Qiu Ming was humming a pop song that Xu Qian loved singing during her live broadcast. He was frying the steak in the kitchen. His control of the heat was perfect. The steak was tender and juicy. After serving it on a plate, Qiu Ming sprinkled some black pepper on it, adding two slices of broccoli with boiling water.
He then took two steps back and admired his masterpiece before pouring himself a glass of red wine. Then, he held the glass in one hand and carried the steak out of the kitchen with the other, ready to celebrate the successful completion of the work.
But what he saw next stunned him.
He found that there were two more people at his dining table.
Qiu Ming didn’t know who one of them was, but he recognized the other person.
“Where is Xu Qian?” E-Goat asked with a dark face. With a puffed chest, he tried to make his voice sound more fierce.
“F*ck!”
Qiu Ming couldn’t help but swear, but he quickly apologized.
“I’m not targeting you. I just didn’t expect Xu Qian to tell someone else about her. This will make the whole thing more complicated. By the way, didn’t you break up with her because you stalked her? Why still care about this?”
“Even though she said she doesn’t want to see me again, and I’ve decided to wish her happiness. If she’s in danger, I won’t sit idly by,” E-Goat vehemently proclaimed.
“…”
“Dog licking is a real b*tch!”Qiu Ming lamented.
Seeing E-Goat’s drastic change in expression, Qiu Ming gestured for him to calm down. Then, he walked over and placed the steak and red wine on the table before Zhang Heng pulled out the chair opposite E-Goat and sat down.
“It’s challenging for me to do this. By the way, how much do you know about Xu Qian? Have you told anyone else?”
“Why? Do you think you’re going to kill us to silence us?”Epsilon added a few scornful laughs. In the end, neither Zhang Heng nor Qiu Ming cooperated with him. Again, Epsilon laughed dryly before awkwardly shutting up. Then, he seemed to have thought of something, and his expression changed. “You want to silence me? Am I a clone too?”
“I don’t know why you all care so much whether you’re clones or not?”Qiu Ming blinked.
“Isn’t that obvious?” E-Goat said. “If Xu Qian weren’t a clone, there wouldn’t be such a thing after that. Regardless of the viewer decline in her livestream, who she married, whether she’s retired or not, no one would come looking for trouble with her. If I weren’t a clone, you wouldn’t dare to do anything to me, right?”
“Well…” Qiu Ming touched his chin. “That’s what you think.”
“What do you mean?” Qiu Ming’s ambiguous attitude made E-Goat feel a little baffled.
“But I can’t blame you because everyone thinks so,” Qiu Ming smiled. “This is the reason why new Shanghai 0297 can function normally.”
E-Goat became more and more confused, but he didn’t forget the pressing issue. He said to Qiu Ming, “Stop talking nonsense. Get to the point and hand Xu Qian over!”
“Sigh, programmers are so simple and crude. They don’t have any mood at all. It’s strange that I’m in the mood to chat today,” Qiu Ming sighed. “You guys are even worse than Xu Qian. At least she’s still a little obsessed with the so-called truth.”
“Truth? What truth?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Qiu Ming said. “Unfortunately, you guys are late. Xu Qian has been sent away. You guys will never be able to see her again. However, the slightly comforting thing is that she left a video of her leaving. Later, I will use her social media account to post it. You guys can come with everyone to bless her.”
“You bastard!” E-Goat was really mad this time. He stood up from his seat, scoffing, “Are you planning to kill her? Just because the number of people in her live stream has decreased?!”
“Well, let’s just understand it according to what you believe,” Qiu Ming said. “Clones are purely production tools. The efficiency of production tools has decreased. Of course, we have to replace them with new ones, so what we did was very reasonable.”
Qiu Ming’s words caused E-Goat to be a little speechless. But then E-Goat said, “Aren’t you guys just doing this to earn money? Give me a number. Even if I can’t fork out so much on my own, Xu Qian’s fans aren’t just me. If we all pool together, we’ll be able to gather enough.”
“I’m a little touched, but believe me, your plan is useless.”
“Are you forcing us to use violence?!”
E-Goat’s patience had finally run out, especially when he thought of Xu Qian suffering somewhere. His heart ached, and he didn’t want to delay any longer.
“We can try.” Qiu Ming still looked indifferent.
In terms of their figures, E-Goat undoubtedly had the advantage. Although he was a network engineer, his figure was maintained well. There were even a few muscles on his arm. In comparison, Qiu Ming looked more pampered. He had even put on a little weight, as if he did not exercise enough every day.
Therefore, E-Goat didn’t even exert full strength in his first punch. He only clenched his fist and smashed it at Qiu Ming’s face. However, Qiu Ming did not react at all. He only smiled when the fist was about to reach his nose. Then, his right hand suddenly bounced from the table at a speed completely inconsistent with his figure.
Then, Qiu Ming’s nose took a punch from E-Goat.
Because at the last moment, Qiu Ming’s right hand that had bounced up was forcibly pushed back to the table by Zhang Heng. Qiu Ming couldn’t care less about the pain in his nose, his left hand automatically pulling the pistol hidden under the dining table. The entire sequence was performed with the smoothness of practiced ease.
In the end, he was still one step too late. Before he could point the gun at Zhang Heng, the latter’s knife was already at his throat.
It was only then that Qiu Ming’s expression changed slightly. He looked at Zhang Heng in surprise. “It looks like I’ve misjudged you this time. How can a programmer who basically has no social interaction find such a powerful friend? But I’m a little confused. He’s only involved in this mess because of love. Why are you doing this?”
Zhang Heng did not answer Qiu Ming. Instead, he asked, “Xu Qian should have left your place not long ago. Where has she been sent?”
“I don’t know.” Qiu Ming shook his head. “We belong to different departments. My job is to make the target disappear from New Shanghai 0297 in a reasonable manner. As for where they go after they disappear, that has nothing to do with me.”
“Is that so? But from what you said, you don’t seem like an honest bloke,” Zhang Heng said. He raised the knife half a centimeter higher and cut Qiu Ming’s skin.
