Chapter 277: The Dangerous Element

The moment Xiao Zishan heard the name, he gripped his tea mug with both hands, his brow furrowed. He hadn’t heard the nickname “The Four of the Black” in years. It referred to the four Elders who, in their attempt to “taste foreign meat” by ambushing Salina, were beaten to a pulp. For the sake of the Elder Council’s glorious and righteous image, the Executive Committee had privately given them this crude and chuunibyou-esque codename.

After being caught in the act, the four were separated and sent to different departments, far from the political center. They were also granted the unprecedented treatment of “monitored use.” Xiao Zishan received a “monitoring report” from the Political Security Bureau every month. Of course, this report was less about preventing them from committing further misdeeds and more about preventing Salina from seeking revenge one day. Now that Salina was also an Elder, if they were to start a fight, it would be far more serious than just intentional injury or rape.

He mentally reviewed the whereabouts of these four scoundrels: one was assisting You Laohu in the Army, now wreaking havoc on refugees in Kaohsiung; one was a technical supervisor in the industrial sector; another had been exiled to Gaoshanling to archive bootleg technology; only the last one, the mastermind of the assault, was a master of fishing in troubled waters. He remembered that he was later taken by Cheng Dong for monitored use.

“Are you talking about that scoundrel Xin Wuzui?” Xiao Zishan said in a low voice.

“Precisely that scoundrel. Among our five hundred or so people, no matter how unsuccessful they were in the old world, in this era, they are all considered knowledgeable, skilled, and exceptional figures. But Wuzui-san, you know, he has some skills that few have even heard of, even in the old world.” Zhao Manxiong glanced at Xiao Zishan and cracked a smile.

“Hehe, Old Xiong, I think I understand why you’re here,” Xiao Zishan said slowly. “It seems the waters are not muddy enough. Since Miss Flower wants to fish in troubled waters, let’s throw her a big black fish.”

“Well, just consider this me helping you recall,” Zhao Manxiongsky slowly rose from the sofa. “In a few days, I’ll come to pick it up myself.” He patted the non-existent dust off his legs, handed Xiao Zishan a file bag, gently tapped the now-invisible logo, and slowly walked out.

DELI. Xiao Zishan understood the meaning of this logo very well. A plastic file bag that was ubiquitous in the old world was absolute black technology in this era. The information in such a file bag was, in principle, never to be disseminated. Old Xiong leaving this behind clearly had an unusual meaning.

Opening the file bag, the red “Top Secret” stamp on the first page of the plastic-sealed binder indicated that this was an Elder’s qualification appraisal and an absolutely confidential Elder file:

Name: Xin Wuzui, ID: 0127, Gender: Male, Han ethnicity… a boilerplate identity page. The name is obviously fake, Xiao Zishan thought, but this was common among the transmigrators. Following that was his resume from the old world. As Xiao Zishan expected, he saw the growth history of a typical old-world elite: a double degree from a prestigious university, procurement engineer, key account sales manager, product planner, and finally, deputy head of the marketing department at a well-known insurance company. Also born in the late 70s, this guy did much better than me, Xiao Zishan thought, recalling this annoying forum show-off from back then, when he came to join Wen Zong and the others:

Wuzui-san was a slightly plump southerner with an innocent-looking baby face. His long eyelashes and large eyes exuded an air of innocence, and he wore a pair of lensless GUCCI glasses on his nose. His attire was always a simple suit and shirt, but a closer look would reveal the old rogue’s English cursive initials on his shirt cuffs or the inside of his suit. His playful lips were always curved in a smile. From a distance, he looked like a chubby Jeff Chang. But Xiao Zishan, who had dealt with him, knew very well that this baby-faced man in his low-key bespoke suit was definitely a guy who was “written as ‘elite’ but read as ‘scum’.” In some ways, he was like Governor Ma. In their eyes, there was no difference between the industrial party and the idealist party. For them, humility was a disguise, a smile was a mask, and politeness was just a means of keeping people at a distance.

But no group would refuse someone who came with enormous benefits. It was through his channels that the Transmigration Group had purchased excess accident insurance for all the transmigrators, ensuring their families in the old world would be financially secure, and had obtained tens of millions in funds. According to his pre-joining confession, he had used his several properties in the “Magic City” (Shanghai) as collateral for startup capital, packaged Wen Zong’s shell company into a cultural development company that had struck gold to raise huge sums from banks and private equity, and finally, a month before the bubble burst, successfully arrived in the Ming Dynasty.

