of Zhou Ziwei, she must be his lover with an ambiguous relationship.
Regardless of the type, this woman is not someone that Masao Mita can afford to offend. However, this guy is lustful by nature, and as soon as he saw Luan Yuqing's beautiful and alluring figure, he couldn't help but take a few more glances.
Now he seemed to regret it. After letting go, he quickly bowed slightly to Luan Yuqing and said in somewhat broken Chinese, "Dear Ms. Luan... I hope our cooperation will be very pleasant... Please wait a moment, and then we can further discuss the projects that require cooperation!"
Seeing that Masao Mita didn't seem to have the arrogance of a big conglomerate boss, and that his lecherous eyes weren't wandering over her, Luan Yuqing softened her expression a bit. She nodded slightly, exchanged a few casual polite words, and then walked off the stage alone, her head throbbing with worry about how to resolve the issues with the upcoming collaborative project.
Just when most people thought the bidding meeting was over and were about to leave, unexpectedly, Masao Mita on the stage waved his hand again, and another woman in a kimono walked onto the stage carrying a tray.
Well... someone else also got infected.
Seeing this setup, everyone stopped in their tracks, and their eyes regained their eagerness and passion. Although they had just suspected that Mita Corporation was setting a trap for local small businesses in Dangyang, such thoughts were mostly out of jealousy. Now that they saw there was still a chance, they had long forgotten the possibility that was simply impossible.
"Next, Mr. Mita will announce the second winning bid for this tender..." The emcee's voice finally reassured those who had been anxiously waiting that there was indeed a second lucky winner in this tender. So... would there be a third one? Everyone's anticipation grew even stronger.
Zhou Zhengrui, who had just lost face, breathed a slight sigh of relief, thinking that there was more than one person who had won the bid... Since there were so many opportunities, Mr. Mita would surely give that person some face, and it was only a matter of time before Yuntian Group won the bid.
Thinking of this, Mr. Zhou involuntarily straightened his back again.
Masao Mita unveiled the red cloth, picked up a large envelope, and glanced down with a smile. Then, while tearing open the envelope, he said in Japanese, "Now we will announce the second winning bidder of this tender, and also the last lucky winner, who is... Shinda Chemicals!"
This result once again surprised most people. Most of the people present had some knowledge of Xinda Daily Chemical's situation and knew that Xinda Daily Chemical had long been insolvent and that bankruptcy was only a matter of time.
Several of them are waiting for Xinda Daily Chemical to go bankrupt so they can take advantage of the opportunity to seize the land it occupies.
But who would have thought that after Zhou's family was lucky enough to be selected by Mita Corporation, the second winning bidder turned out to be another company on the verge of bankruptcy, which inevitably made those who did not win bids start to speculate.
Conspiracy... There must be a conspiracy here, haha... Zhou's and Xinda Chemicals are probably going to be swallowed up by the Japanese and left with nothing. Luckily, I wasn't the one who won the bid...
All the materials and equipment needed for the expedition have finally arrived, and the expedition team of twelve volunteers is about to venture into the mysterious cave in the snow-capped mountains.
After a fierce internal struggle, Zhou Ziwei's curiosity finally overcame his fear of the unknown dangers, and he decided to join the expedition team to enter the black hole and see what was inside that mysterious cave.
The main reason he was able to make this decision was that he felt that the shadow of death at the cave entrance, which could quickly take away a person's life, did not pose much of a threat to him.
If he could find and obtain that treasure that could absorb soul power on its own, then his trip would not have been in vain.
During these two days, he once again familiarized himself with the feeling of having his body completely controlled by the liquid soul power. He discovered that if he fully activated the power field space in that state, his flight speed would reach an abnormal speed close to the speed of light.
With this speed as his trump card, even if he encounters some insurmountable danger in that black hole, it shouldn't be difficult for him to escape unscathed.
What Zhou Ziwei didn't expect was that when he asked his superiors if he could enter the mysterious cave with the expedition team, he was unexpectedly met with strong opposition from the old commander.
It seems the old leader treats this superhuman with "X-ray vision" as a national treasure.
If it were any other capable military member who wanted to venture into the cave for exploration, the old commander would probably be overjoyed. But as for Zhou Ziwei… the old commander absolutely did not want Zhou Ziwei to suffer any harm. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have inexplicably granted Zhou Ziwei a “get-out-of-jail-free card” in the first place.
However, Zhou Ziwei was not someone who was easily bound by others. He submitted an application according to the rules, which was only to give those military bigwigs some face.
