60: Chapter 60 A Frenzied Counterattack! Li Hongyuan Makes a Desperate Gamble, Mu Li's Team Stands on High Alert (1)

Amidst the cluster of skyscrapers in the CBD core of Jing City, the Hongyuan Group headquarters building stood like a cold, black monolith amidst the brilliant neon lights.

Inside the chairman's office on the top floor, the air was as heavy as lead, even more oppressive than the gloom of the previous day, and the warm air blowing from the central air conditioning carried a bone-chilling cold.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the bustling traffic was reflected into the room through the massive one-way glass curtain wall; the endless stream of headlights formed a golden river, yet it failed to disperse the violence and despair lingering in the corners, instead serving as the perfect backdrop for this brewing madness.

Li Hongyuan sat deep in his expansive leather office chair, his back hunched; his spine, which was always held straight in the past, now seemed to have been drained of all strength, and his whole body radiated a sense of decadence and ruthlessness that was completely different from his usual elegant demeanor.

The mahogany desk in front of him was worth a fortune, its surface as smooth as a mirror, yet it was now cluttered and messy with a stack of crumpled documents.

The notice on top, stamped with the bright red seal of the Huaguo Public Security General Administration, burned his eyes like a red-hot branding iron—it was the official document launching an investigation into the Ji Province branch of Hongyuan Group.

The ink was fresh, and the edges of the paper still carried the residual warmth of the printer, signaling that the crisis was closing in step by step, leaving no room for any luck.

Stacked below it were summary reports of three consecutive failed operations and the arrests of multiple subordinates; every page recorded his failures in cold text, with the lines between the words full of glaring embarrassment.

Next to the names of those familiar subordinates were labels like "Arrested," "Lost Contact," and "Under Investigation," like sharp knives repeatedly slicing into his nerves.

Li Hongyuan's face was so gloomy it could almost drip water, a sickly flush suffusing his livid complexion, and his eyes were crisscrossed with bloodshot veins, like a precursor to madness; his once-sharp gaze had now become murky and ferocious.

His fingers tapped the tabletop forcefully and unconsciously, his knuckles turning white from the effort, and the veins on the back of his hands were faintly bulging.

The dull "thud-thud" sound echoed repeatedly in the silent office, each beat like a strike on one's heart, revealing an irrepressible anxiety and rage.

His fingertips grazed the cold edges of the documents; he crumpled the investigation notice in his grasp, the corners nearly pinched to shreds, and the fibers of the paper emitted a faint tearing sound in his palm.

The violence in his heart was like a sleeping volcano gathering strength—he was not reconciled.

The business empire he had painstakingly built for decades, growing from a small building materials workshop into a giant in the new energy field, had weathered countless storms, yet now it was being pushed to the brink of destruction by a single nuclear fusion power station project.

Mu Li's existence had become an irreconcilable enemy in his eyes; that young man was calm, decisive, and had top-tier technical skills, and even possessed the purity and determination he had long since lost.

Every time he thought of this, Li Hongyuan's jaw would clench tight, his molars grinding together with a faint sound, wishing he could reduce the other party to ashes to satisfy the hatred in his heart.

The office door was pushed open gently. Sun Qiang, who was in charge of intelligence, stood by the door with his hands hanging down, his breathing extremely light.

Having followed Li Hongyuan for many years, he knew the chairman's temper well. Seeing the stagnant atmosphere in the office, he knew the other party was at a breaking point of rage, and any carelessness could lead to disaster.

Cold sweat beaded on Sun Qiang's palms, sliding down the lines of his hands and soaking his cuffs.

He kept his head buried very low, his eyes fixed on the tips of his leather shoes, his voice cautious and carrying a deliberate obsequiousness, attempting to alleviate the suffocating tension: "Chairman, the core data of the Ji Province branch has been transferred overnight. All classified documents have been shredded, and the hard drives have been physically destroyed to ensure no traces are left. The few subordinates who were arrested are all peripheral personnel; they signed confidentiality agreements in advance and underwent emergency training, so they shouldn't implicate our core level."

"Transferring data? Useless waste!" Li Hongyuan suddenly raised his head, the bloodshot veins in his eyes becoming even more ferocious, like a beast out of control, and the air pressure around him instantly dropped to freezing.

He slammed his hand on the desk, the palm colliding with the mahogany surface with a dull, loud thud. The documents on the table were scattered, and a fountain pen rolled onto the floor; the metal cap struck the marble floor with a crisp "ding," then rolled to Sun Qiang's feet, but no one dared to bend down to pick it up.

