The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

153 The Leader of Creeper

Rayn nodded to the brown-haired girl’s question, “No need to feel ashamed. So, do you have any more questions? If you don’t have one, I’ll prepare the file.”

“Actually, my stomach is a bit uncomfortable. Is there a toilet here?” Emma asked, pretending to hold her stomach.

“Oh.. Of course, there is. From this door, turn right, then left. You’ll find the toilet.” Rayn explained.

Emma nodded as she stood up, “Thank you.” she said before holding the shoulder of the girl who was still sitting next to her, “Jessi, I’m going to the toilet. Will you be okay here alone?”

Rachel nodded, “Sure. But don’t take too long, okay?”

Emma nodded then immediately left the room and walked towards the toilet according to Rayn’s directions earlier. She walked slowly enough to look around.

It turned out there was another lobby with a smaller size at the end of the hallway. There was a rather large staircase to get to the next floor. Emma walked to the stairs and looked up to find a few doors upstairs. There was also a large-sized painting on the stairs wall. It was a painting of a man in a cool guard uniform with a few small badges whose symbols Emma didn’t know. It seemed that he was a higher-up in the Creeper group. Quickly, Emma took out her cell phone and took a picture of the painting.

Suddenly, the voices of several men sounded faint and getting closer from upstairs. Emma immediately ran on tiptoe towards the entrance to the toilet and hid behind the wall. The voices of the men were followed by the knocking sound of their shoes as if they were going downstairs. Emma poked her face slightly from the wall. She could see three tall men still in the middle of the stairs. One of them had the exact same face as in the painting.

“Let Oscar take care of the trouble on the streets. I’ll stay focused on the work in the Chingsu District. He has five hundred men over there. Why isn’t that enough?” The man whose face was in the painting asked.

.....

“That’s right, Commander. But, Boss Oscar said, Gaston is still unconscious to this day. His defeat yesterday scared almost all of Oscar’s men. Looks like RJC has gotten a lot stronger,” His man explained.

The commander finally stopped in his tracks. Emma immediately pulled her face back behind the wall, still listening with keen ears. The commander turned to face his two subordinates who immediately respectfully bowed their heads fearfully, “Aren’t they adding members taken from the martial arts studio? Isn’t that enough? If I have to draw people from here to there, the Chingsu District’s guard will weaken and affect the income here.”

“We’ve explained that to Oscar, Commander. But he said it was really urgent because they failed to kidnap Marcel Douglas’s grandmother. They were afraid that RJC would suddenly attack for revenge.” The man explained without raising his eyes the slightest.

“Oscar should know what the current financial situation is. If we keep pouring money out, we won’t be able to pay the Black Hole. But why was that man too stupid to send a weakling to kidnap the grandma of that powerful leader of RJC?” He growled.

The two men’s subordinates could only look down in fear. Although the commander never vented his anger on his subordinates, they were still very afraid if the monster was angry.

“Tell Oscar that I’m going to Greenvalley. Change all schedules. Don’t keep me waiting.” He said as he walked away.

“All right, Commander!” The two men bowed respectfully.

As the commander left, the man who had previously spoken to him remained standing where he was, while quickly taking out a cell phone from his coat pocket and immediately putting it to his ear. Two seconds later, the call was picked up from across the line, “Commander Lee Mu Fei is going to Greenvalley headquarters. We’re on our way now.”

Emma’s brow furrowed, ‘So that guy’s name is Lee Mu Fei? He is the head of the Creeper. Then who is Oscar? His right hand?’ she thought to herself.

When Emma was about to enter the toilet, she was quite surprised when she saw a small board that read ‘Staff Only’. From that, Emma realized that Rayn might be a new staff or an idiot. Instead, he directed guests to go to the toilet which was reserved for employees working at the headquarters. No wonder the three Creeper’s men were free to talk around here. That was because there shouldn’t be a stranger in this small lobby.

