Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Baili Changcheng’s face was flushed from running over. He was breathing heavily, and his expensive suit was stained with sweat, making him look nondescript. It seemed like he had received the news and came rushing here as fast as possible.
He saw Baili Ying and smiled, then turned to greet all of his comrades. “Everyone, because of my negligence, I’ve let this dog bark on for too long. I’m sorry.”
“Waiters, what are you standing there for? Go and serve the dishes!” Baili Changcheng shouted in rage. The waiters panicked. Compared to Zhao Bing, Baili Changcheng was the true manager from within the family. They obeyed the orders and began serving plates of fanciful and exotic dishes.
Zhao Bing’s expression was grim. He did not expect the meeting to end so soon. He knew beforehand that Baili Changcheng was busy at a family meeting, which was why he had taken the chance to make things difficult for Lin Jie and the rest. It was out of his expectation that Baili Changcheng had arrived so quickly.
Zhao Bing was vexed and prepared to leave. Suddenly, Lin Jie called out to him. “Hey, Manager Zhao, you haven’t counted the money.”
“Count the money?” Baili Changcheng turned his eyes and immediately understood the situation. He laughed coldly. “Zhao Bing, did you forget to collect the bill? The customer is asking for the check, are you deaf?”
Zhao Bing wished that he was really deaf. However, Baili Changcheng was viciously glaring at him. Even if he could ignore these people, he could not defy Baili Changcheng. In the end, he could only smile bitterly and kneel down to count the coins. One, two…
“You few over there, do it too. It’s too much work for him alone.” Lin Jie calmly said as he pointed to a few waiters. They were the ones who had treated Sakura with a bad attitude earlier on.
They looked at Baili Changcheng, who was nodding in agreement. They had no choice but to grit their teeth and count the money obediently.
700,000$… This would take them three whole days! However, Lin Jie did not have the slightest intention of letting them off. There was no need to take pity on these people who insulted and looked down on others.
They could not be bothered by the few people counting the coins. Baili Changcheng and Lin Jie greeted the guests and began to dine happily.
Bu Yi pushed the wheelchair and brought Sakura in front of Lin Jie. Sakura’s voice was trembling, unable to hide her gratitude. “Brother Lone Wolf, thank you…”
Baili Changcheng patted Sakura’s head endearingly and laughed. “I’ve brought you the person in the flesh. Are you happy?”
“Mmmh, brother is the best!” said Sakura chirpily.
“Hey, did you buy my sister a present? I remembered to let the butler inform you.” Baili Changcheng nudged Lin Jie’s arm.
“I did, a set!” Lin Jie purposely emphasized on the two words “a set” to show that he was thoughtful.
Baili Changcheng was over the moon. He knew that his sister admired Codename Lone Wolf like a hero. Although he was a little jealous, what could be more important than his sister’s happiness? He cheerfully glanced over at the plushie that Lin Jie had bought, and was stunned.
“This… you bought this?”
“Yes, why?” Lin Jie was surprised.
Baili Changcheng grabbed the furry plushie that resembled Pleasant Goat1 and his mouth twisted. “Why did you give my sister an… alpaca[2. 草泥马(Hanyu pinyin: Cǎo ní mǎ) Near homophone of the profanity phrase “F*ck you” in mandarin)?”
“Huh?” Lin Jie’s eyes widened. “Alpaca? F*ck… That toy store is so wicked! How would I know that an alpaca could be so cute and innocent?”
It was not just an alpaca, the toys that Lin Jie had bought were a set of the Ten Great Beasts! This was a series of characters that were popular on the internet a few years ago, and they were all alpacas. No wonder Sakura had such a strange look on her face when she received the presents. It was definitely weird to be receiving alpacas from a man!
“Come and get a drink!” Zheng Ziliang came at just the right time. He smiled and said, “Who knew Baili is actually as suave as me in real life. Ah, come, come, let’s have a toast.”
Just then, Lin Jie suddenly stood up.
