Release that Man
chapter-192

What the f*ck? Why would Sister Shuang go on a date‽ And… the f*ck! Why would her date be with Zhou Yue‽

The news was explosive, and it shocked every single one of Yao Zhixing’s lackeys. They did not even know which part of the news to be shocked by. Yao Zhixing was also stuck for half a minute before he recovered. “I did hear about the news of you going on a date, but…”

His mind was stuck in a mess for a while before Yao Zhixing frowned severely. He still had trouble digesting this coincidence. The only thing he could do was tut and skip over this incident for now. “Never mind that, let’s get to dinner first.”

Then, he turned and walked away to head into the restaurant, and Ye Shuang followed naturally.

The group of lackeys made expressions at one another and stayed close behind the two. Since it was inconvenient for them to communicate using words, they could only speak via non-verbal signs.

After they were seated inside the private room, the food was soon served. The waitress did not even come into the room to hand them the menu. It looked like the fight really did happen in the middle of the gathering. They had already ordered everything before the confrontation started, and the cooks had already finished preparing everything when they were fighting.

Therefore, they skipped over the period of waiting for the food to cook and entered the stage of eating directly. Ye Shuang was already hungry, so she rolled up her sleeves and grabbed a bowl of rice. Then, she ladled two scoops of the milky white bone soup into the bowl, mixing it with the rice. She finished the rice in two to three spoonfuls, and now that there was finally something resting in her stomach, she turned to add another bowl of rice and began to slowly enjoy the food. By then, the crowd had just started ladling the soup and were waiting for it to cool.

Every time they had dinner with Sister Shuang, they racers felt particularly womanly.

Yao Zhixing had long since gotten used to Ye Shuang’s appetite. Even though he was quite curious how that slender body managed to digest all the food, when he thought about the scary power that was disproportionate to her size, the question was thus answered.

“There’s no need to purposely leave the food for them,” Yao Zhixing said directly, “If you’re hungry, then just eat… Who can they blame but themselves for moving so slowly‽”

That might be so, but of course, Ye Shuang would not really swallow everything on the table; she still picked at the food slowly with her chopsticks and chewed thoroughly. After she swallowed, she smiled. “It’s alright.”

After the dinner was over, they chatted about what had happened earlier, and Ye Shuang then knew the reason behind the big confrontation. As she expected, it was because they could not stand each other.

Yao Zhixing’s lackeys were the type that liked adrenaline and had little reservation. However, that lack of reservation did not mean a depraved lifestyle—it meant that they had a free personality and liked adventure. Other than the underground racing and betting, they would not touch other illegal activities like prostitution and drugs.

However, in comparison, Zhou Yue’s social circle was rather uneven in terms of morality. In fact, after removing the families that hung out with him because they had a business relationship with his family, the rest were mostly the unethical type. After all, there were few normal people who would suffer Zhou Yue’s personality without complaint. With his father’s stern education watching him, Zhou Yue would not venture too close to the stuff that was too out of line, but the same could not be said of his so-called ‘friends’.

There was rarely a generation that was too debauched among families that had a long history. This was because those who had an identity, Credit Rating, and name knew how to protect themselves. In their eyes, the natural advantage that they were born with was a form of resource, and it could be used to cultivate their future, making it so that they would need to traverse few bumps on the road compared to other people, and thus they would achieve success easier than others.

However, that was not the fact for those who could not see beyond themselves. This type of person thought they could do anything because they had the support of their family. In their eyes, the advantage they had meant that they did not need to pour in as much effort as other people. With their advantage, they felt like they could continue squander and live a lavish life forever.

In reality, even the emperor could not stop the change in dynasty. If one did not take good care of the resource, who could guarantee that the lifestyle could be continued forever‽

Therefore, the two types of individuals could not see eye to eye. One saw the other as being overly pretentious, and in turn, the other saw them as being witless. Therefore, when they bumped into each other at certain events, it was relatively common for them to provoke each other. This time it was because someone in Yao Zhixing’s group had a dark history with someone in Zhou Yue’s circle, and one thing led to another.

“That guy is my uncle’s bastard son. He has been working as a manager at my uncle’s company. From the very beginning, I could not stand the guy, and I even suggested to my uncle twice to fire the man, but my uncle, who is normally so brilliant, refused to do anything. I was once very confused about this, and then later, I found out,” a man wearing a jacket explained with a devastated expression on his face. He scratched his head with annoyance. “Never time, let’s not dwell on this sad news!”

Yao Zhixing nodded as he pushed a glass of wine over to the man. “I agree.”

