Chapter 337: Coming Back Home!
Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
Hao Ren dashed down Fifth Heaven and patrolled around before he went back to the East Ocean University for his classes.
Time flew by, and Hao Ren took Little White for a walk near the library at noon. During their afternoon class, Xie Yujia turned back and smiled cheerfully at him.
Hao Ren knew that Xie Yujia was both sensitive and logical. Sometimes she would even sacrifice herself to make other people happy. She wished that everyone around her was happy even if she was not standing in the center of the crowd.
Xie Yujia’s smile was her way of thanking Hao Ren for taking her to see her parents. However, a smile like hers made his heart ache a bit.
“It isn’t her wish to live at my home. She spent as much time as possible with Grandma and didn’t cause my parents any trouble. However, in her heart, she still misses her parents a lot.”
At this thought, Hao Ren felt like he should have treated her nicer.
All the Friday courses came to an end with the sound of the school bell.
Hao Ren packed up quickly and walked to the front of the classroom.
“Woah, you didn’t sit beside Yujia, and now you are in a rush to come over!” Ma Lina teased Hao Ren while sitting beside Xie Yujia.
Xie Yujia patted Ma Lina with her hand and squeezed in front of her. Then, she smiled lightly at Hao Ren. “Let’s go!”
Hao Ren smiled back and walked to the door with Yujia.
Ma Lina was left stupefied in her seat. After a few seconds, she looked at the backs of the two and breathed in deeply… “When did Hao Ren’s smile get so charming?”
Hao Ren went back to his dorm to put a few things away. Then, he headed over to Xie Yujia’s dorm building to pick her up before they went to the bus stop. Xie Yujia wasn’t used to how detailed Hao Ren was today.
They got on the bus and arrived at the house by the beach by four in the afternoon.
Yue Yang was busy in the kitchen with a black and white sweater and white apron on. She came home earlier today on purpose to make a nice dinner for the family. Since she didn’t cook much, she started to prepare at four in the afternoon.
When Xie Yujia saw Yue Yang busy with cooking in the kitchen, she dropped everything immediately to help.
Zhen Congming came home a long time ago. He sat in front of the TV on the couch, having a blast on the new PS3 Hao Zhonghua got him.
Grandma was in a good mood. She was drinking her tea and watching the exciting images on the screen, cheering for her second grandson, Zhen Congming.
“Brother!” Zhen Congming shouted out as soon as he saw Hao Ren.
His shout startled Hao Ren, and the latter took a few steps back. He pretended to be Zhen Congming’s brother last time when they went to the West Ocean Dragon Palace, but he never thought about actually becoming this demon’s big brother.
On top of that, Zhen Congming had always tried to act cool, so it surprised Hao Ren when this kid called him his brother on his own.
“Hehe…” grandma laughed out pleasantly when she heard this.
After greeting him, Zhen Congming turned around and refocused his attention on the exciting game. Grandma had promised him three more games as long as he called Hao Ren brother.
Between his dignity and the games, Zhen Congming decisively chose the latter.
“The more I look at Congming, the more I like him. So, I am taking him in as a second grandson. He will call you brother in the future, and you need to treat him like a little brother too,” grandma said to Hao Ren, who was dumbfounded.
“Oh, Oh…” Hao Ren walked to the couch carefully and thought, “Grandma bribed a mighty demon into becoming her grandson with a PS3 that is only a few thousand yuan…”
Although he had no idea what Zhen Congming was as a demon beast, he knew that Zhen Congming had great potential due to his success in transforming into a human. Not to mention that he was also the disciple of Qiu Niu, one of the nine ancestors to all dragons.
“Why don’t you play with Congming for a bit now that he is your little brother?” Grandma urged Hao Ren.
Hao Ren saw that Zhen Congming was having the time of his life. He picked up a controller and started playing with him casually. Zhen Congming shouted out loud during the game and didn’t look like a demon beast at all. Little White was definitely similar to him.
“Time for dinner! Time for dinner!” Yue Yang called out as she came out of the kitchen.
Xie Yujia carried the dishes out with Yue Yang happily, and a few drops of sweat could be seen on her forehead. Hao Zhonghua, who had been working upstairs, also came into the dining room.
The family gathering cheered Grandma up as the elder. Yue Yang made an entire table of dishes today, and the sincerity was more than enough to change Grandma’s impression of her.
To make the room livelier, Grandma turned the TV to the news channel and called out to everyone, “Let’s eat! Let’s eat!”
For her, work was not a priority. The most important thing was for the entire family to gather together and enjoy dinner happily.
“Ren…has there been any problems with Zi’s dad’s company?” Hao Zhonghua suddenly asked.
“No… no problems,” Hao Ren answered uncertainly.
