235: Chapter 235 Kidnapping Su Qingxue? You really think you've lived too long.

Standing to the side was the Guard who had been with him for many years.

The man stood at attention, and upon hearing this, he merely kept his gaze lowered, not saying a single word in response.

At a time like this, it was best to listen, not to chime in carelessly.

But it was clear he was secretly delighted; ever since Lu Li appeared, Elder Wu had lost his composure many times because of him.

This was a man who wouldn't even change his expression after catching a spy, yet he had met his match in Lu Li.

Elder Wu took another look at the image, only then shifting his gaze to another screen nearby.

It displayed the few remaining currents of public opinion that hadn't completely dissipated online.

Some accounts were posting in a suspiciously uniform manner.

Some of the rhetoric was just the same few scripts repeated over and over.

From subsidy amounts to corporate price hikes, then to inciting group conflict, finally inching step by step toward even darker territory.

Elder Wu only glanced at them for a few moments before the faint smile on his face faded.

For someone in his position, he was least afraid of people acting out in the open.

What was truly annoying was never just a few insults.

It was having someone hiding in the shadows, using public opinion to hand out knives.

The study was silent for a few seconds.

Afterwards, Elder Wu placed the tablet on the table; his voice was not loud, but it was as heavy as lead.

"Go investigate."

The Guard beside him immediately looked up.

"Yes."

"Trace these currents of opinion all the way to the top for me." Elder Wu didn't even lift his eyelids, but his tone had turned cold. "Just because Lu Li can't be bothered to waste his energy on this filth doesn't mean others can push their luck."

"I don't care how they argue online."

"But if anyone really thinks he's young, thinks he has no one behind him, and wants to take advantage of this to reach out—"

Elder Wu paused, his gaze falling back onto the real-life photo of the Anti-gravity flying vehicle, his voice dropping a few degrees lower.

"Then chop that hand off for me."

The Guard's expression turned solemn, his shoulders and back tensing even straighter.

"Understood."

Elder Wu looked out at the deep night outside the window, tapped his fingers gently on the armrest twice, and after a long while, added indifferently:

"Investigate carefully."

"Don't let it be that when this kid actually gets the Anti-gravity flying vehicle into the sky, there are still people below barking at him."

The Guard acknowledged in a low voice, turned, and quickly retreated.

The room fell silent again.

Elder Wu leaned back in his chair, looking again at the Anti-gravity flying vehicle parked in the snow on the screen, his eyes deeper than before.

His regard for Lu Li had long since surpassed the simple appreciation of a junior.

What this kid held in his hands was something that could push an entire era forward.

Such a person must be protected.

At the very least, he could not be allowed to be disgusted by those underhanded, dirty tactics.

...

Jiangbei Province, late at night.

The smell of smoke in the conference room was thick and bitter; the air conditioning wasn't set low, but none of the three people in the room felt relaxed.

The screen on the wall was still paused on that image from the Guanghui Technology official website.

In the snowy night, the silver-gray single-person Anti-gravity flying vehicle sat quietly in the courtyard, its lines as cold as a blade, yet its silence was more oppressive than any promotional slogan.

Zhou Chengyue sat at the head of the table, half his face buried in shadow, a cigarette between his fingers, its cherry glowing in the dark.

Xu Zhaofeng spoke first, his tone dry and strained.

"That line online is completely dead."

"Our people had just started building momentum, and he turned around and threw out an image, dragging everyone's eyes on the entire internet over to it."

Feng Shikang's face was grim; he raised a hand to tug at his collar, as if he couldn't breathe.

"So it's dead, so what?"

"Are we just going to watch him keep moving forward?"

No one answered.

The conference room was quiet enough to hear the faint sound of cigarette ash falling into the tray.

A moment later, Zhou Chengyue finally looked up.

"Have you still not figured it out by now?"

His voice was not loud, even arguably steady, but the steadier it was, the more it made one's spine chill.

