STB Chapter 18: Relationship

This is machine translated and all copyrights belong to the author. Please note that the translator might take creative liberties for better readability. Thank you for reading.

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CEO: I am innocent.

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At six o’clock in the morning, thick fog enveloped the city of Haicheng as a jeep drove out of the military area.

Li Fei, feeling groggy, supported his forehead. The backseat and driver’s seat of the vehicle were completely sealed off, with wireless communication available. The soldier sitting beside him seemed more like an escort than a companion, wearing a stern expression and asking where he was going.

“Major Zhang promised that if you cooperate with the investigation, we will ensure that it wouldn’t attract attention from the outside.”

The soldier explained in a rigid manner, which amused Li Fei. He remembered this soldier, the one who always gave him strange looks while standing behind Zhang Yaojin.

Li Fei casually replied, “My home. You guys must know where it is.”

The soldier picked up the radio and relayed the address to the driver.

Having been detained for less than 24 hours and released without any official announcement, Li Fei felt at ease. However, Geng Tian seemed restless.

“This is your current situation report. If you want to undergo a comprehensive medical examination at the hospital, we can arrange it,” the soldier said, opening a folder and handing Li Fei a stack of papers.

“As for the issue with security checks, didn’t you say you could take care of it?” Li Fei said, struggling to keep his eyes open.

The office room in the military building had only one chair, and it was freezing cold. He didn’t have the conditions to make do for the night.

“The specific situation will be communicated to you by Major Zhang when he finds the time,” the soldier replied.

“Haha… Did something happen elsewhere?” Li Fei lazily remarked.

The man with the rank of Major didn’t appear for more than a dozen hours. Instead, emotionless soldiers came to conduct tests with instruments and inform him about the situation.

It was indeed troublesome not being able to take a plane or pass through security checks.

As for joining the newly established special abilities team of the Red Dragon…

Li Fei refused without hesitation. The seemingly generous and worry-free conditions must have hidden other circumstances (not to mention the impending appearance of monsters in the abandoned world).

Li Fei had always been patient in negotiations and adept at dragging things out. He wouldn’t make hasty decisions without seeing the other party’s cards.

The soldier looked at Li Fei’s fearless appearance and suddenly smiled.

Geng Tian’s eyelid twitched, wanting to warn Li Fei but unsure of what to say. The other person didn’t seem malicious; it was more like he wanted to witness a joke.

Li Fei’s house was located in a high-end villa area outside the city.

After half an hour of driving, they arrived without entering the heavily guarded main gate of the villa area. Li Fei made a phone call and shortly after, a black Bentley emerged from the villa area and parked by the roadside.

The thick fog enveloped everything, making it impossible to distinguish between human figures and tree shadows just a few meters away.

Li Fei calmly stepped out of the car, while the soldier’s gaze fell on the documents beside the seat that Li Fei hadn’t bothered to look at. Geng Tian silently picked them up and followed suit.

“Are you out?” the CEO of Star Entertainment Media, with dark circles under his eyes, appeared as the window of the Bentley rolled down.

Li Fei looked at the jeep as it disappeared back into the fog, then reached out to open the door on the other side of the car and sat in the backseat of the Bentley, wearing an expression that indicated he wanted to take a nap. He asked, “Why are you here?”

“Your manager, Chen Chen, was almost scared to death by you. He’s been anxiously waiting at your house. I was afraid that my cash cow would have a heart attack at the superstar’s mansion, resulting in headlines like ‘Superstar Behind Bars,’ and the company’s stock price hitting the limit down.”

Liang Jun, the CEO, had spent a sleepless night feeling miserable about the company’s biggest money-making star being involved in such a situation.

Geng Tian got into the passenger seat and noticed that the manager’s face was darker than the bottom of a pot.

“Tell me, what’s going on?” Liang Jun lit a cigarette. Having witnessed countless ups and downs over the years, he had certainly seen cases of artists getting involved in legal issues, but nothing like what had happened to Li Fei.

Li Fei, with a focus on the wrong point, said, “I never expected that the CEO’s son would be a Major in the National Secret Department. You hid it well.”

Geng Tian couldn’t help but think that the fact that Secretary Zhang was the CEO’s daughter was even better concealed within the company.

“Cough!” Liang Jun appeared somewhat uneasy. “They have a significant age gap between them. When I got married, Xiao Dan was still in elementary school, and her brother had already joined the military. I’m not familiar with that child.”

Geng Tian silently calculated that a Major in his early thirties was extremely rare in the military. He must have earned several first-class merits and received so many medals that he was overwhelmed. It was likely that the Red Dragon’s Major Zhang had been serving the country all this time, and even his closest family members might not know what he was up to.

“How much will I have to pay in penalties if I don’t show up for the film that starts shooting in a few days?” Li Fei asked.

“Squeak!” The manager slammed on the brakes and jerked the steering wheel, narrowly avoiding the car crashing into a tree by the roadside.

Liang Jun scolded with a stern face, “Xiao Chen, what are you doing? You’ve been freeloading for so many years, and now you suddenly act so nervously. Get out and let Li Fei’s bodyguard drive!”

The manager, still in a state of shock, said, “No, it’s not that! I saw something just now!”

He widened his eyes and stared into the fog ahead. It was not yet seven o’clock, and the villa area was eerily quiet, with no sounds of people anywhere.

“Maybe you strained your eyes from staying up too late.” The manager rubbed his eyes.

He had clearly seen a dark figure rushing past the front of the car just now. It didn’t seem like a pet because the high-end villa area was filled with cats and dogs whose value could scare people to death. If something happened to them, it could be easily resolved by compensating monetarily, but he was afraid that the other party might get furious and cause trouble over their beloved pet.

