Chapter 557: The Chen Family
Deep in the night, Chen Lin, who was nearly 100 years old, had finished his day’s work. He closed his eyes in satisfaction, waited on by several beautiful maids.
As one of the highest authorities of Blacklight City, Chen Lin had an incomparably revered position. This was an apocalyptic age where humanity’s previous civilization system had long disappeared and replaced by the law of the jungle, where the strong commanded respect.
All of this began more than 380 years ago.
More than 380 years ago, a private company called Blacklight Biotechnology emerged momentously and monopolized the entire pharmaceutical industry at an incredible speed. At the same time, they also extended their reach to electronic finance, mineral resources, military aeros.p.a.ce, and various other fields. By the time everyone else realized what was going on, the foundations of this behemoth corporation had already been laid and it squeezed out a new slice of the pie for itself in this world that had long been divided by established forces.
According to the a.n.a.lysis of later generations, this company had created many of the world’s records for companies — it was the largest multinational company in the history of human civilization, the company with the most technology patents in the history of humankind, and also the richest company in the world...
Moreover, it was the first and only private company in the world that could be on par with the four continents!
Legend said that Blacklight Biotechnology even had its own nuclear weapons and a military system comparable to any major continent.
This company was so ma.s.sive that even if civilization was destroyed by alien creatures such as the Consciousness Stealer, it still retained a stable foundation. In the first hundred years of the apocalypse, it decisively shouldered the dawn of human civilization. Even the four major continents had been roped in.
Although this situation was declining due to the gradual exhaustion of its resources, at least until now, the Chen family of Blacklight City was still one of the five indispensable forces of the Joint Resistance Army. It was a tower of strength in the resistance against the Divine Fusion Empire...
In the Blacklight City built by Blacklight Biotechnology, the Chen family was even more dominant and aloof, just like the royal family of the feudal era, dominating the destiny of millions of people in the entire city.
Chen Lin was one such member of the Chen family.
He was a fourth-generation son of the Chen family. Although he had not formally entered the family committee, he was at least one of the figures who were presented to the public. His job was to help the family committee handle the internal affairs of the entire city. His level was that of an internal secretary-general.
However, just as he was falling asleep now, some fool started knocking on his door in a very urgent manner as if something of extreme importance had happened.
Chen Lin sat up, a little annoyed. He ignored the cooing of the maids next to him. Instead, he took a bath towel and wrapped it around his lower body, then walked angrily to the door.
“Who is it, don’t you know it’s midnight?”
Chen Lin opened the door furiously but saw that his a.s.sistant was standing outside the door in a panic. Before he could speak, his a.s.sistant said, “Secretary-General Chen, the committee wants you to go to the family meeting room immediately!”
Hearing these words, Chen Lin’s anger evaporated instantly and he shuddered. “What happened, did the Divine Fusion Empire send someone to attack us secretly?”
“I don’t know, but it seems to be an urgent matter.
The a.s.sistant replied, “I couldn’t reach you by phone, so they informed me to visit and summon you immediately, the sooner the better!”
After hearing these words, Chen Lin finally shut up. He closed the door again, then walked directly to the bedroom, dressed quickly before the surprised eyes of the maids, and walked out of the door toward the elevator.
Most of the core members of the Chen family lived in the central building of Blacklight City, the Blacklight Building. This was a fifty-story fortress-type building. At the same time, it was also the city hall and central system, which controlled the operations of the entire city.
Therefore, in just ten minutes, Chen Lin had arrived at the top floor of the Blacklight Building. At this time, there were already several bodyguards standing at the door. These were the guards nurtured by the Chen family since childhood and there were even some leftover androids and XTN robots from the old era inside, though only a few of them.
At Chen Lin’s arrival, the two guards immediately opened the door of the meeting room. Chen Lin walked in before he could even check his appearance, but when he saw the situation inside the room, he suddenly stopped breathing.
In the conference room, seven or eight people had already sat down at this time. Most of these people maintained their middle-aged appearance, with an aura of majesty and seniority on their faces. These people were none other than the top figures in Blacklight City. At the same time, they were also members of the Chen family’s committee.