Li Hongyuan's voice was hoarse and ferocious, carrying a hysterical roar that was extremely piercing, almost shattering the office glass: "That kid Mu Li not only ruined all our plans but also attracted the attention of the Huaguo Public Security General Administration! Now the entire new energy industry is staring at that nuclear fusion power station project. Capital, competitors, and even officials from home and abroad are betting on Mu Li! Once the project is successfully put into production and clean, efficient nuclear fusion energy becomes widespread, the photovoltaic and wind power assets we've hoarded will depreciate significantly, and our layout in the new energy field will be completely invalidated. When that time comes, what awaits us is either bankruptcy or being swallowed by competitors, without even our bones left!"

He stood up abruptly, his tall figure pacing back and forth in the office, his footsteps heavy and hurried. His Italian handmade leather shoes struck the polished marble floor with a "thud-thud" sound, each step revealing a madness of burning his bridges.

He reached up and tugged at his tight silk tie, the collar becoming crooked and a button popping off, revealing the bulging veins on his neck.

His once-meticulous hairstyle was now messy, with a few strands of hair falling over his forehead, obscuring the malice in his eyes. His usual scholarly temperament was gone, leaving only the madness of someone on the verge of total desperation.

"Conventional methods no longer work," Li Hongyuan stopped, placing his hands on the edge of the desk, his fingertips pressing hard against the surface as if he wanted to leave an indentation in the solid wood. "Mu Li's team is defended like an iron bucket; they have university laboratory support for technology and the Huaguo Public Security General Administration backing them on security. The insiders we planted were rounded up, and our cyberattacks and physical infiltration attempts were all blocked. Our people simply cannot get close to the core area."

His eyes gradually became murky and insane, his pupils churning with paranoid rage, and a sinister curve tugged at the corner of his mouth. Only one crazy thought remained in his heart: if he couldn't win them over, he would destroy them completely. Even if it cost everything, he would never let Mu Li succeed, and he would never let the business empire he had worked so hard to build be destroyed.

"Since soft tactics don't work, then we'll use hard ones! I don't believe he, Mu Li, can protect that project forever!"

Sun Qiang's heart tightened abruptly, as if gripped by an invisible hand. A bone-chilling cold instantly spread up his spine, rushing from the nerves in his feet straight to his scalp and spreading inch by inch along his vertebrae throughout his body, making him unable to stop shivering.

His shoulders trembled uncontrollably, and his teeth chattered slightly behind his clenched jaw.

His hands, hanging at his sides, subconsciously balled into fists, his nails digging deep into his palms, attempting to use the sharp pain to dispel some of the bone-deep fear, but his fingertips remained uncontrollably numb and cold, and his arms broke out in goosebumps.

Combining Li Hongyuan's desperate tone, his manic expression, and that phrase "use hard ones," he instantly guessed the other party's intent.

His heart pounded wildly, slamming against his chest like a war drum, almost breaking through the constraints of his ribs. Only his own rapid and heavy breathing remained in his ears, and even the stagnant air in the office seemed to become viscous.

His throat was dry and tight, as if blocked by something invisible; he subconsciously swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing noticeably, and the muscles in his neck tensed until they were stiff and sore.

He hesitated for a long time before, under the guise of wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, summoning a sliver of courage to tentatively raise his head and quickly meet Li Hongyuan's gaze—the madness and malice churning in those eyes, like poison-tipped blades, carried a world-destroying paranoia that struck him like a lightning bolt.

He hurriedly lowered his head, his gaze fixed firmly on the tips of his leather shoes, not daring to even breathe, keeping his respiration deliberately light for fear of disturbing the chairman, who was already possessed by madness.

His tone carried an unmaskable tremor, his voice even trailing off unsteadily: "Chairman, do you mean..." The words stopped abruptly at his lips, the rest of the sentence swallowed back down his throat.

He dared not utter that guess, for it was clearly a path to total destruction—hiring foreign mercenaries to attack a national-level core project. Once put into action, it would be publicly declaring war against the entire nation. At that point, not only would he and Li Hongyuan be disgraced and imprisoned, but the entire Hongyuan Group would be implicated and destroyed, with no room for redemption. The consequences were unimaginable; just thinking about it made him break out in a cold sweat.

"A desperate gamble!" Li Hongyuan stopped abruptly, turned around, and locked his eyes onto Sun Qiang like a hunter targeting prey.

He spoke word by word, his voice low but carrying an unquestionable determination, each word dripping with bloody malice, as if emanating from the depths of hell.

His fists were clenched tight, his nails digging deep into his palms, and he didn't even notice the blood seeping out. Warm blood dripped through his fingers, landing on the expensive carpet and blooming into a small, dark red stain.

At this moment, only the obsession with destruction remained in his mind, all reason swallowed by resentment and despair: "Contact the foreign mercenary team we hired before, that 'Black Crow' organization, and have them set off for the Ji Province Nuclear Fusion Power Station project site immediately. I don't care what methods they use—bombing, sabotage, or even suicide attacks—they must completely destroy the core equipment. Make Mu Li's project a complete failure, let his decades of hard work go down the drain, and let him taste the feeling of falling from the clouds into the mud!"

