According to the Huang family tradition—one that actually began with Huang Xuan's great-grandfather, Huang Sheng—each child is given their own bank account from birth. From small allowances and New Year's money to personal income, all funds should be deposited and withdrawn from this account until they marry and start their own family. During this period, the elders of the family cannot interfere or withdraw funds from these accounts, all under the guise of "cultivating financial acumen." So far, this rule had been followed perfectly.
Huang Xuan had such an account from a young age, as did his father, Huang Qunsheng. Seeing Huang Xuan invoke this "family heirloom," his father could only sigh, take a sip of tea, and let it go.
But Zhang Xinyi wasn't ready to give up. "It doesn't matter whose account it is; you still need to explain where such a large sum of money came from."
"It's not that I don't want to explain, but it's really not convenient," Huang Xuan replied, thinking of Lorin, who was far less easy to deal with than his mother, mainly because Lorin rarely spoke at all.
Huang's mother stared at him with the same gaze she reserved for subordinates, while Huang Xuan responded with a look of innocence. Huang Qunsheng coughed and, trying to mediate, said, "How about we eat first? Everyone's hungry. We can talk afterward."
"There's no rush," Zhang Xinyi huffed, "Son, do you think just because the money is in your account, it's safe?"
"You're not allowed to take it according to the rules," Huang Xuan mumbled.
His mother chuckled lightly, "According to the rules, we also have a duty to oversee it. You can leave the money in the account, but you're not allowed to touch it."
Huang Xuan was stunned. Zhang Xinyi, satisfied, adjusted her hair and smiled at her husband, "Honey, let's go eat." As she walked away, Huang Qunsheng gave Huang Xuan a sympathetic glance and followed her, only to hear him mutter from afar, "Poor kid."
In the backyard, the sweetgum tree swayed gracefully, while the sea holly and lilyturf sprawled under the tall kapok tree, nestled closely with the flowering reeds, as if mocking Huang Xuan's naive thoughts. This used to be his favorite playground, with the birds' nest fern he planted by hand and the loquat tree he had the gardener transplant, all arranged beautifully. But now, Huang Xuan had no interest in admiring them.
The Huang family was large, and like all families with many members, there was a natural bond of blood, but also plenty of competition and comparison. Since he started school, Huang Xuan rarely had the chance to be the subject of such comparisons, except on the few occasions when he could rely on his mother's help. He had originally thought that the millions in his account would shut up some of those people, but reality was harsh.
As he sat silently in the pavilion's lounge chair, rolling a viburnum seed between his fingers, Lorin's voice suddenly appeared in his ear, "Mr. Huang Xuan, when do you plan to set out again?"
Huang Xuan lazily grunted. He had no worries about food or clothing, and was even less inclined to adventure. Now that the money he'd almost had was in his mother's hands, he had even less interest in wandering around some dangerous, unknown dimension or plane. He dismissed the guardian, saying, "Maybe in a while. I'm pretty busy these days."
"Of course, but you should replenish your energy now. Otherwise, it will be troublesome when you decide to depart."
This sounded like the real reason Mr. Lorin had shown up. Huang Xuan, still sulking from his "Nth battle" with his mother, reluctantly said, "With all your abilities, you could easily tap into the city's power grid. Why make it so complicated?"
If this guardian had been programmed to show embarrassment, it surely would have triggered by now. After a pause, Lorin replied in a formal tone, "Secrecy is my highest priority. In comparison, energy acquisition is a lower priority. I cannot violate higher priority rules while achieving lower priority objectives."
"Then why tell me all this?"
"You are already aware of the base's existence. Base security is the highest priority," Lorin's answer was simple and effective.
Huang Xuan grunted, still thinking about his frozen bank account. "Helping you replenish energy is easy, but I don't have any money."
Lorin responded directly, "How much do you need?"
It seemed Lorin had money, and Huang Xuan's mood brightened considerably.
"Oh…" Huang Xuan pretended to calculate, his mind whirring. Although he was still a student, he had picked up some business wisdom from his elders:
To do what others cannot, to obtain what others do not have, is where profit lies. And Lorin, at least so far, was known only to him.
For the sake of future friendly relations, and to soothe his wounded pride, Huang Xuan carefully considered. He recalled that his classmate Liu Penggang had recently bought a SunBlade X8450 to run a private server, which was said to be a quad-core blade server, and it only cost 50,000 dollars. So he said, "About 500,000 dollars should be enough."
"I understand," Lorin replied and then fell silent. Huang Xuan called out a few more times but got no response, still wondering how much energy Lorin needed and what kind.
Huang Xuan had grown used to Lorin's sudden appearances and disappearances, so he didn't pay him any more attention. He went back to his room to play World of Warcraft. Later in the evening, Lorin's voice returned, "The items have been placed in your computer. They are files from P136T02015. There are two in total. Sell them, and you'll have enough funds. It's best to fulfill your promise within thirty days."
Lorin spoke quickly. Huang Xuan shrugged; he didn't care about what was best. The guild event was at its climax—they were just about to down Illidan for the first time on their server. He barely had time to grunt before rejoining the tank line, only to hear a loud pop as the power went out.
Within two or three seconds, the computer rebooted, and Huang Xuan finally realized what had happened. He immediately began to curse, hurling a string of expletives before gasping for breath, "Do you have any idea how important that was? This was our server's first Illidan down, and now my classmates are going to kill me tomorrow."
"If you don't hurry and fulfill your promise, you won't see them again," Lorin replied bluntly. Huang Xuan swallowed hard, hunched over, and picked up his mouse, "Which drive did you put it in?"
"The C drive, in the A folder."
Huang Xuan weakly grunted, opened the folder, and found two programs with dense English documentation. He could only make out "am," "is," and "are," but he didn't want to appear clueless in front of Lorin. Pretending to understand, he said, "Got it. I'll take care of it tomorrow. I'll rent you a generator then." After all, he figured the electricity wouldn't cost much, and he hadn't planned on using Lorin's money anyway. Besides, it would give him time to find someone who could understand what these files were.
"Good," Lorin responded curtly.
Huang Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. He was genuinely worried that Lorin might send him off to another desolate place. That day in the P112 dimension had been the worst of his life—hungry, homeless, and scared. He was quite content with his current life. While occasionally a bit boring, he didn't want to upset Lorin too much. Seeing that Lorin didn't seem interested in pressing the matter further, he quietly turned off his computer and snuck to his bedside table, where he kept his cash. As he counted the bills, he thought about how Sifang Group, his mother's company, also dealt in generators. A 30KW generator cost around 10,000 dollars, while a 500KW one was over 400,000. But that was the purchase price; if he only rented one for a few days, his few thousand dollars should suffice.