Chapter 80
But with Xuan Yuan Qingya?
There was absolutely no tie between them at all! At most, they’d exchanged a few words when she asked him for directions…
If asking for directions could be considered a connection, then by that logic, Lin Tian had already formed ties with at least seven or eight people earlier that morning at the Antique Market on Bali Street…
So, when it came to the real reason why Xuan Yuan Qingya had come to his room, Lin Tian truly couldn’t make sense of it.
What he didn’t know, however, was that from the very moment he had stopped her to ask for directions, Xuan Yuan Qingya had already begun hearing his inner thoughts. And because of that, without Lin Tian himself realizing it, an invisible and inseparable bond had already formed between the two of them…
In Lin Tian’s eyes, Xuan Yuan Qingya was nothing more than a woman he had only met once, with their brief exchange limited to a few words about the road.
But in Xuan Yuan Qingya’s eyes, Lin Tian had already helped her tremendously!
Leaving everything else aside, the fact that he had exposed Jiang Yifeng’s despicable trick against her was enough to set Lin Tian apart in her heart.
This feeling had nothing to do with romance between man and woman. It was simply a sense of “specialness.”
Just as if you were saved by someone of the opposite sex—could you really claim you wouldn’t feel something unusual toward them?
In short, this imbalance of information made things between Lin Tian and Xuan Yuan Qingya rather complicated—but then again, this wasn’t the first time.
Wasn’t it the same with Shang Chan, Zhao Mengmeng, and Bai Bing’er?
The only difference was that with Shang Chan and Zhao Mengmeng, there was at least the backdrop of Xinghai Group and the Zhao family, which made their entanglement with Lin Tian seem a little less inexplicable…
Shang Chan and Zhao Mengmeng, in tacit agreement, didn’t ask why Xuan Yuan Qingya had come to Lin Tian’s room. And Lin Tian himself couldn’t very well ask outright either.
After all, she had already said she was there to “fulfill her duty as hostess.” If Lin Tian pressed her with something like, “Is this really something you, Xuan Yuan Qingya, should be doing? Tell me the truth, what’s your real purpose?”— Well, that would sound more than a little absurd.
So, for the moment, the few of them simply sat there exchanging casual remarks.
Each harbored their own thoughts, yet no one was quite sure what exactly they were talking about.
At that moment, Lin Tian suddenly shifted the conversation toward the two items that Xuan Yuan Qingya had won at the underground auction.
“Miss Xuan Yuan, that piece of agarwood and ‘Spirit Monkey Offering Peach’—have you brought them back yet?” Lin Tian asked with a cheerful smile.
He had no hidden agenda. True, those two treasures were priceless beyond measure, but what did they have to do with a little villain like him? Lin Tian was simply making small talk, asking out of casual curiosity.
Xuan Yuan Qingya fell silent for a brief moment, as if her thoughts had wandered elsewhere. Then she smiled lightly and gave a small nod.
“I’ve brought them back… Why? Does Mr. Lin wish to take a look?”
Lin Tian quickly waved his hand, chuckling at himself.
“No, no, things worth tens of billions—how would I have the right to look at them? I was just asking, that’s all.”
Xuan Yuan Qingya inclined her head and didn’t pursue the matter further.
On the other side, however, Shang Chan’s eyes flickered with thought.
Suddenly, she spoke.
“Miss Xuan Yuan, those people we saw today—the ones in pure white uniforms with golden trim… Do you know who they are?”
Shang Chan paused for a moment, her tone carrying a trace of hesitation.
“They looked as if they knew your mother. I vaguely heard them mention something like… the ‘Dragon Group’?”
Xuan Yuan Qingya was silent for a moment before slowly nodding.
“That’s right. They belong to an organization. Its name is indeed the Dragon Group.”
“In fact, our family has a similar organization of its own, called the Star Group…”
“This matter was originally confidential, but since all of you are friends and guests of the Xuan Yuan family, I can share a few things with you—at least those that aren’t too critical or too secret.”
Hearing Xuan Yuan Qingya’s words, Lin Tian’s curiosity was immediately piqued!
