Chapter 74: What Kind of Pervert?

Chapter 74 What Kind of Psychopath Is This?

"If we look beyond the bankruptcy and the murder case,"

"the ruthless businessman's actions actually follow a clear logic."

"'Almost ready for harvest'—considering this statement, doesn't everything he did before seem like quality inspection?"

Sheng Qingquan's thoughts came pouring out one after another. Those who had been unclear about what he had realized now suddenly understood.

"Earlier, it was mentioned that the Yuan family's scissors were relatively expensive. Generally, expensive often means high quality."

"The scissors from the Yuan family factory might have been exceptionally good, which was exactly what the ruthless businessman was targeting."

The staff couldn't help but nod in agreement, especially since Yuan Xuefei herself had stated—and their investigations confirmed—that the scissors from the Yuan family factory lived up to their price tag. The high-end products, in particular, were among the best in the industry.

"The ruthless businessman sneaked into the factory, likely to check for himself whether the Yuan family's reputation was deserved."

"Did their scissors meet his standards?"

"After confirming that the products were genuinely excellent, of outstanding quality, and met his requirements for scissors, the ruthless businessman trusted Yuan-made scissors for his judgment."

"Think of a fine garment—besides the cut and design, you need top-notch fabric. And good fabric requires good raw materials."

"Fine cotton cloth needs fine cotton, and fine silk requires high-quality silk threads. As a merchant, the ruthless businessman had to make sure his product quality was up to snuff."

"This meant guaranteeing that the hair used as raw material was up to snuff."

"By observing barbers who purchased Yuan family scissors and noting when their scissors started wearing out, the ruthless businessman determined the best time to harvest.

"Harvest too soon, though, and the hair hadn’t reached the desired state."

To command a high price, the product's quality had to be impeccable—preferably outstanding.

Moreover, as previously mentioned, this hair would be woven into fabric. Flimsy fabric wouldn’t cut it.

Especially since—who knew how tough these guys were? If they were all exceptionally powerful, the fabric's durability would need to be even higher.

The logic made sense—provided the hair wasn't obtained through exploitation!

The thought that this person not only freeloaded but also coldly inspected the "wool" they had forcibly taken made everyone's expressions grow even grimmer.

"This wasn’t some disgruntled worker seeking revenge after losing their job."

"Beyond the hair's hardness—enough to notch scissors—it also needed sufficient flexibility to meet certain requirements."

"So he couldn’t be bothered to find someone else. Instead, posing as an employee, he went straight to Yuan Xuefei. Using her own hair, he strangled her. The fact that the hair remained intact after killing her naturally proved its excellent toughness."

"He didn’t kill for revenge or for some twisted pleasure. His actions were just another quality check—no different than checking whether cotton on a branch or a silkworm’s cocoon has reached harvesting standards."

Wasn’t that way worse?

That totally emotionless gaze, treating people like they were just objects—wasn’t that worse than a psychopath?!

To think she had died for such an absurd reason. Yuan Xuefei, who had been strangled, instinctively reached up to touch her neck.

Even though nothing was wrong now, she still felt a suffocating sensation.

Like a fish out of water, Yuan Xuefei gasped for air, trying to breathe properly. But she still couldn’t catch her breath.

If it weren’t for the quick reflexes of the medical staff nearby, who promptly handed Yuan Xuefei a portable oxygen canister, she might’ve passed out right then.

Fortunately, with ample oxygen—whether it actually worked or was mostly placebo—after taking several deep breaths, Yuan Xuefei finally recovered.

"He didn’t just kill Yuan Xuefei. To ensure it wasn’t an isolated case, Li Yusheng used the same method to kill a bunch of people nationwide."

"All over the place, people died from being strangled by hair. Those already terrified by the hair’s abnormality grew even more fearful. Many horror stories even emerged, claiming it wasn’t humans killing humans, but hair demons out for blood, curses, or other supernatural forces at work."

"It freaked everyone the hell out."

