Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1211: Chapter 52: An Exponentially Profitable Investment

The first day of the examination has passed, but there hasn’t been much progress in the case.

Chen Mingming woke up as usual…a strange feeling accompanied him, but it gradually became familiar—after all, he had lived in this place for over ten years.

There were some sounds outside the room, the voices of his father and mother talking… everything that happened yesterday was indeed not a dream.

He suddenly felt a bit nostalgic for this moment.

A while later, Zhou Yusheng pushed the door open, “Oh, you’re up. I was about to call you. Hurry and have breakfast, we need to head out soon.”

While thinking about the case, Chen Mingming said, “I might come back late. I want to visit the place where Wang Liang works.”

Although the goatskin has detailed case information, Chen Mingming, after all, hasn’t personally been to these places, and some feelings are inevitably missing.

Zhou Yusheng was stunned for a moment, then nodded. It’s a good thing his son cares so much about the case.

“Alright, I’ll make you an application for going out later.” Zhou Yusheng cautioned, “Be careful, let me know anytime if you have any news.”

After a brief conversation, Chen Mingming got up and washed. During a gap of time, he had a simple talk with his mother and found that she had indeed forgotten about going abroad… This state seems to be the same as a few years ago.

A state centered on family, with career as a subordinate.

Since his mother and father separated and then divorced, she almost put all her time into work. She achieved great success in her career, but the fatigue on her face grew heavier day by day.

This cheerful smile, Chen Mingming hadn’t seen it in a long time.

“Forgot the keys!”

When leaving, the wife saw off the husband and son at the door, casually asked, “What do you want for dinner?”

Zhou Yusheng was sweeter than usual, saying whatever she cooks is delicious, earning him a side-eye from his wife.

Chen Mingming, on the other hand, directly said two dishes he liked, and his mother smiled and agreed.

…

Yesterday was Saturday, so naturally today is Sunday.

On a day off, there weren’t many people on the street early in the morning… Chen Mingming followed the address on the information and found the place where Wang Liang used to work.

But this bar was clearly closed.

He contacted the owner of the bar, who, after some explanation, had to get up and find an employee to open the door for Chen Mingming.

After much dragging, finally close to eleven in the morning, an employee with puffy eyes and bloodshot eyes arrived on a small electric scooter and opened the bar door.

As soon as he entered, the floor was full of trash, and the various mixed smells in the air made Chen Mingming frown immediately.

The employee said awkwardly, “Sir, we usually clean before opening in the afternoon… We’re open until three or four in the morning, and everyone is exhausted…”

“I want to look at Wang Liang’s locker,” Chen Mingming said directly.

This young man was a waiter at the bar, around twenty years old. He brought Chen Mingming to Wang Liang’s locker in the break room, then leaned against the cabinet, yawning and looking weary.

Chen Mingming examined the contents of the locker—it was already empty, everything had been taken away… Reminiscing about the data that had already been investigated, Chen Mingming began thinking about the questions he wanted to ask.

“What was your relationship with Wang Liang?”

“Him? Just colleagues, what could it be?” The young man replied rather casually, his eyes half-open, “Sir, you’ve been here several times, and probably asked everything you could ask already…”

“How was his financial situation?”

“Seemed not great. This guy loves gambling and owed a lot of gambling debts outside, often having people come to collect debts from him,” the young man thought for a moment and said.

The situation was still as the investigation had found… Chen Mingming thought for a while, then took out his phone and showed some photos, “Have you seen these women?”

Among them were photos of Zhang Xiaoqin and Wu Rong, as well as others who were also involved with Wang Liang.

“You asked about this before… Aren’t they all Wang Liang’s girlfriends?” The young man wiped his face, but also said, although that guy wasn’t much, he was quite good with women. Look, this one and this one, he’d often bring them to the bar.”

The young man pointed at Wu Rong’s photo and another woman’s photo.

“Didn’t you mind that he often brought these two women here?” Chen Mingming asked curiously.

The young man said, “What’s the big deal? It’s not something odd. For men, having multiple relationships isn’t unusual. If he can pull it off, it’s a skill. Besides, there’s no need to offend Wang Liang over unrelated people, especially since we see each other all the time. When he brings someone, we just do the usual hosting.”

