Chapter 646: The Powerful Chonglian Group

Su Ming and Cao Xianyun jumped out of the car, raised their guns, and aimed at the Chonglian security guard who was pointing his gun at Xia Qing:

"Drop your weapon!"

The armed Chonglian security guard had been frightened by the viciousness in Xia Qing's eyes and had instinctively raised his gun in self-defense, but how could he bring himself to admit that out loud.

After holstering his gun at his waist, he spread his hands flat to show he had no hostile intent, though his gaze at Xia Qing gained a measure of gravity.

From that razor-sharp look just now, he could tell that if they really came to blows, even without the sniper rifle, Xia Qing could have taken his life.

Lord Three was a high-level Evolver; a gaze that sharp could only be forged by killing dozens of people.

After confirming the two Chonglian security personnel wouldn't attack Xia Qing, Cao Xianyun stepped forward. "Miss Xia, is this the person who secretly photographed you?"

Xia Qing nodded and handed the criminal and the wristwatch over to them. "He tried to snatch the wristwatch just now to destroy the evidence."

Su Ming, afraid the Chonglian people would harm Xia Qing again, tied up the criminal and invited her onto the patrol car with them.

In the car, the man who had secretly photographed Xia Qing kept begging her for mercy. "Miss Xia, I really meant no harm. Please let me off this once. I have elders above and children below—I can't lose this job…"

Xia Qing's face was expressionless; she couldn't be bothered to respond. When the patrol car reached the south gate of Territory Three, Xia Qing got out and was about to use her key to open the door when she heard a very familiar rustling sound behind her.

"Xia Qing." Tang Huai, carrying a small bug-digging trowel, crawled out of the weeds, ran up to Xia Qing, and said in a low voice, "Don't get mixed up in the mess between Xin Yu and Chonglian. Chonglian's people play dirty."

Xia Qing calmly explained, "I'm not sticking my nose into other people's business—I'm just protecting my own legal rights."

It was Chonglian's people who had secretly photographed her, which was why she acted. If she let someone photograph her right in front of her face and pretended not to notice, Chonglian's people would think she was easy to bully, and over the coming month there was no telling how much trouble they'd stir up.

That stubborn temper that won't listen to advice—no wonder she and Beard Feng make a pair…

Tang Huai muttered to himself, then stopped mentioning Chonglian and asked with a grin, "When did you get that weasel? Is it Evolved or ordinary, and what's its Evolution ability?"

Evolution ability? Heh, if I told you, it'd scare you to death. Xia Qing opened the iron gate and asked, "Have your green-egg chickens hatched yet? How many chicks came out?"

"They hatched ages ago—the chicks' wing feathers have all grown in. My sister never mentioned how many came out." Tang Huai's attention was immediately diverted. "How many chickens do you still have? Are you hatching chicks this year?"

"Yes, I am. Two hens are already brooding." Xia Qing replied, then returned to her territory.

"Sister Qing, you're not hurt, are you?" Xiao Jiang, who guarded Territory Three, ran over and asked with concern.

Xia Qing shook her head. "Have you two eaten?"

"We have. Sister Qing, what are we doing this afternoon?" Seeing Xia Qing was fine, Xiao Jiang's cheeky grin returned.

Xia Qing did indeed have work to do. "The rice seedlings for breeding have grown. This afternoon I need to clear the weeds from the paddy field, then let in water and apply fertilizer to get ready for transplanting. When I'm flooding the field, I'll need you two to keep watch from the buffer forest."

Xia Qing was planting two and a half mu of rice. To flood the paddy, she certainly wasn't going to haul water bucket by bucket—she'd have Old Sheep work the water wheel. Although the buffer forest was dense, it wasn't airtight, and Xia Qing didn't want the Chonglian construction crew to see Old Sheep pedaling the water-drawing bicycle.

It was safer for him to remain a stubborn-tempered, strength-evolved mad sheep.

"Understood, Sister Qing can rest easy." Xiao Jiang nodded at once.

