Chapter 105 I swear! I really didn't sell him "The Art of War"!

The meeting that had left the entire high-level leadership of the Eastern Country in silence finally ended in a heavy and absurd atmosphere.

Liu Jianguo was practically the first one to rush out of the meeting room. His face, which was permanently set in a grimace, had now turned an unnatural shade of purplish-red from anger. He didn't even greet the Old General before heading straight for the door, walking rapidly with his secretary and guards following behind him with equally solemn expressions.

The Old General watched his back, which looked as if he were heading off to a desperate fight, and didn't stop him. Instead, he turned to the head of the General Staff beside him and whispered, "Give him the highest level of authority. Give him whatever men and equipment he needs. You must get to the bottom of this for me."

...

Half an hour later, at a military airport in the western suburbs of the Imperial Capital, several large military transport planes roared into the sky.

Sitting in the cabins this time were elites from the General Staff, National Security, and Special Operations Forces. A Joint Task Force of unprecedented scale and rank was aggressively descending upon Baishui City, thousands of miles away.

Their commander, Liu Jianguo, sat alone in the corner of the lead transport plane. His eyes were closed, his fists clenched so tightly that the veins on the back of his hands bulged. He tried his best to calm the fury in his heart, but several things kept flashing repeatedly in his mind.

Li Jiajun's harmless, smiling face.

The fierce design of the black tortoise.

The legends of the Ghost-Faced Strategist in the reports.

And that mentioned copy of The Art of War.

The combination of these elements made his blood pressure soar. He felt that the little bit of friendship he had managed to build with Li Jiajun was now like something crushed by a heavy truck—smashed so thoroughly that not even a shard remained.

'I treated you as a friend across generations, as a once-in-a-century unorthodox genius!'

'I protected you everywhere and helped clean up your messes!'

'And you, you damn brat, you turned around and sold an entire army for me, and even threw in a full set of war tutorials?!'

'Is there no justice anymore! Is there no law!'

Liu Jianguo felt both furious and powerless.

...

Meanwhile, at the center of the storm, inside Li Jiajun's factory manager's office, everything was peaceful and quiet.

He had just refused several local media outlets that wanted to interview him and was leisurely leaning back in his executive chair, sipping an ice-cold cola while calculating the massive order from that mysterious tycoon in the southwest.

"Fifty top-of-the-line units, that's five million..." he calculated happily. "After costs, a net profit of three million won't be a problem. It seems my path of civilian products was the right one! Once this money arrives, I'll first get myself a new car, then go to Yunding Tiangong and put a deposit on that penthouse duplex with the helipad!"

The more he thought about it, the happier he became, feeling as though he had reached the peak of his life. He even started brainstorming whether his next step could be developing an absolutely safe children's excavator to satisfy kids' love for playing in the mud.

Just as he was immersed in his fantasies of the future, the heavy solid wood door of his office was kicked open from the outside with a loud bang.

...

Amidst flying wood chips, a figure charged in, carrying a sky-high rage.

Li Jiajun was startled by this sudden turn of events, and the cola in his mouth almost sprayed out. He was about to get angry and see who dared to kick his door, but when he saw the newcomer's face clearly, his expression instantly froze.

It was Liu Jianguo!

That familiar grimacing face was now looking terrifyingly distorted due to the rush of blood. He rushed to the desk in three steps and slammed a thick, color-printed report hard into Li Jiajun's face.

Crash—

Papers scattered all over the floor, filled with high-definition photos of the Xuanwu Legion rampaging through jungles and mountains, as well as the blurry figure of that Ghost-Faced Strategist wearing smoky makeup and a leather jacket.

"Li Jiajun!"

Liu Jianguo pointed at his nose and roared with all his might, his voice making the glass in the entire office vibrate.

"You've really grown capable now, haven't you! You're not just selling weapons anymore! You've even started offering damn package services!"

"Sell a car and give away a strategist? Give away The Art of War? Huh?!"

"Is your next step to become a king in the Golden Triangle and found your own state?!"

These roars completely dazed Li Jiajun. He sat blankly in his chair, his mind a complete void.

What weapons? What package service? What strategist?

He subconsciously picked up a photo that had fallen on his lap and looked closely.

In the photo, a row of fiercely designed dark green armored vehicles was parked arrogantly on a hilltop. That familiar shape, that faint cartoon bear logo on the body... Wasn't this the top-of-the-line version of the elderly joy he had sold?

He looked at another photo, which showed a man wearing sunglasses and smoky makeup, sitting among a group of beauties, holding a thread-bound ancient book in his hand.

As Li Jiajun looked at this face, it seemed more and more familiar...

'Holy crap!' he thought. 'Isn't this that Punk Elder who came to buy a car a few months ago and said he was going wild fishing at the southwest border?!'

Combining that with Liu Jianguo's mention of "The Art of War," he suddenly understood everything.

A massive sense of grievance, of having been framed, surged from the bottom of his heart.

He raised his hands high, his face full of injustice, and shouted with all his might to defend himself and proclaim his innocence to Liu Jianguo, who was on the verge of exploding:

"I've been framed! Uncle Liu! This is a massive injustice!"

"I swear! I really am just someone who sells elderly joys!"

"The... the cars were indeed probably sold by me, but I really didn't sell him The Art of War!"

His sincere shout from the bottom of his heart echoed through the office.

Liu Jianguo's rage came to an abrupt halt the moment he heard those words.

His entire body froze.

He stared fixedly at Li Jiajun, and his face, which had been distorted by anger, now took on an incredibly strange expression. He had anticipated countless possible reactions from Li Jiajun: being stubborn, denying it to the death, or coming up with another set of twisted logic to mess around.

But he never expected the other party would give him such an answer.

An answer that admitted the core problem but desperately defended an unimportant detail.

Liu Jianguo felt his brain buzz, as if the power had been pulled out, and it instantly went black.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but couldn't utter a single word. A rush of blood went straight to his head, his vision went dark, and his body staggered back two steps uncontrollably.

He subconsciously reached out, wanting to steady himself on the table, but missed, and his whole body was about to fall backward stiffly.

Fortunately, the guard behind him, who had remained vigilant, was quick and caught him.

Liu Jianguo leaned against the guard, gasping for air. He felt as if his heart were being squeezed, and even breathing brought a sharp pain.

He raised a trembling hand, pointing at the still innocent-looking Li Jiajun, his lips quivering for a long time. Finally, he only managed to squeeze out one desperate sentence from between his teeth:

"Quick... quick, hold me... I feel... I might really not make it this time..."