Blind Spot
Chapter 198 - 186 Choice 2

Chapter 198: 186 Choice 2

"I’m stepping out first, according to the rules, Alcon’s research time is six hours. The countdown starts the moment you enter this place," Li Daqi reminded.

"Thank you, thank you," Li Chengyi slipped him a cigarette.

"No need, no need, Alcon provides us with quite a bit of public sponsorship every year. How could I take anything from you?" Li Daqi said with a smile, refusing the offer and turning to leave.

The door gently closed.

Leaving Li Chengyi alone with the prisoner, Ni Xiangchun.

Turning around, Li Chengyi looked at Ni Xiangchun.

The man was yawning, wearing a light blue prison uniform smeared with traces of motor oil all over.

Clearly, he had just been taken back from reform through labor.

"You’re Ni Xiangchun?" He stepped closer, looking around before asking in a deep voice.

"And who the hell are you?" Ni Xiangchun blurted out, a wave of thuggish aura hitting Li Chengyi in the face.

"I’m here to break you out!" Li Chengyi whispered, lowering his voice mysteriously.

"????" Ni Xiangchun had dealt with many researchers and faced numerous verbal tricks, but this was a first.

He looked at Li Chengyi with confusion, not understanding what he was talking about.

"You don’t believe me?" Li Chengyi said in a hushed tone, "I’ve already bribed the guards here. In a moment, when I open the door, change into a guard’s uniform the first chance you get. Don’t make any noise and follow me; there’s a car ready outside."

"You’re fucking joking with me, right?" Ni Xiangchun scoffed.

"Stop testing me; let’s get out of here and talk later." Li Chengyi walked over to the left side of the alloy gate and swiped something hard across the door.

Shh.

The lock on the door was quietly severed.

The alloy door opened....

Ni Xiangchun’s eyes widened on the spot.

This guy... What the hell?! Was he really going to help him escape?!

"What are you looking at? Someone paid me to do this! Hurry up! We only have ten minutes before the patrol changeover! We won’t make it then!" Li Chengyi urged.

Ni Xiangchun, looking at the metal gate cut by some sharp tool, instantly felt tempted.

He was doomed anyway. No one who entered the prison alive had ever left.

Why not....

All of a sudden, he dashed to the gate, threw it open and ran out.

"Help! Someone’s breaking out!!" Li Chengyi hastily backed away, slapping his hand on the wall alarm button.

Woo!!

An ear-piercing alarm instantly sounded.

In less than two seconds,

two sturdy guards wearing bulletproof vests burst through the door.

They saw Ni Xiangchun who had just rushed out of the gate.

With a fierce pounce, they tackled Ni Xiangchun down hard to the floor.

One choked his neck while the other restrained his arms, swiftly pinning him down.

"Ahh!!! It was him! He unlocked the isolation door and told me to break out! It was him!!!" Ni Xiangchun twisted frantically.

"I don’t even know you! I have nothing on me; how could I possibly unlock the isolation door?" Li Chengyi shook his head.

Anger +3.

Anger +3.

Feeling the continuously escalating Evil Thoughts, he nodded in satisfaction.

Indeed, criminals with heavy sentences are all strong... If ordinary prisoners still exhibit signs of bullying the weak and fearing the strong,

Heavy criminals are highly unlikely to do so.

No matter how much Ni Xiangchun yelled, after a beating from the two guards, he quickly fell silent.

And Li Chengyi had successfully harvested anger Evil Thoughts.

Because Ni Xiangchun had been knocked unconscious.

Half an hour later.

With a bruised nose and a swollen face, Ni Xiangchun once again, outside the bars, faced Li Chengyi.

"Brother Ni, the earlier incident was a misunderstanding. I was testing the guards’ reaction speed here. It was a preparation for the real escape," Li Chengyi sincerely explained.

"...." Ni Xiangchun stared at him, his eyes burning with rage, apparently the recent incident had rekindled his anger.

"Don’t be like that, Brother Ni. I’ve already checked and arranged everything properly.

This time there’s really no problem. Follow me!"

Li Chengyi promptly stood up and once more gently reached out to open the gate.

