Chapter 445: Checkmate
The birthday party was going to happen in three days.
"Nope!" Zhang Jian quickly shook, "No way in hell I'm going there. My family is going there too, and I don't want to hear them annoying me." Zhang Jian said with a dark expression.
If he met up with his little brother, he would beat the snot out of him!
"Grr! Just thinking about it is making my hands itch!" Zhang Jian cracked his knuckles, ready for a fight.
"I see."
"Why do you ask?"
"Because I'm going. Going to take someone."
Zhang Jian's face turned excited, "A date?! With who?! Is it Feng Meifeng?! Or is it Ye Meixiu?!"
"..." I never said it was a date. Lu Chen sighed, "No, it's not them. Meifeng wouldn't be able to get used to it, and Meixiu wasn't planning to go."
"Hmm?" Zhang Jian noticed, "When did you do first name basis with those two girls?"
"None of your business."
"Aww, you are so cold. Also, shouldn't you check up on that?" Zhang Jian pointed at his phone. It was vibrating more than necessary.
"Ughh, it's some random person." Lu Chen said as he looked at his computer. That old geezer is getting on my nerves. He continued to ignore it.
...
Later that day, Lu Chen entered the tea shop. There, he saw Huang Muyang sitting in the same place again.
"Elder, did you really have to text me so much? My phone vibrated off my desk from how much you did it."
"Hmpf! When an elder is calling you, then you call them." Huang Muyang said with a grin.
"Now, let's play chess!" He saw Huang Muyang had everything ready. The chessboard was set.
Lu Chen smirked, "What will you be wagering this time for your jade?" Lu Chen calmly said as he took out the Huang heirloom in his hand. He gently placed it on the table, knowing the pendant's value now.
"I came here ready, you brat!" Huang Muyang took out another piece of jade. Lu Chen looked at it.
It was definitely not the same as the heirloom. But the shade of green was close enough. It should be equal.
Well, nothing would be equal compared to that.
"Hold it. Before we start: entrance fee." Lu Chen said as he raised his hand, wanting to get paid.
"..." This kid is going to be the death of me. Huang Muyang said in defeat, "1 kg of tea again."
"2kg."
"Huh?! Why is it double in price?!" He was going full-on extortion!
"Because you annoyed the hell out of me this morning. So 2kg." Lu Chen was getting back at him for causing him so much trouble.
"..."
"Hey, you want the pendant back? Then you play by my rules." Lu Chen said with a mischievous smile.
"Fine!" Huang Muyang gritted his teeth. He was a billionaire! A couple of million wasn't going to affect him.
As the two played chess,
"Kid, how are you so good at chess?"
"I used to play a lot with my grandfather when I was a kid." Lu Chen said as he took out one of Huang Muyang's knights.
"I see." Huang Muyang frowned as he looked at the board, "What are you going to do about the white pendant?"
"Going to give it as a birthday gift to someone." Lu Chen took out the rook next.
"Wait. Do you mean the Bai family's birthday party? That old geezer?!" Huang Muyang spat as he cursed.
"Mmhmm. I heard he was an avid jade fan. So I want to use that as a greeting." Lu Chen said calmly.
"Check."
Huang Muyang quickly moved his king, "How about you give me the jade pendant instead, and I'll help you out."
"Why do I need your help when I have your family heirloom, Elder Huang?" Lu Chen said with a mischievous smile.
"Checkmate." Both in real life and in the game.
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tftc
tftc
To start, thanks for the chapters. I like how he's scamming the elder and making progress on his goals.
There's a lot of phantasmagoria in the current 7 or so chapters, though. The current plot veered into 'revenge against Long Shen' territory so I was very happy, but this hasn't made any sense, at least from my perspective.
How does this cut off Long Shen's control of the Huang and Bai families? They're ultimately just jade pendants. Long Shen probably sees people as tools, so unless these pendants have more value than their beauty as decorations, Long Shen won't care much for them. He will most likely attempt to seduce and use people anyway.
So the why is the problem. Why is he doing this? It's is not thoroughly explained. We know they're valuable. But are they valuable enough to even get Long Shen's notice? He'll inherit Fei Fei's family wealth. And it wouldn't surprise me if he's planning to kill them to get it so it won't take long. We're still in the "why" territory because for the past several chapters we've been given a plot, but we have no clue what's convincing the mc that this is important.
As of right now it just seems like the mc didn't do much. We can't know the significance because you're not telling us. So we don't know how much damage he did to Long Shen. We don't know the real gains the mc has.
Ahhh, I don't know what phantasmagoria is soooo...yeah XD
For your other question, rather than cutting off the control of the Huang and Bai family, it cuts off his initial greeting. Controlling two major family will take years for that. For the Huang Heirloom one, yes, it's a pendant, but it has more like generational/familial value as it's been in the family for years. For the white jade pendant, this one important for Long Shen as it's a way to get a good initial greeting. For me, initial greeting is really important as it introduces you to another person. So if you mess up the initial greeting, the outlook on the person would be different.
Rather that cutting control, Lu Chen is taking the jade as a means to cut off an important contact or initial outlook for Long Shen.
Long Shen's just greedy. One aspect that I put is the typical harem mc where he's greedy for everything. And don't forget, yes, he's part of the Liu family. But it may not be necessarily so that he would inherit the wealth.
@placeintime Phantasmagoria generally just means confusion or strangeness or constantly shifting perspectives, etc.
Basically it was a playful way of saying I was confused.
Anyway thank you for letting me know. I was suspecting Lu Chen was his actual motive, hence why he kills the family and says "you'll always be #2."