August 20th, Tuesday.
Although the girls at Hyacinth enjoyed a seven-day leave period (two days before and five days after their menstrual cycles), Jiang Yan still insisted on returning to work, since the physical discomfort had gradually subsided and basically didn't interfere with daily life and work.
Before official business hours, perhaps because new members had arrived, Jiang Yan suddenly noticed a pair of unfamiliar young men and women in the first-floor lobby, standing in front of Zhao Peng saying something.
Seeing Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao return to work early, Zhao Peng was also startled. After briefly explaining a few things, he walked toward Jiang Yan.
"Brother Zhao Peng, who are they?"
From their temperament, Jiang Yan felt that the pair didn't seem like newcomers after blood infection. Obviously their pheromone control abilities were strong. If not for being only about ten meters apart, that faint but formidable aura would have been difficult to detect.
"Sent by the Hermit Alliance, wanting to contact Sister Wan."
Zhao Peng didn't turn around, but as if sensing something, he looked back and forth between Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao with surprised eyes: "Xiao Yan, have you advanced to upper-tier attendant?"
"I've grown again?"
Jiang Yan was also startled, looking down at her own body with some confusion: "I don't feel anything particularly different, just that my condition these past few days has been much better than last month..."
"Maybe the big golden pills are most effective when used on you two. It's good you came to work early, otherwise you wouldn't understand some things."
Zhao Peng smiled and shook his head repeatedly, then turned his gaze to Jiang Yao, his expression suddenly becoming extremely serious: "Xiao Yao, you don't need to work in the lobby today. Go find a private room on the second floor to rest."
As he spoke, he gestured to two girls cleaning statues in a corner: "Xiao Ling, Xiao Ai, immediately prepare the employee rest room and get some things ready in advance."
The two girls in the distance were slightly startled, then as if understanding, quickly put down their work and hurried toward the employee passage.
"I... also have a problem?"
Jiang Yao pointed at herself, looking around in confusion.
"Didn't you feel anything wrong when you woke up today?"
Zhao Peng frowned slightly, but after a few seconds, he stuck to his judgment: "You're already on the eve of a major realm breakthrough. It should happen tonight. Maybe it's because of your previous injury... how should I put it, some sensations in your body were masked, or you had illusions due to your menstrual period."
"I'm going to advance? To knight?"
Seeing several envious glances cast their way, Jiang Yao's eyes gradually brightened: "Brother Zhao Peng, are you sure? I only advanced to attendant two months ago."
As soon as these words were spoken, those originally envious glances became mixed with complex emotions.
"Hehe, stop showing off. Go rest on the second floor quickly. Relax your mind. Xiao Ping will accompany you first. I'll have the restaurant make you something delicious - eat as much as you can!"
"Oh."
Looking at Zhou Ping's surprised and delighted expression, Jiang Yao could only obediently follow her upstairs.
"Brother Zhao Peng, does Xiao Yao's promotion to knight require any special preparations?"
If not for Zhao Peng mentioning a major realm breakthrough, one might think Jiang Yao was about to give birth. Watching Jiang Yao's retreating figure on the stairs, Jiang Yan couldn't help but lower her voice, looking puzzled.
"Advancing to knight is different from advancing to attendant. Not only does the accumulation take a lot of time, but the foundation must be solid during the breakthrough to have a chance at challenging baron rank in the future. If she just muddles through dormancy like this, regardless of the success rate, she might hinder further growth."
After speaking, Zhao Peng smiled and pulled out his phone, walking toward a corner, probably planning to tell Wan Yue about this.
Afternoon, at a luxury office building, Shengxiang Investment Consulting Office.
These past few days, Zhong Jing had entered an extremely busy state. Following Wan Yue's instructions, he needed to inventory all of Hyacinth's industries and make some adjustments and transfers of funding projects.
Over the past twenty years, Wan Yue had leveraged the high-speed development opportunities of the external environment to establish a foundation no less than that of an orthodox Blood Clan small family, including some secret overseas assets.
According to the directory, Zhong Jing contacted a professional manager from a real estate agency company and sent a video conference invitation.
"Mr. Zhong, the real estate market is booming now. The properties we currently hold have all increased by at least 50%. I plan to negotiate with several real estate developers to lock in a batch of quality pre-market properties."
In the video conference window, the deferential real estate manager spoke confidently, appearing very optimistic.
"No need. I need to consolidate funds now for investment in other projects. I'll send you an email later. According to the attached list, sell the previously accumulated properties in batches."
Zhong Jing in front of the screen appeared calm, making his decision after only briefly reviewing the documents sent by the other party.
"Ah? But the current market is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, with strong bullish sentiment..."
