Chapter 175: Heavily Rewarded Search for an Heir
Chapter 175: Heavily Rewarded Search for an Heir
Around late morning, the JD.com courier delivered the computer to Li Zian.
Li Zian brought the computer inside the house. He did not have time to unbox it. He set it down and went to the kitchen to cook.
Cooking had actually always been the Master’s main profession.
He stir-fried dishes, made soup, and prepared a full table of food.
Of course, before the meal started, Li Zian took two more plates of food to the neighbor, Taozi: one plate of sweet and sour ribs, and one plate of vinegar-glazed cabbage.
She had eaten that white vinegar earlier at the Worry-free Workshop which wasn’t sour but salty, so he gave her something sour to make up for it.
After lunch, Li Zian played with his little ancestor for a while before sneaking into his room to fiddle with the computer.
There actually wasn’t much to fiddle with. The system was already installed. He just logged in for the first time, registered, did the facial recognition thing, and then downloaded a few commonly used apps.
The included red mousepad was indeed pretty, but he hadn’t bought a mouse.
He was all set on his end, but Kun Li hadn’t sent him the instructions on how to access the Underground Network yet.
He sent Kun Li a text message, including his WeChat ID, asking her to add him on WeChat and then send him the instructions for logging into the Underground Network.
Kun Li didn’t reply to his text, but he soon received a friend request on WeChat.
Kun Li’s WeChat name was Red Spider Lily.
This WeChat name was a bit unlucky. Red Spider Lily represented hopeless love, endless longing, and the call of Heaven.
However, knowing her story, Li Zian felt this WeChat name suited her very well and matched her temperament.
Being in the position of asking for help, Li Zian politely sent a greeting message: “Hello, Sister Kun Li.”
Red Spider Lily: “Cut it out. I’m not buying that.”
Li Zian shook his head with a wry smile. With a temper like that, how would she ever find a boyfriend in the future?
But he guessed she probably wouldn’t look for one.
Her heart was already dead. If it weren’t for Yu Meilin, she might have gone to some nunnery to become a nun.
Li Zian sent her a funny emoji: “I bought the computer. Teach me how to get on the Underground Network.”
Red Spider Lily: “Strictly speaking, what you want to access isn’t just the ordinary Underground Network, but an encrypted forum on it. After logging in, you can see the transaction posts in the forum. You can also post, but I don’t recommend you do that. It will get you into trouble.”
Li Zian: “Okay.”
Kun Li then sent the steps to log into the encrypted forum, and finally sent her username and password.
Her username was actually the full pinyin for ‘Red Spider Lily’. The password was quite complex though: eighteen characters long, including uppercase and lowercase letters, special symbols, and numbers.
Li Zian followed the steps she sent, one by one. Soon, a login interface appeared on the computer screen. It had a black background with white text. The theme was a grave with a tombstone, and a crow perched on the tombstone. It had a strong dark style.
Li Zian entered Kun Li’s username and password, and entered the encrypted forum.
The style was the same, black background with white text. The languages used in the posts weren’t uniform either. Most were in English, but there were also posts in Arabic, German, Spanish, and so on. Chinese was notably absent.
Li Zian felt a bit frustrated. This wasn’t the feeling he imagined after logging into the Underground Network. The posts on the forum, even the English ones, he couldn’t really understand fully, given his limited proficiency, let alone those in Arabic, Portuguese, French, etc. Not understanding felt pretty much the same as watching a foreign movie without subtitles.
Li Zian wanted to find a translate button on the page, but he looked for a long time and couldn’t find one.
Just then, the page automatically refreshed, and a new post appeared.
Li Zian saw the post and immediately got excited. Finally, a post written in Chinese appeared! But after clearly seeing the post’s title, he was stunned again.
The post’s title was “Heavily Rewarded Search for an Heir”.
Damn, someone was actually posting this kind of thing on the Underground Network?
Posts like “Heavily Rewarded Search for an Heir” were often seen on utility poles by the roadside, but that scam was long outdated. Probably only simple-minded youths from deep in the mountains would believe it. But posting it here on the Underground Network, was it testing everyone else’s intelligence, or verifying his own?
But Li Zian still clicked into it. After all, this was the only Chinese post, and he was curious about what kind of idiot would post a “Heavily Rewarded Search for an Heir” on the Underground Network.
Entering the post, he saw a block of text edited in Chinese, and a rather blurry picture. Then he froze.
The content of the text was: “I want the incense stick in the picture. Whoever can give me this incense stick will receive ten million US Dollars. If you have this incense stick, please send me a private message on the forum. We can arrange a time and place to meet, exchange the money for the goods directly.”
The picture was of an incense stick. It was a black incense stick with some green symbols and patterns on it, but they were very blurry and unclear.
The more he looked at it, the more this incense resembled the fake, thick Celestial Incense that Tang Qing had made.
Li Zian thought to himself: “Huang Bo never saw the real Celestial Incense, so when I tricked him with the fake Celestial Incense, he didn’t react immediately upon seeing it. How did this person manage to take a photo of the Celestial Incense? If there was a photo to be taken, wouldn’t the Celestial Incense have been right in front of him? Then why would he post a reward notice here?”
There was something fishy about this.
Li Zian wanted to see who posted this information, but there was no information, only an envelope icon for sending a private message on the forum.
