Although Qiu Songhai could prove that the cash and valuables rightfully belonged to him, the police cautiously adopted a tactic of stalling, hoping to see if the situation might change.

Of course, it might also be an attempt to pull the old trick of extorting bribes, but regardless, they kept him waiting for a few days instead of immediately returning his property.”

Qiu Songhai believed he had fulfilled Director Zheng Mingshun’s request, feeling quite pleased, unaware that Zheng Mingshun’s outward pleasure upon hearing the news belied an immense internal frustration!

For a corrupt official who was dead-set on fleeing, Zheng Mingshun’s current state could only be described as agonizingly slow days; the sudden loss of his property deeds and bank cards was like a time bomb dangling over his head, ready to detonate at any moment, robbing him of his appetite and sleep.

He would never have imagined that the fuse for this entire incident was that petty matter of blocking a doorway with a car; for a dignified Director of the Finance Bureau to be pushed to the brink over such a trivial issue was perhaps the sharpest irony life could offer him.

A statement published prominently in several newspapers immediately captured widespread attention.

The three major shareholders of Glorious Dynasty had suddenly reached a mutual understanding, hereby declaring to the world that misunderstandings had been completely resolved, and Miss Qi Fei and Miss Guan Yingying, representing all shareholders, had withdrawn their lawsuit against the primary shareholder, Wang Zhuo.

Before the statement appeared, those following the matter already possessed a fairly detailed understanding: Wang Zhuo claimed that the research results over which the equity dispute arose were funded by him personally to be developed by the Glorious Dynasty’s R&D department, meaning the department was merely earning service fees, and the results belonged to him as the commissioner!

Qi Fei and Guan Yingying, however, maintained that Wang Zhuo had failed to fulfill his obligations in this commission, thus constituting a breach of contract, granting the R&D team the right to terminate the agreement and proceed according to the original contract, unconditionally obtaining the development outcome of the project.

The statement did not specify the details of the amicable settlement, but analyses and commentary pieces soon followed—experts uniformly agreed that the original commission agreement in this dispute likely contained unfair clauses, and Wang Zhuo held an absolute advantage even in court. Therefore, the other two shareholders, seeing that the situation was irreversible, settled for securing some benefits before promptly withdrawing.

The vast majority of these experts providing analysis and commentary were actually proxies, shills, and paid writers hired by Wang Zhuo. But there is an adage that collective words can crush bone; once the public opinion tipped entirely in one direction, all other voices were completely drowned out, and thus a buzzing internal dispute concluded hastily.

Yet, the public eye remained captured; while ceasing to focus on the dispute itself, people remained curious—what exactly was this research achievement?

Just as Director Zheng was burning the midnight oil, and the preliminary hype for the hangover-curing beverage was in full swing, Old Master Qi’s eighty-eighth birthday banquet finally arrived!

The Old Master had two sons and four daughters, with over a dozen in the third generation; his immediate family alone would fill five or six tables, and when added to relatives of these younger generations and various associates, a grand total of eighty tables were reserved at the city’s most upscale celebration venue.

Qi Fei’s father, Qi Zhiyang, was the second son; the host of the banquet was the eldest uncle, Qi Zhigao.

There was a local custom of setting up gift reception tables at the entrance of the hotel lobby; gifts were presented upon arrival, names registered, the monetary gift handed to the master of ceremonies who would then write down, in bold strokes, "So-and-so contributed X amount." After the banquet, this ledger would serve as the basis for the host’s future returns of favor.

Upon entering the hall, Wang Zhuo saw a sight that left him speechless: Old Master Qi was celebrating his birthday, yet there were nine separate reception tables. What was going on?

“Why so many gift tables for your family?” he nudged Qi Fei with his elbow and quipped, “Don’t tell me you’re short on cash and trying to fleece more from the gifts?”

Qi Fei, instead, grew curious and asked, “Isn’t it like this in your family?”

Wang Zhuo smiled wryly and shook his head, “My grandparents passed away early, and when they were alive, they never hosted such a grand celebration.”

