Lu Feng tossed the gold coin over to the man. "Dinner should be included too."
The innkeeper’s expression changed slightly when he caught and observed the gold coin. He was aware of Lu Feng’s wealthy background but the Young Master had never come with a gold coin. He always came with silver coins.
That was because one gold coin was worth around fifty silver ones and the Inn cost ten silver coins for their executive rooms.
Even though he was stunned by the new development, the innkeeper did his best to hide it and simply nodded to Lu Feng’s earlier order saying dinner had to be included.
Dinner was always included for executive rooms but he decided not to explain that part to Lu Feng. Maybe Lu Feng had forgotten. "Surely, Young Master."
The innkeeper turned his back facing them and from the rack that had been hanging behind him, he took off two keys and handed them to Lu Feng one after the other. "One for you and one for your caretaker."
Lu Feng nodded, receiving both keys and observing the room numbers on the keyholders before placing one of the keys on Han Lin’s hand. "This one’s yours." He said even though he could see it in her eyes that she really wanted to ask why he’d gotten two rooms when they could’ve shared one.
He smiled at her, having read her mind and knowing exactly what it was that she wanted to ask him. "We’re not master and servant anymore. I just told him you’re my caretaker so I ought to treat you with that level of respect. That starts with having your own room."
Lu Feng then turned to the innkeeper who was already walking out of the counter to lead them to their rooms.
"Hold on to the change for now. I have a feeling we’ll be staying for more than a day."
Han Lin’s ears perked up briefly when she heard that sentence but she decided to remain silent.
Her Young Master hadn’t explicitly stated that they would. He just said he had a feeling that they would.
Besides, even if they did, what was wrong with that? She certainly wouldn’t mind staying at such a grand inn for two days. ’Well, I’ll need to see the room first and decide if I’ll beg him to add an extra day.’
The walk to their rooms was short as they were quickly brought to Han Lin’s room door. The innkeeper gestured for her to open the door which she did without a second thought and as she pushed the door open, the luxurious room that welcomed her made her pause for a moment.
She turned to Lu Feng and opened her mouth to speak but words didn’t come out. She remained standing for over thirty seconds just staring at Lu Feng before she finally recovered from her dazed state.
"Thank you." That was the only sentence she managed to form that didn’t refuse to leave her throat.
Lu Feng smiled and patted her head. She might be older than him but he was much taller than her. "You deserve it. Now, go in and get settled in. They’ll provide dinner soon."
She nodded. "Yes, Young Master."
With that, she headed into the room and closed the door behind her after she saw Lu Feng and the innkeeper walking toward the room just after hers. That was where her young master would be staying.
She took another look at the large bed and the well crafted mahogany chairs. Her eyes caught the furry rug at the center of the room laying under a round center table like nothing she’d ever seen.
Slowly, as she took in more glances of the room, a smile began to form on her lips. ’It probably wouldn’t hurt to spend an extra day, would it?’
While she was enjoying her room, something entirely different was going on in Lu Feng’s room.
He was frowning at the elegance of the room he found himself. It looked too grand for him. All he wanted was a place to sleep. ’I didn’t think this through thoroughly.’
He moved to the bed, sat on it, and sank into it because of how soft the bed was. He smiled. As far as he was concerned, the bed alone was definitely worth the money he’d spent.
Food soon arrived though. Dinner was a variety of dishes on a tray and they were free to eat what they wanted and keep the rest later. Lu Feng ate very little. For some reason, he wasn’t feeling really hungry. Instead, he was feeling worried.
There was something bothering him. The panels still floating in front of him remained bothersome. ’I better get into it then.’
With that, Lu Feng began experimenting. The system had stated that he could invest diverse resources into targeted individuals but how was he supposed to identify these individuals?
He had no idea.
That was where his experiment came in. Since he had no idea how to identify the targets his Investment System was referring to, he would try it on those he knew and see how the system would react.
Since the system specifically said Heroines, it was clear on one thing.
His investments were aimed at only females. He couldn’t even experiment on himself.
So he started with Han Lin.
He tried to invest one gold coin in Han Lin but it failed.
At first, he had no idea why it failed but when he tried it the second time, he saw a new panel pop up.
Ding!
[Target Han Lin does not meet requirements. She is neither Crippled nor at rock bottom. Although she has high potential, she doesn’t qualify as a Crippled Heroine.]
He frowned. He read through it but didn’t even try to understand all of it before he began to internally complain. Just seeing that Han Lin didn’t meet the requirements made him frown.
Then he did something he hadn’t done or thought of doing before now. "Just close already."
And then it happened. The panel that had just popped up moments ago was suddenly gone. It vanished.
His eyes widened for a moment. He was shocked. ’What just happened?’
Had his statement just now caused the panel to disappear? Or did it have a timer on it?
He doubted the timer theory of his. If it was a timer, then the others would’ve disappeared too. They too would’ve possessed timers.
There was only one way to find out if it was a timer or if his statement had indeed caused the panel to disappear.
He focused on another panel, one of the recent ones that had appeared on their way to the inn. ’Just close already.’ He thought again and just like that, the panel vanished.
Now it was clear what had happened. He’d indeed intentionally closed that panel.
He was filled with joy, his grin almost splitting his face in two but he wasn’t done yet.
"All of you, close." This time, he spoke out, his voice filling the room.
Instantly, they obeyed, all the panels in front of him simultaneously vanishing like they’d never been there.
Lu Feng was immediately overcome with joy. He was so excited that he ended up hugging one of his pillows for minutes without shaking.
Soon though, he was calm. He was thinking of what to do next. How to do it. When to do it.
All of it was weighing down on him and soon, he would need to offload most of those burdens by making certain decisions.
After staying idle for a while, he decided to return to his experiment and he tried it on multiple ladies including his aunt, Lu Ruoxi.
All of them gave the same response as Han Lin’s trial and he ended up closing the panels out of frustration.
Nothing he tried seemed to be working. It seemed he would have to actually find those targets that the system wanted. That was the only way forward.
He was restless for the entire night and decided to wash up. He bathed and then went back to bed, the cold bath making it easier to sleep.
However, even his late sleep was interrupted by an urgent recurring sound that haunted his dream.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Then came a familiar voice after the repeated knocking. "Young Master, are you up?"
He instantly knew who it belonged to as his eyes snapped open. Waking Lu Feng up from a sleep was basically the same thing as verbally asking him to throw a tantrum but the owner of the voice was the only exception.
He couldn’t get mad at her. "Yes, Han Lin. I’m currently awake." He lied.
He didn’t want her to leave since she’d managed to wake him through her efforts. Since she was here, then she might as well finish what she came for.
He rose up and walked toward the door of his room. He twisted the key and pulled the door open, revealing a well dressed Han Lin.
Her beauty seemed to have increased overnight but he didn’t focus on that. He’d seen her enough times to know how beautiful she was.
Still cleaning his eyes, he forced a smile on his face. "What brings you here, Han Lin?"
With a large wooden tray in her hands, she smiled. "Good morning, Young Master. It’s almost noon and so I came to wake you up."
Her second sentence made him frown. "Almost noon?"