Chapter 27: Zhong’s Pharmaceutical
July 15, Monday, 10 a.m.
The headquarters of the renowned private pharmaceutical giant, Zhong’s Pharmaceutical Group, which echoes across S Province and even the entire country, is located in the prime CBD area of W District in C City.
Thirty years ago, Zhong’s Pharmaceutical was just a small workshop making pharmaceutical intermediates, but then, for some unknown reason, it began a frenzied expansion and quickly became a leading enterprise in the pharmaceutical industry.
Such rapid development is not rare in the ever-changing Huaguo, but it is extremely uncommon in S Province.
The headquarters building, designed by a well-known architect, is elegant and imposing. Under the bright sun, the entire building’s glass surface glimmers with a dazzling dark green luster, shimmering brilliantly.
Zhong Jing walked into the building in formal attire, and several female clerks at the reception desk stood up, their expressions filled with surprise.
“Young Master Zhong… Mr. Zhong, is that you?”
“Is my dad not here?”
Zhong Jing held his phone in his hand, showing a hint of impatience on his face, causing the girls to feel a bit nervous.
“The chairman is on a business trip to Japan, and the exact return time needs to be confirmed with the administrative center. You can rest in the chairman’s office for a while.”
The young receptionist blushed and hurriedly picked up the landline phone in front of her.
“No, I can find him.”
After saying this, Zhong Jing put on a brilliant smile and gracefully turned towards the elevator.
“Hey, do you think Young Master Zhong is here today to date that new assistant from the administrative center? I’ve seen that girl; she graduated from university last year and joined the group, beautiful and well-mannered, from a prestigious university! She even had dinner with Young Master Zhong last time!”
“I heard it’s that supervisor from the information center, the one surnamed Li, who looks like a vixen! She’s four or five years older than Young Master Zhong!”
Facing the future heir of Zhong’s Group, whom everyone has long accepted, the young receptionists were naturally filled with gossip.
Rumors about Zhong Jing having ambiguous relationships with several exceptional female employees in the group had long ceased to be a secret.
…
Zhong Jing’s arrival, in some respects, is no less impactful than the presence of Chairman Zhong Hai himself; the father and son both have their own busy agendas and appear at the headquarters only occasionally.
The charming and lively women from the administrative center find various ways and reasons to pass by or engage in conversation with Zhong Jing. It took him a good five minutes to walk down a not-so-long corridor to reach his father’s office door.
The assistant surnamed Tian, hailed as the new generation goddess of the administrative center, dressed in classic professional attire paired with black stockings, opened the chairman’s office door for Zhong Jing with a solemn smile.
But until the door closed again, Assistant Tian did not see any valuable hints on the face of the future head of the Zhong family, feeling secretly disappointed.
She quickly walked to her father’s desk, took out a notebook from her bag, logged into the intranet, and entered her data backend permission account.
As a non-listed company, the true operational status of Zhong’s Pharmaceutical Group is understandably unknown to the outside world, but its industry valuation exceeding one trillion naturally attests to the group’s recognized strong revenue capacity, and its digital information management is quite complex.
With more than a decade of version iterations, Zhong’s Group’s information management is already quite sophisticated. The backend permissions are clearly defined; access records are permanently saved, which made Zhong Jing hesitate when trying to search for some sensitive historical data.
No matter how much mystery accompanied the group’s rise, his father, Zhong Hai, had always been a very cautious person. If he really became a broker between the blood clan and the normal world, that might be acceptable, but if it involved deeper connections, Zhong Jing could hardly imagine whether he would act as Wan Yue hoped he would.
Moreover, he had long since solidified in his father’s eyes as a frivolous young master uninterested in family business matters; suddenly starting to inquire about the group’s business information from over a decade ago would inevitably raise some suspicions.
His fingers hesitated over the query button for several seconds without clicking, and Zhong Jing let out a long sigh, ultimately closing the notebook and falling into deep thought.
A few days ago, Wan Yue’s very straightforward communication had finally turned the prologue of their script that lasted thirteen years to the main plot. He had been waiting for this day, but when it arrived, he suddenly felt a bit timid.
All the speculation and expectations actually came from his family.
His father, Zhong Hai, was busy all year round, rarely returning home, and his mother was a pet fanatic, with so many cats and dogs in the house that they sometimes competed with his younger self for space and snacks.
The one supposedly his brother was not very close during childhood; in fact, most of the time, the two brothers kept to themselves, not interfering with each other.
In childhood family life, the person he felt closest to was actually the family nanny who changed every two years.
From the moment he darted out of the backyard to chase after superheroes, Zhong Jing felt he had finally found his direction; a previously dull and empty life suddenly held exciting possibilities.
Three years ago, after taking on part of Wan Yue’s mysterious work, he began to truly recognize the unknown side of this world.
Thermal medicine, boiling blood medicine, internal and external hormone inhibitors—the mysterious world is not mysterious at all; they are all products of this civilized world, with no essential difference compared to antibiotics or cold medicine, just different users.
