Chapter 32: Chapter 32: "Success
Xiaocai took a small spray bottle from the inner pocket of his down jacket and spritzed some chemical agent onto the keypad of the combination lock.
After ten-odd seconds, he could clearly see fingerprints on four of the keys.
The keys with fingerprints were: 0, 1, 3, and 9.
Then, with his gloved hand, he carefully began pressing the keys, testing combinations.
0139...
Incorrect password!
1039...
Incorrect password!
1093...
Incorrect password!
He stopped. His hands were trembling uncontrollably, his chest heaving as his breathing grew more rapid.
He had stopped because this type of lock had a special security feature: if the wrong password was entered four consecutive times within five minutes, it would automatically lock down.
He didn’t linger at the main entrance.
He moved to the corner of the feed mixing room and peered cautiously toward the entrance of the indoor farm. He didn’t see Zhang Xincheng, but he did see another farmhand hurrying inside.
After a moment’s thought, he quickly put down his feed bucket and rushed toward the indoor farm as well.
Inside the indoor farm, he saw Zhang Xincheng on the phone. The other farmhand, Zhang Xiaodong, was standing nearby, rubbing his hands, which were red from the cold.
Just then, Zhang Xincheng finished his call and turned to the two of them. "The circuit just shorted out. I’ve already called Old Zhao to come fix it. You two go on and feed the fish. Don’t be too late."
"Okay, Manager."
"Got it."
Xiaocai and Zhang Xiaodong left the indoor farm one after the other, then went their separate ways, heading toward the fish ponds on either side.
What Xiaocai didn’t see was Zhang Xincheng staring at his back, his gaze dark and grim.
Passing the corner again, Xiaocai glanced back at the indoor farm’s entrance, then checked the time on his phone. Exactly six minutes had passed.
He hurried back to the door of the feed mixing room.
Taking a deep breath, he began trying the keypad again with his gloved hand.
0931...
Incorrect password!
’Damn it! I’m out of time!’ Xiaocai cursed inwardly. His forehead was beaded with cold sweat, and his undershirt was soaked through.
0319...
BEEP! CLICK...
Xiaocai was ecstatic. He quickly entered the feed mixing room and bolted the door from the inside.
Inside the mixing room, his eyes scanned the jars, cans, and various ingredients on the shelves as he searched anxiously.
Before long, he was thrilled to find a bucket of pre-mixed feed. It was one of the buckets used exclusively by Zhang Xincheng and the others; the padlock on its lid was unlocked.
’Phew. If this had been locked, I’d be in real trouble,’ Xiaocai thought with relief. He pulled a pre-cleaned Nescafé plastic bottle from his jacket pocket and deftly filled it with feed.
Then he shook the feed bucket to level out the contents and hide any trace of his scooping.
Next, he spotted several logbooks on the workbench and began flipping through them cautiously.
Since Zhang Xincheng had left the logbook with the feed formula right on top, Xiaocai found it immediately.
’Perfect! I’m going to be rich!’ Xiaocai quickly took out his phone and photographed all three pages of the feed formula, taking several shots of each page to avoid any blurry pictures.
He returned the logbook to its original position.
He carefully opened the door, peered through the crack to check his surroundings, and seeing no one, quickly slipped out and closed the door behind him.
Only after all this was done did he finally breathe a sigh of relief. He walked to the edge of the fish pond, picked up his feed bucket, and began energetically scattering the feed for the fish.
Watching the eels swarm just below the water’s surface, he felt as if he were watching piles of cash bubble up, and he could barely suppress his smile.
「At dusk, as the sun set.」
Jiang Miao returned to the breeding facility with Shuya.
The power at the facility had also been repaired.
Inside the manager’s office.
Jiang Miao moved a mural in the manager’s office. The other side of this wall faced the feed mixing room. Behind the mural was a one-way glass window with a high-definition surveillance camera inside that was connected to a backup power supply.
Therefore, even when the farm’s other cameras were down, this one would not be.
He plugged in a data cable and quickly copied the data from the camera.
Watching the surveillance footage play back on the laptop, Zhang Xincheng clenched his fists. "That backstabber... Fine, just fine... Then he can’t blame us. Ah Miao, let’s call the police!"
But Jiang Miao shook his head. "Not yet. It’s the New Year holiday; we should be considerate of the officers’ hard work. Let the camera keep recording. In ten days, we’ll ’discover’ the anomaly during our routine memory wipe."
