29: Chapter 29 On this island, you currently have the upper hand.

Su Qingxue's voice came from behind, not loud, but clear.

Lin Fan did not stop walking.

Song Ya was tightly hugging three packs of compressed biscuits, limping along behind him.

"Lin Fan!" Su Qingxue's volume raised by half a notch, carrying a kind of cold stiffness after extreme suppression.

Lin Fan was too familiar with this voice; during the year-end debriefing meeting on the 58th floor of Shengtang Group, when Su Qingxue shouted "Next," it was in this exact tone.

Condescending and allowing no disobedience.

Put in the past, these three words could send chills down the spines of employees on the entire floor.

Put in the present, even the sea breeze blowing from behind had more presence than her voice.

Lin Fan still did not stop.

Rapid footsteps came from behind, and Su Qingxue circled around to get in front of Lin Fan.

She stood two steps directly in front of Lin Fan, with the gravel slope leading to the Karst Cave on the mountainside behind her, and the man who had just created a bloody and violent show in front of her.

Lin Fan stopped.

It was not because Su Qingxue blocked the way; this slope was very wide, and walking around it would take three seconds.

He just wanted to see what new tricks this billionaire president could come up with after witnessing the severed finger performance with her own eyes.

Su Qingxue stood there, her chest rising and falling violently.

The white one-piece swimsuit on her body was already so dirty that its base color could no longer be seen.

Her hair was knotted and plastered against her shoulders, and her cheeks were streaked with grayish-black marks smoked out by the toxic smoke and sea breeze.

Her lips were dry and cracked, and her eye sockets were deeply sunken.

But her posture had not changed; her back was straight, her shoulders were level, and her chin was slightly raised.

This frame was propped up by more than twenty years of upbringing and hundreds of billions in assets; it was not something that a night of cold wind could blow down.

"I won't beat around the bush with you."

Su Qingxue spoke, her voice so hoarse it almost cracked, but every word remained steady.

"You are smart and ruthless enough. I admit that on this island, you currently have the upper hand."

Lin Fan switched the tactical straight knife to his left hand. The blood of Zhou Dahai on the blade was not yet dry, shimmering with a dark red luster under the sunlight.

He didn't make a sound, waiting for what came next.

Su Qingxue took a deep breath, "I have already figured out your intentions. You hoard supplies, occupy the cave, and arm yourself, clearly wanting to act as a local tyrant on this island. Fine, you have this ability, and I admit it."

She stretched out her right hand with her five fingers spread open.

"But you also need to think clearly about one thing. You alone occupy so much water and food, while dozens of people below are staring at you with hungry eyes. How long do you think you can hold out? Three days? Five days? Or until they are so hungry they resort to cannibalism and rush up together to tear you to pieces?"

"Even if you have this knife, two fists cannot defeat four hands."

The corners of Lin Fan's mouth twitched, but he didn't reply.

Su Qingxue withdrew her hand and switched to a more peaceful tone.

"I will give you a more decent proposal."

"You give up the Karst Cave, and hand over the food and water to me for unified management and distribution. With your current reserves, plus what we continue to gather, it will be enough to sustain us until rescue arrives."

She paused for a second.

"In exchange, after returning to Jiangcheng, I will give you 100 million in my own name as Su Qingxue."

"Cash, direct transfer to a bank card, without going through the company account or any approval process. 100 million, Lin Fan, is enough for you to buy three houses in Jiangcheng, open two companies, and never have to look at anyone else's face for the rest of your life."

100 million.

When this figure was dropped, even the few people sobbing on the distant beach behind her fell silent.

Holding the biscuits, Song Ya stood stunned behind Lin Fan with her mouth slightly open, the number in her head spinning three times without registering.

What kind of concept was 100 million?

People in her entire village farming in their hometown for a lifetime, without eating or drinking, wouldn't save even a fraction of 100 million by the time they died.

Su Qingxue observed Lin Fan's expression and continued to up the stakes.

"And about Zhou Dahai."

"You made a move on him here, and you will definitely face legal risks when you go back. Intentional assault, causing serious injury, three to ten years; if he bleeds too much or dies from infection, you will be guilty of intentional homicide."

"But as long as I, Su Qingxue, step forward, this matter will not enter any legal proceedings."

"Zhou Dahai is an employee of Shengtang, and I will handle his medical expenses and compensation all at once. The Legal Department of Shengtang will not pursue the matter, and all eyewitnesses present will sign confidentiality agreements. This matter will be treated as if it never happened."

After saying these words, Su Qingxue tilted her head slightly.

She knew negotiations too well.