Before letting in the water, the grass roots in the field had to be cleared out first. While Dajiang patrolled the territory and Xiao Jiang helped Xia Qing pick out grass roots, he chatted with her about Hui Two's Chonglian Group. "Does Sister Qing know why Chonglian Group is so powerful that no one dares to mess with them?"

Xia Qing nodded. "Because they run a full industrial chain."

Before the Catastrophe, Chonglian Group had relied on the rich mineral resources in the area around Hui Two Base, and through repeated mergers and reorganizations, had become a fully integrated steel group company covering iron ore mining, iron smelting, steelmaking, steel processing, and final mechanical product manufacturing.

On that foundation, Chonglian had also formed strategic alliances with numerous local peers and upstream-downstream enterprises, turning Hui Two into the second-ranked home-appliance production center in all of Hua Nation.

During the chaotic period of the three years before the Catastrophe, Xin Yu's parents, with great foresight and decisive action, concentrated the group's superior strength. They not only preserved Chonglian's foundation but also absorbed the quality assets and Gao Jingjian talent of other enterprises, laying a solid foundation for Chonglian Group to operate normally, keep innovating, and grow stronger during the Catastrophe years.

Currently, across all of Hua Nation there were only four machinery enterprises with full industrial-chain operations, and the other three were all state-owned enterprises focused on national defense and military machinery production.

It could be said that the reason Hui Two Base was able to become the second-ranked base in Hui City and a home-appliance production base for Hua Nation was precisely because Hui Two Base possessed Chonglian, this super-large machinery manufacturer.

Thanks to Chonglian, home appliances and small machinery at Hui Three Base—only a little over 900 li from Hui Two Base—were priced a good margin lower than in the vast majority of regions in Hua Nation. This was because during the Catastrophe years, a large portion of product prices came from transportation costs.

Nowadays, many bases couldn't produce so much as a single electric fan, let alone farm machinery or large home appliances, because their industrial chains had completely snapped. Even if they had the technology, they no longer had the raw materials and components.

"Right, Chonglian's position in Hui Two and our entire Hui City Base is extremely high." After briefing Xia Qing on Chonglian Group, Xiao Jiang, afraid she still didn't grasp how formidable they were, went on to introduce the Chonglian security team.

"Putting everything else aside, the combat strength and equipment of the Chonglian security team may not be any weaker than Hui One's top-ranked Blaze Squad. Behind closed doors, we all call them 'human-shaped killing machines.' Because anyone who dares to rob Chonglian's transport and construction crews' supplies will be cut down by the Chonglian security team—they absolutely won't leave anyone alive."

If the Chonglian security team weren't brutal and strong enough, no one would dare to set their sights on Chonglian's supplies.

"Chonglian's management is extremely strict. The construction crews they send out will absolutely obey every regulation of the place where they're working and will never disrupt the local residents' normal work and life. So this time they were in the wrong first, but…"

Xiao Jiang looked up at Xia Qing as he said this.

Xia Qing understood. "I get it. This matter ends here. Whatever the investigation team decides, I won't interfere."

Seeing that Xia Qing understood his meaning, Xiao Jiang felt relieved. "Chonglian came to repair the wall for Lord Eight's safety, providing materials and labor free of charge. No matter why that person secretly photographed you, this matter will definitely be smoothed over. Sister Qing should just consider it as doing it for Lord Eight's sake and not hold it against him."

From Xiao Jiang's words, Xia Qing could tell he didn't understand Xin Yu's situation. She smiled and nodded.

The result was just as Xiao Jiang had said: the investigation team arrested the man, and the final interrogation concluded that he liked Xia Qing, which was why he'd secretly taken photos. The handling was to fire him and demote his construction crew leader.

His secret photographing of Xia Qing violated the Lord Law, and the punishment and fines were entirely his to bear.

Three days later, when Xia Qing went to Territory Eight to pick up rice seedlings, she heard Xin Yu tell her the full story of the incident.