Lin Mo stood with his arms crossed, not saying a word. Even though he knew what this man was plotting, he had no intention of exposing him directly; it would be meaningless.
Tong Dong acted as if he had grasped a lifesaver, a glimmer of hope reigniting in his eyes. "Then... how much would that cost? I'm still a student, I don't have much money."
"I sold it to that person for just over two thousand. I'll try my best to negotiate for you and get it back for under three thousand. How does that sound?" The boss wore a look that screamed, "I'm looking out for you."
Tong Dong gritted his teeth. It seemed this price was an astronomical figure for him, yet he showed almost no hesitation.
"Alright! I'll go borrow the money!" He pulled a somewhat worn-out phone from his pocket and handed it over.
"Boss, please leave your number. If there's any news, you must tell me immediately!"
"No problem!" The boss took the phone briskly, quickly typed in his number, gave himself a missed call, and saved Tong Dong's number in the process.
He handed the phone back to Tong Dong, even reaching out to pat him heavily on the shoulder, his tone earnest.
"Don't worry, I'll keep a close eye on this for you! After all, it's your mother's relic, the meaning is different.
If it really comes down to it, I'll give you the buyer's number when the time comes, and you can talk to them yourself. Maybe seeing your filial piety, they'll give you a discount."
His words were airtight and deeply sincere.
It would be truly difficult for an ordinary person not to be deceived.
Tong Dong nodded repeatedly in gratitude, his eyes turning slightly red.
The boss reached out again and patted Tong Dong's shoulder.
From beginning to end, Lin Mo acted like an outsider, watching silently.
After bowing in thanks, Tong Dong pulled Lin Mo along and walked in the direction of the school.
As he walked, he calculated how much scholarship money he had left.
"I still have quite a bit of scholarship money. It should be enough to redeem the jade pendant."
Walking down the street, Lin Mo nodded.
"What's wrong?" Tong Dong was curious about Lin Mo's silence.
"Nothing. I was just thinking, what if he said that on purpose just now, intentionally inflating the price?"
Tong Dong sighed softly.
"Actually, I know. But that jade pendant is a necessity to me, so even if he inflates the price, I'll still buy it. But at least I didn't say the wrong thing just now, so he won't raise the price too high."
It was obvious that Tong Dong wasn't actually stupid. He was just worried the other party would hike up the price, which was why he acted so submissive.
When the time came, by acting like he needed to scrape the money together and bargain, even if they did raise the price, it wouldn't be by too much.
He should be able to get it for at least a little over two thousand.
But if Tong Dong had revealed how much money he actually had, he probably would have been scammed out of every last penny.
Jokes aside, although he lacked social experience, he still had the intelligence.
Lin Mo simply patted Tong Dong's arm. "Let me know when the transaction happens."
Tong Dong nodded heavily. Without Lin Mo around, he actually felt insecure.
As they spoke, they had already arrived near the school.
The scorching sun hung high in the sky. After a busy morning, their stomachs had long started protesting.
Tong Dong grabbed Lin Mo and said directly, "Let me treat you to lunch."
At this stiff phrasing, Lin Mo couldn't help but laugh.
"Alright, I won't hold back."
Lin Mo walked straight toward the rice noodle shop.
After saying that, he didn't wait for Tong Dong to react. With the ease of a regular, he turned the corner and led him straight to the rice noodle shop at the intersection.
Come to think of it, it really had been a while since he last had a taste of this.
"Oi! Boss." Before Lin Mo had even fully stepped through the door, his voice carried inside.
The shop was quiet and deserted. During the summer vacation, the students had all gone home, so there wasn't much business.
The boss was wearing reading glasses, sitting leisurely to the side reading a newspaper. Hearing the familiar voice, he didn't even look up before throwing out a complaint.
"What are you doing here, kid?"
"Why can't I be here? Hurry up, I'm starving. Get me two bowls of noodles, extra meat!" Lin Mo boldly pulled out a chair and sat down, gesturing for Tong Dong to join him.
"Hey! You brat, I must have owed you in a past life."
The boss grumbled, but the wrinkles on his face spread into a smile. He took off his glasses, slowly folded the newspaper, and then turned to enter the back kitchen.
His unhurried demeanor made it seem as though he was certain Lin Mo wouldn't dare rush him.
Tong Dong stared blankly for a moment, but he didn't say anything.
A short while later, the boss walked out carrying a large tray.
"Bang!"
Two steaming bowls of rice noodles were placed heavily on the table, the broth nearly splashing out.
What was piled in the bowls was less like toppings and more like a mountain of meat, almost completely hiding the noodles underneath.
"Boss, how much for these two bowls? I'll pay." Tong Dong immediately stood up, ready to take out his money.
"No need."
The boss waved his hand and shot a sideways glance at Lin Mo. "When this kid comes here to eat noodles, he never has to pay."
Tong Dong was stunned.
Free?
"Hear that? Our willingness to come eat here is giving the old man face. Once the two of us become top scholars, he can change his sign to 'Top Scholar Rice Noodles.' People will have to line up just to eat here. This is called an early-stage investment, understand?"
Tong Dong looked completely bewildered.
"You can promote yourself like that?"
As a top student who always ranked at the top of his grade, his head was filled with formulas and theorems, yet at this moment, he felt his entire knowledge system taking an unprecedented hit.
"This is called the Face-Face Fruit, get it?"
Lin Mo spouted a bit of nonsense, and seeing Tong Dong still wearing an expression of questioning his life choices, he said no more, picked up his chopsticks, and dug in.
"Slurp—"
A large mouthful of rice noodles mixed with crispy roast meat and broth was sucked into his mouth, the rich aroma instantly exploding on his palate.
The mixed noodles of Hero City emphasized a dry fragrance, while the soup noodles here focused on a fresh and mellow flavor.
It was hard to say which was better, but getting it for free made it exceptionally delicious.
Seeing this, Tong Dong also picked up his chopsticks and took a bite.
The next second, his eyes lit up.
The noodles were smooth and chewy, the braised meat rich and flavorful, and mixed with the slightly spicy broth, it was simply a perfect match.
He no longer cared about figuring out the Face-Face Fruit. Mimicking Lin Mo, he began slurping down the noodles in large mouthfuls.
After sweeping through the food like a whirlwind scattering the clouds, the two leaned back in their chairs, thoroughly satisfied.
Lin Mo pulled out a tissue, wiped his mouth, and said to Tong Dong, "I have things to do this afternoon, so I won't be going back to school."
"Yeah, you already know how to do all the test papers anyway." Tong Dong nodded, then couldn't help but ask out of curiosity, "What are you going to do this afternoon?"
Lin Mo stood up, slipped one hand into his pocket, and raised an eyebrow at him in mock mystery.
"Kids shouldn't ask so many questions."
With that, he waved at Tong Dong, turned around, and walked away stylishly.
Tong Dong couldn't quite figure Lin Mo out, but he felt that at the very least, Lin Mo was much more vibrant than he was.
By this time, Xia Zhi had already taken Ning Qingcheng to Pengcheng.
Meanwhile, Yanhuang Awakening had also reported everything that had happened.
It wasn't that no one had suggested taking Ning Qingcheng to Tianjing for an examination.
It was just that Director Long had suppressed all such proposals.
The main excuse was that they didn't know much about the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect and didn't want to risk offending them.
Therefore, Ning Qingcheng was not given a hard time.
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.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
