NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25
Chapter 25: Headhunting
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“One million?!”
When all the harvesters heard the figure, they were shocked.
Qin Hu’s expression sank, while Gu Ming and Shen Rongfa shuddered.
Meng Chao ignored them and explained to his father seriously, “Dad, I admit that I did indeed want to examine it just now. After all, I’ve only heard about crystalized neurospheres, and I couldn’t be sure. I just wanted to learn about it.
“But Dad, you were right. I have to be a righteous man. If it’s not mine, I cannot take it, no matter what. So I thought, ‘I’ll let Superintendent Gu and Manager Shen worry about what it is.’
“I had the same thought just now. When we entered that conflict with Manager Shen, that’s that, and this is this. The item is theirs, I can’t snatch it. That’s why I suggested splitting the cost in half. If it’s really a crystalized neurosphere, none of us will need to lose a few hundred thousand from this, and it’ll be a good thing for all of us.
“I didn’t expect that Manager Shen would refuse to accept my suggestion, and Superintendent Gu would not even bother to look at the material. That’s why I could only take a big risk in buying the material. If I was wrong, then I’d accept the loss. If I was right, at least I would have bought it fair and square, right?”
When Meng Yishan heard this, he released a breath of relief. He looked at his friends, and a smile bloomed on his wrinkle-covered face.
Meanwhile, Shen Rongfa and Superintendent Gu looked more miserable than if they had swallowed a kilogram of poop.
They did not dare to look at Qin Hu’s expression, so they could only glare at Meng Chao.
Qin Hu was so angry that he laughed.
“You’re Meng Chao, right? You’re an interesting high school student. I’ll remember you.” He looked at the increasing number of onlookers around them, and the flesh on his face trembled from anger. “Take your crystalized neurosphere and go!”
1
The crystalized neurosphere gave the harvesters confidence. They no longer felt as lost as they before, and they left with Meng Yishan and Meng Chao. As they walked, their chests were puffed out.
“Wait!”
At that moment, the leader of another harvester team working under Prosperous called out to them. “Old Meng, what are you going to do next?”
“Old Li, you…” Meng Yishan was a little surprised.
Meng Chao blinked and spoke before his father. “My dad has already found a new source for carcasses. He also has the initial capital for his own company. He’s going to start it now!”
“Do you really have a new source of carcasses?” Captain Li’s eyes lit up. He fell in contemplation for a moment before he gritted his teeth and said, “Big Brother Meng, how many carcasses will you have? Could you bring us with you?”
Meng Yishan was slightly stunned, but when he thought about it carefully, he did not find it strange.
Under Shen Rongfa’s management, all the harvester teams working for Prosperous were treated harshly, but every person there could only bear their anger silently.
Even so, there was a limit to their patience. If Prosperous truly overstepped their limits, they would go to work for someone else. They had arms and legs, so there was no way they would go hungry.
Even if Meng Yishan had really dropped the item, what happened today was still something that was commonly seen in the harvesting world. In truth, if Meng Chao had not been quick, the Golden Spirit would have rotted away a long time ago, and they would not have been able to retrieve even a single material.
At this moment, the managers who were more humane would just wave it off and put matters behind with just a few words. At most, they would just symbolically cut off some of the performance bonus. They would not act like Shen Rongfa and keep on demanding reparations.
Many of the harvesters had a lot of grudges against Shen Rongfa. Captain Li complained about him a lot when he drank, and what happened today was the last straw. He simply could not stand it anymore.
Meng Yishan could understand Captain Li’s feelings, but it was something concerning many harvesters’ livelihood. He had to think about his son’s words carefully. A new source of carcasses?
Meng Chao decided to spill everything then.
Unless it was absolutely necessary, he did not want to offend Qin Hu, because he was a superhuman.
Hence, he had suggested for them to split the cost. If he did manage to unravel a crystalized neurosphere, he would not end up with room for maneuver.
After he bought the item, if he were not afraid that the condition would be affected if he had it exposed to air for too long, he would not have chosen to reveal it in front of Qin Hu.
But he had already offended the man, so he had nothing else to be afraid of.
The battles were about to become more difficult. At that time, carcasses would not be lacking, but skillful harvesters would.
