Chapter 24: Another Encounter

Lin Mu was quite satisfied with the efficiency of the Dragon Protection Corps.

Not only did they handle things quickly, but the quality was also quite high. Nothing else needed to be said; just the treatment in the First Class Cabin made Lin Mu very satisfied. What’s more, there was a beautiful woman sitting not far from him.

Although the woman’s face was mostly covered by a pair of large sunglasses, Lin Mu had sharp eyes. Just from the outline of her face and her shapely, curvaceous figure, he could already see traces of her beautiful charm.

However, after just a few glances, Lin Mu turned his head away and went back to studying other things. After all, it was his first time on a plane, and many things still felt very novel to him.

Watching Lin Mu amusingly fiddle with the small tray table in front of him, Luo Bingyun couldn’t help but reveal a slight smile on her face.

This man who had suddenly appeared seemed to be on a plane for the first time. He looked at everything with great curiosity, so much so that he didn’t even spare a glance for the beautiful woman sitting nearby.

However, Luo Bingyun wasn’t surprised that the man in front of her didn’t recognize her. She wasn’t a celebrity from the entertainment industry, so naturally, she wasn’t that well-known.

But those who did know her didn’t dare to look down on her. If nothing else, the massive Haoyu Financial Group behind her was enough to make anyone look up to her.

The Haoyu Financial Group, with assets totaling hundreds of billions of dollars, was not some small local family but a behemoth spanning countless industries, with assets all over the world and extremely powerful strength.

The people in charge of this financial group were precisely the Luo Family.

The Luo Family was of Huaxia descent, but they had left Huaxia long ago. After several generations of hard work overseas, they finally achieved the formidable reputation the Luo Family holds today.

This time, Luo Bingyun returned to the country precisely to shift the financial group’s investment focus to Huaxia. After striving abroad for so long, their operations in other countries were already very mature.

However, Huaxia had never become a major investment hub for the Haoyu Financial Group. So this time, Luo Bingyun brought a large amount of capital, preparing to move into the domestic market and look for suitable investment projects.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed. During this time, Luo Bingyun had traveled to many places. Local governments were also very enthusiastic about the arrival of the Luo Family.

But so far, Luo Bingyun still hadn’t finalized the investment direction. After some brief contact, she still had some concerns about the overall domestic environment.

Most importantly, she didn’t really like those officials; perhaps it could even be said she despised them.

“Insatiably greedy” was the most fitting description she had for those officials in her heart.

At this moment, Lin Mu was pondering how to prepare the medicine after obtaining that Wood Fungus Grass. His attention was completely not on Luo Bingyun beside him, so naturally, he didn’t know that such a beautiful woman had been watching him the entire journey.

As soon as they arrived in Nangu City, Lin Mu eagerly got off the plane. From beginning to end, he didn’t look at Luo Bingyun again, which made Luo Bingyun feel a little resentful inside.

Beautiful women are always like this: if someone stares at them freely, they think the person is frivolous; but if no one pays attention to them, they think the person really has no taste.

But remembering that the two of them had only met once, Luo Bingyun chuckled silently to herself and shook her head slightly. Then, accompanied by her bodyguards, she walked off the plane.

After leaving the airport, Lin Mu took a taxi directly to the herbal market area. He found a hotel nearby to stay in, waiting for the next day’s morning market to open.

This herbal market was quite famous throughout Nangu City. Medicine merchants from all over Huaxia gathered here, so naturally, a vast variety of medicinal herbs were concentrated in this place.

However, while some people sold genuine goods, there were naturally others who sold fakes. Whether one could tell the difference depended entirely on their own luck.

Right now, Lin Mu encountered such a situation.

Hurrying to the morning market, he originally wanted to browse the herbal market properly. After all, preparing medicine wasn’t just about eating that herb alone; it required other medicinal herbs to be combined with it.

Some were to balance the medicinal properties, others to enhance the potency. In short, concocting a complete Elixir was not a simple task.

“Young man, here to buy herbs?” A middle-aged man squatting by the roadside grabbed Lin Mu. He had a scruffy beard, and even with Lin Mu’s sharp eyes, it was hard to tell what the man actually looked like.

“Hmm, do you have any good herbs here?” Lin Mu nodded, squatting down to look at the basket in front of the man.

“I have lots of good herbs here!” the man said enthusiastically. “I just don’t know what medicinal properties you need, young man?”

“I need some herbs that are cold and slightly cooling in nature. Do you have any here?” Lin Mu sorted through the herbs in the basket as he asked casually.

“Of course I do!” The man immediately started rummaging through the basket, then pulled out a dark brown root about the length of a finger. “Look at this herb. I dug it out myself from Changbai Mountain. The herbs that grow there are all cold in nature, so it definitely meets your requirements.”

Hearing this, Lin Mu smiled slightly. There was no direct connection between a herb’s properties and where it grew; in fact, most of the time, it was quite the opposite.

