Director Zhang arrested Village Secretary Cheng Wancheng and Erhuangmao’s gang and brought them to the police station, treating them so harshly they felt like they were dying. Eventually, he even issued an order through the city government down to the town, revoking Cheng’s position as village secretary. Specially, the government assigned a college graduate village official named Chen Peng, in his twenties, to the village. After arriving, Chen Peng immediately disclosed the village’s financial records, unearthed evidence of Cheng Wancheng’s corruption, and submitted it to Director Zhang. Then he planned the village’s development, proposed improvement ideas, formulated a development blueprint, and gathered the villagers to discuss plans together, greatly boosting their enthusiasm.
Chen Peng worked well with Shui Miao, using the money Huang Yatou had previously used to buy land to start building roads, transforming the village’s muddy paths into paved roads. He also opened up a large development zone, attracting investment and preparing for vigorous development.
Putting aside the village matters for a moment, after Shui Miao installed the starter equipment for the dry well, he went down into the dry well cave again but did not find any trace of the little monster. However, he discovered a lot of gold and silver treasures inside several other copper coffins. Shui Miao did not rush to retrieve the treasures but instead had workers build several rows of single-story houses centered around the dry well, with one of the rooms being exactly where the dry well was located. This room was guarded by Xiao Tudou, and no one was allowed to enter.
In this way, the dry well cave became Shui Miao’s treasure vault.
The land near Jing Shui River had already been cleared and surrounded with a wall. Seeing the large area of land, Xiao Liu and the others were very excited. The several security guards were all rural people, and growing vegetables was not a difficult task for them. However, Xiao Liu and the others had underestimated things. Not long after, Xiaoshuang brought in a group of people to build greenhouses, preparing to vigorously develop off-season vegetables. He also allocated a section of land for a pig farm and even brought in several dairy cows, keeping Xiao Liu and the others extremely busy. Finally, Xiaoshuang introduced a contract system, dividing the greenhouses, pig farm, and vegetable gardens into several sections, recruiting idle villagers as employees, hiring technicians, and appointing Xiao Liu and Xiao Hu as managers, while entrusting the financial authority to Wang Xiaomi.
Xiaoshuang also designed the blueprints for a Taoist temple and contracted its construction to a local construction contractor for 500,000 yuan.
As for the supply of building materials, Xiaoshuang handled that himself.
Out of the six mu of land, one mu was allocated, leaving five mu. Xiaoshuang designed a grand factory area, along with two office buildings and one staff dormitory building.
With money, Xiaoshuang could design even the tallest buildings.
Relying on the gold and silver treasures from the copper coffins and using his uncle’s friend’s name as a cover, Shui Miao heavily invested. When registering the company, under the arrangement of his uncle, Director Zhang, Shui Miao registered the company under his own name.
For this, Shui Miao specially paid off the debts he had taken from the Linhai Hotel.
Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner.
Shui Miao returned to the hotel to make some adjustments, transferring all employees who were willing to follow him, like Li Lan and others, to Jing Shui Village. Sister Tang and two waitresses also wanted to follow Shui Miao and thus came to Jing Shui Village together. The three of them set up a tent to provide fast food for the workers, making thousands of boxed meals daily. Although it was very hard work, it was worth it since they could earn money.
Dshuang temporarily managed the Linhai Hotel, and everything was well-organized, with business getting better day by day, leaving nothing for Shui Miao to worry about.
A week later, the person sent by Old Master Lin still had not appeared.
Xiaoshuang had already arranged everything regarding the factory construction, leaving nothing for Shui Miao to do. Shui Miao had nothing to do except practice his energy cultivation with Xiao Tudou every day or go back to visit his mother.
This situation lasted for five days.
On the morning of the sixth day, just as Shui Miao walked out of the tent, he received a call from his younger sister, Chenxiang.
“Brother, something bad happened! I messed up!”
As soon as the call connected, Shui Miao heard Chenxiang’s tense voice. “Don’t panic. What exactly happened?”
Chenxiang looked at the broken porcelain scattered across the floor and the strange square object among the shards, then spoke into the phone, “I broke one of the ceramic bottles your godfather gave you, and there was a strange object inside that looks a bit like jade. But it’s square and red, and there seems to be something moving inside.”
“Red, square, and something moving inside… Could it be… Could it be the Five Elements Disc?”
Shui Miao’s heart stirred, and he quickly said, “Sis, stay in the house and don’t run around. I’ll be right there.”
“Okay! I’ll wait.”
Chenxiang was very nervous. She knew this was something Wang Yong had specifically asked Shui Miao to bring to Zhonghai City. She had originally thought they were just ordinary porcelain items, but after seeing the square disc, she guessed this object was definitely not ordinary.
Twenty minutes later, Wang Xiaomi drove Shui Miao to the building.
Shui Miao went upstairs alone. Seeing the red jade square disc, his heart was filled with inexplicable excitement. Holding the jade in his hand, he vaguely felt it was warm, like a living creature, and even sensed the powerful spiritual energy surging within!
Yes! It was spiritual energy, not spiritual Qi.