If he wanted to make the company bigger and stronger, he had to fight hard whenever a chance arrived. A single Qin Hu could not stop him from seizing his fate in his hands.
“Uncle Li, we will definitely not lack carcasses. Forget about your harvester team, even if three or five more teams came, everyone would have a job to do and money to earn. You’ll live a much more comfortable life as well!” Meng Chao said firmly.
Meng Yishan did not know what had happened to his son, but he knew that his son would not speak without thinking, so he nodded and stood behind his back to support him.
“Alright!” Captain Li might not truly believe Meng Chao, but he was unable to continue working in Prosperous anymore. He removed his protective clothing and said loudly, “Mr. Hu, my harvester team has been working under your company for a few years, and Manager Shen as well as you have been taking care of us over this period of time. We get along pretty well, but all good things come to an end. We’ll work with you until the end of the month, what do you say?”
“Old Meng and Old Li are leaving?”
The other harvester teams who worked under Prosperous might not have publicly turned against Prosperous like Meng Yishan and Captain Li, but a few of the captains started whispering with their team members. Their eyes began sparkling.
By the looks of it, if Meng Chao had truly found a new source of carcasses, they would jump ship.
Shen Rongfa and Superintendent Gu did not expect that Meng Chao, who was a teenager who had yet to even graduate from high shool, would be able to cause such a storm.
They felt dizzy, and they did not know what they should do.
A fierce light shone in Qin Hu’s eyes.
He could endure losing one measly crystalized neurosphere, but once the brat opened his mouth, there was a possibility that many of the skilled harvesters in his company would leave.
The brat was headhunting!
“Brat, I’ve already asked you to leave with your crystalized neurosphere, but you just don’t know how to be content, do you? You think that you can work on your own? Heh, looks like you just don’t know how dark this field is!”
Qin Hu laughed strangely, and his bones started cracking under his cloak. They sounded like firecrackers.
The expressions of Meng Yishan and the others changed swiftly.
The strength of superhumans was simply too astonishing.
But Meng Chao remained unmoved. He was certain that Qin Hu would not dare to attack him in public.
As for a few days later?
A few days later, he would have contributed to society a lot more, and his strength would have increased by leaps and bounds. Why should he be afraid of one Tiger down the Mountain?
Qin Hu did indeed not dare to fly off into a rage in public.
He could only gather his murderous intent together and send it flying at Meng Chao’s face like a blade.
But in his heart, he was shocked. ‘Just what are the brat’s nerves made of? He’s not reacting at all! Isn’t he a little too dense?!’
He had been ready to fight him for a long time, but Meng Chao was not scared at all. When he found that it was a little difficult for him to get out of this situation in a dignified manner, he suddenly heard a bark of laughter. “My young friend, we’re here.”
Qin Hu exploded in anger. “Who is it?!”
He saw an old man and a young girl walking slowly out of the corner of a street. They were not intimidated by his presence at all, but just stared at him curiously, like they were observing a raging wild boar.
Qin Hu was about to lose his temper when Gu Ming grabbed him.
“N-Ning…” Gu Ming stuttered.
“Ning what?! What’s wrong with you now?!” Qin Hu shouted at him.
“White-haired Ghostly Hands Ning Shewo! Master Ning!” Gu Ming was incredibly worked up.
“Ghostly Hands Ning?” Qin Hu observed him.
He did not know Ning Shewo, but he knew the handsome man standing behind the grandfather-granddaughter pair. He was dressed in a white bio-fighting suit and had a longsword behind him. He had a pair of amorous eyes as well.
Qin Hu sucked in a sharp breath. There was no place for him to have a fierce expression anymore. It morphed into a grotesque one for some time before he finally put on an obsequious smile as he jogged over. “Big Brother Peng, why are you here?!”
The vice captain of Thunderbolt, Zhang Yupeng stared at him for a while as he tried to recall who he was. “Old Hu, it’s you.”
“Young Hu, you mean. You can just call me Young Hu. I wouldn’t dare to refer to myself as Old Hu in front of you.”
