Xia Lei left the Peace Mansion for work after breakfast. Entering his personal workshop, all his sinful and lewd endeavours last night was flooded out of his mind. He switched out his role as a dutiful husband and father to take on another role. Now, he was the owner of the Thunder Horse Organization.

With the morning light shining on him, the faint chilliness he felt was slightly eased. Through last night’s intimate contact, his wives had noticed the coldness wafting off his body but Xia Lei had failed to provide them with an answer. He knew what was happening. Xia Lei was bound to end up like Zhu Xuanyue. He’d be icy cold from the head to the toe. He’d possess no warmth.

Despite his loss of temperature, his brain and organs were stronger than before. This felt unreasonable because a drop in body temperature would’ve brought upon the weakening of the immune system. However, this statement was only applicable to regular humans. Xia Lei had no longer adhered to the theory.

Xia Lei was bound to become a pure energy body at the completion of his evolution that had no need for a physical body. Zhu Xuanyue had mentioned this before. In the future, humans would no longer require bodies. They would be using alloy bodies and their energy state would allow humans to enjoy a longer lifespan. Humans would be able to last through lengthy space adventures that’d last several light years. So as humans continue to evolve, physical bodies would be eliminated and replaced. Xia Lei, on the other hand, was only one step ahead in the final evolution game. The new iciness he felt was nothing out of the ordinary.

Entering his office, Xia Lei booted his desktop and checked the four share accounts on the American stock market. After a large withdrawal of funds from the accounts during his earlier trip to America, he had no time to manipulate his tradings. Naturally, his total assets had shrunk to a mere 2.5 billion USD.

“That won’t do. My initial plan was to snowball my profit and wreak havoc in the capitalist market. I must see this through. But this amount of money won’t be enough to land any effect. I don’t have enough time to toggle around the share market and there’s only so much I can do with the puppet too. What should I do?” Xia Lei’s mind entertained the question. The man closed his eyes and entered his super brain mode.

Now, it was faster for him to enter the super brain mode. The side effects he’d suffer after every usage had lessened greatly too. As his body continued to evolve, he wouldn’t face any adverse effects from using the super brain mode in the near future.

This time, Xia Lei’s activation of the super brain mode was not to continue his study on the fighter jet and bomber planes but to find a solution for his issue on the American stock market.

When working his brain normally, Xia Lei just couldn’t seem to arrive at a viable solution. Things were vastly different as soon as he entered the super brain mode. In an instant, his mind had supplied him with thousands and hundreds of different approaches to the issue. Impressively, every solution was concluded by a series of calculations and analyses that happened under a second!

He combed through the approaches and narrowed down his choices.

“Xiao Qian? Wait. Wasn’t that the spyware I coded? How could I forget it? As long as I change a few things about its construct, Xiao Qian can become the best stock trading software in history. I just need to plant the altered Xiao Qian into the trading platform and it’ll collect all available information automatically. It’d even buy and sell for me. All I need is a stock market Xiao Qian version to snowball my profits!” Xia Lei couldn’t suppress the spotting grin. The solution his brain had provided was indeed his best way out of the problem.

Xia Lei switched over to his laptop and brought his brain back to the super brain mode. He started to work on adapting Xiao Qian to the share market. Paired with his speedy thought process and simulations, his fingers danced furiously across the keyboard. The synchronisation between every element was amazing. Everything was perfectly effective and precise.

Xiao Qian’s share market version was going to be more complicated than its initial spyware version. After all, it required a certain level of intelligence to allow collection and analysis of trading information and to manipulate trading processes to aid his snowballing.

As he worked on Xiao Qian, a new idea was manifested. Xia Lei had suddenly thought of merging the share market version and the spyware version to create a highly intelligent system that was capable of self-management. It had all the potential to grow into something akin to the American’s Tenshin system. If his attempt was successful, China would have an easier time collecting intel on trades, military affairs, politics and so on from all corners of the globe. At the same time, they’d be able to block off international cyber attacks and utilize Xiao Qian as an invincible firewall!

If this system could come into fruition, the Super Xiao Qian would be able to play an almost equal role as the super fighter jet and the bomber plane he was working on. This would be another valuable asset to the country.

Boom.

As the thought was born, all the code he had written in the past, including those used on the Thunder Dragon intelligent lathe was pushed back to the surface of his consciousness. The jumble of things had even included his most recent codes for the Jing Ke and Phantom drones. Countless programming languages were flying across his mind in a flurry. It acted like building blocks that came together as a bricked wall.

Every thought of his was reflected as a line of code. What Xia Lei had gotten off this was not only the prototype of the stock market Xiao Qian but also the Super Xiao Qian version. Even the relevant programmes and electronic details for the Kun Peng fighter jet and Yan Wang bomber plane was birthed.

Two hours had passed.

Xia Lei’s fingers ceased its movements. He picked up his satellite phone and made a call. As soon as the line was connected, he began, “Good evening, Mister Hornick. Uncle Xia, sleep. Uncle Xia sleeps butt naked. Uncle Xia is naughty. I’ve emailed you a software. Copy it and plant it into your work computer when you get back to the office tomorrow.”

