Another Gold? · Part One

Watching the husband and wife's discussion grow ever more heated, Qian Mo broke out in a cold sweat.

The Angel Clan's current absurd style probably wasn't his fault.

Qian Mo quietly reassured himself.

At the same time, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed he had managed to muddle through this incident.

But just as Qian Mo planned to quietly slip away and check on Ye Lulu, a blade-like gaze swept toward him.

"Qian Mo, where are you going? Have you figured out how to fob me off over what I asked you just now?" Le Jia said blandly.

Qian Mo's expression turned bitter.

Well, looks like there was no escaping this.

In the end, unable to come up with an excuse, Qian Mo could only truthfully tell Le Jia what had happened.

Of course, that did not include Deep Attunement's ability to guarantee a Hundred-Percent Martial Soul Fusion Technique.

Qian Mo merely said that he had sensed something like this for a long time. The situation had been urgent, so he had been forced into it and unleashed it on the spot. He had not expected it to actually work.

Upon hearing that it was such a storybook-like reversal from a desperate situation, Le Jia's eyes lit up.

For a moment, she actually threw the plan she had previously conspired over with Ye Lan—to act first and explain later—straight out of her mind, and began eagerly asking for the details with a face full of gossip.

Qian Mo felt uncomfortable all over under her questioning.

But faced with an interrogation from his prospective mother-in-law, Qian Mo did not dare run away. He could only stand there with a pained expression and keep explaining.

Meanwhile, in distant Golden Ear City, the gears of fate quietly began to turn.

Golden Ear City Orphanage—

In the orphanage's noisy cafeteria, a little boy who looked seven or eight sat quietly with a blank expression, waiting for Sister Zhang to hand out the food.

The child's name was Dan Lei. He had originally been the son of a merchant couple from Cold Abyss City.

However, after his family's business failed and they were liquidated, he had ended up wandering the streets at a young age and became an orphan.

Although Dan Lei had managed to scrape by in Cold Abyss City for two years with his exceptional intelligence,

the harsh environment near the Far North, coupled with his excessively young body, meant that if not for Qian Mo's arrival, he likely would have starved to death that day.

At that moment, Sister Zhang came over and gave him a large loaf of bread, an egg, and a bowl of thick soup with oil floating on top.

Dan Lei thanked her, took them, and ate quietly. Yet in his heart, he silently grumbled two words.

"Liar."

Though it was a derogatory term, Dan Lei did not feel the slightest resentment.

Because this deception was a beautiful one.

On the day he had been invited, Qian Mo had clearly promised two meals a day, which was also the usual daily number of meals for most commoners in this era.

But ever since arriving at this orphanage, Dan Lei had lived the wonderful life of having three meals a day.

At first, Dan Lei had been uneasy.

Because his former parents had taught him that any kindness without cause surely concealed a trap behind it, and that he had to be extremely careful.

It was precisely because Dan Lei had always kept that lesson in mind that he had avoided many crises and barely survived until now.

So after his initial unease faded and his body recovered, Dan Lei had wanted to escape.

After conducting a careful investigation, Dan Lei discovered an unbelievable fact.

The orphanage's security was rudimentary to the extreme. Or rather, there was no security at all.

For a base engaged in shady business, that was extremely abnormal!

So Dan Lei escaped that very day.

Then, less than half a day later, he was caught and brought back.

Recalling how he had been captured, even Dan Lei's face, as expressionless as eternal ice, twitched faintly at the corner of his mouth.

Because he had actually been caught by someone from Martial Soul Hall, the organization known as the number one force on the Douluo Continent!

And the reason was simply that the orphanage director had asked Martial Soul Hall for help, saying that their orphanage had lost a child.

Then he had been "found" and brought back.

Taking another bite of bread, Dan Lei chewed carefully as his thoughts began racing, reviewing the information he had gathered.

"Although Martial Soul Hall has always had a good reputation, finding a lost child—especially an ordinary child—

may seem normal, but it actually isn't normal at all.

Martial Soul Hall was, after all, an organization made up of lofty Soul Master lords. How could they possibly care about such trivial matters? They weren't city officials."

And if I remembered correctly...

The expression on that Soul Master lord's face back then was what Father would call fawning, right?

A Soul Master fawning over an ordinary person...

There was probably only one possibility for that: the person standing behind the director had a status far higher than his."

At that thought, Qian Mo's handsome face, with its pair of compassionate eyes, could not help surfacing in Dan Lei's mind.

But limited by his meager knowledge, that was all Dan Lei could deduce.

And because he knew he lacked the power to resist his circumstances, Dan Lei could only go with the flow for now.

But just as Dan Lei finished breakfast, put away his utensils, and prepared to go outside to stretch his body, Sister Zhang came over and gathered together the children who had arrived later.

One bolder child asked, "Director Auntie, why did you call us over?"

Sister Zhang shook the paper and pen in her hand and smiled.

"Hehe, I only recently realized that I know your names, but haven't registered your other information yet.

That lord has always been meticulous in his work, so today I'll register your ages, Martial Souls, and some other information.

All right, hurry and line up. It won't take too long, but if you little rascals get too naughty, be careful—I might not give you snacks tonight~"

With both the carrot and the stick, the children immediately lined up obediently, and registration began in an orderly manner.

Dan Lei stood at the very back of the line, silently observing.

Before long, it was Dan Lei's turn.

Although Qian Mo had taken in quite a few people, there truly were not many children who could be sent to the orphanage, because there were too few homeless children who could survive.

Though Sister Zhang already knew Dan Lei's name from caring for the children, and Dan Lei had left a deep impression on her because of the previous incident,

she still methodically asked Dan Lei for his name, gender, and Martial Soul.

When asked about his Martial Soul, Dan Lei shook his head and answered,

"Director, I haven't awakened my Martial Soul yet."

The director did not react much and calmly recorded it.

Although Martial Soul Hall offered free Martial Soul awakenings, the service came with conditions.

They had to be done during a particular period each year.

In other words, whether a child had just turned six, was already several months past six, or was even nearly seven, they still had to wait until that day for it to be free, and for a Soul Master to come help awaken it.

Other than that, if they wanted to awaken their Martial Soul, they had to pay. After all, Soul Master lords could not be expected to work for free all the time.