“I’ve drunk too much wine, I need to go to the washroom,” said Lin Jie and left. He had really drunk too much. Forget about the over ten glasses of wine he drank, who asked Baili Changcheng to treat everybody, which included drinks? Lin Jie naturally came with an empty stomach with the thought to eat as much as possible to make the money worth it. But after Zhao Bing made things difficult for him, he was really too hungry and thirsty, and could only down the glasses of wine to satiate himself.
“Phew…” Lin Jie relieved himself. Suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder and shocked him, sending a shiver down his spine. He immediately pulled up the zipper of his pants, only to trap his thing out of carelessness. He gritted his teeth from the excruciating pain, and then glared and said, “What?”
Baili Changcheng was standing behind him, laughing, without a hint of awkwardness. “You came here because you know I have something to say to you, right? Indeed, in the meeting earlier, I—”
“I came here to pee,” interrupted Lin Jie.
Baili Changcheng looked dejected as he said, “I thought we had a connection.”
“There’s no such thing between other men and me.” Lin Jie rolled his eyes.
“Okay, let’s talk business.” Baili Changcheng’s face turned serious. “Baili Xuanyuan had wasted a long time in The New Age with little profits. As such, my family has decided to transfer the resources to me temporarily. They want to see results after one month.”
Lin Jie was surprised. “Results? Your family isn’t expecting you to double the money, are they?”
“Double? Hmph, if only that old man was so generous.” Baili Changcheng scrunched up his nose. “You know about stocks investment? In the principle of the lever, the money invested can be increased by 3 times, 5 times, and even 10 times. The higher the lever is raised, the chances of profits skyrocketing are greater.”
“Speak in layman terms!”
“Within one month, we have to triple the money! The capital is 300,000,000$,” replied Baili Changcheng.
Lin Jie frowned. “That’s too hard! The game currency will soon depreciate, the acquisition of real estate is difficult, and the price of the equipment is slowly fluctuating! On top of that, there’s no way Baili Xuanyuan will sit still. He seems to have roped in a new organization… which even I am really worried about.”
Baili Changcheng was stunned. “For real? I thought there was no way for him to make a comeback anymore. After all, even my family is having a hard time with such a large investment… If he were to sabotage us, it’d be even harder to reach our goal.”
“But it’s not impossible! I estimate that Baili Xuanyuan will be lying low during this period of time. After losing this money crocodile, the price of gold around the City of Light should drop at least. Moreover, as the game progresses, the price of gold will definitely change, so…”
“Are you saying to invest in gold coins?”
Lin Jie shrugged. “I don’t know anything about business. I can only give you a few tips, the rest is up to you.”
Baili Changcheng frowned as he was deep in thought. Lin Jie completely released himself and let out a sigh of relief before he left while whistling. It was enough to stop their conversation here since he was talking to a smart person. Baili Changcheng could definitely plan out the specifics of the operation much better than him.
Lin Jie returned to the hall. He awkwardly walked towards Baili Ying, whom he had given the set of Great Beast plushies too. He said in embarrassment, “Sakura… That, I’ll buy you something else next time, okay? These toys aren’t very flattering…”
Baili Ying giggled and played with the toys. She tilted her head and asked, “Did my brother ask you to buy them?”
Lin Jie was stunned. He then nodded his head wildly and said, “Yes, yes, yes. It was your brother, he made me buy these.”
“Brother…” A warm grin formed on Baili Ying’s face. As for Lin Jie, he looked just like a villain.
Bu Yi, who was watching them from the side, could not help but laugh. Sakura was really touched by her brother’s affection for her, yet Lin Jie, that piece of trash, was being all gleeful after pushing the blame of buying Alpaca for her to Baili Changcheng.
After the feast, Lin Jie heard a disgusting peal of laughter from out of nowhere. It turned out to be coming from Zhao Bing, whose hands were cramping from counting the coins. He had a fake smile plastered onto his face as he stood respectfully behind Lin Jie and flattered him. “Mr. Lin, are you satisfied with this meal?”
