Chapter 35: The Amnesiac Zhu Zhaojie

Chapter 35: The Amnesiac Zhu Zhaojie

Gu Kunling’s Gu Kun Investment Company was in the heart of Zhongguan Village, not in the Gu Building—closer, in fact, to the Du Group tower. Lanqi Garden was technically part of the Zhongguan Village district, but its fame had long since eclipsed the neighborhood itself.

The Gu Kun Investment Company was still in its start-up phase. I did not have much to do, and I was an outsider to the field anyway. Mostly I sat in on meetings with Gu Kunling, listened to management reports, weighed in on proposals, and handled other odds and ends. My daily work meant approving financial reports and financial statements. Probably because when I brought down the Zhuo Group, I had started with its finances.

I hadn’t expected Gu Kunling to bring Zhu Xinyuan along. I didn’t care for him—sycophant—and back when I’d started at Kunyue, he’d been my superior. Still, Zhu Xinyuan was competent. Quick to pick things up. He wouldn’t have made department manager otherwise.

His business development numbers were solid, partly because he knew how to deploy people. At the new company, he also ran HR. Hiring fell to him.

Gu Kunling had wanted me to handle it. She knew I had abilities—no one could read people the way I could. But I wasn’t interested. We weren’t recruiting fighters. No need to be that rigorous. I rarely sat in on interviews.

About three months after the company opened, I’d just reached my office when I heard raised voices from HR. I wasn’t going to get involved, but the voice was familiar.

Since gaining electromagnetic sensing, my hearing had sharpened. Even faint sounds from far off reached me clearly. I walked toward HR.

Inside, Zhu Xinyuan was dressing down an applicant. Several recruitment reviewers stood nearby.

The applicant looked like a scolded child, head slightly lowered, voice soft but insistent. She’d placed first in both the written test and the interview, she said. She only wanted to know why they wouldn’t hire her.

I walked up to her and glanced over.

I was stunned.

Zhu Zhaojie?

Zhu Zhaojie looked at me. Her eyes were completely unfamiliar.

I knew instantly something was wrong.

I observed her through same-frequency sensing. Her cognition of me was genuinely unfamiliar. I took her application. The name read: Zhu Jie.

Zhu Jie. Zhu Zhaojie?

My first thought: clone, or bionic. But when I saw the small black mole below her jaw near her neck, I was certain. This was Zhu Zhaojie.

A clone or bionic human couldn’t have reproduced a detail like that.

I stared at her. “Do you know me?”

She looked at me, innocent, and shook her head. “No. And you are?”

Zhu Xinyuan pointed at me. “This is our vice president, Mr. Gu Beichen.”

She said timidly, “Oh. Hello, Vice President Gu. I just want to understand—I scored first on both tests, but I wasn’t hired. Before this, I applied to more than a dozen companies. None of them took me either. My results were good. I really want to know why.”

I turned to Zhu Xinyuan. He smiled apologetically, tugged my sleeve, and gestured toward the back room.

I followed him in. He pointed at the back of his own neck and said quietly, “Vice President Gu, she has installation marks here. We don’t dare hire her.”

A Wisdom Capsule.

Of course Zhu Zhaojie had one installed. She was a Sweeper operative in the Information Department. But for ordinary people, that was a serious crime. No wonder companies wouldn’t touch her.

I nodded. “Understood. I’ll handle it.”

I walked back out. “You. Come with me.”

Zhu Zhaojie followed me to my office.

I had her sit on the sofa. I sat across from her.

She looked uncomfortable, half-standing. I insisted she sit. She did.

I poured her hot tea, poured one for myself. I wanted to talk slowly.

I hadn’t seen her in so long. I was glad.

This was too much of a coincidence, though. Had the Sweepers sent her? Did it matter? I knew her background. What was there to fear? I asked softly, “Did the Sweepers send you?”

She looked at…