“Mr. Fu, did you hear what I said…?”
Shen Sangyu stood up and glanced at the darkening sky.
“It’s getting late. I should head home. Mr. Fu, you…”
Before she could finish, Fu Yingqi stood up and moved to her side, almost as though he were making sure they were standing at a safe distance from each other.
“I’ll take you home.”
“No need. Qinan Restaurant is very close to my father’s shop.”
Shen Sangyu waved her hand.
She wasn’t used to troubling someone she had only just met. Even if that person happened to be the powerful Third Master Fu, she still couldn’t get used to it!
True to his reputation as a business elite, Fu Yingqi quickly came up with the perfect argument to persuade her.
“The weather doesn’t look very good. And you helped me today… I don’t really have anything to repay you with. At the very least, let me make sure you get home safely. All right?”
Fu Yingqi didn’t know exactly what Shen Sangyu had done.
But the ominous aura inside him had existed for a long time. After putting on the prayer beads, he could faintly feel that the aura was being suppressed.
The feeling of relief was unlike anything he had experienced before.
Because of that, he was no longer as unapproachable as he had been at first.
At the very least, he was certain that the ominous aura surrounding him would not bring Shen Sangyu any danger.
Shen Sangyu looked at the nearly 1.9-meter-tall man standing before her.
For some reason, she thought she saw…
A hint of grievance?
It had to be her imagination!
Definitely!
“All right.”
Turning down a free ride would be foolish, so Shen Sangyu agreed without hesitation.
…
“Mr. Fu, just stop in front of Qinan Restaurant.”
Shen Sangyu didn’t hesitate to say goodbye to Fu Yingqi and reached for the car door.
“Wait, Miss Shen.”
Fu Yingqi stopped her hand.
Shen Sangyu turned around in confusion.
“Hm?”
“Your ring… and this. I hope you’ll accept this as well.”
He handed her something.
Why was he being so hesitant just to return a ring?
Shen Sangyu waved her hand generously.
She didn’t have much use for the ring anyway.
“You can keep the ring. But what’s inside this envelope?”
She instinctively pinched it.
It was very thin.
Seeing the slightly troubled expression on Fu Yingqi’s face, as though he had spent a long time trying to figure out how to phrase himself, Shen Sangyu suddenly guessed.
“Don’t tell me it’s the legendary black card?”
She looked directly into Fu Yingqi’s eyes.
The moment the words left her mouth, Fu Yingqi hurriedly spoke, as though afraid she might misunderstand something.
“Miss Shen, please don’t misunderstand. I didn’t know how else to express my gratitude. I hope this doesn’t seem too presumptuous.”
Presumptuous?
Fu Yingqi’s usually composed face actually looked a little anxious.
Impossible!
That had to be an illusion.
“Of course not, Mr. Fu. I’m a very ordinary person. I certainly don’t mind having more money!”
Shen Sangyu didn’t hide her love of money in the slightest.
She liked black cards.
The more money, the better!
“Third Master, we need to get to the airport…”
Assistant Fang, who had been waiting nearby, couldn’t help reminding him when he saw how little time they had left.
Shen Sangyu waved at Fu Yingqi, urging him to leave, then pointed toward Qinan Restaurant behind her.
“Mr. Fu, next time you’re in Haishi, dinner’s on me!”
…
It was clearly a polite way of telling him to leave.
So how did she manage to make even that sound so sweet and charming?
Fu Yingqi’s rough hand touched his chest, where his heart was still beating strangely fast.
Why did he feel an inexplicable ache there?
“Third Master, the group’s financial reports have been compiled and sent to your email. Tomorrow afternoon…”
Fu Yingqi didn’t hear a word of Assistant Fang’s report.
His attention was completely fixed on the object resting in his palm.
The counterfeit ring.
He stared at it for a long while.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he slipped it onto his middle finger.
His expression returned to its usual cold indifference.
“What movements have they made?”
