Chapter 14: It's All in the Details

Los Angeles, North Hollywood district.

In an unremarkable residential area, there is a commercial property where Arthur works and lives.

Arthur currently lives in a small room in the company's headquarters, which is about ten square meters in size. Inside, there is only a mattress, a chair, no table, and no private bathroom. If he needs to use the restroom, he has to go to the company's restroom. He can take a shower, but he has to use the public shower room. Fortunately, except for Arthur, no one else showers at the company, so the living conditions are tolerable.

Arthur, who hadn't completely adjusted to the time difference, woke up early. It was boring for him to stay in the room at four in the morning, so he started wandering around the company.

On the wall of the lobby, which also serves as a reception area, there is a golden crown logo, and below the crown logo is a line of text.

King's Defense Company.

That's the company's name, and below the name is a line of small text.

"Treat clients like kings."

The logo is eye-catching, and the slogan is catchy, but the company's office conditions and facilities are just average. There are only seven or eight rooms in total, totaling about three hundred square meters. The office furniture is simple and practical. Overall, the King's Defense Company doesn't look very wealthy.

Thinking about how Captain and the others can earn only tens of thousands or twenty thousand dollars by saving a hostage, Arthur realizes that their earning ability is not strong compared to the novels.

However, Arthur also knows that it's exaggerated for novels to talk about earning hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars easily, so a hundred thousand dollars is still a huge sum for him. The income level of Captain and the others is still the goal he needs to strive for.

After passing through the lobby, turning on the lights in the corridor, and passing two offices and a monitoring room, Arthur arrived at the gym.

Although it's called a gym, it's just a treadmill, a few pairs of dumbbells, a barbell, and a punching bag. Besides that, there's nothing else. But with less equipment, the gym looks quite spacious.

Arthur came to the gym to rearrange the things in the middle of the room, making space. After warming up with stretching and high kicks, he started a set of punches.

Although he's not a professional martial artist, Arthur has been practicing martial arts since he was a child. The characteristic of his movements is beautiful. The word to describe his style is "handsome"!

He has been practicing half an hour of boxing every morning for more than ten years. Unfortunately, there are no martial arts knives and sticks, so he can only practice boxing.

After finishing the boxing session, and taking a shower, Arthur returned to his room and started checking his phone. That's how his day started.

There are two phones next to his pillow. One is a Redmi Note 4 that Arthur has been using for two years. Normally, Sanchez doesn't recognize this brand. The other phone is the one Frank gave to Arthur.

It's a Samsung S8. Although it's a model from 2017, the phone still looks very new. Frank gave it to Arthur without much thought.

Arthur thought Captain gave it to him to reassure him. After all, there's evidence against him on this phone. But now that the video has been deleted, and Captain said the phone belongs to him, can he start using this phone now?

It's fake to say he's not tempted, but just as he's about to start using this phone, Arthur feels strange in his heart.

Perhaps for Captain and the others, killing a kidnapper or a drug dealer is just a matter of fact. But for Arthur, this is not only a big deal, but also a thorn in his heart.

If he uses this phone, what if it gets lost, stolen, or worse if the videos inside are recovered? That would be a disaster.

So, as good as the phone is, Arthur just feels he can't use it.

In the end, he picked up his old broken-screen phone and played with it for almost an hour before hearing someone come in from outside.

Putting away his phone, Arthur went outside and saw Frank.

It was not even seven o'clock yet, and Frank came early enough. Moreover, Frank is the boss after all, so Arthur respectfully said, "Good morning, Mr. Mori."

"Good morning, you're up early. Did you not sleep well last night?"

"I slept well, just used to waking up early."

Frank nodded, smiled, and said, "Come to my office."

Following Frank into the general manager's office, Frank placed a briefcase on the table, sat behind the desk, and gestured for Arthur to sit down. He said directly, "You can't live in the company all the time, but you can stay until you find a suitable place to move out. Today, you can start working. Let John familiarize you with the job and process. That's it. Do you have anything to say?"

