Ziyan's Nervousness

Ziyan nodded, picked up her bag, and rummaged for her phone. "I'll call Emily."

Mentioning the little girl put Zhou Fei in better spirits. She rolled her eyes at Ziyan and said, "Sis, you're actually comfortable leaving Emily with that slovenly man? If she gets sick because of the unhygienic conditions, you'll regret it."

"Emily is his daughter, after all. He... should pay some attention, right?" Ziyan said uncertainly as she took out her phone and dialed Zhang Han's number.

"Beep, beep..."

The phone rang more than a dozen times before someone answered. Her daughter's young, cheerful voice came through. "Mum, I miss you so much."

Hearing her daughter's voice swept away the irritation in Ziyan's heart. A smile rarely seen by outsiders appeared on her face as she asked gently, "Emily, have you been having fun at your daddy's these past few days?"

"Huh? Um... y-you got it wrong. I'm not Emily!"

"Then who are you?" Ziyan asked with a smile, thinking her daughter was joking.

"I'm... Zhang... Yu... Meng. Mengmeng... Mengmengmeng." Mengmeng's cheerful voice came from the phone.

Ziyan's expression stiffened on the spot, and her heart instinctively tightened. Zhang Yumeng? Did he give Emily a new name? Is he planning to take Emily away from me?

"Why did you change your name?" Ziyan asked, suppressing her emotions.

"Because I'm Huaguoian, and Emily's a foreigner. I don't want that."

"Oh. Then have you been having fun these past few days?" Ziyan froze for a moment before asking.

"Y-yes, I'm having lots of fun! I'm following Daddy and enjoying, enjoying life."

Enjoying life? It would be good enough if she wasn't suffering with him!

Ziyan muttered inwardly.

From the little girl's tone, it was obvious that she was rather dependent on her down-and-out, foul-tempered, stubborn father!

"So how are you enjoying life?" Ziyan asked.

"Um... Daddy, Mommy's asking how we're enjoying life..."

Mengmeng didn't know how to answer, so she hurriedly sought her father's help.

Soon, Mengmeng's childish voice came through the phone again. "Daddy says we're eating the best food, drinking the best drinks, and playing the best games. Um... we're even going to ride a big bird later. Mommy, I'm hanging up. Daddy and I are going to enjoy life."

After she said this, Ziyan vaguely heard several words from the phone. "Hello, from Shangjing to..."

Then the call was disconnected.

Ziyan was dumbfounded.

Her daughter had hung up on her?

Enjoying life?

Zhang Han is really good at sweet-talking children. He's fallen so low, and he still thinks he can enjoy life?

What did that electronic announcement at the end mean? Were they at a station? An airport? Or somewhere else? With his stubbornness, would he really leave Shangjing?

"Sis, sis, Ling'er sis?"

Zhou Fei called several times before Ziyan turned to look at her, a trace of confusion still in her eyes.

"What's wrong, Sis? Did Emily say anything? Is she tired of staying there?" Zhou Fei asked curiously.

"She didn't say anything." Ziyan came back to herself and replied, lowering her head with a troubled expression.

In the past, whenever she called her daughter, she had always coaxed and pleaded with her until the girl hung up. Now the little girl hadn't even asked her anything before hanging up. The change left Ziyan in a terrible mood.

"It's getting late. Let's head back first." Zhou Fei glanced at her watch.

Ziyan raised her head. "We're not going back. Xiaofei, book the earliest flight to Shangjing right now!"

"Huh?" Zhou Fei froze. "But the company has two meetings tomorrow, and you agreed to have dinner with Young Master Li tomorrow evening."

"Cancel everything! We have to hurry and bring Emily back. She..." Ziyan drew a deep breath. "She's becoming bad!"

"Oh, okay." Zhou Fei nodded. She knew that when it came to the little girl, Ziyan always meant what she said, so she quickly took out her phone and booked the tickets.

In truth, Ziyan had misunderstood. Mengmeng had wanted to keep chatting with her mother, but the plane was about to take off. Zhang Han had reminded her, and after the little girl said goodbye, he took the phone and hung up. That had greatly upset Mengmeng.

"All right, Mengmeng. We're going to ride a big bird. When we arrive, you can continue chatting with your mommy, okay?" Zhang Han said softly.

"Um, we're going to ride the big bird, then I'll talk to Mommy when we get there." Mengmeng waved her arms and legs in Zhang Han's embrace.

The little girl liked riding airplanes, if only because she could see the cotton-candy-like clouds outside the window.

But this time, she couldn't see the clouds, because it was already dark.

At nine thirty that evening, the flight arrived at Hong Kong International Airport on schedule.

Zhang Han dragged the luggage with his left hand and carried the little girl with his right as he walked out of the airport. At another entrance, Ziyan, wearing a mask and sunglasses, was hurrying toward the departure lounge with Zhou Fei. Her trip to Shangjing was destined to be in vain.

After leaving the airport, Zhang Han scanned the crowd. At last, his gaze settled on a woman among them.

The woman's appearance resembled Zhang Han's by about thirty percent. However, she had willow-shaped brows, and her nose and lips were much more delicate. She was Zhang Li, standing 1.7 meters tall, with an appearance easily above average.

Zhang Han smiled and walked over. When he reached her, Zhang Li saw that he was dressed neatly and cleanly, with a trace of his former bearing restored. Her eyes reddened at once.

"Brother."

Zhang Li called out softly before hurrying forward two steps and throwing herself into his arms.