This manager, who was on his high horse, was utterly miserable. Normally, all he had to do was look at the accounts and statements. Why should a high ranking official like him do things like counting money? All coins at that! After forcing himself to count a few hundred coins, Zhao Bing could not stand it anymore.
Moreover, Zheng Ziliang was chatting at the side with a few ladies. Whether it was intentional or not, he kept mentioning the phone number of the ladies and his own beside Zhao Bing.
Zhao Bing was already dizzy from counting the coins, and his hands were cramping up. After hearing the numbers spoken by Ziliang, he was confused and forgot just how many he had counted.
He put down the coins weakly and stared at the mountain of them in despair. Zhao Bing’s hands were trembling, and he could only admit his defeat.
“The peanuts were pretty good,” said Lin Jie.
Zhao Bing’s expression turned grim. He knew that Lin Jie’s words had a double meaning. Carefully, he said, “Sir, if you are not happy with this meal, it must be because of my negligence. How about this, this meal shall be my treat. I won’t accept this money. Just take it as me making friends with you.”
Lin Jie raised his eyebrows in puzzlement and replied, “700,000$. You are willing to treat us?”
“Yes, my treat…” Zhao Bing nearly broke out in tears, saying these words. He did not want to treat, but would they let him off so easily with their grudge? His hands would be ruined by the time he finished counting all 700,000 coins. It would be best to just spend money to get over this disaster! Furthermore, he also had some power in the Baili family. He could get his hands on the public account without doing much himself.
Lin Jie smiled and asked, “Okay! I’m a person who’s easy to negotiate with. However, I already handed over the money. You can’t expect me to carry them back, right?”
“Of course not. I’ll handle this! Give me your card number, and I’ll transfer you the money immediately. Treat this meal as my compensation to you all.” Zhao Bing gritted his teeth and took out a golden card. This golden card was only used by Jiangbei Restaurant to make large amounts of purchases for luxurious ingredients.
“Hehehe, Zhao Bing, you have quite some authority. You are casually moving 700,000$ of assets from the hotel. Seems like you really treat yourself as part of the family. You are even using our money as your own?” Just then, Baili Changcheng’s sinister voice was heard from behind.
Zhao Bing broke out into cold sweat. He came to the realization that he was using the company’s funds for his private use openly in front of everybody to make up for his own mistakes! This was the crime of misusing the company’s funds!
“Hmph! You’re pretty photogenic.” Baili Changcheng waved his phone, and there was a video clip on it. “You purposely made things difficult for the guests and then tried to use the company’s funds as your own. There’s going to be someone who will like to talk to you soon.”
Zhao Bing could no longer take it and collapsed onto the floor.
Baili Changcheng did not bother giving him a second glance, and turned to Lin Jie and said, “Let’s go get some drinks. I’ve thought about it. Once the game starts, I’ll sell all the gold coins and temporarily exchange them for cash to raise the Supreme Tribe’s power. I will definitely attain all of my family’s virtual currency. What about you?”
“Me? I want to raise my power. I don’t know why, but I feel like it will be hard to control the future,” replied Lin Jie, solemnly.
“Control the future?” Baili Changcheng laughed and did not pay much attention to it. He said, “Someday, you’ll be able to control it. Let’s go and get some drinks. If we don’t take the opportunity to drink and sleep during the 24 hours of maintenance of The New Age, it’ll be a huge loss.”
After calming the storm that was Zhao Bing, the atmosphere became brighter. This was when the party was truly starting. The distance between them in real life seemed to have disappeared. It was lively as everybody enjoyed drinking and talking together.
This gathering continued until 8pm before people started to leave. Although Lin Jie had been drinking wildly like everybody else, he was still pretty sober. After he tossed his buddy Zheng Ziliang, who was completely wasted, onto the bed, he quietly put on his helmet and entered the game.
The big players in real life, including the Baili family, who were watching the virtual world from the side, were all beginning to increase their investments. If the other big players were to join in as well…
Power! Only by increasing his power could Lin Jie cope with unknown variables.
