Chapter 59: The Patriarch of the Lin Family

"Damn it, they're lined up in a row, all wearing suits and ties!"

"I almost thought something major had happened!"

The little fox muttered and grumbled as it flipped over the wall, bypassed the crowd gathered at the front of the villa, and snuck inside through the kitchen entrance at the back.

Lin Ying was sitting in front of the television in the second-floor sunroom. An Sheng spat toward the door, wagged its fluffy tail as it climbed the stairs, and prepared to go greet Lin Ying.

However.

Just as An Sheng approached, even though the sunroom was equipped with soundproof triple-glazed glass doors, it could clearly hear Lin Ying's angry shout coming from within:

"......Great-grandpa! Are you saying I've gone mad too?"

Hearing this, An Sheng paused. Without a sound, it lowered its body, crept up to the front of the sunroom, and pricked up its small ears.

An Sheng hadn't heard the earlier conversation, but judging solely by Lin Ying's angry outburst, it wasn't hard to guess that she hadn't been watching TV just now, but was on the phone.

......A remote video call.

"Why would you say that?"

The person on the other end of the video call with Lin Ying was a robust elderly man with a full head of silver hair. He looked at the angry Lin Ying with a hint of surprise and spoke unhurriedly:

"Calm your emotions. I am currently in America; no matter how angry you get, your fists won't be able to reach across and hit my old face in the next second."

"I have already made myself very clear. I truly saw a strange creature, and it is definitely not fake, nor could it possibly be my hallucination!" Lin Ying took a deep breath to steady her boiling anger, and said in a deep voice.

Earlier, after talking with An Sheng and voicing the realizations she had pondered while lying in bed, Lin Ying had already begun laying out her plans.

Lin Ying managed the labor-intensive industries of the Lin clan within the country, with a workforce totaling a staggering one hundred and fifty thousand employees. A workforce of that magnitude genuinely affected the livelihoods of tens of thousands of families.

Herself, the fox, and the world—these three elements.

Neither she nor the fox had lost their minds, so how could a creature like the little fox have come into existence?

Aside from lacking a human shape, all its behaviors were identical to those of a human. It even knew how to shop online and haggle over prices, and when she changed clothes, it even knew to look away out of decency!

Lin Ying felt that the world she lived in must have encountered some kind of trouble for such a transcendental creature to appear.

Using the power at her disposal, Lin Ying had formed a brand-new department within the corporation specifically dedicated to tracking these things down.

Yet, no sooner had this matter been finalized than the behind-the-scenes boss of the Lin Holdings Group called her via video.

"I know you haven't gone mad, and I have never once thought you were crazy." The elder of the Lin family slowly began:

"I was merely stating that I do not agree with your establishing some sort of investigative department."

Lin Ying's expression darkened, but she remained silent, choosing instead to quietly listen to the elder's words.

The "Elder of the Lin family" was not just a seniority title, but a respectful form of address for the helmsman of the Lin Holdings Group.

The old man on the other side of the video possessed a very high seniority. According to the family tree, Lin Ying should address him as her great-grand-uncle.

The elder chuckled softly and continued: "My reason for stopping you from investigating transcendental creatures is, of course, not because I think you've lost your mind. I am aware of everything you've been doing."

"However, I won't believe you're crazy. The reason I'm stopping you from looking into those matters is simply because I believe that both you and the Lin clan of the Xia Kingdom will fall into grave danger, and it will also send the wrong signal to the authorities above."

"Some things...... are simply not meant for us to touch."

Lin Ying frowned slightly, as if catching the subtext in the elder's words, and asked, "Great-grandpa, you........"

"Do you know about the Ice Age?"

Without answering Lin Ying, the elder posed a new question, but without waiting for her reply, he went on:

"The Ice Age is caused by the Earth deviating from its orbit during rotation, which leads to a decrease in solar radiation. It is a regular cold cycle, and during the Ice Age, the Earth's surface becomes covered in a layer of solid ice."

The elder on the other screen tapped his fingers on the solid-wood tea table and said:

"The era we currently inhabit, to put it bluntly, is actually an alternative Ice Age."

"To use a visual metaphor, you can think of the Earth as a living organism that breathes. But between each inhalation and exhalation lies an extremely long cycle from our human perspective."

"When the Earth inhales, it draws certain things—whose principles we have yet to research—into its body, and when it exhales, it expels those incomprehensible things back onto the surface."

The elder looked at Lin Ying and said calmly:

"Since even your great-grandpa knows these things, do you think those at the very peak of global power do not know? They knew about these cyclical rates much earlier than we did, and they have been quietly researching them all along."