This guy really has some skills, Xiao Zishan thought. Back then, the big three had spent months moving Kraak porcelain just to make ten million. After this guy joined, he quickly multiplied the existing funds several times over through financial instruments and repeated collateralization, greatly alleviating their financial pressure. But this person was a dangerous element. Xiao Zishan recalled that after the Salina assault incident, the Elder Council had held its first real interrogation of a fellow transmigrator. Some details were hazy, but he still clearly remembered how this guy had twisted facts, used clever words, and resorted to sophistry. Those with less social experience and weaker resolve would probably have been swayed by his talk and fallen into his trap without realizing it.

“Some thoughts you can think, you can do, but you must never say,” Xiao Zishan thought. “Wuzui is also an extreme misogynist, and he shouts it out loud. In his view, no matter how outstanding a woman is, she is nothing more than a man’s plaything. Back in the old world, not only was his wife completely obedient to him, but he also had several long-term sex partners outside, from young girls to married women, sparing none. And he was proficient in the art written as ‘love’ but read as ‘SM’. As a senior pervert who possessed the legendary ‘beauty,’ he had often caused the forum to call for him to be burned at the stake.”

But as the novels say, the protagonist finally messed with the wrong person, got involved with the wrong girl. At a high-end annual party, this person easily hooked up with the daughter of a local magnate—a girl who had just graduated from university. She quickly fell for the suave charm of the older man. While the girl, who had a thing for older men, was still lost in a dream of love, photos of Wuzui-san strolling with another woman were posted online. The glass-like heart of the young girl shattered instantly. After a heart-wrenching, screaming argument with the grand pervert for over half an hour, she, wearing a collar, turned and leaped from the 32nd-floor balcony. In that instant, Wuzui-san knew he had to say goodbye to this world.

As a former senior SM enthusiast and a failed female-dog-training expert, he confessed to the crime of planning the abduction, providing the equipment, and planning to train Salina, who was not yet an Elder at the time, without any sense of guilt. He loudly roared his famous line:

“Every life in nature has its rightful place. A woman’s place is at a man’s feet.”

“You fame-seeking bastard, that was clearly said by John Norman!” Xiao Zishan cursed inwardly.

His unwavering belief in his “philosophy” of how to truly “liberate” women made the interrogators feel as if they had encountered someone from another world. So much so that Mu Min, who was participating as a non-Elder consultant, directly slammed the case file on the old rogue’s face and stormed out. But Wuzui-san, confident in his extraordinary contributions and Elder status, felt no psychological pressure and enjoyed the pleasure of having his face spat on.

Xiao Zishan flipped to a key part of the binder, a sub-document with a black cover and red title: “Case File of the 1629 Assault Incident.” In it, Xin Wuzui and the other three were sentenced to be permanently barred from approaching Salina and could only work with other female Elders under supervision. Xin Wuzui was additionally barred from holding any overseas posts or departmental leadership positions without the approval of the Executive Committee. This not only confined Wuzui-san to Lingao but also put a glass ceiling over him. Then he saw this gentleman’s work history. Due to his actuary background, this guy was long used by the Planning Department and Wudaokou as a human data analysis machine for big data analysis, and he assisted the Planning Department with the computer center in establishing data models for the five-year plan. Later, with the upgrade of the Fangcaodi Academy, Wuzui-san was also grabbed by Hu Qingbai and assigned to the school, where, under the supervision of a dedicated person from the General Administration of Political Security, he gave high school students introductory education on data analysis and basic SOP training twice a week. Xiao Zishan closed the binder, thinking, So this is when you got connected with the Political Security Bureau? Wen Desi being an equally ardent enthusiast of ISO standards, Xiao Zishan understood very well why Zhao Manxiong came to him instead of Director Wen. This guy was a natural ally and advisor to the equally lecherous Director Wen, and Old Xiong was known for not getting involved in the Wen-Ma conflict.

The key was how to release this vicious fish and how to reel it back in. Xiao Zishan couldn’t help but take another cow-like gulp of his Longjing tea. Zhao Manxiong seems to have had a plan long ago, otherwise, he wouldn’t have leaked this public enemy of women from his files for me to see. He came to me just to let me know. Xin Wuzui was indeed a potent medicine. Throwing him out would certainly cause a huge storm. Even if the vast majority of Elders didn’t know the truth about the Four of the Black, just stating his theory of female liberation would be enough to make not only Queen Du, but even the most placid female Elder about male Elders taking concubines, fight him to the death.

“The best way to extinguish a fire is to set off a bigger explosion nearby?” Xiao Zishan recalled Speaker Qian’s famous words and fell into deep thought.