Chapter 58: All Actors
“Oh, it’s not that simple,” RV heard her meaning. She didn’t want to participate in the subsequent actions. The problem was, Claire had overlooked one issue, which was that she had no right to quit. “You’ve been charged with too many crimes. And Romeo, you too. The criminal defense lawyer team from our legal department, who are responsible for you two, are working overtime every day, every week, every hour. Until they’re completely done, you two can’t leave my sight, understand?”
The words “can’t leave” were even emphasized by RV in a strange tone.
Claire’s face was livid. She looked to be in a very bad mood.
RV said unceremoniously, “It’s too late for you to regret it now. If you had done fewer illegal things in the past, you wouldn’t be here now, but enjoying life. Regret is useless, so just follow the arrangements. Don’t always overthink things.”
Claire suddenly stood up. Her movement was so large that the chair behind her fell over, landing on the gray carpet with a “thud—”.
Romeo looked at her with confusion.
Having been accomplices… no, colleagues with Claire for so long, Romeo could naturally sense that something was wrong with her. She was only aggressive and violent when she was in danger. Most of the time, she was very calm. The impulsive look just now was completely unlike her.
Claire’s expression was extremely displeased. She glared at RV, like a crocodile glaring at a wild buffalo, wishing she could rush up and bite his throat, death-rolling and tearing his muscles. But due to the situation, she still held back.
Della got up and poured her a glass of water. This act of giving a slap and then a candy suddenly seemed to have touched a nerve in Claire. Claire pointed at Della’s face and cursed, “Della, you fucking bitch!”
The next moment, in front of everyone, she picked up the water glass and poured it on Romeo’s head.
Romeo: …
The others: ????
“Alright, I feel better now,” Claire put down the water glass and returned to her original calm appearance.
“You guys continue,” Claire picked up the fallen chair, crossed her legs, and sat on it, looking nonchalant.
“My throat was a little inflamed just now. I just needed to shout a few times to relieve the itch. I hope you don’t mind.”
RV shrugged. He didn’t mind at all. Anyway, it wasn’t him who was scolded and had water poured on him. Della, on the other hand, looked at Claire and sat back down in her seat, lost in thought.
Wen En kindly took two tissues and handed them to Romeo to wipe the water.
“…Thank you,” Romeo took the tissues.
Soon, the conference room fell into a strange silence. Everyone was very calm, too calm to be normal—normally, they should be pulling each other’s hair and scratching each other’s faces in the conference room.
“Alright, let’s continue,” RV cleared his throat and said.
Two more young men’s faces appeared on the screen. They looked similar, probably twins. They had plain features and looked like ordinary people. But RV said, “These are the Scotch brothers, very popular internet celebrities in the past two years. You young people should know them.”
Wen En shrugged. He didn’t follow internet celebrities, but the name did sound a little familiar.
Della said, “I know them. Two years ago, these two released a video titled ‘Opps!! I accidentally bought a seven-figure house’ that went viral. I watched the video. It had no substance, just all kinds of meaningless flaunting of wealth. But netizens seemed to like it. After that video went viral, their number of followers skyrocketed. Now they’re one of the most followed internet celebrities in the entire empire.”
“Let me see,” Wen En searched for the Scotch brothers. Heavens, they really were internet celebrities. Their number of followers was more than the population of a small planet. Most importantly, every one of their videos was about flaunting wealth or vulgar pranks. Yet the number of views on these videos was frighteningly high.
“I think they’re very smart. They know what their audience likes to watch, so they make videos to cater to them,” Wen En said, flipping through the video comment section with amazement.
“No, it’s not that simple. They’re cryptocurrency players. Making videos as internet celebrities is more like a money laundering method,” Romeo’s tone was tinged with a hint of pride. “By the way, they have a super cool red Lanibo 8472 in their house. I sold it to them.”
The red Lanibo 8472 was a discontinued sports car. It was said that there were only three in the entire Capital Star. One was in the garage of the popular movie star, Jack Hal, one was in the luxurious manor of the rapper P-Sky, and the other was missing. It turned out to be in the hands of the Scotch brothers.
Wen En: “Is selling an illegal, unregistered smuggled item to people who illegally trade in cryptocurrency something to be proud of?”
Romeo: “Oh.”
Wen En entered the keyword “sports car” in the search box of the Scotch brothers’ homepage. After watching several videos that appeared in the search results at three times the speed, he said:
“Strange, the Lanibo 8472 has never appeared in their videos. This doesn’t fit their persona of showing off every valuable thing they have, wishing the whole galaxy knew about it.”
