Originally, Liang Laixi had of course informed Chi Yun Su about the promotional plan for the spatial pocket, stating that it would be launched in a week and that results could be seen in as little as ten days. Before that, he would secure the auction entry tickets in advance.
As for Chi Yun Su’s financial issues, Liang Laixi gritted his teeth and took fifty million from his personal savings to provide her with initial support.
Of course, this fifty million had to be repaid.
It would be deducted from Chi Yun Su’s share of the profits from the spatial pocket.
Liang Laixi’s plan was perfectly thought out, and Chi Yun Su, having witnessed much of humanity’s darkness in Black Port, had no objections to the latter part of the plan. However, the former part made her smile with an innocent and shy expression, and she expressed enthusiastic support and encouragement for it.
As expected, it took only five days for Liang Laixi to return. Seeing Chi Yun Su’s “surprised” look, he bravely chose to forget the boasts he had made in front of her earlier and tried his best to maintain his steady and reliable adult image.
He first told Chi Yun Su what he had accomplished: “The auction for the Spirit-Truth Treasure Flower is in half a month, hosted by the Grand Illusion Auction House, located in Changning City. I’ve already secured the entry invitations.”
With that, Liang Laixi handed Chi Yun Su two invitations. One was printed with the words “Grand Illusion Auction House,” while the other featured an abstract-looking character for “Qu.”
“I’ve already started promoting the spatial pocket ahead of schedule, and the results have been excellent,” Liang Laixi continued, keeping a straight face to save his dignity. “The Qu Family of Changhe Star is very interested in the spatial pocket. They’ve invested in many card makers before and have a good reputation among them. For example, the recording card you helped me repair—the multi-camera shooting and the Parent-Child Card Set model—were developed by a card maker they invested in.”
“Including the ongoing Star Network construction across the alliance, the Qu Family is also involved. In the Long River Galaxy, if you want more support in card crafting, I think meeting and talking with someone from the Qu Family wouldn’t be a loss. With their capabilities, as long as you have enough value, I’m sure they can get you a Spirit-Truth Treasure Flower if you want one.” Liang Laixi gave this advice to Chi Yun Su as if it were entirely for her benefit.
Liang Laixi’s words only highlighted the positives and omitted the negatives, so Chi Yun Su naturally didn’t fully believe him.
The way he described the Qu Family made it sound as if capitalists didn’t exploit people.
However, Chi Yun Su’s real goal wasn’t to wait for the highest bidder. Her actual intention was to make contact with forces like the Qu Family, which were interested in card crafting-related technologies.
After all, when Lu Wei left with her Card Cleansing Technique, he must have sought out forces interested in such technologies.
“Oh,” Chi Yun Su’s eyes continued to show confusion as she habitually responded, as if not fully understanding. After a moment, she seemed to try her best to appear shrewd, as if this weren’t her first time facing such a situation, and asked Liang Laixi with a naive tone, “Which member of the Qu Family wants to meet me?”
“It’s Qu Rongrong, the General Manager of Radiant Materials under the Nine Bends Group,” Liang Laixi replied. He wasn’t the kind of teammate who would leave her in the dark; he had gathered a lot of information before coming to talk to Chi Yun Su. He even showed her a photo of Qu Rongrong.Chi Yun Su nodded with a seemingly half-understanding expression, but her mind was sharply analyzing the photos and Liang Laixi’s words.
In the photos Liang Laixi showed her, Qu Rongrong appeared to be a rather young woman, just over twenty years old. At that age, she could directly become the general manager of a place that, by its name, seemed to engage in industrial enterprises—this likely indicated that her status within the Qu Family was not low.
The Qu Family seemed to value her quite highly. Chi Yun Su quickly deduced this message.
“Then I’ll go take a look,” Chi Yun Su said with certainty, though her tone carried a hint of uncertainty. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she asked Liang Laixi, “In terms of card crafting, are there any families on Changhe Star similar to the Qu Family?”
Card crafting had not been an industry Liang Laixi paid much attention to before. However, due to the spatial pocket, various forces—large and small—had approached him these past few days, forcing him to learn a great deal. He was able to answer this question fairly well, as many of these forces had indeed sought him out.
“Among the major players in card crafting, there are also the Yuan Family and the Fu Family. The Yuan Family primarily focuses on official research and development, while the Fu Family, though involved in civilian sectors, mainly deals with space exploration.”
“In comparison, the Qu Family is more comprehensive, with a greater emphasis on civilian applications. They also manage card makers they invest in more freely, with fewer requirements and no restrictions on staying in research labs. Continuing one’s studies wouldn’t be an issue either.” Although Liang Laixi primarily considered his own interests, he had also taken Chi Yun Su’s situation into account when weighing the three families.
Such a young child should definitely continue her studies!
Chi Yun Su had only given Liang Laixi the name “Rune Mountain.” She hadn’t mentioned that she had already graduated from Long River Industries or her age. Combined with her references to teachers on the starship, Liang Laixi had always assumed Chi Yun Su was still a student.
Explaining the discrepancies in her citizen identity would be troublesome, so Chi Yun Su thought it better not to mention it from the start, allowing Liang Laixi to maintain his assumption.
Chi Yun Su responded with another confused-sounding “Oh.”
She didn’t plan to directly ask Liang Laixi which family had previously owned the Card Cleansing Technique. Liang Laixi might not know about such a banned technology, and asking would make her intentions too obvious.
From Liang Laixi’s words, the Qu Family indeed seemed the most likely.
Of course, if it wasn’t the Qu Family but one of the other two, it wouldn’t matter—it would just take a bit more time.
After all, she had already left Black Port, and she had plenty of time. There was no rush to catch Lu Wei immediately.