The man with the jacket smiled as he accepted the glass and finished it in one gulp.

Probably to change the subject or perhaps because they could no longer control their curiosity, someone patted the man’s shoulder to console him before turning over excitedly to wink at Ye Shuang. “No matter how bad the news is, it couldn’t be worse than what happened to Sister Shuang. Why would you go on a date with someone like that Zhou Yue‽”

Finally, couldn’t resist‽ Ye Shuang looked at the passionate gazes that congregated on her with a smile. Even the slightly devastated man with the jacket earlier could not resist raising his head to reveal an expression that was anticipating some gossip. Seeing this, Ye Shuang smiled. “It’s nothing serious. Zhou Yue’s father and my mother are childhood friends. I also just found out about this recently. Apparently, they’ve known each other since kindergarten, but they lost contact around high school, and they have just recently reconnected with one another.”

Of course, Ye Shuang did not think it was wise to share Mother Ye’s youthful tales with others. Then again, it had to be said that Father Zhou was quite a loyal man. Initially, neither Mother Ye nor Father Zhou were from San Lin City. However, Mother Ye’s boyfriend, Father Ye, was teaching in San Lin City, so she moved over for him.

At the time, Father Zhou had already expanded his business from that two trucks to more than ten trucks. He could be considered a man with success. Technically speaking, he would have had his choices of possible romantic candidates to pick from, but he still had not forgotten about Mother Ye and made the choice to move his company headquarters to San Lin City and then made this city his permanent home. Ye Shuang believed Father Zhou probably thought that the close distance would help his situation, but his business was just coming up, and Mother Ye and Father Ye’s relationship was improving day by day. Therefore, in the end, Father Zhou just found a random wife, got married, and had a son. The memory from his youth was thus buried in the past.

“It’s that simple‽” The people at the table were not satisfied with Ye Shuang’s explanation. This explanation was not so different from the summary that they had been given earlier. They were expecting some sort of dark secret.

“Even if there’s a secret, I wouldn’t tell you guys now, would I?” Ye Shuang rolled her eyes at the guys, and as she expected, she earned a few heated gazes from the guys. Yao Zhixing tapped his chin and said in a meaningful tone, “Since your family has this type of relationship with the Zhou family, then the issue of my family’s restaurants changing the transportation chain…” Yao Zhixing glanced at Ye Shuang and seeing the confused expression on her face, he pointed it out directly. “I’ll be honest, I’ve already finished the discussion with Fang Mo, and his request to start a warehouse and route has been approved. This is already set in stone. After we manage to convince a few other businesses to get on board, we can get this started.”

“Then, do it.” Ye Shuang understood. Yao Zhixing was probably afraid that it might create trouble for her. After all, it was fine when they did not each other, but now that it had been revealed that the two elders from the families were friends, if Ye Shuang helped Yao Zhixing connect with Fang Mo, then she was stealing the business away from Zhou Yue’s father.

After understanding Yao Zhixing’s hesitation, Ye Shuang also smiled and explained her thoughts openly. “I’ve considered this problem after knowing about that layer of relationship between my mother and Uncle Zhou. However, after a few more tactful conversations, I gained some understanding about their family business.

“Honestly, losing the depot at San Lin City is not going to affect Uncle Zhou’s business that much. He would be losing a link in the chain, but the money earned will not be affected. After all, you know Zhou family’s chain is nationwide. If you guys don’t want the stuff that he was supposed to transport to San Lin City, it can be easily digested by his clients in other cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing. Every year, there are new restaurants opening, so it’s fine!”

Yao Zhixing sighed in relief, and the light expression returned to his face. “It’s wonderful news. Honestly, I don’t think it is a bad idea for the Zhou family to just remove the branch in San Lin City. With a son like Zhou Yue, it is just a matter of time until he helps his father lose his other local customers.”

When he finished, the table of people started to giggle. Obviously, they were in agreement with Yao Zhixing’s assessment.

Ye Shuang shook her head helplessly. “I’m not going to comment. I’ll just sit and listen… After all, this is a family friend. Even if I don’t give Zhou Yue face, I have to give Uncle Zhou face.”

After all, she was still wearing the expensive bracelet on her wrist.

Yao Zhixing nodded. “My family is also giving Uncle Zhou face or else I would have thought that man a lesson a long time ago… Never mind, let’s not get into it. Let’s drink!”

