Dow and Carbon-Based Monkey Breeding Guidelines

Chapter 970: Journey to the East (Part )

It was almost noon, and most people were asleep, trying to conserve their energy for the afternoon boat trip to Yunzhu Island. Luo Binhan quietly walked out and met a man smoking under the shade of a tree at the entrance of the B&B. This man was called Shi Yuli, and he had been working for the B&B for several years. He was hired when Luo Binhan was "sick" and was working under Manager Hu.

This man was rather dull, and he came late, so he had not spoken to Luo Binhan much. His most striking feature was the three horizontal wrinkles on his forehead, which became particularly noticeable as long as he frowned, as if he was born to be miserable. Luo Binhan also noticed that he had a dull green gold ring on his left ring finger.

Shi Yuli saw him and quickly stood up from the ground. "Mr. Luo."

"I came out to get some fresh air." Luo Binhan said, "Teacher Shi, do you miss home?"

The other man smiled stiffly, and the wrinkles on his forehead suddenly appeared. "I want to have a cigarette to relieve my stress," he said.

"Try this one of mine," said Luo Binhan, pulling out his cigarette box. "You've had a hard time this month. I heard from the Finance Department that there's something wrong with the bill account numbers?"

The three horizontal lines became deeper. Shi Yuli explained to him in a somewhat hasty manner that the responsibility for this problem did not lie with either party, but was simply because the regulations had changed again. The credit rating of the bank responsible for accepting their payment could no longer allow them to retain the original bad debt reserve ratio.

"I think I heard the Finance Department mention it before." Luo Binhan answered casually, "But this won't look good on the books, right? We are old customers of those banks, so aren't we trustworthy enough to each other?"

"The new regulations have already determined the bank hierarchy. There is really nothing that can be done about it."

"What if we try to get the bank to issue a certificate? Like a letter of guarantee or a historical acceptance record?"

The wrinkles on Shi Yuli's forehead had been deeply engraved into his flesh, just like the fortifications that were getting deeper and deeper on the artillery position. "This..." He tried hard to find the words, "It's very risky."

Luo Binhan felt that he had already played enough smoke bombs, and it would be a bit unfair to continue to tease this person. "That's it," he let go of the cage door, "If the final number is acceptable, it's fine. If it's not acceptable, we can cooperate with a few major banks."

Shi Yuli heaved a sigh of relief and finally started to smoke the cigarette that had been burning in his hand for a long time. Luo Binhan smiled and said, "What's the big deal? To put it bluntly, it's just a hassle and a formality. If this is the biggest trouble, we should thank God. Any other questions?"

"This is the bulk of the headquarters' assets for now. The rest will depend on what happens to the other managers."

"Thank you for your hard work," said Luo Binhan. "Boss Nan told me before that you should have a long vacation. Anyway, we are not in such a hurry. I said that it would take time to change the internal control. Why rush to get all the reports out? When the situation changes, the old ones will not be used. You will be wasting your time here, and the finance department will be busy too. It is better to let you take a break first, and come back after we have sorted out the existing ones."

Shi Yuli had no choice but to smile along, as he obviously had no say in the matter.

Luo Binhan pretended to think about it for a while, then smiled and said, "I'll talk to Teacher Ling from our Finance Department about this, and ask her to talk to your boss Wei. We'll stop working after we finish next week, so you can have a long vacation. Those who need to go home should go home, and those who need to prepare for the exams should prepare for the exams, right? The certification exam is coming up soon, right? You won't have time to study if you stay here all day. Teacher Shi, please ask other teachers for me when you are free to see how to arrange the evacuation and whether they should arrange a car for you. As for the information, leave it in our archives, and pack it up if you want to take it away, otherwise it will be difficult to deal with it if it is lost after a long time."

Shi Yuli nodded and wanted to say something, but his eyes suddenly slipped away from Luo Binhan. He looked over Luo Binhan's shoulder and stared at the breakwater behind him. Luo Binhan pretended not to notice and asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's okay... Is that person Xiao Zhou?"

Luo Binhan turned his head to look. A few dozen meters away, a figure stood under the breakwater. He was wearing a very southern-style green hibiscus shirt and beach shorts of the same color, a pair of pink and blue slippers, and a black and white hat with a coconut tree print on his head. This person had his back to them, looking up at the sky, and then walked slowly along the breakwater sideways. Luo Binhan looked at this person, and his mind flashed with himself more than a decade ago. He almost wanted to laugh out loud, but finally held back.

