The news of Zhai Xin's appointment as the Minister of the Administration Department of Guangzhou City quickly spread to various departments of the company. The name was familiar yet unfamiliar.

Wen Xiangying stared at the company's notice board for a long time before turning around and returning to her office.

The branch office wasn't officially established yet, but the head of the administration department was already there. She had seen Zhai Xin's resume; he was personally recruited by the boss and hadn't even spent a single day in the office before being sent out. This recruitment fair was also extremely successful, promoting the reputation of Yuan's Security, and talents from all over the country continued to flock here.

In just one month since he joined the company, he has accomplished what she took six months to achieve.

That's really impressive! She had to admire him! But from now on, she would definitely work even harder and never be left behind!

All day after the announcement, the atmosphere in the administrative departments was tense. Everyone was afraid to even breathe loudly at work, lest they accidentally step on a landmine.

But who exactly is this Zhai Xin? How did he gain President Yuan's trust so much?

When Cao Ming received the notification, his brows were furrowed. His first reaction was that he was worried that Yuan Zhuan had lost trust in him. He also blamed himself for not separating many things clearly and for mixing them up.

"Go back to headquarters. I have other arrangements for your work." This was Cao Ming's notification to Xu Xiang and You Xu.

Upon hearing this, the two men's hearts skipped a beat. "Boss, did we do something wrong?"

I followed Cao Ming not only because of the benefits and salary, but also because Cao Ming is a person worth following. He is very strong, and everyone admires strength.

“No, I have other plans. We don’t need you here for the time being. After you go back, Minister Wen will arrange other work for you. Don’t ask questions you shouldn’t ask,” Cao Mingsu said.

Most importantly, Mingtian Real Estate must separate from Yuan's Security; this is the bottom line!

"Is it because of President Yuan?" You Xu was the most straightforward and couldn't hold back her words. To put it nicely, she was outspoken; to put it bluntly, she lacked emotional intelligence.

"You Xu!" Cao Ming's face had already darkened.

From the very beginning, his relationship with Yuan Zhuan was not one of equality, but rather one of subservience. He was subservient to Yuan Zhuan now, in the future, and until the day he died! Therefore, he absolutely would not allow any unstable factors to emerge and disrupt his relationship with Yuan Zhuan, not even one person!

"President Cao, everything's fine here. I'll head back now." Xu Xiang nodded to Cao Ming, not even glancing at You Xu, and turned to leave.

He needs this job; the salary he earns here is enough for him to live quite comfortably, and there's a lot of room for advancement in the future.

Xu Xiang didn't know what happened to You Xu afterward; he must have left, and they never met again.

When he returned to Yuan's Security, Wen Xiangying put him in the administration department to be in charge of file organization. Of course, he knew that this was just to test his character, and that he had made the wrong choice when he took the first step.

Yuan Zhuan learned of Cao Ming's decision almost immediately, after Wen Xiangying called to inform him.

Yuan Zhuan simply replied: "I understand."

She knew what Cao Ming was thinking, but he was really overthinking it; but perhaps that's just human nature—thinking too much makes life tiring.

She wasn't going to explain. As for fate, if you're destined to be together, you'll meet; if not, you'll naturally part ways. It all depends on your own choices.

---The second dimension of the apocalypse.

Lu Ze waited at the old address as agreed.

Xu Cai wasn't the only one who arrived this time; Shi Qianqian was also there.

"Aze, this is my good friend Shi Qianqian. She also loves the candies your family makes. Did you bring a lot today?" Xu Cai's eyes lit up when she saw Lu Ze, as if she had seen a giant human-shaped candy.

"There are 500 this time, that should be enough for you to eat." If he can exchange them all this time, he can get 20 first-tier crystal cores, bringing him one step closer to upgrading his system.

He was excited just thinking about accumulating 100 coins to upgrade his system and open the system shop.

The system said that there were items in the store that could make him stronger, which was exactly what he needed right now!

"Five hundred? That should be enough, Qianqian. Let's split them in half." She had over two hundred left, but she still needed to share them with her other friends. "Aze, how many do you have left? Give them all to us." She could make a good profit reselling them, hehe.

The children in the settlement lacked good food the most, and candy was in high demand. Compared with Aze's candy, the candy in the city was bland and tasteless, and not tasty at all. Since meeting Aze, she had not bought candy from the city for a long time.