Underground Network was called that for a reason. If anyone could see the information, it wouldn’t be called the Underground Network. Moreover, all transactions here were shady.
Li Zian’s fingers itched to send the other party a private message, but after thinking about it, he gave up. Huang Bo just died last night, and today a reward for the Celestial Incense was posted on the Underground Network, with a huge bounty of ten million US Dollars. This might very well be bait specifically set to catch him.
Li Zian used his mobile phone to take a picture of the content displayed on the screen, and then logged out of the Underground Network. While taking the photo, he had an idea: send the photo to Liu Jun and let him use the police’s resources to investigate. But after taking the photo, he felt this idea was inappropriate and didn’t send it to Liu Jun.
The account was Kun Li’s, not his. If the police got involved, Kun Li would get into trouble. She lent him her account; doing this would be like setting her up. He couldn’t do things that way.
Besides, you’re a Master who stays at home. What are you doing on the Underground Network? Is this Master identity just a cover? Do you have some other shady identity?
He himself would also face questioning from the police and might get into trouble.
So why invite a flea to crawl on your own head?
Ring ring, ring ring…
His mobile phone rang with an incoming call.
Li Zian took out his phone and looked; it was Du Zhishan calling.
He answered the phone and said politely: “Hello, Uncle Du.”
Du Zhishan’s voice came through: “Zian, it’s been so long since you visited. You’ve been quite busy lately, right?”
Li Zian said: “Yes, indeed very busy. How is your health, Uncle Du?”
“Ever since I used that Detox Ointment you gave me, I walk easily, eat well, and am in very good health. It’s just that I sleep a little poorly at night.”
Li Zian smiled: “That’s simple. I’ll make you some Mind-Calming Soup later. That soup specifically helps with all kinds of sleep problems.”
“That’s great. Your Uncle won’t stand on ceremony with you.”
“Please don’t be polite.”
“Your Uncle called to tell you about something.”
“Please go ahead, Uncle.”
“It’s like this. Tomorrow, the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce is holding an annual meeting in Wu Town, Zhejiang Region. I’d like to invite you and Meilin to attend. I also want to recommend Meilin to join the chamber. At that time, I can also introduce Meilin to a few friends who work in metallurgy. Doesn’t Meilin have a copper mine? It would be a good opportunity for cooperation.”
“That’s very kind of you.”
Du Zhishan said: “Look at you. Your Uncle doesn’t stand on ceremony with you, but you’re being polite with me. We’re not strangers, are we?”
Li Zian said with a smile: “Alright, no politeness. I’ll make the soup for you now and bring it over. You can have some tonight and see how it works.”
“Great. Both Linlin and I are at home. I’ll wait for you to come over.” Du Zhishan laughed happily.
“Okay, see you later.” Li Zian hung up the phone, and then called Yu Meilin.
The line connected after just a few rings.
Yu Meilin’s voice came through: “Husband, what’s up?”
Now she called him ‘husband’ very smoothly, and Li Zian found it pleasant to hear.
Li Zian got straight to the point: “Uncle Du just called. He invited you and me to attend the annual meeting in Wu Town, Zhejiang Region. He wants to recommend you to join the chamber, and he’s also prepared to introduce you to a few friends in metallurgy.”
“That’s wonderful. I’ll go with you to Wu Town tomorrow.”
“I’m going to make a pot of Mind-Calming Soup for Uncle Du now and take it over. I expect he’ll want me to stay for dinner, so I won’t be back for dinner.” Li Zian said.
“Um…” Yu Meilin hesitated.
Li Zian had already guessed what she wanted to ask. He wanted to tell her the answer directly, but felt it was better to wait for her to ask first, and then he would say it.
“Is Chuntao going with you?” Yu Meilin asked tentatively.
Li Zian said: “Uncle Mu is coming back. Chuntao needs to pick him up at the airport. I’m going alone.”
He remembered what Mu Chuntao had said. Taozi said Yu Meilin definitely already knew about his relationship with her, but hadn’t spoken about it. For a woman to endure to this extent was actually quite magnanimous. If he directly stated the answer, it would seem a bit like he was provoking her, which wouldn’t be good. Moreover, he already felt guilty, after all, he had cheated on her.
“Okay, do you want me to have Kun Li drive you over?” Yu Meilin was noticeably happier than before.
Li Zian said: “No need. After I finish making the soup, I’ll just take a taxi over. No need to trouble her. I’ll feel more at ease if she stays by your side to protect you.”
Yu Meilin laughed: “Right, a wife is meant to be cherished. You’ve never called me ‘wife’ before. Call me that once, I want to hear it.”
Li Zian covered his forehead, but still called out: “Wife.”
“Mhm! I’ll arrange my work for tomorrow now. You go make the soup.” Yu Meilin said.
“Okay, I’ll hang up then.” Li Zian ended the call, and then gave a wry smile.
They had just started dating and were already calling each other husband and wife. Wasn’t the pace of this relationship a bit too fast?
However, nowadays it wasn’t rare for people to go to a hotel after a blind date to ‘inspect the goods’. Measured by that standard, it wasn’t too fast, especially since it’s the 21st century, a fast-paced world of big data.
Li Zian made the soup, went to say hello to Tang Qing, and then took a large jar of Mind-Calming Soup, hailed a taxi, and went to the Du family house.