Chapter 139: Imminent Crisis

"What are you daydreaming about, Little Yang? Why aren't you saying a word? It's already burning your eyebrows!"

Seeing Lin Yang lost in thought and completely failing to answer her question, Bai Jing pouted in displeasure, her urging tone laced with a sense of helplessness in her expressive, beautiful eyes.

The ultimate weapons of a woman are crying, making a scene, and hanging oneself. However, for a stunning beauty, merely revealing a trace of gentle vulnerability, acting spoiled, and casting a few alluring glances would melt even the hardest heart of stone.

Meeting Bai Jing's aggrieved and helpless gaze, Lin Yang shivered all over as if struck by a lightning bolt from the blue, finally jolting himself back from his reverie.

With a simple, honest expression on his face and a cheeky tone, he lowered his voice to reply, "N-nothing, nothing at all."

"Then do you have any good ideas or not? The situation is critical!" Bai Jing stamped her foot in anxiety. If there hadn't been others nearby, she probably would have stomped right on Lin Yang's foot.

Su Xiaodong, who was standing nearby, had gone through a bumpy ride along the rugged, potholed road and vomited repeatedly. The alcohol sloshing in his stomach had been thoroughly purged, and he had completely sobered up. With a clear head now, he naturally heard every word Bai Jing said.

Seeing Bai Jing's anxiety, his lifelong lustful nature flared up again. Especially upon seeing such a breathtaking beauty like her, the newly sober man started acting mischievous once more. He stepped forward, pushed Lin Yang aside, and chuckled slyly, "Oh, Sister Jing, this is no big deal at all. Just leave it to your little brother. Tell me what needs to be done, and I'll make sure it's handled."

Habits are not always good things, especially the bad ones Su Xiaodong had cultivated. While speaking, his right hand instinctively reached out to sneak a pinch of the beauty's curvaceous rear. Who would have thought that the sharp-eyed Lin Yang caught everything in the act? Knowing Su Xiaodong's true nature all too well, Lin Yang had long anticipated this petty move and unceremoniously slapped the hand away.

*Crack!* The crisp sound echoed clearly for everyone present to hear. Naturally, the loud slap drew everyone's attention, and Su Xiaodong's true colors were instantly exposed under their collective gaze.

Chuckling awkwardly, he took a few steps back. With a skin as thick as city walls, Su Xiaodong didn't care in the least that his vulgar nature had been exposed to everyone by Lin Yang, completely brushing off their disdainful looks.

"Xiaodong, stop messing around. This isn't something your old man can interfere with, let alone an old fellow like me." Meng Hu, thoroughly defeated by Su Xiaodong's thick skin, stepped forward, pulled the grinning youth behind him, and said helplessly.

Hearing Meng Hu speak, Bai Jing suddenly remembered this underworld boss who dominated both the legal and illegal spheres of Jinhai. Seeing that Lin Yang hadn't come up with a good solution, Bai Jing naturally wouldn't let slip the opportunity to consult this veritable know-it-all.

Prompted by Bai Jing, Meng Hu, who already harbored a desire to kill off the Fang family, was more than happy to lend a hand. Building on the proposal he had just made to eliminate Fang Muren, he immediately launched into a detailed explanation of his plan.

Able to sit in the position of an underworld boss, Meng Hu was certainly not a soft-hearted person. His assassination plan against Fang Muren was utterly ruthless, practically guaranteeing that he wouldn't stop until the target was dead.

Listening to Meng Hu's words, Bai Jing fell into deep thought. From a certain perspective, the fierce tiger's proposal could indeed curb the Fang family's encroachment on the Bai family. However, it was merely treating the symptoms rather than the root cause. Furthermore, being able to hold the position of chief of police, Fang Muren was hardly a fool who could be easily eliminated. At a time like this, such a man would surely value his own skin above all else; how could they easily find his weakness? Besides, the death of a municipal police chief would inevitably cause a massive uproar in the higher echelons.

***

Just as the group was discussing how to eliminate that scumbag Fang Muren, the man himself had locked the two captured biological science experts in a maximum-security prison cell, subjecting them to the most vicious eighteen forms of torture to extract the formula for the wondrous creation.

*Crack!* The crisp sound of whipping echoed back and forth inside the enclosed iron-stone cell. The two biological science experts had already been lashed until their skin was torn and mangled, their breathing ragged and hanging on by a thread.

"Will you talk, or won't you?" The young prison guard, finally pausing and lowering his whip, stared with a gloomy expression at the two men whose flesh was laid bare, barking a cold reprimand. The dark look on his face clearly implied that if they still refused to speak, he would not hesitate to resume the lashes mercilessly.

The two biological science experts still possessed a shred of backbone and hadn't immediately surrendered under the torture. However, to the interrogating guard, this was clearly just an appetizer. Faced with the tiger bench torture instrument, fear finally crept onto the faces of the two experts.

It didn't take long before the two biological science experts could no longer hold out and confessed.

