One person said: The essence of Wuhou Qimen lies not in Qimen, but in Wuhou.

Xu Si drew out a long, high-pitched voice that went in three bends: "Um—what did you say? I didn't hear you!"

Zhang Chulan made a dramatic switch in an instant, from aggrieved accusation to a deep apology.

He quickly wiped away his tears with the back of his hand, forcing a smile that looked even worse than a grimace. His voice was filled with unprincipled self-denial and a sincere acknowledgment of his fourth brother's absolute authority: "Fourth brother! What I mean is—it doesn't mean anything! I just tripped and fell! I wasn't watching where I was going and bumped into the door frame! It has nothing to do with anyone here! Especially not with you, fourth brother—absolutely nothing!"

After hearing this, Xu Si snorted and ignored him.

He turned and sat down on the iron table next to him, leaning against the cold wall. He looked up at the fluorescent light covered by an iron mesh on the ceiling and let out a long sigh.

The sigh no longer contained the powerful curses from before, but only a deep weariness, as if all the strength had been drained away.

He looked gloomy, like someone who had just finished calculating the Double Eleven discounts and then realized they had made a mistake.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Chulan immediately sprang up from the corner and swiftly circled behind Xu Si, placing both hands on Xu Si's shoulders and precisely pressing his thumbs on the Jianjing acupoint.

As he rubbed it, he spoke in a tone of deep remorse and sincerity, "Fourth Brother! From this day forward, I, Zhang Chulan, will follow you! If you tell me to go east, I won't go west; if you tell me to chase a dog, I won't catch a chicken! Please don't be angry, anger is bad for your health! This is my attitude, Zhang Chulan's attitude! One hundred percent! Purer than 24K gold!"

Xu Si let him massage his shoulders, closed his eyes, and felt the futile pressure of those claws on his Jianjing acupoint.

Then he spoke, his voice devoid of the anger and weariness from before, replaced by a calm, almost resigned statement, as if he were delivering a weather forecast that was neither relevant to him nor something he could avoid: "Attitude. Your attitude doesn't matter. What matters is—the leader's attitude."

Zhang Chulan's fingers paused for a moment, then immediately quickened their kneading, and he asked in an even more eager and cautious tone, "Yes, yes, Fourth Brother is right! So—what's the leader's attitude?"

Xu Si opened his eyes, staring at the empty concrete wall opposite him. In a calm, almost indifferent tone, he voiced his unsettling observation: "I originally thought—the boss would severely reprimand me, even give me a good scolding. That's fine, I can accept it; I, Xu Si, am thick-skinned and can take a beating. But the boss didn't. He was calm and collected from beginning to end, not uttering a single harsh word, his attitude as gentle as if he were having tea with an old friend. I feel—something's not right."

He turned his gaze away from the cement wall, looked down at the smoky yellow fingernail on his finger, and then added, his tone becoming slightly more somber: "Just received news—Director Zhuge's car is heading towards the Beijing-Tianjin Expressway, going directly back to Beijing."

He sighed heavily, the breath slowly emerging from the deepest part of his chest and dissipating into the cold concrete air.

Hearing these words, Zhang Chulan continued kneading his hands and began asking questions again.

He carefully gestured above Xu Si's shoulder and said in a thoughtful tone, "Fourth Brother, I've figured it out—the two leaders at the World Club today, one is our company's Chairman Zhao, and the other is Director Zhuge, whom you mentioned, right? And judging from their behavior, Director Zhuge seems to be even more dominant. No, not just more dominant, he completely controls the whole scene. Even Chairman Zhao is acting according to Director Zhuge's wishes."

He tilted his head, his swollen cheek rubbing against the fabric of his shoulder, causing him to twitch in pain, but he forced himself to continue asking, "Fourth Brother, no wonder you revere this Director Zhuge. I have a question—just how 'powerful' is this Director Zhuge? Or rather, what is the extent of his official position? Please give me the answer, so I can die knowing the truth."

Upon hearing this, Xu Si suddenly seemed to have figured something out, and the gloomy look on his face dissipated somewhat.

He turned his head to look at Zhang Chulan's eager, pig-faced expression, a disdainful yet meaningful smile playing on his lips. He spoke in the tone of someone who'd been there giving a newbie a general overview: "How should I put it—let me put it this way. Director Zhuge doesn't need to invite friends to withdraw money from Pinduoduo. He can do it if he wants to."

Zhang Chulan's hands suddenly stopped.

He remained in the shoulder-massaging posture, his entire body frozen behind Xu Si as if he had been acupunctured.

His mouth slowly opened wide, forming an ever-expanding "O" shape, and his pupils trembled violently—a hundred times more intensely than when Xu Si had slammed the report into his face earlier.

He had lived for nineteen years. From childhood, he was whipped with a rattan cane by his grandfather to practice kung fu in the village. At school, he was isolated by his classmates as a monster. In society, he was pursued by all sorts of monsters and demons. But he had never heard such a simple and easy-to-understand explanation of power that struck his soul so directly.

You can withdraw money from Pinduoduo without inviting friends.

These words exploded like a mushroom cloud in his mind.

He blurted out instinctively, his tone filled with a profound sense of awe and genuine admiration for his fourth brother's eloquence: "Holy crap—that's really awesome!"

Xu Si nodded in satisfaction as he looked at Zhang Chulan's stunned expression.

He jumped off the table, flicked the cigarette butt into the makeshift ashtray in the corner, then turned to look at Zhang Chulan with a cruel yet radiant smile.

When he spoke, every word was like a chilled needle, piercing Zhang Chulan's eardrums: "Awesome, huh? Well, today I, Xu Si, will let you, you stupid college student, experience—the feeling of facing reality head-on. For a heartless, stupid college student like you, I will punish you in the cruelest way."

He paused for a moment, savoring the gradually freezing expression on Zhang Chulan's face, then uttered a few words, one by one, as if announcing a death sentence: "I'll deduct a year's salary from your paycheck."

Zhang Chulan's hand, which was massaging his shoulder, paused.

The air was silent for a full two seconds.

His hands were still in the position of massaging Xu Si's shoulders, his fingers still resting on Xu Si's shoulders, but all movement had stopped, even his breathing had stopped.

Then he slowly withdrew his hand from Xu Si's shoulder, his expression switching in a very short time from confusion to shock to disbelief to the collapse of his world.

He felt as if he had just experienced a ringing in his ears, as if he had just heard a sound that shouldn't exist in this world. His brain was desperately telling him that he must have misheard, but his ears were telling him with absolute clarity that he hadn't.

He asked in an extremely cautious tone, as if confirming the end of the world, "Fourth Brother—I just had a ringing in my ear. You're not kidding me, are you?"