In the original novel, the Dragon Group had appeared, but that was much later in the story. Its secrets were revealed only after the messy drama between Li Yunqiu and Jiang Yifeng had unfolded—by that point, Lin Tian had already been poisoned by the endless romance fluff and couldn’t read on any further.
So, Lin Tian was equally curious about what kind of existence this so-called Dragon Group truly was.
In the world he came from, an armed organization of this scale would be absolutely impossible to appear within Huaxia. Abroad, however, there were indeed mercenary legions and privately armed forces of similar nature.
【Speaking of which, the Dragon Group and the Star Group… their main forces don’t seem to be based in the country at all, right? Tsk, as expected of the Xuan Yuan family—an unparalleled hidden clan whose influence truly spans the globe.】
【If I’m remembering correctly, the Dragon Group was even faintly tied to Shang Chan’s mysterious origins? Though, if I recall, the original text only hinted at it in passing… I don’t have a clear impression of the details.】
Lin Tian clearly remembered that the novel had touched upon certain secrets about the Dragon Group. That damned author probably just dumped all kinds of messy foreshadowing everywhere, and among those scattered threads was something tied to Shang Chan’s hidden parentage.
Both Shang Chan and Zhao Mengmeng had grown up never meeting their mother. Whether that mysterious woman was alive or dead, up until now—even as a transmigrator—Lin Tian still hadn’t been able to figure it out…
Mainly, that damn author seemed to have forgotten to set this part up, and later just forcefully shoved it onto the Dragon Group’s arc.
But whether the original novel’s logic made sense or not didn’t matter anymore. Since Lin Tian had already transmigrated here, for him, everything would naturally line up and become “reasonable.”
At the very least, since the original text once hinted that Shang Chan’s background was connected to the Dragon Group, then eventually, this plot thread should logically come full circle.
With that thought in mind, Lin Tian kept his expression calm, quietly listening as Xuan Yuan Qingya continued speaking.
…
All three women in the room could hear Lin Tian’s inner thoughts.
And when Shang Chan and Zhao Mengmeng suddenly caught the words about their mother surfacing in Lin Tian’s mind, their eyes instantly widened in shock!
From childhood till now, they had never once met their mother. Whenever they asked about her, Zhao Dongyun would only brush it off, saying she had passed away from illness. Yet in the Zhao family’s ancestral hall, neither Zhao Mengmeng nor Shang Chan had ever found a memorial tablet for their mother!
As the wife of the Zhao family patriarch, how could she possibly be excluded from the ancestral hall after her death?
This unanswered question had weighed in the sisters’ hearts for more than ten years.
Now, so abruptly, in such a casual moment—through Lin Tian’s unguarded heart-voice—they suddenly stumbled upon a possible clue.
Shang Chan and Zhao Mengmeng couldn’t help but feel a surge of uncontrollable excitement…
However, the sisters didn’t let their emotions show on their faces—after all, Xuan Yuan Qingya was still continuing her explanation about the Dragon Group.
And Xuan Yuan Qingya herself paid little attention to the fragments of Lin Tian’s heart-voice, speaking steadily at her own pace.
…
“According to what’s been passed down, the Dragon Group originated in the last century. On the same level as it, there were once four other organizations bearing the name ‘Group’: the Origin Group, the Dream Group, and the Heart Group…”
“No one knows who exactly founded these organizations, except perhaps the highest ranks within them. But later, a great upheaval swept across the world. In the end, aside from the Dragon Group, the Origin, Dream, and Heart Groups were all destroyed one after another…”
“Much later, my mother founded the Star Group, which officially rose to become another organization on that same level of influence.”
“As for the Star Group, it’s not convenient to speak too much about it to you all. But regarding the Dragon Group—reliable intelligence shows that its members number at least over thirty thousand. No one truly knows their precise background, but their sphere of influence, just like the Star Group, stretches across the entire globe.”
Xuan Yuan Qingya paused slightly, then added,
“The master of the Dragon Group… is named Shang Yan.”