20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3639 The road is ruthless
The next morning, Zhao Chang'an gently pulled away from Yang Yixin, who was clinging to him like an octopus. Feeling the emptiness in his arms and body, Yang Yixin wearily opened her sleepy eyes, only to be gently kissed on the red lips by Zhao Chang'an and fall into a sweet sleep again.

Zhao Chang'an took a quiet shower and then quietly left the room.

Stepping outside the hotel, it was still before seven in the morning, and Stockholm was still shrouded in darkness. Although there were already some early risers or people forced by life to get up early on the streets and in the shops, there weren't many. It was just that the lights were on in many of the city's residents' homes, indicating that the busy day of making the most of the morning had begun.

Zhao Chang'an came out more than an hour early because he wanted to stroll around the streets and alleys of this foreign city by himself. Of course, he couldn't go too far. He planned to walk around the hotel for a long time to see the surrounding architecture and local customs, so that he could say he had been here once.

The streetlights in this city center area are all electric, but the light is not any brighter than those gas lamps, highlighting energy conservation.

There were a few people waiting for the bus at the bus stop. Among them was a tall, young woman with a Nordic style. She was wearing a mink coat, high-waisted jeans, white riding boots, and a mink fisherman's hat over her long hair. Her hands, gloved in black silk, were clasped together as she carried a brown deerskin bag. Her demeanor seemed a bit out of place standing there waiting for the bus, which made Zhao Chang'an take a second look.

The woman also noticed the troublemaker walking across the street and looking in her direction. At this moment, Zhao Chang'an was wearing a British-style dark blue double-breasted coat, without a padded jacket, and matching dark blue wool trousers, along with black light wool-lined leather shoes.

Their eyes met. The woman had smooth brown hair, a beautiful oval face, a straight nose, and eyes like pale blue seawater. Zhao Chang'an was also a handsome, dashing, and extraordinary Chinese man, whose attire was out of place with the surrounding scenery.

"This is someone who isn't in great financial shape right now, but is incredibly hardworking, resilient, and outstanding!"

In that instant, they both made the same judgment about each other and, across the street, gave each other encouraging smiles.

The two parted ways across the road, and Zhao Chang'an continued to wander freely around the roads surrounding the hotel. After walking for a while, he reached the edge of the island and looked at the island cluster that was divided into several islands.

A sliver of white was slowly emerging from the eastern sky, and the streetlights on the city's islands began to go out; in some places, they all went out instantly, while in others, they went out one by one.

Zhao Chang'an stood by the sea, gazing at the scenery before him.

These past few days, his collaboration with Ericsson has taken up too much of his energy, so he hasn't had time to think about the Ye family. Today he's going to meet that old monster Ye Pinghe, who's had a broken leg for decades, so he might as well put aside his work for now and think about this world of martial arts that he's always been reluctant to enter.

Now, thinking back to the previous interactions with the Ye family's domestic branch, Ye Pingbai and his group initially approached Wen Ye and his grandmother with feigned goodwill. Zhao Chang'an and Wen Ye also played along, and for the time being, both sides maintained a superficial harmony.

However, with Ye Ying becoming a variable, suffering a car accident that shattered her leg, and then Wen Ye breaking several of Ye Jinghai's ribs, the two sides turned against each other.

However, more than two years have passed since the shipwreck salvage operation, and the Ye family has not taken any action on the matter, which surprised Zhao Chang'an and Wen Ye.

In prosperous times, especially with China's economic boom in recent years, the prices of antiques and jewelry have skyrocketed. In the past, redwood used for firewood, stones used for playing with, and broken calligraphy and paintings gnawed by insects and rodents have all increased daily.

The contents of the dozen or so boxes that Old Man Li salvaged would have been worth only a few hundred thousand silver dollars in those chaotic times. But in this prosperous era, if they could be sold at a reasonable price, it wouldn't be impossible to recoup seven or eight hundred million.

Of course, in Wen Ye's eyes, the most precious thing was that box of cellar mud. Although Zhao Chang'an was a transmigrator, he had always shown a strong aversion to such mysterious things, to the point that Wen Ye sometimes asked Zhao Chang'an curiously, "Do you only have money and power in your eyes? Are you really not interested in such extraordinary things and powers at all?"

Zhao Chang'an's answer was that he was only interested in the art of controlling women. Now that he had this skill, just like Master Qian said, if you think the egg is delicious, then there is no need to know the chicken. So as long as I think the egg is delicious and I have eggs to eat, I don't care about the cause and effect. The chicken is still the same chicken.

Hearing this, Wen Ye gave Zhao Chang'an a thumbs up in admiration, expressing his approval.

It wasn't until this time that Wen Ye confirmed on the phone that Ye Pingbai's real purpose was probably not as complicated as he thought. He didn't want the box of cellar mud, but his purpose was actually very simple: he wanted the valuables in the sunken ship. After all, money can move mountains and make even devils do the work.

This is why Ye Pingbai quieted down after learning that Wen Ye and Zhao Chang'an had succeeded and that what they had taken was not going to come back.

He hasn't stopped; rather, Wen Ye and Zhao Chang'an haven't yet reached the level of qualification and ability to converse with him within the ancient martial art of "The Gentleman Doesn't Use Weapons."

Money is good, but it is ultimately an external thing and not worth Ye Pingbai personally getting involved in. If his goal was the clay, he would not have given up so easily over the past few years.

In the past two years, Wen Ye has been studying the composition of the cellar mud and has dug a small basement in the villa to serve as a small cellar, where he has taken out a small piece of the cellar mud for cultivation.

Li Juan was always in charge of routine maintenance, and Zhao Chang'an didn't care about it at all, never asking about it.

He wasn't entirely without curiosity, but some things, as Wen Ye said, were mysterious and unpredictable. If you didn't get involved or ask about them, you wouldn't get involved in the cause. Once you did, a corresponding, unpredictable result would emerge.

And this result often becomes the cause of a new beginning—

In short, it's very troublesome.

This is also why Wen Ye hopes that Zhao Chang'an can go to the research institute jointly founded by Ye Pinghe and Ye Pingbai, because the path they took seems to be completely different from that in China, including the White Dragon King's area, emphasizing the logic of modern technology and Western medical logic.

What Wen Ye was really implying was that the thoughts of Ye Pinghe and Ye Pingbai, these two old monsters of the Ye family, were completely different from those of the He and Jing generations. They may have reached a state of detachment where they only cared about their own life and death and didn't care about the raging floods of others.

The grudges and feuds among the younger generation, their life-and-death struggles, are probably insignificant in their eyes. As long as the research and development funds are sufficient, they don't care about the lives of these juniors at all.

All outward appearances, the image of a kind old man, are merely necessary disguises and performances.

The Great Way is ruthless, and Heaven and Earth are indifferent; this is the essence of things.