"How's our mom doing?" After the others left, Ren Yuege snorted lightly.
Cao Cheng was a bit surprised.
When he had changed his way of addressing her earlier, this little girl seemed unhappy?
Though the negative emotions only provided 10 points, doubling it to just 20, it was enough to show she wasn’t pleased with him switching to calling her "sister."
But thinking about it, it made sense.
He was handsome, after all.
She was into him.
So she didn’t want their relationship to actually turn into a "sibling" one.
She was shameless!
"Come on, big bro will take you for a ride." Cao Cheng waved the car keys with a flourish.
"Pfft—whatever!"
Ren Yuege said, "Clean up your own place first. Come on, let’s go upstairs."
The mansion had only two floors.
It didn’t seem tall, but it sprawled wide.
The first floor had the living room, dining area, entertainment space, study, and bathrooms.
The second floor was all bedrooms and private areas.
The third floor was an open-air mini-park, with greenery circling around a helipad in the middle—though obviously, there was no helicopter, or else the gardens would’ve been blown away long ago.
Whoever designed this was an idiot.
With all that rooftop space… why waste it on a useless helipad?
Absolutely insane.
There was also a large swimming pool in the courtyard.
Basement level two was the underground parking garage.
And there was another parking area inside the estate.
...
While Cao Cheng was getting familiar with his new surroundings,
in a private room at a small restaurant in Zhonghai,
Kuang Long and Meng Hu were drinking.
With them was their uncle—a middle-aged man who also looked rough.
This whole family had that same intimidating look.
Born to be gangsters!
Their lackeys were in another room, not disturbing the bosses’ conversation.
BANG!
The uncle slammed his glass on the table, furious. "This is too much! Absolutely too much! That guy—what’s his name? Cao Cheng? Dares to mess with our family? Just wait till I get back and teach him a lesson!"
"No, no, no!"
Kuang Long hurriedly waved his hands. "Uncle, it’s not worth it, really!"
"Look at you, coward! How have you been surviving all these years? And they call you Kuang Long? Who gave you that name?"
The uncle snorted, then turned to Meng Hu. "What about you? Are you scared too?"
"Uncle, I’m not scared!" Meng Hu roared, his face flushed from the alcohol, his courage slightly boosted.
The uncle nodded approvingly. "See? This is what a real man of the Yang family looks like. Little Hu, I’ll help you deal with that punk when we get back."
"Uncle, I’m fine. I don’t hold grudges. Just two front teeth, see? Look, Uncle, I got new ones!" Meng Hu grinned, baring his teeth like an idiot.
"..."
The uncle’s face darkened.
What the hell was this?
Is this the quality of gangsters in Sanjiang now?
And they’re making money running protection?
How?!
He remembered Sanjiang being way more hardcore back in his day. Now they’ve all gone… soft?
Kuang Long, still sober, saw his uncle’s expression and quickly explained, "Uncle, it’s not that we’re scared. That guy is just too strong. There were over ten of us, armed with knives, bats, and knuckle dusters—and he took us all down bare-handed in ten seconds."
"..."
Kuang Long wasn’t exaggerating.
But the uncle didn’t believe him.
He’d been around for decades—what kind of fighters hadn’t he seen?
Black-market boxing champions?
Battle-hardened ex-special forces?
Real killers.
"So he’s tough?"
"Being tough means nothing!"
"In this world, what matters is power, connections, money…"
"Look at you two, already shaking in your boots?"
"Ten guys couldn’t take him? What about twenty? Thirty? Fifty?"
"Is he Li Xiaolong or something?"
"Tch."
The uncle lit a cigarette, sneering.
"Just wait. When I get back to Sanjiang, I’ll settle this. Let’s see how tough he really is."
"Enough with the long faces. Since you’re in Zhonghai now, stick with me. You’ll live the good life. Now, drink up!"
...
...
That afternoon,
Aunt Ren had a private chat with Cao Cheng.
Mostly about his health and living conditions—since he’d been alone in Sanjiang before, with no one to look after him.
Now that he was in Zhonghai, as his stepmom, she wanted to show she cared.
She also brought up his studies and career.
Aunt Ren said, "There’s a huge demand for skilled computer professionals right now, especially in big cities. Internet companies are scrambling for talent—ours included."
"Cheng, come work for me."
The Ren family had businesses everywhere—hotels, real estate, jewelry, cosmetics.
A massive empire.
And this was after downsizing. They used to have agriculture, textiles—sold off long ago.
Aunt Ren talked at length about her vision for the future of the internet, but big corporations moved slowly.
Major decisions couldn’t be made on a whim.
Meanwhile,
Cao Cheng looked at his beautiful stepmother, unsure how to say what he was thinking.
Because it was hard to explain.
For example—
It was early 2007, just before New Year’s.
Next year,
a global crisis would hit.
Every single Ren family business would be affected.
His memories were clear: real estate demand would plummet, consumer confidence would crash.
Prices would drop—news reports would say over 26% of properties lost more than 10% of their value.
In Zhonghai, the best areas would peak at 17,000 per square meter… then crash back to 10,000.
A terrifying plunge, destroying market confidence.
Banks would tighten credit, making loans harder for developers.
Projects would stall, cash flow would dry up—some companies would collapse.
Hotels? Same story. Tourism would nosedive, spending would freeze. Expansion? Forget it. Just staying afloat would be an achievement.
Jewelry? Market shrinkage.
Cosmetics, being luxury goods, would fare slightly better.
Because women’s desire to shop?
Even a global crisis wouldn’t stop them.
At worst, there’d be a "lipstick effect"—when times are tough, people buy small indulgences.
And online shopping?
It would boom during the crisis.
Because it’s cheaper than real-life retail.
When every penny counts, e-commerce becomes king.
...
But could Cao Cheng say any of this?
Of course not.
She wasn’t his real mom.
If she were, he’d just say: "Don’t ask, just do what I say."
Maybe throw in some whining.
Whining always got moms to listen.
But…
With Aunt Ren, even after calling her "Mom," he couldn’t cross that line.
Not with her four daughters watching.
It might even affect Cao Cheng's happy life.
Of course,
Young Master Cao isn’t some saint either—he’s not about to risk giving someone a warning after just one meeting. That’d be overstepping, given how little they know each other.
Feelings take time to develop.
You don’t just blurt out everything the moment you meet.
Otherwise, the other person might not believe him, even mock him, and only come begging for help later when a real crisis hits and they’re proven wrong.
That kind of cliché? Cao Cheng finds it downright tacky.
So, these thoughts remain just thoughts for now. What to do next can wait for the future.
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
igrating to the cultivation world for two hundred years, I've managed to lie low and reach the Nascent Soul stage. Only now does my golden finger arrive? ...
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.