"Your name is Aze? I'm Shi Qianqian. Do you only have candy where you live? Don't you have anything else delicious?" Shi Qianqian asked.

"Oh yeah, Aze, I forgot to ask you, is there anything else good to eat?"

"Yes, spicy strips, made from bean curd sheets. They're a bit spicy. Have you ever eaten chili peppers?" As he spoke, Lu Ze pulled out a spiral-patterned bean curd strip wrapped in kraft paper from his robe.

The two gluttons saw the spicy strips covered in red oil and immediately leaned in. The spicy aroma filled their nostrils, and their mouths started to water uncontrollably.

Slurp... It smells so good.

This time, twenty spicy strips were exchanged for a first-order crystal core.

There were only forty or so in total. I ate a few myself and gave the rest to the two kids.

The transaction was thus successfully completed.

Having obtained the 22 crystal cores, Lu Ze quickly put them all back into his system inventory and recharged them.

With his eyes sparkling as he looked in the direction of the hunters' gathering place, Lu Ze felt that perhaps his future would soon achieve a qualitative leap!

When Yuan Zhuan logged on, he saw Lu Ze's avatar flashing wildly.

When I clicked on it, I found that they were all asking for snacks.

Yuan Zhuan: ...

This poor kid doesn't want rice or noodles, he wants snacks instead. That's something else!

Black bean curd, spicy peanuts, mini spicy strips, spicy rolls...

I bought ten pounds of each item, twelve kinds of snacks.

When Lu Ze received the goods, his eyes bulged out and he was drooling.

"It's out..." Lu Ze thought.

He needs to think carefully about how to open up sales channels for these amazing foods.

Hunter's City.

Xu Zhou stood in the lobby with a sullen face and arms crossed, while Xu Cai stood dejectedly in the middle of the hall, her head down and lips pouting, looking utterly aggrieved.

If it weren't for some nosy neighbor making sarcastic remarks, he wouldn't have known that his daughter, at such a young age, had already attracted a large following. However, these followers weren't recruited through merit, but rather through colorful candies.

"Where did the candy come from?" Xu Zhou asked in a deep voice, taking a deep breath.

"I bought it," Xu Cai replied reluctantly.

"This isn't candy from Hunter's City." Xu Zhou picked up a small red candy from the table. It was barely the size of his thumb and looked really pretty, but it definitely didn't come from Hunter's City.

"I bought it from someone else."

"Who? Name it!" Xu Zhou was preparing to give the candy to the tribal doctor to determine if it was poisonous.

Xu Cai shrank back in fright at her father's roar and blurted out, "Lu Ze, my friend from the safe zone, his dad is the best at making candy, and other delicious things too, like spicy strips, they're so good, sweet and spicy!"

"The safe zone? And it's just a child?" How did an ordinary child cross the Black Mist Forest?

Thus, the image of a cunning, treacherous, and mysterious boy was created.

"Yes, he's the same age as me. His family is very poor and they don't have enough to eat. They exchange candy for money to buy flour. Dad, I used my allowance. I sold it because everyone wanted to buy it. They all like to eat it. I don't think I did anything wrong. I didn't do anything wrong!"

As Xu Zhou listened to her daughter's clear and logical rebuttal, she couldn't think of a way to continue criticizing her. After all, buying and selling was not wrong in itself.

"Caicai, you shouldn't have kept this from your family. What if they want to harm you or the children in the city? You'll be in big trouble." If they're planning to use a long-term strategy to catch big fish, none of their children will be spared!

"I...he ate it himself, I didn't think much of it, sob sob sob..." She clearly let him taste it, how could it be poisonous? She couldn't understand it, and besides, she's fine now, so it proves that Lu Ze isn't a bad person.

A small voice inside me was saying, "Yes, what if? What if Lu Ze was a bad guy back then? Would they have died together?"

Kind-hearted Xu Cai cried uncontrollably, overwhelmed by self-reproach and lingering fear.

Xu Zhou hugged her daughter tightly, her eyes slowly filling with gloom.

Lu Ze...

After putting her daughter to sleep, Xu Zhou took some candy and found a few friends. "I suspect that Lu Ze has been living in the Black Mist Forest for a long time. Come with me tomorrow and take a look." She said this almost through gritted teeth.

He wanted to catch this brat and find out his purpose!