"Hey, hey, hey."

The cool morning breeze rang the wind chimes by the window, and the golden dawn gently caressed the faces of the two people in bed. Qing Lan kept shaking Le Yu's shoulder until Le Yu sleepily wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth: "Ah, is it time for lunch?"

"It's only seven o'clock. It's more like time to get up for breakfast. I haven't even gone to the press yet."

"Oh, oh, oh, safe travels." With that, Le Yu pulled the thin silk blanket over himself, turned his body to avoid the morning light shining on his face: "While you're at it, close the curtains, please."

"Hey," Qing Lan wrapped her arms around Le Yu's neck and whispered, "I just woke up and suddenly felt a little nauseous. It took a while to feel better, but I didn't even have a late-night snack last night. Do you think I might be..."

"Living on the edge?"

"Pregnant!" Qing Lan was full of energy early in the morning: "A kind soul taught me a lot of knowledge. Things like vomiting, nausea, and queasiness are all early pregnancy symptoms..."

"The kind soul you're talking about, is their surname Mi and first name Die, and they're less than twenty meters away from us?"

"Don't interrupt!" Qing Lan, growing more confident these days, dared to retort Le Yu: "If I really am pregnant, what do you think we should... do?"

"What do you mean, do?"

"Keep it or not?"

"What?" Le Yu opened one eye: "Is there already abortion technology in this age?"

"You mean terminating the pregnancy," Qing Lan said. "There's been that option for a long time. If there weren't, Xiangxue Sea would have gone bankrupt by now... There are many methods of termination. I heard that rich families hire medical officers for it, but at Xiangxue Sea, they generally use medicine. After taking that medicine, it's gone instantly, but if you take it too often, you won't be able to have children anymore... I've never taken it."

"Why are you asking this?" Qing Lan watched Le Yu warily.

"Just out of curiosity, don't worry." Le Yu closed his eyes: "But you might not actually be pregnant, so it's best to see a medical officer for a check-up. I think there's one at Jing Garden... but if I remember correctly, it's an old man. Why don't you head to the Medical Bureau for a check-up with a female officer instead?"

"What if I am pregnant?"

"If you are... we'll talk about it then."

Qing Lan blinked her eyes and asked softly: "Do you not want it, my lord?"

Le Yu opened his eyes, saw Qing Lan's cautious expression, rubbed his temples, and sighed: "Rather than want it or not, I'm just not ready... I was sleeping soundly, and you suddenly woke me up with such an important life question. I'm lucky my bloodline is good, so I didn't panic."

It feels like you've just finished the college entrance exam and played games all night, then your mom wakes you up early to ask if you'll attend Peking University or Tsinghua University. If you're not yet clear-headed, you might say 'I want both,' but someone as cold-blooded as Le Yu can calmly say 'wait until the scores come out.'

But Qing Lan didn't indulge Le Yu's excuses this time. She confronted him directly: "It's either yes or no. What do you need to prepare for?"

"I'm not the one giving birth. If you want it, you have it. If you don't, you don't."

"Are you planning not to take responsibility?"

"How did you get that from what I said?"

Seeing Qing Lan getting a little worked up, Le Yu pulled her into a hug and lay down: "I'll call the medical officer over to check you in a while, and I'll catch up on sleep in the meantime. Once the officer confirms the result, I'll tell you what I think, okay?"

Qing Lan struggled a bit, then suddenly went soft: "Let me go, I need to go to the press."

"Aren't you waiting for the medical officer to check you?"

"I'll go find a medical officer myself."

For some reason, Qing Lan suddenly wanted to know the result before the Lord did, whatever the outcome might be.

Le Yu opened his eyes and glanced at her, "Are you mad?"

"I'm not mad. Why would I be mad?"

"Really? I was planning, if you got mad, to give you a gift. I already have it ready."

Qing Lan's attention was instantly diverted: "What gift?"

"It's under the quilt." Le Yu's hand moved under the thin silk blanket: "Come in and see for yourself."

Not suspecting anything, Qing Lan dove under the blanket, wondering how the Lord could have retrieved a gift without her noticing.

Could it be a trick? Qing Lan didn't think the Lord would dare challenge her with this trickery, but if the Lord genuinely wanted to use such antics to appease her, she might reluctantly accept.

Seeing Qing Lan dive under the blanket, Le Yu covered his mouth, unable to stop laughing.

With a muffled sound, Qing Lan instantly threw off the blanket, her face red and ears burning, and launched a barrage of punches on Le Yu's back, synchronizing each blow with an exclamation: "Childish! Disgusting! How old are you? How can you! Be! So! Childish!"

"If you disagree, you can next time trick me under the covers and fart." Le Yu pointed to his shoulder: "Yes, yes, right here, harder."

"I'm not talking to you anymore. I'm going to the press!"

"Close the curtains on your way out, thanks."

Qing Lan, puffed up with anger, did her makeup and changed clothes. As Le Yu was about to drift back into dreamland, she went and opened all the curtains, letting the big sun roast this childish guy, then deliberately slammed the door loudly, walking away in a huff.