Arthur hesitated for a moment, appearing somewhat hesitant.

Frank said in a relaxed tone, "Is there anything you're hesitant to say, Gao? We've only known each other for a short time, and we met in a very special place, so we're not very familiar yet. But it's okay. If there's anything you couldn't say before, or if there's anything difficult for you, you can tell me now. The worst result is that you might not be able to stay here to work comfortably. But if you hide something, then... it wouldn't be good."

Arthur sighed and then took out the Samsung phone from his pocket, saying softly, "Mr. Mori, was this phone given to me?"

Frank was taken aback for a moment, then smiled, "Of course, I said the phone is yours."

Arthur, very carefully, asked, "I just wanted to confirm, can I handle this phone however I want?"

"Uh, of course. Out of curiosity, how do you want to handle it?"

"I want to smash the phone and then burn it..."

Frank hesitated for a moment and then said, "Well, this phone cost me over eight hundred dollars, and I've only used it for less than a month. Why not just delete the video?"

"Deleted videos can still be recovered. I don't know how to ensure that they can't be recovered, so I think physically destroying it would be better..."

Arthur said somewhat embarrassedly. He felt that doing this would show a lack of trust, but Frank nodded and said, "That makes sense. Then go ahead and smash it. I said the phone is yours, so it's up to you to handle it."

Arthur smiled apologetically and said, "Do you have anything else? If not, I won't bother you."

"I'm fine. How do you plan to destroy the phone?"

"There are dumbbells in the gym, so I thought..."

"Let's go. I've never done something like smashing a phone, so I'll accompany you."

Arthur was a bit confused, but he still went to the gym, took a dumbbell, wrapped the phone in the cheapest T-shirt he could find, and smashed the phone to pieces on the lawn behind the company.

He wrapped it in clothes to avoid glass shards flying around and then threw the clothes with the crushed debris directly into the trash can. Arthur finally got rid of a burden in his heart.

Frank just watched for a moment and then returned to his office, while Arthur didn't have an office and couldn't wander around, so he had to return to his small room.

Arthur still didn't know what he was supposed to do. He could only wait for John to familiarize him with the work. The work started at nine, so he had to wait a while.

But before half past seven, John arrived, and Rubber and Joe almost followed and arrived at the company.

After the four of them gathered in Frank's office, Rubber, looking tired, said, "I found a Type 97 rifle, which is the same as Hua Xia's Type 95 rifle. There are AK rifles at the shooting range. These are enough to show his background. I've booked the shooting range for nine o'clock, so we can leave now."

Frank waved his hand and then whispered, "That kid smashed the phone I gave him, and destroyed it. I could see that he was reluctant to do it from the bottom of his heart, but he still did it."

John was astonished, "That's not like him. He's... thrifty."

Joe also exclaimed, "Why did he destroy the phone? Oh, I see, there's a video of you on it."

Frank whispered, "So he is very cautious, very careful. Honestly, few young people are as cautious as he is. At least at his age, I definitely wouldn't be like him."

John frowned, "It's good to be cautious, it won't bring us trouble."

Frank nodded and then said very seriously, "I asked him if there was anything he needed to tell me, but he didn't say anything, so we must determine whether he has military experience. If he does, then he is hiding something from us, he doesn't trust us. I like smart people, but I don't like someone who is too scheming and hostile towards us."

"If he has never shot a gun before?" John looked puzzled, shrugged subconsciously, and said, "What if he's a shooting genius?"

"If he is a genius, then what else is there to say? Ambitious but not greedy, brave but not reckless, smart but very cautious, and also a shooting genius. Why wouldn't we want to recruit such a talent? Do you think I just want him to be a translator?"

After saying this with a very disdainful tone to John, Frank waved his hand and said, "Let's go, take him to shoot rifles. We'll all go and observe to see if he is hiding something or if he is truly a genius."