As Wu Jian spoke, he turned to glance at the leaders of the middle-level managers and most of the middle-level managers behind him, gritting his teeth and slowly saying, "Now that he knows he's about to be found, will he compromise with me to survive? If he truly becomes our spy, then finding more Diesel Company remnants shouldn't be a problem."
This was a matter of human nature.
The Diesel Company had been annihilated, and there was no need for the so-called Diesel Company remnant to continue existing with the Diesel Company, especially knowing he was about to be discovered. So, this excuse and reason indeed served as a good justification for survival and atonement.
Although, as long as that Diesel Company remnant was willing to surrender to him, he could be treated by Wu Jian as a spy planted in the Diesel Company remnants in advance, an inside agent sent to draw out more Diesel Company remnants. Therefore, in the end, he would definitely atone for his mistakes and make amends, with no life-threatening situations occurring.
"..." However, Zhou Mo's face slowly grew solemn at Wu Jian's words. He narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze filled with mockery and disdain, as if he was quite indignant at Wu Jian's remark.
But his mockery and disdain were genuine, because Zhou Mo truly knew that there were no Diesel Company remnants at all, and he had no evidence whatsoever. He had brought his senior managers and subordinates here simply to ambush these middle-level managers, but he hadn't expected the ambush to be discovered. These middle-level managers had already prepared in advance, preventing him from carrying out the ambush. And he didn't want to engage in a war of attrition with these middle-level managers due to his smaller numbers, which would also result in heavy losses for him, so he had merely put forward a subtle excuse.
But he never expected that these foolish middle-level managers would actually believe he possessed intelligence on the Diesel Company remnants and wanted to cooperate with him, even believing what he had said.
In that case, he, Zhou Mo, couldn't be blamed for being ruthless.
"You are playing with fire, Wu Jian. You must understand that your current actions are tantamount to betraying Deherim and betraying Lord Shen Mu." Zhou Mo slowly spoke at this point, his tone quite suppressed. Especially as he looked at the middle-level managers before him, the mockery on his face grew even more intense: "You all claim to be loyalists. Look at your current actions, look at your current statements, look at your gathering to prevent us from capturing the Diesel Company remnants. How could you possibly be middle-level managers affiliated with the loyalist faction? You are simply traitors to Deherim now."
"This is unavoidable. I understand what you mean, but I must be responsible for everyone. Just as you said earlier, we are in a competitive relationship. We are indeed in a competitive relationship right now, and since it's a competitive relationship, then I apologize, I can only use this method to stop you." Wu Jian did not deny Zhou Mo's statement at all; instead, he openly admitted it, and even looked at Zhou Mo with a faint, though somewhat bitter, smile on his lips: "Your duty is also very correct, and I fully acknowledge your duty. But there's no other way, just as I said earlier, I must be responsible for everyone, not just myself. For our group, personal loss of reputation and prestige is not a problem, but group loss is absolutely unacceptable."
"So you intend to confront us like this and stall, preventing those Diesel Company remnants from being brought to justice?" Zhou Mo asked again.
"I want to capture those Diesel Company remnants, and I don't want to confront you here. But you must understand, I really have no choice. If possible, as I said earlier, can we cooperate?" But Wu Jian completely ignored the accusations he was currently making, and instead looked earnestly at Zhou Mo: "If we can cooperate, the credit will be ours, shared between the two of us. That way, we can both have the same credit, and we won't have to engage in internal friction. What do you think?"
"You mean one credit, two people share, right? And this credit is something we discovered through painstaking research, and then you just block the door to the credit, wanting to seize half of it, right?" Zhou Mo narrowed his eyes and pointed his finger at Wu Jian's chest.
Wu Jian remained silent on this. Although he had already made his current move, which was quite shameless and even deviated from his ideals, and even felt somewhat similar to Zhou Mo, he still had to stand before everyone, especially before his middle-level managers, and remain silent.
And behind him, the middle-level managers were all speechless. Looking at Wu Jian, who had his back to them and said nothing, they all gritted their teeth and clenched their fists, their hearts growing even more indignant at this moment.
They couldn't help but feel indignant, but they couldn't say anything.
Especially after realizing that it was actually their big brother Wu Jian who was bearing everything they were currently facing, their hearts felt even heavier. They couldn't say anything, especially at this moment, what could they say? What could they resolve? What could they do when Brother Wu Jian was painstakingly taking all the blame upon himself to help them establish merit?
They could do nothing.
They could only quietly watch the senior managers and their lackeys in front of them, their eyes filled with ridicule and disdain, their hearts burning with anger. A strange feeling of exhaustion appeared in their hearts, truly making them feel utterly helpless.
Finally, Wu Jian spoke: "That's the truth. I don't want to explain anything. If you don't want to share the credit with us, then you will absolutely not succeed. When we choose to retreat, I will give that person a chance, a chance to survive. That person won't be a Diesel Company remnant, but a spy I sent into the Diesel Company. I originally planned to use this Diesel Company remnant as a spy to unearth the entire Diesel Company. Understand? But I didn't expect you to ruin it. Not only will there be no credit, but you will also face punishment."
"Hahahahahahaha." At this moment, Zhou Mo suddenly burst into laughter. His laughter was filled with mockery and even more disdain. His gaze towards Wu Jian also turned sinister, but he didn't speak. In his heart, he was also mocking these middle-level managers for truly falling for it. He had just said it casually, and yet these people actually believed it.
Well, since the other party had already believed it, then don't blame him if the subsequent methods were too ruthless. For foolish people in political struggles, they were fish on a chopping board, they deserved to die, and there should be no sympathy for them whatsoever.