"Holy crap, and that’s not even the nastiest bit!"

Sheng Qingquan stared in disbelief at the plot in the book. Clearly, one should never have even the slightest expectation of a black-hearted merchant’s moral bottom.

Hearing this, the others also got a sinking feeling.

What else did that guy do? How messed up must it be to make Sheng Qingquan exclaim like that?

"He even recorded these murders!"

Though undeniably outrageous, given that the perpetrator was already a villain, recording it wasn’t that big a deal. A well-informed staff member raised an eyebrow, sensing there was more to it.

After all, many human criminals also had similar habits—not satisfied with just killing, they’d film their crimes to relive later.

The staff member even recalled a case where the culprit couldn’t get it up unless he watched such videos beforehand. He was eventually exposed when his partner, horrified, reported him to the police. Upon investigation, it turned out the videos weren’t downloaded—they were his own recordings.

Now that’s next-level sick.

"The shady merchant playing dress-up edited these murder videos together and used them as product advertisements. He didn’t openly promote them but sent them to all potential customers. Whenever someone questioned the product’s quality, he’d show them this ad—living proof the product was bulletproof."

"Ahhhh, what kind of psycho is this?!"

"The one who made it is a psycho, and the ones who appreciated it and were convinced by the ad are psychos too!"

"Even if the text mentions he sold it on the black market—most folks on the black market aren’t choirboys—it’s still disgusting!"

"Psycho! Psycho!"

Sheng Qingquan was hopping mad.

This description fully confirmed his suspicions.

The employee named Li Yusheng was indeed the shady merchant playing dress-up.

"Besides the murder ads, the shady merchant also provided quick vids of scissors cutting hair—where the hair remained intact, but the scissors got chipped—doubling down on how tough his product was."

One detail that differed from Sheng Qingquan’s guess:

"Li Yusheng snuck into the Yuan factory not just for the quality of their scissors. No scissors on Tianlanxing were up to snuff. He entered the factory to tamper with the scissors before they left production, making them more suitable for the tests."

["‘These scissors are made from ultra-hard Qianjun alloy. Even then, when cutting hair, the blades still chip. Imagine how hard the hair must be.’"]

["‘Clothing made from such hair for children wouldn’t just nourish their bodies and aid their growth—it would also serve as their first armor, offering protection.’"] The shady merchant talked a good game. Combined with the already tight supply in the market, even at several times the normal price, plenty still coughed up the cash.

Yuan Xuefei, who’d been half-dead a second ago, suddenly sat bolt upright.

"No wonder the story screwed me over with bankruptcy. Whether the scissors were faulty could’ve been tested then and there. If not hair, just snip paper or string—or hell, even a damn steel wire!"

Yuan Xuefei ran a tight ship at her factory, ensuring consistently high product standards.

"Someone must’ve messed with it."

"That so-called 'Qianjun Alloy' they’re pushing claims to have high hardness, but if he could mass-produce it and use the factory's channels to 'freely' distribute it to barbers, clearly meant to be used once and tossed, it couldn’t have been anything good."

"The alloy must’ve been junk—flaws so bad it wasn’t worth recycling. That’s why the unscrupulous merchant found recycling less cost-effective than outright disposal."

Yuan Xuefei’s face twisted in anger as she talked.

But they had bigger fish to fry right now. Besides, the incident hadn’t even happened yet.

"The most important thing is, now that we’ve confirmed the unscrupulous merchant’s identity and know he’ll disguise himself as Li Yusheng to apply for a job at the Yuan family factory, why not just set a trap and wait for him?"

Sheng Qingquan had been worried that the unscrupulous merchant might remain outside Tianlanxing, never truly setting foot on the planet. If he stayed hidden, there’d be no way to track him down.

Fortunately, the guy practically handed himself to them on a silver platter.

"We’ve got people staking out the place." Additionally, with Yuan Xuefei’s permission, the factory workers had been temporarily replaced. While they were sent on a group vacation, pros went undercover as regular workers.

