Chapter 308: I Knew It, It’s Him
As Meng Chao spoke, he poured another cup for Drizzle. Then, he poured two drops of faint green liquid into the tea. It then gained a crystalline texture. He delivered the cup to Drizzle’s lips and said, “Do you feel dizzy now? Should I feed you?”
Drizzle looked at the cup and said with a wry smile, “You’ve already obtained your answer. Why do you still need to give me more truth serum?”
“This isn’t poison from the Hallucinogenic Lizard. It’s liquid extracted from a Red Arrow Frog’s skin. It can counter the poisonous properties of a Hallucinogenic Lizard and get rid of the effects of the truth serum,” Meng Chao explained. “Of course, if you don’t trust me, you don’t need to drink it. You can rest here for half an hour. It’s the same.”
Drizzle thought about it in silence for a while before he drank the faint green liquid. He asked in puzzlement, “What now?”
“There’s nothing else,” Meng Chao said. “I’ve already obtained my answer. You can leave now.”
Drizzle was slightly stunned. “That’s all?”
“What else?” Meng Chao asked. “You just said that the most important thing about those working in your field is wandering around the limits of the law and the limits of morals.
“Leaking the details of a case beforehand might have put you under suspicion for breaking the law, but I’m not a judge, and I’m not interested in arguing with you over this either.
“Stirring up the conflict between the biochemical modification faction and runic symbol machines faction might be horrible, but I can’t exactly kill you to vent my anger, can I?”
Drizzle frowned. He stared at Meng Chao seriously and thought about it for some time before he said, “Then, how are you going to vent?”
“I will do my absolute best and use all the connections that I have to make sure that various major corporations will stop working with Drizzle Studio,” Meng Chao said faintly. “Don’t even think about working together with Superstar. My words hold some authority in Yan Organization as well. I will do my best to persuade Yan Organization to stop working with you. I’ll do the same with Soul Breaking Saber Luo Wu, White-haired Ghostly Hands Ning Shewo, and Sky Pillar Corporation...
“Of course, my individual strength is weak, but Agricultural University is known as Monster University, and the power of the university is second only to that of Dragon City University. We have alumni in various fields, and they are involved in various industries. Once news about your studio fanning the flames spreads, how many people do you think will want to work with you?
“All the people in the biochemical modification faction will kick you aside like you’re some filthy rat.
“Then, will the runic symbol machines faction be thankful to you? No. It’s precisely because you stirred up this storm of opinions and made the runic symbol machines faction sound arrogant that they were caught in an awkward situation after the truth was revealed. They lost a few major deals, and the public doesn’t have a good image of them right now. Over the past few days, the students from the University of Technology’s machine course have been really dejected and can’t walk tall in Nine Sands University City.
“I believe that once news of you causing this storm due to Xie Xiaolei inciting you to do so reaches the runic symbol machines faction, there won’t be a lot of businesses related to that field for your studio either.
“In other words, I want to destroy the way you earn your living. No matter what I do when faced with someone like you who fans the flames among his own people even when there is a major enemy in front of us just to stir up conflict and increase the exposure rate of your client, I will feel no guilt.”
Drizzle sat down once more.
He stared at the empty teacup silently and let his mind wander for a long time before he said, “What do you want?”
“I want to know the details. What did Xie Xiaolei tell you? Why did you agree to do something so dangerous and troublesome? Don’t you know that there is a huge possibility that you will end up getting dragged into trouble if you add fuel to the conflict between the biochemical modification technology and runic symbol machines factions? That something like today would happen to you?”
Drizzle’s face was pale, and he asked feebly, “Do you promise to keep complete confidentiality if I tell you everything?”
“That depends on whether what you say is valuable, and whether you’re valuable.”
“Man will truly throw their lives away for money, just like how birds will die for food.” Drizzle was silent for a moment before he sighed. “Drizzle Studio occasionally takes up deals that we can’t speak of, but we usually know how to exercise propriety. We don’t touch something as sensitive as the case of the murderous pets in Blessed Paradise.
“But Xie Xiaolei offered us... a price that we could not refuse. I... We didn’t have a choice.”
“How much?”
Drizzle gave him a figure.
It was a figure that made Meng Chao suck in a sharp breath.
“Xie Xiaolei really threw in a lot of money. Was there a need for that?” Meng Chao mumbled. “You’ve worked for a long time with Xie Xiaolei. Is he usually so liberal with his money?”
“Of course not,” Drizzle said with a bitter smile. “President Xie from Spirit Creation Creatures is a very wise person. No one can even think about taking advantage of him. We’ve worked together for around five years. Every year, we get two or three deals from him, so he can be considered an old client. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to ask me to do this, and I would have never agreed to help him with it.
“But the money he offered in our past partnerships was the normal amount. He never offered so much before.”
Meng Chao nodded with a contemplative expression. “Do you usually help him control public opinion like this?”
“No.” Drizzle shook his head.”Most of our partnerships with Spirit Creation Creatures involve us doing normal things for them, such as setting up their public image and making promotional advertis.e.m.e.nts. At most, we look for ghostwriters online, write some advertorials, and filter the comments. We don’t do things like this every day.”
“Then, how did he contact you this time?” Meng Chao asked. “Do you remember... his condition at that time? Was there anything about him that you found strange? You can say anything, as long as you found it suspicious.”
“For the usual deals, he usually asks me to go to Spirit Creation Creatures, but sometimes, he also comes to our studio. He’s skilled at promotional advertis.e.m.e.nts, so he always does it himself when it comes to them,” Drizzle said. “He contacts me in an anonymous chat room in the deep web only when it comes to rather sensitive work. He also completes the transaction through a deep web bank account. He used this method this time as well.”
Meng Chao nodded.
He knew that there were a few anonymous chat rooms in the deep web that made it difficult for others to track down the people in the chat.
There were a lot of methods that allowed people to perform large transactions in secret.
The simplest method was opening a safe for rare materials in the Supernatural Tower and storing a certain number of high-purity crystals or highly valuable materials inside. Then, they would send the pa.s.sword to the other party so that they could get it. That way, they could elusively complete the transfer of a large amount of funds.
If they were worried about there being surveillance cameras in the Supernatural Tower, there were also a lot of banks and cultivation centers in Dragon City that provided similar services.
For example, to protect the privacy of the superhumans cultivating at the cultivation centers, cultivation centers usually did not install surveillance cameras in the rooms.
“If you’re looking for anything abnormal, there wasn’t anything strange,” Drizzle said. “Only Preside Xie’s tone was a little strange. He sounded a little more aloof and tougher than usual. Chills went down my spine while listening to him. But since something so major had happened, it’s understandable that he was not in a good mood.
“The anonymous chat room we used had a voice changing function to interfere with voice prints. That’s why his voice sounded very sharp and shrill. But there’s nothing strange about it.”
“Then, he sent all the information to you and asked you to stir up public opinion?” Meng Chao asked.
“That’s right.” Drizzle nodded. “In the beginning, I was shocked, because President Xie asked me to stand on the side of the runic symbol machines and criticize the biochemical modification faction. He asked me to talk about the possibility of biochemical modification technology giving rise to artificial intelligence that humans cannot control. I was to criticize this aspect viciously, but he is in the biochemical modification faction, you know?
“Still, the client’s request was very clear. It would not be convenient for us to get to the bottom of things. Then, you saw what happened online.”
“Oh?” Meng Chao tapped on the table. “There is an article with 10,000 words in it. You wrote it really well. Even though you intentionally imitated the naive tone of a university student, there are plenty of lines where you showed clear understanding of the subject. You talked about the flaws of biochemical modification technology. You have a good understanding of this field, right?”
“I don’t understand biochemical modification technology at all.” Drizzle smiled bitterly. “President Xie prepared the outline, and I was just told to add some flair to it.”
“Were you?” Meng Chao was slightly stunned. “After you were done with it, was Xie Xiaolei happy with your performance?”
“I don’t know,” Drizzle said. “President Xie said that this is a major and sensitive matter. He only contacted me once, and he told me not to contact him unless I have something important over the next few months.
“But I think that he should be satisfied with it. He had split the pay into two parts. He first deposited half of the pay, and after I did my work, he paid the other half on time as well. Also, due to the truth of the case of murderous pets in Blessed Paradise coming to light, Spirit Creation Creatures managed to get the construction deal for Subway No.20.
“I saw President Xie joining quite a lot of activities and looking high-spirited and full of enthusiasm. He sounds completely different compared to the person who talked to me in the anonymous chat room.”
Meng Chao quickly blinked. “So, you’ve never gone to Spirit Creation Creatures and never met Xie Xiaolei himself from the moment you took up the deal? Is that normal?”
“It’s... nothing strange,” Drizzle said. “You have to be elusive when you work in this field.”
“Wait. If you really want to be elusive, it’s best if you look for a secretive place and meet up with each other, right?” Meng Chao frowned. “Even though it’s an anonymous chat room, all online communication methods still leave clues of your conversation. The simplest way to leave a clue is this: he cannot be sure that you won’t record the conversation. Even if it doesn’t sound like his voice, if this goes out, it’s still a scandal that will cause quite the stir.
“Wait, has Xie Xiaolei always acted as your receiver when it comes to the deals with Spirit Creation Creatures?”
“Yes.” Drizzle nodded. “Over the years, I have always talked to President Xie when it comes to dealing with Spirit Creation Creatures. I seldom come into contact with his a.s.sistant or secretary.”
“Call him.” Meng Chao looked at Drizzle. “Then talk to him about this.”