"They really look alike." He said with a smile, "The skin color and height are similar, especially the back view - but that's definitely not Xiao Zhou, I've never seen him wear such cute clothes."

He peeked at Shi Yuli's expression as if nothing had happened. This unlucky guy who was in the same group with Zhou Wenxing and had to spend at least ten hours with that thing every day was looking at the figure walking away on the breakwater with a confused look on his face.

"It really looks like Xiao Zhou." He still couldn't help but say, "The gait is similar too. Did he come back and change his clothes?"

"No." Luo Binhan said lightly, "Xiao Zhou and I are quite familiar with each other. After all, he is my junior. He is quite shy. How can he wear such flowery clothes? And he won't wear such clothes recently. Someone in his family is in trouble and he is worried."

Shi Yuli still didn't say anything, but his face was full of surprise. Luo Binhan raised his eyebrows and asked, "He hasn't mentioned it to you yet? I ran into him in the voucher room a few days ago. He looked miserable, so I asked him what was going on. He said that he had a very important family member - I forgot whether it was a brother or an uncle, anyway, his condition was very bad, and he is now in the intensive care unit for rescue."

"So serious? Was there an accident?"

"I don't know." Luo Binhan waved his hand and said, "He didn't mention the details, but it seems that he may not survive these few days, and he has to go back to see his family for the last time. So you see, he has been sullen and silent since we came out. It's easy to imagine that he must be feeling very uncomfortable right now, so how can he have the energy to play and dress up? I don't think he can even wait until next weekend. If he asks for leave or even resigns immediately after returning from this trip, I won't be surprised. Fortunately, he is only responsible for drawing vouchers and filling in drafts, so it shouldn't delay your progress, right?"

Shi Yuli agreed with a heavy heart. Luo Binhan looked up at the sky and glanced at his expression from the corner of his eye. He probably was worried about the problem of the team's impending shortage of staff.

"It's almost time." He said absentmindedly, "I have to go to the bathroom first."

He turned and walked into the house, wiping his sweat to hide his pride. No matter what happened to other things, their final plan went perfectly. The test of the stuntman had been successfully passed - even if the man Li Li found was wearing such a striking and memorable costume, Shi Yuli from the same group would still confuse him with Zhou Wenxing. It can be imagined that under the low-quality surveillance cameras here, this man only needs to modify his clothes and appearance, and then Li Li will make a little arrangement of the whereabouts of the witnesses, which is enough to play a trick that is so real. Everyone would think that Zhou Wenxing did not leave until the last night of the trip. This is certainly not the most important trick in the whole plan, but it cannot go wrong either, because after they kill Zhou Wenxing, there is still an accomplice to find and a bad flower to pick. He doesn't want to waste all his time dealing with the missing person investigation.

He walked through the public corridor. Most people in the room were still taking a nap, but there were already three or five young people sitting in the restaurant, including Xiaorong, Fang Lu, and two interns from her group. Luo Binhan wanted to sneak back to his room to rest, but he found that Zhou Wenxing was also there, sitting next to Fang Lu. He immediately felt something was wrong and had to stop in front of the restaurant.

Three coins were lying in Zhou Wenxing's palm, and the others were sitting on both sides of him watching, indicating that this person was the central figure of this activity. This sign made Luo Binhan very alert, not only because it contradicted the lie he had just told - people who were worried about their dying family members would not have the mind to engage in gambling activities - but also because this monster rarely interacted with normal people unless he had other purposes.

Fang Lu and Xiao Rong were beside him, concentrating on distinguishing the front and back of the coin in his palm. Luo Binhan stared at Fang Lu's profile, and suddenly remembered Cai Ji's friend. In the past month, he almost forgot the name and the words he said in the voucher room. But he couldn't really forget it. Because as long as he believed that Zhou Wenxing really had some ability to identify desires, he couldn't help but think of those words about poison.

"What are you playing?" He walked over briskly and sat in the empty seat opposite Zhou Wenxing, "Guess the heads or tails of a coin?"

"We're not guessing positive or negative." Xiao Rong said. She seemed to want to leave some suspense, but Fang Yu smiled and said, "Xiao Zhou is telling our fortunes."

