Mo Qian had now earned one, and within the escort team, people had begun to see him as someone who might one day take Liu Ao's place.Ruan Fengshan was in good spirits when he saw the citation Sun Huang had submitted. The second escort team had lost Liu Ao, one of its strongest members, and had been noticeably weakened since. Although Xiao Yu had also reached the minor mastery realm, she was a woman, and Ruan Fengshan had been quietly concerned for months, thinking about bringing someone in from the wider martial arts world to fill the gap.As it happened, he had been occupied with other matters recently and had not given the escort agency his full attention.He had not expected Mo Qian to advance to the third level of the inner breath realm so quickly — which was effectively the same as filling the hole left by Liu Ao's departure.Ruan Fengshan picked up the red brush from his desk, wrote a word of approval at the bottom of the citation, and signed his name beneath it."It seems this

Mo Qian rubbed his nose and pocketed the three silver notes. From Ximen Yong's response, Mo Qian could see clearly that Ximen Yong had, for some reason, already recognized him as the man from Black Tiger Hill.Charging only thirty thousand for the registration — and handling the rest himself — was his way of quietly acknowledging that night without ever saying so aloud.Mo Qian could not help but feel a quiet admiration. That Ximen Yong had built the Ximen family business to the height it had reached was no accident. The man had a certain quality to him.After that, Mo Qian handed Ximen Kan the spring palace paintings he had finished over the past few days. The moment Ximen Kan laid eyes on them, he left at once, beaming.Just as Ximen Kan came to Liulu to find Mo Qian, the rear courtyard assembly hall of Yuanshun Escort Agency was packed with people. The two rows of grand armchairs were not enough, and extra seats had been added at the back.With the year drawing to a close, the esco

The following morning, Mo Qian finished breakfast and went to Xiao Zongting's courtyard, then set off with Xiao Yu toward the rear courtyard accounting office.The two walked into the main room of the rear courtyard.Xiao Yu was strikingly beautiful, and the moment she entered, the apprentice clerks in the accounting room immediately looked up at once and stared.At that moment, a young man stood up from his chair and said with a smile: "You are both here early."Mo Qian and Xiao Yu turned toward him. The man gave a slight bow and said: "Please follow me."Mo Qian and Xiao Yu did not recognize him. They rarely dealt with people from the accounting office. Mo Qian asked: "Where to?"The man said: "For the account review, General Accountant Xu has made the arrangements. Deputy General Accountant Wang De'an will be the one to coordinate with you. I will take you to meet him now. Whatever you need, he will see that you are assisted."Mo Qian rubbed his nose. Although they were the ones co

Seeing that Xiao Yu had spoken, Li Jun had no choice but to come over. He looked at Huang Qing and said: "Come here. I will show you how the account books on these shelves are numbered and arranged."There were still five days to go, and Li Jun had no desire to be hunting down books for Huang Qing every time, so he might as well teach him how to find them himself.Though there were many account books here, they followed a certain pattern in their arrangement. Huang Qing was, after all, an apprentice clerk and already well-versed in the various entries. Once Li Jun explained it, he grasped it immediately. Before long, he had located several of the detailed account books Mo Qian needed and brought them over.Mo Qian took the books and flipped through them casually, looking for all the world as though he had no real intention of checking the accounts at all.Xiao Yu had the same approach, and the two of them had arrived at this unspoken understanding almost without a word between them.M

Because Mo Qian had several account books open in front of him at once and was still sending Huang Qing to fetch more from the shelves. Yet he had not made a single note, and had never once touched the abacus.What was this? Did he think he was like Li Jun himself, gifted in mental arithmetic with a perfect memory? It was obviously all for show.But then, Li Jun's contemptuous smile froze on his face.Because he noticed that as Mo Qian leafed through the account books, the index finger and thumb of his left hand were moving unconsciously against the fabric of his sleeve.The reason this startled Li Jun was because he himself made that exact same unconscious movement when he did mental arithmetic."This..."He could not understand why Mo Qian would also do that, but when he looked at Mo Qian's focused face again, a cold feeling crept over him from head to foot.Li Jun's expression became grave. He put his contempt entirely aside and began watching carefully — tracking each account book