“Our people have been keeping an eye on them. Nothing unusual so far.”
“Mm. Have someone secretly protect Miss Shen. Don’t interfere with her privacy.”
Fu Yingqi left that instruction before turning his gaze toward the city disappearing outside the car window.
Haishi.
He would come back.
“Yes!”
Assistant Fang looked at the conspicuously fake ring on his boss’s hand.
He couldn’t help marveling inwardly.
Master Bukong really had found his boss someone destined to cross paths with him!
After sending the powerful Third Master Fu on his way without the slightest hesitation, Shen Sangyu opened the envelope in her hand.
After all, neither in her previous life nor in this one had she ever seen what a black card actually looked like.
The black card in Shen Sangyu’s hand had nothing on it except a string of numbers.
There weren’t even any other special symbols.
If she hadn’t heard of Fu Yingqi in her previous life, she might have thought the man had tried to fool her with a fake card.
But whatever.
She had gotten rich!
Shen Sangyu’s expression was practically glowing with greed.
“A business card?”
There was also a thin card inside the envelope.
It was Fu Yingqi’s personal business card.
Shen Sangyu took out her phone and added the number on it to WeChat.
Even a big shot’s username was boring.
He actually used his real name.
And he accepted her request instantly!
Did this big shot not have to make money or something?
[Mr. Fu, this is Shen Sangyu.]
[I know.]
[Contact me anytime if you need anything.]
Only a handful of his close friends and family knew his personal contact information.
The reply came almost instantly.
Shen Sangyu answered with a simple “Okay.”
Then she casually changed Fu Yingqi’s contact name to:
Walking ATM!
She had to hold on tight to this enormous golden opportunity.
After all, she could also use certain mediums to absorb the ominous aura from Fu Yingqi and then use it to nourish the lotus bud.
Although she had contributed some of her artifact aura in the process, the lotus bud seemed to have grown slightly larger.
This time, after purifying the ominous aura in the Buddhist prayer beads, the lotus bud had produced two more dewdrops.
However she looked at it, this was a business where she could only win!
When Shen Sangyu returned home, she took the few dewdrops she had accumulated and added them to the donkey-hide gelatin paste her mother ate and the ginseng liquor her father drank.
She didn’t dare mix them directly into water and give it to them.
If they ended up covered in grime just like Shen Sangyu had been, she wouldn’t be able to explain it.
Her mother had gone out with Shen Qian to attend a business gathering, while Shen Jingnian was at school working on his thesis.
There was no one else at home.
Perfect.
It meant Shen Sangyu could finally try restoring that severely damaged bronze artifact.
Thankfully, nobody was home.
Otherwise, if her parents saw her carrying around what looked like a pile of metal scrap, she would definitely be subjected to an interrogation.
After all, this thing was genuinely…
Not easy to hide.
She slipped into her bedroom and locked the door.
Then she drew on the power flowing through her meridians and gently touched the bronze vessel that looked as though it might fall apart at any moment.
Shen Sangyu didn’t dare use too much power at once.
She could only proceed slowly and test it bit by bit.
First, she peeled away the rotten patches of rust and impurities covering the surface.
The power flowing from her fingertips transformed into a thin, steady stream, slowly washing away the mottled red and yellow corrosion.
“It really works! The key is whether I can restore its original shape.”
Shen Sangyu successfully revealed the bronze beneath.
Once the rust and grit had been removed, the exposed surface gleamed with a smooth metallic sheen.
But the most important step was restoring the body, which had been crushed almost flat.
She extended her other hand.
Using both hands simultaneously, she carefully controlled the power and slowly drew it upward along the square legs of the bronze vessel.
Tiny beads of sweat appeared across Shen Sangyu’s forehead.
She was still not skilled enough at controlling this power evenly.
Several minutes passed.
The bronze vessel beneath her hands slowly began to change.
The body, which had originally been badly deformed, gradually began to swell back into shape…