Qin Hu rubbed his hands and bent his back while he curried favor with Zhang Yupeng. “I was fortunate enough to hunt down a Nine-winged Golden Eagle with your team last year. You know, it’s that Hell Beast? That earth-shattering slash you delivered was simply amazing. I didn’t expect that you would still remember me. It’s seriously just, ah… it’s just…”
Zhang Yupeng smiled. “I was free, actually. Elder Ning said that he had a young friend over here, so I came over to take a look with Elder Ning to see whether we’ll have a chance to work together.”
A young friend of Ghostly Hands Ning?!
Qin Hu looked back at Meng Chao in shock.
Then, he saw Meng Chao chatting with Ning Shewo, and, with great familiarity, he even showed Ning Shewo the crystalized neurosphere so that he could admire it. They looked like great friends despite the great difference in age between them.
Qin Hu looked as if he had been punched in the face. It was only at that moment that he knew that he had made a misjudgment.
No. It was not that he had made a misjudgment, but Gu Ming and Shen Rongfa were two pieces of trash who could not do anything but make things worse. It was especially so for Shen Rongfa!
Qin Hu glared at Shen Rongfa, who shuddered. He really wanted to just crawl into a hole and hide.
Now that things had progressed to this state, Qin Hu absolutely could not use force.
They were both part of monster hunting superhuman fighting squads, but Thunderbolt was several times larger than Frenzied Saber Squad. He could not make an enemy of Meng Chao in front of Zhang Yupeng.
He could only suppress the bloodthirst in his heart and put on a smile to wish Meng Chao a safe journey.
Meng Chao pinched his father’s waist so that he could snap out of his daze.
“Let’s go. We have to look for a quiet place to talk to Elder Ning and Captain Zhang.”
The group was about to leave when Meng Chao suddenly remembered something. He turned his head around and strode to Shen Rongfa.
Shen Rongfa was so scared that he started shrinking into the ground like an earthworm.
“Manager Shen, don’t be scared. I’m actually a gentleman. I just want what belongs to me.”
Meng Chao extended his hand and said loudly, “My dad gave you a store card worth ten thousand so that I could work in Prosperous. I would have let it slide, since we were both willing to work with each other, but now, I don’t want to spend even a minute longer in Prosperous. Please return the store card to me!”
Shen Rongfa was dumbfounded.
He had completely forgotten about this matter.
Qin Hu was also shocked.
He was talking about a store card worth ten thousand in front of the vice captain of Thunderbolt. It was complete disrespect to him, Tiger down the Mountain.
1
Ning Xueshi could not hold it back. She snickered.
Her bell-like laughter crept into Qin Hu’s ears, and it was like a bolt of lightning that was about to send fire gushing out of his eyes. “Shen! Rong! Fa!”
Shen Rongfa brought out the store card while trembling.
Meng Chao grabbed it with satisfaction. He then thought about it and said, “Oh, by the way, there’s something else. Tomorrow, my dad and my dad’s friends will be coming to the company to settle accounts. I remember that you have been deducting their wages to pay for their insurance, and you said that you have been paying for their insurance with the highest criterion, right? So you must have the original copy of the insurance policy, right?
“Please prepare the documents. In the future, we will be paying for the insurance on our own. We’ll be coming over tomorrow to verify it so that the accounts are clear and we can have proof. Then, we won’t get engaged in any sort of argument in the future.
“That’s all. I’ll have to trouble you for that, Manager Shen, and thank you, Chairman Qin.”
Meng Chao put the store card into his pocket and left without turning his head around.
As Qing Hu watched the group leave, he scowled so much that the frown looked as if it was going to become a permanent fixture on his face.
He turned his head around and saw his brother-in-law’s panicked expression. He thought about it and asked in disbelief, “The heck? Did you actually take the employees’ insurance as well?”
3
“Brother-in-law, please listen to me…” Shen Rongfa was scared witless. He could no longer care about the pain in his cheek and just spoke while crying. “I was just… I was just blinded for a moment…”
“What’s the point in me keeping you around?!”
Qin Hu slapped Shen Rongfa’s swollen face.
The sound was ten times louder than when Meng Chao had slapped him.
Shen Rongfa screamed in pain and tumbled eight times. He also coughed up blood.
Meng Chao had been kind enough to let him preserve his teeth, but Qin Hu made him lose them.