Take now, for example. No matter how well Yu Xiang was doing, one imperial edict from the old man and his position as general manager was gone in an instant, without any room for argument.
Yu Xiang paused for a moment, then thought for a while and said unconvinced, "Dad, little sister, I'm more worried about her experience..."
Yu Changhe waved his hand and said calmly, "Don't think you're the best in the world. Your sister is a graduate of a prestigious university, and she also worked in management at a company in England for the past two years with impressive results. I believe she can manage well. Moreover, our company's management direction needs to change immediately and requires sweeping reforms, otherwise, our Yu family will be ruined because of you."
Yu Changhe's extremely stern expression made Yu Xiang dare not say anything more. If he said anything more, would he be stripped of even the last bit of his foundation?
In reality, Yu Changhe truly intended to do just that, hoping to use his connections to get Yu Xiang abroad to temporarily avoid the limelight. This time, the higher-ups' actions were not just empty words, but genuine. If it weren't for his own strong connections within the province, which allowed him to get some early warnings, it would have been too late to reverse the situation once it came to a head. Indeed, it was due to his own negligence that the situation escalated.
The second son, Yuxiang, is clever but lacks composure. He only focuses on results and ignores methods. To paraphrase an old leader, "It doesn't matter if it's a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat." This second son, Yuxiang, doesn't care what methods he uses as long as he can make money. If he doesn't prepare in advance for the things he does in private, he won't be able to protect himself when the rectification campaign comes down, and it will also bring disaster to the entire family.
Although the youngest daughter has less experience, she is currently the person Yu Changhe trusts the most. Yu Qi is also quite capable. Through conversations with her over this period of time, I also admire her plan, which is to take a clean break and completely sever Yu Xiang's business dealings and private relationships, and rectify the company in the shortest possible time. That way, even if they investigate, they won't easily find anything.
Yu Changhe had his own ideas. The Yu family expanded rapidly and did not pay much attention to their plans. They had conquered the country, but it would not be easy to maintain it. Everyone knows that conquering a country is difficult, but maintaining it is even more difficult. Look at those gangs abroad. If they want to go further and stand more firmly, they have to completely break away from their old ways of doing things. They must transform and invest in legitimate businesses to clean up their image.
The Yu family now needs to launder their family business as much as possible, and the first to bear the brunt is the second son, Yu Xiang.
Yu Xiang thought it was because of his brother-in-law Zhao Chengguang. He couldn't understand why the old man had dragged him into this mess. In the past, the old man had clearly favored him and Yu Rui, and kept his distance from Zhao Chengguang. Logically speaking, Yu Qi shouldn't have done what happened today; she didn't have that ability on her own.
When Yuxiang realized that things were beyond repair, he harbored intense hatred for Zhao Chengguang and vowed through gritted teeth to make Zhao Chengguang suffer as well.
While Zhou Xuan was investigating upstairs, he never expected that such a big thing would happen to the Yu family in such a short time. Yu Xiang was riding high, but suddenly he fell from heaven to hell. He really didn't expect it.
After detecting these things, Zhou Xuan immediately withdrew his superpower, then got up, dried himself off, wrapped himself in a towel, and returned to his room. He lay down on the bed, first practicing his skills for a while, then exploring the secrets of his superpower and testing its other functions. He figured his superpower must have other abilities, but he just didn't know them yet. However, after testing for a while, he didn't find anything. He started missing Yingying and his family again, and couldn't fall asleep for a while. He naturally reached out to the bedside, wanting to grab a book to read. Whenever he couldn't sleep, he could fall asleep quickly as long as he read a book.
However, when he reached out to touch it, he found nothing, realizing that this was not his own home, but the Yu family's villa.
He sighed, then reached over to the bedside and turned off the light switch. The room immediately went dark. There was no moonlight outside the window, but some faint starlight shone through the curtains, creating a hazy glow.
I don't know if it was because of the choice of accommodation or some other reason, or perhaps this place was too high-end, but it wasn't as comfortable as the narrow steel bed on the ship. I tossed and turned in bed for most of the night and couldn't fall asleep until almost dawn.
I slept soundly until noon the next day. When I woke up, I picked up my phone and saw seven missed calls. Upon checking, I found they were all from Fugui.
Come to think of it, he only ever called Fu Gui with this new number, and only Fu Gui knew about it. It's impossible for anyone else to know it. Looking at his call log, it went from 9:00 AM to 12:40 PM, basically two calls per hour. Because Zhou Xuan had put his phone on silent while he was sleeping, he didn't receive any of these calls.
After thinking it over, Zhou Xuan called Fu Gui back. Although he didn't like going to those places with him, Fu Gui was being very kind, so he invited him to have a meal together. He could just decline any of the other places.
As soon as the call connected, Fu Gui's urgent voice came through:
"Brother, what are you doing? You're not answering your phone, I'm so worried. I was planning to call you out this morning to have some fun, but Uncle Yu just called and said he's setting sail at 1 a.m. tonight and asked me to let you know. I was just about to come over here, so just answer the phone. I'm not coming over. Get ready and call me at 10 p.m. We'll meet on the ship at 10 p.m."
Zhou Xuan felt reassured. As long as he wasn't involved in any fighting between men and women, there was nothing to worry about. Going to sea was a good thing, but during the time he had been back, he missed the time on the ship. Although it was monotonous, he felt a sense of anticipation. It was as if being on the ship was like sitting on a long-distance bus that would never reach its destination; there was only the waiting on the bus, without the worry of where to go after getting off.
Downstairs at the Yu family home, neither Yu Xiang nor Yu Qi, nor Yu Changhe, were home; only the old man, the old woman, and the nanny were there.
