I'm not a drama god

Chapter 1743 Cousin

The light in Brand's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"Although we know how to forge the Philosopher's Stone and how to use it to contain souls, if the body containing the Philosopher's Stone is still just flesh and blood, immortality is still impossible..."

"This vessel not only needs to be as exquisite as the human body and not be corrupted by time, but it should also be easy to disassemble or replace. Most importantly, it needs to be able to withstand the enormous energy brought by the Philosopher's Stone."

"We have been searching for a vessel to hold the Philosopher's Stone for three hundred years..."

"I never expected to encounter a once-in-a-millennium 'Stitcher'!"

Brand's tone grew increasingly excited, "If the Stitchers were here, they could even mass-produce androids. As long as the number of Philosopher's Stones can keep up, the entire Alchemy Society could achieve immortality!"

Compared to the young Brand, Master Chong was much calmer, speaking slowly and deliberately:

"You're oversimplifying things. To create a homunculus capable of withstanding the Philosopher's Stone, the [Stitcher]'s rank must be high. With his current strength, it's definitely not enough..."

"but……"

"This Li Shangfeng must become one of us."

“Understood.” Brand nodded. “Leave this to me, I’ll handle it.”

……

Li Shangfeng, with a thick wad of banknotes tucked into his pocket, hummed a little tune as he pushed open the factory door.

Although the part from the Imperial Observatory was a bit difficult to obtain, the reward was still quite substantial. Such a large sum of money was enough for him and his sister's living expenses for several months, and it would also allow the factory to operate for a longer period of time...

Of course, he's now a man with three gold bars in his pocket, and his confidence is different from before. Before, he would save the money and spend it sparingly, but now he can confidently use it to improve his life.

Thinking of this, Li Shangfeng felt even better. Even the rusty door that he usually disliked now had an elegant atmosphere of modern art.

When Li Shangfeng pushed open the factory gate, he froze on the spot.

"……what's the situation?"

The once dirty and messy factory was now completely transformed. Nothing on the shelves had been moved, but the floors, walls, and even the machine tool levers looked as if they had been polished, so new that it was unbelievable.

Sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating the spotless factory floor. It was as if the place had been transformed from a chaotic auto repair shop into an exquisite and elegant machinery museum…

Li Shangfeng rubbed his eyes again, making sure he wasn't dreaming, before exclaiming in shock, "Holy crap!"

Between shelves,

A young man in an elegant vest looked up, glanced at Li Shangfeng who was making a big fuss at the door, and silently rolled his eyes...

Then he bent down and continued to carefully scrub the mold spots on the shelf with a towel.

Li Shangfeng: ? ? ?

"Who is this...?" Li Shangfeng was incredulous.

“My distant cousin,” Chen Ling’s calm voice rang out from the side, “He happened to come to see me, and I saw that he was too idle, so I found him something to do.”

"This...this is too much trouble!" Li Shangfeng said anxiously. "Boss Chen, we already feel bad enough for taking your money...how can we trouble you and my cousin to do such chores!"

"It's okay, my cousin just likes cleaning."

"..."

Veins bulged on Lee Lai De's neck.

Just as Li Shangfeng was about to say something, the noble youth silently stood up from the ground, grabbed a twisted and deformed towel, and walked expressionlessly to Chen Ling:

"...The cleaning is finished."

"good."

Chen Ling nodded, then turned to Li Shangfeng, "You go ahead with your work, don't worry about us."

"Okay... okay! Feel free to contact me anytime if you need anything, boss!" Li Shangfeng turned and left knowingly.

After Li Shangfeng had walked away, Li Leide glared at Chen Ling with eyes filled with suppressed anger and resentment, and spoke through gritted teeth:

"Is there... anything else that needs to be done?"

“You did a good job,” Chen Ling said slowly. “I don’t intend to play you for a fool. Although I’m not a good person, I’m not that perverse either… You’ve helped me accomplish two things. Now, you can choose what kind of reward you want.”

"Intelligence, gold bars, or..."

"Freedom!" Lee Ryder said without hesitation.

"No."

"Why?!"

"These two things are not enough to exchange for your freedom."

Li Lede's face was extremely ugly. He subconsciously wanted to curse him as a scoundrel, but thinking of Chen Ling's methods, he silently swallowed his words... Rather than being forced to swallow back what he had said, it was more dignified to say nothing at all.

"Then... I need information."

"Oh? What information?"

Looking into Chen Ling's eyes, Li Lai De asked in a deep voice, "Who... exactly are you?"

Before Chen Ling could speak, Li Lai De added, "If you're going to lie to me about even this, then nothing is meaningful... You might as well just kill me; there's no need to humiliate me."

"Don't worry, the information I give you is absolutely true," Chen Ling said calmly.

"My name is Chen Ling, and I am the sixth-generation Red King of the Twilight Society."

"Twilight Society... what is that?"

"This is the second question. Do you want to exchange it for a second chance?"

"..." Li Lai De felt like he had been tricked again. After all that work, all he knew was a name and a title he didn't understand.

“No, I want to exchange it for a gold bar.” He immediately changed his strategy and decided to do something more substantial.

Without saying a word, Chen Ling stuffed a heavy gold bar into Li Lai De's hand.

Feeling the substantial weight and seeing Chen Ling's nonchalant expression as if she were throwing away trash, Li Lai's lips twitched slightly, and he couldn't help but ask, "Is the Twilight Society... such a wealthy organization?"

“If this counts as a problem, then pretend I didn’t ask,” he added.

"No, consider this a gift from me." A bright smile appeared on Chen Ling's face.

"That's right...we are quite wealthy."

When she said the last four words, Chen Ling deliberately raised her voice, her slightly narrowed red eyes resembling a bewitching demon.

Li Laide stood there, stunned.

dong dong——

Just then, a cautious knocking sounded from the side.

Li Shangfeng, accompanied by Li Wanhua who was still in her school uniform, was seen peeking furtively in their direction. After hesitating for a long time, Li Shangfeng finally asked:

"Um... boss."

"Wanhua and I are planning to go out for a nice meal together. Do you and your cousin want to come along?"

Before he could finish speaking, Li Shangfeng patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, this meal is on me!"

Chen Ling raised an eyebrow, about to reply, when a faint rumbling sound of hunger came from the side... He turned his head and saw Li Leide staring intently at non-existent ants on the ground with a cold expression...

Chen Ling smiled slightly:

"Okay."