Su Tiannan had traveled to Huafu in the First District via the light rail the day before, where he met with an old classmate working in the pharmaceutical industry. He obtained a wealth of information about Huihong Pharmaceutical Group.

Information from an industry insider was undoubtedly more detailed than what Su Tianyu could find online. It was through these materials and his classmate's narration that Su Tiannan learned about the cooperative relationship between Baolong Group, Huihong Pharmaceutical, and a certain military department in the First District.

His classmate told Su Tiannan that Huihong Pharmaceutical was originally a quasi-first-class pharmaceutical company, not exactly a top player in the First District. However, for some unknown reason, a bigwig in the military took the lead, found a lot of financial capital to reinvest in the group, and formed a new management team. Baolong Group was the largest investor, but they did not participate in the specific operations.

After learning this, Su Tiannan immediately pressed his classmate for information about Island No. 7, but the latter didn't know much. He only said that Huihong Pharmaceutical had multiple island research bases overseas, and the leadership managing those bases had no connection with the leadership of the pharmaceutical group itself. In other words, these research bases operated independently of the group.

Furthermore, his classmate told Su Tiannan that the military capital seemed very interested in Huihong Pharmaceutical. The security personnel on the island were said to be armed forces entirely composed of retired soldiers, making it all very mysterious. People within the industry tacitly avoided conducting business investigations in that area, fearing they might inadvertently touch the sensitive nerves of those higher up and bring disaster upon themselves.

The two chatted for a long time. Su Tiannan also discovered Zhang Taotao's status as an honorary chairperson from the information. Consequently, he felt that approaching from Huihong Pharmaceutical was too difficult, because his classmate had already told him that the leadership potentially responsible for managing Island No. 7 was detached from the Huihong Group. High-level information was very concealed, making it impossible for ordinary people to investigate, or even to resort to kidnapping and threats.

After a trip to the First District, the most valuable information Su Tiannan obtained was the lead on Zhang Taotao. She was the honorary chairperson of Huihong Group’s board of directors, and Baolong Group was one of Huihong Pharmaceutical's main investors. Therefore, there was a high probability that Zhang Taotao knew the inside story.

Resorting to kidnapping was a last resort. Before doing this, Su Tiannan had given it considerable thought. He was well aware that negotiations were currently underway at the upper levels, and the mining incident was about to be resolved, with the Li faction ultimately poised to win this game with a significant advantage.

Therefore, moving against Zhang Taotao at this time carried a great risk. If it angered Baolong Group and led to the breakdown of negotiations, giving the other side something to seize upon, it might lead to a major disaster.

However, even so, Su Tiannan decided to proceed, because he felt that otherwise, finding out the specific information about Island No. 7 would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

If the place was hidden so deeply, without the help of a top leader from the other side, it would be difficult to figure out the whole story based solely on external forces.

Furthermore, before doing this, Su Tiannan had already considered the worst possible outcome. If the Zhang Taotao lead didn't work, he would ultimately choose to turn himself in and take responsibility for everything, so as not to bring any negative impact to future negotiations!

But why would his older brother do this?

Because he felt guilty. He felt that he should bear the primary responsibility for Uncle You's death and Zhang Hao's capture. If he hadn't helped Zhang Chao, these tragedies wouldn't have happened.

His older brother had always loved his family and his siblings very much. One day at the Chi Army base, Lu Feng asked Su Tiannan to inquire about when his brothers could leave, so Tiannan went to the barracks and happened to overhear the argument between Kong ZhengHui and Su Tianyu.

He clearly remembered that when Kong ZhengHui questioned Su Tianyu about why he brought people back to the association without informing everyone, his younger brother was extremely embarrassed and speechless.

But this shouldn't be what Su Tianyu had to bear, because he hadn't done anything wrong, and it was like he was taking the pressure for Tiannan.

Su Tiannan was the older brother, and there was no reason to let his younger brother clean up his messes, let alone put the entire family's development on Su Tianyu's shoulders. He needed to share some of the burden for his younger brother.

Moreover, from the death of the laborer Xiao Yucheng, to the later mine disaster, to the incident involving Uncle Jiu's son, his older brother Tiannan had always felt an indescribable anger in his heart.

...

Shore.

Zhang Taotao lay on the ground, coughing violently a few times: "You're Su Tiannan, right?"

Sitting upright on the lawn, Su Tiannan looked somewhat surprised.

"I come from a public relations background. Frequent event organization and business banquets have allowed me to develop a skill...!" Zhang Taotao said calmly, lying on the ground, "No matter who it is, as long as I've met them in public, I'll remember them, including their names and positions. Similarly, in negotiation calls, as long as someone has communicated with me, I'll definitely remember their voice."

Su Tiannan looked at her without responding.

"Combining that with the human trafficking incident that happened in Tianhong Port before, it's not difficult to guess your general identity," Zhang Taotao continued, "But you've really got the wrong person. Putting aside the fact that I really don't know about Island No. 7, even if I'm just considering it from the perspective of the company's interests, I can't help you!"

"Then I'll kill you!" Su Tiannan's eyes flashed fiercely.

"You wouldn't dare to kill me! If you kill me, who will go to talk to Li Mingsheng about the allocation of mineral resources?! And can you bear the responsibility for the breakdown of negotiations?" Zhang Taotao looked at the sky, "At most, you'd only dare to threaten me! Cripple me? Leave me half-dead... to threaten me."

"…!" Su Tiannan frowned at her, not responding.

"Let me go, for the sake of the subsequent negotiations, I won't pursue this matter," Zhang Taotao continued, "As for the matter of Huihong Pharmaceutical, you should approach it from other directions! If you have the ability to find out what you want, I couldn't care less."

"You're very confident?!"

"Everyone has demands. Once you understand them, you're not afraid!" Zhang Taotao replied blandly.

Su Tiannan slowly stepped forward, grabbing her face with his right hand: "You think you've figured me out?"

"…Don't cause trouble for Li Mingsheng!"

"What I hate most is your condescending attitude! As if you've calculated the entire trajectory of the world!" Su Tiannan's eyes flashed fiercely, "Today, I'm going to tell you! You can't figure everything out!!"

Hearing this, Zhang Taotao turned her head to look at him: "Don't you dare...!"

Su Tiannan didn't reply. He immediately became busy with both hands, starting to unbutton Zhang Taotao's clothes.

"...You...what are you doing?!" Zhang Taotao was stunned.

"What am I doing?! I just want to take advantage while you're still warm... before I kill you!" Su Tiannan replied in a hoarse voice.

"Su Tiannan!! You...!"

...

At sea.

Fei Pingsheng was sleeping when he suddenly felt a kick. He groggily looked up and saw the young man who was scrolling through his phone looking at him with a smile.

"What's up... Big Brother?"

"Come on, let's go out and get some fresh air!" the young man said with a smile.