"Wah, wah..." Mengmeng had already been warily watching the woman who was looking at her father. When she saw them embrace, she immediately began to cry.

"Oh, oh, what's wrong, Mengmeng?" Zhang Han released his sister and hurriedly comforted the Little Princess.

Only then did Zhang Li notice Mengmeng. Seeing the adorable, aggrieved little face, she smiled and said, "Don't cry, Mengmeng. Be good. How about Auntie takes you to eat something delicious later?"

As she spoke, Zhang Li tried to take Mengmeng from him, but the girl raised her little hands in protest.

"Go away, bad woman! Daddy belongs to Mommy and me. Other people aren't allowed to hold him."

"Pfft..." Zhang Li froze for a moment before bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

Zhang Han spent quite some time explaining the meaning of "auntie" to Mengmeng. Only after learning that Zhang Li was her father's biological sister did the Little Princess gradually calm down.

Zhang Li had initially wanted to treat them to seafood, but Zhang Han refused outright. First, he felt seafood could easily give a child diarrhea. Second, he didn't trust restaurants outside. Even if they ate seafood, it had to be something he cooked himself.

When it came to food, Zhang Han's standards had already risen extraordinarily high. He planned to plant a Thunder Sun Tree and personally cultivate ingredients for Mengmeng. Until then, he could only let her suffer a little.

In the end, Zhang Han chose a noodle restaurant. During the meal, he learned that Zhang Li worked as a DJ at a bar in Tongluo Bay and only had Sundays off each week.

The DJ job was exhausting, and the environment wasn't very good either. It was full of all kinds of people. Zhang Han didn't want Zhang Li to continue working there, but she said it was her hobby.

Since persuading her was useless, Zhang Han said no more. By the time they finished eating, it was almost eleven at night. The Little Princess was drowsy, so Zhang Li hailed a taxi. She had originally wanted Zhang Han to stay at her rental place, but after learning that she shared it with others, he abandoned the idea.

He asked Zhang Li to stay with him at the Fuji Hotel in Tongluo Bay.

Naturally, in keeping with Zhang Han's principle of enjoying a quality life, he paid a five-hundred-thousand deposit and checked into a presidential suite that cost one hundred and eighty thousand per day.

This made Zhang Li pause.

It seems Brother's situation isn't as bad as I thought.

But then anger rose in her heart again.

Fine, I've been sending him five thousand every month, and now he casually takes out five hundred thousand. How is this leaving the family with nothing? It seems the Zhang family still had some conscience and left him a little money.

After entering the room, Zhang Han first settled the sleeping Little Princess in the master bedroom. He then returned to the living room and briefly explained the matter with the racecar. Only then did Zhang Li learn where the money had come from.

The siblings hadn't seen each other for several years, so naturally they had a lot to talk about. Their conversation continued until one in the morning.

During the conversation, Zhang Li asked about Mengmeng's mother, but Zhang Han gave no definite answer. Zhang Li didn't press him. When she became tired, she went to rest in the second bedroom.

Zhang Han was sleepy too, but he had something more important to do. He forced himself to stay alert, walked to the computer desk, and turned on the computer.

He took the pen from the drawer and began to ponder.

"Once the Thunder Sun Tree is planted, a mountain can be treated as its territory and nourished. It can turn the land into Spirit Soil. Besides planting other seeds, I can also grow fruits and vegetables, but I'll have to consider the area. The larger the area, the thinner the Spiritual Power in the soil will be. I need to think about what I need first. No, what Mengmeng needs."

Zhang Han picked up the pen and began writing on a sheet of paper.

"Mengmeng needs to drink milk, so I'll have to raise a dairy cow. Not just that—there are also chickens, ducks, fish, and other food. That can be the livestock area."

"Mengmeng's staple foods are rice, flour, and so on. I'll need to plant rice and wheat. Along with the fruits and vegetables, that means I'll have to set aside a planting area."

"The mountaintop can be left for the Thunder Sun Tree, the Yuanqing Tree, and the other things needed for cultivation. There's no need to plant anything else there. I'll reserve it as the residential area."

"The planting area and livestock area can go on the back mountain. Oh, right, I'll also raise some pets for Mengmeng to play with, so I'll need to set aside a pet area."

"As for the front mountain, I'll leave an area for recreation. I can build a swimming pool, a golf course, and so on."

"We can't neglect aesthetics either. I'll set up a viewing area and plant beautiful flowers and trees. I can also make a giant fish tank for rare fish, dig a pond for lotus flowers, and build a waterside courtyard. That would be quite nice for enjoying the scenery."

"It would be best to create a seawater area as well. But that would be difficult and isn't something I can consider right now. I'll leave two empty areas where the front and back mountains connect, just in case. That should be enough."

After writing all this, Zhang Han read through it from top to bottom and was immediately stunned.

"Livestock area, planting area, residential area, pet area, recreation area, viewing area, seawater area, reserve area!"

Leaving aside the last two, the first six alone were already too many. The project was enormous. The Thunder Sun Tree simply didn't have that much energy!

After the Thunder Sun Tree was planted, it would treat the mountain as its territory and release its first wave of energy to transform it. The territory would then recharge the Thunder Sun Tree. Once the tree was fully charged, it could release a second wave of energy to transform the territory. This would repeat until the Thunder Sun Tree and the territory merged into one, becoming a treasure land.

But it only had three chances to carry out this transformation!