For the first time in a long while, Lin Chen changed back to his original appearance.

A few days ago, after the funeral, He Wenyan had called him, inviting him for a meeting when he was free.

Lin Chen, keeping his thirty-million-dollar investment in mind, checked the time and realized it was indeed time to meet with He Wenyan again.

So on this day, after leaving early as Fang Chengyu, he found a hotel and tidied up his appearance.

He Wenyan had invited him to meet at his company, and Lin Ruyan would, as expected, be there as well.

This was a bit troublesome for him.

The reason was simple:

His resemblance to the original body’s owner wasn’t just close.

It was more like there wasn’t a single discernible difference in their facial features or bone structure.

If you put the original owner and his past self side by side, the only noticeable differences would likely be in things that could be influenced by nurture, such as temperament, dark circles under the eyes, and hair volume.

Fortunately, even if the differences were only acquired, the accumulation of many such differences was still enough to separate them into two distinct people.

Putting everything else aside, the difference in their aura and spirit alone was enough to make anyone familiar with them doubt their identities were one and the same.

With this judgment, Lin Chen dismissed the idea of further altering his real appearance.

After all, how could he use someone else’s name and face for the important business of making money? ^ ^

The only adjustment he had the system make was to his height.

He increased his natural height by one centimeter, rounding it up to a nice, solid 180cm.

With all preparations complete, Lin Chen set off for the company’s location.

The company He Wenyan founded was called “Tianyan” (Sky Eye), a name commonly used for villainous AIs in various sci-fi novels or movies from Lin Chen’s previous world.

Lin Chen, upon first hearing this company name, thought: …

Was that famous author known as “Fully Automatic Typing Keyboard” a bit too perfunctory with their naming? The Xiyalama Hotel and Latimasha were one thing, but to be so lazy with even the protagonist’s company name?

The “Sky Eye” company office was very close to B University’s campus, separated by only two streets.

Therefore, after Lin Ruyan joined Sky Eye, he could pop into the office for a visit whenever he had time.

He could now walk for short periods without crutches.

Although he still walked with a slight limp and couldn’t walk for long, it was an immense improvement compared to his condition a year ago.

When Lin Chen arrived at the company, He Wenyan happened to have stepped out to get something. The other employees were on holiday, leaving only Lin Ruyan at the company.

Hearing the noise at the door, Lin Ruyan tried to walk out quickly to greet the guest on behalf of his boss.

Lin Ruyan: “Mr. Lin? Hello…”

Before the word “hello” was fully out, Lin Ruyan froze on the spot.

He stared blankly at the visitor before him.

The guest wore a windbreaker with the collar turned up, standing straight and framing his cheeks. His posture was very upright, making the lines of the coat on his body appear exceptionally clean and sharp, just like the sound of his footsteps as he had just approached—not a single bit of sloppiness, a sharp aura pressing forward without reservation.

But when the guest noticed that the person waiting at the door was him, his aura retracted, and his approaching footsteps softened.

The young man stopped a meter in front of him and gave him a polite smile. “Hello, my surname is Lin. I’m looking for Boss He.”

Lin Ruyan, however, didn’t react for a moment.

He stared at the young man in a daze, the overly unfamiliar temperament and feeling making the syllables that came from his throat extremely hesitant and barely audible.

Lin Ruyan: “Bro…ther?”

Lin Chen: “?”

Lin Chen’s smile faded. He repeated疑惑, politely and distantly, “Hello, my surname is Lin. I’m looking for Boss He.”

Lin Ruyan snapped back to reality.

He shifted his gaze away, flustered and at a loss, and turned sideways to welcome Lin Chen into the meeting room. “I’m sorry, sir. Please, please wait a moment. Mr. He will be back in five minutes at most. I… I’ll go make you a cup of tea.”

Lin Ruyan fled in disarray. His already unsteady legs nearly gave out midway, and it was only thanks to Lin Chen’s quick, precise, and firm action of grabbing him that he didn’t fall all the way back to square one.

Lin Chen watched Lin Ruyan’s stumbling departure, taking a long while to retract his gaze.

The system was a bit nervous. “Host, do you think Lin Ruyan didn’t recognize you, or that he didn’t dare to recognize you?”

Lin Chen: “You’re nervous? Then let me teach you a trick. In a moment, Lin Ruyan will definitely call Lin Chen’s phone. When he does, you just dive into my phone, simulate his brother’s voice, and say a few random words to him. After that, whether he didn’t recognize me or didn’t dare to, this ‘Lin Chen’ cover of mine will be truly secure.”

The system hesitated. “But… is this okay? Host, are you really, really not planning to ever acknowledge him as your younger brother?”