As a hunter, patience was something Chi Yun Su understood well.
Seeing that Chi Yun Su didn’t resist this sudden arrangement, Liang Laixi breathed a sigh of relief. He had been quite worried she might get angry, as she had lost her temper on the starship before and directly assigned him tasks.
Witnessing Chi Yun Su visibly on the verge of taking another step up, Liang Laixi felt genuinely pleased.After all, he and Chi Yun Su had already signed a sales agency contract for the spatial pocket, which was already quite lucrative. Liang Laixi was very satisfied. As for anything else, if Chi Yun Su had more to offer, it wouldn’t be something someone of Liang Laixi’s level could handle without risking their life.
So Liang Laixi was quite open-minded about it and even actively chose the option that would benefit Chi Yun Su the most.
After all, the higher Chi Yun Su’s status became, the safer Liang Laixi’s role as the spatial pocket agent would be. He might even rise along with her, thanks to his keen eye.
Of course, the key prerequisite for all this was that Chi Yun Su had to catch the Qu Family’s attention.
Having already fully enjoyed the benefits brought by the spatial pocket, Liang Laixi didn’t think Chi Yun Su would face much difficulty in card crafting.
The only potential issues would lie elsewhere.
Liang Laixi urgently gave Chi Yun Su a crash course on the etiquette points when meeting such upper-class individuals. It wasn’t about doing everything perfectly, but at the very least, she needed to know what actions were considered offensive and which topics were off-limits.
Then there was Chi Yun Su’s appearance.
Clothes make the man, and to speak with people of status, she couldn’t continue dressing so plainly.
Calling Chi Yun Su’s attire “plain” was putting it mildly.
A summary of Chi Yun Su’s clothing basically amounted to pockets, pockets, and more pockets. It could be said she had taken the utilitarian style to the extreme. Whether it was her top or her pants, those seemingly ordinary pockets were stuffed with who knows how many of Chi Yun Su’s belongings.
In any case, when the stylist in charge of Chi Yun Su’s image makeover tried to lift her cargo pants while changing her clothes… they couldn’t lift them.
At that moment, the stylist looked at Chi Yun Su as if she were a monster.
—Damn, could a normal person even move around wearing something like this?
Chi Yun Su smiled as if nothing had happened.
Although she had a spatial pocket, if an emergency really occurred, retrieving something from the spatial pocket wouldn’t be as convenient as taking it directly from her person.
Were those cargo pants? They were an armory!
Seeing Chi Yun Su like this, the stylist was perceptive enough not to comment on the matter.
In the end, based on Chi Yun Su’s requests, the stylist dressed her in a more sharp and professional style. Her hairstyle wasn’t drastically changed, but a hair clip was added to her bangs, and some soft fabric flowers were used to decorate her ponytail, softening her overall demeanor so she didn’t appear too aggressive.
Chi Yun Su wasn’t quite used to swapping her cargo pants, which could hold many things, for more fashionable trousers. She felt as if she were about to float away, but she had to admit…
It looked quite good.
She wasn’t the only one who thought so. Qu Rongrong felt the same way.
Seeing Chi Yun Su in this outfit, she couldn’t help but smile slightly.
Chi Yun Su’s slightly youthful face paired with such attire gave off a strong vibe of a child trying hard to act like an adult, which really appealed to Qu Rongrong’s fondness for such things. Thinking back to her own struggles when she first entered the Radiant Materials industry years ago, she couldn’t help but feel her goodwill toward Chi Yun Su increase significantly.However, business is business, and Qu Rongrong did not show this favoritism. She simply invited Chi Yun Su to sit in her courtyard and began by praising her: “I once saw Master Fu’s work at Director Liang’s place, and I was utterly amazed. I’ve been wanting to meet the master for a proper chat, but I never imagined you’d be so young.”
“At your age, I was still just practicing psychic energy control with a pen on card surfaces,” Qu Rongrong said, shaking her head slightly. She extended her hand, where a few faint calluses were still visible, and gave a bitter smile. “But those without talent can only end up like me, drawing White Cards. Now, I’ve had to compromise and just assist the family business.”
Qu Rongrong was very talkative and skilled at bridging the gap between strangers. With just a few words, she placed both of them in a shared identity, making it easy to feel a sense of closeness. She also played up her struggles to evoke sympathy, and her words contained several topics that could lead to deeper conversations, making it easy to continue engaging with Chi Yun Su.
If Chi Yun Su were truly an innocent teenage girl, the conversation would likely have been steered entirely by Qu Rongrong. But Chi Yun Su was not.
Though she wasn’t adept in such matters and couldn’t discern the pitfalls or intentions behind Qu Rongrong’s words, she believed in the principle of overwhelming force with simplicity—she simply wouldn’t take the bait.
“Director Qu, you’re a card maker too? Then you must have many books related to card crafting, right?” Chi Yun Su looked at Qu Rongrong with sparkling eyes, her face clearly expressing her eagerness to see them.
People are visual creatures, and Qu Rongrong was momentarily charmed by Chi Yun Su’s expression. However, she hadn’t expected that after all she’d said, Chi Yun Su’s focus would land on this.
Seeing the genuine anticipation in Chi Yun Su’s eyes, Qu Rongrong smiled faintly and immediately formed a judgment about her.
—This is a pure, research-oriented card maker who is deeply dedicated to card crafting.
Such card makers, whose lives revolve entirely around their craft, are indeed prone to producing brilliant ideas and are highly favored by merchants.
Qu Rongrong’s gaze toward Chi Yun Su grew even more affectionate.
“I do have them. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that in the entire Long River Galaxy, no one’s collection of card-making materials is more comprehensive than our family’s database,” Qu Rongrong declared with great confidence.