Chapter 231 The game between the two sides
During the time Zhao Hailun stayed in the Avengers, she and Hashimoto Kanzuki formed a deep friendship.
Hashimoto Kanzuki was born with natural beauty but a relatively weak personality. As a result, she was often bullied since childhood, which caused her to become quite inferior. She rarely dared to make friends actively and had very few close friends.
Zhao Hailun was both talented and beautiful, and was envied by the girls around her since she was a child. The boys were also envious and afraid of her excellence, and were distant and isolated from her. She disdained to please others, so she often went alone, and developed an extremely independent and self-reliant character.
Perhaps it was because they both had something in common as they were both too introverted since childhood, that in the Avengers, these two rare female Asians quickly became good friends in a time that was neither too long nor too short.
Zhao Hailun was not dissatisfied with Hashimoto Huanyue calling her Dr. Zhao. After all, she was still a Sakura person, and she had done a lot of face-saving work. Now it was a public place, and there were military personnel from the Sakura government watching, so Hashimoto Huanyue couldn't act too casual. However, the joy she felt from the bottom of her heart when she saw him could not be faked, and that was enough.
Hashimoto Huanyue led Zhao Hailun to her home. This was a typical Japanese-style house. The two women took off their shoes at the same time and walked one after the other on the wooden floor. Finally, they sat face to face on the tatami, leaned over a small wooden table, and began to talk.
After reminiscing about the past for a while, Zhao Hailun also observed Hashimoto Kanyue closely for a while. She found that Hashimoto Kanyue not only had a more confident and calm demeanor, but also had an indescribable temperament. Zhao Hailun couldn't say what this temperament was, but she just felt that Hashimoto Kanyue was particularly beautiful today, and particularly feminine, which was a yearning that she both admired and rejected.
What she didn't know was that the indescribable temperament of Hashimoto Kanzuki was the unique charm and style of women, a temperament that could only be highlighted after experiencing love between a man and a woman.
Hashimoto Huanyue was pouring tea for Zhao Hailun. Seeing Zhao Hailun looking at her, she asked curiously, "Sister Hailun, why are you looking at me?"
When Zhao Hailun heard Hashimoto Huanyue's question, she smiled and said, "I'll see how you've been doing lately." Then, before Hashimoto Huanyue could answer, she tilted her head and held her cheek with one hand, "Huanyue, I want to work for you guys in the Avengers."
Hashimoto Huanyue handed the poured tea to Zhao Hailun. Upon hearing this, she said happily, "Okay, Sister Hailun! The Avengers welcome you anytime. You can come to do experiments anytime you want."
Zhao Hailun shook his head and looked at Hashimoto Huanyue. "No, Huanyue. I'm not talking about the experiment assignment. What I'm talking about is that I want to stay in your Avengers permanently. I will stay in your Avengers in the future."
Hashimoto Huanyue was not obviously happy when she heard this. Instead, she looked at Zhao Helen's slightly decadent expression and asked worriedly, "Sister Helen, what's wrong with you?"
Zhao Hailun picked up the tea and drank it directly without tasting it carefully. After drinking it in one breath, she said concisely: "The funding chain of our studio has been cut off. The owner who provided funds can provide us with funds, but the condition is that I accompany their boss for one night." Her calm tone and calm expression seemed to be telling someone else's story, but the veins on her hand holding the teacup betrayed her anger and unwillingness.
Hashimoto Huanyue understood it after hearing this. With Zhao Hailun's personality, it was unlikely that she would compromise. But without financial support, her biological experiments could not continue. So she thought of the Avengers.
The power of the chaebols in South Korea is huge. Zhao Hailun's research laboratory is nominally supported by the state department, but in fact it is just a thing in the hands of the chaebols. The funding for Zhao Hailun's studio was stopped at any time, which shows the power of the chaebols.
After Hashimoto Kanyue understood Zhao Hailun's predicament, she thought for a moment and said to Zhao Hailun, "Sister Helen, let's do this. I will explain at the scientific research conference tomorrow that the appearance of God may bring a breakthrough to biomimicry technology, and then hire you in the name of the Avengers. What do you think?"