“There must be fire-element spiritual energy inside!”
Shui Miao looked up and turned his gaze to the other ceramic bottles, then placed the red jade square disc on the sofa nearby. He quickly approached the other ceramics, picked them up and examined them…
“Brother, you’re not going to break all of them, are you?” Chenxiang looked at Shui Miao doubtfully.
“Exactly!”
Shui Miao suddenly grinned and smashed the ceramic bottle onto the floor!
With a “bang,” the ceramic shattered, and a flash of yellow light appeared before Shui Miao’s eyes, revealing a yellow jade square disc!
“The earth-element disc!”
Shui Miao immediately squatted down, picked up the disc, took a deep breath, and felt a strong earth-element spiritual energy surge into his heart. The feeling was incredibly fulfilling like never before!
“Brother, this thing must be very helpful for your energy cultivation, right?”
Chenxiang knew Shui Miao practiced energy cultivation. Seeing how much he liked it, she roughly guessed the significance.
“Yeah, these are treasures, priceless!”
Shui Miao quickly placed the yellow jade square disc on the sofa and smashed the other ceramic bottles onto the ground. After a series of “crash” sounds, all five elemental discs—gold, wood, water, fire, and earth—were revealed, while the other ceramic bottles contained nothing.
“Sis, help me clean up these shards, then go to the nursing home. I want to stay here alone and practice my energy cultivation for a while.”
Shui Miao carried each jade square disc into his room.
Then, Shui Miao made a phone call to Wang Xiaomi, asking her to return to Jing Shui Village first.
Unexpectedly helping her brother, Chenxiang happily cleaned up the broken porcelain, then cheerfully went downstairs and headed straight for the nursing home.
Wang Xiaomi was about to drive away when she noticed a black SUV parked about forty meters behind her. She had seen this car suspiciously tailing her on the way here, and her military instinct told her that this car might be problematic and the people inside might pose a threat to Shui Miao.
Wang Xiaomi deliberately drove slowly to observe but found that a man was holding a magazine to cover his face.
After Wang Xiaomi drove a few hundred meters away, the black SUV did not move.
Inside the black SUV sat two muscular men. They had crew cuts and wore sunglasses. They were dressed in black suits and trousers, with black T-shirts underneath. Their black belts were equipped with black holsters, each containing a black pistol. The man sitting in the driver’s seat had a tattoo of two black daggers on his palm. His nickname was Heici, a killer skilled in using daggers. The other man had a bullet tattoo on his neck. His nickname was Duoming, a very cold-blooded killer with extremely accurate shooting skills.
Heici put down the magazine and coldly said, “This woman is quite capable. After waiting three days, we finally have this kid alone.”
“But the old master said we should hold off for now and continue observing,” Duoming sat up from the back seat. “We should follow the old master’s instructions and wait a bit longer.”
“What a coward! This is really pathetic. We are assassins, not private detectives, yet we are acting like paparazzi,” Heici shook his head, clearly unhappy. “It’s all your fault for talking so much. Otherwise, we would have already succeeded.”
“Hehe, brother, you can’t say that. Our situation is different this time. The young miss has finally taken a liking to someone. If we act recklessly and kill him, won’t you be afraid of the young miss causing you trouble later?” Although Duoming’s nickname was Duoming, he was very steady and experienced in his actions. Compared to Heici’s impetuous nature, he was much more mature.
Originally, they had received orders to kill Shui Miao.
However, through their observations over the past two days, he had discovered that Shui Miao was indeed a remarkable person. Despite his young age, he was very different from others. He had not misappropriated the hotel’s money, and many employees at the hotel wanted to follow him. This showed his character and charm.
“Yeah, you’re right. It seems the old master is also moved. If it were a few years ago, with the old master’s personality, he would have already had him executed. There’s no way he would have waited until now,” Heici scratched his chin thoughtfully and was puzzled. “I just can’t figure it out. This kid is only twenty years old. What’s so special about him that the young miss took a liking to him?”
“Pfft, if she doesn’t like him, would she like you?” Duoming shook his head with a smile. “You’re always thinking about chopping people down. You don’t understand women at all. If I were the young miss, I would also choose someone young and inexperienced, and then cherish him dearly, spending the rest of my life with him.”
“Love and emotions are the most annoying things!”
Heici impatiently waved his hand. “Brother, you take the lead on this mission. Tell me, what should we do now? Should we wait here, or should we go upstairs and chop him?”
“Hmm…” Duoming thought for a moment, stroking his chin. “Hey, brother, can you guess what this kid went upstairs for? Could he be hiding another woman up there?”
“Pfft, why guess? Let’s just go upstairs and check it out ourselves!” Heici shouted.
After thinking for a while, Duoming suddenly smirked slightly and said calmly, “How about this? When he comes down later, if he’s alone, we won’t do anything. But if he comes down with some other woman, all lovey-dovey, then we’ll do the old master a favor and eliminate him.”
“Great! That’s what you said.”
Heici immediately pulled out his dagger and licked the blade with his tongue.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage