Hearing Li Xinglong's words, Zeng Mo's heart skipped a beat.
A year of mourning—and then the end of the world?
He immediately asked again, just to be sure. "You're certain? One year of mourning, and then the apocalypse?"
"Yeah."
A faint smile touched Zeng Mo's lips. "Then, Li Xinglong, I'd like to make you an offer. How much would you charge to work for me?"
"How much are you offering?"
"Seven million."
"Hey! Seven million!" Li Xinglong was taken aback.
"What's wrong? Too little?"
"No, that won't do. I can't leave the other place just yet. At most, I can put together about a tenth of a million... That's..." Li Xinglong picked up his abacus and began working through the figures, his brows furrowed in concentration.
"Forget it. I'll call it five million," Zeng Mo said.
Li Xinglong considered it for a moment. "Five million? Based on the market price of the jade I own, that's a very fair deal."
"Then it's settled. The five million will come out of my own pocket. I'll give her one million of it so she can..." Zeng Mo said.
"Ah!"
Liu Fangjun had been startled when Zeng Mo offered seven million, but after hearing him lower it to five, she finally relaxed. She'd been worrying that he would ask her to pay one million herself.
"Zeng Mo, no. You can hire me, and that's already the greatest help you could give me. How could I accept your money?"
"Come on. I'm not short of money." Zeng Mo waved a hand, though he couldn't help calculating the cost in his head.
The apocalypse was coming. Money wouldn't matter then; supplies would.
It would be better to take advantage of her while she wasn't yet the water-element deity she was destined to become, and ask her to help him make some plans.
Just as Zeng Mo had expected.
Hearing his offer, Liu Fangjun was moved. She silently accepted his kindness, while planning to repay him in some other way.
She gently placed a hand on her slender, fair thigh and stroked the smooth black stockings.
After they finished their deal, Zeng Mo and Liu Fangjun were escorted out of the antique shop by Li Xinglong.
Liu Fangjun followed Zeng Mo to his room. She bowed slightly and said gratefully, "Zeng Mo, thank you. You've helped me so much. I don't even know how to repay you."
"If you don't know how, then you can owe me for now. You can repay me whenever I need you to," Zeng Mo said with a smile.
"Okay. The gold-sea giant crab was my property to begin with. You've been busy helping me, so why don't I give you that crab?"
"The gold-sea giant crab is yours?"
"Mm."
Zeng Mo was a little surprised.
When he'd first encountered the gold-sea giant crab two days ago, the prompt had said it was a level-three water-element deity, accompanied by several level-two water-element deities, in an area established by the organization.
Could that level-three water-element deity have been Liu Fangjun?
That would be great.
At the time, Zeng Mo had wanted to go in and see if he could find those level-two water-element deities and earn some extra experience points. But the area was sealed off, and outsiders couldn't enter.
Thinking of this, Zeng Mo looked at Liu Shenyin, whose gaze was clear and deep. "All right. I was planning to go in there the other day, but outsiders weren't allowed in. Since that area belongs to your company, you can take me inside to have a look."
"Of course."
Zeng Mo's curiosity got the better of him. "By the way, Liu, how is it that you're supporting such a huge area all by yourself? Doesn't anyone help you manage it?"
"Mm." Liu Shenyin sat down on the sofa and let out a quiet sigh. She seemed to be recalling something unpleasant. In a low voice, she said:
"Who would help me?"
"My parents died when I was young. My grandfather raised me and put all his effort into that gold-sea crab."
"When I was ten, my grandfather arranged a marriage between me and the second son of the Jiang family. If the two of us got along, we'd marry, and the gold-sea crab would be given to us as a wedding gift."
"To be honest, I never liked that man, and I didn't want to marry him. I just thought I was already twenty-five and hadn't met the one people call my destined match. So I figured I might as well find a man and get married."
"Soon, my grandfather fell ill. The next day, I went to see him in the hospital. On the night of the wedding, I planned to give myself to him, but the man was impotent. He'd even had himself sterilized in secret years earlier, and was incapable of having children. That night, he couldn't even manage to eat. In the end, he took his own life."
"After that, the Jiang family started causing trouble. The young master of the family went on a rampage, repeatedly demanding the gold-sea crab from my grandfather. He even attacked my family's stronghold."
"Things got so bad that the Jiang family began pressuring my grandfather to hand over his company to someone they'd chosen. My grandfather was so furious that he ended up confined to the hospital. I was left alone, like an orphan."
Zeng Mo listened quietly. As he heard her recount her experiences, he gradually understood the bitterness she carried in her heart. He could see why she'd managed to survive in such a cruel world for three years and become a level-three water-element deity.
Soon, the car arrived at the entrance to the gold-sea crab's territory and was stopped by the guards.
"Why are you here again? This is a private—" The guard recognized the familiar vehicle, stepped out of the security booth, and saw Zeng Mo sitting inside.
The next second, he noticed that Liu Fangjun was sitting beside him. His voice caught in his throat.
"Miss."
"Qin Wei, he's my benefactor. From now on, you can let him into my territory whenever he wants."
"Understood, Miss."
Qin Wei gestured to the other guards in the security booth. They quickly opened the gate.
[Warning! The owner of this territory is a level-three water-element deity, and several level-two water-element deities helped establish it. Given the owner's strength, anyone who trespasses will be killed on sight. The owner should leave immediately.]
Hearing the warning in his ear, Zeng Mo frowned slightly.
There was something off about the warning. Why did the system say "trespass" instead of "invade"?
A flicker of suspicion crossed his mind.
But he didn't dwell on it. The gold-sea crab's territory had caught his attention.
The gold-sea crab was the largest private trading port in the city. Its territory was enormous, surrounded by tall walls, with guards patrolling everywhere.
"...We mainly sell seafood, along with everyday household goods. We also deal in timber, metal products, weapons, and other supplies."
After the car entered the territory, Liu Fangjun began introducing the state of the gold-sea crab.
"With a territory this big, why don't you do whatever you want with it?"
"Mm. The Jiang family's young master, who was separated from the city's Jiang family, went to the outskirts of the gold-sea city last year. He took a small territory that wasn't doing very well and, almost overnight, turned it into a second port with around fifteen hundred buildings. Then he used unfair means to take most of the businesses I'd built up with my partners."
"I know. He's built up quite a territory, but with the Jiang family controlling things, it's already been stripped of its name and taken over, hasn't it?"
Liu Fangjun shook her head. "What he stripped away wasn't the territory. It was the insect horde my grandfather had brought back three years ago."
Zeng Mo entered the room and chatted with Liu Fangjun for a while. He also checked the area again for any signs that a level-two water-element deity had been encountered, then went with Liu Fangjun to drive around the port once.
But even after all that, he still hadn't received any warning prompts.
Zeng Mo couldn't help feeling a little suspicious.
Could it be that no level-two water-element deities were here?
That would mean there was something here he could control himself.
Before you continue