Lena, Drowning in Debt

Overnight, the Goddess had become a total loser...

Lena finally tasted the pain of being too careless. Every day, she did nothing but borrow money everywhere to repair the public facilities.

One of the regular-class dormitory buildings had become structurally unsafe and had to be demolished and rebuilt. Building B on the Super Soldier class side had also suffered considerable damage, and even patching it up would cost several hundred thousand.

The academy maintained a silent stance on the matter. Other than liaising with the repair company, it refused to handle anything.

In the end, Lena still came to Wei Zitong.

Seeing the once-unrivaled Goddess of Lieyang looking so pitiful now, Wei Zitong ultimately could not bring himself to refuse her. He called his Sister, Wei Zixue.

"Hello, Zitong? What is it? I'm very busy right now!" Wei Zixue's end of the line was noisy, and she was clearly occupied with something. "There's also a board meeting later!"

"Uh, Sis, could you sponsor me with a little money..." Wei Zitong spoke cautiously. After all, he was no longer the wastrel rich kid he used to be.

There was a pause on the other end. Wei Zixue asked sternly, "You've spent all of this year's dividends again? I remember your dividends this year were no less than One Hundred Million, weren't they? How can you keep doing this? Look at how diluted your shares have become! In the future, the shareholders will only marginalize you more and more, and you'll have less and less say. This is the wealth our parents left us—you can't keep acting like this!"

Wei Zitong's Pupils Constricted. In his heart, he ravaged the Original Body Owner's soul countless times. Damn it, you useless spendthrift! You blew through One Hundred Million in dividends until only a few million remained?

After taking several deep breaths to calm the urge to curse, Wei Zitong put on a humble, receptive expression and said, "Sis, this is the last time. It won't happen again. It definitely won't happen again!"

"Sigh, how many times have you made that promise?" Wei Zixue sighed helplessly. "How much do you need?"

Wei Zitong hurriedly covered the receiver and turned to Lena, who stood beside him without even daring to breathe. "How much?"

"T-ten million..." Lena kept twisting her fingers together, looking down at Wei Zitong as she answered timidly.

"What?" Wei Zitong's eyes widened like brass bells as he stared blankly at Lena's face, until her face turned red and she lowered her head...

"Ten million... Heh, ten million..." Wei Zitong stopped staring at her. If he kept looking, Lena would dig herself into a crack in the ground. He merely shook his head with a bitter smile. Ten million was too large a sum. Even the Original Body Owner had never dared ask his family for ten million. "Looks like I can only sell my shares..."

"What?" Lena looked up in confusion.

"Nothing, nothing..." Wei Zitong waved his hand. Explaining shareholders selling shares to a financial idiot who had just arrived on Earth would be like playing music to a cow. In fact, he had been a financial idiot in his previous life too. He only understood some financial knowledge because he had inherited the Original Body Owner's memories, and even then, he only had a superficial grasp of it.

So, he carefully moved his hand away from the receiver and asked, "Sis, can I transfer ten million worth of shares to you?"

"You're sure you want to transfer your shares?" Wei Zixue asked seriously. "This isn't a small matter. What exactly happened over there that you need so much money?"

"Uh, it's nothing..." Wei Zitong said. "It's like this—I'm planning to withdraw from the board and devote myself wholeheartedly to studying and research. There's no use holding so many shares. How about I transfer all my shares to you, and you convert them into cash for me?"

Wei Zitong did this because Earth's greatest crisis was about to arrive. Shares would soon be worth little, so it was better to convert them all into cash and spend it. Properly currying favor with the Goddess beside him was what truly mattered. Besides, these shares were not really his anyway—selling off the family estate did not hurt when it was not his estate!

"Have you thought this through?" Wei Zixue was very solemn.

"I have!" Wei Zitong replied.

"Fine. Come back tomorrow to complete the transfer." Wei Zixue said, "I'll transfer ten million to you first for emergencies!"