“Then it’s no wonder you don’t understand,” Guan Yingying interjected from the side. “Not everyone coming to pay respects is here just for the Old Master. Take Uncle Qi, for instance; he usually gives gifts to others, and now people will take this opportunity to show support and return the favor. Those monetary gifts were given specifically for Uncle Qi; if they were mixed with others’ gifts, wouldn’t the accounting get muddled?”

“Oh…” Wang Zhuo nodded in understanding; it really seemed to be the case.

“This is also a great chance for comparison, look,” Guan Yingying chuckled softly and pointed with her hand.

Following the direction of her finger, a man with a vague resemblance to Qi Fei was standing near one of the reception tables, warmly greeting guests. The table beside him was labeled with the name “Qi Ji”; this man was Qi Fei’s older male cousin, Qi Ji.

A thick stack of pink banknotes was piled on his table, and the master of ceremonies was continuously counting them with a currency detector, while Qi Ji stood beside him, greeting return visits from gift-givers 20 meters away, so the depth of the chain leaving the water surface after the anchor touched bottom was 120 meters, and this repeater was fixed at that depth.

Now that the cobalt chain was on the seabed, we began reeling it in following the operational sequence, but after pulling up a few meters, it became immovable.

“What’s happening?” Chuang Wang asked the blading ship over the ship’s external broadcast.

That ship replied via its external loudspeaker, “The anchor chain seems to have snagged on something... can’t pull it up.”

“Hurry up and deal with it.”

“Understood.”

The players on the other side struggled for a long time, but not only did the anchor chain fail to come up, it suddenly began sliding downward. The winch spun wildly as if possessed, and the braking device on the bearing started smoking. As the chain slid, it began swinging left and right, throwing the players on board into a panic.

Only Chuang Wang had sharp eyes; he yelled through the loudspeaker towards the blading ship, “Triangular Fish! Pay attention, the anchor chain is almost fully deployed, prepare for impact.” The people on board finally reacted, scrambling to grab onto anything nearby.

These anchor chains usually had a standard length of 1500 meters; if used up, another section could be attached with a lock. In most cases, this length was sufficient. But now, this one was clearly about to run out, and everyone on board tightened their grips, nervously watching the winch. Everyone watched wide-eyed as the anchor chain on the massive winch dwindled, and then suddenly, with a bang, the cobalt chain ran out.

The chain instantly went taut, but its other n end was fixed fast and couldn’t slip off the ship; as the chain tightened, the immense force was instantly transmitted to the warship. The stern of the Triangular Fish plunged violently into the water before bobbing back up. The large blading ship had been converted from a destroyer, weighing over thirty thousand tons, so ordinary things couldn’t move it.

After a slight tilt, the hull quickly regained balance, but the cobalt chain suddenly began moving diagonally forward, dragging the ship around and forcing it to move backward.

“What in the world is going on?” Chuang Wang muttered to himself in confusion while turning to the players behind him, “Deploy a few Steel Claws to check what’s happening.”

Su Mei said, “No need to check, it must have hooked a fish.”

Rose stood beside me and said, “The iron cobalt acts like a three-pronged fishhook; if something bites it, it definitely can’t spit it out. It must be some kind of marine creature that swallowed the cobalt head.”

“That big hunk of iron weighs seven or eight tons; what creature is dumb enough to eat iron cobalt?”

“Can’t say for sure.”

I watched the Triangular Fish spinning around and said to the people behind me, “I’m going down to take a look.” With that, I jumped in.

“I’m coming too,” Ziyue followed and jumped down.

“Take me along.”

With a splash, seven or eight of us jumped in, all swimming downwards together. We quickly found the chain and hugged it, diving deeper until the system error! PKXXXXX showed us what was ahead. The chain was moving quickly underwater; the warship above was too large, only moving slowly, so the creature below certainly couldn't pull the warship around.

Several of us climbed down the chain for quite a while before finally getting a clear look at the object.

Unexpectedly, it really was a fish, and a colossal one at that. It was too dark underwater to discern its color with night vision, but it was definitely multicolored. From our perspective, this thing was almost as big as the warship above, no wonder it had the strength to pull a tens-of-thousands-of-ton warship around.

“Let’s go up.”

After resurfacing, everyone gathered around asking what we saw. Ziyue replied, “A giant fish!”