"Alright then! Let the little punk be smug for a few more days."
"Let’s hope he delivers that feed sample and the formula as soon as possible." Jiang Miao closed the laptop with a cold smile.
「Meanwhile.」
Back at home, Xiaocai wolfed down his dinner, changed his clothes, and logged into QQ on his phone.
He found a QQ friend named Sun Moon Lake.
[You there?]
A moment later.
[Yeah, what’s up?]
[That thing you mentioned last time, I’ve done it.]
[Oh? You got the stuff?]
[Not just the stuff, I got the formula too. But the price will have to be adjusted.]
[Isn’t a million enough? Don’t get too greedy.]
[Cut the crap. I took a huge risk for this. If you don’t add more money, I’ll sell it to another company.]
[How much do you want?]
[One and a half million. I want cash.]
[Are you kidding? Cash is too much trouble. Why don’t you open a bank account in Hong Kong? I’ll wire the money to you directly.]
[Too much hassle. Anyway, you have to come get the sample in person, so you can just bring the cash then. I don’t want to go to Hong Kong.]
After another short while, the person on the other end replied.
[Fine! But that’s a lot of cash, it’s not easy to exchange.]
[The deal will be in Shanmei City, on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year.]
[Okay.]
Clearly, the other party didn’t want any complications from delays and intended to act quickly.
The Lantern Festival was only half a month away.
Once they had agreed on a time and place, they both logged off.
After something like this happened, Jiang Miao and Zhang Xincheng were naturally not in high spirits.
The two of them were discussing how to strengthen their security measures.
Jiang Miao thought for a moment, looking at the facility’s floor plan. "First, we can’t have the feed mixing room exposed on one side like this anymore. After the Spring Festival, I’m going to have my cousin bring over a few container houses. We’ll set them up in front of the mixing room, move the surveillance office into one, and post a full-time security guard there."
Zhang Xincheng added, "We also need to replace the keypad lock on that door. It would be best to get one with facial recognition and fingerprint unlocking, plus a mechanical lock."
Shuya took notes on their ideas.
Twirling a ballpoint pen between his fingers, Jiang Miao spoke with a calm but resigned voice, "As for other measures, they’re not necessary for now. After all, other companies are bound to figure out the artificial eel breeding technology sooner or later. No matter how much more we invest in security, we can’t keep it secret forever."
Zhang Xincheng also felt a sense of helplessness. He knew that once other companies figured out the main nutrients, even a low-spec version, they could use it as a base to gradually puzzle out a similar feed formula.
Besides, with East Japan’s Rokkaido Eel Company in the picture, they figured they couldn’t keep the secret for very long.
After discussing the two preventative measures, Jiang Miao didn’t call his cousin right away. The main reason was that this wasn’t something to discuss now; moreover, phone calls could be recorded. He didn’t want to leave any potential loose ends.
Anyway, come the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, when it was time for the routine deletion of internal video files, they could just go straight to the police.
Still, the events of the day served as a reminder to Jiang Miao that he needed to strengthen the company’s security protocols.
He already had a few ideas in mind.
He said goodbye to his brother-in-law and took Shuya back home. Jiang Miao didn’t tell his parents what had happened, wanting to spare them the worry.
During dinner, his parents told him about some village gossip.
After listening to his parents’ stories, Jiang Miao shook his head. "There’s no need to be angry. We’ll rarely be living in the village from now on anyway. Those jealous people can only make snide comments behind our backs."
"Hmph, I just can’t stand the sight of them. When you were a delivery driver, all they did was mock you. Now that you have a little money, they all want a piece of the pie," his dad huffed.
Shuya quickly tried to comfort him, "Please calm down, Uncle. It’s not worth making yourself sick over people like that."
Huang Qiuyue looked relieved. "Exactly, you old man. You wanted to keep living in the old house, but thank goodness we didn’t. Otherwise, people would be coming over every other day to borrow money or ask you to pull strings for them. Just imagine the headache."
Jiang Dahai picked up his juice and took a sip. "Forget it, let’s eat! It’s the New Year. Let’s not talk about such unpleasant things."
"Let’s eat," Jiang Miao said, placing a piece of braised goose on his dad’s plate, then another for his mom and one for Shuya.
"This goose is good..."
"It’s from Uncle Han’s next door."