Only by seeing Mu Li's total defeat and seeing that project, which carried all his hopes, turn into ruins, could he soothe the resentment in his heart and win a sliver of chance for Hongyuan Group. Even if this road led to the abyss, and even if it ultimately backfired on him, he would not hesitate.

"Chairman, this... this is too risky!" Sun Qiang's face changed abruptly, instantly turning as pale as paper, even his lips losing their color.

He hurriedly stepped forward to dissuade him, his voice trembling violently with fear, even carrying a hint of a sob. "The 'Black Crow' mercenaries are ruthless and have no bottom line. They only care about money and won't consider the consequences at all. Once they cause casualties at the project site, the situation will be completely irreparable! Moreover, the Public Security General Administration is watching Ji Province, and the Garrison Force is patrolling. The 'Black Crow' team is large and well-equipped; it's very easy to be discovered! If the Huaguo Public Security General Administration finds out about our connection with them, not only you and I, but the entire Hongyuan Group will be doomed!"

His tone was urgent, filled with panic, as he tried to use the worst-case scenario to awaken Li Hongyuan's reason. His steps were unsteady, as if he might collapse to the ground the next second.

"Doomed? We're already almost finished!" Li Hongyuan roared, his voice making Sun Qiang's eardrums tremble.

The madness in his eyes was almost overflowing. He pointed his finger at Sun Qiang's nose, his tone full of despair and paranoia, spittle flying onto Sun Qiang's face, yet the other party dared not raise a hand to wipe it off.

"Rather than sitting here waiting for death, waiting for Mu Li to drive us into a dead end, and waiting for the Public Security General Administration to uncover our secrets step by step, it's better to take a gamble! As long as we can destroy the nuclear fusion power station project, Mu Li will be disgraced and lose the trust of the authorities. Then the landscape of the new energy field will be reshuffled, and we will have a chance to rise again and take back the power of discourse that belongs to us! As for the consequences, as long as we succeed, I have my own ways to settle things. At worst, we'll lie low for a while and make a comeback once the heat dies down!"

He paused, his gaze suddenly becoming cold and biting, like a poison-tipped blade, staring fixedly at Sun Qiang. His tone carried a naked threat, and his whole body radiated a bone-chilling murderous aura: "Go and contact 'Black Crow' now. Give them double the payment and add a generous severance package. Tell them they must complete the mission within three days without leaving any traces. Tell them that I will have the intelligence department organize the core equipment locations and security layout of the project site and send it to them. If necessary, they can use heavy weapons. Also, arrange another group of people to immediately investigate Mu Li's family. Find out their addresses, travel patterns, and the people they come into contact with daily. Use his family to threaten him and make him voluntarily hand over the core technology. With a two-pronged approach, I don't believe he won't compromise!"

Sun Qiang looked at the reckless madness in Li Hongyuan's eyes and knew that further dissuasion would be futile. The chairman had completely lost his reason, his mind clouded by despair and resentment.

His heart was filled with helplessness and fear, but he dared not disobey the order. He could only nod heavily, his voice as hoarse as sandpaper rubbing together, and replied with difficulty: "Yes, Chairman, I will make the arrangements immediately."

After speaking, he hurriedly bent down to pick up the scattered documents and the pen on the floor, stuffed the documents haphazardly into his briefcase, and walked quickly out of the office, as if a flood or beast were chasing him.

Only after closing the office door did he dare to take deep breaths. His back was already soaked with cold sweat, his legs were weak, and he leaned against the wall for a long time before he could barely stand steady.

Inside the office, only Li Hongyuan remained, and dead silence enveloped the room once again, as if even the sound of traffic outside the window had been cut off.

He walked slowly to the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the brilliant city night scene outside. The traffic was like a weave, neon lights flickered, and the lights of the skyscrapers outlined the silhouette of prosperity.

This was the prosperity he had once dreamed of, the world he wanted to control at any cost, but now only full of resentment and unwillingness remained.

He raised his hand to touch the cold glass curtain wall, the bone-chilling cold from his fingertips seemingly able to freeze the madness in his eyes, but it could not freeze the violence churning in his heart.

A sinister smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he murmured in a low voice, as if speaking to Mu Li across the distance: "Mu Li, this is what you forced me to do! Don't blame me for being ruthless; blame yourself for blocking my path to wealth and destroying everything I have! I will play this game with you to the end, until we both perish together!"

There was no hint of regret in his tone, only the paranoia of a fish dying and the net breaking, as if he could already see Mu Li's miserable appearance of losing the project and having his family threatened, and a trace of sick pleasure flashed in his eyes.

He picked up the whiskey on the table and took a large gulp. The spicy liquid burned his throat, but it could not alleviate the agitation in his heart at all; instead, it made that madness even more intense.

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away in Ji Province, Mu Li was leading his team in intensive preparations for defense, and the prelude to a battle between good and evil had already begun.