Lian Hua lay on the new bed with new pillows in the bedroom on the second floor and happily slept like a log! Ever since he was. .h.i.t in the head and transmigrated into the novel, he couldn’t have a peaceful night’s rest. What day was he not afraid? He finally got up when then the sunlight reached his b.u.t.t.

He calculated the time. The apocalypse would come in three days! Lian Hua wasn’t very worried right now. As long as he’s far away from pig leg, earth shattering matters were easy to deal with!

Wait no, he had to make sure that nothing was missing. He went to the third floor, opened the door to the secret treasury, and squeezed in.

Although he already looked over this place before, the great jade marrows still attracted all of Lian Hua’s attention. He lifted the red jade, which, at a glance, looked the smallest of the three. He stared enraptured at the light within. Did he have to put it down reluctantly?

He really couldn’t put it down! So he decided to carry this piece on his person. Perhaps it could bring him good luck. His imagination didn’t have room for much optimism.

Thinking for a minute, Lian Hua felt that he couldn’t put it in his pocket. He didn’t have a convenient pocket dimension like pig leg. If this site was found, what would he do? Although not many people knew the way here. If pig leg could find this place by running around, he couldn’t recklessly rule out other people.

In the end, Lian Hua brought the entire jade collection on the third floor down into the secret lair, then used a book case to cover the entrance. He felt sorry for the books. They were all treasures but were forgotten in a corner by his adoptive father until they gathered mold. Lian Hua also chose some supplies to store away, such as half of the seeds he collected.

After running around busily, he was as breathless as a dog with asthma. Although lately he exercised this body, it still couldn’t compare with his previous body. At least it was better than the white lotus as weak as a willow from before. These days, the white lotus with skin as white as a peeled boiled egg was tanned in the sun. Lian Hua believed that he would soon be able to reclaim his bronzed skin, ridding himself of the “white” lotus image.

He thought about the remaining money, unsatisfied that he hadn’t burned all of it yet. Lian Hua arranged his things again and brought the red jade with him. These backpacks were the st.u.r.dy mountain climbing ones that Lian Hua purposefully bought. Inside, he prepared lots of emergency supplies. There were also seeds and now the red jade. These things could save his life!

Lian Hua went into the garage and started the engine of the Hummer h6. How could he let this artifact escape the apocalypse? You should know that pig leg already prepared several cars, and they were all modified. Lian Hua’s car cost six million, making him want to cough blood! Lian Hua took out the map, starting to travel to the town of Qing Yang. Luckily, he drove for his boss before, but he wondered if the original white lotus even sat in the driver’s seat before. The road to town was naturally easy to find, so there was no need to worry about getting lost.

At Qing Yang town, Lian Hua parked in the outskirts of the town. It was worthy of being an area about to host a large gambling convention. In the parking lot, there were a lot of cool luxury cars! Lian Hua thought his own car was good enough, but he didn’t think the security guard wouldn’t even bother to give him a look of surprise. Obviously the guy had seen more than enough luxury cars.

Lian Hua’s poor self-esteem took a hit and he parked in a dingy corner. Suddenly, Lian Hua’s hair stood on end and he sensed a burst of extreme danger from behind. He quickly turned around, but he only saw the security patrol and a few car owners that looked like they had profound backgrounds. The dangerous feeling disappeared. Lian Hua wondered to himself if recently he was being haunted by the ghost of Alexander* and started hallucinating. Wah, it must be an illusion. Lian Hua comforted himself while trying to ignore his unease.

Lian Hua didn’t know that in the shade not far from him, a pair for eyes followed him with interest, the face unreadable. From time to time, it would reveal a thoughtful expression…

Lian Hua went into the largest gambling venue in Qingyang Town, hm. Although the gambling convention hadn’t started yet, a large selection of geodes have been imported.

Lian Hua didn’t go see the geodes first, but directly raced to a small restaurant. Lian Hua thought, how long has it been since he was able to eat anything delicious? Sigh, a man like him didn’t know how to cook. If he didn’t eat dried foods, then it was instant noodles, quite tragic.

After finis.h.i.+ng three large bowls of Yang Chung Noodles[1], Lian Hua slowly left with his slightly inflated belly and began to visit the geode streets. Lately he had a good appet.i.te and he was really excited. The Bai Lianhua from before ate as much as a cat. If that continued, then this whole life he wouldn’t be able to improve.

