In the afternoon, Qi Bai and Liu Changyu headed to Heze City at the time they had agreed on.
“Bai Bai, did you really manage to contact those nobles?”
Liu Changyu still couldn’t quite believe it. It was like an ordinary person suddenly being able to contact the richest man in the city.
After all, in this world, nobles were already a minority and natural-born nobles were the very top of the pyramid.
“Senior Changyu, stop asking. Whether it’s real or not you’ll see soon enough.”
Last night, Qi Bai had conducted a large-scale background investigation. Not only into Lin, Li, and Zhang, but also into the corporate groups directly under their families.
The Lin family primarily oversaw biochemical industries, involving biological laboratories and pharmaceutical companies.
The Li family specialized in trade and commerce, famously wealthy.
The Zhang family was merely a tourism group attached to the Li family, with many cross-industry businesses including hotels and restaurants.
On top of that, Qi Bai discovered something else.
The Zhang family seemed like opportunists, swaying with whichever side benefited them more.
The Li family had very few heirs. Even though Li Zimin did nothing but follow Lin Jiashu around causing trouble and contributed nothing to the family business, he still held some status within the family.
The Zhang family had originally risen by relying on their relation to Liu Kexin, using the Li family’s influence. But now many of their businesses were entangled with the Lin family.
The Lin family’s main operations were in pharmaceuticals and chemicals, while oil and natural gas brought enormous profits. Zhang family shipping operations required huge amounts of energy resources.
The Zhangs were eager to curry favor, and the Lins welcomed them.
And just like that, the two sides became connected.
On the surface, the Zhang and Lin families merely had some business dealings.
But in reality, there was far more private communication between them.
There had to be a secret hidden inside.
Qi Bai didn’t believe that a world-class tycoon would casually maintain overly close ties with the CEO of a listed company especially when they clearly didn’t want outsiders to know about those dealings.
As for whether to investigate further, Qi Bai decided to first observe Lin Feizhou’s attitude.
After all, she didn’t have many points left.
She now had only 950 points remaining.
Meanwhile, the person who had received the call Lin Feizhou was far from calm.
He sat in the activity room on the top floor of the school. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, he could clearly see every movement of the “students” below.
Ever since the competition began, large-scale fights would break out across the campus at regular intervals sometimes initiated voluntarily, sometimes forced.
Whenever the buzzing sound of helicopters passed overhead, the students would stare at the supply aircraft like starving wolves, trying to seize the dropped materials before anyone else.
Although there were usually dozens of drop locations, for a school with nearly five thousand people, the food and medicine were far from enough.
Everyone fought simply to survive.
Only two days had passed, yet the campus already looked as if it had been looted.
Everywhere there were signs of destruction, bloodstains, and corpses.
Inside an empty dance classroom, a row of lockers stood against the wall.
A petite girl curled up inside one of them, trembling as she turned on her phone, anxiously listening for any movement outside.
She was Liu Changyu’s younger sister, Liu Changluan.
Her family had always been warm and close. Since childhood, her parents had given her plenty of courage.
In many households, when children failed exams, parents would threaten them by saying quality inspectors would take them away and destroy them.
But her parents always told her:.. “Don’t be afraid. If you really fail, Mom and Dad will help you hide it. You can just stay home we’ll take care of you!”
She never disappointed them.
She always studied hard and treated her sister as a role model.
She thought she would continue living peacefully and happily like this forever.
But.
But!
Why did the school rules suddenly change?!
Why did it happen right before the college entrance exam?!
She was supposed to escape this cage soon and go out into the world through university!
For the past two days, Liu Changluan kept asking herself these questions again and again, doubting both herself and the world.
Of course, she knew that schools sometimes underwent reforms, but only a few were ever chosen as reform sites.
When this disaster happened to her, it caught her completely off guard.
Still, Liu Changluan was also a lucky girl.
When the competition first began, she carefully analyzed the situation. The situation was too complicated to determine which faction to join. The safest option was to wait and observe.
So she chose this empty dance studio.
There was almost no cover here everything could be seen at a glance so most people wouldn’t consider it a hiding place.
Moreover, the dance studio was on the second floor, making it easy to escape while reducing the risk of accidental harm.
And sure enough, when the school fell into complete chaos, she had managed to survive until now.
But there was no food here.
She had gone almost a day and a half without eating anything.
Liu Changluan stared at the last message her sister had sent.
“I will rescue you.”
She let out a bitter smile.
She and her sister were extremely close, and she had never heard her mention knowing any powerful figures.
Even if she had interacted with nobles, it was probably just doing errands for them, without any real connection.
She only dared believe half of that message.
The other half filled her with worry.
Please don’t let my sister get dragged into this…
Just as Liu Changluan’s thoughts were wandering, she suddenly heard the sound of a lock turning at the dance studio door.
Her heart skipped a beat, and her pupils suddenly widened.
She heard it.
Footsteps coming from the doorway.
The footsteps grew closer and closer, so close it felt like they were right beside her ear.
“Did you really see her come this way?” a rough male voice said loudly, without trying to hide it at all.
“Yes, yes! How could I lie to you? She ran straight here. She hasn’t come out to move around these past two days!” a familiar female voice replied.
Afraid the man might lose patience, she began calling softly: “Luanluan, I know you’re here. Come out. We’ll protect you. You’ll be safe!”
It was Guo Jingjing.
Her good friend.
She had even been the one who suggested this hiding place.
No matter how naive Liu Changluan was, she understood now.
She had been betrayed.
In a survival competition like this, there were no such things as real teammates.
Most alliances were formed between the strong.
Those searching for someone were either enemies or looking for cannon fodder.
Outside, the sound of people rummaging through lockers and cabinets suddenly rang out.
Liu Changluan’s heart trembled in terror.
The locker she was hiding in was right in the middle.
No matter which direction they searched from, they would find her very soon.
After getting off the high-speed train, Qi Bai and Liu Changyu went straight to the school.
At the entrance, someone had already arranged for people to receive them.
“Are you Miss Qi? Please follow me.”
A young man dressed in black clothes and black pants respectfully led the two of them inside.
Liu Changyu sat on the sofa, completely stunned.
How did things suddenly reach this stage?
Inside the quiet activity room, Qi Bai and Lin Feizhou were chatting and laughing.
The two seemed to get along very well. As soon as they met, they began exchanging compliments back and forth.
“Junior Qi, would you be interested in working for me?” Lin Feizhou finally couldn’t hold back and extended an olive branch.
Qi Bai answered with a question instead.
“Since Senior can recognize my ability, you should know that a wise bird chooses the right tree to perch on…”
She took a small sip of tea before asking in return: “Would you be willing to join my agency?”
Being recruited instead was something Lin Feizhou hadn’t expected.
In his experience, he had almost never seen lower-ranked nobles show any will that went against his.
For a moment, he felt both dissatisfied and surprised.
But when he thought about Qi Bai’s abilities, he also felt deeply fascinated.
“I’ve never considered working for someone else. Your abilities are strong but you’re only a Blue-Rank noble…”
Lin Feizhou had far too many reasons to refuse.