Li Haochen once again witnessed the terrifying nature of the two women. Buying groceries took nearly four hours, filled with an abundance of unnecessary items. Any slight objection was met with threats from the "Killing God Domain," making it a truly arduous experience.
He hailed a taxi. The DiDi driver, upon seeing the mountain of items beside Li Haochen, couldn't help but twitch his lips, feeling a bit embarrassed. As Li Haochen alighted, the driver secretly gave him an extra twenty.
Just after he finished moving the items, he received another call from Liu Qinghe. "Director Liu... Oh, alright, I'll be there now."
"What's up?"
"Director Liu wants me to come to the hotel. You guys eat first when the meal is ready."
Upon arrival, Li Haochen knocked twice.
"Haochen? The door's unlocked."
"Director Liu, are you packing? Need help?"
"No, no, just sit for a bit, I'll be done soon."
A few minutes later, Liu Qinghe, wiping the fine sweat from his brow, his gaze flickering momentarily before quickly concealing it, smiled and said, "Haochen, these are the bonus checks from your two top patrons. The hospital forgot to give them to you that day. Also, the promised prize money will take a little longer to arrive, as expense expenditure is much stricter now."
"It's fine if it's delayed," Li Haochen replied, accepting the two checks without opening them, stuffing them directly into his pocket.
"Oh, and this, I almost forgot." Liu Qinghe placed two long boxes in front of Li Haochen with a smile. "You probably guessed, right?"
Li Haochen's eyes gleamed, and he reached out to caress the boxes.
"This box is for the hero that accompanied you in this competition. As for this other box... it's an upgraded version, not for sale to the public, hehe!"
"This is great stuff! More appealing than these two checks. Thank you so much!"
Liu Qinghe looked at Li Haochen, wanting to speak but hesitating, finally sighing helplessly and saying, "Haochen, I... I'm sorry about this."
"Huh?" Li Haochen, not understanding, furrowed his brow and asked, "What happened?"
"Your commissioner position, it was just changed. I..."
Li Haochen's expression changed slightly upon hearing this. Although he wasn't particularly eager to join, being dropped felt rather unpleasant. However, he knew this was not something Liu Qinghe could control and he still needed to show respect.
"Oh, so that's what it is. It's fine, Director Liu. If it doesn't work out, it's rather to my liking. Don't worry about it. Is there anything else? If not, I need to get back to the pier."
"Haochen, we can put you on the standby list first..."
"No need, Director Liu. Since it's not meant to be, why force it? I'm leaving. Come visit Binhai when you have time."
Li Haochen interrupted Liu Qinghe, his tone carrying a hint of emotion. He could tell that even a second attempt to keep him was not possible, so he could only sigh in resignation, shaking his head repeatedly.
"Someone who doesn't even understand fishing rods gets promoted, while someone who is almost a master is... Sigh, this world is truly absurd."
As Li Haochen walked out of the hotel, he was indeed still a bit annoyed, but he soon came to terms with it. It was unexpected but not entirely out of the realm of possibility; such situations were commonplace.
"It wasn't a wasted trip. Besides the 400,000 bonus, there's a 1.2 million reward. More importantly, I gained these two comrades, hahaha..." Li Haochen looked at the two long boxes in his hands and burst into laughter again.
Back on the Starry Sea, the aroma of food filled the air. He saw the two women sitting on the tatami mats, sorting through the newly bought supplies.
"Didn't I tell you to eat first if you finished cooking? Where's Mom?"
"Auntie Lian went to the hotel to buy things. We're not that hungry anyway, it's fine waiting for you to come back."
"Grrr..."
"Hmm, not hungry, then we'll wait a bit longer, hahaha!"
Murong Yanran, embarrassed and angry, flicked a bag of hard pistachios straight towards Li Haochen's face.
"Ouch..."
Li Haochen went down with the impact, clutching his forehead and feigning pain. Seeing this, Murong Yanran rushed over, her heart filled with concern. She squatted down and anxiously asked, "What's wrong? Did it hit you? Let me see... Oh!"
Startled by Li Haochen's sudden pounce, Murong Yanran was pulled into his embrace and pinned beneath him. "You dare to hit me? I'll show you who's boss, hehe!"
Their eyes met. After days apart, in this moment, their emotions stirred. A scorching aura erupted between them, their lips like positive and negative magnetic poles, instantly colliding with a smacking sound...
Just as Li Haochen was about to reach his destination, the voice of the unreliable Xie Baolian reached them. "Oh, Yanran, come out and help me carry this, I'm exhausted."
The two were startled by Xie Baolian's call and quickly separated. Li Haochen, filled with a desperate resentment, almost went mad. "Damn it!"
"Hurry and go help, I'll get the meal ready." With that, she kissed Li Haochen and quickly ran off, her legs clamped together. It was evident that Murong Yanran was deeply moved.
Coming out, he saw two boxes of Golden Ice Valley behind Xie Baolian, his expression a little strained.
"You're back, huh? I knew I should have asked you to go pick them up, I'm exhausted."
Li Haochen walked over, carrying a box in each hand, and called out resentfully again, "Why didn't you buy a few more boxes? Ten or eight boxes!"
"Do you think I don't want to? If I bought more boxes, I'd have to move for half an hour. Do you want me to die of exhaustion? What are you standing there for? Let's go."
"If you bought more, time would be just right... You're so unreliable."
"What are you grumbling about? Hurry up, I'm starving."
Upon entering, Murong Yanran had already prepared everything. She set out the wine and washed her hands before they all gathered around the dining table.
Li Haochen inevitably enjoyed the "mountain of dishes" treatment again. He ate until he was full, his heart filled to the brim.
After the meal, Li Haochen leaned back in his chair, sipping the hot tea prepared by Murong Yanran, and said calmly, "Mom, I was dropped from the commissioner list."
Xie Baolian froze for a few seconds, not showing much surprise. Being within the system, she knew how things worked and could only sigh internally at Li Haochen's disqualification.
"Son, don't take it to heart, this is their loss."
"Hey, why are you looking at me like that? It's fine. If you guys hadn't forced me to agree, I wouldn't have wanted to. Going out to sea, fishing, and making a few hundred billion isn't good, right? Hehe!"
"Alright, a few hundred billion, you're daydreaming. Let's go back."
"Got it..."
Getting into the driver's seat and starting the engine, he saw the fuel gauge needle in the yellow zone and twitched his lips, looking somewhat sheepishly at the two women. "Ahem, it seems we can't leave yet."
"What's wrong?"
"Uh... Forgot to refuel!"
"Wh... What?"
Seeing the anger levels of Xie Baolian and the other woman rising, Li Haochen bolted out of the door at lightning speed. Ten minutes later, a fuel tanker arrived. Seeing the 8.89 displayed on the fuel gauge was painful, like being cut by a knife. He cursed internally, "This is so damn expensive, 7 mao more than Binhai. Big cities are not for me."
It took nearly an hour to fill the fuel tanks and water tanks. After paying the docking fees, he returned to the cockpit. Just as he started the engine, he received a message.
"～Ding"
Li Haochen opened his phone and couldn't stop laughing. "Hahaha, I'll buy you guys lots of things when we get back."