First-Year Internship—And You Went to Site 749 to Contain Monsters?!

Chapter 964: The Deputy Chief Lights a Cigarette, Zheng Feng Gets to Live, But Has to Drop a Generation

...

Lu Ding walked out of the hall door.

Not long after.

Zhai Hun also followed out, pulling a cigarette case from his pocket and holding it forward.

"Grand Duke Lu, give me some face?"

Lu Ding took the cigarette and put it in his mouth. He did smoke, but only occasionally, without any addiction—he wasn't the type to have a cigarette glued to his lips like a chimney.

This little thing was mainly for relieving worries.

Sighing dryly only made it worse.

Taking a drag and blowing it out was basically the same as sighing.

Zhai Hun reached out to light Lu Ding's cigarette.Lu Ding cupped his hand over it, took a puff, exhaled, and lightly tapped Zhai Hun's hand with his finger to signal it was enough. Then, he casually held the cigarette between two fingers.

The second drag went deep into his lungs.

He slowly exhaled.

"Whoosh..."

If you listened closely, it almost sounded like: "Sigh..."

Beside him, Zhai Hun lit his own cigarette and struck up a conversation. "Grand Duke Lu, what do you think of me as a person?"

Lu Ding didn't turn his head.

"Do you want the truth or a lie?"

"What's the truth?"

Lu Ding: "Pretty good."

Zhai Hun was a bit confused. "And the lie?"

Lu Ding: "Decent."

If Zhai Hun, as the Deputy Bureau Chief of Snow City 749, could actually understand those two words, he would have been the full Bureau Chief instead.

So it left him completely baffled.

But that was fine.

He had a wife.

Soon enough, Yao Lianzhi, Boss Yao, walked out of the hall. "Grand Duke Lu, Zheng Feng can't go back just yet."

"I've already talked it through with him. He'll observe mourning for my brother for three months and acknowledge my brother as his godfather. That's the end of it. After all, his father is dead too—he only came to beg forgiveness. The dead can't be brought back to life, whether it's his father, Zheng Tai, or my brother."

"This matter really has nothing to do with Zheng Feng."

"Just consider it as his father's grudges canceling out. The beating we just gave him counts as interest."

Lu Ding nodded, crushing the cigarette butt in his hand until it turned to ash that scattered in the wind. "Thank you, Boss Yao, for sparing his life."

"You're welcome, Grand Guardian."

She turned and walked back inside. Zheng Feng, who had been severely injured earlier, had now stabilized his condition. Lu Ding asked, "Does it hurt?"

Zheng Feng forced a smile. "It doesn't hurt."

Lu Ding: "..."

"Still talking back! Be a good boy and keep vigil properly. Come visit more often during holidays. You got your life back this time—cherish it from now on. Don't go around talking about life and death so casually."

"I've got a lot of things to do, so I need to head back to the western region first. Once you're done here, get back early yourself, understand?"

Zheng Feng struggled to get up, wanting to respond to Lu Ding in a proper posture.

But Yao Lianzhi had beaten him mercilessly earlier.

She hit him hard enough that he couldn't die, but not so hard that she actually killed him.

So now, Zheng Feng struggled several times but still couldn't stand.

Finally, he collapsed back into the chair in defeat. "Understood, Grand Duke."

Lu Ding grunted in acknowledgment.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Pang Shi, Meng Yu's assistant investigator, who had just finished eating a glass bottle. Whether it was intentional or accidental, who knew?

His mouth was a bloody mess—a shocking sight.

Feeling Lu Ding's gaze on him, Pang Shi lowered his head. "It was Pang Shi who spoke out of turn. Thank you, Grand Duke Lu, for your discipline. Pang Shi will never do it again."

As he spoke, his tone, his movements, his expression all seemed to crave Lu Ding's response and approval.

But all he got in return was a casually flicked energy pellet from Lu Ding.

Bang—it sent him flying, crashing into a table full of banquet dishes.

"Who asked you?"

As if apologizing automatically earned forgiveness—Lu Ding wasn't that generous.

With that, he turned and left without looking back. This time, he was really gone—the western region still had a mountain of things waiting for him.

Watching Lu Ding's retreating figure.

Zhai Hun finally asked his wife, "Lianzhi, just now when I was chatting with Grand Duke Lu, I asked him what he thought of me. He said the truth was 'pretty good' and the lie was 'decent.' Aren't those basically the same thing?"

Yao Lianzhi thought for a moment. "Grand Duke Lu meant that given your situation, given our family's situation, if we were under his command, he would definitely come after us. So the lie was 'decent,' meaning 'not good enough.'"

"A region can't develop with monopolistic forces like ours."

"As for the truth being 'pretty good,' that's because in reality, we're not under his command—it's none of Grand Guardian's business. Under those conditions, we can set aside official matters. Now we have a bit of personal rapport. On a personal level, Grand Duke thinks you're not bad."

"At least you're pretty compatible with his temperament, or maybe there's something about you he actually admires."

Zhai Hun asked in surprise, "Really!?"

Someone like Grand Duke Lu actually admired him!?

But then he felt something was off and frowned. "But what if Grand Duke expands in the future, or if our business gets bigger over there? Won't we still be in an official conflict? Won't he still come after us?"

Yao Lianzhi shook her head gently. "Your conversation happened before I came out."

"Also before I spared Zheng Feng's life."

"Right now, our situation in Snow City is unstable. I'm not saying we desperately need a backer, but we do need a safety net. No one knows when Special Envoy Meng might make a move against us."

"Now, through Zheng Feng, we have a connection upward to Grand Duke Lu. Special Envoy Meng might still try to move against us, but she probably won't dare to kill us outright."

"Our family can use Zheng Feng's connection to Grand Duke as a lifeline. We can cut our losses in Snow City—minimize the damage. On one hand, we surrender to Special Envoy Meng, hand over some of our cards to put her at ease."

"On the other hand, we shift the focus of our business to the western region. We take the opportunity to relocate, rebrand, change our classification. We cooperate with 749, submit materials and reports, and develop legitimately."

"On the surface, it might seem like we'll earn less. But compared to the northern region, including all the areas in Snow City that need greasing..."

"Going to the western region—that place is Grand Duke's one-man show. All things considered, we'll still come out ahead."

Zhai Hun's eyes lit up as he cut in, stealing his wife's thunder. "So we only need to grease Grand Duke alone?"

Yao Lianzhi sighed helplessly. "No, we just need to follow the laws of the western region and abide by Grand Duke's rules. That's all. Greasing is bribery. Do you really think, with Grand Duke Lu's methods, and with the development of White Ridge as a precedent, that Grand Duke Lu would be interested in the few worthless scraps we could offer?"

"Greasing would just be flattering the wrong person. We just need to show the right attitude."

"Invest money, build the city, work through official channels, donate supplies to Western 749—that's what shows attitude. Not handing money or things to any one person."

Zhai Hun gave a thumbs up. "My wife is still the smartest. So, did you spare Zheng Feng's life for this reason too?"

A vision of her dead brother seemed to flash before Yao Lianzhi's eyes.

She said slowly, "No. You know how much Xiao Long meant to me. The two of you each take up half my life. So I would never weigh pros and cons when it comes to either of you. Whether for you or for him, I would do anything without thinking about the consequences."

"It's just that this matter really has nothing to do with Zheng Feng. Besides, that stubborn, self-reliant look of his... it reminds me of Xiao Long."