These days, Le Yu has stayed home not out of laziness but for safety reasons. Frankly, if Le Yu were to cool down, the entire situation in Xuanzhu County could be overturned. Le Yu isn't daring enough to take unnecessary risks.

The whole Jing Garden is guarded by the Linhai Army, and on top of that, Le Yu has hired white-haired assassins at a high price. Though assassins never take on security jobs, Le Yu's payment was too generous for them to refuse—they've made an exception. Now there are three white-haired assassins outside Jing Garden to work if anyone attempts to scale the walls.

After Le Yu paid, the assassin Fish hinted that if the payment was multiplied a few times, the assassins' bottom line could be lowered, for example, assassinating presidents of the business associations other than the Ting Family.

There's a discount offer!

The second one is half-price!

If you buy a package, it's half off!

The Assassin Organization is, after all, a group that comes for profit and perishes for money. Previously, the Assassin Organization listed 'not accepting Silver Blood Association orders' as a creed just to maintain a steady flow and not cause resentment from the Silver Blood Association, thereby securing a steady stream of orders.

'Do not kill allies' sounds good, but the true meaning of the assassin creed is 'do not kill the client'.

Now, it's clear to everyone that Jing Zhengwei is the future common lord of Dongyang, so the Assassin Organization naturally doesn't need to care about the Silver Blood Association's feelings anymore. Within a few days, the Silver Blood Association might be gone, while super-rich client Jing Zhengwei definitely needs to be won over well.

However, Le Yu naturally rejected the assassin Fish's discount offer, since the Silver Blood Association is practically like fish on the chopping board now; he could handle it with a kitchen knife himself, why bother using these Divine Weapons of the assassins?

And for the same task, let White Night do it for free!

Isn't freeloading off White Night satisfying?!

'Child…'

With Qing Lan like this, Le Yu couldn't sleep anymore. He sat up, thought for a while, and started writing something at the desk.

But before long, Yin Minghong came to Jing Garden to find him, and Le Yu had no choice but to meet the man who doesn't sleep in the morning, fearing he has no night life, at Thorny Heart Villa.

"Boss!" Yin Minghong closed the door and couldn't hold back his excitement any longer, grinning foolishly: "We've already won!"

"Sit down first and then talk." Le Yu added ice to the honey Five-Flower Tea and said casually.

"You wouldn't believe what happened to me this morning!" Yin Minghong strutted boastfully, pacing back and forth: "I was supposed to go execute the next step of the plan today, informing supervisors of various factories and shops about preparations to form a union. Then I took some people to the first factory and found the original person in charge was there too. I thought they were here to cause trouble, but they handed the land deed over to me, saying since we're all managing it now, let's go all out."

"Sit down first."

"It's not just one factory; I ran to thirteen factories just now. Except for two, the original person in charge of the workers at the other factories were waiting nearby for me to come over, voluntarily handing the land deeds over to me! I didn't dare hold onto those deeds myself, so I hurried over to Jing Garden to give them to you. Here, these are them."

Yin Minghong handed a kraft paper envelope to Le Yu. Le Yu opened it and saw over ten contracts inside, nodded and said: "Well done, sit down and let's talk."

"That's not all!" Yin Minghong was almost too excited to jump: "When I said I wanted to form the Xuanzhu Union, those original people in charge had no objections and are willing to follow our plans. Although the workers' response is lukewarm, once the union is officially formed and they experience the benefits, I believe they will become our steadfast supporters!"

"After all, the union is a new thing. Before it shows results, they naturally don't know what it means to them; let's sit and talk slowly."

"And, do you know, Boss, I also—"

"Sit down!"

Yin Minghong flinched and obediently sat down, somewhat confused: "Boss, why did you interrupt me?"

"I can't help it," Le Yu spread his hands and said: "After all, I can't just break your legs."

"Oh, no, maybe I can break your legs, after all, there's a Medical Officer..."

Yin Minghong finally tuned into his emotional intelligence: "Boss, do you have any instructions?"

"I didn't originally, but seeing you as a fool wanting to brag in front of me, I thought I'd find some work for you."

Le Yu ridiculed: "Moreover, why are you telling me these, don't you have someone to whom you can take off your armor, show your vulnerability, and share your achievements?"

Yin Minghong was dazed: "I do."

"Then go to that person."

"I already did."

Le Yu was stunned.

Suddenly, the air became awkward.

It took several seconds for Yin Minghong to realize what nonsense he had just said and quickly said: "Boss, that's not what I meant..."

"Alright, Deputy Leader, let's communicate through letters in the future. Don't come to Jing Garden if you have something, otherwise Qing Lan might misunderstand." Le Yu leaned back away from Yin Minghong, saying: "Let's talk business instead."

"Mm, let's talk business, talk business."

"Like this, Deputy Leader, I need you to go survey and inquire about the issues parents of newborns encounter, investigate what kind of baby products can be bought in Xuanzhu, and bring over all the dairy products that can be bought in Xuanzhu County for me to see."

"Factories and associations are cooperating very well with your work, so you should be quite free, right? This isn't a problem for you, is it?"

Survey and inquire into new parents?

Baby products?

Dairy products?

Yin Minghong was taken aback, whispered: "Boss, are you angry?"

"I'm not angry; why would I be angry?"