Chapter 283 - 281: There Is a Mole

The crowd was packed shoulder to shoulder, forming an impenetrable wall. The chaotic shouting mixed with the flashing lights of raised smartphones broadcasting the scene live.

Yang Xun tried to squeeze through twice, but both times he was shoved back by a middle-aged woman brandishing a protest sign. Giving up on forcing his way in, he turned around and briskly walked along the exterior wall of the company building to reach the back.

The back alley was much quieter, but there was no entrance at all. Yang Xun glanced up. The lights were still on in the seventh-floor window, and the windowsill had a narrow ledge that would be perfect for leverage. Without overthinking it, he took two steps back for a running start, kicked off the wall, and scaled the exterior like a gecko.

"With the physique of the Sixth Layer of the Qi Refining Realm, climbing a building is a piece of cake," Yang Xun muttered to himself.

Using both his hands and feet, he braced himself between the windowsills and the drainpipe. In less than a minute, he reached the edge of the seventh-floor window. Poking his head up to look inside, he saw Xu Yue facing away from the window. Her hands were braced on her desk and her shoulders were slightly slumped, as if she were crying.

Yang Xun immediately grew anxious and rapped on the glass.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

Xu Yue trembled from head to toe and whipped her head around. Her beautiful eyes widened the moment she saw the familiar face outside her window. Her mouth fell open slightly, taking several seconds to process what she was seeing. Once she realized who it was, she rushed over, frantically shoved the window open, and grabbed Yang Xun’s arm to haul him inside.

"Are you crazy?! This is the seventh floor!" Xu Yue’s voice shook with irrepressible fear.

Supporting himself on the windowsill, Yang Xun vaulted nimbly into the room. Only when his feet planted firmly on the floor did Xu Yue finally breathe a sigh of relief. Her legs instantly gave out, and she leaned weakly against the wall, her chest heaving violently.

"How did you get up here?"

"I climbed, of course," Yang Xun said, brushing the wall dust off his cuffs with a casual, ’no big deal’ smile. "There were too many people downstairs, and I couldn’t squeeze through. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to handle it alone, so I took a shortcut."

Xu Yue stared at him blankly. Her lips parted, and she suddenly reached out to punch him lightly in the chest. "Do you have a death wish? What if you fell?"

"My wife is in here. I had to get inside somehow." Yang Xun caught her hand, his tone losing some of its teasing edge. "Are those people downstairs here because of the new product? What exactly happened?"

Xu Yue’s eyes reddened for a fraction of a second, but she forced the tears back. Turning to her desk, she picked up a document and handed it to him. "The health department came this morning for a surprise inspection. They confiscated all the products, claiming someone reported that they contained illegal additives.

"I’ve reviewed it carefully. The data the informant provided is extremely detailed. They even explicitly listed the parameters of a specific step in our manufacturing process. Only core members of the R&D department have authorization to access this information."

Yang Xun took the document and flipped through a few pages, his gaze darkening. He knew exactly what the so-called ’bioactive ingredients’ added to the new product were—to put it bluntly, it was his tadpoles. But he knew his own body better than anyone; there was absolutely no way anything was wrong with it.

"How many times did you test it?"

"Three blind tests and five small-scale trials. We’ve been testing and inspecting it relentlessly, and none of the employees or volunteers who participated showed any adverse reactions," Xu Yue said, her voice filled with both certainty and exhaustion. "I can guarantee the safety of the product, but the health department’s test report hasn’t been released yet.

"Those people outside don’t care about any of that. They only know that someone on the internet claimed our products are toxic."

Yang Xun pondered for a moment before looking up at her. "Who is the informant? Can we find out?"

Xu Yue shook her head. "It was an anonymous tip, and the health department won’t disclose their identity. But I suspect it was a competitor, and it’s highly likely we have a mole inside the company.

"The data on the new product was far too detailed," she added, her voice dropping lower. "They even wrote down the batch number of a specific excipient in our formula. Only the people in the R&D department who handled it would know such things. Plus, they acted far too fast. The product had only been on the shelves for two days before the report was filed."

"Don’t worry. I’ll help you solve this." Yang Xun tossed the document onto the desk, pulled out his phone, and dialed Zhou Yuan’s number. "Young Master Zhou, I need you to look into something for me."

"Xun, just say the word. No need to be polite with me," Zhou Yuan replied heartily.

Ever since their trip to Shunping, Zhou Yuan had been calling him ’Xun.’ He knew that Yang Xun not only possessed the ability to heal illnesses but also understood the supernatural. His father had explicitly warned him to maintain good relations with someone this capable. If the Zhou Family ever faced a crisis, a casual helping hand from Yang Xun might be enough to bring them back from the brink of death.

"The Xu Family Company launched a new product, but it was reported the moment it hit the shelves. Help me investigate who filed the report, and find out if any under-the-table deals were made."

"Understood." Zhou Yuan readily agreed.

After hanging up, Yang Xun looked at Xu Yue. "The company should have surveillance cameras, right? Let’s check the access logs for the R&D department."

Xu Yue’s eyes lit up. She had clearly been too overwhelmed earlier to even think of looking in that direction. Quickly walking over to her computer, she pulled up the backend system. "The R&D department’s access control requires dual authentication—a swipe card and a password. Every entry and exit is logged."

The two of them leaned in close to the screen, scrubbing through the access logs and corridor surveillance footage from the past three days frame by frame. The records from the first two days were completely normal, with the R&D staff entering and exiting within regular working hours. But when Xu Yue scrolled to last night’s logs, her fingers abruptly stopped.

On the screen, a figure wearing a black hoodie appeared in the surveillance footage outside the R&D department. The hood was pulled down low, obscuring their face. However, that walking posture and slightly hunched figure were all too familiar to both Xu Yue and Yang Xun.

"Xu Feifan," Yang Xun spat out the name, a chilling edge in his voice.

Xu Yue’s expression instantly turned grim. She zoomed in on the footage. In the video, Xu Feifan stood at the door for a dozen seconds, seemingly entering the password, before pushing the door open and walking inside. Roughly twenty minutes later, he reappeared in the frame. Now clutching a file folder, he quickly left the area.

"How could he know the R&D department’s password? I never told him," Xu Yue said, her voice trembling slightly.

"If he wanted to steal it, he’d always find a way." Yang Xun’s voice was calm, but his gaze had darkened considerably. "How much of his living allowance did you cut?"

"I halved it starting last month." Xu Yue bit her lip. "He came and threw a fit about it a few times, but I refused to restore it. Those shady friends of his blow through money way too fast. I couldn’t let him keep squandering it like that."

"Then it all adds up," Yang Xun said, standing up. "He was strapped for cash and resented you for cutting him off. Someone offered him an opportunity, and he took it without a second thought."