Then, not stopping there, he turned around and opened the room door too.

No one was there outside.

The two guards who should have been on duty were nowhere in sight.

"Quick, Brother Ni! Hurry up!!" Li Chengyi gestured eagerly to Ni Xiangchun.

Ni Xiangchun’s rage began to fade as he carefully approached the gate and looked out into the corridor.

Indeed, there were no guards in sight.

And even the lights on the electronic surveillance cameras had dimmed.

Clearly, they had been temporarily disabled.

After hesitating for half a minute, he gritted his teeth and once again stepped out of the gate.

This time there was no alarm!

His heart trembled.

Who would choose to die?

If it wasn’t for betrayal, he would never have been caught.

Now... finally.

Finally, there was a chance... to get out and take revenge!!

Ni Xiangchun hurriedly rushed out of the prison cell.

Indeed, this time the man who was supposed to save him did nothing unusual, and he was genuinely leading him out.

"This way! Hurry, Brother Ni!" Li Chengyi ran ahead, motioning for him to follow.

Ni Xiangchun, seeing the empty corridors around him, suddenly felt his heart racing, his muscles tensing.

He quickly followed.

"Well done! Once I’m out, money, women, you’ll have whatever you want!! If there’s any for me, there’s for you too!!" he said fiercely.

"Thanks, Brother Ni! Let’s go this way!" Li Chengyi led the way briskly, making a turn.

Ni Xiangchun followed the turn.

Bang!!

Two hulking exoskeleton-clad guards suddenly lunged, fiercely knocking him down and pinning him to the ground.

"Thanks for the help, guys," Li Chengyi said cheerfully to the side, "This guy’s too stupid, he believed anything I said."

Ni Xiangchun’s head went blank again.

He quickly came to his senses, looking at Li Chengyi.

"Ahh!!!" he yelled, struggling, his eyes filled with blood vessels.

"You fucking played me!!?"

Anger +5.

Anger +4.

"He’s too agitated; hurry up and cool him down," Li Chengyi said to the guards.

Thump.

A muffled thud.

A prison guard, quite skilled, knocked Ni Xiangchun unconscious with a slap and dragged him back to his original cell.

All was quiet again.

Li Chengyi watched the Evil Thoughts he had once again harvested and nodded with satisfaction.

He checked the time and suddenly found a good method that could rapidly absorb Evil Thoughts.

"Three more hours, I can do this one more time!"

Several hours later.

The sky grew dark.

Li Chengyi, amid the warm farewell from everyone at the prison, left the place smoothly.

And his Evil Thought percentage had leapt from 24% absorbed from Zhuang Yijing to 56%.

But the result was that Ni Xiangchun no longer looked at him at all.

No matter what Li Chengyi said to Ni Xiangchun, the latter ignored him completely, treating him as if he were thin air.

This time absorbing Evil Thoughts was much more difficult compared to the time with Zhuang Yijing, indicating that Zhuang Yijing’s willpower was actually stronger than Ni Xiangchun’s.

After contemplating, Li Chengyi took a taxi back to his place.

Although the direction of a prison researcher was a bit troublesome, the profits were also good.

It was a sustainable project.

Li Chengyi planned to stick with it.

The research institute where Da Xiong was located could only be visited once a month for research. So, to go again, he had to wait for some time.

*

*

*

On the 13th.

The Suiyang City Association, once again formally convened at the Association Building in the center of the city.

In the spacious conference hall, name tags had been arranged by the service staff at each seat early on.

An oval, elongated table was covered with thick red cloth, embossed with golden letters that proclaimed maintaining social stability as its duty.

One by one, the members of the Association entered the conference hall and sat at their respective seats.

Ding Zaocheng, as the bureau chief, entered with a calm demeanor and took his seat.

The others also entered one by one.

Among them, Zheng Kai of Tie Feng Group looked as if he had aged several years, haggard with deeply sunken eyes.

The Xu Family patriarch, Xu Zhenchang, had a calm face; after sitting down, he slightly closed his eyes, seemingly resting.