With gossip to accompany the dinner, the table finished all the food served. In fact, due to Ye Shuang’s combat ability and the good atmosphere, they ordered seven to eight extra dishes. The gathering ended when the sky outside was fully dark. Then to celebrate the first official gathering of the group after New Year, as Yao Zhixing said earlier, they moved the celebration to the nightclub. This meant that when Ye Shuang reached her apartment, it was already two in the morning.

…

The next morning, when Ye Shuang woke up, it was not due to her biological clock but the email notification on her phone. Ye Shuang had applied for a business email on her phone that would filter out all the spam mail, and she did not give it to any of her personal friends. Other than the important clients, all the other daily missions like ‘Deal with the mistress!’ would be siphoned to her other email. Therefore, when this notification rang, even though Ye Shuang still had not had a full night’s sleep, she had to wake up to answer the email.

She unlocked her phone, and a picture was included in the email. Attached to it was an explanation that could not have been simpler. “Plane ticket to the annual symposium, please reply.”

Ye Shuang glanced at the form and then at the email address. She was shocked to see it had been sent from Boss Mo’s private email address, so she called the man’s phone number directly. “I’ve seen the plane ticket.”

“Xiao Ye sure wakes up early. I thought you’d see the mail after eight or nine am.” Boss Mo sounded like he was preparing to go out. Following the voice that contained surprise and good humor, it was the sound of the door being closed. If she paid close attention, she could even hear the sound of the key being turned and his grandson refusing the milk in a serious tone.

“Since you’ve seen it, then you should start packing. We will depart next week. Remember to go to the airport early to exchange the plane ticket.”

“We‽” Ye Shuang asked with surprise, and she had a good idea why the man asked for her to call him back. She sat up in bed and grabbed the pillow to hug in her chest. With one hand on the phone, Ye Shuang asked, “Aren’t there many things to do at Tian Mo Media‽ Can the company run without Boss Mo‽”

The annual symposium would last for several days, and considering the possibility of her gender swap, honestly, Ye Shuang did not want to bring anyone with her to avoid the complications. It would increase the chance of her secret being exposed!

“It’s not only me but my parents, my grandson, and my niece.” A heavy helplessness was noticeable in Boss Mo’s voice. He sighed deeply and sounded like a defeated general who knew the tide of the battle was firmly against him. “I hear this year’s symposium will be in Chaohai City, and the winter there will be warmer. And I promised my grandson, if he gets five As in his kindergarten test, I would take him on a holiday. When my grandson and Xiao Xia heard you’re going to Chaohai, they also said they want to come with. Since the two were going, the grandparents are naturally following along to look after the children.”

Ye Shuang felt the helplessness. It sounded like this was going to be a family holiday. However, this resolved one of her problems. With the existence of the kid, it was easy to maintain her gender identity, and that would prevent her from changing in front of the authors.

“Okay then.” Ye Shuang thought about the day of departure and the schedule of her gender swap, and she accepted without any further hesitation. “I believe we should reach the hotel at around the same time, right‽ However, when your family goes on their trip, I might not be able to follow along. After all, I need the opportunity to try to gain as many contacts with the authors as I can.”

“Don’t need to worry about that.” Boss Mo seemed to have gotten into his car as the original sound of the wind turned silent like he had entered a smaller space. “Mainly, I’m telling you this to prevent you from being shocked when you arrive. Okay, if there’s nothing else, I will hang up the phone. After you confirm the list, remember to email it to me. The company will need to assess the potential of their writing too.”

There was quite a gap in the ages of Ye Shuang and Boss Mo, and Boss Mo was a busy man. Even though they were on friendly terms, to have Ye Shuang chat with the man like she did with Yao Zhixing was impossible. Thus, they did not have the time to waste on pointless topics, and Boss Mo was not someone Ye Shuang could simply joke with. After confirming the business, the call was hung up. Ye Shuang thought about it and dragged her laptop over to set up a working schedule for herself for this week before the departure.

One of the more important things to do was to update the data inside the talent storage. Another thing that was not so important but had to be done was the plan to purchase a car. No matter the country, having a car was a point of identity. If Ye Shuang did not have the ability to purchase her own car, it would have been fine if she continued to use Han Chu’s car to complete her daily mission, but since the year-end bonus from the An Family’s shares had come into her account, buying her own car was something that had to be done. She could drive it less or just not drive it at all, but she had to have a car. Therefore, this issue was tossed to Yao Zhixing. Based on Ye Shuang’s plan, when she returned from Chaohai, she would go to the bank to get the money to pay for the car.

After pulling out all the individual talents at San Lin City from the storage to start an individual file, Ye Shuang arranged them again based on their location. She was soon done arranging the information and decided to make a call.

