July 15th, Monday, 10:00 AM.
The headquarters of the famous private pharmaceutical giant that resounded throughout S Province and even the entire nation, Zhong Pharmaceuticals Group, was located in the golden CBD district of W District in C City.
Thirty years ago, Zhong Pharmaceuticals was still a small workshop manufacturing pharmaceutical intermediate materials. Later, somehow obtaining some opportunity, it suddenly began a frenzied expansion, leaping to become a leader in the pharmaceutical industry.
This development speed, while not uncommon in the rapidly changing China, was extremely rare in S Province.
The headquarters building, crafted by renowned architectural designers, was elegant and dignified. Under the blazing sun, the entire building's glass surface gleamed with brilliant dark green luster, crystal clear and dazzling.
Zhong Jing, dressed in formal attire, walked into the building. At the spacious reception desk in the lobby, several female clerks stood up with surprised looks.
"Young Master Zhong... Mr. Zhong, what brings you here?"
"Isn't my father here?"
Zhong Jing clutched his phone, showing some impatience on his face, his mood making the girls somewhat nervous.
"The chairman went on a business trip to Japan. For the specific return time, we need to contact the administrative center for confirmation. You could rest in the chairman's office first."
The receptionist blushed and quickly picked up the desk phone in front of her.
"No need, I can find it myself."
After saying this, Zhong Jing put on a brilliant smile and turned gracefully toward the elevator area.
"Hehe, do you think Young Master Zhong came today for another date with that new Assistant Tian from the administrative center... I've seen that woman. She graduated from university just last year and joined the group. She's beautiful with a good temperament, and from a prestigious university too! She even had dinner with Young Master Zhong last time!"
"But I heard it was Manager Li from the information center—the one who looks like a fox spirit! She's four or five years older than Young Master Zhong!"
Facing the future heir that everyone in Zhong Group had long tacitly acknowledged, the receptionists were naturally bursting with gossip.
Rumors about Zhong Jing having ambiguous relationships with several exceptional female employees in the group were no longer secret.
...
Zhong Jing's arrival was, to some extent, no less significant than the appearance of Chairman Zhong Hai himself. This father and son each had their own work, and their appearances at headquarters were few and far between.
The beauties in the administrative center found various ways and reasons to brush past or chat with Zhong Jing. What should have been a short corridor took Zhong Jing a full five minutes to reach his father's office door.
Assistant Tian, hailed as the new generation goddess of the administrative center, in classic professional attire paired with black stockings, opened the access to the chairman's office for Zhong Jing with a dignified smile.
But until the door closed again, Assistant Tian never saw any valuable hints on the face of the future master of the Zhong family, leaving her secretly disappointed.
Walking quickly to his father's desk, he took out a laptop from his bag, quickly connected to the internal network, and entered his backend access credentials.
As an unlisted company, Zhong Pharmaceuticals Group naturally couldn't have its true operational situation known by outsiders, but its industry valuation of over a hundred billion also confirmed that Zhong Group possessed industry-recognized strong revenue capabilities. Its digital information management was naturally extremely complex.
After more than a decade of version iterations, Zhong Group's information management had become quite sophisticated. Backend permissions were clearly defined, and access records were permanently preserved, making Zhong Jing somewhat hesitant about trying to query some sensitive historical materials.
No matter how much mystery surrounded the group's rise, his father Zhong Hai had always been a very cautious person. If he truly became a broker between the Blood Clan and the normal human world, that would be one thing, but if it involved even deeper connections, Zhong Jing could hardly imagine whether he would do what Wan Yue expected of him.
Moreover, he had long been fixed in his father's eyes as a profligate son who didn't care about the family business's prosperity. This sudden interest in querying the group's business information from over a decade ago would inevitably raise some suspicions.
His finger hesitated for several seconds over the search query button without clicking. Zhong Jing took a deep breath and finally closed the laptop, falling into deep thought.
A few days ago, Wan Yue's candid conversation with him had finally turned the page on thirteen years of prologue and entered the main topic. He had always been waiting for such a day, but when it came, he suddenly felt somewhat timid.
All his speculations and assumptions actually stemmed from his own family.
His father, Zhong Hai, was busy year-round with little time at home. His mother was a pet fanatic—at one point, the cats and dogs at home were numerous enough to compete with young Zhong Jing for space and snacks.
The person who was supposedly his older brother—their childhood interactions weren't positive either. Most of the time, the two brothers played separately without interfering with each other.
In his childhood, the closest people to him were actually the household nannies who changed every two years.
From the moment he crawled out of the back garden to chase after Superman, Zhong Jing felt he had finally found his own direction. His empty, boring life finally had the possibility of excitement.
Three years ago, he took over part of Wan Yue's mysterious work and truly began to understand the unknown side of this world.
Warming medicine, blood-boiling drugs, internal and external hormone suppressants—the mysterious world wasn't mysterious at all. They were all products of this civilized world, no different from antibiotics or cold medicine, just used by different people.
Was Zhong Pharmaceuticals Group, as Wan Yue had hinted, also one of those vested interests caught between normal human society and the Blood Clan world?
