Chapter 193: Are there still animal-related matters?

Upon hearing this earth-shattering remedial remark from Wang Dachui, the office instantly fell into a deathly silence.

Li Jiajun's expression, which was already one of utter despair, now stiffened like a stone statue weathered by a thousand years.

"It's over."

"It's really over now."

"Just let it all be destroyed; I'm tired."

Such thoughts surfaced in his mind as he stared hollowly at the ceiling, feeling as though his soul had left his body.

Originally, as long as he stuck to the story of being ignorant, it would just be a case of poor supervision.

But now, this guy had gone and admitted that his friend was that armed leader.

This wasn't just being aware; this was practically collaborating with the enemy!

Was this the legendary "pig teammate"?

This wasn't saving the situation; it was clearly him being afraid he wasn't dying fast enough, hammering the final nail into his own coffin, and then welding it shut for good measure.

Liu Jianguo and the group of Experts were also dumbfounded.

Although they had already guessed seven or eight parts of the truth, guessing was one thing, but having the person involved admit it was another matter entirely.

"Gulp."

Someone swallowed hard, though it was unclear who.

Wang Dachui knelt on the ground, watching the dazed expressions of those around him, but his heart began to drum with anxiety.

"What's going on?"

"Why is there no reaction?"

"I've confessed so thoroughly; shouldn't the leaders be praising my good attitude?"

His not-so-bright brain spun rapidly, attempting to analyze the situation at hand.

Suddenly, he slapped his thigh hard.

"That's not right!"

"Confessing alone isn't enough!"

"TV shows always have it: leniency for confession is just the basics. If I really want to gain sympathy and strive for lenient treatment, I have to—play the victim!"

"I have to package myself as a victim!"

"That's right! Even though I sold the goods, I was forced! I suffered inhuman torture and mental pressure!"

Thinking of this, Wang Dachui felt he had achieved enlightenment.

He brewed his emotions for a moment.

Two seconds later.

"Waaah—!"

A heaven-shaking wail exploded in the office without warning.

Wang Dachui's fat face instantly crumpled, tears and snot flowing freely. The posture was just like a three-hundred-pound child who had their lollipop stolen.

"Wuwuwu… Leaders! You don't know!"

"I'm so miserable! I'm truly so miserable!"

This sudden turn of events startled Liu Jianguo, and he nearly threw the teacup in his hand.

"You… stop wailing for a moment."

Liu Jianguo frowned, feeling a headache coming on.

"Speak properly."

How could Wang Dachui stop? He was now completely immersed in the "tragic script" he had woven for himself.

Wiping away tears, he began to accuse with voice and tears, his tone shrill and miserable, as if he had suffered a great grievance:

"That Bearded Man… that armed leader, he… he's simply not human!"

"He's shameless! He's lewd! He's despicable!"

"Not only did he force me to sell goods, but he also… he also had inappropriate designs on me!"

At this point, Wang Dachui covered his face with both hands, putting on an expression of utter shame and indignation, his body trembling slightly as if recalling some unbearable past.

"Huh?"

Liu Jianguo was stunned.

The Experts nearby were also stunned.

Even Li Jiajun, who was already dead inside, was shocked back to his senses by these outrageous remarks, staring wide-eyed at his manager.

"Inappropriate designs?"

"You?"

"That armed leader?"

The crowd's gazes swept back and forth over Wang Dachui's two-hundred-pound, burly frame, then conjured up the image of the legendary, cold-blooded armed warlord. The mental image was too beautiful; they didn't dare to imagine it.

"What did you say?"

Liu Jianguo suspected he had misheard and asked subconsciously, "He… had ulterior motives toward you?"

"Yes! Wuwuwu…"

Wang Dachui cried even more sorrowfully, sobbing as he spoke:

"Leaders, you don't know."

"That Bearded Man, he… he actually wanted me to pay with my body!"

"I'm still a child… no, wait, I'm still a traditional Eastern Country man! How could I accept such an insult!"

"But he… he threatened me with the factory's reputation, he threatened me with the boss's future!"

"To protect the innocence of Li Family Toy Factory, I… I almost fell victim to his clutches!"

Once these words were out, everyone in the office felt their scalps tingle.

They were all stunned to the core.

What the hell was this? A case about arms dealing suddenly turned into a transnational romantic dispute? And a heavy-tasting one at that?

Li Jiajun's mouth twitched, his heart speechless to the extreme.

"Is this guy's brain filled with paste?"

"What would an armed leader want from you? Your fat? The fact that you eat a lot?"

Liu Jianguo also had a constipated expression. He took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to kick the fat man out, and gritted his teeth:

"Shut your mouth!"

"Explain yourself clearly! What 'pay with my body'? Do you have evidence? You can't just say things like that!"

Upon hearing the request for evidence, Wang Dachui immediately perked up.

He stopped wailing and sniffled. On his tear-streaked, fat face appeared an expression of indignation that seemed to say, "I knew you wouldn't believe me; fortunately, I was prepared."

"I have evidence! This is ironclad proof!"

While shouting, Wang Dachui fumbled to pull out his phone from his pocket. He skillfully unlocked the screen, opened WeChat, and flipped to the chat history with that Bearded Man leader.

Then, he held the phone screen high and shoved it in front of Liu Jianguo and the group of Experts.

"Look! This is the evidence!"

"Look at this, is what he's saying human language?!"