Did Zhong’s Pharmaceutical Group, as hinted by Wan Yue, also belong to such vested interests squeezed between normal human society and the world of the blood clan?
Did he truly, as Wan Yue said, challenge the most evil aspects of this world as a warrior? His first target could very well be his own father.
As thoughts spiraled and sank deeper, Zhong Jing shook his head a few times.
…
The door opened, and Assistant Tian walked in, serving Zhong Jing a cup of coffee while maintaining her elegant smile. “Mr. Zhong, it’s been confirmed that the chairman will return tomorrow. It’s almost noon; should I arrange a meal for you?”
Assistant Tian in front of him was very beautiful and well-mannered; a few months ago, Zhong Jing had some ambiguous interactions with her, but now, his mind was completely elsewhere.
“Mr. Zhong… how about we have lunch together? Your professional advice last time really inspired me, and I was thinking about how to thank you…”
Assistant Tian blushed, her voice soft.
“Miss Tian, my own firm has taken on a project to provide business consulting for a small agricultural company regarding horizontal industry-academia-research cooperation. I was wondering if the group had undertaken similar collaborations over the years; I’d like to reference that.”
Zhong Jing seemed not to have heard Assistant Tian’s lunch invitation and instead pulled out a cigarette to light up.
“About agricultural matters? Please hold on, I’ll check for you.”
Assistant Tian suppressed her inner disappointment and quickly stood up, heading towards her workstation outside. A few minutes later, the sound of the printer could be heard, and several minutes after that, three business data lists appeared in front of Zhong Jing.
“This is from 2013, a tripartite industry-academia-research joint project between the group, S Province Forestry University, and a livestock company, studying the extraction research of various biological enzymes from cow entrails.”
“This is from 2016, a collaboration with a fishing company based on drug development for fungal infections in freshwater aquaculture fish.”
Assistant Tian squatted beside Zhong Jing, marking the printed materials with a pen, showing great dedication.
“Are there any smaller-scale collaborations? These are all projects with substantial funding requirements, not suitable for my client.”
Zhong Jing casually browsed through the materials at hand, finding nothing he wanted.
“Smaller-scale collaborations?” Assistant Tian was momentarily taken aback. “The group likely had some in its early days, but since it’s too long ago, they might not have been entered into the database. Should I ask the information center if they have any archived paper materials?”
“No need, thanks. I will ask my father about it.”
Zhong Jing stood up, glanced at his watch, grabbed his suit jacket, and returned to a relaxed demeanor, smiling while eyeing her curvy figure. “It’s eleven-thirty; if you’re free for lunch, Miss Tian, would you honor me by having a meal together?”
“Uh-huh!”
The beautiful assistant tried to control her inner joy and nodded subtly and obediently.
Zhong’s Group headquarters’ working hours are not strict; lunchtime and breaks combined total one and a half hours, and even allowing for some internal greetings within departments, two hours is permissible.
The exquisite and simple lunch lasted only half an hour before Zhong Jing took Assistant Tian to a nearby hotel and booked a private room…
…
…
Near a certain old community on Yushui Street in J District, on top of a tall building under the blazing sun, several men in black stood overlooking an inconspicuous residential building, each with a somewhat grim expression.
“Boss, we’ve been observing for nearly a month. Before the knight from the Wang family had an incident, we didn’t dare to get too close, and there were one or two unknown guys lurking around those two girls. Yesterday, I found out they were moving, so I arranged for someone to follow them discreetly.”
The middle-aged man in black spoke nervously, addressing a strikingly handsome young man before him, clearly showing signs of fear.
“Boss, those two girls are absolutely top-notch! In just over a month, they’ve already jumped to being attendants! That scent—one can sense it from across half of Yushui Street! They must have rare blood types, and they’re also fresh newbies; their boiling blood and pheromone control capabilities are terrible!”
Another young man in black quickly added.
“A bunch of fools, and you tell me this only now? Did you think to keep it all to yourselves before?”
The handsome young man coldly snorted, a hint of greedy killing intent flashing in his eyes. “Decades or perhaps hundreds of years without encountering such a special physique—though they’re at a low realm, they’d still be useful for me in challenging my baron status!”
As he spoke, a faint aura emanated from the handsome young man, already at the peak of an upper-tier knight.
“Boss, if you’d returned earlier, we wouldn’t have been so cautious because the previous knight was too reckless… Once you become a baron, your status will be on a different level. What can’t you catch then? The brothers can also benefit from some leftovers!”
The earlier middle-aged man in black hurriedly stepped up to flatter him, a fawning expression on his face.
“Have some self-awareness; as long as you’re not a baron, you’re all trash!”
The handsome young man turned coldly, looking at his subordinates, his delight and cruelty growing more apparent. “If it weren’t for that woman suddenly going crazy and attracting the shadow team by getting pregnant, the best way would have been to find an opportunity to take out a knight!”
“Forget it; you must find the whereabouts of those two girls! If you weren’t lying to me, the two of them combined would amount to one knight.”
“Yes, boss!”
The men in black nodded deeply, bending slightly.
