Hogwarts: Voldemort, don't stop me from studying

Chapter 991 Spreading Ripples

A thick sea of ​​clouds spread out, as if endless waves had been brought to a standstill by unimaginable force. The clouds took on an exceptionally pure white hue in the afternoon sunlight; above them, a clear blue without a trace of impurity.

The monotonous color spread endlessly across the extremely high sky, appearing magnificent and aloof, carrying an almost divine tranquility and beauty.

Wade sat by the window, his profile illuminated by the sunlight streaming through the porthole, his eyes fixed on the scenery outside, but Grindelwald's parting words flashed through his mind—

"I don't want you to learn from me, nor do I want you to deny Dumbledore."

Grindelwald stared at the firelight, his voice remarkably calm:
"I want you to see clearly that true changemakers are destined to build a lonely glass bridge."

"The glass bridge in mythology connects the human world and heaven—it is sharp as a knife, narrow and fragile, and only heroes in stories can cross it."

"And your glass bridge, one end must be rooted in the mud of reality to gain strength and stability, while the other end must stretch towards the clouds of ideals—don't let the mire hold you back and cause you to forget the direction you're going."

"If the world you dream of is to become a reality, then the new world you create cannot only contain pure, righteous, and kind people; it also needs to accommodate people like Barrett."

"You must use their inherent weaknesses to maintain the inevitable turbulence on the road to change; and you must also use their pitiful conscience to restrain them from falling into complete depravity."

“Wade, deep within everyone's heart lie some less-than-honorable corners—fear, selfishness, vanity, greed, laziness… You must learn to control them, even if it's through deceptive guidance… Only then can all the power converge in the direction you desire…”

The plane passed through a turbulence and lurched slightly. The image in his mind shattered quietly. Wade blinked, and the view before him remained that too pure and too distant landscape.

He closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair, but his shoulders were tense to the touch.

The cabin's low hum, the subtle sounds of passengers shifting their bodies, and the gentle footsteps of the flight attendants... everything seemed to gradually fade away, turning into a blurry background sound. Only the thoughts in his mind were colliding fiercely, producing a thunderous sound that only he could hear.

……

An airplane streaking across the sky is like a white bird. As it rapidly ascends, it appears to people no larger than a pigeon perched on a branch.

But Vera, sitting in the conference room, still looked up at the right moment and quietly watched the plane fly away.

Her eyes and head, which were damaged in the fight with Lyra, have been completely repaired, and her appearance has changed dramatically.

Previously, in order to avoid attracting attention, she was short and chubby, and her appearance was also quite ordinary.

But at this moment, she looked like a capable female secretary of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, wearing thin-rimmed glasses and a well-tailored charcoal gray suit.

“Ms. Vera.” A voice drew her from her gaze. Vera turned to see the middle-aged man speaking nervously and ingratiatingly, “Regarding this matter, I don’t know what the ‘Seven-Colored Flower Foundation’ means…”

Vera adjusted her glasses and said in a completely flat voice, "We can provide a guarantee covering all current debts and additional R&D funding. My boss isn't interested in your legacy issues, but wants to ensure the future team can focus on the drug research itself..."

The people at the long table had grim expressions. They vaguely sensed that this mysterious investor was not only wealthy, but might also have incriminating evidence that they were laundering money through the company.

After Vera finished speaking, the two immediately began a heated discussion. She was writing something down quickly with her pen, looking exactly like a secretary working for a capitalist and having no personal feelings.

……

Compared to the glamorous Vera at this moment, the puppet Vilan looked rather disheveled.

Wearing a headlamp and mud-stained work clothes, he ventured deep into the underground mine, his hand gently tracing the winding, interwoven marks on the rock walls.

"Hey, got it?" a few burly men with bulging waists asked gruffly from behind him.

Vilan turned around, a slightly tired but honest smile on his face, and said, "Ah, this mine is almost completely drained. The radiation level is only slightly higher than normal, but there are still some iron-manganese nodules among the gravel." "If we continue mining... well, I can't say we'll definitely lose money... with good luck, we could probably make a million or two?"

This conclusion was similar to that of the other geological experts hired by the burly man. After leaving the mine, the burly man quickly reported Vilan's findings. Vilan, standing beside him, clearly heard the voice coming from the receiver:

"Pah! A million or two? If I were to buy it, just the equipment and mining costs would exceed a million! Get out of that awful place right now! Hank has discovered a 'ghost spark' mine in Belrock, you guys go check it out now!"

After the burly men packed up the detectors, jumped into their off-road vehicle, and roared away, Vilan waved away the sand that had drifted in front of his face, then tapped the communication pea in his ear:

"Are you there? I've discovered a treasure trove."

His gaze swept across the surrounding grayish-white land, and he said with a smile, "These guys don't know about leaching to extract minerals, but we've gotten a steal! If I'm not mistaken, there are amazing reserves of rare earth minerals buried here, and the price is still very cheap!"

"Compared to the mines, you're even more astonishing to me," the person on the other end of the communication pea said. "We have hundreds of ways to quickly expand our power, and you went to prospect for minerals?"

"Haha, what a coincidence." Vilan laughed. "Anyway, I'll send you the location. You should arrange for someone to buy it quickly! Otherwise, if it drags on for too long, someone else might notice something's wrong."

……

"These guys are just causing trouble!"

After hanging up the call, Victor rubbed his temples—although he didn't actually feel anything like a "headache," the puppets had become accustomed to expressing their emotions in a human way.

He sent several messages and made sure everyone on the other end received them before going back into the lecture hall.

The air conditioner in the hall was humming, and the projection screen showed simple slides with complex charts and numbers that made one dizzy just by looking at them.

The young man on stage said with a slightly trembling voice, "The platform economy is different from traditional business models. It does not directly own products or inventory, but builds a digital ecosystem that connects multiple parties and creates value by facilitating transactions..."

A few investors sat sparsely in the audience. Some twirled their pens idly, some looked down at other project materials, some drew little turtles in their notebooks, and some simply turned to look out the window at the glittering luxury cars in the parking lot—those were the assets they could understand and touch.

The young man's presentation was too technical; for most people, his report was filled with a lot of incomprehensible jargon.

Those vaguely understood words were mixed with normal vocabulary, and accompanied by the monotonous and rigid tone of the person on stage, it sounded just like chanting scriptures.

The notes flowed smoothly into everyone's ears and then traveled away without any obstruction, leaving only the drowsiness that the listeners were trying so hard to resist.

The young man finally finished speaking his prepared remarks and stood on the stage for a while, waiting for the audience to ask him questions or express their opinions.

However, no.

None of the investors made eye contact with him; they simply flipped through the documents, silently urging the young man to hurry up and leave.

He stepped off the stage dejectedly and headed straight for the door. Just as he was about to leave, a tall figure suddenly appeared in front of him.

“I’d like to learn more about that ‘digital platform’ you mentioned earlier,” Victor said bluntly. “Would it be convenient for us to sit down and talk about it in detail?”

The young man opposite him immediately brightened up.

　One update tonight

　　
　
(End of this chapter)