AnnouncementI will be taking on the transtion for this novel as it seems to have been abandoned by the previous transtor! The previous 42 chapters can be found here. Please note that this is MTL transtion which I carefully edit word-by-word. So although I believe the quality wouldn't be bad, if any proper transtor wants to take up this project, they are free to do so.Lin Chengyu didn’t really expect much—just not having to see Lin Heyuan piss himself off to death beside Jiang Xiao already felt like good luck.

  He absolutely couldn’t tell Jiang Xiao about the mess at the Lin family either. It had nothing to do with him in the first pce. Being reborn a few years earlier and meeting Jiang Xiao again at a young age was a good thing, but at the same time, being this young meant he couldn’t act freely—there were bound to be restrictions.

  He would handle this matter.

  As long as Jiang Xiao was safe, nothing else really mattered to him.

  He hadn’t pnned to disturb his studies either. After walking into the school gates with Jiang Xiao and watching his back disappear into the academic building, he stood there for a while before leaving.

  His leg had been injured recently and still wasn’t quite healed—standing too long hurt.

  He also still remembered what his grandfather had said to him earlier.

  "Transferring to Houlin is fine, but you still have to study. I’ll arrange people to keep an eye on you. If even one of the seven or eight teachers says you’re better off staying in Liujiang, you’ll come back immediately.

  Besides, now’s not the time to transfer schools. Don’t you want to be in the same css as him? That side’s about to move up to high school anyway—might as well wait until then.

  You know perfectly well what your Uncle Lin Feng is like. If you were a few years older, I would’ve already dealt with him. I gave you plenty of time, but you were the one in a rush, acting impulsively. Don’t bme me."

  The construction team they’d recovered had already entered Yongjiang Company. The Mingyue Bay project was still in development, but it wasn’t being rushed the way it had been before.

  Lin Chengyu was sent directly to the construction site by his grandfather. That pce hadn’t been developed yet, and behind the beach was a vast stretch of rocky ground. He walked around with the workers for a while and ended up falling—cut his knee badly on the rocks, and it still hadn’t healed.

  They had rushed into the Mingyue Bay project initially, even advertising it as a complete transformation within a year. But in real estate, those kinds of slogans were just that—slogans. In his previous life, only their Yongjiang Company had actually delivered. They got burned badly for it.

  The head of the new team was a man surnamed Li—Li Rongxing. He was now the engineering manager at the company, directly overseeing the Mingyue Bay project. He got along well with Yuecheng and knew who Lin Chengyu was. But the old man of the Lin family had instructed him not to pamper Lin Chengyu at the site. So Li Rongxing, scratching his head, just went with his own instincts—there were no young masters on a construction site.

  At first, he was a little nervous about Lin Chengyu getting hurt—after all, this was the boss's grandson. But when he saw the young man didn’t throw a tantrum, applied medicine and stayed on site, even comforted him and stayed focused on the job, he rexed.

  From that point, Li Rongxing formed a good first impression of Lin Chengyu and would speak more frankly with him.

  He really had experience—almost twenty years in the business. When he first visited Mingyue Bay, he praised it as a great pce for tourism development, then added, “Best to stretch the construction timeline to two or three years and do it properly.”

  Lin Chengyu asked him why.

  “We’re building a hotel—it won’t see guests until the surrounding area is done,” he said. “The nearby projects look fshy, but the roads here aren’t even built yet. Development’s going to be tough. Don’t listen to those other developers talking nonsense about a citywide reunch in a year—I’ve dealt with all of them. Believe them and you’ve already lost.”

  No matter how fancy the hype was, Mingyue Bay was still a barren, desote pce.

  Li Rongxing took a drag from his cigarette, gnced over, and said seriously, “Yongjiang started in Liujiang. I’ve read the company’s development history. Even though you’ve got two hotels in Shen City, you haven’t dug in deep yet. Shen City has huge potential, but it’s a tricky pce. If we do Mingyue Bay right, the company can use it as a unchpad to keep expanding in Shen City. But if we mess it up, it’s easy to fall here. The investment is just too big.”

  Lin Chengyu understood that too. Bringing Li Rongxing back was his way of breaking Lin Feng’s setup. This man really had skills—an unexpected bonus.

  Li Rongxing had heard some of what had been happening at Yongjiang tely. What big company didn’t have some shady business? He was used to it. Totally normal.

  The construction industry was full of shady practices—especially building materials. Take tiles, for instance: factory price might be 80 yuan per piece. If you’re in the know and buy in bulk with connections, you might pay 120 or 130. If you’re clueless, they’ll ask 300 and call it a bargain. If it’s an imported brand routed through foreign markets, one piece might be marked up to 700 or 800.

  That’s just how the industry worked. The middlemen made obscene profits. Making a small cut was one thing, but once your conscience went out the window, you could pocket major cash and turn out subpar buildings. Many companies colpsed over this.