Zhao Hailun thought about it and felt that Hashimoto Huanyue's suggestion was very pertinent. She also considered that the chaebol might not release the person, so her reason was very reasonable. So she nodded and readily agreed to Hashimoto Huanyue's suggestion.
After Stark left a message for Pepper, he once again embarked on the road of investigation alone. Although he has seen through that the Mandarin that appeared on TV is a fake and has no substantial help in the actual situation, the real mastermind is still hiding in the dark and may appear again in the name of Mandarin at any time to stir up trouble.
Pepper, who was thousands of miles away, finally received Stark's message, and the heavy stone in her heart finally fell to the ground.
Although she had Professor Lin Feng's guarantee and Natasha's affirmation, she had never been able to get the exact news about Stark. Stark had never contacted her, and she was worried that Natasha and the others would not be able to tell her the truth, and she was also afraid that she was just worrying about nothing.
At this moment, Stark's message finally arrived, and she was so excited that she burst into tears.
After calming down, Pepper began to suspect Maya. As Stark's ex-girlfriend, her appearance was too coincidental. As soon as she arrived, terrorist attacks followed.
Because she was worried about Stark, Pepper was so upset that she hadn't thought about it. But now that she had calmed down, she immediately noticed this suspicious point.
After finishing the business at hand, she drove Maya to a mysterious place.
After the terrorist attack, Natasha went to investigate the US President, while Maya stayed with Pepper.
In the car, Pepper couldn't help but ask Maya: "Why did you go to our house that day?"
Maya turned around and looked at Pepper with a confused look on her face, not understanding why she asked that question.
Pepper caught a glimpse of Maya's expression and decided to make it clear: "Why did you have to meet Stark that day so urgently that you had to have a face-to-face meeting with him?"
Maya knew that Pepper had noticed something was wrong, so she confessed, "I think my boss is working for Mandarin."
When Little Pepper heard this, a look of surprise and fear appeared on her face.
Maya looked around and said cautiously, "If we want to continue this conversation, we'd better find a private and safe place."
Pepper couldn't digest the shock of this news for a while. She knew Mandarin, the madman who carried out terrorist attacks and enjoyed it. And Stark had just issued a declaration of challenge to Mandarin a few days ago. The attack on Stark was not accidental, but premeditated. Mandarin had already targeted Stark. She tried to sort out her thoughts and asked, "Your boss works for Mandarin? How could it be? Didn't Tony say you were a botanist?" The implication was that how could a government employee work for a private company.
Maya explained: "That's correct, but to be more precise, I am a biological genetic coding engineer, responsible for a scientific research team of 40 people. But this team is affiliated with a think tank funded by private funds."
When Pepper heard this, her face changed slightly. She felt that some of her conjectures might not be groundless. The man she met in the reception room that day had an inexplicable and strong hostility towards Stark, and she should have noticed it at the time. However, she still didn't want to speculate about others like this, so she asked tentatively: "So, what's your boss's name?"
She prayed silently in her heart that it wouldn't be that person.
However, Maya's answer ruthlessly shattered her fantasy: "My boss is Aldridge Lucaso."
Little Pepper suppressed the shock in her heart and drove silently for a long time without saying a word.
Maya looked at Pepper, who was acting unusually calm, and felt a little puzzled.
After a long time, Pepper drove to a hotel. When Stark was pursuing her, they would occasionally come here to date. This is a secret base unknown to the public. She brought Maya here for safety reasons.
After the two entered the room, Maya looked painful and did not tell her story directly. Instead, she mentioned a precedent: "Wener von Bryan, a young idealist. Before he built rockets for the Nazis, he dreamed of traveling in space." At this point, she showed a sarcastic look on her face, not knowing whether she was mocking herself or mocking Bryan for entrusting the wrong person. "Then the first V2 attacked London. Do you know what he said? He said that the rocket operated perfectly, but it landed on the wrong planet."