Emma rushed into the bathroom. She neither wanted to pee nor defecate. She had another intention that had been planned from the start, which was to find the air duct in the bathroom ceiling. And of course, she found it easily. There were three toilet cubicles in the small room. At the very end of the cubicle, the air duct hole was located.

Emma understood that a gangster base must have very few women in it. Emma only had to worry about the one female receptionist she had seen outside. Maybe it was the woman with the hair in the bun that Emma had to worry about getting into this women’s restroom.

Quickly, Emma lowered the toilet bowl cover and climbed onto it. Then, she set her foot on the toilet water tank before climbing higher above the cubicle wall. Emma breathed slowly so her body could relax, because the cubicle divider was thin and she had to perch on top of it in a line. Even though Emma had to desperately maintain her balance, she also had to strain her ears so she could hear if the main toilet door was open from the outside.

Emma’s hands reached for the hollowed ventilation cover. She pushed it up and slowly poked her head into the airway. It was very dark in it, so Emma used her cell phone to light up the airways. After looking around the branching sections, Emma smiled with satisfaction. Then, she swiftly lowered her head and closed the vent before moving down.

“I’d better go back now,” Emma muttered as she looked in the mirror to brush off the dust that had stuck to her face and hair. It looked like she would have to wash her hair tonight.

***

On the other hand, Rachel was sitting innocently alone in front of a desk displaying a pile of files. Inside, she cursed the Creeper. It turned out that this was their way of trapping their victims into signing loans with unreasonable interest rates.

“You can read through all the files first, Ms Jess. But, actually, the contents of the files are the copy of the first files. It’s because we work with several parties, so quite a lot of files needs to be copied. Unfortunately, the regulations from the main company told us that we need the original signature and fingerprint of the loan recipient.” Rayn explained with a sigh. He gave Jess an expression of sorry, which the girl already knew that it was a charade.

Rachel nodded, “It’s okay. I understand. But.. the writing is quite small, isn’t it?” she laughed. As much as possible, she had to buy time for Emma. Actually, while waiting together in the front lobby, Emma had whispered that she would go to the toilet to check the air vent.

“Yes, it looks like there was a slight error in the printing of the file by our office staff. Would you like to change it to a larger font? But maybe you’ll have to wait about three more days because we have to pick up the file at the head office.” Rayn offered.

“Ah.. then that’s fine. I’ll sign it today,” Rachel replied.

The man smiled and nodded, “Please take your time,”

Rachel returned the man’s smile before checking the papers in her hands. Inside, she was very annoyed at the reasons Rayn gave to trick her. They were taking advantage of people who lack insight and were being squashed by the economy.

By using employment contracts, they could turn these employees into cash cows for years, or even for their whole lives. The Creeper must have been cooperating on purpose with the factories owners. Really, Rachel couldn’t believe why there were so many bad people in Handway City. She felt that the beautiful looking city was actually a cursed city.

Carefully, Rachel read the first five pages of the agreement. Although the small front made her blue eyes hurt, she didn’t find anything unusual here. In the agreement, it was written that the interest to be charged was only five percent of the nominal loan in one month. Actually, it was still within reasonable limits. Apart from interest, other agreement points were also normal. Rachel was confused. She knew they had other ways of scamming their prey.

“Cough! Cough!” Rachel pretended to cough. Then, she glanced at the man, “I’m sorry.” she said. The man just smiled back with the intention of not bothering her. But after a few seconds, Rachel coughed again, and now it was getting more intense. Her charade was great that made Rayn look quite annoyed, “Cough! I-I’m.. sorry.. Cough! My throat.. is dry,” she said while pretending to cough more.

“Ah.. Sorry, looks like I forgot to give you a drink.” Rayn said as he stood up from his seat.

Rachel immediately shook her head, “D-do you.. usually.. provide.. water?” she asked while coughing.

Rayn smiled wryly, “If needed.” he replied as he walked towards the door, “I’ll get some water first. I hope when I get back, you have finished checking the contract.”

“Sure.. I’m sorry for troubling you,” Rachel said but the man didn’t answer. Rachel smiled as Rayn walked out of the small room and closed the door.

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