Over the next ten days or so, Hong Fei and Tony grew increasingly familiar with each other. It was easy to tell that Tony's wariness was rapidly dissipating, largely because Hong Fei was being beaten by Frank, either openly or covertly, every day.
Master Hong's bitter-meat stratagem was quite effective.
Furthermore, Frank brought in the materials Tony needed one by one. Tony had remodeled the secret room to be exceptionally bright and even installed an air conditioner.
Hong Fei also became busy.
Of course, his main work was physical; Tony was often sitting by the newly built workbench, bossing him around.
"Hey, hey, put that thing on the left. Right. Wait, don't move that, put it back where it was. Very good..."
Usually, during these times, he would cross his legs and make some snide remarks: "Don't blame me for being heartless. We are very short on time. Although you are injured, my injury is more serious than yours. My chest has been cut open, leaving a huge hole. Besides, compared to this little bit of hardship, life is definitely more important, isn't it?"
Hong Fei accepted his instructions with a smile, never refusing, though his mental notebook was already filled page after page.
The materials Tony needed this time included a bunch of strange things, such as the crate of bullets Hong Fei was currently carrying. Tony's explanation to Frank was that he needed to extract substances from them to manufacture Jericho missiles. He talked endlessly about bullets and missiles, and at first glance, it really sounded like he knew what he was talking about.
Frank didn't believe it.
Hong Fei believed it even less.
He stopped Frank, who was ready to unload a magazine into Tony. For the sake of the Arc Reactor, he decided to just let it slide. Anyway, he had left many countermeasures against Tony, so he wasn't afraid of him using the bullets to cause trouble.
A more important consideration was that since the other plot character, Ethan, was missing, Hong Fei didn't know if there would be any accidents, so he did his best to satisfy Tony's requirements.
As time passed, once the secret room was set up and all the materials had arrived, Tony joined in the busy work. He often worked at his desk, forgetting himself, not even bothering to eat or sleep.
Obviously, such hard work was invisible to others; they only knew that Tony spent his days in debauchery, as if all his achievements fell from the sky.
During this period, Frank gradually reduced the number of times he appeared, and in his place came five new guys.
After changing clothes, they appeared in groups of three or five, threatening Tony and Hong Fei with physical force and weapons, which obviously made Tony feel more anxious about his situation.
Efficiency naturally improved without them realizing it.
Frank's original plan was to confiscate all of Tony's drafts, but Hong Fei rejected this proposal. Confiscating the drafts would only make Tony more wary, and it was unlikely Tony would write down the key information anyway.
Hong Fei would occasionally ask questions like an illiterate person, and the things Tony would blurt out as if showing off were all noted down by him. Among these were some key pieces of information, which were very important.
Finally, on the thirteenth day after Hong Fei entered the secret room, Tony started up a circular device with his own hands, and the secret room suddenly lit up with a cold, pale blue glow.
Hong Fei said, "It looks so beautiful."
Tony immediately rolled his eyes. "This is an energy reactor. I have a big one at home used to power the entire building. It can replace that damn magnet on my chest."
"Power supply? Does it have a lot of power?"
"Three billion joules per second, enough for me to use for thousands of years. However, if it were used elsewhere, it might only last for a dozen minutes or so."
Hong Fei nodded blankly, feeling a pang of heartache inside.
The list Tony provided included a batch of missiles produced by Stark Industries. Hong Fei was well aware that all Tony needed was palladium, but since Tony wouldn't say it, Hong Fei had to buy accordingly.
Thus, he personally dismantled missiles worth millions of dollars, just for the 0.5 grams of palladium in each missile.
This money had to be paid by Tony himself!
That night, Tony was taken out of the secret room for interrogation. After all, it had been nearly half a month, and he hadn't even hammered out the casing of a Jericho missile. Although Hong Fei didn't actually want a Jericho missile, he still had to keep up appearances.
Taking this opportunity, Hong Fei met with Frank again.
"Did you get the missile data?"
Frank shook his head. "He did give it to me, but I don't know if it's real or fake."
This is the downside of being uneducated.
"It doesn't matter; that wasn't important anyway. Now, you should make him hand over the data for that thing on his chest."
Frank paused, his eyes shifting again. "Is this your real goal?"
Hong Fei nodded. "Correct. Don't underestimate that thing; the Jericho missile is worthless compared to it. However, Tony won't hand it over willingly, so you need to..."
The two conspired for a long time.
The door to the interrogation room was suddenly kicked open, and Frank walked in aggressively. Tony, tied to the chair, couldn't help but shrink his neck.
Ignoring everyone else, Frank sat on the table, his gaze falling undisguisedly onto the glowing reactor on Tony's chest.
Tony immediately felt something was wrong.
