“Deherim has already sent a negotiating team, Yang Di, what should we do next?” Zhang Song and several other department heads had already approached Yang Di.
“It doesn’t matter. When the car reaches the mountain, there will be a way; when the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally straighten. Since they are here, let’s see what happens.”
Yang Di, on the other hand, looked calm, sitting in his chair, looking at the bright sky outside the window, and even had the mood to make a joke: “We can’t just ignore them, can we?”
The joke was a bit awkward.
But it still brought faint smiles to the faces of Zhang Song and the other department heads.
The atmosphere calmed down.
The key was that they all knew that the person coming for this negotiation was Zhang Bo, leading the team himself.
He was also the chief person in charge of this negotiation.
So what was there to worry about?
Zhang Bo was one of their own; he was sent by them to infiltrate Deherim.
Now, becoming the chief person in charge of this negotiation was truly beyond their expectations. When Zhang Bo sent his Spiritual Realm Follower, those little monsters, to deliver messages to them, they were quite surprised.
However, after the surprise, they also felt relieved.
After all, if their own spy became the chief person in charge of the negotiation, he couldn’t possibly set conditions that were too difficult for them to accept, could he?
This was not a matter of trust between the two parties.
Rather, if they were provoked to anger and exposed Zhang Bo’s identity as a spy, then Zhang Bo would certainly suffer even more severe punishment.
One must know that although enemies are hateful,
the most deserving of death are the spies sent by the enemy to their side.
If they really told Deherim that Zhang Bo was a spy, whether Zhang Bo could survive was truly a question mark.
So, they held Zhang Bo’s leverage.
This was why they were very relaxed about the upcoming negotiations.
“But Yang Di, and Department Head Zhang Song, I still feel strange.” At this moment, another department head frowned and said, “Can we really trust Zhang Bo? You know, we suffered such heavy losses in Deherim before because we completely trusted Zhang Bo.”
Hearing him say this, the other department heads also frowned slightly, and the smiles on their faces disappeared.
But no one spoke, all looking at Yang Di and Zhang Song.
Their gazes also carried a hint of scrutiny.
Apparently, they also believed that although Zhang Bo was a spy sent by them, after the disastrous defeat in the Deherim Castle District, he was no longer as trustworthy as before.
“I understand what you mean, but if we don’t trust Zhang Bo now, who else can we trust?” Yang Di smiled bitterly, neither confirming nor denying their words.
But as he said, at this point, if they didn’t trust Zhang Bo, then who else could they trust?
In this conference room, everyone fell silent.
“Yang Di, what did the Wood Elf Plane say?” Another department head slowly asked.
“I don’t know.”
But Yang Di answered very directly: “I can no longer use Plane Descent to go to the Wood Elf Plane. They have closed the Plane Descent authority. I simply cannot enter the Wood Elf Plane anymore.” As he spoke, his face darkened: “To be precise, the Wood Elf Plane has already abandoned us.”
Everyone in the room’s expressions also changed from a slight smile to calmness, and finally to a grim blankness.
They all understood that this was indeed an act of abandonment.
They didn’t even want to see them anymore.
Was there anything else to say?
“These Wood Elves are indeed too snobbish.” A department head slowly gritted his teeth and said, “When they need people, they come forward; when they don’t, they turn their backs.”
“Isn’t that normal? Those Wood Elves were originally quite arrogant.” Another department head snorted coldly: “They never even considered us. Even the Wood Elves they sent over were no different; they looked down on us behind our backs, only expressing appropriate obedience, not true submission.”
Immediately, the other department heads in the conference room also snorted coldly, with humiliation and anger in their eyes.
Clearly, before, the Wood Elves under their command had also given them some awkward moments.
“Alright, talking about these things is useless now. Anyway, we are all going to surrender to Deherim. Since the Wood Elf Plane doesn’t want to see us, it doesn’t matter.” Yang Di appeared very calm at this moment: “Anyway, when our Spiritual Power accumulates a lot, they will naturally see us, because the Spiritual Power that is useless to us is crucial help for them to barely survive.”
“Yes, the Wood Elf Plane will definitely send people to contact us again when they see that we haven’t been destroyed. As long as the amount of our Spiritual Power accumulated is enough, they will be like hungry dogs and will always contact us.” Zhang Song also snorted and nodded beside him, with some anger in his eyes.
He was still relatively young, and even as the former deputy director and current director of the external relations department, he found it difficult to tolerate the actions of those Wood Elves.
However, Zhang Song also spoke at this time: “According to the message from Zhang Bo, Deherim highly recognizes the archery skills of us Wood Elf Followers. As long as we can obtain more Spiritual Power from Deherim, we can give them the illusion that we haven’t fallen out with the Wood Elf Plane and can still maintain good contact with the Wood Elf Plane, obtaining a large number of Wood Elves to come over. Then, by surrendering and becoming Deherim’s vassals, we can provide them with many Wood Elf archers.”
“Hmm, Zhang Bo’s meaning is also like this, and in Zhang Bo’s letter, he also told us to negotiate according to this idea, so that he will also give us a relatively reasonable condition in the bargaining, and even provide us with some reconstruction support.” Yang Di nodded.
“Then this is indeed good.” Everyone nodded, this was indeed a good idea.
“Let’s do it this way.” Yang Di chatted with these department heads again, finalizing some details, and then let them go about their respective tasks.
These department heads left.
Only Zhang Song and Yang Di remained in the room.
“Yang Di, did you ask me to stay for something?” Zhang Song understood that Yang Di must have something in mind by asking him to stay.