  Lin Chengyu was genuinely learning a lot by working with him, and also hoping to use his help to resolve long-standing issues within the company—part of the goals his grandfather had set for him. If he succeeded, by the time Jiang Xiao entered high school, he could go to Houlin, and his grandfather wouldn’t meddle anymore.

  He knew his grandfather still harbored unrealistic hopes—that he’d lose interest once the pressure got too high, chalking up his earlier rebellion to teenage mood swings. That this six-month grind would eventually wear him down.

  Even if he survived these six months, once he went to Houlin—a completely unfamiliar pce, far less developed than Liujiang—his obsession would fade. Right now, he was just caught up in infatuation, driven crazy by the boy who kept rejecting him. But once he got what he wanted, once he was close to Jiang Xiao, the obsession would fade.

  Young people were like that. He’d seen it too many times.

  Lin Chengyu wasn’t about to expin anything to his grandfather. His actions would prove everything—he would never give up on Jiang Xiao.

  Besides, once they were together, he would still need his grandfather’s support and blessing. Laying a foundation now wasn’t a bad idea.

  But no matter how much he said or did, Jiang Xiao was always the most important thing. If he lost him during this process, everything else would be meaningless.

  There were always people watching in Houlin and Liujiang, constantly updating him about Jiang Xiao’s situation.

  One, because Jiang Xiao was always running around—Lin Chengyu worried something might happen. Two, in case he needed help, someone would be there. Three—his own selfishness. He wanted to know what Jiang Xiao was doing. He also needed someone watching Lin Heyuan.

  He’d basically marked him as a romantic rival.

  The people staying in Liujiang told him the two were close, but most of the time they were just studying. No signs of romance—they were still in junior high, after all.

  Even so, Lin Chengyu still felt jealous.

  He was jealous of how good Jiang Xiao was to Lin Heyuan. That kindness—should’ve belonged to him.

  He’d lost it. So Jiang Xiao took it all back, generously giving it to someone else, not leaving him a shred.

  Whenever he thought of this, that bitterness turned into deep regret, wrapping around him—he refused to let go.

  While he was grinding it out at the construction site thinking about Jiang Xiao, Jiang Xiao had just finished his monthly exams and was gunning for the top 50 in his grade.

  Since the second semester of junior high started, it felt like he hadn’t stopped taking exams. Always working on test papers. Even when school eased up a bit, Lin Heyuan would give him targeted practice on the side.

  Days ticked by. The “100-Day Countdown to the High School Entrance Exam” was about to be hung on the cssroom wall.

  Jiang Xiao had been making fewer trips to Liujiang to restock supplies—less than st semester. After all, he was hitching rides, and had to go when Ye Bing was avaible. There was still one st batch of goods holding down the small stockroom, and most of the big money was still with Zhang Yang. No rush.

  Zhang Yang had looked for him several times afterward, each time handing him a few thousand yuan. Around the time of midterms, on his way to meet Zhang Yang, Jiang Xiao saw a young guy on the street wearing headphones. The cable led into his pocket. It wasn’t a big pocket. Jiang Xiao saw him pull out an MP3 pyer and tap a few buttons—probably changing songs. The model looked familiar—might’ve been one of his products.

  After he met up with Zhang Yang, the guy handed over the final payment.

  All 35,000 yuan recovered—plus an extra 5,000 in profit. 40,000 yuan total.

  “I sold them all!” Zhang Yang said, barely able to hide his excitement.

  On top of that, he shared some other updates.

  The earphones sold great too—maybe they could restock those and sell them as a bundle.

  The video store had a computer. Songs could be downloaded online. They’d prepare pylists and the shop could download and transfer the files for customers—a value-added service they could charge for.

  MP3s had been a novelty at first. The first batch was hard to sell, but once people got a taste of how convenient and cool they were—and how others stared curiously when you pulled one out—they became all the rage. Buying one felt like a status symbol.

  Not just trade school students—young working adults were buying them too.

  “Jiang Xiao, have you been to the department store recently?”

  Jiang Xiao shook his head. These days, he was just going back and forth between school and home. No time to browse.

  “If you had, you’d have seen a counter there already set up with our MP3s on dispy. Almost all sold out—just the demo units left.” Zhang Yang grinned, then pulled out a bulging envelope from his backpack. “Besides the 40,000 yuan, here’s their deposit—60,000 yuan. Jiang Xiao, we need to order another batch.”

  For the first time since his rebirth, Jiang Xiao had six figures in his hands—even though not all of it was his.

  Zhang Yang was thrilled. Jiang Xiao, on the other hand, stayed calm.

  He asked for details and learned Zhang Yang was now working with two stores, with a third in contact.

  They’d been partners for a while and trusted each other, but now that real money was involved, he still drafted a contract. If something went wrong, it’d be clear who was responsible.

  With more people and more money at stake, it was important to stay clear-headed and define their roles.

  Zhang Yang, sobered by Jiang Xiao’s reminder, nodded seriously. “You’re right, Jiang Xiao. Don’t worry—I’ll go draw up an agreement today.”

  This high schooler understood the business better than he did—Zhang Yang couldn’t help but be impressed every time.