"Fortune telling!" Luo Binhan said, "How do you tell fortunes? There's not even a fortune stick or a card, and you just use coins to tell fortunes?"

"Xiao Zhou knows how to calculate the six yao. He only needs three coins." Fang Yu explained, "Toss the coin six times and see which side comes up."

Luo Binhan leaned back in his chair and looked at Zhou Wenxing from a distance. The surprise on his face was not entirely fake: "Teacher Zhou also knows this?"

“My family taught me.”

"How do you calculate it specifically? The more heads a coin lands on, the more auspicious it is?" Before Zhou Wenxing could even open his mouth, the other people had already explained it to him. This team that makes money by studying economic numbers actually has several gossip lecturers who are well versed in superstition.

"The front and back of the coin represent yin and yang." The boy surnamed Yang said enthusiastically, "Tossing it six times will form a hexagram in the Book of Changes."

"Have you all calculated it?" Robin Han asked, "What did you calculate?"

Everyone had their careers told, or at least claimed to have. Luo Binhan glanced at the fortune teller again, thinking that the success or failure of your career does not depend on those coins, but on the hand holding the coins. "Give me a divination too," he said, "How does it work? Do I need to toss the coins myself?"

"As long as your intention is sincere, I can cast the dice for you," said Zhou Wenxing.

"I'll do it myself," said Robin Han. "It has to be a bit ceremonial."

He took the coin from the other person's hand, held it in his palm as everyone asked, closed his eyes and thought about what he wanted, and then tossed it six times. He didn't know what the front and back of the three coins meant, but the people around him were chanting something about Shaoyang Shaoyin, and some were even drawing horizontal lines with pens, as if everyone had suddenly become a fortune teller. Zhou Wenxing didn't remember anything, but just sat quietly, his eyes fixed on the coin.

Robinson counted and finished throwing six times. "How is it?" he asked indifferently, "What is the result?"

The boy named Yang was still calculating on the draft paper, and it seemed that he was not very proficient in metaphysics. Zhou Wenxing just closed his eyes and thought for a while, then calmly recited: "Qian on top and Dui on bottom, Tianze Lu. The six lines are unchanged, and the main hexagram is directly taken. That is: step on the tiger's tail, it will not bite you, and it will be prosperous."

"What do you mean? Is this a good omen?"

"It's the Li hexagram, which is generally considered a lucky hexagram. It's like stepping on a tiger's tail, but in the end it didn't bite you, which means you're safe. Even so, you're walking on a swamp after all, and if you're not careful you'll get yourself into trouble. In addition to the content of the hexagram, the guest side of this hexagram is Qian, which corresponds to the sky. It's strong and powerful, and it's in a superior position and has an advantage. The host side is Dui, which corresponds to a marsh. It's strong inside and soft outside, and it's a harmonious and tolerant image. It may also mean hidden tricks. How to interpret it specifically depends on what you're asking for when you're divining."

Fang Yu supported her cheek with her hand and asked Luo Binhan with a smile: "Manager Luo, what were you asking just now?"

"Career!" Luo Binhan also answered with a smile.

"Really? I don't think you look like that."

"It's fake," said Luo Binhan. "Actually, I was just thinking about whether the jet ski would flip over when I was playing with it this afternoon. Don't blame me for not warning you in advance. It would be very ugly if it flipped over."

His words must have made everyone present a little worried, and spread to those who were not present. When we took the boat to Yunzhu Island in the afternoon, several people were already secretly searching for videos of accidents on motorboats. Luo Binhan pretended not to notice and just said in a relaxed tone that there would be a professional coach to accompany him. Fang Yu handed his mobile phone to him with ill intentions, and showed him a guy who screamed and threw the coach away.

"Don't think too much," Luo Binhan said, pushing the phone away. "The coaches are all good at swimming and are wearing life jackets. You just need to save your own life."

"I can swim, too. I've participated in marathon swimming competitions."

"Great," Robinson praised, "Remember to pick me up. I can only doggy paddle in the pool."

He was not the worst, because there were people who could not even doggy paddle. Shi Yuli claimed that he had never been in waist-deep water in his life, except for counting turtles in a pond when he was taking inventory. Luo Binhan suggested that he at least follow the coach to go for a ride on the sea.