The manager got out of the car and switched seats with Geng Tian, making sure there was nothing under the wheels before he breathed a sigh of relief.

As he got back into the car, the manager thought about the news that Li Fei had just revealed and felt a headache coming on. “Dean, we’ve already done the initial promotion for the movie that’s starting filming in a few days. If you breach the contract now, I can’t just say that you suffered internal injuries at the Pearl Hotel and that it flared up three days later! Are you out of your mind? If you quit now, you’ll end up on the blacklist of both the production company and the director.”

Liang Jun was also waiting for Li Fei to provide an explanation.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to go to Beidu,” Li Fei said with a rare bitter smile.

At that moment, Geng Tian stepped on the accelerator twice but found that the car wasn’t responding.

“Huh?” Geng Tian thought there was something wrong with the car and began to inspect it.

Liang Jun smoked his cigarette and asked in frustration, “Li Fei, the company has treated you well all these years. What’s the matter? Speak up, and let everyone find a solution.”

How should he explain it? Staying in a hotel for one night and suddenly becoming an ability holder? Witnessing the destruction caused by criminals at the Pearl Hotel and narrowly escaping, attracting the attention of relevant national departments?

Li Fei sighed. If Zhang Yaojin contacted him again, he wouldn’t be able to hide it. Just as he was about to come up with a plausible explanation, the manager in the passenger seat suddenly exclaimed.

“Xiao Chen?”

The manager stared in shock at the report in his hand.

It was given to Li Fei by the soldier in the jeep. Li Fei had glanced at it and disregarded it when he got out of the car. Geng Tian had brought it along and casually placed it on the front windshield.

When they were taken away by heavily armed military police and released, they were given this stack of papers. The manager had naturally noticed it, so now he had the opportunity to take a look. He flipped through the report, the first page showing a peak energy data graph and a bunch of academic terms he couldn’t understand. The second page was Li Fei’s personal information, which he knew by heart. But what about the third page?

“Individuals closely related to Li Fei: Liang Jun, CEO of Star Entertainment Media, engaged in improper relationships.”

“…”

As Li Fei’s manager, he had seen various fan-made videos that stitched together ambiguous scenes, and strange innuendo-filled Weibo posts, but on an official document with their company’s CEO written as someone who engaged in improper relationships with Li Fei? What kind of joke was this? Why didn’t he, as the manager, know about it?!

Facing the puzzled and disgruntled gazes of the two people in the back seat, the manager’s hand trembled as he handed over the paper.

After reading the content on the paper, Li Fei was a bit bewildered.

Liang Jun’s hand holding the cigarette trembled, and the ash fell on his suit pants. His reaction was unexpected—-he wasn’t angry. Instead, he pointed to the line below his name on the paper that read, “Black Abyss’s Jian Hua, an intimate relationship between subordinates and superiors,” and curiously asked, “Who is this Jian Hua?”

“….”

Li Fei, who wasn’t a smoker, felt the need to have a cigarette to calm his nerves. The manager, who hadn’t read the contents further, answered bewilderedly, “Jian Hua? He’s a body double actor that Dean recently signed exclusively.”

“Tsk!” Liang Jun picked up the paper and looked at Li Fei. “What is this ‘Black Abyss’?”

“I don’t know,” Li Fei genuinely had no idea.

“There’s more on the back: Johnson Brown, love at first sight with different positions.”

Li Fei massaged his temples, completely unfamiliar with the name.

Liang Jun scanned through the names on the paper. Apparently, the members responsible for entering the information found it ridiculous and only included the names without adding more bizarre terms like “love and hate” or anything like that.

However, even these names were abnormal, lacking complete surnames and appearing more like code names.

Names like Poseidon, Mad Doctor, Red Scorpion… The most terrifying part was that the nationalities were also marked after the names, and at a glance, there were representatives from England, France, Germany, the United States, and Russia, creating quite a grand lineup.

“Where did this come from?” Liang Jun recalled that when he got into the car, he didn’t see this document, but Geng Tian and the others…

“Cough, cough!”

The CEO was choked by a puff of smoke and threw away the paper.

Information obtained from the military? Could Zhang Yaojin be unaware of the contents?

Liang Jun’s head was spinning. What would his stepson think when he saw the rumors about him engaging in improper relationships with the company’s artists?

If Jian Hua’s name wasn’t on the paper, Li Fei could have simply thrown it into the trash can without caring. But here’s the problem! Jian Hua was an unknown body double actor, and he wasn’t present at the Pearl Hotel explosion. So how did the military find information about Jian Hua?

What was even more terrifying was that Li Fei felt it was only his own secret, so how did others know about it?

Thinking about the fact that he had let slip a little information to his bodyguard—-could it be that Geng Tian had betrayed him? That couldn’t be right. Would the national secret service investigating the terrorist attack at the hotel also care about gossip?

Li Fei steadied his mind and then realized something was wrong.

“Geng Tian?”

The Bentley wouldn’t start, so Geng Tian got out to check, but until now, there hadn’t been a single sound.

The manager also snapped out of it, opened the car door, and looked around in the thick fog. “Geng Tian, where are you?”

The area around the car was empty, with no sign of anyone. The silhouette of a villa in the distance was immersed in the dense fog, like a floating island.

Li Fei’s sleepiness vanished, Liang Jun extinguished his cigarette and looked around in astonishment, and the manager trembled as he dialed the security guard’s number for the villa area. Soon, someone with a dog came running and searched the surroundings.

Yet, Geng Tian was still nowhere to be found.

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Last Edit     06-16-2023 4:30 PM

This is machine translated and all copyrights belong to the author. Please note that the translator might take creative liberties for better readability. Thank you for reading.