Since these middle-level managers in his eyes had already become fools, then they deserved to die, they deserved to fail, they deserved to be trapped by them and then ruthlessly strangled. They would be ruthlessly strangled like pigs, dogs, cattle, and sheep; in his upcoming plan, they would all be strangled.
"You've done very well, Wu Jian. I really didn't expect you to grow to this extent. Before, I knew you were a middle-level manager with great compassion, sympathy, and leadership abilities. And you should know that I even had a conversation with you before. I even asked you if you wanted to be cultivated and work under me." Zhou Mo looked coldly at Wu Jian and finally spoke.
"Yes, that's right, you did recruit me back then, but I refused. I was young then too. I truly didn't expect that refusal to lead to your extremely cruel revenge." Wu Jian replied.
"No, this isn't my revenge, and I didn't exact extremely cruel revenge. I merely expressed my dissatisfaction with you to those around me. After all, I sincerely invited you to work under me, but you didn't accept my invitation, and even showed me expressions of disdain and mockery. So of course I would express my dissatisfaction with you. Of course, when this dissatisfaction was reflected in the eyes of my friends and subordinates, you were seen as someone who didn't know how to appreciate favors." Zhou Mo sneered, looking at Wu Jian and saying coldly, "You don't even need me to carry out cruel revenge. Don't you understand now? You might not have understood then, but I don't believe you don't understand now."
"I really didn't understand then, but now I do." Wu Jian lightly extended his hand and glanced at his fingers, saying nothing more and directly admitting the statement. At the same time, he looked up at Zhou Mo and asked, "Then what do you think?"
He was asking about the cooperation to take credit together, and Zhou Mo, of course, understood. He slowly closed his eyes, then took a deep breath.
Seeing his actions, Wu Jian knew that the matter was settled. After all, this was originally an expression of forcibly suppressing one's anger and choosing to compromise, and Zhou Mo was also using this demeanor to express his dissatisfaction and his appearance of finally choosing to compromise while enduring his anger.
He deliberately put on a show to make Wu Jian believe him even more.
"You've done very well, Wu Jian. I can only choose to believe you now, but I don't know if I can continue to believe you in the future." Zhou Mo's voice at this moment seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, but as he spoke, he slowly opened them, staring intently at Wu Jian and speaking softly, "You've become just like me now. I don't know if I dare to trust you anymore."
"You can still trust me. I haven't completely become like you. I'm still the same person, it's just that now I believe I've simply grown a bit." Wu Jian spoke calmly, a hint of bitterness appearing in the corner of his eye: "Besides, even if you don't believe me, what can you do? You have no other path to take. After you made such a grand entrance and I detected you, you had no second option. After all, the initiative is with me now."
"Yes, that's right. That's why I'm willing to cooperate with you. But do you think we can still cooperate after today?" Zhou Mo spoke some casual words, but just as he placed his hands on his lower back, he signaled to a few close senior managers behind him.
He was just stalling for time, and the senior managers behind him immediately understood the meaning of his gesture. Among the crowd, there were three or four senior managers. They understood in their hearts, then retreated a few steps, hiding among the crowd of senior managers, and moved to the very back.
They began to set things up.
Because according to Zhou Mo's usual practice, he hoped to negotiate with these middle-level managers in a relatively well-equipped place, like a conference room, to discuss crucial details. This was a habit Zhou Mo had already developed even before the apocalypse descended.
And according to the arrangements Zhou Mo had just made, once they reached this conference-room-like venue for detailed negotiations, they would directly smash a cup as a signal and immediately take action to eliminate these middle-level manager leaders who had come to negotiate.
Smashing a cup as a signal, this was a very simple matter.
But it was quite decisive and swift.
In front, Zhou Mo also began his subsequent performance, directly looking at Wu Jian, whose face was already slightly flushed. He knew that Wu Jian still had a sense of shame and so-called moral concepts, and his values were still upright; he hadn't become the kind of superior who was utterly shameless and continued to talk and laugh as if nothing had happened.
He smiled faintly at the corner of his mouth, and his face remained gloomy as he said to him, "But I'm not reconciled now. If the credit is split fifty-fifty, I'm simply not reconciled. You must understand that I obtained this important intelligence and accurate information through many means. You need to balance my inner feelings. I will definitely share the credit, and it will be fifty-fifty, but there are also large and small portions within the credit, and there are also subsequent benefits. I want to take a larger share of the subsequent benefits. I must have an 80/20 split."
"The subsequent benefits must also be split fifty-fifty." Wu Jian retorted at this point. He only retorted subconsciously, simply wanting to continue to stand on equal footing with Zhou Mo to make demands.
He just hoped for equality.
But this just fell into Zhou Mo's trap. He clenched his fist and said directly, "I'll have my people set up a negotiating table. Only our core personnel can discuss the issues of subsequent profit distribution. We must reach a result, and once we do, we'll work together hand in hand."
At the same time, as Zhou Mo spoke, one of the senior managers among his people behind him seemed to have thought of something and pointed to a nearby room, saying, "Zhou Mo's people shouldn't go to the side. Next to this room is a narrow alley. As long as our people on both sides block both ends of the alley and stay a bit further away, no one will be able to hear the discussion."
Everything seemed perfectly arranged.
"Alright then." Wu Jian narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Zhou Mo. He sensed that the other party had indeed made significant concessions, and it would be truly inappropriate for him to remain so unyielding. So, he slowly nodded: "Then let's go over there to talk."
He stepped into the trap. (End of Chapter)