Starting a Family and Getting Rich

"Very good, very good!"

Li Jinshui chuckled, his tone dripping with sarcastic mockery. "It seems Supervisor Ye is still the sharpest of us all. After all the dust settled on this scheme, you're the only one left standing as the winner. As for me, the great hero who risked his life on the front lines, I've ultimately been reduced to a disposable pawn. Sigh..."

"Two million!" Ye Mei spat out the number with crisp finality, cutting off his incessant rambling.

"Two million? Ms. Ye, what kind of person do you take me for? My spine is made of steel, Li Jinshui doesn't know how to bow for money..." Li Jinshui let out a cold snort.

"Enough nonsense, three million!"

Ye Mei seemed to have anticipated Li Jinshui's penchant for price-gouging. She increased the offer without hesitation, then warned, "Don't you dare push your luck, kid. This is the absolute maximum I can scrape together. If you're still not satisfied, I'll really pull some strings to get you that station chief position—let's see if you're still smiling then."

"Meimei, how could you say such things to me? You can just transfer the money to my card. I just feel that the bond between us shouldn't be measured by mere currency! You've truly wounded my heart!"

Li Jinshui's tone turned melancholic, yet he feigned a stubborn, heart-wrenching resilience. "By the way, Meimei, for a transaction of this size, do I need to go to the bank counter? It's the morning rush hour, might be hard to catch a cab. Do you need me to come pick you up?"

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The phone line went dead with a sharp click, leaving only a busy signal in its wake.

"Nice!"

Li Jinshui pumped his fist into the air, his face flushed with excitement.

Between three million and a station chief position, even a fool would know which to choose.

A station chief only earned a monthly salary of fifty thousand. Even if one managed to cultivate enough top-tier performers to earn extra commissions, it would take years of grueling, soul-crushing labor to scrape together three million.

With this three million, plus the illicit goods seized last night and that Wild Ox Stake manual worth two hundred thousand, his total net worth would easily exceed four million once everything was liquidated!

This was a true overnight fortune.

"This money should be enough to help me break through to the Thousand-Jun Realm. Once I do, will I still have to worry about finding a high-paying job? And that Exotic Beast Tendon of unknown grade—perhaps even the Wing-Folding Realm won't be out of reach."

Li Jinshui's eyes sparkled with brilliance, his heart brimming with hope for the future.

His gaze then drifted toward the metal box on the floor.

Should he try to ask Ye Mei about it?

Even if Ye Mei didn't know its origin, her imperial envoy teacher would surely recognize its value...

Forget it. What if it's too precious and her teacher decides they want it too?

Li Jinshui immediately dismissed the thought.

If it were something even her teacher coveted, it couldn't be measured in money; it was certainly far too valuable to trade away.

And if that big-shot imperial envoy waved a hand and offered a "favor" in exchange, he would be the one suffering a massive loss.

Besides, the Exotic Beast Meat was of immense use to him, and he could even use Deduction to derive high-grade Stake Standing techniques from it.

"Better to rely on oneself than others. I, Li Jinshui, have made it this far solely because my own strength is solid. As for favors, it's enough that Ye Mei owes me one."

Li Jinshui shook his head.

For now, he had to deal with this Exotic Beast Tendon as soon as possible—getting it into his stomach was the safest bet—while simultaneously focusing on increasing his strength.

He pulled out his phone and began searching online.

The methods for cooking Exotic Beast Meat were incredibly complex, requiring professional chefs to pair them with appropriate medicinal diets to ensure the energy didn't dissipate during the cooking process.

Thus, the higher the grade of the meat, the more difficult the culinary techniques required.

After a brief look, Li Jinshui helplessly put his phone down.

While there were people online sharing cooking techniques, they only went up to C-grade Exotic Beast Meat.

Higher-grade meat was never even seen, let alone flaunted by the wealthy.

Moreover, one chef's shared experience specifically warned that if a martial artist's strength was too low, they shouldn't consume high-grade meat, as there was a risk of their meridians rupturing from being overwhelmed by the surge of blood energy.

"Just looking at the energy pulsing within this Exotic Beast Tendon, it's definitely above C-grade, likely even B-grade or higher."

Li Jinshui sighed. It seemed he couldn't process it himself.

The main issue was that he didn't know the grade of the tendon, so he would have to store it away for now and find another opportunity to inquire about it.

If he was truly desperate, he would just have to go back to Ye Mei.

Tossing his phone aside, Li Jinshui lay back on the sofa and gradually drifted off to sleep.

"Buzz, buzz!"

He didn't know how much time had passed before Li Jinshui was jolted awake by his phone vibrating incessantly beside him.

He picked it up to see a familiar yet unfamiliar short number—it was from the Inspection Bureau.

"Hello, greetings. This is the upstanding citizen Li Jinshui." Li Jinshui answered the phone with extreme politeness.

"Hello, Mr. Li Jinshui. This is the Rong City Inspection Bureau, Shuanglong Street Branch. We have a case that requires your cooperation for an investigation. Please come over as soon as possible." The voice on the other end was a young woman's; her tone was cold, yet her voice sounded soft and sweet.

"Understood."

Li Jinshui immediately lowered his voice, adopting a magnetic, "CEO-style" bubble voice as if he had just finished signing a multi-billion dollar contract. He replied in a deep tone, "However, I am currently in a very important trans-oceanic video conference. I will have my assistant check my schedule in a moment and try my best to carve out some time to come over."

"Assistant?" The person on the other end of the line paused, sounding puzzled. "Aren't you a delivery driver? How do you have an assistant?"

"Oh, no, no, no. Delivering food is just something I did to escape the shackles of my family and experience the life of the common folk. By the way, is your Inspection Bureau still hiring? Actually, my childhood dream was to become an inspector who upholds justice, but my family forced me to inherit a soulless, hundred-billion-dollar fortune. My dream was shattered in the end." Li Jinshui sighed deeply, sounding quite sorrowful.

"Mr. Li, the files I have here show that your parents..."

"Pfft! That was a fake file specifically created by my family to protect me. Little comrade, your clearance level isn't high enough to access the real classified documents. Forget it, I won't tell you anymore; knowing too much isn't good for you."

Click!

Li Jinshui hung up the phone and sat up from the sofa.

Outside the window, the sky was already turning a faint yellow; it was evening.

There were several missed calls on his phone, two of which were from Lin Zhen, and the others were all from Huang Lichen.

Lin Zhen calling was most likely related to the investigation in coordination with the Inspection Bureau.

As for Huang Lichen...

"Sigh!"

Li Jinshui sighed with a bit of sadness. Old Huang had put in a lot of effort this time, only to lose everything, receive a demerit, and get demoted. Unless Ye Mei really gave him a hand, it would be hard for him to get ahead again.

Thinking of this, he called Huang Lichen back.

"Hello, Ashui." The call was answered the moment it went through.

"Hey, Little Huang, what do you need?"

The moment Li Jinshui spoke, his earlier sympathy had long since been thrown to the dogs. He said arrogantly, "I heard you got demoted. How about it, interested in coming to work for me?"

"Damn it, when I was still a deputy battalion commander, you called me Old Huang, and I didn't pick a fight with you. Now that I've been demoted, you're calling me Little Huang?" On the other end, Old Huang snapped and cursed.

"So what? It's not like it's your first day knowing me. I've always been this realistic!" Li Jinshui said righteously.

"..."

Old Huang on the other end was choked into silence for a long while before saying helplessly, "Forget it, you're sick, so I won't hold it against you. Back to business, I've got a good path to getting rich here. Are you interested in coming over to join me?"