“We just wasted all of our efforts. Xu Qian’s boyfriend turned out to be clean.”
E-Goat turned off his microcomputer and leaned his body back on the sofa, looking frustrated.
He hesitated for the whole night before making up his mind to come to the fourth level with Zhang Heng and sifted through the information obtained by illegal means. But, unfortunately, it turned out that it was just a false alarm. Anyone would be disappointed by such an outcome, especially E-Goat. At first, E-Goat was planning to use the information obtained from this investigation to prevent Xu Qian from getting engaged with her boyfriend. Now, it seemed all of his hopes were lost. Hence, he had now returned to his previous state of despair.
Zhang Heng, who was sitting opposite him, did not say a word. He was still flipping through the copied materials in his hands. As the manager of the marketing department, Zhang Heng and E-Goat had the highest chances to meet up with him. Due to the nature of his work, he had to deal with various inquiries from the customers. Hence, a large amount of company-related information was stored in his bracelet. From these data, it could be seen that Zhuorui’s business was nothing more than ordinary. They would take orders from other companies every month, and the orders could be big or small. And most of the time, Zhuorui would deliver its products on time.
As for Liao Ming, the marketing manager’s activities in recent months, he could not find anything wrong with it as well. Other than daily activities, most of his contacts were customers who wanted to order sensors from Zhuorui. After Zhang Heng checked his communication records and location information, the thing that impressed him the most was his work attitude.
In essence, he was more than diligent. Liao Ming got married very early, his wife being his classmate from the university that he attended. However, the perfect couple that everyone expected to last a lifetime did not have a smooth life after the marriage. After seven years of marriage, their relationship was forced to come to an end. Liao Ming chose to leave her and took away his four-year-old daughter.
One could see that his failed marriage impacted him greatly. Although Liao Ming was messing around with some heterosexual partners due to his physical needs, he never had the idea of remarrying. At the same time, to make up for his daughter’s lack of motherly love, Liao Ming decided to give his daughter a high-standard and materialistic life.
Although he was living on the third level, he paid a hefty price to send his daughter to the boarding school on the fourth. That way, she got to enjoy the high-quality educational resources the level had to offer. The pocket money he gave her and the money he spent on her clothes and toys were comparable to the other students in the boarding school. In addition to that, every year, he would save a future education fund for her underage daughter to prepare her to leave New Shanghai 0297 to study further on earth.
To maintain such a life would undoubtedly cost Liao Ming a great fortune, which probably explained why he worked so hard in the company. He spent more than 14 hours with his customers every day. Besides the need to constantly look for new clients, he also needed to maintain a good relationship with his existing ones. Liao Ming’s notebook was filled with various customer personal information, including their children’s birthdays, the cosmetic products their wives liked, and even what food their pet dogs enjoyed. It allowed him to establish an intimate relationship with his customers in the shortest time possible and make a breakthrough in his business.
Such a person could be regarded as a model employee no matter which company he worked in.
E-Goat then complained, “Maybe he will contact someone from Qitong Technology Company to check on our background now. He seems to be quite familiar with Qitong. He should have some friends over there. We should leave before he exposes us on the fourth level.”
“Well, if you are worried, you can go first. I will stay here for a while,” Zhang Heng finally said.
“Why? Do you know that we are only allowed to stay here for less than ten hours? According to the regulations, we will need to leave the fourth level before six o’clock in the evening.” E-Goat frowned.
“Thank you for reminding me. I will pay attention to the time,” Zhang Heng replied, then beckoned to the waitress of the coffee shop.
“Wait. Are you planning to leave me alone and do something bad?” E-Goat looked nervous when he heard what Zhang Heng said. He seemed to want to say something but was forced to shut his mouth when he saw the waitress walking over.
“Bill, please. Thank you.”
“Okay. I will send you the e-bill now. All you need to do is click pay when you confirm that everything is stated correctly,” the waitress smiled and returned to the other side after speaking.
While waiting for her to leave them completely, E-Goat continued lamenting in a low voice, “Can you stop making trouble everywhere? I was the one that filled out the application form. If you cause any trouble, I will be in big trouble too.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t cause any trouble,” Zhang Heng said. “I will go back after I meet up with someone.”
“Who else do you want to meet?”
Zhang Heng did not answer his question immediately this time. Instead, he raised his eyebrows and said, “If you really want to help, I do have a favor to ask from you.”
“What’s the matter?” E-Goat asked.
“Can you pay the pill, or we can go with AA.”
“…”
After that, E-Goat saw the bill forwarded to him by Zhang Heng. They had ordered two cups of coffee and one cookie from the cafe, and after staying for an hour and a half, they spent a total of 300 credits. Zhang Heng was the one that asked E-Goat to help him, and he did contribute a lot at Zhuorui Company. It was only right for Zhang Heng to buy him a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, he just started the quest, and he had less than a thousand credits with him when he first came here. Now he was only left with six hundred credits.
It would cost him half of what he had now if he paid for the meal. Left with no other options, Zhang Heng had to ask E-Goat to pay for him first. As a result, the latter looked at him contemptuously and paid the bill.
The price of the items on the fourth level was way higher than that of the third level. Although E-Goat’s income as a network engineer was not as good as that of Xu Qian, he still earned a considerable amount of credits every month. Hence, he could still afford to pay for this meal.
However, when E-Goat followed Zhang Heng to the next place, he found out that he had deceived him. Zhang Heng did not continue to investigate Xu Qian’s boyfriend. Instead, he went to the elementary school where Liao Ming’s daughter studied.
Zhang Heng checked the background of this school on the internet earlier. Even on the fourth level, this school had a good reputation, was well-known for its strict management and teaching quality. Therefore, this school was favored by many parents.
Zhang Heng then used his old tricks again. He bought a package of snacks from the nearby supermarket, disguised as a friend of Liao Ming, and met Liao Ming’s daughter’s class teacher with the reason of wanting to give her the snack.
He chatted with her class teacher for about five minutes. He then handed the snacks to the class teacher and left the school. After that, he reunited with E-Goat that waited for him outside the school. The latter looked confused, “This is it? What the hell are you doing? You came here just to give Liao Ming’s daughter some snacks?”
“Yes, that’s right.” Zhang Heng nodded.
“And then?”
“It’s getting late. Let’s go back to the third level first. Thank you for coming here with me today… After I go back, I have to investigate a few more things, and I’ll ask you for a coffee after I figure out everything.” Zhang Heng said.