Zhou Xuan washed his face and brushed his teeth, then went to a snack shop in the village and ate something to fill his stomach. After that, he checked the time and saw that it was only two o'clock. It was too early to wait until ten o'clock at night, so he wandered around the village streets and visited supermarkets and stores. Although he didn't buy anything, he enjoyed the stroll because he was all alone and it was difficult to run into any acquaintances here.
Around six o'clock, as it was getting dark, I ate at KFC in the supermarket again: a sturgeon burger, fries, and a Coke. After eating, I slowly returned to the village.
It was completely dark. The Yu family's villa was several hundred meters away from the bustling part of the village. Green trees and flowers separated it from the houses in the village. The village was very lively, but when you got to the Yu family's villa, the area became extremely quiet. There was only the Yu family's villa here, and it was quiet and peaceful. No one else came.
After Zhou Xuan strolled back, he walked slowly in the shade of the trees. It was only seven o'clock, and it would be another three hours before it was time to board the ship. There was nothing else to do when he got back to his lodgings, so he might as well sit here for a while. The air in the woods was good, and there were stone benches, stone tables and other man-made facilities everywhere. He immediately sat down on a stone bench next to him.
Above the tree-lined canopy, a few wisps of pale white clouds drifted slowly across the sky.
Zhou Xuan looked up at the clouds in the sky and saw a bat suddenly fly by. At the ability detection point, the bat had just caught a moth and swallowed it.
It's a pity that no matter how powerful my superpower is, I don't have the ability to fly. If I could have wings like a bird, I could fly back and secretly see Yingying. Although I don't want to make her sad or troubled, I really miss her too much. Even though we are so far apart, my longing for her has not diminished in the slightest. I wonder if Yingying has returned to America or is in Beijing.
Zhou Xuan's superpower naturally spread out to probe. In the past few days, in order to make himself feel better because of missing Fu Ying and his family, he practiced his superpower even more diligently. Now, his superpower seems to be a little stronger than before. The detection distance, even when spread out in 360 degrees, exceeds 50 meters and is close to 60 meters.
In the shade of the trees, Zhou Xuan suddenly spotted a black Honda sedan parked in the middle, with three men hiding behind the trees, using the branches and leaves to conceal themselves.
Zhou Xuan was taken aback. The three men's actions were rather strange and not normal. If they were just taking a stroll, there was no one else in the shady area, so why were they acting so furtively?
Just as Zhou Xuan was in a daze, he suddenly sensed Yu Qi slowly walking back from outside the grove, carrying a bag. Then he heard one of the men in the grove whisper, "She's back. Be careful. Make your move when she gets into the woods. Be quick."
Zhou Xuan was stunned. These three men wanted to deal with Yu Qi? What was their reason? Were they Yu Qi's enemies or were they kidnapping her for ransom?
Zhou Xuan was momentarily confused about the situation and didn't know why these people were targeting her. She immediately bent down and quietly crept closer. Because her supernatural ability could detect the situation of those people, she didn't need to worry about being exposed. As long as she approached any place where they might be exposed, Zhou Xuan would not go there.
More than ten meters away, Zhou Xuan hid behind a clump of low trees about half a person's height, crouching down and waiting quietly.
Yuqi was humming an English song as she walked back, waving her handbag. When she reached the hiding place of the three men, two of them suddenly jumped out. One grabbed her around the waist, while the other used a towel soaked in medicine to forcefully cover her mouth and nose.
Yuqi made a few muffled noises and flailed her arms and legs wildly, but she went limp in no time until she was completely still.
Zhou Xuan didn't know what these people were up to, so he didn't act rashly. However, he had already used his superpower. He first converted and absorbed some of the anesthetic that Yu Qi had inhaled through her mouth and nose, but he left some behind. This kept Yu Qi's mind clear, but her body was unable to move and she couldn't speak. She could only hear what these people were doing and what they were saying.
Zhou Xuan was somewhat confident about this, because he had been controlled by Zhuang Zhixian before when he was in Hong Kong. He had experience with this, and the absorbed drug molecules would just be enough to make Yuqi unable to move or speak, but her mind would remain clear, allowing her to listen to the three people talking.
Of course, Yuqi herself did not know the reason behind this; she simply thought that the drugs these people were given were only meant to prevent her from speaking or moving.
The three men immediately lifted Yuqi into the Honda sedan, with two men on each side of her and one on each side, while the other drove.
Zhou Xuan figured out the direction they were going, then quickly bent over and ran out of the village. As he ran, he used his supernatural ability to convert and devour most of the gasoline in their car, leaving only enough to drive half a mile.
Zhou Xuan ran out of the grove of trees, but the car had already driven away. Human power simply cannot compare to machines. Even if he possessed superpowers, he still couldn't improve in these areas.
Knowing the direction the three people were heading, Zhou Xuan wasn't in a hurry. He flagged down a taxi on the road outside the village and had the driver follow the three people's car.
Sure enough, less than 500 meters away, the Honda pulled up on the side of the road. The three men got out of the car, cursing and blocking the vehicle, demanding more money to get some gasoline out of it.
Zhou Kouxuan quickly told the driver to pull over about 170 or 180 meters away from the Honda and said, "Driver, here's three hundred yuan, keep the change. I'm going to follow that Honda, but we can't let them see us. Just follow it, and we'll be fine when we get there. If you need more money, I'll give you more."
A typical taxi driver's daily profit wouldn't exceed three hundred yuan, and even that would require exceptionally good business. But Zhou Xuan just gave him three hundred yuan without a second thought—that's a huge profit. Of course, as long as he doesn't drive hundreds of miles with this taxi, he's guaranteed to make a profit.
So the driver didn't object, and sat in the car. He then took out a cigarette, smiled, and turned around to ask, "Sir, will it be a problem if I smoke a cigarette?"