“No way? Did you actually hook a fish?” Chuang Wang asked.

Ying asked, “Then why didn’t you take it down?”

“That thing is too massive; it would be difficult to handle in the water, and with too many warships on the surface, using large-scale magic might endanger the fleet,” Su Mei, who had also gone down with us, admitted that it was better not to act for now.

“Then what do we do?” those who hadn’t gone down were very anxious.

I said, “There’s nothing to do—it’s just a fish. Don’t make any sudden moves. Get more ships to secure the Triangular Fish, and let the giant spin down there until it exhausts itself. Then we can reel it up.”

“Ugh! Are you seriously trying to fish?”

“What else? Go down and fight it?”

“Fishing is safer then.”

In the end, everyone agreed that reeling it in was the better option. The Triangular Fish engaged its thrusters and pulled against the fish; as long as it wasn’t dragged too far away, it was fine. An hour later, the creature’s speed clearly slowed down, and we began experimentally reeling in the anchor chain. The fish struggled at first but soon gave up resistance, and it was quickly pulled to the surface. By the time we hauled it out of the water, it was too exhausted to move. I summoned several dragons to lift this creature onto the deck of the Great White Shark, as nowhere else could accommodate something this size.

“What a huge fish!” players from our guild rushed over to see the super-sized fish. No one had ever seen a 200-meter-long fish in the real world!

“It’s terrifyingly big!” Everyone pointed and commented on the giant. This fish had been utterly exhausted underwater, but the extreme lack of oxygen after leaving the water made it struggle again—and this giant actually began leaping on the deck! This fish weighed at least a thousand tons, and such a large body leaping was no joke; even the Great White Shark began to rock. The deck of the Great White Shark was the shark’s back, which was not only sloped but also lacked safety railings. When this creature leaped, everyone nearby lost their footing. Many players accidentally tumbled off the deck and into the water.

“Shouldn’t we kill it? If it keeps jumping like this, I’m going to get seasick!” Xiao Yao called from behind.

“How do you kill something this big?”

“Break its head and that should do it,” Da Guofan offered a rather dense suggestion.

“This isn’t a goldfish in your home aquarium. That thing’s head is like a battering ram; how could we possibly damage it?”

This fish’s system error! XXXX body resembled the common red carp raised in many scenic ponds, but its head had a very strange, angular shape, with a sharp cone projecting forward. The crimson head was practically a dedicated impact device, and the rows of neat, sharp teeth in its huge mouth clearly indicated this creature was far from docile. If we hadn't accidentally snagged it and tired it out for over an hour underwater, it might very well have capsized the ship.

“I wonder if this thing has intelligence? It would be great if we could communicate,” Su Mei mused.

Xiao Yao said, “I just want it to calm down quickly; the ship is about to flip! If it jumps a few more times, we’ll all be swimming!”

I intended to summon Adina to act as a translator, but she didn't appear; I then remembered I had sent her to manage the assistance work for Atlantis. I quickly switched to using Phantom as the translator, and a brief test proved the creature had basic intelligence. First, I had Phantom soothe the creature into quieting down and promised to keep it watered—sure enough, the creature chatted happily, looking quite pleased.

“Your cousin is quite something,” Wang Zhuo commented with a chuckle.

Wang Zhuo and Guan Yingying had some knowledge of Qi Fei’s family situation; this Qi Ji was two years older than Qi Fei. Had it not been for Qi Fei’s sudden meteoric rise, he would have been the best-developed among Old Master Qi’s descendants. The training institution he managed was thriving, and he now commanded assets in the tens of millions.

Qi Fei and her cousin had a poor relationship. Before they arrived, Guan Yingying had privately told Wang Zhuo that Qi Ji had always been somewhat resentful of Qi Fei’s sudden wealth, and there might be some veiled conflicts at this birthday banquet.

Qi Fei simply smiled in response to Wang Zhuo’s comment. Qi Ji placing his gift table right in the center of the nine tables and acting so ostentatiously was surely a high-profile display of showing off?

At that moment, someone pushed away the cutlery cart from the gift table placed in the furthest corner, revealing the red velvet cloth hanging on the table.

