Chapter 58: Time to Get Closer to President Chu!

As Zhong Lei was lost in thought, a WeChat message popped up on his phone: “Brother Zhong, are you coming over tonight?”

Glancing at the three alluring photos the girl had sent, Zhong Lei immediately felt a thrill and replied with a smile, “Baby, wait for me!”

Hadn’t he divorced his nagging wife just for the sake of young women? This particular girl had taken some effort to win over, too.

Just then, the doorbell rang sharply and urgently.

“Who is it?” Zhong Lei walked to the door in confusion and called out.

A voice from outside replied, “Sir, we’re from property management. Didn’t you call about an issue with the bathroom valve? We’re here to take a look.”

“You guys are only coming now after the call I made yesterday? What kind of efficiency is that…” Zhong Lei grumbled as he opened the door, still cursing at the property staff in the corridor.

But as a group of police officers suddenly appeared on either side, his words died in his mouth.

“Zhong Lei, you’re involved in a case. Please come with us for investigation. Here’s your arrest warrant,” Hu Qing approached with his team and presented the warrant in front of Zhong Lei.

“Damn… That bastard, Cannon!” Zhong Lei instantly realized what had happened.

That guy had actually betrayed him—was a few days in jail for attempted theft really worth selling him out?

Zhong Lei was taken to the Pingjiang Police Station.

After completing the formalities, Hu Qing immediately arranged for an interrogation. “Zhong Lei, you know Lin Cannon, right? He’s confessed everything.”

“Ah!” Zhong Lei let out a deep sigh.

So Cannon really had ratted him out.

When had that guy become so disloyal?

The interrogation went smoothly.

With surveillance footage, Cannon’s statement, and transaction records, Zhong Lei knew escape was impossible.

After all, ordering someone to attempt theft wasn’t a major crime.

But as the interrogation continued, Zhong Lei’s expression grew more and more grim.

When he learned about the actual losses caused by Cannon during the attempted theft, he was struck dumb with fear. “No… no, officer, I only told him to steal prawns. I didn’t tell him to cause damage or kill those fish!”

Hu Qing reminded him coldly, “Zhong Lei, let me make this clear: if you instigated or hired someone for personal gain, you are equally responsible for all the consequences.”

He was well aware of the situation—Zhong Lei’s intention was likely just to steal prawns; everything else was probably an uncontrollable accident. But the law didn’t care about such distinctions.

It was like that recent case where someone bought a pack of cigarettes for his cousin and asked him to “teach a lesson” to a man who had slighted him. Things went awry, and the cousin accidentally killed the man.

That person acted as though it had nothing to do with him, but the cousin’s actions, though accidental, were caught on camera and considered less severe, earning him a five-year sentence, while the instigator, due to clear intent, received life imprisonment.

So why did people still believe that hiring someone for a crime was no big deal, and that even if things spiraled out of control, it wouldn’t be their responsibility?

In the end, Zhong Lei collapsed onto the chair in tears.

“Cannon, you bastard! You son of a bitch!”

He had only asked Cannon to steal some prawns, but the result was a decade behind bars or more.

Who could he reason with about that?

…

Time passed.

The next morning, as the Atlantis map refreshed its animals, Chu Lin was already up. Coming down from the second floor of the steel structure building, he headed to the monitoring room to check on Liu Xiao.

After returning from the police station the previous night, Liu Xiao had continued his watch, and now he was nodding off from exhaustion.

When he saw Chu Lin, Liu Xiao immediately stood up, bowed, and greeted him.

Chu Lin also noticed Liu Fa sleeping on a mat nearby.

After the incident last night, Liu Fa had come over and kept Liu Xiao company, showing his concern.

Seeing that all was well, Chu Lin went into the farm to move items from the game.

Now that Liu Xiao was part of the farm, he had to be more cautious entering and exiting the game.

Though there were clear instructions that Liu Fa and Liu Xiao shouldn’t enter the main farm area without permission, accidents could always happen.

Fortunately, there was a small steel-structured feed storage room on the farm. With the door closed, entering and exiting the game there was more discreet.