At this time, hearing the noise at the door, many people turned their heads in unison. When they saw Chen Lin, some people immediately frowned. Chen Lin was already a little late.
If he were outside, few people would dare to shoot such a look at Chen Lin, but here, he could only keep quiet with his tail between his legs.
“Well, the last person is here. Let me explain the situation we’re encountering now.”
On the podium in the conference room, an old man who had already shown a few signs of aging suddenly spoke. Even Chen Lin had not seen him often. He only knew that this old man was a second-generation member of the Chen family, who was also the former mayor of Blacklight City more than 100 years ago.
As the Chen family had high-tech equipment left over from the Blacklight Biotechnology in the previous era — the Blacklight Fully-automated Medical Platform — the members of the Chen family had extremely long life spans. The oldest was even more than 300 years old. Chen Lin had even heard that some older members of the Chen family had frozen themselves long ago, with plans to wake up again someday in the future.
At this time, the four elders on the stage were the four second-generation family members of the Chen family. They were the core of the family committee and the true helm of the Chen family.
“Just now, we noticed a special figure on Blacklight Avenue, the main road of the city.”
The old man said and a video immediately appeared behind him. In the video, there was a young man, probably only twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with short hair and an icy, focused expression.
At this time, he was walking slowly on Blacklight Avenue, holding a newspaper in his hand and turning his head to look at everything around him from time to time.
The most unusual thing was that he was wearing a thin linen coat. They all knew that late at night in Blacklight City, the outside world was more than 30 degrees below zero, but this person did not seem to feel cold at all. It was as if he was dropping by someone’s house for a casual visit.
While Chen Lin was sitting in the group, he suddenly realized that the face of this young man was a bit familiar, but he was sure that he had never seen this man before.
“This person suddenly appeared in our city. No matter whether it’s the checkpoint, the city gate or other places, there are no records of his clearance.”
The old man continued to speak, “But the strange thing is, the moment he was photographed by the main control intelligence, it issued a special notice. It said that this person is the highest authority in Blacklight City and his name is Chen Chen...”
“Chen Chen!”
Hearing this name, not only Chen Lin but also the rest shifted their expressions because this name was too familiar. Everyone in the Chen family had heard of this name because its owner was none other than the founder of the Chen family and also the true founder of Blacklight Biotechnology!
“Impossible, Chen Chen... Didn’t he die when he was fighting the Consciousness Stealer?”
Someone immediately asked, “Could it be that the main control intelligence has made a mistake?”
“I hope so too.”
The old man shot a meaningful look at the questioner. “But I wouldn’t bank on it. Together with other people on the committee, I compared this image with a previous photo of Chen Chen, but we found that the person in the photo is very similar to the person in the video now.”
“So, Chen Chen... Our great-grandfather isn’t dead?”
Another member of the Chen family, who was of the fourth generation like Chen Lin, asked immediately, “Is it just like the rumors say, that he also chose to freeze himself and wait until now to appear?”
“Impossible!”
“This person must be fake!”
“Maybe it’s a scheme by the Divine Fusion Empire...”
“Won’t we find out simply by interrogating him?”
Everyone spoke one after another and for a while, the entire conference room was buzzing noisily.
“Silence!”
The old man picked up a wooden gavel and banged it vigorously. The loud sound reverberated in the conference room, suppressing everyone’s conversation. “It doesn’t matter who this guy is now. All of us here are core members of the Chen family. What I want you to do is very simple, that is to stop any news of this from getting out. Then we’ll apprehend this guy. If he’s fake, then we’ll naturally take the appropriate countermeasures.”
The old man was silent for a while and then continued. “Forget about whether he’s real or fake. To prevent turmoil in Blacklight City, you must all act immediately to block the news and not fall into the trap of the Divine Fusion Empire!”
“Understood, no problem.”
Next to the old man, a member of the family committee nodded and said blankly.
“Me too, I’ll help cover this up...”
Everyone expressed their agreement, even Chen Lin. He controlled the internal affairs of the entire city, so he was allowed to partic.i.p.ate in this meeting.
“This guy has gone through four intersections and is less than a thousand meters away from the Blacklight Building.”