These days, there were a lot of wealthy business travelers and quite a few brought backpacks just like Lian Hua. The crowd on the streets were tightly knit, almost making him fall left and right. There were noisy conversations, bargaining, and loud roaring right by the ears. A variety of people were concentrating on choosing geodes. A few people were able to buy something good and dealt with it on the spot, attracting a bunch of onlookers. Some of the onlookers occasionally dealt praise, sighed with regret, or hummed in appreciation.

Lian Hua was like a country b.u.mpkin. He looked east, then west, touching and examining all sorts of things. Ay, he didn’t know the method, it was his first time in this kind of area. His blood was boiling! f.u.c.k, it would be great if he had a golden finger that could see into the geodes. Too bad Lian Hua’s role was a cannon fodder. How could he have the skill levels of those who held the role of pig leg?

For a moment, Lian Hua felt a little dumbfounded, but he still gathered his wits and continued looking around. What if he was lucky enough to buy high quality geodes?

He chose a shop that looked relatively empty, not wanting to squeeze in with other people. The shop set up a few rows of large cabinets, displaying stacks of geodes behind the gla.s.s. Lian Hua could peek inside and see some s.h.i.+ning green geodes, with a price tag attached. One piece was worth 500,000! He felt a mouthful of blood rise to the back of his throat, was it worth it? So expensive, if the vein inside was low quality, that would be wasteful!

He continued examining the gambling geodes available near the ground. The ones that looked good had prices that ranged from 50,000 to 150,000 apiece. Some were worth several hundreds of thousands!

The customer ahead was debating whether or not he should burn all his money or buy one of the 50,000 ones or the 150,000, so Lian Hua had to go look somewhere else. He squatted down and readily touched a stack of geodes, but was unable to feel anything from them! -_-/// Lian Hua used strength to stare, hating that he couldn’t turn the pieces transparent and see through them.

He really wanted more… Lian Hua decisively closed his eyes and casually grabbed a few pieces at random. Very quickly, a child pushed out a small cart and carried the pieces Lian Hua chose. When he checked out, Lian Hua’s heart bled. The total was a million! A million! No wonder people said gambling with stones could make you rich overnight and also bankrupt you overnight.

When the boy asked if Lian Hua wanted to refine[2] the stone or not, Lian Hua replied that he already bought it, so he might as well.

The refiner was a very experienced master who people purposely sought out to refine their stones. The surrounding people saw that there was someone who came to refine and crowded around.

The first geode was cut, but there was only white smoke, there was nothing! Lian Hua tightly gripped his fist tightly.

The second piece was cut, it was also empty! The tip of Lian Hua’s nose started to sweat.

The third piece was also cut, it was still tras.h.!.+ Lian Hua’s forehead sweat buckets. The surrounding people sighed.

Several pieces in a row were cut! There wasn’t even a fart!

“Do you want to cut the last one too?” The old master asked.

“Do it!” Lian Hua felt his heart break into tiny pieces, wasn’t this tragic?

The old master glanced at Lian Hua as if he were a child who was crying because he had gotten lost. Look at those two teary eyes, it was like he was just bullied.

The old master’s hand was very stable. He sliced downward with one stroke and splashed water to clear the dust. There was finally a touch of green!

“Up! Up!” The crowd excitedly stood up! Lian Hua wiped his sweat, finally not as miserable anymore.

Lian Hua rejected the businessmen’s buying bids. He decided to cut it all out! He felt this piece of geode was fated to be with him, otherwise he wouldn’t have come into his hand.

The old master took nearly an hour to extract the jade marrow inside. It was only a normal piece of jade marrow. Inside there was something red and black mixed together. As soon as the surrounding people saw it, they were suddenly disappointed. It was worthless!

On the other hand, Lian Hua didn’t feel too disappointed. He felt this piece of jade marrow was very pleasing to the eyes. He took the jade marrow back and carefully enjoyed it in the palm of his hand. When he looked carefully, he saw that its appearance was incredibly similar to a mushroom! -_-Was this a mushroom fossil? Lian Hua felt like he was thinking too much.

Lian Hua thought about it again. This is the legendary opportunity, right? Didn’t that pig leg have the jade Buddha that was an artifact with a pocket dimension? Lian Hua stroked his chin and thought, he should drop his blood on all the jade objects! Thinking about all the jade in the secret lair of the villa, Lian Hua laughed darkly. If he dropped blood on all the entire collection, wouldn’t he die of blood loss? But if there really was an artifact, then didn’t he hit the jackpot? If he had time, he would try it. He happily decided to leave it at that.

Lian Hua laughed despicably as he found an uninhabited corner, looked left, peeked right, and saw that no paying attention. He immediately fished out a knife from his pocket, and slashed his finger… A wound appeared in the finger, the pain couldn’t be wasted. He hastily wiped his blood on the jade mushroom, then brought his injured finger into his mouth, and stared at the jade mushroom expectantly.

