The screams from the fourth floor faded as the jade elevator glided upward.
Xiao Bai stood pressed against the corner of the polished glass cab. She held her white tablet with both hands against her chest as if someone might snatch it. Every three seconds, her long rabbit ears twitched toward the elevator ceiling, listening to the muffled thuds of Liu Feng chasing his concubine below.
“Relax your ears, Xiao Bai,” Su Wan said, smiling as she adjusted the girl’s collar. “Nobody is going to steal your bank slate. The pavilion’s central spirit array already bonded it to your soul.”
“I... I know, Miss Su,” Xiao Bai mumbled, her cheeks turning bright pink. “It just feels like a strange dream. My whole village doesn’t see ten thousand spirit stones in fifty years. Now I have three hundred and fifty million. I keep waiting for a lightning bolt to wake me up in the cellar.”
“If a lightning bolt comes, Chu Lingxiao will chop it into kindling,” Lin Mo said.
Chu Lingxiao took a slow sip of her sweet melon tea and nodded once. “Lightning contains decent fire qi. It would make good charcoal for Grandma Chen’s soup stove.”
Grandma Chen patted Xiao Bai’s furry ears gently. “Listen to Chairman Lin, sweet child. When good fortune comes to honest people, you don’t run from it. You stand up tall and buy yourself some decent shoes.”
