After breakfast, Mu Lin told the girls about the history of the cave. The young women began exploring it, which was one of the main purposes of their outing. Looking at the massive altar atop the mountain, Mu Lin couldn’t help but marvel at the ancient people who had carved such a grand project. What era had they lived in, and what tools had they used? Had they also been cultivators? What was their relationship with the cultivation world of ancient China? Why had only floating stones been discovered here, with no other cultivation techniques unearthed?
Based on their tombs, archaeologists estimated their population to be less than 5,000. Yet these 5,000 people had ruled a vast empire before mysteriously vanishing. Mu Lin eventually gave up trying to understand. “Perhaps the answers will come later,” he thought. In the afternoon, they began their journey back. On the way, the girls were completely different from the previous day. Today, they looked radiant and energetic, just like when they had first set out on the trip. Mu Lin started pondering again, checking their bodies and discovering that their yin and yang energies were now balanced.
Thanks to constant training, Mu Lin’s spiritual sense had developed a certain degree of physicality. When he scanned the girls, they immediately felt something. One by one, their faces turned red. Eventually, Finny and Silia couldn’t take it anymore. “Daniel, if you like watching us so much, why didn’t you become our boyfriend at school?” Silia asked.
“Huh? Why did they notice this time? Why hadn’t they noticed before?” As he pondered, he suddenly felt someone reaching for his arm. He grabbed the hand instinctively, only to find it was Silia’s soft hand. Looking up, he saw three angry faces. He thought to himself, “These girls really are beautiful today!”
The three girls blushed under his gaze and slowly lowered their heads. “Let go of my hand, you little brat!” Silia whispered, though it sounded more like playful teasing.
Mu Lin suddenly shivered. “What’s wrong with me today? Could my balanced yang energy be related to these girls? I haven’t done anything to them, have I?” As he thought, he began to understand. His yang energy had been balanced due to their yin energy. Although he hadn’t been intimate with them, during his cultivation practice, he must have absorbed some of their yin energy, while they had absorbed his yang energy. That explained their improved spirits and vitality. No wonder they had sensed his spiritual probing this time.
Looking up, he met three pairs of affectionate eyes. He quickly lowered his head and focused on walking. “Oh my God, this is too scary!” He thought to himself, gradually understanding why Clar and the other girls had been treating him this way.
Now he had a new problem. Previously, he had headaches because he didn’t understand the situation and could simply avoid them. Now, he realized that these women’s growing affection for him was related to their cultivation energies. He couldn’t run away anymore. This was a problem he had caused himself and needed to resolve, or it would interfere with his cultivation path. His heart was no longer as free and unattached as when he had first descended the mountain.
But he hadn’t yet figured out how to handle it. For now, he could only keep avoiding them. The three girls, seeing him avoid them, gave him such pitiful glances that Mu Lin almost wanted to run away. Because he had no experience with romantic feelings and was still young, he wasn’t ready to get involved in emotional entanglements and could only escape.
They walked back in silence until they finally reached their base camp. The advanced and beginner teams who had returned earlier were anxiously waiting. After all, no one had expected the storm. When they saw the group return safely, everyone cheered. Previously, he had always looked down upon such ordinary human emotions, but now Mu Lin couldn’t help but be moved by this friendship. Thus, their outing came to an end.
Back at school, Mu Lin’s life returned to normal. One day, with nothing to do, he visited his company. The receptionist now knew that this young man was the actual owner of the company, a fact that Clar had insisted on revealing. Usually, Mu Lin didn’t stand on ceremony, so the receptionist greeted him warmly and told him that General Manager Clar was waiting for him in her office. Mu Lin felt puzzled because he hadn’t called to say he was coming. He soon realized he had been tricked by the little girl.
It turned out that all the company employees had been sent out today because two clients were coming to view houses. With too many things on her mind, Clar had told the receptionist to inform her immediately when any staff member returned. As soon as she saw him, she immediately asked him to accompany a client to view a house. With the house location map in hand, Mu Lin rode in the client’s car and went to view the property.