"This place is a giant pitfall, my grand-niece, and you must understand one thing."

"Why do the five branches of our Lin clan pour massive investments and send endless streams of money back into the country every year..... why?"

"Although the Xia Kingdom branch controlled by your father is the weakest among our five branches, the other four overseas branches can perish, but your branch must never be allowed to suffer any harm!"

"You are our fallback plan!"

"You shoulder the continuation of the clan's bloodline, and your current situation is already precarious enough. You cannot afford to send out any erroneous signals, otherwise our Lin clan will no longer have a single place to stand anywhere in the world!"

The elder's words carried immense weight, revealing several little-known secrets to Lin Ying while also pointing out the existential significance of the Xia Kingdom's Lin branch.

Though the overseas branches of the Lin family were glorious, doing business abroad inevitably meant forming cliques and engaging in self-serving politics.

No matter how prominent the overseas Lin family might be, they were no match for the sudden, sweeping, and devastating policy shifts of massive lobbying groups.

The branch where Lin Ying resided served as both their retreat and their ancestral homeland.

Her branch of the family didn't need to achieve any grand accomplishments, nor did they need to do anything extraordinary. They only needed to quietly do good deeds and quietly make contributions.

No matter how much money it cost, the overseas branches would always be there to back them up.

Lin Ying's pursuit of the "spirit beast," to put it bluntly, wasn't actually a big deal in itself.

Yet the situation of the Lin clan was terribly awkward.

They were rooted overseas while also maintaining a foothold domestically. Even if the authorities above understood their intentions and knew they would not cross any lines, precautions still had to be taken.

Lin Ying fell silent for a long time. With a heavy sigh, she exhaled all her pent-up tension and collapsed onto the sofa:

"I...... did not mean to step out of bounds. I simply felt that in this new world,"

"Perhaps we could find something new, and maybe, just maybe, my parents could come back.......—"

"Great-grandpa........ I am so tired! After my parents left, all the heavy burdens fell entirely upon my shoulders, and even my daughter left my side. I know the responsibilities of the Xia Kingdom Lin family, which is why I have never dared to hand my work over to professional managers."

Before her family, Lin Ying spoke with a face full of anguish, pouring out the sorrow buried deep within her heart.

Work matters could not be entrusted to any half-witted professional manager. The sole mission of the Xia Kingdom Lin family was to perform good deeds and cultivate positive ties—to provide a safety net and resolve difficult problems, such as employment for disabled individuals.

Yet, even when following orders, professional managers would instinctively think in terms of profit maximization, whereas the Lin family had no need for such things; breaking even was already the ultimate victory.

Otherwise, if the Lin Holdings Group genuinely wanted to pursue maximum profit, wouldn't it be far more lucrative to directly transfer its overseas pharmaceutical companies, livelihood enterprises, and shipping businesses back to the domestic market?

However, those things were strictly off-limits; those businesses were tainted with inescapable darkness and bloodshed.

The branch of the Lin family where Lin Ying lived was forbidden from touching them. Aside from the helmsman of the domestic branch, other family members were strictly prohibited from even inquiring about them.

"Alas......"

The elder sighed. He had investigated the circumstances of Lin Ying's ordeal countless times and desperately wished that car crash had been the handiwork of a hostile faction. Yet, that accident had truly been nothing more than a random tragedy.

They wanted to find someone to exact revenge upon, but there was no one—leaving them staring into the void, sword in hand, completely bewildered.

"My dear grand-niece......."

"You must also understand that your grandfather is acting solely out of consideration for our mutual safety. Those matters are truly not something we businessmen ought to be touching........."

"Those things constitute strategic resources. Those with the capability to research them are already doing so, and those without the capability are secretly funneling money into it in hopes of obtaining results."

"That....... is no longer a matter of money."

"If you truly wish to get involved, you must find the precise moment to do so. They are not lacking in funds; what they lack most right now are creatures bearing the code name 'Spirit Beast'."

Clearly, the elder possessed a certain degree of understanding regarding those affairs, directly naming the code word used by domestic research institutions for those transcendental creatures.

"Spirit Beast......"

Lin Ying was suddenly startled. She looked at the elder on the screen, and then instinctively cast her gaze toward the master bedroom door.

However, the very instant she turned her gaze, she caught sight of a pair of small, white, fluffy ears poking up right at the doorway.

"Ying?"

I came....... at a bad time, didn't I? An Sheng locked eyes with Lin Ying, and the two stared blankly at each other.