<h4>Chapter 1430: Chapter 1738: Zhu Hong’s Leverage (1)</h4>


    "Thanks to me?" Ling Chen said with a half smile, half smirk. "I didn’t do anything. How can you pin this on me? If you really have to me someone, you can only me yourself. If you hadn’t been so stubborn, hell-bent on fighting me to the death, you wouldn’t have ended up like this."


    Zhu Hong snorted coldly, acting as if he hadn’t heard Ling Chen at all. He kept his mouth shut, his eyes coldly fixed on his own wheelchair.


    Seeing Zhu Hong ignore him, Ling Chen didn’t push it. He went on at his own pace, "I think you should know why I came to see you."


    "I don’t."


    "When you left Skyhawk Pavilion back then, you took something with you. I think you know exactly what it is. Hand that thing over to me, and the grudges between us are wiped clean. How does that sound?"


    Zhu Hong let out a disdainfulugh. "You think I’d agree to that? Ling Chen, I admit this time I slipped up. But you really think I came here without any preparations at all? If you want that thing, fine, but you have to let me go. As long as I regain my freedom, I’ll tell you right away where it’s being kept."


    "Sorry, I can’t agree to that condition," Ling Chen said. "You brought this on yourself, and besides, that explosion killed so many people—you have to pay the price for that. Honestly, the fact they didn’t sentence you to death is something you should be secretly happy about."


    "If that’s how you’re going to talk, then there’s no need for us to keep chatting," Zhu Hong said coldly. "You have one month to think it over. If you go past that deadline, even if you want to ept my terms then, it’ll be toote. That thing will sink into the sea forever and no one will ever find it."


    "No way. I went through a lot of trouble to catch you. You think I’d just let you walk?" Ling Chen paused, then went on, "Zhu Hong, you know what kind of person I am. If you won’t talk, I’ll use every method I have until you do. If you want to actually live out the rest of your life in one piece, you might want to think about what I said. I’ll give you three days. I’lle back then, and I hope you can give me a satisfactory answer."


    With that, Ling Chen didn’t say anything more. He turned and walked out of the room.


    Tang Yuan, who had been standing guard outside the door, asked in some surprise, "Out so fast? I thought you two would be at it for a long time."


    Ling Chen gave a faint smile. "What’s there to talk about? What I do find strange is how he ended up looking like this."


    Tang Yuan shrugged. "I’m not too sure myself. After we took him over, we only locked him up for one day before his body started changing. I brought in a lot of doctors to examine him, but they all came up empty. They told me his body has already mutated—his genes and cells arepletely different from a normal person’s. No one knows how he pulled that off."


    "When Zhu Hong was in the God Organization, he went through body enhancement experiments. It’s probably rted to that."


    "Hey, you just talked to him for a bit—did you get the intel you wanted?"


    "No. His mouth is hard as hell. He insists I have to release him or he won’t say a word. That thing is very important to me, but I’m not letting him go because of it. I know him too well. The second he’s out, he’ll never let it go. I don’t want that threat hanging over my head again."


    Tang Yuan nodded. "If you want, I can put in a request for you, or we can arrange a little ident and make him disappear for good."


    Ling Chen was tempted when he heard Tang Yuan’s suggestion. But after thinking it over seriously, he still turned it down. As much as he wanted Zhu Hong gone, for now Zhu Hong still had some value. Unless they found that severed limb, he could only spare Zhu Hong’s life.


    Lost in thought, Ling Chen followed Tang Yuan out of the secret prison.


    "Brother, let’s go."


    "I’ll walk you out."


    At the entrance, Ling Chen looked at Tang Yuan and said, "I’lle back in a few days. I’ll have to trouble you again then."


    "No problem. Just give me a call."


    After saying goodbye to Tang Yuan, Ling Chen didn’t linger. He took Ling Gengqiu and drove straight to Falcon Company’s headquarters.


    It was already past ten at night. Jiang Yunkai had been waiting at thepany for the two of them to return. When he found out they hadn’t eaten yet, Jiang Yunkai immediately made a call and had someone send ate-night snack over to thepany dorms.


    "Kai, I need your help with something," Ling Chen said, holding a ss of wine.


    "Chen, just tell me what you need."


    "Tomorrow you take a team over to the Zhu Family and have a talk with Zhu Qianshan. Zhu Hong came to Beijing with Zhu Qianshan’s help. There’s a chance Zhu Qianshan knows where the thing I want is."


    "Got it." Jiang Yunkai nodded. "Don’t worry, I’ll handle it."


    "Why make it so troublesome?" Ling Gengqiu cut in from the side. "Just let me go see him. Hmph. With my methods, we’ll see if he talks or not."


    Ling Chen hurriedly said, "Brother, I know how capable you are, but stay out of this one. I’ll deal with it myself. If it really doesn’t work, then I’ll ask you to step in. That’s fine, right?"


    "Since you put it that way, fine... I’ll listen to you this time," Ling Gengqiu said, gnawing on a chicken leg, his mouth slick with grease.


    After a night’s rest, early the next morning Ling Gengqiu was still sleeping in his room, while Ling Chen was already at work. Now that he was back at Falcon Company, as the chairman he had a lot of things he had to look over. He couldn’t just be aplete hands-off boss on everything.


    After listening to Dong Ying’s work report, Ling Chen smiled and said, "Not bad. Looks like we picked the right person. Assistant Dong, I really appreciate your abilities. I hope you can keep this up. Who knows, one day the position ofpany vice president might be yours."


    Hearing that, even though Dong Ying was good at hiding her emotions, the excitement in her eyes still shed through for a moment.


    "Thank you for your trust, Chairman. I’ll keep working hard and won’t let you down."


    "Alright, get back to work."


    Dong Ying answered softly and turned to leave the office. Watching her go, Ling Chen picked up a file on the desk, nced through a few pages, and the corners of his mouth lifted unconsciously. He had to admit, Dong Ying’s work ability was excellent. When Ling Chen brought up starting an investmentpany, he’d only mentioned it casually, but Dong Ying had handled it brilliantly. In just a few short months, the investmentpany was already turning a profit, and the numbers weren’t low—far beyond Ling Chen’s expectations.


    When it came to fighting and other fields, Ling Chen was very confident. But in business, he was aplete rookie, no different from an outsider. That’s why he attached great importance to talent in this area. After all, he owned so many businesses and had no time to manage all the misceneous stuff himself. He needed someone to help him run things, and Dong Ying was undoubtedly a suitable candidate. However, before that, he still needed to test her loyalty.