Demons Beside You

His mother’s sudden appearance only created a slight disturbance of Chen Zhao’s emotions. He quickly composed himself.

He would fulfill his early promise and donate his bone marrow when his half-sister needed it.

Composing himself, Chen Zhao went to Doman’s house.

He’d missed four days of Normans’ weight loss training, but she’d been practicing by herself too. She was just less motivated without Chen Zhao there.

When Chen Zhao had left four days ago, Normans had been around 195 pounds. Four days later, her weight had only dropped to around 187 pounds.

“Hey, *sshole, were you afraid that day?” Normans ran side to side with Chen Zhao.

“Yeah,” Chen Zhao replied nonchalantly. “It’ll be weird if I wasn’t.”

He’d indeed been afraid, but once you were scared to the max, it wouldn’t be that scary anymore. When humans were excited and scared, blood would collect in the brain and result in excessive oxygenation.

Excitement and fear were similar, so Chen Zhao couldn’t say if he was more excited or scared. In extreme situations, one might not feel fear. It could be excitement too.

“Right, how’s Wouter’s training?”

“Not bad. You can take him back at any time.”

“You finished that quickly? If you’re just patronizing me, I’m not going to pay.”

“As long as you don’t have him do math, he should understand your intentions.” Chen Zhao was quite confident in this. After all, Wouter had drunk the intelligence potion and was smarter than most animals.

“Then I’ll go to your place today and take him back.”

“You better prepare a check first.”

After training, Normans gave Chen Zhao a check and he went back home to get Wouter. It was another $100,000 in his pockets.

Robio already gave the design and initial budget to Chen Zhao and Fali. Including the cost for two kilometers of asphalt, the total budget was around $1,300,000. In other words, the building itself needed $1,100,000.

This had surpassed Chen Zhao’s initial budget, but he and Fali couldn’t decide which part of Robio’s design to take out. Every part of his design had a specific use or intention.

The entire design was a piece of art. Looking at the mockup, Chen Zhao and Fali had already fallen in love with the house.

“Chen, how much more money do you need?”

“Let me see.” Chen Zhao picked up his pen. “After buying the land, I had $200,000 left. In this half month, I earned around $100,000 and got another $100,000 today. If Normans successfully loses weight, I’ll have another $400,000. That’s pretty much it.”

“You forgot the money for the movie. The two of us together will be $200,000. That means we already have $1,000,000.”

Chen Zhao thought for a moment. “We still need $300,000.”

“How about…”

“Don’t ask your family for money anymore,” Chen Zhao said. “This is our home. We’ll build it with our own hard work. Plus, I might have an unexpected payment in a few days.”

“What unexpected payment?”

“Do you remember Pierce South? He wants to collaborate with me.”

“Collaborate with what? He doesn’t look like a good guy.”

“He said that Trede Pemton divided his wealth in half before dying. One part was the gold which we’ve already split amongst the villagers. The other part is his collection. It’s a bunch of valuable artworks and relics.”

“Will he go back on you?” Fali’s first reaction was about Chen Zhao’s safety.

Chen Zhao laughed. He hugged Fali and pressed a kiss onto her. “Dear, it’s not me underestimating Pierce. If that old fox dares to do anything, I’ll make sure he’s stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.”

…

The next day, Chen Zhao received a call from an unfamiliar number.

“Hello, who is this?”

“Hello, I’m Felwood Cisco, Robio’s friend. Are you Chen Zhao, Mr. Chen?”

“Oh, yes. What is it?”

“I started a construction company. Robio said you want to build a house, right?”

“Yes. When are you free? We can find time to sit down and chat.”

“Actually, I’m at the central street of Mountain Town right now. I want to settle this as soon as possible. Can you tell me where to go?”

“Oh, go straight to the left of the supermarket for around a kilometer. My house is on the hill. It looks old and should be easy to see. Oh…there are a few big dogs playing in the yard.”

“There are so many dogs in this town. Are you sure I won’t get the wrong place?”

“You definitely won’t.”

Felwood soon found Chen Zhao’s house.

“Hello, I’m Chen Zhao.”

“Hi, I’m Felwood Cisco.” He looked at the Silly Twins running in and out of Chen Zhao’s yard and finally understood what he meant.

They really were too big—incredibly big—dogs.

“Mr. Chen, Robio already gave me the design and budget. The cost is pretty much how he estimated, but there might be a fluctuation of around $100,000. I can’t promise an exact price. I also have to make it clear because you’re Robio’s friend. He told me to make it clear that if we buy the material, we might have some profit. Of course, if you have your own channels, you can save around $100,000. I can give you a list of what to buy. It’ll just take longer.”

Chen Zhao thought for a moment. If he bought the material himself, he could save a few thousand dollars, but he would also waste a lot of time. It wasn’t really worth it.

After all, building such a complicated house would need hundreds of materials. It wasn’t just brick, cement and dirt. It couldn’t be done in one or two days, so he felt like it was logical for the company to make a profit while making the purchases.

“I agree for your company to make the purchases, but I hope the budget won’t go over $100,000. Money is tight for me right now. If it’s more, it’ll give me a lot of pressure.”

“I’ll try my best,” Felwood said. “The fluctuations in market price is really big because it’s affected by the environment. I can’t control it.”