Those who travel back in time

Chapter 20 Partners

"From whom did you buy the serum?"

"He didn't reveal his name during the transaction, but I later found out that the seller's name was Sun Fan."

"Is it possible to find this Sun Fan?"

"No one can find him. He passed away four years ago. He is no longer in this world."

"No, I can find him," Chen Qing corrected.

Ordinary people would naturally be unable to find a deceased person, but for a time traveler, this is not a problem; all they need to do is travel to the past, to before Sun Fan died.

At this moment, the Maybach drove into the parking lot of the Qilin Building. Chen Qing and Li Qilin got out of the car and went to Li Qilin's office together.

This was Chen Qing's second time entering this office, but the first time she had properly looked around it.

The first thing he noticed was the huge floor-to-ceiling window, from which he could take in the entire city skyline.

The large and tidy mahogany desk in the center, apart from an Apple computer and a set of exquisite stationery, is decorated only by a framed photo of Li Mengfei's smiling face.

One side of the room features a sandalwood bookcase that occupies an entire wall, filled with all kinds of books, from finely bound classics to the latest business weekly.

Against the wall stood a set of comfortable-looking genuine leather sofas, next to which stood a wine cabinet displaying some wines whose names I didn't know.

"What would you like to drink?" Li Qilin asked as he walked to the liquor cabinet.

"Water is fine." In Chen Qing's eyes, no nectar or dew could compare to clean water.

"First, I want to thank you for saving my life twenty years ago, and then I want to thank you for saving my daughter's life three months ago." Li Qilin handed Chen Qing a bottle of expensive mineral water. "If there's anything you need from me, just say the word, and I'll never refuse."

"First, we need to retrieve the stolen serum." Chen Qing unscrewed the bottle cap.

"The serum was stolen from me, and I would have done it even if you hadn't told me."

"There's an old locust tree on the east side of the outpatient building of Shuguang Hospital. I need to dig it up to see if there's anything buried underneath."

"Okay, I'll arrange it."

This "arrangement" isn't just about buying Chen Qing a shovel. Shuguang Hospital isn't your own backyard. If you want to go in and dig up someone else's tree, you need a reasonable excuse.

Li Qilin contacted the president of Shuguang Hospital, saying that in order to give back to the community, Qilin Group had selected some well-regarded hospitals in Jiangxin for free landscape renovation and upgrades, and Shuguang Hospital was on the list of hospitals for the landscape upgrade.

Who wouldn't want such a windfall? The director of Shuguang Hospital immediately agreed.

Chen Qing, as a landscape construction worker, went into Shuguang Hospital with the construction team and openly dug under the old locust tree.

However, after digging three feet into the ground, they found no iron box.

It seems that at this point in time, the metal box has not yet been buried.

Chen Qing then instructed Li Qilin to install a discreet surveillance camera on the old locust tree, so that if anyone went there to bury the metal box, it would be captured on camera.

Li Qilin truly lives up to his reputation as a business tycoon with a net worth of billions. He considers things very thoroughly. He does what Chen Qing says, and he also does what Chen Qing doesn't say.

For example, knowing that Chen Qing had returned from the apocalypse without an identity, he processed identification for him and also prepared a mobile phone and SIM card for him.

For example, he prepared an apartment and a car for Chen Qing, so that when Chen Qing needed to stay in the past as she did this time, she would have a place to stay and a car to use.

For example, the drug Yi Ruiqing, which treats leukemia. When Chen Qing broke into the Qilin Building to kill Li Qilin, he stopped when he saw Yi Ruiqing. Li Qilin then knew that Chen Qing must know someone who had this disease.

After he found out about He Song, he offered his help and solved He Song's family's financial problems. Instead of giving them money directly, he offered them a prize: the person who bought the 9999th box of Yi Ruiqing would win a prize of 80 yuan, which was exactly the amount of He Song's family's debt.

He also gave Chen Qing some cash and a card so that Chen Qing could focus on the mission without having to worry about surviving in the past.

"When I was 10 years old, I almost burned down the kitchen in my old family home because I was playing with fire. I was terrified, not of the fire itself, but of my father's belt. In the end, my grandmother took the blame for me, saying that she had forgotten to turn off the stove while boiling water. My grandmother never told anyone about this until she passed away. In this world, only she and I know about it." Li Qilin also told Chen Qing another story.

"And then?" Chen Qing felt a little confused. Why was he suddenly being told this? He wasn't interested in Li Qilin's past.

"Mr. Chen, even you can't stop the apocalypse alone. You need help, and I can provide you with the greatest assistance, but there's a condition: I have to trust you." Li Qilin said, sitting on the soft sofa. "If you find my future self, that's fine; there won't be any trust issues between us then. But if you go back to the past, to the past before I met you, I might not trust you. In that case, you'll have to tell me a few things that only I know."

"Is President Li also willing to help me prevent the end of the world?" Chen Qing raised an eyebrow.

"When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact. If this world is destroyed, the people living in this world will naturally perish as well." Li Qilin took a deep breath. "My life is wonderful. I want to live to be a hundred years old, rather than being bitten to death by a zombie one day, or being stabbed to death because of a bag of cookies or a bottle of water."

"Mr. Li doesn't seem like someone who's afraid of death. You didn't flinch when I barged in front of you five days ago."

"Being unafraid of death doesn't mean I want to die. I can die of old age, or from illness, or even from being hit by a car in an accident, but I can't accept being bitten to death by zombies. Besides, even if I don't think about myself, I have to think about Mengfei. I don't want her to live in such a desperate hell in the future; that would be too cruel for her."

"Mr. Li, you just mentioned 'a few' things that only you know?"

"If one thing isn't enough, you can also tell my past self the name 'Su Xiaowen.' She was a transfer student who came to my class in my second year of high school. She was an excellent student, and she was always first in her class after she transferred. I was originally first in the class, but I was unwilling to lose that first place, so one day after school, I secretly punctured her bicycle tire. I didn't tell anyone about this; only I knew it from beginning to end."

Hearing this, Chen Qing couldn't help but laugh. She never expected that President Li, who now had such a domineering CEO demeanor, had done such a thing when he was a child.