The carrot had already been given: 100 million in cash, plus comprehensive bottom-line coverage for legal risks.

This was a condition that no rational person could possibly refuse.

An intern with a monthly salary of 3,000 suddenly had the opportunity to exchange a cave for 100 million.

Money that couldn't be earned in ten lifetimes.

Next came the big stick.

"Of course, if you insist on acting willfully," Su Qingxue's tone plummeted abruptly, "when rescue arrives, I can tell you that every seat on that helicopter is up to me."

She stared into Lin Fan's eyes, "In a shipwreck and distress, for a few people to die is completely normal."

"Old Liu is dead, Xiao Wang is dead, Lily is dead, and with one more Lin Fan, no one will feel surprised."

"You carried a knife, robbed other people's food, cut off someone's fingers, and engaged in lynch law on the Deserted Island. With just a word from me, you will be a dangerous element who became mentally unstable and violently assaulted people due to the shipwreck."

"By then, the helicopter will land, everyone will go up, and you will be left behind alone."

"How big this island is, I don't know, but I know that a person in this kind of place cannot live for a year."

Su Qingxue stopped talking and waited for Lin Fan's reaction.

The wind blew over from the surface of the sea, carrying salty and damp moisture.

It was quiet for several seconds.

Lin Fan tucked the knife back into the tactical pack behind his waist, raised his hand, and leisurely wiped away the residual bloodstains on his fingers.

"President Su." He spoke, his tone absurdly flat.

"How many times a year can you use this set of rhetoric on Shengtang's M&A negotiation table?"

Su Qingxue frowned.

"The front is an inducement, the back is a threat, and a legal risk is stuck in the middle as a lever. Pretty standard; capitalist textbooks all teach it this way."

"Your college major must have been this!"

Lin Fan took a step forward, but Su Qingxue did not retreat; she gritted her teeth and stood her ground.

"But you forgot one thing."

Lin Fan's gaze swept across Su Qingxue's face, past her chapped lips, past the dust-stained skin below her collarbone, past the part below her waistline, and finally returned to her eyes.

That gaze was unmasked and completely devoid of respect, just like picking a piece of meat in a vegetable market.

"Your helicopter cannot come." Su Qingxue's mouth twitched slightly.

"Your satellite phone is just a brick."

It twitched again.

"The 100 million you promised is just a string of numbers."

"You threatened me not to let me on the plane. President Su, how do you plan to prevent me from boarding a non-existent plane?"

Lin Fan chuckled in a low voice, a short chuckle, "I also want to give you two choices."

"First, just like what I said last night, take off your clothes and let me have a good time."

Su Qingxue's body stiffened, all the blood rushed to her face at once, and even the base of her neck turned red.

It was not shyness, but explosive rage.

Last night in the Karst Cave, Lin Fan had said the exact same words.

She thought it was just verbal bravado from a bottom-feeder after gaining power, a lowly means for a poor loser who had never seen a woman to take advantage of the situation.

She scolded him, cursed him as a beast, cursed him as a toad trying to eat swan meat, and then walked into the cold wind without looking back.

She thought her anger and contempt were enough to make this overestimating-himself man retreat in the face of difficulties.

And the result?

In less than twenty-four hours, the same words and the same demand, he said them again.

Even more casually than last night.

Last night he at least sat by the campfire, condescendingly making conditions, which somewhat had the meaning of a "trade."

Today he stood in broad daylight, in front of Song Ya, and within the vaguely visible line of sight of everyone on the distant beach, saying this sentence in a tone like ordering food from a menu.

He didn't think this was an offense at all.

He felt this was a natural equivalent exchange.

"Lin! Fan!"

Su Qingxue's voice was squeezed out word by word from between her teeth.

"You... for the second time!"

Her entire body was trembling violently, her fists clenched so tightly that the knuckles on the back of her hands were completely exposed.

Her eyes were completely red, and the liquid pooled in her eye sockets wobbled at the edge, but she stubbornly refused to let that teardrop fall.

Dropping a single tear meant admitting defeat; Su Qingxue had never cried in front of any man in her life.

Old foxes in the business world who were a hundred times more arrogant than her had slammed tables at her, thrown contracts at her, and made harsh threats, yet she wouldn't even frown.

But the person in front of her, this bottom-layer intern whose name she once couldn't even be bothered to remember, used the most primitive, vulgar, and humiliating way to crush her last bit of dignity over and over again.

"You are dreaming!" Su Qingxue's voice was sharp to the point of losing control, "Who do you think you are?! Do you think that because you cut off a person's finger, you are the boss of this island?!"

"You are just a dog! A stray dog that was lucky enough to pick up a few bones! When my people arrive..."