Lin Chen smiled. “Then what are you nervous about?”

On the table in the meeting room, three large stacks of documents were placed in advance.

Lin Chen pulled a pencil from his jacket pocket, moved the leftmost stack of documents in front of him, and began to quickly scan the files from top to bottom.

The system, keeping pace with Lin Chen, scanned each document into its database while asking quizzically, “Host, why do you need to look at these documents yourself? He Wenyan will have to introduce them to you in a bit anyway. Wouldn’t it be much faster to wait for his summary report?”

Lin Chen’s eyes scanned quickly, the pencil in his hand occasionally moving to circle or mark something on the documents.

His eyes and hand didn’t stop as he retorted to the system, “In the original novel, how long did it take for He Wenyan to develop his business to a level where he could squeeze onto the commercial chessboard of the capital, relying on his own abilities?”

The system answered instantly: “Five years!”

Lin Chen: “Yes, five years, and that was just the official starting point for his career to take off. From his return to the capital to his complete ascent to the pinnacle, becoming a new powerhouse in the circle, it would take nearly another ten years, even in the novel world.”

Lin Chen said flatly, “He is a genius, and his future is set to be bright by the original author. But no matter how much of a genius he is, when he falls into the real world, his development trajectory must be continuous.”

Lin Chen flipped through the documents, making notes with his pencil. The tip of his pencil would occasionally touch the handwriting of another reader on the pages.

He said, “In other words, he cannot avoid the phase that any real-life genius in their actual initial stages cannot escape: exploration, trial, failure, adjustment, and restarting the exploration.”

The system was half-understanding. “Oh—oh… But, Host, didn’t you say before that He Wenyan had already undergone a lot of project training when he was with the He family?”

Lin Chen calmly retorted, “Are the commercial projects he undertook at the He family on the same level of difficulty as the entrepreneurial venture he is currently engaged in?”

Lin Chen: “At the He family, he had backing, resources, connections, and first-hand information that surpassed all ordinary competitors. But what about now? All he has is a thirty-million-dollar investment that can only be truly earned, not truly lost.”

Lin Chen: “Compared to all other resources, money is actually the easiest to obtain and has the lowest barrier to entry. Therefore, all the commercial activities he is currently undertaking are actually just him striving towards the starting point he has successfully attempted countless times before.”

Lin Chen: “So—do you see why he was so fond of my hands-off approach to his pace and plans last year? Because he knows he needs time and cost to make mistakes and experiment. He needs the investor’s trust to be sufficient enough to let him completely cross this stage, rather than having them back out halfway, leading to endless internal conflicts that would, in turn, rob him of the energy and time he should be spending on market research.”

The system keenly caught the keyword. “Last year? What about this year, Host? Are you not planning to do the same this year?”

Lin Chen smiled. “Why do you think I’m here today?”

Lin Chen finished flipping through one document and, without pause, picked up the next. “I was very busy last year, as you saw. It was my first time being a young master in a wealthy family, so I needed some time to adapt. Moreover, the two worlds are not completely identical, so experience cannot be fully copied. If I rashly gave guidance and comments, who knows if the impact would have been good or bad.”

The system remembered the period during the later stages of the Qi family contract, when the Host was feigning illness in D Country. Besides video calling with Qi Xiuyi every day, he spent the rest of his time reading various books, news, and materials, making the most of every effective minute of the day.

The system had a sudden realization and became very excited. “Oh! So you used one year to adapt to this world, brought over all your experience, and starting this year, you can start your own business, right?”

Lin Chen: “?”

Lin Chen sneered, “Don’t even think about it. What if after I work hard to build an empire and complete the storyline maintenance mission, you turn around and send me back home? If it happens again, I’d die of a heart attack from the heartache even if I were resurrected!”

The system hurriedly clarified, “N-no, that won’t happen, Host, please rest assured. Our LuJiang System would never do something that harms our hosts! After you complete the mission, you can choose whether you want to continue staying in the novel-adapted world or return to your original world to revive your body and continue living!”

Lin Chen said with a deadpan expression, “Then can you guarantee that after I make my choice, no other system will descend from the sky and send me to another new world?”

The system hesitated. “This… the LuJiang System definitely won’t bind repeatedly. But I can’t guarantee that systems from other groups, like some Shizi System or Diandian System, won’t come looking for you…”

Lin Chen: “Heh heh.”

Lin Chen calmed his emotions and calmly continued to flip through the documents. “So, at least in this world, the hard work should be left to the protagonist of this world. I just want to help him with the work of collecting the money.”

The system was confused. “Then what are you planning to do?”

Lin Chen: “Collecting money also has its own pace. At his speed, I’ll have to wait at least another three years before I can get dividends to buy my own apartment in the center of the capital.”

