With a solution in mind, Chen Jin regained his calmness and became less flustered than before.

…

Earth.

In Shanghai, there was a super-luxury villa area covering more than several thousand acres of land called the Spring Mountain Villas. In the center of the area was Villa No.18, which spanned 100 acres of land, and was the largest among them. Its facilities include an alpine garden, swimming pool, golf course, racecourse…the whole nine yards, as far as facilities were concerned. There were professional maids, chefs, and drivers, totaling almost a hundred personnel. Given the location of this villa, which was not far from the city center, and the current housing prices of Shanghai, one could only dream of owning such a luxurious estate unless one had a couple hundreds of millions.

The Chen Household.

Although there was no special carvings or plaque, most people in the country and even the world know that this villa belonged to the Chens—none other than the wealthiest family in the entire solar system.

At this very moment.

The living room at the Chen villa.

Three women who were intellectually dignified, elegant, and beautiful, whose glamor alone could serve as an emblem of the Chens, sat in a delta pattern on three respective sofas. With solemn and straight faces, they simultaneously looked sharply at the man sitting opposite them.

One sighed. “Dad, you once again have gone missing for almost half a year. I thought you’d forgotten this family of yours.”

“Dad, your eighth great-grandchild was born two days ago. I was thinking of telling you this great news and asking you to help give the baby a name. Too bad you are always out of reach.”

The most exasperated person was still Su Yun. With a face so cold that ice could literally be scraped down it, she said with hopelessness and disappointment, “You’re like this every single time—always going your own way. You suddenly disappear one day, then suddenly come back on another. You never once think about the feelings of others. Even I do not wish to sleep alone in a cold bed every day. You old geezer—do I still have a place in your heart?”

As she went on, her voice became kind of nasally, and it seemed that she was about to cry.

“Come on, don’t be like this…” Chen Jin became a little flustered. “I have already done all the basics. Our daughters are all married now, and besides, we have been husband and wife for so many years. So can you please not behave this way?

“Apparently, I like freedom the most. If you people keep on acting this way, I think I’ll be afraid to even come back next time.”

For, every time he returned home, he had to grapple with condemnation from grumbling women. He was feeling a little tired of having to bear the guilt that the scene spawned, every single time.

Perhaps this was the feeling of a burden.

However, Chen Jin was already past 100. He had already fulfilled all his responsibilities and obligations. Being a little more capricious and pursuing a little more freedom should not be a problem at all. By right, he should no longer be bound by anything, whether family or something else. It was only that he had a soft spot towards a woman’s sensibility. Sometimes, he just couldn’t resist when he came face-to-face with those plaintive eyes.

Of course, he was able to understand them. Three women having to shore up the world’s largest family was no easy task.

…

After the complaining session had ended, Chen Xing Yue got into the main topic and asked, “Dad, what it is so important that you’ve came back this time and gathered us all?”

“Yes.” Chen Jin nodded. “Recently, this news—’Divine Powers Have Awakened, Homecoming of the Protoss’—has been raising a furor everywhere. Even I, an ‘old freak’ that likes to sit at home, couldn’t stay idle any longer. This world of ours is really going to change drastically.”

He looked at his two daughters. “But it has been a long time since I retired, and I have not been very active. I don’t know much about the inside stories of these incidents. I believe that you both should know more.”

“Yes, I’ve been collecting relevant information for ages now.” Chen Xing Yue was an able woman in the business world and was very sensitive to all kinds of information. But at this moment, she was rather curious. “Speaking of which, Dad, why are you suddenly interested in this? You, who have been in hiding for all these years? I doubt you’d even care if the world got destroyed.”

“Yeah, this is the first time you cared about something going on outside, Dad.”

“You girls really think of me like that?” Chen Jin glared at them sourly. “Stop fooling around. Hurry up and tell me everything you know. Of course I wouldn’t be indifferent toward such a thing.”

“Fine. I got these from a politician that I funded…” Chen Xing Yue said untiringly. “Those ‘Gods’ from an unknown universe are really coming back. When the concentration of the celestial particles rises above the minimum level, the first group of immigrants from the Heavenly Realm will arrive.

“This process would roughly take five years. After five years, those so-called Protoss will have returned.

“The preferred habitat that they value the most is, of course, the Earth that is underneath our feet.

“What’s even more, their appetite is shockingly huge. They have requested that we free up the entire planet by moving our tens of billions of people to other places, making the whole Earth a foothold for the Protoss.

“This kind of request was, naturally, directly rejected. The federation certainly can’t agree to this.

“However, the mental pressure unleashed by that negotiating representative of the Protoss caused many federal parliamentarians to faint and vomit blood. They seem to be telling them that, if they do not agree, the Protoss may go down a path toward barbaric means and directly rob us of our planet.

“In the end, it was because of a general of the federation, who went on explaining the power of our nuclear weapons despite the tremendous pressure, that the messenger from the Heavenly Realm soothed down a little.

“After a few days, the second group of messengers from the Heavenly Realm arrived. Perhaps intimidated by our nuclear weapons, their demands have loosened, kind of. They only requested for a third of the Earth’s land to be allocated to them as their settlement. Aside from that, they have demanded that we invest a huge sum of funds into building things that the Protoss immigrants want, such as houses, furniture, facilities… that we prepare everything in advance for them.

“The overall investment is calculated to be at least 100 billion dollars.

“The federal government will be responsible for a part of the land and money, and the rest will require donations from all families and consortia. After the immigrants of the Heavenly Realm settle down, those people will acquire a certain amount of return according to the proportion of the funds they have donated…

“They might even get to forge ties with the Protoss, and so the chance to cross paths with those from the Heavenly Realm.

“Although there are certain risks, most of the upper class have realized that this may be a new outlet—an opportunity to acquire massive interests,” said Chen Xing Yue faintly.

Chen Jin helplessly shook his head.

“Demanding a third of our land and tens of billions of investments for them to live a comfortable life… an extortion like that gets people fuming. Is this era, where money is king, becoming an era where power reigns?”

He then looked at Chen Xing Yue. “So… has the federation agreed to those conditions?”

“They couldn’t free up a third of all land all at once, but they’ve in principle agreed to everything else.”

After all, if they disagreed, even nuclear deterrence might not be able to daunt the Protoss.

Of course, the public did not know the inside stories mentioned above. Most ordinary people were indulging in the anticipation and the revelry of the dawn of a new era.

But for the entire upper class of Earth, the next decision they would have to make was: to be lapdog, or to not be a lapdog?