At this point, Pepper has basically understood Maya's hint. Maya continued to talk about her own experience: "We were all naive in the beginning, it was a pure scientific experiment. Later, we became addicted to it and became blindly arrogant." At this point, the mockery on her face has faded, replaced by pitiful pain, "But when we woke up, we had already gone too far on the wrong path."
Pepper began to comfort her: "Maya, you don't need to be so hard on yourself. You didn't know your research results would be used for this purpose. It's your boss who is tarnishing your hard work."
Maya's expression became hesitant: "But they are used for military purposes."
Pepper used her own company as an example: "Stark Clean Energy was also a military-industrial company in the past. Maya, you really don't have to be so hard on yourself. It's not the weapon that's wrong, but the people who use it wrongly."
Maya looked at Pepper with a complicated expression: "Thank you, Pepper. I really appreciate you."
At this moment, someone suddenly broke in, startling the two people who were talking.
Pepper looked back and her face suddenly changed. The face she least wanted to see at the moment, Lucaso, appeared in front of her. She didn't know which link had gone wrong, causing the address of her place to be leaked. But she knew that Lucaso's appearance here was definitely not a good thing.
Lucaso smiled and said, "Pepper, nice to see you again. I told you we would see each other again."
After saying that, he knocked Pepper unconscious with a punch.
After knocking down Pepper, a flash of pain appeared on Luxo's face, but it was immediately replaced by a frenzy.
He looked at Maya, who was lying quietly on the bed, with a relaxed expression, but secretly exerting force on his hands, "I have to thank you for installing a locator on her car, which allowed me to find this place so quickly." He changed the topic and asked with murderous intent in his tone, "But I have a question to ask you. I hope you can explain it to me, and don't make me rack my brains to think of the answer, okay?"
Maya folded her arms, stared at him, and said nothing. There was a hint of anger on her face, but Lucaso ignored it. She did not answer Lucaso's question directly.
Since Maya didn't take the initiative to speak, Luxor decided to bring it up himself. He pretended to be relaxed, stroking his fingers and looking down, as if he was enjoying this simple pleasure, but his question exposed his inner anxiety, "Do you want to tell me why you went to Stark's house that day?" On the surface, he still seemed to trust Maya, but his uncertain expression revealed his attitude towards Maya.
Maya looked at Luxor's face, finally stood up, and angrily accused, "I wanted to solve the problem, and I didn't know you and the boss wanted to blow up the place. What's wrong, I have worked for you for so long, don't I even have this little personal freedom?"
Luxor avoided answering and pondered the meaning of Maya's words. He quickly realized that Stark's arrogant character made him speak out in front of many media and fight Mandarin to the end. As for Maya, as someone who guessed Mandarin's identity, she knew Mandarin's revenge and efficient means of action. Her visit was more of a warning than a solution to the problem.
He deliberately showed an expression of sudden enlightenment, "Ah, I see, you want to save Stark, right?" The first half of the sentence was frivolous, but then the tone became extremely oppressive, "Even though you know that his existence poses a huge threat to our organization?"
Maya was speechless when she heard this. Luxasso had revealed her intentions, so there was no need for her to hide them anymore. So she tried to persuade Luxasso, "I told you, Luxasso, Stark is a talent, we can use him."
Luxor looked at Maya with interest, his expression was playful, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised. He nodded slightly, indicating that Maya should continue talking until she gave him a satisfactory answer. This woman not only wanted to ruin his plan, but also dared to talk back. If she couldn't give a satisfactory answer, her fate would be unpredictable.
Maya gave her reasons directly, "We are short of relevant talents, and Stark is just such a talent. Next year we will also launch new products of the Ultimate Bio-Transformation Plan. If we want to complete it within the expected time, we need more professional talents. Stark is such a talent, isn't he?"
Luxor snorted, "Why don't I go find Bruce Senna or Korea's Zhao Helen? These two people must be better than Stark in biological research."
Maya was stunned for a moment, then realized Luxor's test and couldn't help but retort.
(End of this chapter)
