Long Xiao's relationship with Lin Xuan had progressed further, and he went to the kitchen to help Aunt Ling cook.
"Long Xiao, why are you so happy today?" Aunt Ling asked.
"Heh, it's nothing, just in a good mood."
Lunchtime arrived quickly, and the Lin family members returned home one after another.
Nangong Yue had lost money gambling at Mahjong again, and upon returning home, she inevitably found fault with Long Xiao and Aunt Ling.
The two were accustomed to Nangong Yue's usual behavior and ignored her, which only made Nangong Yue angrier.
"Long Xiao, can't you find a better job? A few thousand yuan a month isn't even enough to feed yourself."
"Mom, I'm already trying my best. In this day and age, it's hard to make money, as you know."
Lin Xuan came out of her bedroom and chuckled upon hearing Long Xiao's words. Long Xiao was no longer the freeloader he used to be; he could earn hundreds of millions by selling just a few pills.
However, she couldn't tell her mother about such things, or it would cause a major incident.
After lunch, Lin Xuan called her company to check on things. The company was operating normally, so she decided to take half a day off.
After Long Xiao helped Aunt Ling clear the dishes and Nangong Yue hurried off to play Mahjong, and Lin Shijie had also gone to work, Lin Xuan said, "Long Xiao, I'm off this afternoon. Shall we go take a look at the villa in Mangshan?"
Long Xiao had also wanted to see the villa in Mangshan for a long time. The Lin family villa was too close to the city, and the environment was certainly not as good as the villa in Mangshan.
The two drove directly to the Mangshan villa area. It had been newly developed not long ago, and most of the villas had not yet been sold.
At the entrance of the villa area was the sales office. Many people came to view houses here every day, making it very lively.
After parking the car in the villa area's parking lot, Lin Xuan pointed to the sales office and said, "Let's go to the sales office first to see the layout of the villa area. Otherwise, we won't know where Mangshan No. 1 is located once we go inside."
As soon as they entered the sales office, they saw Lin Shiren's family looking at houses inside.
"This villa is nice, good location, reasonable layout..." Lin Huan pointed to a villa and said to a young man beside her.
The young man was Lin Huan's new boyfriend, Chen Yueqian, the general manager of Ji Shi Trading Company.
"This one is a bit too big, isn't it? It'll be troublesome to clean for just the two of us."
Chen Yueqian didn't want to buy a house that was too big, not because he didn't like it, but because he didn't have enough money.
Although his annual salary was over three million yuan, he had been the general manager of Ji Shi Trading Company for less than three years. Including his previous savings, he only had over ten million yuan in deposits.
The villa Lin Huan was pointing at was the smallest villa in the area, but it still cost over twenty million yuan.
Lin Huan said unhappily, "This is already the smallest villa. Any smaller, and we'd have to buy the duplex apartments next door."
"Duplex apartments are pretty good, why don't we just buy duplex apartments?"
Although this was a villa area and villas were built in most places, for some reason, the developer had built over a dozen duplex apartments next to the villa area.
"People are here to look at villas, and you want to buy duplex apartments." Lin Huan said unhappily.
Lin Xin also looked at the villas and said, "This villa is good. Yueqian, it's not that you don't have enough money, is it?"
Chen Yueqian was touched in a sensitive spot. He had always been afraid of being looked down upon for not having enough money, and being told he didn't have enough money was a humiliation.
"Who said I don't have enough money? It's just that a friend needed some funds a few days ago and borrowed twenty million from me. He'll pay me back in a few days, so buying a villa is a piece of cake."
"That's good. This villa is ready for occupancy. Shall we ask the sales representative to take us to see it?" Lin Huan said with a smile.
As they were talking, Lin Huan's family saw Lin Xuan and Long Xiao enter, and their faces showed smugness.
"Lin Xuan, you're looking at houses too. Can you afford to buy one?" Lin Xin, who couldn't become the president of Lin Corporation, had been holding a grudge against Lin Xuan.
"We're just looking around casually, not buying."
"If you're not buying, what are you doing here? Just to embarrass yourselves?" Lin Xin pressed on.
Long Xiao couldn't be bothered with Lin Xin and the others. Lin Xuan replied to them with a few perfunctory words and lowered her head to look at the villa area.
Soon, Long Xiao found Mangshan No. 1. This villa was located in the center of the villa area. Its land area was more than three times that of the adjacent villas. It was a three-story building with a swimming pool and a garden. Behind the main building was a small greenhouse.
The environment here was elegant and quiet. If Nangong Yue ever kicked him out of the Lin family again, he would move here.
As Long Xiao was thinking, Lin Shijie stood beside him and said, "Long Xiao, you wouldn't be able to afford even half of a house here even if you worked your whole life. Looking is useless."
Long Xiao turned back and smiled, "The house here is nice. This one is already mine. I'm not here to buy a house, I'm here to see my own villa."
Lin Shiren saw that Long Xiao was pointing at Mangshan No. 1 and burst into laughter. "Long Xiao, are you crazy? This is Mangshan No. 1, the best villa in this villa area."
At this moment, a sales representative walked over and said, "Yes, Mangshan No. 1 is our villa area's best villa. However, I regret to inform you that this unit has already been sold. No matter how much money you have, you can't buy it."
Chen Yueqian couldn't even afford the smallest villa, so Lin Shiren's family felt very embarrassed and were preparing to leave. However, with Long Xiao and his group arriving, they had someone to pick on and didn't want to leave.
The family took turns to verbally abuse Long Xiao and Lin Xuan, trying to find a sense of superiority by putting them down.
Lin Xuan didn't want to make things too awkward, so she gave a few perfunctory replies and said, "Long Xiao, let's go take a look inside the villa area."
As the two were about to reach the entrance, Long Xiao saw a petite girl carrying a large cello case walk past through the glass door.
"Lin Xuan, why don't you look around here for a bit? I need to use the restroom, then we'll go into the villa area."
Long Xiao pushed the door open and went out. Lin Xuan found a place to sit and wait for Long Xiao.
The girl with the cello case walked quickly. Long Xiao followed for a few dozen meters and noticed that several people were also following her.
Long Xiao slowed down his pace. The people following the girl overtook him and chased after her.
The girl realized she was being followed and quickened her pace, running towards the mountain along the villa area's wall.
Long Xiao felt that this girl was very strange, very much like the Han Shan Temple assassins described by Luo Tianshui. As the people chasing the girl all passed him, Long Xiao also quickened his pace, maintaining a certain distance from the people ahead and following them.
Soon, they left the villa area and entered Mangshan. As soon as they entered the woods, the girl's tracks disappeared. The people chasing her immediately scattered and entered from different directions.
Long Xiao quickened his pace and chased into the woods. As he rounded a tree, a cold glint attacked him.
He dodged the attacking long sword by turning his head. Only then did he see clearly that the attacker was one of the people chasing the girl.
"What do you want?" Long Xiao asked.
"Who are you? Why are you following us?"
Seeing that his identity had not been exposed, Long Xiao did not make a move.
"I'm here to buy a house."
"Why would you come to the mountains to buy a house?"
"To look at the surrounding environment. I like the outdoors."
"Nonsense."
Suddenly, the person speaking to Long Xiao flicked his wrist and thrust his sword at Long Xiao.
Long Xiao shifted his steps lightly, dodged the thrust, grabbed the sword with his right hand, and said, "Give it here."
The opponent felt the grip in his hand loosen, and the sword was in Long Xiao's hand. Before he could draw any other weapons, the sword in Long Xiao's hand snapped into two with a bang. The tip of the sword pierced his neck.
With a fatal stab, the body fell straight to the ground.