"I'm not here to discuss how to do this with you today. I'm informing you what to do! After completing the sell-off, take 5% of the profits as your personal commission and another 5% to give bonuses to the employees below."
Ignoring the other party's objections, Zhong Jing directly issued orders to clear out first and second-tier city real estate, leaving the other party both delighted and speechless.
Opening another video call with an overseas securities broker agent, after hearing about the stock positions of several overseas accounts, Zhong Jing issued several instructions to increase and decrease positions, though still selling more than buying.
After several hours, Zhong Jing's ashtray was full of cigarette butts, and he was leaning back in his chair exhaustedly, drinking iced coffee to relieve his physical and mental fatigue.
Over twenty billion yuan in various funding projects, under Zhong Jing's coordination and adjustment, from guaranteed returns to medium-high risk investments, could bring Wan Yue nearly two hundred million yuan in net profits annually, with at least half becoming the funds to maintain Hyacinth's operations.
For ordinary people, this was an astronomical figure, but if there were only these returns, supporting dozens of people in Hyacinth would still be somewhat tight. After all, Wan Yue's enthusiasm and generosity in spending was obviously several levels above ordinary people.
However, as Wan Yue had personally mentioned, there were some more complex secret asset operations handled by Zhao Peng, which Zhong Jing didn't consider a slight.
"Too bad Master doesn't agree to invest in the gaming industry, otherwise we'd make even more money..."
Looking at some game posters on the wall, Zhong Jing smiled and opened his gaming entertainment computer, planning to relax before continuing work.
In the game's friends list, a certain avatar was gray and had been offline for several days, and there were few responses on mobile social software either.
Last Sunday's ghost story-like experience had broken both him and Jiang Yao's defenses. Looking back now, it was both funny and fun. Jiang Yao's natural absurdity and strange emotions brought him a fresh but not purely curious feeling.
The covert investigation into Zhong Corporation had come to an end, or rather, it was stuck on Zhong Jing's ability limitations and couldn't go deeper. Combined with several days of tedious busyness, Zhong Jing felt he had fallen into cyclical extreme boredom again.
Gaming without Jiang Yao's unpredictable silly performances felt boring even when winning.
So he watched anime.
It was only Tuesday, lacking ceremonial feeling.
Looking at the time, it was already 8 PM. Jiang Yao should still be working now. Zhong Jing smiled and shook his head, returning to his work computer.
Although in orthodox Blood Clan major families, knights were also pieces that could be discarded at any time, they weren't common existence. Even with abundant resource support, on average only one in fifteen Blood Clan members had a chance to become a knight, and this was the lifetime limit for most Blood Clan.
Once a Blood Clan successfully advanced to baron rank, their status underwent earth-shaking changes, and they had higher pursuit goals, usually beginning to retreat behind the scenes.
So in most situations, barons and above were the foundation and trump cards of various families, while knights were the real backbone forces, such as the feudal knights who managed vast industries for major families.
However, knights were also the members most easily lost among orthodox Blood Clan. After all, there were plenty of knights with no hope of advancing to baron through normal means, who would often take extreme paths under certain triggers, becoming Black Blood Clan and attempting to break through growth constraints by consuming their own kind.
A small family like the Tang Family in D City, to protect one bizarre ritual, mobilized almost the entire family's strength but only had about a dozen knights.
If not for the few veterans of Xuan Jia Squad adopting suicidal tactics of mutual destruction, it would have been very difficult for less than sixty on-site troops to simultaneously resist the collective frenzied charge of more than ten Blood Clan knights without paying enormous costs.
In Hyacinth, many people had followed Wan Yue for years, but so far, only five knights had appeared in Golden River Club. Now with a new knight of unfathomable potential about to be added, Zhao Peng was naturally one hundred percent invested.
Jiang Yao, kept like a giant panda in a second-floor private room, gradually became nervous from her initial excitement and pride, having no mind to touch games or anime.
People came and went to check on Jiang Yao intentionally or unintentionally. Her colleagues, who more or less knew about Jiang Yao's rocket-like growth, had shifted from looking up at a genius to watching a freak.
Slightly chaotic auras had already appeared around Jiang Yao, leaking everywhere like a gradually heating broken kettle.
According to Zhao Peng's estimate, around midnight, Jiang Yao would enter the promotion dormancy period.
"Sister Xiao Ping, I'm dizzy and a bit thirsty..."
After several hours, her body finally showed some reactions. At 9 PM, Jiang Yao began showing low fever symptoms - dry mouth, continuous cold sweats, increasing fatigue, and weakening limbs.
"Okay, I'll get you water."
Zhou Ping, who had been staying by Jiang Yao's side, quickly got up and grabbed an energy drink from the coffee table.