“Oh my, look!” The sharp-eyed Meng Shengdi immediately cried out, pointing at that gift table, “It turns out one table belongs to Sister Qi Fei!” Everyone was momentarily stunned and looked in the direction she pointed. Indeed, the table tucked away at the corner of the corridor had the name Qi Fei written on the velvet cloth. The table was completely empty, and no one stood behind it—a stark contrast to the lively scenes around the other reception tables!

Qi Fei’s composed expression instantly turned stern, her gaze sweeping coldly toward Qi Ji.

Guan Yingying looked at Wang Zhuo, frowning, and asked, “What’s going on? Sister didn’t mention she was setting up a gift table?”

Wang Zhuo’s eyes also turned to Qi Ji, and he replied with a forced, thin smile, “Some people deliberately orchestrate a situation like this just to overshadow us.”

Guan Yingying was also quick-witted, but it took her a moment to grasp the situation. Hearing Wang Zhuo’s words, she immediately understood!

“Does it have to be like this?” she asked, half-amused and half-exasperated. “Even if they slight our sister, what benefit does he gain?”

At this point, Qi Fei suddenly smiled faintly, shaking her head. “A red flower needs green leaves to set it off. You don’t know the inside story here.”

“Are we the red flower or the green leaves?” Meng Shengdi whispered to her sister, “I think we’re the green leaves—what do you think?”

Meng Shengnan had already sensed the tension in the atmosphere and signaled her sister with her expression not to say any more.

“Sister, if it were me, I wouldn’t tolerate this,” Guan Yingying glanced at the distant Qi Ji and said resentfully.

Qi Fei pondered for a moment, then looked at Wang Zhuo, wanting to gauge his attitude.

“Why look at me?” Wang Zhuo grinned at her and said, “If someone slaps our face and we don’t strike back, wouldn’t we be letting him get away with it?”

“Right, strike back at him!” Siyuan nearby excitedly waved her small fists, “Advisor Wang, tell us quickly, what should we do?”

“Leave this to me,” Wang Zhuo stated to Qi Fei with undeniable authority. “Let him be arrogant for ten minutes; we’ll give him a good showing later.”

“You’re not going to use violence again, are you?” Guan Yingying asked worriedly.

Wang Zhuo shook his head and smiled proudly: “Today, I’ll show you what it means to attack by strategy above all else!” Watching the receding figures of Qi Fei and the others, a flicker of triumphant light crossed Qi Ji’s eyes.

Among Old Master Qi’s descendants, Qi Zhigao and Qi Zhiyang were two brothers. By Qi Ji’s generation, since Qi Fei was female, the line became single-generation descent through the male heir.

Given the Qi family's means, paying the fines for violating the family planning policy would have been easy, but the Old Master supported the national call and firmly opposed the second son, Qi Zhiyang, from having a second child, resulting in only one grandson and one granddaughter.

The Qi family held a strong patriarchal bias. From childhood, Qi Ji grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. His four aunts and his father and second uncle placed high hopes on his future, cultivating a self-centered personality within the family. Yet, Qi Fei had been an outstanding child since she was very young, surpassing him in every aspect—morality, intellect, physicality, aesthetics, and labor—which greatly displeased him.

It might not be outright hatred, but the seed of antagonism was sown very early on, perhaps traceable back to the time when six-year-old Qi Ji was knocked down by four-year-old Qi Fei. This couldn't be entirely blamed on Qi Ji, however; perhaps the excessive pampering by his grandparents and aunts had led him to develop picky eating habits, leaving him physically weak?

Regardless, the conflict between the two never ceased. Although it somewhat subsided in adulthood, Qi Fei’s rapid ascent later rekindled Qi Ji’s sense of imbalance, leading him to devise this method to humiliate Qi Fei.

It must be noted that although Qi Fei completely surpassed him in assets, connections, and social standing, this was entirely her away game. Her development had always been focused on the most advanced major cities, unlike Qi Ji, who was based locally but branched out across the country. Furthermore, Qi Fei had never intended to collect gifts at her grandfather’s banquet, whereas Qi Ji, as the eldest grandson, took this banquet very seriously, having notified friends, colleagues, and business partners early on, utilizing his network to its fullest.