As for hiring new staff, no additional recruitment was necessary since the Yuan family factory was always accepting workers. The grunt work had a revolving door of hires—people frequently quit, and new hires came in just as often.

Barring any surprises, that’s how Li Yusheng slipped in.

Moreover, the victims mentioned in the text were also under protection. This was to prevent Li Yusheng from suddenly changing his approach—skipping the factory infiltration and cutting straight to the killing, or reversing the order.

Otherwise, more people could end up dead.

"Now we just need to figure out how to take him out."

This was also what the staff urgently needed to know.

Setting aside the fact that his actions in the plot were utterly intolerable, just him being alive was a liability—if Tianlanxing’s coordinates were leaked, the fallout would be a nightmare.

They had to squash this threat before it blew up.

Some might argue that as a merchant, Li Yusheng would keep the coordinates secret to monopolize the benefits, preventing others from taking a share.

But when greater profits were at stake, what shady deal wouldn’t he take? Especially one like Li Yusheng, who clearly had no morals or bottom line.

Trusting your safety to someone else? That’s a losing bet.

Sheng Qingquan was digging hard for dirt on the guy.

But unlike before, no matter how hard he combed through it—analyzing every word, scrutinizing every sentence—he couldn’t find any relevant clues this time.

The author didn’t even drop a clue.

That didn’t add up.

Though the author’s writing was mediocre, with erratic perspective shifts, disjointed plotlines, and overpriced—if it ever hit shelves, it’d bomb hard—even he could tell the writer was clearly on Tianlanxing’s side.

They’d been feeding them intel all along. No way they’d clam up now.

Or is it that the unscrupulous merchant is already so powerful that he's invulnerable, and the author simply couldn't find a way to defeat him?

This had Sheng Qingquan worried sick.

Faced with the unknown, the authorities felt they still seemed underprepared no matter how much they tried.

Yet, despite the anxiety, D-day arrived anyway.

"You're Li Yusheng, here to interview for the quality inspector position, right?" The interviewer asked with a smile.

After receiving a positive response, her smile grew wider. She nodded at the jittery young guy across from her, who seemed quite uncomfortable. "Alright, why don't you take a seat while I go over your resume."

"Why don't you relax a bit first," the interviewer gestured. Then she poured him a glass of water before returning to her seat to carefully examine the resume.

The young man was clueless she was buying time.

He had researched how human hiring works, and this was indeed the standard procedure.

Until he got this weird feeling he'd been hit. But when he looked around nervously, there didn’t seem to be any danger.

Was it just his unfamiliarity with appearing in his real body on Tianlanxing making him overly nervous and paranoid?

"Is something wrong?" Noticing his unease, the interviewer looked up and asked curiously. "Getting antsy? There’s an introductory booklet about our factory on the table. Feel free to pore over it—it’ll help kill some time and give you a better understanding of Yuan’s Scissors."

"After all, assuming everything checks out, you’ll be working here soon."

"Oh, right, right." Distracted by her words, the young man immediately grabbed the booklet and began poring over it earnestly.

"Confirmed, Ingredient Transformation Spell ineffective!"

"A 1% success rate really isn’t enough."

Sheng Qingquan, who had risked attacking the young man, pulled back, frustrated.

Just as everyone was considering whether to go in guns blazing, the young man seemed to find sitting idly and flipping through the booklet a bit dull.

The water poured by the interviewer sat there untouched—that'd be rude.

After all, he still needed her approval to get hired.

With that in mind, the young man grabbed the water and took a couple of sips.

Then, Sheng Qingquan watched as the man slumped out of the chair.

The chair flipped over from the motion, crashing down on him with a dull thud—the sound of wood hitting flesh.

It sounded painful, yet he was out cold.

Sheng Qingquan stared blankly at the armed soldiers lying in ambush, chomping at the bit with their high-tech weapons.

"But we didn't even lift a finger."

"Is this… a con job?"