Chapter 4: The Fatal Party (Part 1)

  Article One

  "It's rare in this world to be able to meet everyone."

  Some fate. Happened to coincide with our group recently

  Period with Taiwan in-depth industrial cooperation, Sheng

  It's our great pleasure to invite all of you distinguished guests to attend

  Approaching winter's lodging. In order to boost the group's morale,

  Don't forget the hardships of entrepreneurship, set up wonderful segments.

  Please express your friendship and make you feel at home

  "It is our greatest honor to have you back."

  Zhang Weiguo tossed the gold-embossed leather invitation to Li Baoquan across from him, the half-open page revealing the bold Han script "Qian Fu Sincerely Invites".

  "You're already married, what's the point of going to join in the excitement on 11/11?" Ye Rui twirled his newly grown sideburns, somewhat puzzled. "I also received it, anyway I'm not going, my girlfriend said don't let me miss a holiday and be alone."

  Li Baoquan, who was trapped in the sofa, felt like laughing, but he cleared his throat instead. "Alright, Captain Zhang, since you haven't paid yet, I'll go with you for a stroll. Tomorrow is my day off anyway." Fat Li opened the deep brown booklet on his belly, "This invitation is really written in Taiwanese dialect, so wordy and tedious. Qian Yunyun's family has changed their business, huh?"

  Ah Guo nodded: "With you, Li, accompanying me, even if Yang Wei sticks to me, my family's Teacher Li will be at ease. Look, it's also written below, formal attire required in the evening, no photography allowed, these Taiwanese enterprises are just awesome."

  "Now, I'm starting to envy Zhu Jiang. If he can draw the beautiful girls at the party, I'd feel it too." Ye Rui narrowed his eyes and suddenly thought of something: "Isn't Jing Tang going either?"

  2.

  The Qian's mansion was as bright as a castle.

  Outside the high walls, a fleet of cars was parked, including an HATV satellite broadcasting vehicle. Two security guards at the Qian estate were making faces and snickering at these futile reporters, who hadn't been invited and hadn't undergone full-body security checks, couldn't even take a step into the Qian estate, it's said that even their keys had been taken away, let alone their mobile phones and cameras.

  Inside the car. A girl with a red beret tilted on her head is leaning over a small notebook, her slender fingers dancing happily on the keyboard. Many lines of code emerge from the notebook and connect to various instruments in the carriage.

  "Is it going to work, Xue Gong?" Qiao Yi put down the high-powered night vision binoculars in front of him. "Fei Ge guaranteed two things: first, there will definitely be big news today; second, you'll definitely knock out the Qian Fu surveillance system, which is why he brought you back from Australia."

  "We, the greatest and most handsome Qiao Zong, didn't even attend after receiving the invitation, but instead stayed here with you to keep watch. What a loss of face." The speaker was Zhang Wei, a police special correspondent who was busy hunting monsters on the side.

  "Just call me Xiao Ying." Xue Ying wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, "As long as we use the current transmission frequency to cover the wireless channels of the cameras in the mansion, plus my special decoding technique..." Her fingers flew across the keyboard with a crisp enter, "Done!" The screens in the car that were originally displaying snowflakes suddenly jumped out with the views from various cameras in the Qian mansion, a lively scene.

  Qiao Yi threw down the binoculars in his hand and began to carefully compare them with the roster in his hand. "It turns out that there are indeed a few uninvited guests." A meaningful smile bloomed on Qiao Yi's handsome face.

  (Three)

  The endless night outside the left window disappeared, and the wing finally approached the solid runway. The dazzling lights and the soft, sweet female voice of "Wele to Taipei" by my ear pulled Tang Zhengfei out of his boundless reverie.

  As soon as Samsung was turned on, a string of missed calls and text messages made Ah Tang's eyes widen. Three text messages caused Ah Tang's eyebrows to start twitching involuntarily.

  "Authorized by Tongji Medical College, the authoritative expert has investigated and found that Fang Rong's original name is Thomas Hunt, a Taiwanese-American who studied under Forrhalt, the winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Biology. He is also a shareholder and technical director of Shenmu Industry. The fat guy doesn't even answer phone calls. ——Xin Yu, Director of the Alumni Association of China University of Science and Technology"

  "Recently, Shimao Property's expansion in the real estate industry has been too rapid in second- and third-tier cities on the mainland, and it has been listed as one of the key objects for internal review by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Its capital chain is unusually strong, and there are suspicions that it has a deep background." - Comment from Programme Jinwen, Inspector of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development

  "Already arranged as instructed, don't come back. — Liu San Shi, Min Trade Industry"

  A Tong gripped his phone tightly, and there was a hint of sweat on his temples.

  The bright exit passage walked to the end, saw that the two welcoming him were two Republic of China Air Force lieutenants. Tang Zhengfei's face showed a relieved expression.

  Article 4

  The magnificent hall on the water was filled with elegantly dressed men and women chatting politely, while waiters wearing masks flitted about like sprites.

  Zhu Jiang hasn't been this happy in a long time, with so many girls, most of whom are hot and beautiful, holding his comic book to ask for his signature. The girl who smiled sweetly just now was really cute, but she disappeared in the blink of an eye. Zhu Jiang let go of the girl beside him and began to scan the crowd casually.

  Zhang Weiguo was still worried and poked Li Baoquan who was in a hurry to eat dessert, "Did you receive his text message?"

  Fat Li glared at Ah Guo with a scowl, swallowing the delicious food in his mouth: "Of course I received it, we don't need to worry about what he does."

  The crowd quieted down. A girl wearing a Prada bespoke fur coat walked out of the inner room. Qian Yunyun, the heiress of the Qian Group and also the vice chairman of the group, came to the center of the crowd with several elders. The old Ye and Jing Tang were not seen in the crowd, and a hint of unease flashed across Qian Yunyun's eyes.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, the distinguished guest beside me is Mr. Liu, Executive Director of Haiji Association, and this is Mr. Zhao, Vice Chairman of Shenmou Group. Welcome to today's party, I sincerely hope that both sides of the strait will join hands to create a brilliant future and build a harmonious home." Amidst the warm applause, Ah Guo quietly disappeared into the crowd. Also disappearing with him was Zhu Jiang, who was anxious to find the sweet smiling beauty.

  The masquerade ball had begun, and the lights in the hall grew dim. Li Baoquan finished his last piece of chiffon cake with satisfaction, glanced at his watch, and nodded to himself - five minutes till nine o'clock. He clapped his hands and made a V-shape gesture towards a stout male servant wearing a Batman mask in the distance. Must be wanting two more servings, this guy, the girls beside him covered their mouths and giggled.

  (5)

  Taipei's deep autumn night was not as quiet and cold as Tong Zheng had imagined.

  On the stone steps in the courtyard, there are three pairs of shoes. One pair is only two-thirds as large as the other two pairs.

  At this time, Tang Zhengfei, who was kneeling in front of the low table with great respect, couldn't think of any good pleasantries for a while, except to squeeze out one sentence: "It's been ten years since we last met, Uncle Hongren, you've gotten old."