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" The first to break was the older of the two. For a middle-aged man well past fifty, a single round of whipping had already stripped away half his life. If it continued, he would likely lose his life entirely before long. Although the Bai family had treated him well, compared to his own life, he certainly wasn't going to sacrifice himself for a grand sense of righteousness—it simply wasn't worth it.

"Hmph, spineless dogs. It takes heavy torture to make you open your mouths. Well? Don't you know how to talk now?" The young prison guard lowered his whip, walked coldly up to the old man with a sneer, and couldn't resist mocking him bitterly.

The young guard possessed a certain cunning; fearing the two might try to play tricks, he ordered them separated to ensure the formulas they provided matched precisely.

It didn't take much effort before the two truthfully wrote down every detail of the formulas they knew. Comparing the two documents and confirming they matched without error, the young guard excitedly rushed to deliver the harvest to Fang Muren, who was waiting in the office.

Compared to other prison guards, this young man enjoyed plenty of perks as a member of the Fang family clan. Just his current official rank was enough to make many green with envy.

The level-one steel prison was specially built in the second basement level, making it completely unknown to outsiders. To be precise, apart from the direct descendants of the Fang family, even subordinate factions under the Fang clan and senior police officials were entirely unaware of its existence.

Inside the office, Fang Muren was also secretly anxious. Although he had successfully captured the two biological science experts, he couldn't guarantee whether he would actually get what he wanted from their mouths. If he failed to extract the formula while also sacrificing so many of the Fang family's elites, even Fang Muren himself would find it hard to escape responsibility. While he might not face execution, some form of brutal punishment would be unavoidable.

*Bang, bang, bang!* Just as Fang Muren was pacing anxiously back and forth across the office, the sound of knocking on the door rang out.

"Who is it?" Fang Muren asked coldly out of conditioned reflex. Long years sitting in the chief's chair had long imbued him with an official's haughty tone and a high-and-mighty demeanor.

"Chief, we've got the formula." The young guard's excited voice rang out, tightly suppressed. Though very quiet and almost imperceptible, it was still caught by Fang Muren's sharp ears.

Having waited impatiently for far too long, Fang Muren quickened his pace, reached out to open the door, and ushered the young guard into the office. He poked his head out to make sure the hallway was empty before pulling the door shut and locking it from the inside. Looking at the young guard, he asked excitedly, "Where is it? Quick, take it out."

Knowing the severity of the situation, the young guard didn't try to be mysterious. With trembling hands, he carefully drew out those two sheets of plain white paper—which had been obtained with relatively little effort—and handed them flatteringly into Fang Muren's hands.

Snatching the two pieces of paper from the young man's grip, Fang Muren hurried back behind his desk, sat down in the swivel chair, and began studying them intently, completely leaving the young guard standing off to the side, ignored and unattended.

Oppressed by the tense atmosphere, cold sweat seeped across the young man's face. Watching Fang Muren examine the papers, his nerves stretched to a snapping point. The look he directed at Fang Muren was filled not only with a sliver of hope, but even more so with deep, profound dread. Even the rhythm of his breathing sped up involuntarily, and the dull thud of his heartbeat could be clearly heard in the silent office.

"Good! Good! Excellent!" Three consecutive words of praise, accompanied by a cheeky, beaming smile on his face, made it easy to see the immense joy currently filling Fang Muren's heart. After exerting every ounce of effort to finally obtain the formula of his dreams, how could he not be ecstatic?

Meanwhile, the young guard standing nearby had nearly been scared half to death. He had waited ages just to see a change in the police chief's expression, but the shift had been so sudden that it still gave him a fright.

Still, upon hearing those three words of praise, the young guard's suspended heart finally relaxed considerably.

"Go. Take the two of them and..." Fang Muren gestured lightly across his own neck with his hand. Simple as the gesture was, the meaning behind it could not have been clearer.

Seeing the implication of silencing them permanently, the young guard was slightly puzzled, but orders from above were meant to be obeyed. Since the chief had given explicit instructions, his humble subordinate naturally dared not defy them.

Turning around, the young guard strode quickly away, pulling the door shut behind him. Once out of the office, he let out a deep, lingering breath before walking off with long strides.

Inside the office, a wide smile bloomed across Fang Muren's face. Staring at the two formulas on his desk—or rather, the complete recipe they formed—endless dawn seemed to flash in his eyes. At this critical juncture of life and death, acquiring this hard-to-find formula undoubtedly gave the Fang family the upper hand. With this advantage, they could ramp up their encroachment and take full, absolute control of the nearly bankrupt Bai family.

The Fang family had risen to prominence through the pharmaceutical industry; their standing in the medical world was simply not something a newly emerging third-tier city's Bai family could hope to compare with. This was the fundamental reason why the Bai family had always remained on the losing end of the Fang family's encroachment.

Having secured what he wanted, Fang Muren didn't dare waste a single moment. He stepped up to the desk, picked up the telephone, and began dialing.

After a brief series of ringing tones, a raspy voice came through the receiver.

"Muren, did you get it?"

The voice was low, sounding entirely like an interrogation from a superior to a subordinate, completely devoid of any trace of emotion.