The crowd's gazes subconsciously focused on the screen. There, at the end of the chat history, the user with a fierce bearded avatar had sent a seemingly ordinary threat:

"Three days."

"If you don't ship the goods within three days, I will expose everything and then call the police!"

"You wouldn't want the fact that your factory is a scam to be exposed, would you?"

…

Looking at this line of text, Liu Jianguo frowned. Wasn't this just a very ordinary threat to expedite shipping?

Although the tone was a bit fierce, and it involved calling the police and exposure, did this have anything to do with "paying with my body"?

"This…"

An Old Expert pushed up his glasses and asked confusedly, "This is just urging you to ship, right? How did it become evidence?"

When Wang Dachui heard this, he immediately became anxious. He widened his eyes, looking at the group of Experts with an expression that said, "Why are you all so innocent?"

"Leaders! You need to savor this!"

Wang Dachui pointed at the last sentence on the screen, his finger pressing heavily on it, shouting hoarsely:

"Look at this sentence—'You wouldn't want the fact that your factory is a scam to be exposed, would you?'"

"Listen! Listen to this tone!"

"This sentence structure! This flavor!"

Wang Dachui's emotions were exceptionally agitated, as if he had suffered great psychological trauma. He began to interpret this sentence in depth using his own unique logic:

"This is how they threaten people in Little Sun movies!"

"In those movies, when that bald boss, or that lecherous landlord, corners the heroine, this is exactly the sentence they say!"

"'Ma'am, you wouldn't want your husband to lose his job, would you?'"

"'Manager Wang, you wouldn't want the fact that your factory is a scam to be exposed, would you?'"

Wang Dachui mimicked that lecherous tone, compared the two sentences, and then slapped his thigh with a face full of grief and indignation:

"It's exactly the same!"

"This is a naked hint! This is a signal for hidden rules!"

"This is the key piece of evidence that he wanted me to pay with my body!"

"Wuwuwu… I feel sick just thinking about it, I feel like I'm not clean anymore…"

…

As Wang Dachui's incoherent, logically chaotic, but information-heavy "accusation" landed, the office once again fell into a deathly silence.

But this silence was different from before. The air was filled with an extremely awkward and eerie atmosphere that made people want to curl their toes in embarrassment.

Li Jiajun covered his face with both hands, not wanting to see anyone. He felt that his reputation had been completely ruined by this guy.

And Liu Jianguo, this battle-hardened and well-informed veteran military leader, had a twisted and complex expression on his face. The furrowed brows, the downturned mouth, and the disgust and confusion in his eyes were the living embodiment of the "old man looking at phone on subway" meme.

It wasn't just him. The other Experts, officers, and even the soldiers standing guard at the door who understood Wang Dachui's words all made the exact same expression at this moment.

Everyone was shocked by this fat man's train of thought.

"What the hell with the Little Sun movies!"

"What the hell with paying with my body!"

"The guy was threatening you to refund money and ship the goods; what kind of messy stuff are you thinking about in your brain?"

"This isn't just overthinking anymore; this is a mental illness!"

However, not everyone understood this reference. For example, there was an Old Expert in the team who was older and had always been buried in scientific research. He looked at the strange expressions of the people around him, then looked at the grief-stricken Wang Dachui, with a bewildered face.

"This…"

The Old Expert was somewhat confused and couldn't help but turn to ask the young man next to him:

"Xiao Zhang, what… what does it mean to threaten people with Little Sun movies? Why does everyone have this expression?"

The young technician Xiao Zhang, who was asked, instantly flushed red. How was he supposed to explain this? In such a serious setting, explaining this kind of "culture" to a highly respected old academician?

"Uh… well… Elder Zhang, it's just…"

Xiao Zhang stammered, and in the end, he could only lean into the Old Expert's ear and, using the most subtle and concise language, whispered a few sentences explaining the plot patterns of that kind of "special genre" movie.

As the Old Expert listened, his eyes grew wider and wider. Once he understood the meaning behind "paying with my body" and that line of dialogue, the Old Expert's face instantly darkened, his beard twitching with anger.

"Outrageous! Simply outrageous!"

The Old Expert stomped his feet in anger, cursing:

"These Little Sun people… they really aren't human!"

"To actually film such shameless movies! It's simply corrupting public morals! Corrupting public morals!"

The Old Expert was shaking with anger, feeling that his values had been subjected to a massive shock.

However, just as the Old Expert was still grieving over the collapse of human moral baselines, an old man guarding the gate nearby—the security guard Old Zhang who had just walked in with the police—was an old veteran who had seen countless movies.

Seeing the Old Expert so agitated, he couldn't help but interject, his tone carrying a calm sense of "you're making a mountain out of a molehill":

"Heh, Old Leader, you can't handle this much?"

"This is just the beginning."

Security guard Old Zhang shook his head, looking worldly-wise, and lowered his voice to say:

"There's more."

"They play very wildly over there; it's not just this kind of thing."

"I heard… there's even stuff with animals."

"Boom!"

This sentence, like a bolt of lightning from the blue, struck the simple and upright Old Expert squarely on the top of his head.

The Old Expert was struck dumb. He stood there blankly, mouth agape, eyes hollow, as if his soul had been shattered by these words.

"With… with animals?"

"This… this…"

The Old Expert felt like he was falling apart. He clutched his chest, his body swaying, nearly losing his footing. This world was too crazy. Too terrifying. He didn't want to listen anymore; he wanted to go back to the laboratory, he wanted to stay with simple blueprints and data.