“Do you guys have hands and feet? Why don’t you go earn money?” Xia Zhiyan impatiently retorted. He wasn’t the original owner, so he didn’t want to give money to these people. He didn’t have that much money now. He had taken out a loan to undergo the merperson transformation surgery and had also undergone genetic matching at the Genetic Management Bureau. All this was in hopes of marrying someone like Ye Haisheng, a noble.
Since Xia Zhiyan’s merperson transformation surgery had just been completed, it still required a period of care.
The staff at the Genetic Management Bureau didn’t make any moves, and neither did the people from the Merperson Protection Association. At most, they would step in when Xia Zhiyan needed help.
Why weren’t they taking action? It was also to protect the merpeople and ensure a smooth transition during the care period. Otherwise, they would have rushed the merperson out for matchmaking so quickly, which would not have been a good idea.
Xia Zhiyan still wanted to marry Ye Haisheng, and the genetic matching at the Genetic Management Bureau was to find a way out for himself.
“We’ve already signed contracts,” Xia Zhiyan’s mother reminded him. Originally, the bank automatically transferred money from Xia Zhiyan’s account every month. The bank would only stop transferring money when the balance in Xia Zhiyan’s account reached a certain threshold, in order to maintain his daily life.
In Xia Zhiyan’s mother’s view, it was highly likely that Xia Zhiyan had given the money to someone else to manage. “Did you find an Omega?”
“No,” Xia Zhiyan said impatiently, “Stop bothering me. I don’t have money!”
After saying this, Xia Zhiyan hung up the neural interface. He was unaware that his behavior had angered his mother. The original Xia Zhiyan had indeed held some leverage over the Xia family, but that leverage didn’t have much practical use. Otherwise, the original owner would have severed ties with the Xia family instead of sending money every month.
Furthermore, although the Xia family was unpleasant, they hadn’t reached the point where the original owner would cut ties with them. They maintained surface peace, and no one wanted to cause trouble for anyone else.
The transmigrated Xia Zhiyan had inherited the memories of the original owner but not his way of thinking. He simply believed that the Xia family were all bloodsuckers. He couldn’t let the Xia family keep taking money from him.
He hadn’t even finished repaying the high-interest loans yet, and those people hadn’t given up. Xia Zhiyan had revealed his merperson identity and promised to repay, with interest doubling. He would pay it back once he married a noble. Those lenders weren’t murderers; their interest rates were high but still legal. High-interest loans couldn’t be stopped; they could only regulate the interest rates so that they wouldn’t be excessively high.
In this world with espers, if the interest rates were regulated, then lenders were acting legally, and borrowers had to repay. Of course, the interest rates for underground loans were even higher than what the empire regulated. Thinking of reporting to the police and not repaying? That wouldn’t work. Those underground lenders would make you suffer terribly and might even take your life.
At the very least, the transmigrated Xia Zhiyan understood that he should find legal high-interest loans. Despite being a fairly high-level Alpha in terms of his esper abilities, the bank couldn’t easily lend him money without collateral. Xia Zhiyan needed a lot of money and wanted a high social status. He needed money for buying clothes, shoes, and accessories.
“What nonsense.” Xia Zhiyan didn’t want to pay any attention to the Xia family. He wasn’t the original owner, so why should he care about those people?
Did they think he was as foolish as the original owner? Impossible. Xia Zhiyan couldn’t give money to the Xia family. He was thinking about buying some skincare products, merperson-specific skincare products. He needed to take good care of his tail and have smoother and more delicate skin.
On the day of Qin Mian and Ye Haisheng’s wedding, Yu Qing indeed didn’t attend, and Raymond didn’t either. The two of them sat on the sofa in the living room watching the live stream.
“A grand wedding, indeed quite grand,” Yu Qing remarked as he watched the flowers, gentle music, and cute animals performing on the screen. “They’re afraid others won’t know they’re getting married, so they must have received sponsorships for their wedding.”
Looking at the advertisement icons on the live stream and the logos on various items at the wedding, what was meant to be a beautiful wedding had turned into an advertisement platform.
Tsk tsk, the interests of businessmen come first.
“Are these all from their own funds?” Yu Qing cracked open some melon seeds.
“Both.” Raymond answered, “Qin Mian is something of an internet celebrity.”
“A fallen internet celebrity.” Yu Qing understood, “Now they’re probably squeezing the last drops of value out of it and using the grand wedding to attract fans.”
Although Yu Qing hadn’t been an internet celebrity herself, he understood some of the strategies. It’s all about creating buzz.
Fortunately, he didn’t attend Ye Haisheng and Qin Mian’s wedding; otherwise, he would’ve become a pawn in their advertisement scheme. The viewers of Ye Haisheng and Qin Mian’s wedding were likely to be Qin Mian’s fans, and he would have ended up being maliciously mocked by those fans.
Yu Qing asserted that he wasn’t an internet celebrity and didn’t understand those tactics, so it was best to stay away from such matters.
In the next moment, Yu Qing closed the live stream.
“Stopped watching?” Raymond asked in confusion.
“What’s there to watch? Do you want us to organize our wedding just like theirs?” Yu Qing spread his hands, “I’m just a poor person. If you compare their wedding to ours, others will say I’m a counterfeit. Hmm, a counterfeit that looks exactly like their ex-boyfriend. Perhaps you’re still secretly harboring someone in your heart, and that person is Qin Mian.”
“Not the same.” Raymond frowned. His wedding certainly couldn’t be the same as Ye Haisheng’s.
“Intentionally luxurious, suppressing others. Maybe it can also become a target for rabid fans’ attacks.” Yu Qing opened the neural interface and showed Raymond his StarBlog account. “I used to sell a few bottles of potions on StarBlog. Now someone is comparing me to Qin Mian.”
“And then?” Raymond wondered whether he should have those comments deleted.
“Sell a few bottles of high-level potions, and trample them down aggressively,” Yu Qing rolled his eyes, “You can’t delete others’ comments; that would just make you look incompetent.”
“You’re Lady Raymond.” Raymond reminded him that even if Yu Qing started selling high-level potions now, no one would believe it.
“Yes, I’m your wife.” Yu Qing didn’t deny that. “I’m not selling potions; I’m selling the reputation of the Raymond family. Regardless of whether I’ve actually prepared high-level potions or not, they’ll say I have the support of the Raymond family. Think about it, they wouldn’t dare offend the Raymond family. Will they dare mock you? No, they’ll say you treat me well and that I’m extravagant.”
Yu Qing just liked the way those people couldn’t do anything to her. If they said he was being supported by the Raymond family, then he was. And then those rabid fans would argue about whether the facts were true, but either way, the Raymond family was backing him up.