He quickly took out the prawns and oysters, placing them on the shipping platform in the yard.

Next were the newly refreshed blue-ringed jellyfish, which he added to those already collected.

The total number now exceeded two thousand.

Afterward, he scooped some prawns and two large fish for the kitchen to make breakfast.

Liu Fa got up to help, so Chu Lin had him debone the fish and make fish mince soup for Da Huang and Er Huang, rewarding them for valiantly guarding the farm.

“Boss Chu, is last night’s problem resolved?” Liu Fa couldn’t help but ask during breakfast.

“It’s all taken care of. The police will handle what’s left,” Chu Lin replied, glancing at Liu Xiao. “Liu Xiao did very well last night, bravely catching the thief, so I’ve decided to reward you with ten thousand yuan!”

As he spoke, he took out his phone and transferred ten thousand yuan via WeChat.

To be honest, he had to give this reward.

If it had been another security guard, they probably wouldn’t have dared chase a fleeing thief—after all, thieves can be desperate.

If Cannon had escaped last night, there would have been more trouble down the line, and it would have been a huge headache.

So, with this reward, Liu Xiao would have the motivation to keep giving his all in the future.

Liu Xiao had only felt he was doing his job and earning his salary, so he hadn’t expected an extra bonus—much less to have his boss transfer him ten thousand on the spot.

He leapt up, gesturing excitedly, but after a moment seemed to realize his boss didn’t understand sign language, so he simply bowed deeply, grinning sheepishly.

“No need for that. Just keep up the good work,” Chu Lin waved his hand, letting him finish his meal.

After breakfast, once Liu Fa had left to make deliveries, Chu Lin walked to the breeding pool for the blue-ringed jellyfish, then took out his phone and found Young Master Chen’s number.

Since he was going to establish a new blue-ringed jellyfish breeding facility, it was time to get things moving.

And why stop at just blue-ringed jellyfish? The Neptune grouper was also a popular ornamental fish.

This fish’s “+1 ornamental value” trait could only be cultivated in water treated with the Atlantis Blessing Stone; you wouldn’t find it anywhere else.

Given the Blessing Stone’s extremely high breeding attribute, one fish could produce tens of thousands of viable fry. One breeding pool per year would be more than enough.

There was no need to overproduce; the more there were, the lower the price. With the Blessing Stone’s properties, if production wasn’t limited, a fish worth over forty thousand yuan apiece could drop to the price of grass carp.

Keeping annual production to several tens of thousands would prevent the price from plummeting, and if necessary, they could be exported—overseas, they fetched up to $6,000 each.

By then, he could move the five males and one female to the new facility to attempt artificial breeding.

As for the tens of thousands of fry already produced, those certainly wouldn’t go to the new facility; that was all money.

Still, selling those fish in the future would require the help of Young Master Chen.

Fengshui Pets was a very famous ornamental aquatic pet store in Min City, with a large-scale operation.

That was all thanks to Chen Feng’s capable management.

He had arrived at his shop early that morning, settling the accounts from the previous batch of Neptune groupers with his finance team.

After the centennial sale of one hundred Neptune groupers, he naturally couldn’t just keep them all in the shop; who knew how long it would take to sell them that way?

He leveraged his distribution network, sharing profits to sell the fish quickly. While the profits were lower, the turnover was fast and the capital returned immediately.

The accountant finished tallying and reported, “Boss, this batch brought in a total profit of four hundred thousand!”

“Hmm!” Chen Feng nodded, satisfied with the figure.

Was forty thousand profit on a four-million-yuan batch of ornamental fish a lot? Not really.

But the key was that distribution meant a shorter sales cycle, so it was a good result.

Of course, the greatest benefit was the boost to his reputation—the publicity brought by this batch had expanded his network considerably.

That was the most valuable gain.

He wondered if Mr. Chu still had more of these fish. He really ought to cultivate the relationship if he had the chance.

Just as he was thinking this, his phone rang. To his surprise, it was Mr. Chu calling.