868: Chapter 863 Unable to Guard Against Madmen and Poor Guys

Pei Jue raised his eyelids and swept his gaze over him indifferently.

"If it explodes, let it explode," he said.

He took a sip of the crushed tea leaves that cost a few dollars per jin, his tone as flat as if he were discussing the weather.

"Anyway, if it explodes, it explodes in your laboratory. I'm not next door."

"Besides, I'm in a difficult position too."

Pei Jue put down the tea mug and pulled out a crumpled A4 paper from the drawer.

"The price of liquid nitrogen has been volatile in the international market recently. In order to save President Shen money, our Procurement Department must be meticulous with every penny."

"Your approval process won't work with even one seal missing."

Franz trembled with anger, fire almost shooting out of his bright blue eyes.

"You're retaliating against me!"

"This is settling a personal score in public!"

Pei Jue pushed up his glasses, revealing a long-unseen, standard fake smile.

"Mr. Franz, you can't put it that way."

"I am teaching you what 'process' means, and what 'rules' mean."

"Just like you taught me what 'frequency' means."

The two confronted each other across a threshold, sparks and lightning seemingly filling the air.

This was only the beginning of the war.

For the next half a month, the Employees of Shenyan Group witnessed an epic 'cat-and-mouse game'.

Franz hacked into Pei Jue's office computer and changed his desktop background to thirty gigabytes of muscular hunks, locking the permission to change it back.

Pei Jue retaliated by citing 'customs inspection' and holding up the imported photoresist Franz urgently needed, letting it bake in the sun at the port for three days.

Franz installed an ejection seat on Pei Jue's chair, nearly sending him into the ceiling.

Pei Jue ordered one hundred portions of super spicy, abnormal chicken wings for Franz, with the recipient address filled in as Franz's little niece who was still in kindergarten.

The entire company was in chaos, lively as a vegetable market.

Wu Ya stood in front of Shen Yan's desk holding a stack of documents, her expression difficult to describe.

"President Shen, are you really not going to manage them?"

"Yesterday, Franz dismantled the door of the Procurement Department's restroom, and Pei Jue came to work this morning wearing a full set of bomb disposal gear."

"If this continues, I'm afraid they'll tear down the building."

Shen Yan spun the Montblanc pen in his hand, his gaze fixed on the financial report before him.

"They won't tear it down."

He casually turned a page, pointing at the data.

"Look."

"Since the two of them started fighting, the equipment attrition rate in the laboratory has dropped by 4%, because Franz doesn't have time for those dangerous explosion experiments anymore."

"The bargaining power of the Procurement Department has increased by 5%, because Pei Jue has channeled all the ferocity he uses against Franz onto the suppliers."

"This is called the catfish effect."

"It's also ecological balance."

Shen Yan closed the report and leaned back in his chair, his posture languid and relaxed.

The system dropped various strange pieces of intelligence every day.

Sometimes it was inside information about a certain country's election, sometimes the address of an illegitimate child of some hidden billionaire.

Shen Yan tossed this intelligence out bit by bit, like feeding fish, to Pei Jue.

Pei Jue, like a shark smelling blood, used this intelligence to bite furiously in the international market, swallowing profits that originally belonged to others, bones and all, into the Shenyan Group's belly.

And Franz, under Pei Jue's high-pressure coercion of 'If it doesn't kill him, torture him until he dies,' sped up his technological iteration at a frightening pace.

"Oh, right."

Shen Yan seemed to recall something.

"Ask the cafeteria to add an extra dish for Pei Jue this afternoon."

"I see he's lost quite a bit of weight recently. Don't let him work himself to death before he finishes paying off my debt."

Wu Ya suppressed a smile and nodded.

"Alright, should we add braised pig brain? To replenish his mind?"

Shen Yan waved his hand noncommittally.

Just then, the office door was violently pushed open.

Chen Guangke strode in like a gust of wind, his face carrying that excitement of someone who fears the world isn't chaotic enough.

"Brother Yan! Look quickly!"

He held up a tablet computer, on the screen of which was playing a surveillance video.

The footage was from the smoking area downstairs of the company.

Pei Jue and Franz were both squatting by a flowerbed.

Pei Jue held a cheap cigarette that was only half-smoked, while Franz clutched a lollipop.

The two weren't fighting; instead, their heads were close together, as if they were plotting something.

"Could these two guys be planning to team up and rebel?"

Chen Guangke pointed at the screen, his tone laced with teasing.

Shen Yan sat up straight, watching the screen with interest.

Franz drew a complex diagram on the ground, gesturing animatedly.

Pei Jue frowned as he watched for a moment, then picked up a twig and added a few strokes next to it, pointing toward a competitor company across the street.

The two exchanged a look, revealing the same sinister smile.

Shen Yan smiled.

That smile was faint, yet carried the composure of someone in complete control.

"Rebel?"

"They don't have the guts."

"It looks like someone is about to have bad luck."

The system panel popped up a line of text at the opportune moment.

[Detected that Employee Pei Jue and Franz have reached a temporary strategic alliance. Target: A core laboratory under Tiannuo Biology.]

[Random Mission Triggered: Sit on the Mountain and Watch the Tigers Fight. Reward: One piece of advanced wealth intelligence.]

Shen Yan stood up and walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window.

The City of Jinghai below was bustling with traffic, as prosperous as a grand illusion.

And soon, these two genius madmen, held in his palm, would stir this seemingly calm water into an upheaval.

"Don't bother with them."

Shen Yan's voice echoed in the spacious office.

"Approve a budget for them."

"Since they want to play, let them play big."

Chen Guangke chuckled and put away the tablet.

"As you command."

"I knew it. Following Brother Yan, there's never a shortage of good shows to watch."

The afterglow of the setting sun streamed into the office, stretching Shen Yan's shadow long.

He looked at the neon lights gradually lighting up outside the window, just as he watched his own chess pieces falling into the most perfect positions on the board.

As for the feud between Pei Jue and Franz?

That was just the seasoning for their tedious work.

The night draped over them like a giant piece of sound-absorbing cotton, completely muffling the clamor of Jinghai City.

The lights on the top floor of Shenyan Group were dimmed low.

Shen Yan didn't turn on the main lights, leaving only a floor lamp on.

The halo reflected a gentle luster on the Zisha teapot beside his hand.

The entire wall opposite him had now turned into a massive high-definition projection screen.

The screen was divided into four perspectives.

This wasn't some blockbuster movie, but a real-time monitor feed from Tiannuo Biology's Third Core Laboratory a thousand miles away.

Chen Guangke sat cross-legged on the carpet, holding a large bucket of popcorn.

He pointed at the top-left screen, still chewing the popcorn in his mouth.

"Brother Yan, these two really dare to go for it."

"That's Tiannuo's 'Eden,' claimed to have security comparable to a vault."

Shen Yan slowly refilled his teapot.

"Security is to guard against people."

"But it can't guard against lunatics and poor devils."