One minute pa.s.sed, and there was no reaction… Two minutes, still nothing!

Lian Hua “…”

He really did think too much! How could a cannon fodder have the protagonist’s luck?! It was too sad. He casually tossed the mushroom in the backpack!

Lian Hua couldn’t see it, but the jade mushroom in the backpack slowly absorbed his blood. It flashed brightly, but soon returned to its original state.

After hiding the small mushroom, Lian Hua decided to look at the products of other stores. He decided to burn the rest of his money.

He entered a jade collection shop named Fu Lu Zhai[3]. Lian Hua didn’t feel any surprise or interest. Who told his adoptive father to collect all the good things?

A young woman came out to greet him. The first thing she did was eye him up and down, appraising him. Lian Hua was dressed quite normally, and he had a tender and immature face. He dared to say that she was looking down on him with scorn. She clearly a.s.sumed that he was a student who was traveling and therefore couldn’t buy anything good.

Lian Hua let her introduce the jade products for the elderly*, but she was absentminded, making Lian Hua feel depressed.

*In case anyone forgot, Lian Hua’s cover story is that he’s going to buy something for old master Bai.

At this time, a pair of lovers who were clearly wealthy entered the store. She immediately ignored Lian Hua and smiled refres.h.i.+ngly while rus.h.i.+ng over to welcome the new customers.

Lian Hua “…”

Did he really look so poor that he couldn’t afford anything?!

Another girl shyly approached him. She stammered while introducing the items to Lian Hua, and threw the earlier woman a look of disdain. Lian Hua saw that she was a bit tense, so he gave her a rea.s.suring smile, making the girl immediately blush. Good looks are indeed weapons of ma.s.s destruction, the ancients weren’t wrong.

Finally, Lian Hua chose an emerald piece of jade in the shape of a lion, 15 cm tall, with a jade ball under the lion’s paws. It looked a little silly and cute. Of course, the price was also cute, 18 million[4]! f.u.c.k, too luxurious! Lian Hua was trying to burn all his money, but when the time came to sign, his hand shook. The two women were stunned, they never imagined that he truly was wealthy! Do all rich people like to fake poverty these days?

Lian Hua didn’t care what the two women would think. He didn’t want to stay in the evil shop that swallowed his money any longer. He stuffed the jade lion into his backpack, turned on his heel, and rushed outside.

Smack!

Lian Hua gloriously ran into a wall of meat!

T^T Lian Hua felt as if his nose had broken into pieces. He angrily looked at the wall of meat that was at least 180 cm tall (5’11”). It had a handsome face, wore gla.s.ses and looked like a cla.s.sy elite.

Lian Hua looked at the elite face, the coa.r.s.e words he was about to blurt out stuck in his throat. f.u.c.k, why does this face look so familiar?

The other person also carefully examined Lian Hua, expressionlessly spitting out a sentence: “Young master Bai!”

Lian Hua’s legs lost strength, almost kneeling. f.u.c.k, wasn’t this Secretary Xia, Xia Xingwen[5], who was pig leg’s personal golden secretary? f.u.c.k, this person was also killed by the white lotus. He was the cause of pig leg’s death. Lian Hua started to have a really bad feeling…

Translator’s Notes:

[1]杨春面 Basically just like j.a.panese ramen. Probably what ramen is based off of. Lian Hua… you still ate noodles…

[2]For some reason, it was hard to find out how jade is actually refined. I believe jade is refined by rubbing it with abrasions such as some kind of sandpaper but it seems nowadays they also use lasers…

[3]I know the first character means blessing, and the second means reward. I have no idea about the last one. Usually the first two are part of a set that mean happiness though.

[4] 10 mil on the house, 6 on the hummer, 1 on the geodes… he had 31 mil, so shouldn’t he have 14 mil….?

[5]His name is literally Summer Text (夏行文)…. fitting name for a secretary…

Hey guys! Long time no see. I was stuck doing paperwork for some guys who don’t pay me… Seeing my work being posted without credit (This came from mirrortranslationblog.wordpress.com courtesy of KagamiTL!) was depressing so I slowed down a lot. But I realized…

You know what? I started all this because I wanted to share BL. It’s frustrating that people don’t want to credit me for some reason, but I guess in the end, more BL for everyone… I just don’t want other people to profit off my hard work because

I should be getting faster now that my mood is better :,) Also, if memory serves, this is the end of the huge exposition info dump! From the next chapter onward, we’ll be jumping into the adventure!