The client was middle-class and particularly fond of old-style villas. The house they were going to see was an old Spanish-style villa built over 200 years ago by immigrants. The descendants of the original owners had mismanaged their affairs, leading to the house being seized by the court.
Due to its significant historical value, the villa was priced quite high. Moreover, the government had prohibited any modifications by future buyers, so the company had struggled to sell it. Now, standing in the villa’s courtyard with about one hectare of land, the two-story house was hidden among lush greenery. Since the basic information had already been provided to the client, Mu Lin didn’t need to explain much further. His current role was essentially that of a key custodian.
Due to the owner’s absence, the yard was overgrown with weeds, and the house clearly hadn’t been maintained for a long time, making the entire estate look dilapidated. Mu Lin followed the client around. Although the house price was far below its original value, it would still require a significant investment to renovate, an amount not much lower than the purchase price. After viewing the house, the client didn’t express any intention to buy, so Mu Lin let him return to the company to choose other houses. Before leaving, he asked the receptionist to inform everyone that he was staying behind to organize things.
Mu Lin hadn’t expected to discover a hidden underground storage room here, and inside were several large boxes filled with gold and silver treasures. Naturally, there were more valuable items. As was his habit, whenever he arrived at a new place, he would always use his spiritual sense to scan the surroundings, which led him to discover this secret storage room beneath the existing one.
So, after sending the client away, he stayed behind to check this secret storage room. Carefully scanning the villa with his spiritual sense and finding nothing unusual, he then went to the storage room beneath the villa.
The room was old, and the storage room was filled with clutter left behind by the previous owner. After Mu Lin had cleaned up the mess, Clar arrived, intending to take Mu Lin home for dinner. Seeing him cleaning up, she felt心疼 (heartache/pity) and instinctively took out her handkerchief to wipe the dust from his face, saying that these tasks could be left to hired help. Mu Lin had long gotten used to Clar’s actions and stretched his neck to let her wipe his face while smiling at her.
(Note: The term “心疼” has been translated as “heartache/pity” to convey the emotional nuance. Let me know if you’d like a specific adaptation of this term for tone or context.)
At Clar’s house, Meifang and the others weren’t coming back for lunch, so it was just the two of them having a meal. As they began eating, Clar started scolding Mu Lin again. Helplessly, Mu Lin changed the subject.
“Clar, how much money has our company made so far?”
At the mention of this, Clar’s interest soared. “Daniel, I don’t know how your brain works. How did you come up with this brilliant idea? We used the money you initially provided to the company as handling fees, deposits, and advertising costs. After placing house-selling advertisements, we used the initial funds to simultaneously operate in other cities, and the scale kept expanding.
Since we were the first to enter this market and our scale was so large, it’s now difficult for others to enter this market this year. Do you know that our company has now established 55 regional offices across the entire U.S. continent, with 1,150 employees? Following your instructions, we established another company in France, setting up 78 offices with 1,890 employees. We now have offices in almost all major European cities. In total, the two companies have 3,040 employees.
In the Americas, as of yesterday, we’ve sold over 95,000 houses and still have 89,700 houses available. Our current actual profit is 4.75 billion yuan. We expect the net profit in the Americas this year to reach 4.5 billion yuan. In Europe, since we started later, we currently have 266,800 houses in stock, of which 45,512 have been sold, generating a net profit of 2.2756 billion yuan.
We expect this year’s net profit to reach 11 billion U.S. dollars. Following your instructions, we’ve already transferred 2 billion U.S. dollars to your Swiss account. The remaining funds will be used by the company to establish a venture capital firm for investments in stocks and funds. What do you think?” Seeing Clar’s proud expression, Mu Lin was stunned by the figures she presented. His mouth hung open in disbelief for quite some time.
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