Cyber Ghosts

Chapter 147 A Piece of Unexpected Fortune
“So why didn’t you stop him then?” Liu Shuai crumpled his brow and pondered. He shook his head and grumbled about Hao Ning. “Long Fei was too impatient. At least he should have waited and discussed with us. It might have turned out better.”

“How could I stop him?” Hao Ning took on a bitter smile. He had thought about that at that time, “No more than 10 minutes after Long Fei discovered that thing did he leave. When it occurred to me that I had to stop him, he was already gone.”

“Then couldn’t you chase him?” Liu Shuai continued his groan, “Xiao He once chased Han Xin in the moonlight, so why couldn’t you imitate a “Hao Ning chased Long Fei in the lamplight”?”

“No more jokes.” Hao Ning was teased to both laugh and temper, “Are you perplexed by your too much concern? Long Fei left by water release. He had disappeared in one moment, so how could I chase him? Should I use Sliding-over-the-water or Changeable movements of ghost? They were not even at the same level.”

“Eh…” Liu Shuai got blushed at Hao Ning’s words. It was true that he was being so anxious just now that he had unlearned the most basic facts. But unwilling to admit that he had got mixed under such impendency, he persisted, “Isn’t it your fault not knowing any spells? If Zhou Yuan were here, Long Fei wouldn’t even get the chance to flee.”

“I won’t waste my time tangling with you!” How could Hao Ning overlook that Liu Shuai was biting off more than he could chew? In other words, Liu Shuai wouldn’t admit that he was wrong. So Hao Ning spared the time of arguing with him, frowned at the tail of the words and signed, “What should we do now? Long Fei is doomed to misfortune this time, while we can do nothing to help.”

“Not absolutely. We’d better not worry that much.” Zhou Yuan pondered and shook his head, “Anyway, all above is just our speculation. It’s not meant to be true. On this incident, maybe we’ve subjectively figured that Yufei’s death was too weird at the beginning, so now we presume it complicated more than it actually is.”

Seeing that Hao Ning was about to counter, Zhou Yuan waved his hand and said, “You guys have a thought. Qingbei University has been the focus of widest attentions. How could we not know it if something really happened? Besides, even Long Fei, the Dragon God can have studied there, safe and sound, until he got his doctor diploma. It could prove that Qingbei University is relatively secure. Moreover, in the past years, he didn’t even notice anything unusual as a god. Therefore, maybe nothing unusual really lies in Qingbei University. It’s possible that the incident of Yufei was just an accident. It might have happened just because Yufei had been somewhere before.”

“Hope that everything goes as you say.” Hao Ning nodded. He had to admit that Zhou Yuan’s analysis made sense.

“No, I need a talk with Mr. Chen, and I’ll ask him to tell Mr. Ren about that.” Liu Shuai suddenly raised to his foot, got his mobile and looked for numbers, murmuring to himself, “To let Mr. Ren know that Long Fei is back to Qingbei. Such news spreading out, even if they are at Qingbei University now, they won’t dare to do anything to him.”

After saying that, Liu Shuai walked out, intended for a phone call. Nobody expected that someone opened the door. The three looked there and found that it was Lele. Seeing them, her anxious face broke into a smile, “You’re here. Liu Shuai, Hao Ning, CEO is calling for you. Hurry up!”

“CEO? Call for us?” Hao Ning and Liu Shuai peered at Lele questioningly. Then they turned to Zhou yuan. He opened his hands, indicating that he knew nothing. So, they inquired Lele, “Haven’t you got it wrong? Isn’t Yang Laode who’s needed?”

“Eh… It’s hard to explain. Anyway, that’s what the CEO told me.” Lele pouted, “I heard that the CEO originally wanted to look for Yang Laode. But out of some reasons, he calls for you directly.”

It was understandable that Hao Ning and Liu Shuai felt confused. On paper, their direct supervisor was Yang Laode. Even if the CEO had some commissions, he shouldn’t have come to them directly. In their company, Kangxi Emperor’s travel incognito didn’t prevail. If the CEO cut into the stuff of front-line employees, not only would the managers from the middle class and top class find it hard to conduct their work, but also the employees would figure it weird.

In this case, Liu Shuai could do nothing but go to the CEO’s office with Hao Ning first. He planned to call Mr. Chen later after the meeting.

“Here are you. Come and have a seat.” As soon as they got into the office, they saw the CEO seated facing the door and two customers with their back to the door. Entering the room, before they recognized the two comers, the CEO had asked them to come in with a face full of smile.

“President Hai, Manager Wen, these are Hao Ning and Liu Shuai.” CEO told the two.

Then the two turned back. Manager Wen unknown to them, another guy called President Hai was too familiar. He was Nezha!

“Hello, you two.” In a surprise, Hao Ning and Liu Shuai hadn’t uttered a word when Nezha took their hands and winked at them. Thus, Hao Ning and Liu Shuai reserved their words.

“This is President Hai, Hai Shenglong from Qihe Group. And this is Manager Wen, Wen Zhixin.” The CEO lost no time in his presentation, and his face still wreathed in a smile.

“President Hai? Manager Wen?” Hao Ning beamed at the CEO, “And… Qihe Group?”

“Oh, you see, I’m overexcited.” CEO made a gesture to invite everyone to have a seat and made them the tea he had been proud of, “Qihe Group is a group well-known across the country. Eh — Manager Wen, if you’d like to bother with another brief introduction?”