Just from the man’s words, Lin Mu knew he was trying to trick him.

“How much for this herb?” Lin Mu took the unremarkable-looking herb and glanced at it casually.

“Well, as soon as I saw you, young man, I felt a connection!” The man subtly examined Lin Mu’s clothing, then said with a full smile.

“Two thousand! If you want it, you can take it right away!”

Hearing this, Lin Mu inwardly scoffed. Offering this price was probably because, judging by his attire, he didn’t look like someone with much money.

The moment he took the herb, he had already sensed that there was essentially no medicinal power inside it. To put it bluntly, it was probably just some wild grass dug up from some remote mountain area.

“Too expensive, I can’t afford it.” Tossing the herb back into the basket, Lin Mu ignored the man’s pestering and stood up to leave directly.

After walking through the entire herbal market, Lin Mu bought a few suitable complementary herbs. Then he went to the place auctioning the Wood Fungus Grass. It was actually a large herbal shop, with a simple auction held in the backyard.

“Everyone, take a look. This herb was acquired from a herb gatherer. After professional appraisal, it has very high medicinal value. I, Li Laosan, haven’t just started in this business; everyone trusts me. The herb itself is absolutely fine. As for the price, the starting bid is one hundred thousand!”

On the auction platform, a middle-aged man with a refined appearance picked up the Wood Fungus Grass contained in the brocade box. After a brief introduction, he started the bidding.

Hearing this price, Lin Mu knew these people had no idea about the true effects of Wood Fungus Grass. Otherwise, let alone a three-hundred-year-old Wood Fungus Grass, even a three-hundred-year-old ginseng wouldn’t have a starting price of just one hundred thousand.

But the cheaper the price, the happier Lin Mu was. After all, he didn’t have a huge amount of money on him right now and had to plan for the future, so naturally, he wanted to save where he could.

After some bidding, Lin Mu finally won the auction for three hundred and ten thousand. Then, payment and goods were exchanged, and he took the Wood Fungus Grass.

Without returning to the hotel, Lin Mu went straight to the airport and caught a flight back to Donghai City.

In the days after returning to Donghai City, he focused his main energy on selecting complementary herbs. He even specially asked someone to craft a bronze cauldron for him. The cauldron, only fifty centimeters high with two handles and three legs, looked very exquisite.

One day, just as Lin Mu had received another suitable complementary herb and was happily walking home, a woman with somewhat disheveled clothes came running towards him.

As she ran, she kept looking back over her shoulder.

Luo Bingyun was in a sorry state. From birth until now, she had never been this disheveled.

After running around inspecting various places during this period, she finally decided to invest in Donghai City, this international metropolis. Although the situation here was more complex than other places, with the Haoyu Financial Group as her backing, Luo Bingyun wasn’t too concerned about these issues.

Although she had only brought five billion in funds this time, no one dared to look down on the massive Luo Family. Just the number of people from all walks of life present at the cooperation site amounted to several hundred.

The endless flashing of camera lights and the insincere pleasantries never stopped. Luo Bingyun finally grew a bit tired of this spectacle. She left the remaining work to her assistant and quietly left the venue alone.

Originally, for this investment trip back to the country, her father had assigned four top special forces soldiers as her bodyguards. But Luo Bingyun wanted to roam around freely and relax by herself, so she even shook off the bodyguards.

After all, this was Huaxia, not some other foreign country. Her fame wasn’t that great here, and those who knew her could be counted on one hand. Naturally, she wasn’t afraid of anything unexpected happening.

But, an unexpected incident did happen.

Less than half an hour after leaving her bodyguards, she encountered an assassination attempt. If she hadn’t braked early to avoid hitting a pedestrian, the bullet that grazed her shoulder might have taken her life.

Although Luo Bingyun immediately abandoned the car and fled, cleverly using the crowded streets to lose the assassin, her bag was somehow squeezed off in the chaos. Now, she was penniless and couldn’t contact anyone.

Panic-stricken, she fled further and further. The road became more and more remote, and finally, somehow, she ended up in a small alley.

Under the dim light, a figure walked towards her from the opposite end. Luo Bingyun immediately slowed her pace, carefully moved along the wall, lowered her head, and brushed her hair a couple of times to cover her face.

She didn’t want to attract some pervert before she had even shaken off the assassin.

The person opposite gradually approached. However, that person didn’t seem to notice Luo Bingyun at all. Instead, he was staring intently at something in his hand, seemingly lost in thought about something.

Just as the person passed by her, Luo Bingyun instinctively glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. That one look made her freeze instantly.

The person approaching was actually that somewhat silly-seeming man she had met by chance on the plane a few days ago.

Although she had only met this man once before, after observing him during the journey, Luo Bingyun could be sure he wasn’t a bad person.

In this critical situation, this man was like a lifesaving straw that suddenly appeared. Without the slightest hesitation, Luo Bingyun immediately turned around and grabbed his hand.

Caught off guard, Lin Mu was pulled to a sudden stop.