“Oh… I just heard some rumors about the mismanagement of Mingri Group. Their sales and profit had been declining lately, so I was a bit worried. That was why I asked,” Hao Zhonghua said.
“Is that so?” Grandma frowned a little, “I haven’t been watching the stock market a lot lately, but I did notice the stock price of Mingri Group declining.”
“Um… it’s normal for stocks to fluctuate,” Hao Ren laughed and answered.
“No, I’m going to take another look!” Grandma suddenly left the table and went upstairs by holding the railing.
The family all put their chopsticks down and waited nervously for grandma to come back. Zhen Congming was the only one who had no idea what stocks were. He took this opportunity to snitch several good stew pork pieces into his bowl.
A few minutes later, grandma came back to the dining room from the stairs with a hunched back. She said seriously, “I took a look, and the Mingri Group’s stock has been dropping to the limit for seven days straight.”
Hao Zhonghua and Yue Yang were both surprised at Grandma’s words. They didn’t know much about business, and that was why they didn’t focus on the news about the Mingri Group when they heard rumors. However, the stock market had been doing great lately, and Grandma had been delighted with the money she was making. It was weird for the Mingri Group’s stock to drop that much.
“Is there… anything we can do to help?” Yue Yang asked Hao Zhonghua, who was sitting across from her.
Hao Zhonghua frowned intensely as he didn’t know what to say. The Mingri Group was a large business group in China, and the numbers on their financial reports were rounded to the nearest millions.
However, Hao Ren’s parents were only scientists, and there wasn’t much they could do.
“Zhonghua, make a phone call to Zi’s family and ask them about it,” Grandma said.
“That wouldn’t be appropriate, Mom. Maybe Zi’s dad is stressed out about it now. It’s not a good time to call them and ask about it.” Yue Yang stopped her hastily.
“Then tell them that even if they go bankrupt and fall in debts, I still want Zi,” Grandma straightened her back and said stubbornly.
“And tell him not to worry about the business. I still have a saving of 800,000, and I can give it all to them to start again if they need it,” Grandma continued.
Eight hundred thousand yuan a drop of water in the ocean compared to the amount of money Mingri Group was losing daily. Grandma probably didn’t understand this, but her concern showed how much she cared.
“Rest assure, Mom. It’s nothing more than the normal ups and downs of business.” Hao Zhonghua comforted her after seeing how upset she was.
He was very worried as well. Even though he wasn’t in the field of business, he knew that a seven-day-straight decline meant that the company was facing a tremendous crisis.
There was a moment of silence, and Hao Zhonghua regretted bringing up this topic. At this moment, the TV station began reporting a piece of news.
“The Mingri Group, China’s leading business corporation, has fallen under a crisis. Rumors have it that the corporation is undergoing a large replacement of its high-level executives. This has caused a sharp drop in Mingri Group’s stock. It has been declining for the past seven consecutive days, and the situation in Mingri Group in China is causing a chain reaction for its subsidiaries all over the world. According to experts’ conservative estimate, Mingri Group sees a loss of at least 200 million yuan per day…”
This news completely crushed Zhao Zhonghua’s comfort.
Grandma’s face immediately darkened.
Hao Ren could imagine that a piece of news like this would result in a further decline in Mingri Group’s stock price. The image of skyscrapers crashing down suddenly appeared in his head.
Of course, the news might not be 100% true. He knew that the reason for Mingri Group’s crisis was because the business groups of the other dragon clans stopped doing business with Mingri Group.
Doing business was like the flow of water, and it would only be alive if there were transactions. The East Ocean Dragon Clan was the first one who tried to start a business on land. It got bigger and bigger, and the foundation it built was more and more stable. To avoid other dragon clans from claiming that East Ocean Dragon Clan was not sharing good things with others, they had been helping out a few other dragon clans’ businesses in the past decades. But these dragon clans took this opportunity to turn around and work against the company, causing the Mingri Group to lose a few largest business partners it had. It was easy to foresee the challenge the Mingri Group was facing right now.
The powers had their territories, but businesses didn’t. If the Mingri Group were to go bankrupt, the other companies could take the opportunity to grow stronger by splitting Mingri Groups’ market. They could even open their subsidiaries in the East Ocean City.
Just when Hao Ren thought this through, the news continued, “The CEO of the foreign investment business of Mingri Group, Zhao Haoran, announced that he is returning to China. This would be his first time coming back after taking over Mingri Group’s foreign investment branch 20 years ago…”
Hao Ren looked toward the TV.
“Zhao Haoran? Could that be the second uncle of Zhao Yanzi who had been in the States?”
He fixated his eyes on the TV, but all he could see was a picture of a round-eyed grey-hair old man with a cane in his hand. He was exuding a strong aura…