The system was very uncertain and asked cautiously, “Is… is that very slow?”

Lin Chen asked flatly, “If it’s something I can shorten the time for just by putting in a little effort, why not do it?”

System: “…”

The system was bewildered. “Wait, Host, what’s the difference between this and the effort you just said you didn’t want to make?”

Lin Chen didn’t reply to it further.

He turned his head to look at the entrance of the meeting room and saw He Wenyan, who had been standing there for some time.

…

He Wenyan had arrived at the entrance of the meeting room much earlier.

On his way to the meeting room, he had already heard a jumbled account from his trusted employee, Lin Ruyan, about how this “Mr. Lin” inside looked so much like his brother.

He Wenyan took this very seriously. With the simple thought of “I must investigate this person’s background for my subordinate,” he strode to the meeting room entrance.

However, before he could even enter the meeting room, the moment He Wenyan saw the young man sitting on the sofa and his gaze swept lightly across the man’s face, the exact same feeling of seeing a ghost from the day of the funeral once again struck his brain!

His eyes widened, and he sucked in a sharp breath. The doubt about the existence of reality forced him to stop his half-raised foot in its tracks.

His foot, acting on its own, tried to make a 180-degree turn to take him back. But halfway through the turn, he met the bewildered and questioning gaze of Lin Ruyan beside him…

He Wenyan: “.”

With a deadpan expression, he twisted his thigh and forcefully turned his body back around.

Lin Ruyan whispered, “Mr. He?”

He Wenyan raised his index finger. “Shh—”

He Wenyan looked at the young man inside the meeting room.

The young man sat relaxedly in the center of the sofa, his legs crossed, with a document on his lap that he was flipping through quickly.

His expression was serious and focused. The profile of his face, revealed as he looked down, had very soft lines, with only the slight prominence of his brow bone tracing two fine, long, and handsome eyebrows.

Rustle.

A document was quickly read.

The young man calmly placed the document by his side and immediately picked up a new one.

His reading speed was extremely fast. If he wasn’t just pretending, then someone with such speed must be an industry insider who was very familiar with the content of the documents.

He Wenyan had originally been skeptical of Qi Wendong’s claim that this person’s “vision and ability are no less than mine, and his business acumen is even stronger than mine.”

But with just this first glance, He Wenyan immediately understood the accuracy of Qi Wendong’s assessment.

…Assuming this display of ability had nothing to do with the Qi Wendong’s-ghost-has-possessed-him feeling he was getting.

The young man in the room had a very stable and powerful aura.

As he sat there quietly, the entire meeting room seemed to be his domain, with only the sound of pages turning and a pencil on paper echoing quietly in the room.

He Wenyan watched and observed the person in the room in a daze for a long time, so long that Lin Ruyan couldn’t stand it anymore and gently nudged his arm, which finally brought him back to his senses.

He had originally planned to enter the meeting room with Lin Ruyan.

But now he had changed his mind. He silently gestured to Lin Ruyan to wait outside, subconsciously held his breath, and stepped lightly into the room.

However, it was as if prey had touched the edge of a spider’s web.

The moment he set his foot down, the young man sitting at the center of the web broke from his focused state and looked up towards the door.

Seeing him, the young man smiled, stood up, and nodded at him. “Boss He, it’s a pleasure to meet you for the first time.”

With Lin Chen’s words, the air in the meeting room suddenly resumed its flow.

He Wenyan breathed a sigh of relief and resumed his breathing. He strode forward naturally, stopping on the other side of the coffee table, and extended his right hand with a smile. “Hello, Mr. Lin. The title ‘Boss’ sounds a bit old, I don’t like it. You can just call me by my name, He Wenyan.”

Lin Chen nodded, extended his hand for a polite shake, and exchanged his name: “Lin Chen.”

Their hands shook lightly and were quickly released, leaving only a soft touch in the palm of He Wenyan’s hand. He nonchalantly pulled his hand back behind him and subconsciously clenched it again.

Lin Chen sat down naturally and gestured with his hand. “Sit.”

He Wenyan didn’t realize anything was amiss.

He was immersed in discerning the differences between Lin Chen’s eyes and Qi Wendong’s, which he had noticed when their gazes met just now.

Compared to Qi Wendong’s eyes, Lin Chen’s eyes appeared colder and calmer. Especially when looking at him, a sharp sensation would suddenly flicker in his gaze.

This sensation gently poked at him, instantly distracting him.

If meeting Lin Chen and preparing the summary report were initially all for the sake of fulfilling Qi Wendong’s dying wish and allowing his soul to rest in peace…

Then, from this moment on, He Wenyan was conversing with his new “partner” completely of his own volition.