Chapter 174: Bluffing and Spouting Nonsense in Public (5k)

Back then, everyone thought their lady boss was just messing around, but to their surprise, two years later, she took off again.

The company they invested in is the one behind today’s short video craze, and they’re actually a major shareholder of the biggest platform.

By the time they’d digested all that, the real estate market began stagnating.

With all that spare cash, they’ve invested in all kinds of random things over the years—mostly real businesses, but just in the past two years, they started funneling some money into the gaming industry. Rumor has it, that’s just the young master of Changfeng Group investing for fun.

Even though the Scorching Sun Department is a real power with huge authority, unless absolutely necessary, interrogating the boss of a conglomerate with hundreds of thousands of employees would be a real hassle.

Wen Yan basically understood—if a strong leader didn’t step in, even questioning them would be tough.

From the information on hand, that lady boss has been alone for years. The feelings between her and He Changfeng were genuine. So, most likely, this whole thing is directly related to her.

If the current helmswoman of the Changfeng Group knows her husband still has a sliver of hope to return, she definitely won’t give up.

She might not understand, but the money in her hands can help her figure it out.

Wen Yan’s thoughts shifted—now he realized this matter could be bigger than he thought.

"This isn’t something you can meddle in. We’ll need Minister Cai for this. We’re just here to watch the fun today."

"You’re right, I don’t know anything." Feng Yao closed his laptop, not planning to get involved.

Looking at the already half-transparent He Changfeng on the ground, Wen Yan glanced again at Jiang Yanyan.

Jiang Yanyan, in his golden body, had a big head and small eyes—not ugly, more like pure, silly, and honestly kind of cute.

With a presence like that, scaring people isn’t a problem at all.

The more Wen Yan looked, the more he thought, this is just perfect.

"Yanyan, there’s something I need your help with. I have a friend—surname Wu—whose son drowned on the banks of the West River a while ago. They managed to save him, but part of his soul is missing. Can you go ask the water god over there what’s going on?"

Wen Yan took out his phone, opened the map, and showed Jiang Yanyan which section of the river it was. Jiang Yanyan scratched his head.

"That stretch isn’t my turf. I can go over, but I probably won’t be as strong as I am now. The local water god might not even give me the time of day.

"Yanyan, you need to stand tall! You’re in your golden body now—just go there in your golden body, and let’s see who dares disrespect you.

This whole West River water system is already a mess; I don’t believe that stretch is important enough to have anyone as strong as you are now.

Not that I look down on the water gods here, but West River isn’t even ranked among the Four Pollutions. The truly powerful ones are either still asleep, or they definitely won’t mess with you.

You just go. If it’s another heretic, just beat the shit out of them.

If anything comes up, Minister Cai from the Scorching Sun Department will cover your ass. Relax."

Jiang Yanyan straightened his back and nodded firmly.

"Alright, I’ll go ask."

Jiang Yanyan slipped into the water and disappeared.

Wen Yan watched Jiang Yanyan leave. He reached out and patted the big head of Jiang Yanyan’s physical body. Honestly, it felt really nice. River dolphins really are adorable.

Ha, and Aunt Gan told him to stay away from the water. If he just doesn’t mess with the northern big shots, he’ll be fine.

We’ve got to curry favor with the local water system. Even if, worst case, we need to head north one day and happen to piss off those two bigshots—we can’t beat them, but can’t we just run?

If we flee to Nanwu County, no matter how high the West River water system ranks, it can’t compare to the northern great rivers. But those two bigshots wouldn’t dare move heaven and earth, reroute an entire great river south, just to kill him... would they?

And if they don’t bring their great rivers, just show up themselves? Then our local West River water gods would have a reason to speak up.

Anyway, for now, let’s just get on good terms with Jiang Yanyan. At least then I won’t have to worry about being drowned in Nanwu County later.

Let Jiang Yanyan strut around a bit... no, no, I mean, help the Scorching Sun Department spread the word about what it means to be a competent water god, to be a diligent, mistake-free, good water god, and what perks come with it.

Jiang Yanyan really didn’t think that much. Granny Fox told him to listen to Wen Yan, and if he did, he didn’t have to worry about dying miserably and could get officially recognized—with merits, even. So, of course, he’d listen to Wen Yan.

Wen Yan just asked him to go ask around—a totally doable favor—so naturally he agreed.

But even Jiang Yanyan himself didn’t realize, as he took his golden body, wielding the golden mace, and swam upstream through the West River, just how much he would terrify the water gods along the way.

In the whole history of the West River, the number of water gods who’ve ever received an imperial decree or a summoning from the ancestral court—even counting those who were later stripped of their status—are so few you could count them on one hand.

These days, in the mainstream and all the tributaries of the West River, all the water gods are pretty much strong local wild sacrifices. And "wild sacrifice" is only a so-so term—if necessary, calling them heretical wouldn’t be a stretch either.

All these water gods are just like Jiang Yanyan used to be: at best, they’ve got a shred of the water god’s power because someone worships them. None of them have seen a legit river god golden body before.

Feeling Jiang Yanyan making his way upstream, each and every one of them got scared shitless, like quails. Some were even recalling if they’d ever done anything bad, while others were wondering if they should just go confess themselves to the Scorching Sun Department.