“Okay.” Manager Wen seemed quite professional. He somehow tidied his suit and said in a smile, “Our Qihe Group is originally a group of mining. Now our businesses of operations of the mineral vein, mineral production and distribution scan different countries around the world — Certainly, under our Qihe Group, we have subsidiaries exclusively for speculation. The President Hai here is in charge of the global speculation activities in the south of China. You’re the first Internet project we’ve ever invested, meanwhile the first corporation and team we’ve ever held a positive view on.”

“Erm, erm, well, thanks.” Hao Ning didn’t know how to pick up Manager Wen’s words watching him speak a surge of words in a passion of self-introduction. He glimpsed at the CEO and saw his awkward smile. Liu Shuai, who had never been subjected to such a situation, imitated a similar stiff smile, not knowing what to say.

Hao Ning had heard before that the company he worked with was looking for investment. It was nothing but normal for Internet companies nowadays to search for the fund. But what confused Hao Ning was that why such affairs concerning corporate investment would need such two ordinary employees as he and Liu Shuai here to listen to the presentation? In the first place, he wasn’t a member of the board. In the second place, he was not in the initiative team, either. There was no way that he should be involved in all these things. Thinking about that, he couldn’t help with his bewildered eyesight towards the CEO.

“Well, Erm, the point is that,” the CEO, who was also conscious of the weird situation, pushed forward the explanation, “Qihe Group invests us with a specific request that we develop another software system independent of our own operation. When President Hai proposed such a request, the most advisable people occurred in my mind for such a task was you two…”

Then Manager Wen smiled promptly and said, “Exactly. The project here is run by our President Hai himself. We’re surely in need of further communication later on. President Hai spares his time from his full schedule to attend to the project particularly. I do admire him as a subordinate. Hahaha.”

That was it! Hao Ning, peering at Nezha, thought that he had got himself a meaningful name: Hai Shenglong, which meant beating the dragon in the ocean. The guy here had once messed up the ocean, even stripped the tendon of the dragon. He was virtually a “Beating the Dragon in the Ocean”. Fancy Nezha took great pains in coming up with such an idea to approach him, Liu Shuai and their other mates. Hao Ning was conquered.

Hao Ning got anxious at that thought. Nezha took him as Master Hongjun for no particular reason. Hao Ning presumed that Nezha was just an insignificant little boy, while no one supposed that he was in charge of the speculation business of such a huge company in reality and offered investment to their company at such an ease. Hao Ning thought that he couldn’t slip through this time. If Nezha knew that he was a fraud who couldn’t even cultivate any spells, heaven knew how mad Nezha would be. And if Nezha withdrew the investment at his temper, the CEO would surely blame everything on him. Then not only would he lose his job, but also his reputation in the field would get stained. Therefore…

Having experienced so much, Hao Ning’s thought got more and more complex. Having taken so many factors into account, then he got to realize that it wasn’t a one-time meeting. It was a deep trap! But at the moment, appointed by the investor and called by the CEO, he felt like he was riding a tiger and could dismount easily. No wonder such a great spirit as Avalokitesvara also tried to avoid causalities as much as possible. Who could foresee that after he had fainted, Liu Shuai’s momentary flip would bring about so many troubles?

Reaching that thought, Hao Ning’s whole face changed, and he glared at Liu Shuai sharply. His mind was steeped with a grudge against the bald programmer who poked his nose into everything. Liu Shuai, though had undergone an improvement of emotional quotient recently, failed to consider as much as Hao Ning did. All in his head was the possibility of a pay rise and more pretty new clothes for Wen after that. He got a glare from Hao Ning for no reason and felt confused.

Nezha kept silent in his grin. He noticed the sudden change on Hao Ning’s face and nimbly glanced at Manager Wen. Manager Wen, who was a good face-reader, got it instantly and said to the CEO, “We can tell at the first sight that the two elites here are quite rare. Thus, as for the amount of investment we discussed just now, based on the fact of no changes in shares, we will augment the sum from 20 million dollars to 40 million dollars!”

40 million dollars? Hearing that, Hao Ning was about to faint. How much was that if converted to RMB? One day if Nezha got mad and withdrew his fund, Hao Ning thought the CEO would surely wring his head off his body. Hao Ning felt like quitting his job as the conversation went so far. He’d rather look for a new job now than give away later and carry the can. At that thought, he felt more upset and his whole face was down and grey.

“Sorry, I made a mistake.” Manager Wen was about to cry. What the hell was it? The task President Hai assigned to him was that he had to get the company at any expense and the two here were supposed to be the heads of the project. Thinking about that, he made up his mind. Anyway, it wasn’t his money, and President Hai would take all the blame, “I mean, 50 million dollars!”

“50 million! Dollars!” The CEO’s eyes got blank in astonishment. He’d been drifting his company and there hadn’t been an investor in the past half-year. But today an investment of millions of yuan came to his door with such a tiny demand in shares. That wasn’t an investment. That was literally Sudhana! He had to take it anyway. But what happened to Hao Ning? His face looked so down. The CEO reconsidered it and said to Hao Ning with a grin, “Hao Ning, take it easy. As far as you get done with the project, no, as far as you undertake the project, you’ll get a threefold pay rise and be promoted to general managers of the project. And in addition, you will be offered with an option of the company!”