"That's right. My family owns the land deed for the Cloudsky Pet Beast Battle Resort. Uncle Guan has wanted to buy it for a long time."
Su Ping straightened up and made no attempt to hide anything. Over their time together, he had come to understand Qin Xiaoxue better.
Though this young heiress had a fiery temper, she did not have all that much scheming in her heart.
At this point, Su Ping even held up his fingers to indicate a number.
"He even offered this much."
Qin Xiaoxue took a look.
"I'd advise you not to sell! No matter how much he offers!"
Seeing how serious Qin Xiaoxue looked, Su Ping paused, then smiled.
"What, am I stupid? Of course I won't sell!"
This time, it was Qin Xiaoxue's turn to pause. Looking at Su Ping, she seemed surprised.
"What? Do you know something about what's going on, too?"
Su Ping shook his head.
"I don't know why he's doing it, but it's not hard to guess! Back when I was still in school, Manager Guan asked my dad several times about buying our land deed.
"My old man might not have been very reliable, but he still knew what mattered when it came to certain things.
"And now, it's only been a few months. My dad has only just left, and I've taken over everything at Woodheart, big and small. How many times has Manager Guan already come knocking?
"Including today, he's brought this up at least three times in barely ten days. On the surface, he's renting those Forest Wolves of mine, but in reality, he brings this up every single time. Besides money, he's offered plenty of other arguments.
"I don't know what he's in such a hurry for, but nobody in this world is a fool. People don't do business at a loss. His price is fair, and he's certainly invested a lot, so buying the land deed would make sense. But I still feel something's off."
Those were Su Ping's true thoughts.
If he really were a freshly graduated student like Zhou Shuchen or Li Shu, faced with one enormous offer after another, perfectly reasonable motives, and a chance to land such a windfall, he might actually have agreed.
Unfortunately, Su Ping was not.
A deal that came chasing you was no good deal!
Su Ping believed that he understood this principle, and Uncle Guan understood it, too. The latter was simply taking advantage of his youth and lack of worldly experience, nothing more.
But while Su Ping understood that much, how had Qin Xiaoxue figured it out? From her tone, she seemed to know even more than he did.
So he turned to Qin Xiaoxue, whose gaze had grown complicated.
"Qin, do you happen to have some inside information?"
The complicated look vanished from Qin Xiaoxue's eyes. She glanced at this fellow, whose steady demeanor was nothing like those newly graduated youngsters, and immediately snapped:
"Now you know to call me big sis?"
After shooting Su Ping a vicious glare, Qin Xiaoxue continued.
"My grandfather hasn't uncovered the specifics either. But do you know who's behind Yuntian Resort?"
"Who?"
Not minding Qin Xiaoxue's attempt to keep him in suspense, Su Ping asked eagerly.
"Have you heard of Skycloud Group?"
Su Ping sucked in a sharp breath.
Yuntian Resort. Skycloud Group.
The two characters in their Chinese names were merely reversed, yet Su Ping had never connected them before.
There was no other reason-the gulf between them was simply too vast!
Yuntian Resort might have had some clout, but compared with Skycloud Group, it was hardly worth mentioning.
Even the Fire King Company, where Jin Sheng worked and Zhou Shuchen had signed his contract earlier that day, was leagues behind Skycloud Group in Jianghai Province!
This was a true local behemoth in Jianghai Province.
Its businesses covered an extremely broad range: pet beast real estate, pet beast medicine, sales of standard resources, and other industries serving everyday needs.
It even wielded a degree of influence throughout the eastern region of the Dragon Nation.
A behemoth like that was connected to the middle-aged manager next door, whose face crinkled like a chrysanthemum when he smiled?
Still, Su Ping would never doubt Qin Xiaoxue's words.
In other words, Skycloud Group stood behind Manager Guan and was the one that truly wanted to buy his family's land deed!
Although pet beast real estate was indeed one of Skycloud Group's main businesses, Su Ping did not believe for a moment that it would normally sink this much money into a location out in the suburbs.
Especially when Qin Xiaoxue immediately added:
"Also, a few days ago, I was next door to your place. After that Guan fellow came back from seeing you, he reported your answer to someone. And that someone was Skycloud Group's chairwoman, Dong Muyun."
Dong Muyun.
Su Ping was reasonably familiar with that name. After all, he occasionally heard it on the television news.
But he had never actually seen her.
After hearing Qin Xiaoxue's words, Su Ping frowned again.
Skycloud Group was enormous. If one of its projects had prompted someone to come buy his family's land deed, that would have been normal enough. But what if even its chairwoman had come in person?
And had personally asked about it?
Su Ping quickly asked:
"If she wanted to, wouldn't she have plenty of ways to force me to sell this land?"
He might not want to sell, but a major figure from an organization like that naturally had plenty of resources. She might even be able to mobilize the authorities to force a sale.
Qin Xiaoxue nodded.
"That's the crucial point, too. From beginning to end, not a whisper has gotten out. The old man doesn't know anything either. There might not even be anyone within Skycloud Group who knows. I've been using my connections to investigate lately, but I still haven't gotten to the bottom of it.
"She hasn't let any information slip. That may also be why she hasn't resorted to force."
At this point, Qin Xiaoxue let out a breath.
"So I'm just giving you a warning. There's something fishy about this. Keep your eyes open."
"Thank you."
This time, Su Ping's gratitude was heartfelt. He had guessed there was probably something going on behind the scenes, but he had never imagined it involved anything this big.
Faced with his thanks, Qin Xiaoxue instead grew a little embarrassed. She waved a hand and hurriedly said:
"Well, Wooden Head is staying with you, isn't he? I'm still counting on you to keep helping him improve beyond Self-Healing. All right, it's getting late. I'm heading back."
Watching Qin Xiaoxue quicken her steps as she left, Su Ping checked the time. It was clearly only six. How was it getting late?
Still, he did not dwell on it. He turned on his computer and typed "Skycloud Group" and "Dong Muyun" into the search bar.
"Skycloud Group is a modern..."
He immediately closed the empty corporate introduction and turned his attention to Dong Muyun instead.
Even online, there was little information about her. There was only a single photo showing her in profile.
The woman in the photograph wore sportswear and seemed to be running, but he could make out her tall, slender figure and generous curves.
Su Ping paid no attention to those things, however, and focused on her profile.
He skimmed past the rest. What drew Su Ping's careful attention were some rumored details about her pet beasts.
The source shown on the page merely described Dong Muyun as a Beast Tamer of at least Monarch Rank.
Her main pet beast was also said to be a special creature called a Sky-Roaming Fish.
Its combat prowess was nothing extraordinary, but one thing was particularly noteworthy:
It was a rare space-attribute pet beast!
Reading the profile of Dong Muyun on the screen over and over, Su Ping sank into thought.
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