"Go and give it a try," Luo Binhan said, "I've already paid for it. The coaches are hired based on the number of people, and if any of you don't go, they're just lying there counting their money. Xiaorong, are you going?"

Xiao Rong eagerly rushed to go. So Luo Binhan raised his neck and asked again: "Where is Teacher Xiao Zhou? I see you don't walk outdoors much. Go out and stretch your muscles?"

Zhou Wenxing sat far away at the stern, his expression revealing nothing of his thoughts. "Okay," he said with a smile.

It was a little after two in the afternoon when they arrived. The sun was already a bit scorching, but fortunately the clouds were thick and dense, so it was cloudy from time to time. There were quite a few people on the sea, but the seats for jet skis were relatively empty. They had made reservations long ago, so there was no problem of queuing up to buy tickets. A dozen coaches were waiting under the awning next to the plastic floating bridge. Among them, there were two or three people who were very familiar to Luo Binhan. Most of them were sitting still, only a young one came up to greet them and led them to the locker room to change equipment. Some people didn't know what they were thinking, as if they thought that wearing swimming trunks was enough for racing on the sea with undercurrents, until they saw the pile of equipment that looked like a small mountain, they were inevitably shocked: life jackets, protective clothing, protective gloves, protective shoes, whistles, waterproof flashlights, safety helmets - Fang Yan hooked a helmet with his fingers and looked at it with a questioning look on his face.

"What?" Robin Han said, "Safety first."

"But won't this affect your vision?"

"This is specially made for beginners. It even has a positioning function on it."

"But I see that people outside are all wearing waterproof glasses."

"I don't care about the lives of the people outside!" Luo Binhan said, "If something really happens, saying 'others do it this way' won't help. If I don't bring you back in good shape, I don't know what your boss Wei will do."

They had no choice but to put on the equipment as he asked, and then walked up to the floating bridge to meet up with the coach. The clumsy look was funny. Luo Binhan wanted to sit on the beach chair, holding a cup of iced mixed drink with a small flower paper umbrella in his hand, and carefully appreciate the wonderful moment when Zhou Wenxing threw the motorboat coach away - that was an indispensable part of the script, if Zhou Wenxing refused to go out to sea alone - but he didn't have the time. He just put on the cumbersome equipment, followed the coach who was roughly the same size and age as him, and went out to sea for a walk, and returned to the shore when no one else was paying attention.

An extra set of equipment was placed in the locked employee locker room. It was exactly the same as what his jet ski instructor was wearing today. Luo Binhan went to confirm the items, but did not rush to change into them. Instead, he sorted out his belongings for the last time. He left his sun hat, clothes and one of his waterproof watches in place, so that the person who would play himself later could go to sleep on the high side of the beach. Then he wandered out of the jet ski berthing area through the back door and was stopped in front of a specialty restaurant not far away. She was an older dark-skinned woman with an ordinary appearance. She was wearing an employee uniform, with cracked and wrinkled fingers, and fat on her belly. She was holding a tray with many paper cups with colorful little flower umbrellas. She looked no different from any restaurant cleaner in a bad situation in the world. She was simply the soul embodiment of this type of position, with a spoonful of fishing village characteristics.

Only her eyes were different. They showed that she knew what she was doing, which made Luo Binhan feel strange again. He had the same question several times: How did Li Li get these guys to work for her?

"Sir, would you like to try our new drink?" she asked mechanically, as if she was fainted by the afternoon heat and was too lazy to even smile.

"Okay, give me a cup to try."

The woman handed him a paper cup at the back of the tray. Luo Binhan pretended not to notice the small marks on the rim of the cup from his fingernails, and drank the purple drink in the cup in three or five gulps.

"It's terrible," he said with a grimace, "It smells like sour milk after it goes bad. It's a wonder you can sell this drink."

The saleswoman was not embarrassed at all and apologized to him in a very formal manner. Luo Binhan threw away the paper cup and went back to sit in the dressing room. He waited silently for half an hour, occasionally pressing his pulse with his hand to estimate the frequency of his heartbeat. He felt a strange but precious calmness slowly enveloping him. His heart rate became more and more stable, and all emotions were so far away. Even if they existed, it was like diving into deep water to listen to people talking on the shore. No matter how hard he tried, it was not real. He was no longer manipulated by the neurotransmitters for the time being - the effect of the drug had already taken effect. He had to hurry.

(End of this chapter)