Anyway, he wasn't a real soldier, and he didn't have the habit of following orders in everything. So after hearing his old commander's resolute command on the phone, he just said "Oh" softly, and then said, "Alright... don't worry so much, I'll be careful in everything, don't worry... I won't die... If you agree, I'll go in with the expedition team tomorrow. If you strongly object... then I'll go in by myself first!"
The old commander was both amused and exasperated by Zhou Ziwei's words. However, he knew that his high status in the eyes of ordinary people did not seem to have much deterrent effect on Zhou Ziwei. Helpless, he could only let Zhou Ziwei act recklessly. However, he repeatedly told Zhou Ziwei to enter with the expedition team the next day. It would be better to have more people to help each other.
In addition, he will immediately send a complete set of exploration equipment over by special plane.
Zhou Ziwei's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing this. The main reason he insisted on applying through the military was indeed for that set of equipment.
That was a set of individual soldier equipment specially designed and manufactured by the military for this expedition, with each set costing millions of dollars to produce.
Moreover, this kind of equipment is currently classified as an A-level secret, so no matter how much money you have, you can't buy it anywhere. If you can trick someone into giving you a set, you'll make a fortune.
However, not long after the old commander hung up the phone and instructed the logistics headquarters to send another set of exploration and combat equipment to Zhou Ziwei, he received another call from Zhou Ziwei. The kid actually wanted the old commander to send him another set of equipment, because his wife wanted to go with him to explore the mysterious black hole.
The old commander was furious when he heard this. He also had information on Wang Xuewei. She was an ordinary woman, except for her appearance, of course.
But what good is being pretty? With her physical condition, entering the mysterious cave would be no different from sending herself to her death.
The old leader even suspected that Zhou Ziwei might have found a new lover and was using this opportunity to murder his wife.
Volume 2, The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 373: Super Equipment
Did Zhou Ziwei want to murder his wife?
That was of course impossible. In fact, he knew that sending Wang Xuewei with him into the cave for an exploration would be a near-death experience.
But he didn't know what had gotten into Wang Xuewei today, that she was so determined to go with him.
Just as Zhou Ziwei was calling his old superior, she was holding a fruit knife to her own neck, saying that Zhou Ziwei hadn't divorced her yet, and she didn't want to become a widow in such a muddled way, so... if Zhou Ziwei refused to take her with him, she would just die first.
Originally, Zhou Ziwei had been keeping this matter from Wang Xuewei. After all, the secret about that cave was a top state secret. Although Zhou Ziwei, as a lieutenant colonel and section chief, was somewhat unworthy of the title, he still had to abide by the confidentiality regulations.
He was also afraid that if Wang Xuewei knew about the dangers of entering the cave, she would worry about him, so he didn't mention it to her too much. He just said that he had a mission and would be going to the snowy mountain with the twelve expedition team members for a few days.
But who knew that Wang Xuewei, having nothing to do these past few days, actually developed a small friendship with two female members of the expedition team. Perhaps because they were about to face a perilous situation with a high chance of survival, the two female members revealed some of the dangers of the mission to Wang Xuewei during their casual conversation. They even said that if they did not return alive, they would ask Wang Xuewei to take care of their families.
In this way, although Wang Xuewei still didn't know much about the secrets of the cave, she at least had a good understanding of the dangers of this trip, which led to the current situation.
Zhou Ziwei was having a terrible headache from being tormented by the two of them. Wang Xuewei held a knife to his neck and threatened to kill herself, insisting that he live and die with her.
However, the old commander suspected him of plotting to murder his wife and refused to allow Wang Xuewei into the cave, arguing that Wang Xuewei was not a member of the military.
Zhou Ziwei had no choice but to say, "I think you're just worried about that set of equipment, old man. Fine... if you really don't want to give it to me, then forget it. I'll just give my set to my wife. Sigh... what a miserable life... I was hoping to get a set of equipment to look cool, but now it's all ruined."
After saying this, Zhou Ziwei hung up the phone, then turned around and carefully took the fruit knife from Wang Xuewei's hand. Seeing that there was a faint bloodstain on Wang Xuewei's fair neck, which was as white as egg white, he couldn't help but feel heartbroken. He smiled bitterly and said, "Why did you do this? I already said... I was willing to go there because I was confident that I could get out unscathed, so why did you have to come along and cause trouble?"
No matter what Zhou Ziwei said, Wang Xuewei just lowered her head and refused to say why she insisted on going with Zhou Ziwei.
In fact, even Wang Xuewei herself was not quite sure why she did this. Perhaps it was because this might be the last time she would spend with Zhou Ziwei!