“Lawyer Lin?

“I’m updating my storage data; do you have time to take on a new contract now? I need all the medical report for all the talents at the east side of town; can I ask you to help me arrange for this?”

Even though he was shocked to receive the sudden call from Ye Shuang, Lawyer Lin was someone experienced, and he quickly entered the state of official business. “How much is the fee and the scope of the job?”

“I need you to inform and collect the medical report for around twenty people. The main tests are the blood tests and a urine test.” Ye Shuang cut to the chase as well. “It has to be the medical report for this year. We will not accept the report even if it is from December last year. The hospital where they did the test has to be registered and qualified. We will compensate half of the medical fee, and the contract payment for you is about…”

Using the same method, Ye Shuang found other lawyers that were stationed in the other parts of San Lin City. Probably because it was just after New Year, everyone was quite free; therefore, they did not have any problem accepting the contract from Ye Shuang. Even if they did not, as members of the talent storage, they had to take the test themselves, so in that case, why would they not take the opportunity to earn some extra cash‽

Alas, not everything could be passed on to others; updating the personal skills had to be done by Ye Shuang personally. After all, some of the talent’s skills could not be revealed openly, and the type of contracts they accepted had to be hidden to protect the talent’s privacy. After arranging everything, Ye Shuang skimmed through her schedule for the day. It was white and empty; she was free. Since that was the case, she got straight to work.

Therefore, she called Lawyer Lin again, stating her desire to update the information of his workshop. Lawyer Lin passed the call to the chief of the workshop, and after ironing out the details, he set up a time to meet Ye Shuang.

…

“This is perfect. I already planned to find a chance to contact Miss Ye or Mr. Ye after the New Year.” When she arrived at the workshop, the chief quickly walked out to welcome her. He poured a glass of tea for Ye Shuang and then sat down across from her. “Actually, a few of our members are planning to leave the workshop. To be more direct, they want to start their own private investigation company, so you’ll probably need to remove their information from the database.”

The chief looked like he was in his forties, and he had a casual charm to him. If she did not memorize the man’s profile beforehand, Ye Shuang would have had difficulty connecting that profile to the man that sat before her. A retired Special Unit soldier, the representative for a branded wine company, and occasionally, he would take some special contracts directly from Han Chu.

Ye Shuang was surprised, but after she recovered, she asked, “This might be rude of me to speculate, but can I assume the possibility that the few who wanted to leave the workshop are the few who are responsible for the investigation of the extra-marital affairs‽”

The chief nodded. “I believe Miss Ye has noticed this already. Starting from November last year, the cases that were transferred to you have dropped. Honestly, I discovered this much later; this group of people would leave their private contact with the client when they accept the contract and then give them a price that is about ten percent lower than yours, so many cases directly went to them.”

It was normal for people to seek a better future for themselves, but the way of separation was different. If it was a peaceful break-up, they could still be friends in the future, but other people would not go for something like that. They would need to tear you down first before they left. For example, jumping ship, those with a good personality would inform the boss beforehand so that the boss would have some time to move people around; those who did not have a good personality would disappear after they received the salary, ignoring all possible complications that their disappearance act might have caused.

“As you know, most of us have a day job, and the contracts are just part time income. However, there are a few that do not have a real job, and going to a large headhunting company would cost too much, so they reside in workshop, using it as a diving board to something better.” The chief looked embarrassed. “When they first entered the workshop, I didn’t check their background closely, and I’m very sorry for allowing this to happen.”

Ye Shuang was silent for some time. “This is fine, but the Credit Rating of your workshop will be downgraded for one level…”

Individual talents and workshops were different. The talents inside the storage had their Credit Rating, and this was assessed from multiple angles, like ability, past record, personality, and ease to cooperate with. It also included whether they understood the hidden rules of the business and whether there had been any complaints about them in the past. Personal talent had their limitation to the type and amount of contract they could accept, but the possibility of being dragged down by others also significantly lowered.

At the same time, the credit rating also decided the commission rate of the agent. For example, the original rate for the contract given to the workshop was thirty percent, but after the credit rating lowered, she would be able to get a ten percent greater cut. This was because the credit rating has been lowered, so she would need to sustain a higher risk when she passed them any contracts.

“I can understand.” The chief looked quite angry as well. After all, this was the mistake of his people. Now that his people had stolen the clients of the agent, it was acceptable to have the credit rating lowered. “However, there is one more thing that I don’t know whether I have to say or not. They… seem to have exposed your information to certain clients that have been investigated in the past.”