Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 65: The 7th Kind of Energy

Chapter 65: Chapter 65: The 7th Kind of Energy

"This is just a gathering among friends; consider me one of your friends, and you can just call me Liu."

The man who called himself Liu lowered his voice.

Duan Mingyuan looked in the direction that he indicated; the followers he spoke of were not employees of the security department. There were two of them, looking to be about forty years old. At first glance, they seemed like ordinary office workers finishing their day, but upon entering, they chose seats directly opposite them. After sitting down and taking off their jackets, they pretended to chat, yet their eyes occasionally flicked over here.

"Da Jiang never mentioned you."

Duan Mingyuan remained composed, and from his observations, it seemed these two men were specifically here for Liu; their table had become a temporary sanctuary.

"That’s not important. What is important is that I have something to give you."

As he spoke, Liu suddenly raised his voice, took out his phone pretending to scan a code, and said, "I’m late; I will treat you to this meal."

"Brother Liu, you are too kind."

Tang Qianqian got the hint and took out her phone too, engaging in a back-and-forth refusal with Liu. With their backs to the two followers who had tracked them inside, the trackers saw the tug-of-war between the two and several times seemed ready to get up but restrained themselves.

What was sent contained densely packed text, videos, and photos providing evidence. Tang Qianqian didn’t have time to read the text, but the photos, albeit blurry, were shocking.

In an unknown location, several trucks were parked, and workers were loading cargo into the back of the trucks.

Monsters, like animals awaiting slaughter, were trapped in cages, crammed in such tight spaces they could not move. In cages further away, Tang Qianqian noticed something even more chilling—despite the issue of the shooting angle nearly reducing them to pixels, she could faintly make out that those packed inside were humans.

There were many people, crammed together just like the monsters.

The title above the images and text wasn’t unfamiliar; it read "Seventh Class Energy Source."

The atmosphere of this dinner was doomed not to be pleasant.

"How has work been going lately?"

After the tug-of-war, Tang Qianqian pretended to casually ask.

Liu immediately caught on and complained, "Same as always, but you know, being a journalist is just a profession people love to hate."

This surely was no ordinary journalist, given that no reporter would have the audacity to privately investigate corporate affairs.

By now, the two followers had sensed something was amiss and stood up to walk directly toward their table. Liu caught a glimpse of the two men out of the corner of his eye and said, "Don’t do anything rash. I’ll go back with them... Make sure you transfer what I sent you and find a way to destroy the phone. Deleting records is useless to the company."

My phone!

Suddenly, a wave of immense sorrow overcame Tang Qianqian.

She had just bought the latest model last month with her paycheck and, without a job now, and the organization’s funds being extremely limited, even if she got reimbursed for the phone, she might have to settle for an outdated model.

But at the moment, she could only nod in agreement.

The two men approached their table and stated their business, "Mr. Liu, there is a work-related matter we need to discuss with you."

"Is it something to do with the newspaper?"

As Liu stood up, he didn’t forget to signal with his eyes for the three to not act rashly, and deliberately said, "Well, Old Duan, Xiao Tang, the editor-in-chief might need me for something. This meal is on me; we’ll gather another day."

"You really are a busy man."

Tang Qianqian played along as well, "Then we’ll meet up some other time."

She admitted that her heart trembled when she spoke; if they demanded to see her phone at that moment, the photos and text on it would be impossible to clean up.

The two followers were burly, clearly not the type to be trifled with. They seemed like they wanted to say something else, but after seeing Duan Mingyuan and Jiuyue, they nodded towards the trio and dragged Liu’s arm as they left.

It wasn’t until Liu was taken out of the restaurant that Tang Qianqian hesitantly asked, "Old Liu won’t be in trouble, will he?"

Although she had known him for only a short time, she could guess why the company was looking for Liu.

The righteous reporter, after accidentally uncovering the company’s unspeakable conspiracy, began an investigation and finally one night captured evidence of the illegal business. But at the same time, he inadvertently exposed himself and got targeted by the company.

Tang Qianqian knew that asking such a question was no different from asking nonsense.

One could easily guess with their toes how the company would deal with someone whose curiosity was too strong.

"They probably will,"

Duan Mingyuan said.

It was like the opening of those movies where the righteous reporter trades his life for information, handing it over to someone else, then using the leaked company intel as a clue to start a thrilling manhunt. In the end, after many sacrifices, justice prevails over evil, exposing the dark conspiracies to the public.

When Duan Mingyuan came across such movies, he always watched them with great interest.

However, he didn’t wish for such stories to happen in real life.

Especially since the love and justice so fervently championed in the movies often led to death and sorrow.

This was also why he had increasingly preferred watching exhilarating movies lately. Although such films were often criticized as popcorn movies, given a choice, he genuinely hoped that the retired special agents portrayed in the films would come to life, killing their way through without earning anyone’s tears, relying on brutal aesthetics to bulldoze through evil and bring it to justice.

"Senior, you should take a look,"

Tang Qianqian said, tossing her phone to Duan Mingyuan as if offloading a burden.

She was never a nosy person, nor did she like trouble, and most importantly, she felt somewhat nauseated just by glancing at the content of the photos, "Senior, you better brace yourself before you look."

The steam chicken from "Yun Xiang Ge" was second to none in Yunlong City, and she certainly didn’t want to lose her appetite for dinner later.

Duan Mingyuan nodded and scrolled to the very beginning of the dense text.

"Seventh Class Energy Source":

"The so-called Seventh Class Energy Source does not refer to the common thermal energy, electrical energy, light energy, mechanical energy, chemical energy, and other common resources, but to the Life Energy Source, which is extracted from living beings. Since its discovery, it has been widely used on the battlefield. Blue Star is known as an important production site for this Seventh Class Energy Source."

This was the content written at the beginning, confirming Duan Mingyuan’s suspicion.

The first thing Bai Kou said after meeting them was, "The fox can stay; we have several projects that are in urgent need of an Energy Source."

What she referred to as the Energy Source must be the Seventh Class Energy Source.

Jiuyue was different from other Monsters, as she was a rare kind that had transformed into a human form. She said that even among the Ruihu clan, those like her who were born in human form were extremely rare.

Duan Mingyuan looked at the little fox who was sitting quietly beside him.

"Jiuyue."

"Hm?"

"This might be a large-scale human trafficking case."