Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After the square blob hopped to the swimming pool, it took out a bag of chips and tossed it into the swimming pool.
A moment later, the swimming pool shone brightly and Pool appeared above the water with puffy eyes. He tried his best to open his eyes, and after a closer look at the culprit that tossed the bag of chips in, he said, “Oh, it’s you, Lord Hus. Shouldn’t you be sleeping? Why are you tossing garbage into my pool?”
Little Hus stared at Pool with its husky eyes and put one of the bolster edges in front of its mouth. “Shh! Shh! Quietly! Don’t wake the others!”
He looked around like a thief in the night. After he made sure that no one had woken up, he heaved a breath of relief and said softly, “It’s not garbage! It’s chips! A bag of chips! I’m here to trade with you!”
Pool yawned and said, “Lord Hus, I can only trade once a day. If you trade with me now, Lord Su Yang won’t be able to trade in the morning.”
Little Hus smirked. Maybe because of the husky face on the bolster, he appeared evil. “First come, first served! I’m here first, so I get to trade first!”
Pool shook his head. “That’s not appropriate. Lord Su Yang will be mad at you.”
Little Hus bared his teeth and said, “Grow a spine! Why should we do whatever Su Yang tells us to do!? Can’t you think for yourself?! We are the ones who have special abilities. You don’t have to always listen to him!”
Pool looked at Little Hus and argued softly, “But I heard that among all the little monsters in the house, you are the one who has helped Lord Su Yang the most.”
“I...”
On second thought, Little Hus realized that he was indeed the one who listened to Su Yang the most and helped him the most. Su Yang would make him sniff out opportunities and chances once every two days, and the endless sniffing almost made his nose numb.
‘B-but...Su Yang made me do it! It’s not like I want to help him or whatnot!’
Little Hus got mad at the thought of it. He said with gnashing teeth, “Stop talking nonsense! Are you trading or not!? If we keep on talking, that scent of yours will be gone! I came here because I picked up a strong scent!”
Little Hus’ persistence finally won Pool over. He put his hands out as a sign of defeat and said, “Okay, okay, I’ll trade. But if Lord Su Yang asks why, I’ll sell you out!”
Little Hus nonchalantly waved one of his edges. “Yeah, yeah, one more hour in the washing machine, what else is new? Hurry up! Stop talking nonsense. The scent is fading!”
Pool yawned again and said lightly, “Okay, okay. I get it.” He dove into the water and picked up the bag of chips. Then, his body shone brightly.
A moment later, he reappeared in his traditional Chinese attire which was the standard look for him whenever he used the Inequivalent Exchange and floated above the water. He looked at Little Hus and said, “Lord Hus who has lost his way, what did you lose in my swimming pool? Is it this...gold bar?”
A 50- to 60-gram gold bar then appeared above his left hand.
Little Hus’ eyes shone like gold when he saw the gold bar. He muttered ceaselessly, “Holy sh*t! Mother of God! What the heck?! I knew it. Su Yang always has lousy luck!”
Pool then put his right hand out. “Or this...bag of special dog food?”
The moment Little Hus laid his eyes on the bag of dog food, his eyes widened and shone like the sun!
The husky on the bolster stuck its tongue out and its eyes turned into heart shapes. “D-d-dog food...”
...
Su Yang woke up a little later than usual the next day, but maybe because the system granted him the fundamentals of sparring, he was not as exhausted as yesterday after the impromptu jog. On quite the contrary, he felt refreshed.
He washed up, had breakfast, and headed to the swimming pool to trade with Pool. However, before he could toss anything into the water, Wang Dong messaged him.
[Mr. Su, I’ve taken care of the office, but there are several owners of other offices in the same building visiting. I might need your help here.]
Surprised, Su Yang replied: [Help me entertain them for now. I’ll be there in 15 minutes.]
He glanced at his watch and realized that he did not have time to trade with Pool at the moment, so he went out of the virtual space and sprinted towards the high-tech park first.
Around 15 minutes later, Su Yang reached the office and saw several men waiting for him.
He seamlessly changed to his company founder persona and started to greet the visitors politely and passionately, “Thank you everyone for dropping by my office. It’s my honor to meet everyone.”
He then walked to Wang Dong and said, “Wang Dong, why don’t you introduce us?”
Wang Dong nodded. “Mr. Su, this is Mr. Mu Zhixing from Shanghai Haiway Culture Media Ltd. This is Mr. Tian Hongyi from Shanghai Lanbao E-Commerce Ltd. This is Mr. Zhang Wei from Shanghai Sanxiang Information Consulting Ltd.
“Mr. Mu’s company draws comics, Mr. Tian’s company is in the e-commerce field, and Mr. Zhang is an information consultant.”
It was then that the tallest among the three men smiled and added, “Other than information consulting, I also create websites for clients although they are only small websites.”
Su Yang entered their information into his brain and shook their hands with a bright smile. “I’m Su Yang, the owner of this company. I hope we can work together in the future if the opportunity presents itself, but even if it isn’t business-related, everyone is more than welcome to drop by for a visit.”
“Sure, of course.” All three owners of the other companies smiled and nodded. The five men chatted and exchanged information for a while before the three owners took their leave.
After a quick chat, Su Yang had a general idea of why the other company owners in the same building had visited his office.
All the companies in this entrepreneur building were startups, but every one of them wanted to grow and expand. They did not have the support or connection of big companies, so it became an unspoken custom for them to contact each other or visit a new tenant to seek out opportunities.
If they knew each other well, whenever an opportunity or project presented itself, everyone could help each other out.
The number of projects, regardless of sizes, could determine the life and death of a small company.
The three owners were the first of many. There might be a lot more company owners who would drop by throughout the day.
If Su Yang had the time, he would also want to visit the other offices. It would do him no harm to visit and befriend everyone since all the companies were startups, and a visit might create unexpected opportunities.
As Su Yang expected, more than ten groups of people visited his office throughout the day, and they were all the company owners in the building.
Of course, all of them might represent their companies, but some shared a similar situation with Su Yang. They only had one or two people in their offices. Other than the common boss and employee duo, some of them were even a one-man army.
Su Yang got a ton of name cards and met a lot of people but only a few had potential.
Other than welcoming the other company owners to his newly opened office, Su Yang also checked his recruitment advertisement on the website.
He received seven to eight resumes. After he filtered the applicants out, he selected five of them for an interview the next day. The company was picking up pace in expanding and he must recruit more manpower as soon as possible.
After a whole day of meeting new people, Su Yang got home and simply ate his dinner.
Finally remembering that he still had not traded with Pool yet, he took the English textbook from the previous semester and headed to the swimming pool.