As soon as she turned around, she found Jiang Yao had already fallen into deep sleep on the sofa.
Zhao Peng, who rushed over upon hearing the news, probably hadn't expected it to happen so quickly, but fortunately the special employee rest room had been prepared early, so there was no panic.
Jiang Yao was carried to a special rest room deep in the employee area. The room was luxuriously decorated to an excessive degree, with many impressive-looking medical equipment set up beside the large bed.
In the temperature-controlled room, Jiang Yao lay quietly on the bed, her body covered with a thin blanket, with a blood transfusion device connected to the subclavian vein.
Two girls were turning on various instruments one by one. Zhao Peng personally held up a tube of external hormone suppressants, while Zhou Ping took out a bag of fresh blood from a medical constant-temperature refrigerator.
"Xiao Ping, Xiao Yao can't receive ordinary human blood!"
Jiang Yan quickly stood up from beside the bed, trying to stop Zhou Ping.
"Don't worry, this is donated by several of us knights together. We know Xiao Yao has primary blood dependency."
Zhao Peng smiled and pressed down Jiang Yan's hand, patiently explaining: "We'll supplement her blood appropriately according to Xiao Yao's condition, fully stimulating the generation and renewal of blood energy proteins in her body, which helps with breakthrough accumulation. Theoretically, rare blood types would be more effective, but unfortunately in Hyacinth, only you have it. But with just you alone, the supply would be insufficient."
"What if there's no blood transfusion?"
Jiang Yan was still somewhat puzzled, or rather she was particularly interested in these details now.
"Starting from knight rank, Blood Clan promotions aren't necessarily 100% successful. If promotion fails, it wastes time and even poses certain life dangers. Decades ago, being able to successfully advance in one attempt was an honor worth boasting about for knights.
"Now that science is advanced, we can use modern medical equipment to monitor Xiao Yao's various physiological indicators during dormancy, trying to improve her one-time promotion success rate. For example, blood transfusions during dormancy first started with orthodox Blood Clan major families in Europe and America, and practice has proven it effective."
Seeing again the deep integration and technological connection between the Blood Clan world and the normal world, and thinking that she had reached upper-tier attendant and might experience the same thing in the next month or two, Jiang Yan finally completely relaxed.
As they were talking, suddenly a pair of young man and woman with peculiar smiles squeezed through the door - the same two from the Hermit Alliance who had been chatting with Zhao Peng at noon.
Zhao Peng's brow slowly furrowed, his tone becoming unfriendly: "Didn't the elders in the Hermit Alliance teach you? You cannot enter someone else's dormancy location without permission... For Sister Wan's sake, I won't pursue this matter this time. You should come back another day!"
"A new knight promotion... Don't you need our help?"
The young man glanced at the light golden-haired girl on the bed, his nostrils twitching slightly, his eyes showing envious amazement, his tone somewhat playful: "Zhao Peng, when you advanced to attendant back then, I was the one helping to watch over you. How is it that after going out with Sister Wan, you've become so distant?"
"Wei Jun, since Sister Wan drew clear lines with the Hermit Alliance twenty years ago, this is Hyacinth. Some rules should still be observed."
Zhao Peng blocked Wei Jun's path, his face growing cold.
"Brother Zhao, Wei Jun doesn't mean anything else. I see these two sisters should have rare blood types, right? It's a pity they're in your Hyacinth. Why don't they join the Hermit Alliance instead? Actually, we're all one family..."
Seeing her companion in confrontation with Zhao Peng, the young woman quickly stepped forward to mediate, but her words plunged the room into strange silence, especially making Jiang Yan's expression grave.
"Wei Jun, Yao Li, Sister Wan isn't here. Discussing these things with me is meaningless. Please leave immediately!"
At this moment, Zhao Peng's expression had become terrifyingly serious.
Click - Zhou Ping had somehow appeared outside the door, already raising a silenced pistol aimed at the backs of the young man and woman.
Zhou Ping's expression was cold, as if she would pull the trigger without hesitation at just one look from Zhao Peng.
"Hehe, fine... When Sister Wan returns, we'll come visit again."
The young man and woman from the Hermit Alliance exchanged glances, smiled slightly, and left.
Those two just now seemed to have sensed that Xiao Yao and I have rare blood types and planned to poach us? The Hermit Alliance still seems somewhat domineering... Jiang Yan, who had witnessed everything, felt anxiety emerging in her heart.
Just two months ago, Huang Gu had also extended an invitation to her and Jiang Yao on behalf of Hyacinth, but at that time, Huang Gu's attitude had been extremely sincere and full of concern, completely different from the condescending attitude of those two just now.