Xu Shou sighed softly. Perhaps he had been too naive.
From now on, such matters should be left entirely to Xu Ningbing.
"Chairman! The young master was incredible! He stunned everyone, absolutely stunned them!"
The middle-aged man couldn't hide the smile on his face.
"What?"
Xu Shou's expression turned serious as he immediately asked, "What exactly happened?"
The middle-aged man took a deep breath and recounted everything that had occurred at the Su family, leaving out no detail.
Xu Shou and Xu Ningbing exchanged glances, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes.
"So, Zhou Hening even publicly declared he wanted to become Xu Mu's disciple?"
Xu Shou swallowed hard, unable to resist asking.
"Exactly! But the young master declined, saying they could discuss music in the future," the middle-aged man explained.
"Alright, you may leave now."
Xu Shou leaned back in his executive chair and waved the man away.
The middle-aged man turned and left, gently closing the office door behind him.
"How is this possible? Does Xu Mu even know anything about music? And he composed his own piece?"
Xu Ningbing couldn't believe it. "Did he mess things up and deliberately have someone spread this story?"
"Ningbing..."
Xu Shou was about to speak when his phone buzzed.
He glanced at it and smiled slightly, first turning the screen toward Xu Ningbing.
She saw the caller ID—Su Weiye.
Xu Shou answered the call and put it on speaker.
Su Weiye's voice came through. "Boss Xu, your son is truly full of surprises! He kept his talents hidden so well—quiet until he made a grand entrance!"
"You flatter me, Old Su. What brings your call?" Xu Shou replied.
"What else? With a son as outstanding as yours, securing our family's order, I’m here to discuss collaboration. When are you free?"
Xu Shou’s face lit up with joy, though his tone remained calm. "Anytime."
"Great, let’s meet tomorrow afternoon. I believe our two families have much to work on together," Su Weiye said with a laugh.
"I’ll make the arrangements right away," Xu Shou agreed.
After hanging up, Xu Shou turned to Xu Ningbing.
Her cold, beautiful face showed a hint of unease. Had he really succeeded?
Moreover, Su Weiye’s method this time had been to decide the outcome through piano performance—without allowing external assistance.
If Xu Ningbing had gone, they would never have secured the order.
Her rudimentary piano skills were no match for Mu Qingying’s.
"Remember your promise to Xu Mu—smile when you see him."
Xu Shou stretched lazily, brimming with satisfaction. "Focus on the collaboration with the Su family. See if we can revitalize our out-of-town branches."
"Understood," Xu Ningbing nodded.
Yet she remained baffled. When had Xu Mu learned to play the piano? She’d never heard of it.
The thought of having to smile at Xu Mu in the future made her skin crawl.
......
The banquet on Xu Mu’s end had concluded.
This time, his gains were substantial. Besides Zhou Hening, he had also exchanged contact details with Su Weiye and Su Yaya.
After returning to the company by car, Xu Mu headed straight to his office.
"Good afternoon, Director Xu."
"Director Xu."
As he walked through the office, employees hurriedly greeted him.
Their expressions ranged from fear to sycophancy.
As the head of HR and the chairman’s son, Xu Mu held the power to hire and fire at will.
Anyone who displeased him would be shown the door immediately.
Xu Mu entered his office and settled into his chair.
Swiveling to face the window, he accessed his system.
This time, he had caused the protagonist to lose forty-five points of Destiny Energy.
He wanted to check if he had gained anything in return.
Sure enough, he noticed a new attribute at the top of his system interface.
Name: Xu Mu
Identity: Villain Saint, HR Director of Xu Corporation.
Strength: 30
Speed: 43
Endurance: 30
Defense: 30
Destiny Energy: 45
Skills: Master Pianist, Top-tier Chef.
Xu Mu studied the system carefully, then pressed and held the Destiny Energy attribute to reveal its description.
After reading it several times, he finally understood.
Destiny Energy was different from Justice Points, which were used for draws.
Justice Points could only be obtained from supporting characters—essentially, their goodwill.
But Destiny Energy could only be taken from the protagonist.
This value could be exchanged for Justice Points at a 1:10 ratio.
Alternatively, it could be used to enhance others’ basic stats.
This was a game-changer.
Xu Mu hadn’t expected he could empower others.
Betrayal wasn’t a concern because Destiny Energy belonged solely to him.
He could grant it to others—or take it back.
With this in mind, he decided to test it on someone first.
Just then, a knock sounded at his office door.
"Come in!" Xu Mu called.
The door opened, revealing a tall, well-built young man in a suit.
With a buzz cut and around thirty years old, he was Wang Biao—Xu Shou’s choice for Xu Mu’s driver.
He also doubled as Xu Mu’s assistant, functioning much like a secretary.
Xu Mu felt genuine gratitude toward this man.
According to the original plot, Wang Biao had no parents and was raised by his grandmother.
Years ago, when his grandmother fell seriously ill, Xu Shou had paid sixty thousand for her treatment.
Thanks to that, she lived another six or seven years.
Wang Biao was deeply loyal to Xu Shou—and by extension, to Xu Mu.
In the original story, he had died trying to save Xu Mu from the Dragon King’s men.
Xu Mu checked Wang Biao’s stats.
Name: Wang Biao
Identity: Driver
Goodwill: 1
Destiny Level: 1 (Max: 10)
Pressing Wang Biao’s name revealed further details.
Strength: 35
Speed: 20
Endurance: 30
Defense: 25
Xu Mu nodded to himself. Wang Biao was essentially Xu Shou’s pick for his bodyguard.
In a fight, he could easily handle several opponents at once.
He tapped Wang Biao’s Strength stat.
As expected, a plus sign appeared beside it.
One tap later, Strength increased to 36—while Xu Mu’s Destiny Energy dropped to 44.
A faint smile crossed Xu Mu’s lips. With this, he could build his own faction.
"Young Master, here are the files for the new batch of employees. Please review them."
Wang Biao placed a stack of documents on Xu Mu’s desk. "Would you like to meet them? If not, I’ll have them report for duty tomorrow."
Xu Mu picked them up and flipped through the pages.
Suddenly, he froze.
"Young Master, is something wrong?" Wang Biao asked, puzzled.
"Nothing. Lao Wang, you’re dismissed for now." Xu Mu waved him off.
Wang Biao nodded and left.
Xu Mu’s gaze turned icy as he stared at the profile of one woman.
Her name was Meng Wanyue.
According to the plot, Meng Wanyue was one of the Dragon King’s three thousand elite subordinates—and among the most exceptional.
Her joining Xu Corporation meant the Dragon King had already traced the Ye family’s orphans, Ye Tong and Ye Yu, to the Xu household.
Meng Wanyue had been sent to keep watch over the Xu family.
In the original storyline, she became Xu Mu’s secretary.
Through her investigations, she later discovered that Xu Mu frequently abused Ye Tong and forced Ye Yu to live in a doghouse.
It was she who informed the Dragon King, prompting him to lead three thousand warriors back.
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
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)
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
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?!