“Yes, my master.” Came Hornick’s soulless reply.

This would probably be the last time Xia Lei would use the puppet Zhu Xuanyue created. As long as Xiao Qian was planted into Hornick’s work computer, it’d be able to gain access into the American stock market platform and began its service.

Now that things were done, Xia Lei decided to take a break. The two-hour-long usage of the super brain mode had triggered an exhausted state in his mind but that was all there was to it. He no longer felt like passing out from sheer stress.

“I’ll work on the Yan Wang and Kun Peng after a break.” Xia Lei muttered to no one. The man then left his seat to make himself tea.

Before he could even take a sip, Qin Xiang had appeared at the door of his office. Clad in a matching office lady attire set, his lips were painted a smoky red. Qin Xiang was now Xia Lei’s current secretary.

After Qing Caiyue’s unfortunate passing, Xia Lei had intended to hire another female secretary. Yet, Liang Siyao had arranged Qin Xiang to take up the job. Liang Siyao’s rationale was blatant. Her arrangement for Qin Xiang to be his secretary was to stop Xia Lei from getting another pretty female secretary. She had enough people trying to get their hands on him. As the CEO of the Thunder Horse Organization and Xia Lei’s wife, to have Qin Xiang become his secretary could be easily done with just her words.

“Director Xia, there’s no need to make yourself tea. All you need to do is call for me.” Qin Xiang walked over, his hips swaying sassily with each step taken. His walk was more accentuated than a runway model.

Xia Lei smiled bitterly at him. “Have you not heard of male suits? Is this really a good look?”

Qin Xiang rolled his eyes at Xia Lei. “Dude, it’s the twenty-first century. Why are you still stuck with a boomer’s mindset? The country has allowed you to marry five wives and yet I’m not allowed to dress the way I like?”

Xia Lei was rendered speechless. He shrugged. “As long as you’re happy, Big Sister Qin.”

Qin Xiang grinned. “That’s more like it.”

“Is something going on?”

“Of course.” Qin Xiang said, “Shentu Tianyin is waiting outside. If you don’t wish to see her, I’ll tell her to go home.”

“Ah. Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Xia Lei quickly walked over to greet her outside the door.

If it had been someone else, he would’ve chosen not to entertain them. Heck, he wouldn’t even have thought of greeting them personally. But Shentu Tianyin was different. After all, she was someone he had once loved in the past. He was never one to hold grudges after a breakup. While he had been her scapegoat years ago, Xia Lei had never once blamed her. Shentu Tianyin would always have a special spot in his heart.

Shentu Tianyin was waiting for him in the corridor. Her black skirt was meticulously tailored, a simple look but impactful. There was a black hat sitting atop her crown. Wrapped around the hat was a red ribbon band that had little ribbon roses. It gave her a youthful and vibrant impression. While the black sleek handbag complementing her outfit was nothing too luxurious, it looked fitting.

She still was as gorgeous as he had remembered her. Impeccably dressed and cold as usual.

Despite her icy glamorous exterior, Xia Lei was aware of the burning heart beneath her layers that once belonged to him.

They locked gazes, none of them daring to say a word. A weird synergy emerged.

Qin Xiang cleared his throat. “Uh, I’ll go do rounds at the workshops. Please make yourselves comfortable.”

“Go. Go.” Xia Lei was wishing for his departure. Then, he flashed Shentu Tianyin a smile. “I thought you were going to visit my house. I wasn’t expecting to find you here.”

Shentu Tianyin waited till Qin Xiang was out of earshot before replying meekly, “You weren’t at home. If I went there, your wives would’ve glared the hell out of me. Even if I didn’t die from their glares, I would’ve been skinned alive.”

Xia Lei chuckled sheepishly. “Come in.”

Just as he was about to close the door after her entry, Xia Lei was suddenly reminded of something. He gave up on the thought. He had five wives and three of them were special agents. The Peace Mansion was only a short distance away from the office block. There was no way they wouldn’t find out that Shentu Tianyin was here. He had only intended to chat with Shentu Tianyin but if he closed the door, it would have raised red flags.

Xia Lei’s small gesture did not escape Shentu Tianyin’s eye. Noticing that he left the door open, the woman couldn’t help but feel a little upset about it. She wasn’t intending to do anything unsightly with Xia Lei behind closed doors but Xia Lei’s action was obviously done out of consideration of his wives. Shentu Tianyin was now an outsider.

“What would you like to drink?” asked Xia Lei courteously.

“Just water would do,” answered Shentu Tianyin.

Xia Lei poured her a glass of water and studied her form. “You’ve lost weight.”

Shentu Tianyin had a ghost of a smile clinging to her painted lips. “My workload has taken over me and I have no one to love. It’s no wonder that I’ve grown thin. You have lost some weight too, why is that so?”

There was a hint of sadness to her lovely smile.