"What Lu Li is doing has never just been about Robots."

"He is flipping the table."

Xu Zhaofeng frowned, not saying a word.

Zhou Chengyue leaned back, but his gaze remained fixed on the Anti-gravity flying vehicle on the screen, as if staring at some approaching nightmare.

"What did we rely on to make a living before?"

"We relied on scale, on sheer manpower, on low costs, and on the fact that no one had a way out."

"Why were workers easy to manage? Because they were afraid of losing their rice bowls. If wages were a bit lower, hours a bit longer, or the rules a bit harsher, they just had to endure it."

"But what is Lu Li trying to do now?"

Zhou Chengyue flicked the cigarette ash lightly, his eyes cold and dark.

"He wants to leave a way out for that group of people."

"Welfare accounts, job retraining, urban feedback... the names sound better than the last."

"But to put it bluntly, he just wants those people below to know—that even if they don't slave away in your factory, they won't necessarily starve to death immediately."

As these words fell, Feng Shikang's expression became even uglier.

He had managed factories for so many years; he knew better than anyone what this meant.

Once workers were no longer afraid, they were hard to suppress.

Xu Zhaofeng was also silent.

The logistics industry relied on night shifts, high pressure, low wages, and human-wave tactics to stack up profits.

If the people below really had a way out, many things would immediately loosen up.

Zhou Chengyue looked at the two of them, slowly dissecting the situation.

"If we don't switch to Robots, we'll eventually lose out on costs."

"If we do switch to Robots, Lu Li makes money on everything—equipment, systems, maintenance, and upgrades."

"He talks about profit recycling and welfare feedback, sounding like he's doing charity."

Speaking of this, Zhou Chengyue's mouth pulled into an extremely cold arc.

"But how much of this stuff is given, how it's given, and when it stops—isn't that all up to him?"

"To put it plainly, he uses his left hand to earn your money, and his right hand to scatter a few crumbs, all while making everyone grateful to him."

"The most disgusting part isn't even that."

He raised his eyes, his voice dropping even lower.

"The most disgusting thing is that once the welfare account is truly established, if you don't use Robots, the workers will demand higher wages. If you do use Robots, the profits are eaten up by him."

"This kid is taking a dump on our heads and still expects us to provide the paper to wipe it clean."

For a moment, only the sound of breathing remained in the conference room.

Feng Shikang was the first to lose his composure, spitting out a sentence with a cold face.

"Then let's stop playing by the rules with him."

Xu Zhaofeng turned his head to look at him.

Feng Shikang stared at the tabletop, his eyes gleaming with ruthlessness.

"Send people to kidnap Su Qingxue."

"Once we have her, I'd like to see if Lu Li can still stay tough."

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere in the room instantly froze.

Even Zhou Chengyue looked up at him.

However, Xu Zhaofeng shook his head immediately, his movement so fast there was almost no hesitation.

"Are you crazy?"

"Kidnapping someone?"

"This isn't ten or twenty years ago!"

He was usually slick and oily, but his tone was surprisingly hard right now.

"Do you have no idea what kind of weight Lu Li carries now?"

"If we really touch Su Qingxue, let alone whether we succeed or not, as long as we're even remotely involved, none of the three of us will be able to run."

"This isn't something you can wipe away by paying some money or pulling a few strings."

"This means going to prison."

Feng Shikang sneered.

"You didn't care so much about the law back when you were doing this kind of thing."

Xu Zhaofeng's face also darkened.

"The past is the past, and now is now."

"Besides, those rotten things back then were at most cutting off supplies, forcing debt, or scaring people. Even if it really came to kidnapping, that was for others to take the fall for."

"Now you want me to target Lu Li's wife?"

"Do you think the people behind him are just for show?"

As these words fell, the conference room fell into silence again.

None of the three were clean people.

They had crossed the line in their youth, and they hadn't avoided dirty work.

And precisely because of that, they knew better than anyone what could be touched, and what touching would mean certain death.