“Can we still trust Zhang Bo?” Yang Di suddenly asked this question at this moment.
Zhang Song was silent.
For a moment, he didn't answer directly.
He merely pursed his lips, which trembled slightly, wanting to say something but not knowing what, appearing very hesitant.
But precisely because Zhang Song didn't speak, Yang Di already knew what he wanted to say.
Yang Di leaned back in his chair and said dejectedly, "Yes, my thoughts are the same as yours. Now I'm also very suspicious of Zhang Bo."
Zhang Song still said nothing. His eyes were very complex at this moment, but they also carried a deep sense of doubt.
And Yang Di also voiced his doubts, just as they had discussed before: "Zhang Bo is truly in his element in Deherim right now. His previous grand plan caused us extremely heavy losses, but it ended up becoming a crucial way for him to gain Shen Mu's trust."
"After all, you saw it, Zhang Bo said in his letter that because of that grand plan, he gained Shen Mu's trust and became the third Vice Supervisor-level existence in Deherim, and he's also the head of the negotiation team. That's a position of great power and influence."
"The key is that he climbed to that position by stepping on our heavy losses, almost at the cost of our entire army being wiped out."
"How can we trust Zhang Bo now?"
Yang Di spoke slowly.
But Zhang Song, next to him, still pursed his lips expressionlessly, saying nothing, only the anger in his eyes grew stronger, and his hands clenched tighter.
He was truly furious.
Because every time Yang Di brought up this topic and discussed it with him, his suspicion of Zhang Bo grew heavier.
Every one of their actions was based on the details of the grand plan Zhang Bo had conveyed, but precisely because of this, they found that every tactical preparation made according to those details was anticipated by Shen Mu's human forces in Deherim.
Every time they made a move, human forces would appear in front of them.
Every time they wanted to launch an attack, human forces would also appear in front of them.
Ultimately, this prevented their tactics from being fully deployed, and even after they emerged from the library in the Castle District, surrounded by walls and the main castle building on all sides, they were trapped like turtles in a jar, becoming live targets in the open outer and inner courtyards, only able to be shot to death.
This seemed premeditated, causing their forces to suffer heavy losses in that open environment.
Looking at it now, they suffered heavy losses, almost their entire army wiped out.
Green Leaf Group was also in peril.
Yet Zhang Bo was getting promoted and raising his salary, reaching the pinnacle of his life.
Does this make sense?
If there was no trickery involved, then the word 'trickery' wouldn't exist.
It's not that they doubted Zhang Bo, but rather that all the current results pointed to Zhang Bo possibly selling out their Green Leaf Group when the grand plan was being carried out.
Yes, a spy indeed had leverage in their hands, but if they offered this leverage to Deherim themselves, then Deherim would instead believe that this person sincerely wanted to defect to them, making him a double agent, ultimately leading to the demise and destruction of Green Leaf Group.
Looking at it now, isn't that exactly what's happening?
The reason they hadn't completely doubted Zhang Bo was because Zhang Bo still had a previous impression in their minds; they were certain that Zhang Bo was a very grateful person at that time.
But after experiencing the influence of the indifferent environment, they didn't know if Zhang Bo's heart had twisted or changed.
Or perhaps, when Zhang Bo desired more, would he use them as stepping stones?
They dared not gamble.
This was also why Yang Di kept Zhang Song here for a private conversation.
The two of them were people who trusted each other immensely.
Within the entire Green Leaf Group, there were no two people they trusted more.
Even more so than the department managers.
True trust only existed between Yang Di, a middle-aged man in his 40s, and Zhang Song, a young man in his 20s.
After all, Zhang Song was a young man he had personally nurtured since he was 10 years old, pouring a lot of effort into him, and giving him full support in both his studies and career. Even before the apocalypse arrived, he had already recruited him as a management assessment talent, and even publicly stated that he was grooming Zhang Song to be a professional manager.
Not to mention, Zhang Song was a young man he sponsored from an orphanage, essentially taking on the role of Zhang Song's father in his youth.
Therefore, both personally and professionally, they shared a relationship of deep mutual trust.
Of course, Zhang Bo was also involved in this.
But now, as Zhang Bo's ambitions grew, Yang Di truly didn't know what to do.
In fact, Zhang Song also didn't know what to do, as Deherim had already successfully destroyed 80% of their Green Leaf Group's combat power, and the remaining 20% were all old, weak, and sick individuals with no combat capability.
Now they could no longer resist Deherim, nor could they stop Deherim's rise.
"General Yang, we can only do as Zhang Bo says now."
Zhang Song gave a bitter smile and slowly said, "Now, besides doing as Zhang Bo says, what other ability do we have to resist? After all, I don't want Green Leaf Group to be like a company that perishes in the annals of history, becoming a pile of useless ruins, or even having their original stronghold become the site of Deherim's newly built castle. If that were the case, I really couldn't accept it."
"Yes, that's indeed the case." Yang Di also reached out and pinched his brow, lying in his chair, and said with a very tired tone, "I hope Zhang Bo's negotiation this time can give me a more dignified exit opportunity."
And as he said this, Yang Di's expression suddenly became very serious, and his tone carried a hint of determination: "If Zhang Bo doesn't give me this opportunity, if he has truly betrayed us and wants to step on me and my Green Leaf Group to reach a higher position, then I will also let him know how powerful the absolute foundation and trump card I gained in the Wood Elf Plane after becoming a Spiritual Realm Lord truly are!"
"I will always support you, General Yang." Hearing this, Zhang Song also lowered his head with a solemn expression, showing absolute obedience.