Wen En asked Romeo, “Is this sports car so famous because it has some unique technology?”
“No, it’s just famous and has a limited production,” Romeo said. “But you know, as a luxury item, as long as it can satisfy these two points, a bunch of rich people will flock to it.”
Romeo smiled. He knew this very well, because he and Claire used to make money from this price difference.
“The sports car is not the point. The point is, Joseph Hall Biotechnology is holding an external investment conference next week. This conference has invited many rich people, corporate executives, and celebrities, including the Scotch brothers,” RV said.
“So, your mission is to impersonate the Scotch brothers, infiltrate Joseph Hall Biotechnology’s external investment conference, and find incriminating evidence to put Peter and Qiuyue in prison.”
After the meeting, everyone dispersed and returned to the F.I.A.D. residential area.
RV, disregarding his team members’ objections, applied for two two-person rooms for them, while he himself lived in a luxurious single room. His reason was very sufficient:
“Do you want Claire and Romeo to take the opportunity to escape? No, good. You and him living in the same room can better fulfill your work responsibilities. That is, you and Della must keep a close watch on these two naughty ghosts 24/7, even when you’re taking a shit.”
Wen En: “Please, there are tens of thousands of cameras here, and a bunch of anti-intrusion traps outside. Where can they escape to?”
Della looked at Claire and Romeo, who were whispering to each other, and warned fiercely, “You don’t want to die from a drone strike or a flamethrower-induced severe burn, do you?”
Claire and Romeo shook their heads.
Della: “Then be good! Otherwise, I’ll nail you to the wall and roast you to feed the cat!”
Claire and Romeo nodded.
Della pointed at the two of them and said to RV, “See? Even if you give them nine lives, they wouldn’t dare to escape.”
“Objection overruled,” RV said. “I wish you a pleasant time together.”
With that, he closed the door of his luxurious single room, leaving Wen En and Della protesting at the door.
Wen En had lived in a group in the army for many years. He was not that averse to a two-person room. It was just that what he had done with Romeo in the toilet at Xiaoli’s house in the lower district that day…
It was extremely shameful!!!
Yes, Wen En had always thought so. There was nothing more awkward than getting involved with a team member!
It was just that his emotions were well hidden, and no one had noticed anything unusual. But he had to give his emotional organs some rest, right? He couldn’t hide it 24/7, could he?!
Living in the same room with Romeo, what was the difference between that and making him be on guard 24/7 without a break?
Seeing that their protest was futile, Wen En’s face turned as black as charcoal. Della’s expression was also very foul. Wen En thought it was normal for Della to want a single room. After all, she had a Ph.D. in computer science. It was normal for a Ph.D. to have sleep disorders. Wen En could understand.
It was just that Wen En felt it was unfair. He could understand everyone’s difficulties, but why couldn’t RV understand his?
“Is it so painful to sleep in the same room with me?” Romeo’s voice came from behind Wen En. Then, two powerful arms reached out from behind Wen En and tightly wrapped around his waist.
His chin rested on Wen En’s shoulder. Romeo’s every breath fell on Wen En’s skin. Wen En swallowed, pulled away the hands on his waist, and took a step forward, hoping to get his body a little further away from Romeo.
Wen En turned around, looked at Romeo coldly, and said, “I have my own plans. It has nothing to do with you.”
“So heartless,” Romeo’s lips pouted downwards.
“Wen En, come with me for a moment,” just then, Della, who had been watching from the side, suddenly said, “I have something to tell you.”
“Alright,” Wen En nodded, then turned to Romeo, who was standing on the side with a foul face and all kinds of dissatisfaction, and said:
“You go back to your room and rest first. I’ll be back soon.”
His tone was too matter-of-fact. Romeo was even angrier when he heard it. “I don’t want to live with you either. I want a single room too.”
“Then you can go and apply to RV yourself,” Wen En had no time to deal with him. He threw this sentence and turned to leave with Della, leaving Romeo in a helpless rage:
“Look, Claire, look at his attitude?!”
Claire didn’t want to answer him. She just rolled her eyes. It was not until she saw Wen En and Della’s figures disappear in the corridor that she said:
“Alright, stop playing dumb.”
Romeo cleared his throat and immediately changed from the childish look of helpless rage that Wen En had caused him to a cynical smile.
“Alright, then let’s get down to business too,” Romeo made a very gentlemanly gesture and said, “Lead the way, my dear Miss Claire.”