Chen Mingming said, “I heard before Wang Liang quit, Wu Rong… this woman, caused a big scene here once?”

The young man nodded, “Yes, it got pretty intense. This woman is wild, nearly used a knife, and Wang Liang had to beg her all the way through, and it took most of the night to settle it. Hey, as they say, those who go up the mountain often, eventually meet the tiger. If you can’t do the work, don’t try to take it on. With such mess, a problem’s bound to happen.”

“What happened afterwards?”

“Later, Wang Liang didn’t come to work for several days, about a week or so? Then he came back, worked a few days, and said he was going to resign.”

“Have you seen Wu Rong again? Or the other woman that Wang Liang brought?”

“Probably not?” The young man thought and said, “There are so many people here at night, and the lighting is dim. Even if they came, I might not notice.”

Recalling the goatskin’s hints, Chen Mingming opened another photo, “Have you seen this man?”

“No,” the young man shook his head.

Chen Mingming nodded,

…

After leaving the bar, it was already lunchtime… Chen Mingming sat alone in front of a plaza, sighing slowly, continuously recalling the things the young man had mentioned.

Suddenly a giant shadow appeared in front of Chen Mingming.

He looked up and saw a giant brown bear—of course, it wasn’t a real brown bear, just someone dressed in a costume.

As Chen Mingming was surprised, this ‘brown bear’ suddenly extended its paws and, with force from both sides, squeezed Chen Mingming’s cheeks.

From inside the brown bear’s headpiece, a low voice came out, “Wow! Naughty child, I’m going to eat you~~”

“What are you doing here?” Chen Mingming asked expressionlessly.

The ‘brown bear’ suddenly released its hands and then removed its bear headgear… It turned out to be Tara, the library girl.

Tara, with her headgear removed and face full of sweat, sat down, “Working! Didn’t I say I work on Saturdays and Sundays? I’m saving money to travel during the summer vacation! Boyfriend, what are you doing here?”

Intuition told Chen Mingming that Tara didn’t really have romantic feelings for him… This girl was merely approaching him with goodwill.

“Just strolling,” Chen Mingming replied instinctively.

“Hmm… Planning to have a good look at this city before going abroad, to give yourself something to cherish?” Tara blinked her eyes.

Chen Mingming’s lips moved slightly… Tara did not have her memory temporarily altered like his parents or the officers at the police station, did she?

But come to think of it… he’s merely participating in a five-day assessment, with his identity altered within the police station, which is already the biggest convenience given, so it seems impossible to completely alter his life trajectory.

If that really were to happen… then is this world the original world, or is it another world?

Chen Mingming always has a feeling of seeing a leopard through a tube.

“If just a few simple rounds could make one feel sentimental, I probably wouldn’t have decided to go abroad back then.” Chen Mingming shook his head and said.

“Hmm… you’re a bit different today.” Tara suddenly looked at Chen Mingming carefully.

Chen Mingming asked curiously: “What’s different?”

Tara said seriously: “You have something on your mind, and… you’ve been talking more!”

Chen Mingming was startled in his heart. It was true that he had something on his mind, but how to explain that he talked more?

“Also…” Tara suddenly patted Chen Mingming’s head, “Your eyes are much brighter, not so cold anymore. We’ve only been apart for a day, did you encounter something happy?”

“Probably.” Chen Mingming subconsciously smiled, recalling the dinner last night.

Tara suddenly shouted: “Don’t move!!”

Chen Mingming was startled.

Tara quickly took her hand out from the prop costume, her fingers pressed against Chen Mingming’s cheek, “I mean this smile, don’t move… It’s really uncommon, the first time I see you smile! Don’t move, really don’t move…”

With one hand, she took out her phone and captured this rare scene she spoke of.

The moment the shutter sound rang out, Chen Mingming suddenly felt a fleeting sense of a life like a dream.

Tara looked at her phone with quite some satisfaction. Chen Mingming didn’t understand where her satisfaction came from, he just thought her smile was truly beautiful.

At this time, Tara cleared her throat and said formally, “Hmm… as a reward, I’ll give you some special service!”

“What?”

Tara gave a sly smile, directly pulled Chen Mingming down, placed him on her lap, covered his eyes with her palm, and said softly: “This is the highest level of service, enjoy it well!”