Wang Kaizhi of the Wang Family, who had previously spoken out against Tie Feng Group, entered slowly with his hands clasped behind his back and took his seat.

His son quickly behind him took out a cup of brewed medicinal tea and placed it on the table.

These were key figures.

Most of the strongest local powers of Suiyang were in this circle.

After everyone else sat down, their gaze involuntarily turned to this side, with a bit of the air of watching a spectacle.

Tap tap tap...

Suddenly, a series of subtle yet assertive footsteps started from outside the door.

"Mr. Li, this is one of the regular meeting rooms for our city association.

General meetings are mainly held here, as well as other two locations. Please, this way."

A gentle female voice came from outside the door.

All the people present were astute, even if they were technical experts who had joined the Association, after being part of it for so long, they had become politically sensitive.

Everyone noticed that the seating order, which hadn’t changed once in years, now had an additional spot.

At that spot, a name tag was placed.

It read: Mingyuan Company—Li Chengyi.

"Thank you for leading the way," came a calm, young male voice from outside at this moment.

The overly young voice made everyone present feel somewhat stirred up.

Some frowned, some squinted, and some looked down at their phones as if they were messaging.

But most eyes turned toward the door,

Waiting for the newcomer to enter.

The footsteps got closer and closer.

Finally.

A tall man with long black hair walked confidently into the conference room.

The man’s eyes were black with a hint of gold, suggesting he might be wearing some type of eye modification module.

He was dressed in a simple black suit and deep purple shirt.

The key was his demeanor.

For some reason, from the moment he entered the door, whether it was his gaze, posture, or expressions,

There was a subtle sense of aggression.

Even though he appeared quite gentle, he gave off a strong sense of threat.

That sense... was like a lion entering a flock of sheep.

"Let’s welcome Mr. Li Chengyi from Mingyuan Company to take his seat," Ding Zaocheng, as the host, said.

Instantly, applause erupted.

"Thank you, thank you everyone. I am new here, so please take good care of me in the future," Li Chengyi said politely with a fist salute.

He quickly took his seat with the help of a service attendant.

No sooner had he sat down when someone next to him whispered,

"The advertisement for Mingyuan Company is very well done, I’ve seen it too, impressive."

The person had a full beard, green glasses, and white-dyed hair, exuding an alternative vibe, yet his name tag showed: Wan Chenghao, Director of Keyu Fitness.

"Thank you." Li Chengyi responded with a smile, figuring a smile was the best response during his first meeting—no one would be offended by a smiling face.

"Did you really kill Zheng Kai’s son from Tie Feng Group?" Wan Chenghao asked again.

"I don’t know about that," Li Chengyi said with a smile.

"It seems that Tie Feng Group is nothing in your eyes... Killing that kid is essentially doing a good deed," Wan Chenghao continued.

"I’m just here for the meeting, I’m not privy to anything else," Li Chengyi maintained his smile.

"Sigh... Brother Li is watertight. Recently, Zheng Kai’s father died. His group’s business was also targeted and suffered a significant loss," Wan Chenghao said.

"His father died? We weren’t aware of that..." Li Chengyi wasn’t sure which expression to use at this point, but for consistency, he continued to smile.

"Not only did his father die, but his newlywed wife has been secretly transferring assets and cheating on him; he has been tied up with lawsuits lately. I heard the son his wife had with her lover is already over ten years old..."

"That’s really tragic..." Li Chengyi smiled.

"...You really do seem happy..." Wan Chenghao was at a loss for words.

"....." Li Chengyi also looked innocent; he hadn’t attended such meetings before and wasn’t sure which expressions to use.

It was Da Xiong who had told him before leaving to keep smiling.

As long as you smile, people will think you are inscrutable, hard to figure out, and it also brings you closer to them, seeming less sharp and dangerous.

"Look, Zheng Kai is looking at you," Wan Chenghao hinted discreetly, gesturing in that direction.

Li Chengyi looked in the direction indicated and saw Zheng Kai looking over.

He smiled at the man.

Bang!

Zheng Kai couldn’t help but slam his fist onto the table, his face blanching with rage.

Anger +2.