Chapter 350: 271. Zhang Chengze in a dilemma
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“Xiao Niu, have you and Zhang Tianzhen made your preparations?” Qing Chen asked before leaving, “I mean, about joining the Heng Society. Remember, once you join, there’s no turning back. If one day you think of quitting, the daylight won’t allow someone who’s disheartened and willing to compromise to stay in the organization.”
Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen looked at each other: “Boss, we’re ready.”
“Good, go report to Heng Society tomorrow. I’ve already spoken to them. Start from the basics,” Qing Chen said, “As for how far you can go, that’s entirely up to you.”
Qing Chen left in the wind and snow. If he wanted to do business with Zhang Chengze, he’d first have to find Zhang Chengze.
However, he didn’t go straight to the Fourth District but instead returned to his home in the Luo Shen Building.
He plugged the USB drive he brought back from the Outer World into the adapter in his house, waiting for the data to upload.
A few seconds later, Yi exclaimed, “Sprout, the Outer World is quite interesting, isn’t it?”
Qing Chen: “…You’re just after the novelty of it all. You’ll get tired of it once the novelty wears off.”
“That won’t happen,” Yi said, “In the long years, I’ve learned how to keep myself entertained.”
Qing Chen’s reason for returning was exactly to upload the “Outer World’s Yi data stream,” so that “Inner World’s central Yi” could know what was happening in the Outer World.
He asked, “I need to find that Zhang Chengze now, can you help me look for him?”
Yi thought for a moment and said, “I can, but can you help me meet someone in the Outer World…”
Qing Chen raised an eyebrow: “I knew you’d have some tricks up your sleeve, forget it!”
“Oh, then the matter of finding Zhang Chengze, I can change the condition. If you pay me a remuneration of 100,000 yuan in the Outer World, I’m a bit short on money over there…”
Qing Chen’s eyes widened: “Why don’t you just rob someone!”
…
Zhang Chengze looked around curiously at this new world.
The place referred to as the Inner World by the Time Travelers.
He looked around and found himself in a dimly lit small room filled with over ten people, lying haphazard and scattered all over the floor.
This made Zhang Chengze somewhat unclear about his situation: what exactly was his circumstance?
He had done a lot of homework before coming to the Inner World. Among the most important were three points.
The first was that the people of the Inner World naturally hated Time Travelers, and only a few organizations would tolerate their existence.
So, once in the Inner World, he must never reveal his identity as a Time Traveler.
The second point was to avoid provoking financial groups in the Inner World; under unclear circumstances, he should keep his distance from them.
Lastly, beware of the Kidney Cutters; venturing out at nighttime in the lower areas of the Inner World, one could easily encounter criminals who steal mechanical limbs and plunder organs. If they targeted him, it could be exceedingly miserable.
At this moment, what concerned Zhang Chengze the most was the first point. He had to blend in here first and then wait for the Time Traveler he’d hired to come to his rescue.
Then, everything would start to improve.
Zhang Chengze had the shrewdness of a businessman in his bones. He was different from the scholar-merchants like Hu Dacheng. Starting from scratch in the 90s, what he had honed most was the ability to seize opportunities and the ability to endure.
The big businessmen who rose in that era all had the demeanor of heroic figures, often operating in the gray areas, having seen all walks of life.
Zhang Chengze silently lay on his bunk, discreetly observing the people around him: tattoos, mechanical limbs, shaggy hair.
The whole room was as cold as an icehouse, yet even in this season, the room was filled with the stench of sweat and foot odor.
The tattoos on the backs of these people were all very similar, a fierce ghost with a green face and fangs.
These ghosts were more or less the same. Zhang Chengze carefully observed and realized that the tattoos seemed to have been made from a stencil; they were purely bad tattoo artistry, which is why each tattoo looked different…
Then he looked at the mechanical limbs and noticed that some were rusted, appearing as wretched as could be.
Zhang Chengze silently took stock of himself, fortunately, he did not have any mechanical limbs on his body.
He felt his pockets and then the area around him, and something astonishing happened—there was no mobile phone on or near him!
Before traveling to the Inner World, he had arranged with the Time Traveler he’d hired that they would contact each other via mobile phones after their transition.
Zhang Chengze had taken the effort to memorize the other party’s mobile number, but now he found himself without a phone!
What the heck!
At this time, not far away, someone lamented: “When will we be able to stop hiding like this, dodging here and there?”
Zhang Chengze perked up; these words revealed extremely important information.
They helped him understand his current situation.
It seemed that the people lying on the ground weren’t asleep; they were just compelled to hide here, with nothing to entertain themselves with, so they could only lie down and feign death.
One person responded: “It’s all because the boss got blinded by greed. He just had to join other societies to encircle Heng Society. Now look what happened, the boss himself died a miserable death, and we’re dodging Heng Society’s pursuit, forced to hide here and there.”
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Someone sneered, “You’d only dare to say that because the boss isn’t here anymore. Weren’t you the most enthusiastic one when it was proposed to encircle the Heng Society? You were obsessing over the girls on Heng Society’s turf every single day!”
Zhang Chengze, listening to these words, suddenly felt that something was off. This information didn’t quite match what the Time Travelers had told him.
Wasn’t it said that the Heng Society had been encircled by the various major factions? Yet now it seemed as if the Heng Society had decimated all the major factions…