After hanging up, Wei Zitong slumped into his chair like a deflated balloon. From then on, he would be an unemployed man with only some liquid assets left. Though those assets were substantial, they were still merely liquid assets!

Turning to look at the campus below through the glass window, he saw students walking along the academy's broad Great Path with youthful smiles on their faces. What they did not know was that this beautiful life would soon become a luxury. Earth would face an unprecedentedly powerful group of enemies from outer space!

Wei Zitong was on the fifth floor of the library, where the view was broad. Bright sunlight streamed in and fell across his face, while overlapping shadows made his sharply defined features stand out even more. Yet in Lena's eyes, that clearly contoured face carried an indescribable heaviness and loneliness. Such an expression should not have appeared on a young man's face.

She did not even dare bring up the borrowed money. She could clearly see in this young man the shadow of the ancient and unyielding Guardian God Pan Zhen. He was always melancholy and sighing over the future of the Lieyang Civilization. The way he looked at her was always filled with meaningful expectation, making her feel stifled whenever she sat upon that lofty divine throne, as though she could barely breathe. That was one reason she had wanted to come to Earth—to get some air.

Yet now, she was once again feeling that suffocating pressure from someone her own age, and it made her deeply uncomfortable.

To ease the oppressive feeling, Lena straightened up and laughed loudly. "It's fine! It's only ten million, isn't it? This Goddess can settle it in minutes..."

"Keep it down!" The librarian's reprimand instantly lodged Lena's prepared laughter and her grand declaration of "I am a god" in her throat.

"Send me the academy's electronic compensation bill. I'll go pay it!"

Wei Zitong stood up, dropped those words, and left the library, leaving Lena alone in the wind...

"So, Zitong really lent you the money?" Qilin looked at Lena in surprise. "That was ten million!"

"Of course! What kind of relationship do Zitong and I have?" Lena said, patting her ample chest.

"Tsk, the two of you keep calling each other 'Zitong, Zitong.' How intimate!" Du Qiangwei said sarcastically. "Next, you'll be offering yourself to him, right?"

"Screw you!" Qilin flushed red, not knowing how to refute Du Qiangwei.

Lena, however, raised her chin and declared with the Aura of a proud rooster, "What's wrong with offering myself to him? He's handsome, rich, and gentle. By your Huaxia standards, he's the prince charming every girl dreams of!"

"That's not a Huaxia saying..." Qilin muttered softly.

Du Qiangwei burst out laughing. "If you want the horse to run, you have to feed it grass!"

Lena's expression immediately darkened. After returning to the dorm last night, she had looked up the relevant information and nearly suffered internal bleeding from anger. She gritted her teeth and could not help cursing, "That damned bastard! He actually said something like that in front of so many people!"

"Achoo!"

Wei Zitong had paid Lena's academy fine and had just returned to the dormitory when he sneezed.

"No way, Zitong. You're a Super Soldier and you still caught a cold?" Liu Chuang turned around from the movie he was watching and asked with a laugh.

"I didn't catch a cold..." Wei Zitong rubbed his nose, raised his head with a troubled expression, and said, "Some beauty must be thinking about me."

"Get lost!" Liu Chuang laughed and cursed before turning back to his movie.

Wei Zitong shook his head helplessly and sighed as he walked toward the balcony.

The moment he pushed open the dorm balcony door, Wei Zitong saw Lena sitting alone on the railing of the balcony across from him, at the girls' dormitory. Her sorrowful expression was heartbreakingly moving.

Lena saw Wei Zitong as well. Her sorrow instantly vanished, and she gave him a faint smile. She silently mouthed something, then turned and returned to her room.

Wei Zitong was somewhat confused. He did not understand lip-reading and could not make out what Lena had said. After pondering it for a long time, he could only tell that the first word was probably "I," and the final word was "you." He could not decipher the rest no matter how hard he tried. In the end, he could only shrug helplessly, sit in one of the chairs on the balcony, and continue his grand pursuit of knowledge.