Was he truly, as Wan Yue said, challenging the most evil side of this world as a warrior? And the first target might very well be his own father.
His thoughts became increasingly chaotic and heavy. Zhong Jing shook his head several times.
...
The door opened, and Assistant Tian walked in, bringing Zhong Jing a cup of coffee while maintaining an elegant smile: "Mr. Zhong, it's confirmed that the chairman will return tomorrow. It's almost noon now—shall I arrange lunch for you?"
Assistant Tian before him was very beautiful with excellent temperament. Zhong Jing had some ambiguous social interactions with her a few months ago, but now his mind was completely drifting in another world.
"Mr. Zhong... how about having lunch together at noon? The career advice you gave me last time was very inspiring, and I've been thinking about how to thank you..."
Assistant Tian blushed shyly, her voice soft.
"Miss Tian, my firm took on a project—business consulting for horizontal industry-academia-research cooperation for a small agricultural company. I want to know if the group has taken on similar cooperation over the years. I'd like to use it as reference."
Zhong Jing seemed not to have heard Assistant Tian's lunch invitation and instead took out a cigarette and lit it.
"Agricultural-related? Please wait a moment, I'll help you search."
Assistant Tian concealed her inner disappointment and quickly got up to walk to her workstation outside. More than ten minutes later, the sound of a printer could be heard, and a few minutes after that, three business information lists appeared before Zhong Jing.
"This is from 2013—a tripartite industry-academia-research joint project between the group, S Province Agricultural and Forestry University, and a certain livestock company, researching the extraction of various biological enzyme preparations from cattle organs.
"This is from 2016—cooperation between the group and a certain fishery company on pharmaceutical research and development cooperation based on fungal infections in freshwater aquaculture fish."
Assistant Tian crouched beside Zhong Jing, marking the printed materials with a pen, very professionally.
"Are there any with smaller cooperation scales? These are all projects requiring large amounts of funding, not suitable for my client."
Zhong Jing casually browsed through the materials in his hands, not finding the information he wanted.
"Smaller scale?" Assistant Tian was puzzled. "The group should have had some in the early days, but because it was so long ago, they probably weren't entered into the database. Should I ask the information center if there are any archived paper materials?"
"No need, thank you. I'll ask my father for them."
Zhong Jing stood up, checked his watch, grabbed his suit jacket, and returned to his carefree manner. Staring at her curvaceous figure with a smile: "It's 11:30. If you're free at noon, would Miss Tian honor me by having a simple meal together!"
"Yes, yes!"
The beautiful assistant tried to control her inner ecstasy, nodding reservedly and obediently.
Zhong Group headquarters' work schedule wasn't strict—lunch and rest time totaled an hour and a half, and with a word to colleagues in the same department, even two hours was possible.
The exquisite simple lunch lasted only half an hour before ending. Zhong Jing led Assistant Tian into a hotel near the group and booked a private room...
...
...
Near a certain old residential complex on Yushui Street in J District, on top of a tall building, under the scorching sun, several black-clothed men gazed at an unremarkable residential building, each with somewhat gloomy expressions.
"Boss, we've been observing for nearly a month. Before the Wang family's feudal knight had his incident, we didn't dare get too close, and there were one or two guys of unknown background hanging around those two girls. Yesterday I discovered they were moving, so I arranged for someone to secretly follow them."
The speaking black-clothed middle-aged man spoke fearfully to a ridiculously handsome young man in front of him, obvious fear in his eyes.
"Boss, those two girls are absolutely top quality! In just over a month, they've jumped to Attendant level! That scent—we can sense it from half of Yushui Street away! They must both be rare blood types, and they're new initiates too. Their blood-boiling and pheromone control abilities are a complete mess!"
Another young black-clothed man quickly added.
"You bunch of idiots, only telling me now? Were you planning to hoard them for yourselves?"
The handsome young man snorted coldly, a trace of greedy killing intent showing in his eyes. "Special constitutions that might not be encountered for decades, no, maybe centuries. Although their realm is a bit low, they're still useful for my push to Baron!"
As he spoke, a faint aura emanated from the handsome young man—already the aura of an upper-tier Knight at peak level.
"Boss, if only you'd returned earlier. That feudal knight was crazy too, so we were more cautious... Once boss advances to Baron, your status will be incomparable. What quality goods won't be at your fingertips? The brothers can all benefit and get some scraps!"
The previous black-clothed middle-aged man quickly stepped forward to flatter him, face full of servility.
"Have some self-awareness—if you can’t become a baron, you're all trash!"
The handsome young man turned back coldly, looking at his subordinates, the smugness and brutality in his eyes becoming more obvious: "If that woman hadn't suddenly gone crazy from pregnancy and drawn the Shadow Arrow Force, finding a chance to devour a feudal knight would have been best!
"Forget it, you must find the whereabouts of those two girls! If you haven't lied to me, the two of them together could count as one Knight."
"Yes, boss!"
The several black-clothed men all nodded and bowed.