Frank reached out and tapped the shell of the reactor, saying with a fake smile: "Now, we can make an additional deal."
Tony remained silent, and Frank continued on his own: "Hand over the data for this little thing, and I can let your little secretary go."
Tony's eyes widened, and his gaze turned fierce. He struggled violently and roared, "What did you do to her?!"
"I haven't done anything yet, but if I don't see the data tomorrow, then you can guess what I will do."
Tony was panting with rage, but Frank ignored him, waving a hand to have him dragged away. Throughout the whole process, Tony looked as if he wanted to eat Frank alive.
It was evident that Frank didn't need to put any effort into playing the role of a thug.
Returning to the secret room, Tony became somewhat gloomy, looking as if he was about to fight Thanos right then and there.
Hong Fei huddled in the corner, motionless. As the instigator, he shouldn't go up and fan the flames at this moment.
The keyboard clattered loudly, and Tony's face appeared even darker under the glow of the screen.
Hong Fei didn't sleep soundly that night, while Tony didn't sleep at all.
Early the next morning, Tony pounded on the door and started calling for Frank.
When he personally handed the disk to Frank, he couldn't help but say, "I know you are mercenaries. From the fact that you dared to attack the local militants, it's clear you are a group of people who will do anything for profit. I have given you what you wanted. I hope you won't have any other ideas, otherwise, I guarantee I will not let you off!"
Frank looked at the disk and then suddenly smiled.
With a dull thud, he kicked Tony to the ground, then silently closed the door and left.
Hong Fei watched from the side, grimacing. This part was a scene Frank had added himself.
Not long after, Tony was taken away again, and Frank came to find Hong Fei again.
"I still have no way to verify this data."
"It doesn't matter. I believe the data Tony provided is enough to build the reactor. However, he certainly won't honestly hand over all the data to us. Whether what we end up building is a reactor or a bomb, we can't be sure."
"Then what should we do?" Frank's face darkened. "It seems the lesson I gave him wasn't enough. I'm going to go find him now."
Saying this, Frank stood up, looking aggressive, as if he were about to skin Tony alive.
Hong Fei quickly called out, "Come back, what are you rushing for! Whether that thing is a reactor or a bomb doesn't matter to us. All I want is something that can build it. As for whether it will explode, that has nothing to do with us."
Hong Fei did indeed need the reactor technology, but he wasn't going to use it as a source to develop any kind of suit.
The technology for the suit would be very difficult to replicate based solely on that primitive iron lump, and trying to develop it further would be even harder. Taking a step back, just thinking about the cost of Tony's suits, Hong Fei felt it wasn't something he could afford to play with.
Besides, with that much money, he might as well use it to do some good and directly improve his own physical fitness; wouldn't that be more reliable than building a suit?
Therefore, the greatest use of the Arc Reactor in his hands was to conduct some secret interest exchanges.
Hong Fei continued, "Next, Tony will probably start his jailbreak soon. Is the plane ready?"
"It's already arranged."
"Hmm, you can start making arrangements in Afghanistan. Whether it's re-entry or evacuation, especially that box of tools of mine, everything must be foolproof."
After Frank left, Hong Fei made a call.
At this moment, Obadiah, who was already in Afghanistan, was indeed getting impatient; he was almost going crazy waiting.
After receiving the first call, he immediately launched a location investigation, but the U.S. military searched the area they located, digging three feet into the ground, and didn't find a single hair.
Moreover, the militants who had originally cooperated with him were demanding astronomical compensation due to their own heavy losses, even threatening to expose their cooperation to force him to provide more weapons and equipment.
Obadiah was a man of few words and ruthless actions; he flew directly to Afghanistan and wiped the group out.
Having cleared away his worries, he began to struggle again.
On one hand, he hoped the U.S. military would quickly find and eliminate the bandits who had kidnapped Tony, but on the other hand, he didn't want the U.S. military to rescue Tony.
The best outcome would be that Tony had already been killed, and the U.S. military would only find a corpse in the end.
In this way, he could eliminate the threat without paying any price. The only thing he would have to do is shed a few tears in front of the camera, but what did that amount to?
But now, with no news at all, it was the worst news for him.
Therefore, when the phone rang and he saw the number he had been obsessing over countless times, he answered it immediately.
"Mr. Stane, are you ready?"
Obadiah lowered his voice and feigned gentleness: "I am ready, but I need to confirm Tony's safety."
"Of course, no problem. That is a very reasonable request." Hong Fei grinned, stood up, and walked toward the interrogation room.
Through a one-way mirror, Hong Fei made a video call to Obadiah.
When that bald head appeared on the phone screen, Hong Fei pointed the camera at the interrogation room and smiled: "Come, Mr. Stane, take a look. Is this the famous Tony Stark?"
The matter of the transfer is purely fictional.