The moment his eyes were covered, a wave of drowsiness hit him… once again, the feeling of lying on a grassland under the blue sky and white clouds surfaced.

Chen Mingming was somewhat reluctant and enchanted, and soon fell asleep.

…

When he woke up again, this lively girl, like last time, had already left.

In the square, there was no sign of that brown bear either.

Chen Mingming felt refreshed, with an indescribable sense of ease… thinking back on the investigation from the morning, Chen Mingming called for a ride-sharing car.

He felt it was necessary to go see Zhao Le.

When getting into the car, Chen Mingming suddenly recalled sending a handgun to Zhao Le… but now, he couldn’t remember the reason why he sent it.

…

…

“Someone from the Management Bureau?”

In the study room, after casually turning off the light and shadow, Luo Qiu was slightly taken aback.

The maid stood in front of the desk and spoke softly: “They probably noticed something a long time ago, and this time they finally went in.”

Luo Qiu thought for a moment and then said: “Tell me about the situation.”

You Ye said: “Currently, they’ve already controlled the game company from behind the scenes. But they still don’t know that this game company’s server is merely a window to the ‘Main God Project’. Even if separated from the game company’s server, the game world will continue to run automatically. Because they don’t understand the concept, they’re afraid to shut down the original server of the game company.”

Luo Qiu crossed his hands and nodded, saying: “After this upgrade, the capacity has increased, naturally attracting more people… it seems that quantitative changes have finally led to qualitative changes.”

The maid said: “Should we reduce the frequency?”

Luo Qiu shook his head and laughed self-deprecatingly: “No need, just follow this progress… given my pace of doing business, if there’s no stable source of income, I’ll soon run out of funds.”

The maid just smiled slightly; besides the master, nobody understood the boss’s ‘economic’ situation better than her… Ever since Su Zijun sold those evil souls for sacrifice, the master became rich again… Now, even if the master had the mood for another six-month vacation, there wouldn’t be a problem.

Moreover, although several income sources related to the master’s hand are still in the service stage and haven’t reached the official billing time yet… Given the current situation, when it’s time to bill officially, there will naturally be another substantial income.

“Since that’s the case, let’s minimize the impact.” The maid naturally didn’t want the master to have too much trouble, “I’ll adjust the program and spread the ‘entrance’ throughout the world’s network… at least it can delay the time for qualitative change a bit more.”

Considering the global population of seven or eight billion, once distributed worldwide, there will be time before panic arises.

“No need.” Luo Qiu smiled slightly and said: “Just temporarily close the entrance to this world, won’t that work?”

“The master’s meaning is…” You Ye hesitated for a moment, then realized something and said: “Other worlds?”

Luo Qiu said softly: “There should be. Those worlds whose levels of civilization and environmental conditions are similar to here.”

The answer is… affirmative.

“If that’s the case, then there’s no need to worry about the growth speed.” The maid slightly smiled, “The automatic selection criteria can also be lowered, but in that case, the main server might need to be expanded… Since the master injected a large amount of Spiritual Energy last time, the original server is somewhat hard to meet the self-evolution within the game world.”

“Then let’s use this.” Luo Qiu spread his palm at this moment.

A rhombus-shaped crystal, at this time in the boss’s palm, emitted a colorful glow… feeling the peculiar aura emanating from this crystal, You Ye’s eyes slightly brightened, “This is…”

“World Fragment,” Luo Qiu smiled and said, “Just bought from the altar… Well, now I’ve become poor again.”

The maid didn’t mind… as long as other worlds’ entrances opened, and worlds evolved using world fragments, there would be incomparably numerous souls entering the game.

Such an investment is completely profitable.

“It seems Tai Yinzi really stumbled upon something impressive, didn’t he?” The maid said softly, “Did the master plan this from the beginning?”

Luo Qiu smiled and said, “Don’t think of me being so foresighted. This only gradually formed as an idea later… If not for experiencing Yan Wuyue’s world, naturally, there wouldn’t be so many ideas.”

Explaining like this, another thought suddenly came to Luo Qiu.

Each Sub-world has its Sub-administrator, A Lai Ye… All Sub-worlds are to cultivate a perfect world’s nurturing bed, all within the same system.

Then, if there appeared a world outside this system, a self-evolving world… what would happen then?

A world filled with radiant souls… a colorful world.