Li Chonglou had seen too much infighting. He knew that such pure relationships, free of ulterior motives, were hard-won.
So after eating their fill, he took the initiative to suggest they move on to the next activity, a full package of karaoke, dancing, and massage.
It wasn't until the latter half of the night that everyone found rooms and fell into a deep sleep.
They had planned to leave in the morning but ended up sleeping until noon. Li Chonglou woke up, shaking his head.
"Ugh, I overdid it."
Li Chonglou checked the time. With only three hours left until the agreed-upon meeting, he quickly called Gao Baisong, asking him to arrange two cars, and then woke up Hei Dao and the others one by one.
"Are we leaving?"
The group's spirits were clearly not high. Everyone had been drinking the night before. Yue Hai, with his low tolerance, still looked tipsy.
"Pull yourselves together, the cars will be here soon."
After tidying up, they went down to the hotel entrance to await Gao Baisong's arrival.
The five of them didn't wait long before Gao Baisong and Lao Er's cars appeared in Li Chonglou's line of sight.
Once the cars stopped, Li Chonglou got in, and Gao Baisong asked,
"Boss, where are we going?"
"Feng Town, Sun Corporation."
"Isn't that in Shangjing?"
Li Chonglou didn't say much, simply sending him the address.
Although the address wasn't in Shangjing, with Gao Baisong's expertise, they arrived in Feng Town in just about an hour.
Feng Town was only the size of Shangjing's East District. Sun Corporation was considered one of the few prominent companies within it, enjoying high visibility. However, most of what people talked about now were negative news about it.
"Did you hear? The Wang family went to cause trouble again yesterday."
"I'd do the same if I were them! This Sun Corporation is clearly colluding with the town government. Such a big issue, and they face no consequences!"
"Exactly, they only know how to bully us ordinary citizens. I wish they'd go bankrupt sooner."
At that moment, a few people were sitting in a fast-food restaurant. Beside them, some workers in uniform were eating their meals and chatting indignantly.
Upon hearing the name "Sun Corporation," Yue Hai and the others cast questioning glances at Li Chonglou.
After the workers finished their meal and left, Yue Hai asked,
"Brother Li, isn't Sun Corporation the company we're going to?"
"Yes."
Sen Lang chimed in, "It sounds like they have a bad reputation."
Sen Bao replied indifferently, "Who cares what their reputation is? We just need to do our job. Right, Brother Li?"
Li Chonglou shook his head. "While that's true, we should investigate first. We still have an hour and a half until the scheduled time."
He paused, then straightened his expression and continued with seriousness,
"You all know why we're here. Who they are and what methods they might use, it's best for us to investigate personally."
Hei Dao nodded. "I'm familiar with this. Don't worry, Brother Li, I'll handle it."
As Hei Dao spoke, he stood up. The Sen brothers, being seasoned individuals, naturally understood Li Chonglou's intention and also stood up.
Yue Hai looked confused, but seeing the other three stand up, he felt awkward sitting alone and joined them.
Li Chonglou rolled his eyes at him. "Xiao Hai, you go with Hei Dao. We'll meet back here in an hour."
"Roger that!"
This was arguably the first task Li Chonglou had assigned them, and everyone was full of confidence and enthusiasm.
Gao Baisong and Lao Er, standing nearby, couldn't help but ask,
"What about us? Is there anything we need to do?"
"You two? You can also take a look around the vicinity and familiarize yourselves with the environment. We might be staying here for a few days."
The two of them, just like Yue Hai, stood up abruptly.
"Roger that!"
Suddenly, everyone felt a sense of teamwork, a collective team spirit.
Seeing everyone in such good spirits, Li Chonglou felt gratified. The group's integration was going more smoothly than he had anticipated.
After the others left, Li Chonglou didn't idle. He walked through the streets of Feng Town, occasionally striking up conversations with people who looked particularly gossipy.
In about half an hour, Li Chonglou had a general understanding of Feng Town.
Feng Town's history could be traced back a long time, at least several hundred years, making it a historical town.
But strangely, its geographical location was also next to Shangjing, yet its development lagged far behind other small towns of the second and third tier.
Even people from Shangjing seemed to know little about it; the entire town appeared almost transparent.
"Something's not right."
Li Chonglou's brows furrowed slightly, sensing a hint of the unusual. However, due to time constraints, many things couldn't be verified, so Li Chonglou could only suppress this thought for the time being.
Without seeing the full picture, he wouldn't make rash judgments. Li Chonglou would not make a decision easily.
In addition to the basic information about Feng Town, Li Chonglou also inquired about Sun Corporation.
In fact, it wasn't exactly him inquiring; Sun Corporation was a hot topic throughout Feng Town. Mention it to almost anyone, and they could launch into a lengthy discussion.
However, everything they said was negative.
Sun Corporation was now like a bully in Feng Town, with almost everyone holding deep-seated prejudice against it.
Yet, strangely, when Li Chonglou pressed for details about what they had done to incur such anger, the explanations invariably boiled down to two things.
One was withholding employee wages.
The other was hiring thugs to prevent employees from filing lawsuits.
Moreover, both of these incidents were based on hearsay. No one could produce concrete evidence; it was always said that someone told someone.
This suddenly reminded Li Chonglou of the ignorant masses in ancient times, who would believe anything they heard.
However, Li Chonglou also understood that this didn't rule out the possibility that Sun Corporation had indeed done these things. After all, even though the other party was Zhou Tong's friend, they weren't always in contact.
As the saying goes, you can't judge a book by its cover. Li Chonglou's initial request for Hei Dao and the others to investigate was partly for this reason; he didn't want to be someone else's pawn.
However, at present, he tended to believe Sun Corporation. It could be due to initial impression bias, or it could be his intuition.
An hour passed quickly.
Li Chonglou returned to the agreed-upon location early to wait for the others. Hei Dao and the rest also arrived right on time.
"How did it go?"
Li Chonglou got straight to the point. Hei Dao and the others wasted no time and reported what they had learned.
Meanwhile, about two kilometers away from the group, at Sun Corporation.
In a simple office, a middle-aged man sat on a sofa with a worried expression.