The old man finally ordered, “To prevent any accidents, I’ll send our family’s secret force, the Black Knights, to personally capture him. Now, the meeting is adjourned!”
Chen Lin was shocked when he heard this last announcement!
Black Knights!
This was the second time Chen Lin had heard the name of this secret army, but as a core member of the family, he had heard of the existence of this army more than 30 years ago. This army was one of the strongest cornerstones of the Chen family. It was said that it was the existence of this secret army that allowed the Chen family to survive more than three hundred years and still prosper to this day!
Now, the committee was even going to send out the Black Knights? It looked like they were anxious...
Chen Lin pondered as he walked out of the conference room. Of course, he could understand what the higher-ups were thinking. Although Chen Chen was the founder of Blacklight Biotechnology and the biological elder brother of the first-generation ancestor of the Chen family, the city was still built gradually by the members of the Chen family.
Now, if this Chen Chen became the highest authority of the city, did it not mean that their control over the entire Blacklight City was wrenched out of their grasp? The group of people in the family committee had lived lavishly for more than three hundred years, how could they be willing to hand over power to others?
Therefore, Chen Lin was almost certain that whether that person was the founder of Blacklight Biotechnology or not, it was likely he would be labeled a fake, and it was not impossible he would be killed off...
Still, although Chen Lin had figured out the intentions of the committee, he had no inclination to right this injustice. As a superior in this city who affected the rise and fall of human civilization, he certainly understood the importance of an iron-fisted rule. If this was the real Chen Chen, no matter what, the order of the city would be shaken up violently.
Whether Chen Lin could even retain his current position was another question...
He was an authority figure, both in public and in private. Someone in authority naturally preferred a stable order. After all, this was all about self-interest.
Thinking of this, Chen Lin could not help shaking his head and mourning for Chen Chen for a second, then he stopped thinking about it. He only needed to focus on his own tasks.
...
Chen Chen stood on the edge of the crossroad holding a newspaper, ignoring the peculiar, surprised gazes of everyone pa.s.sing by.
He slowly raised his head and looked at the surveillance camera above his head.
As early as twenty minutes ago, those cameras all pointed at him and took pictures of Chen Chen wherever he went. It was a little amusing.
Now that such a long time has pa.s.sed, Chen Chen still did not notice any response from the city and he immediately understood everything.
It appeared that some did not welcome his arrival...
Chen Chen was not too surprised. He lowered his head and looked at the newspaper in his hand. At this time, he had obtained a lot of useful information from the newspaper. For example, the city was controlled by the Chen family and the Chen family was like a royal family, in charge of almost every position in the entire city from top to bottom. Outsiders could only serve in some departments that were relatively less powerful.
This was no longer a monopoly but a dictatorship, a reversal of history.
However, Chen Chen did not think it was wrong for them to go backward in history.
He understood that, if this was the process of continuous advancement of human civilization, turning back the wheel of history was naturally asking for death.
However, now that the level of human civilization had declined significantly, it was normal for this kind of system to regress because in this apocalypse, the more advanced systems had no room for survival and the law of the jungle became more applicable instead.
This was all about having a specific a.n.a.lysis of specific issues.
At the same time, Chen Chen also came across many introductions of the Chen family members in the newspaper. At present, most of the members of the Chen family who appeared in the public eye were fourth-generation Chen family members, but even the fourth generation consisted mostly of those in their seventies and eighties, and some were even more than a century old.
To Chen Chen’s surprise, the first generation of the Chen family was not his parents but his own younger brother, Chen Zeyu.
Chen Chen still thought of his middling little brother as a three-year-old child in front of his parents, but now it seemed that Blacklight Biotechnology had left behind some resources. Chen Zeyu must still have been pretty capable to transform all that into the current Blacklight City...
However, since he had not planned to recognize Chen Chen as his elder brother, Chen Chen did not need to value this little family bond either, not to mention that this was just an alternate branching timeline.
At this moment, several black cars suddenly drove over from a distance. Those cars were so aggressive that they forced the cars next to them to give way. At the same time, Chen Chen saw several familiar figures in the car.
Seeing this scene, the corner of Chen Chen’s mouth suddenly curled up a cold smirk.
They had come after all...