Although Chu Miaomiao's family was also quite wealthy now.
Unlike Jiang Yunlu, she had never truly experienced what it meant to be exceptionally rich.
She couldn't help but reach out a finger, carefully touching the smooth edge of the table before quickly pulling it back.
"So private kitchens are all opened in people's homes? It feels so mysterious."
Lin Mo's divine sense had long since spread out like spilled mercury, seeing through the inside and outside of this three-story building completely.
Perhaps this place used to be the private residence of some big shot, but now, aside from retaining the original layout, the interior had long been converted into independent private dining rooms.
Each room had a different style and excellent privacy.
But this also meant that it wasn't the kind of private kitchen that only served one table a night.
Lin Mo's divine sense even found the reservation list; including them, there were only three tables of guests tonight.
It was just that they had arrived before five o'clock, and as for when the others would arrive, there was no fixed time.
At this time, Chu Miaomiao had already taken out her phone and opened the Three-Person Alliance group chat.
Chu Miaomiao: "Lin Mo and I have arrived, how about you guys?"
She quickly took two photos and sent them to the group.
[Picture][Picture]
Jiang Yunlu: "I'm setting off now."
Xie Yuling: "My mom and I are also on the way, but why did Lin Mo arrive first with you?"
Seeing this message, Chu Miaomiao's cheeks warmed slightly, and her fingers tapped rapidly on the screen.
Chu Miaomiao explained to them about her wanting to make a cake.
The two in the group were quiet for a moment, not knowing whether they should be jealous, considering Chu Miaomiao was being very honest.
A moment later, the auntie came over holding two glasses of iced cola.
"Please enjoy, you two. Would you like to take a look at tonight's menu?"
Lin Mo raised an eyebrow. "Can the menu be changed?"
"Uh... not anymore, but if you have any dietary restrictions, you can mention them first, and we can see how to accommodate you."
Lin Mo nodded; dietary restrictions were indeed important.
However, as far as he knew, out of their group, it seemed he was the only one with dietary restrictions.
Looking at the menu handed to him, Lin Mo glanced over it and indeed didn't see any mushroom-based items, not even black truffles or matsutake.
There were twelve dishes in total, plus a soup.
It looked pretty good, even though there were only six of them dining.
But Lin Mo could finish twelve dishes all by himself.
Glug, glug, glug.
Taking a sip of the iced cola, Lin Mo's divine sense detected someone approaching the house.
They were also walking from the entrance of the alley; it should be a guest with a reservation.
The person grabbed the door knocker and knocked gently.
The auntie, who was wiping a vase, heard the sound, put down her rag, and walked over.
Shortly after, she led the person into the living room.
"Sir, please rest here for a moment."
The person who entered was a middle-aged man in a suit and leather shoes, his hair combed meticulously. The Jaeger-LeCoultre watch on his wrist reflected an understated yet expensive gleam under the dim lights of the living room.
He just nodded reservedly, his gaze sweeping across the living room. It skipped past Lin Mo without pausing, but lingered on Chu Miaomiao's exquisite little face for two extra seconds.
That look carried a hint of amazement.
Lin Mo's fingers, holding the cola, tapped lightly against the side of the glass.
The man quickly withdrew his gaze, calmly sat down on the single sofa farthest from them, and took out his phone, minding his own business.
The three of them seemed to divide the living room into two parts: one part was Lin Mo and Chu Miaomiao, and the other part was this middle-aged man.
Chu Miaomiao quietly scooted closer to Lin Mo and lowered her voice.
"Who is this guy? He's so scary, like that buzz-cut dean at our school."
Miaomiao, you've learned to be bad too, actually calling Li Yan by his nickname.
"Not quite," Lin Mo put down his glass and replied lazily. "The dean couldn't afford to wear that watch."
Chu Miaomiao blinked, wanting to ask more, but the sound of the door knocker rang out again outside.
This time, the visitor was clearly much more hurried.
A man, equally well-dressed but with a much more easygoing temperament, rushed in. As soon as he saw the middle-aged man on the sofa, he immediately opened his arms.
"Billy! You're finally back, you kept me waiting!"
The man called Billy finally showed a hint of a smile on his face. He stood up and hugged the newcomer.
"Long time no see, Lao Lu."
"Isn't that the truth!" Lao Lu patted his back, then let go and looked him up and down. "Are you getting used to being back in the country? Let me tell you, things are different here now."
"I can feel it," Billy smiled. "All the way here, high-rise buildings, heavy traffic, it's very prosperous."
"Of course, we are all making progress!"
Lao Lu laughed heartily, his gaze finally noticing Lin Mo and Chu Miaomiao on the other side, and the smile on his face paused slightly.
"Uh... and who are these two?"
He looked at the two of them with some curiosity.
A young man with an indescribably calm temperament, and a beautiful girl with an excellent figure, both sitting quietly.
Billy was also stunned for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know them. They were here before I arrived."
Lao Lu was a shrewd man and immediately caught on.
"Oh, oh, it seems they are other guests. My apologies, sorry about that, you two."
An apologetic smile instantly piled up on his face as he nodded toward Lin Mo and Chu Miaomiao, considering it a greeting.
Then he grabbed Billy's arm.
"Let's go, let's go up to the private room to chat."
However, as they left, Lin Mo raised an eyebrow, watching them leave the living room.
Saying that, Lao Lu familiarly pulled Billy toward the stairs, not even needing the auntie to guide them.
However, just at the moment the two turned and stepped onto the stairs.
Lin Mo's divine sense clearly caught a whisper from Lao Lu, lowered to the extreme.
"Those things, did you bring them back?"
Billy's footsteps paused, his voice equally faint.
"I brought them back, they are very safe."
Lin Mo raised an eyebrow, watching their backs disappear around the corner of the stairs, his fingertips lightly flicking against the cold glass again.
Interesting.
The next guest to appear was today's birthday girl.
Chu Lintian was also here for the first time. She knocked on the door knocker, and the auntie opened the door to welcome her into the living room.
"How did you guys get here so quickly?"
It had been a while since he last saw Chu Lintian. The current Chu Lintian was slightly thinner than Lin Mo remembered. Although her figure hadn't changed, her cheeks were a bit leaner.
It was probably the affairs of the Dajiang Group that had her in a bit of a scramble.
It was just that Jiang Beihe had already been completely sent to turn himself in by now, and Lin Mo had even mentioned the related matters to Liu Zheng.
It could only be said that Lin Mo had lowered the difficulty for Chu Lintian to take control of the Dajiang Group to the absolute minimum.
The rest would have to depend on herself.
However, if something really happened, Lin Mo could still do something about it.
He stepped forward. "Happy birthday, Sister Chu. You seem very busy lately."
Chu Lintian sighed. "Yes, so busy and so tired. I even want to hire a few more people to help out."

young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."

transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”

lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...

e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.