In the northern mansion, the patriarch who was writing and writing by the light of the candle slowly raised his head, and a smile hung on the corner of his mouth at the figure in front of him. "Came to me so late to find something, A-see."

"I've figured it out." Horikita's unusually solemn complexion. "I'm joining, but on one condition."

"For the sake of the family, you still have to put forward conditions?" The smile on the patriarch's face disappeared when he put down the brush, and his tone was harsh. "Why do you think you can be idle and still have fine clothes and food to get to today!"

"It's the family that gave you everything! I don't know if it's okay to reciprocate, you actually negotiated terms with the dare family! The patriarch reprimanded with a look of hatred for iron and steel.

"Hey, who cares!" Horikita went back without showing weakness. "Believe it or not, if you force me to be in a hurry, I'll run away by myself, and I'll pay you back ten times in the future! I haven't taken care of my father's shelf for so many years? Guess if I can eat your set! ”

"Alas, you kid." The patriarch reluctantly put away his majesty and sighed, "It's all because I've been too negligent in disciplining you all these years." ”

"Did you take care of it?"

"Is it because of the girl in the hut?" The patriarch's sudden words made Horikita's face gloomy.

"Sure enough, you know." Horikita's face began to change and become uncertain.

"Oh, don't forget that I'm the head of the family, and nothing can be hidden from me in this house." The patriarch clasped his hands around his chest and looked at Horikita for a long time. "Do you think you can represent the face of the Horibei family, it was I who greeted the dark department so they didn't attack you, you're still too tender."

"What do you want?" Now that the bottom has been figured out, Horikita can only sigh and be convinced.

"No hurry, let me guess." The patriarch looked at his son's face full of pride and pride on his face, "I'm afraid you just said that you were going to leave the family, but you already had this idea, right?" ”

Horikita's stubborn refusal to speak confirmed the patriarch's conjecture, and the patriarch nodded with satisfaction and continued. "Is it because of the sudden incident in the shadows that you ran aground in order to use the power of the family to protect that girl, no wonder you have been hesitating for so many days and not giving me an answer."

"Okay, old fox, you're the best, what do you want?" Horikita has completely lost the will to resist.

"I can help you keep that girl, and as for the conditions you want to make, I can't agree to them." Knowing that his son was a donkey, the patriarch decided to draw him a piece of cake.

"Oh?" For the patriarch who can guess his own thoughts, Horikita is too lazy to be surprised. "You mean to see how I behave?"

"Almost, as long as you can make the family grow to the extent that I am satisfied, I don't care if you marry or not." The patriarch nodded in agreement.

"Old immortal, you really plan to sell me!" Horibei suddenly pointed at the patriarch angrily and scolded. "And what is the degree of satisfaction you have, you fool yourself with this kind of ambiguous statement!"

"Don't be angry, I'll give you a specific standard." In the face of the angry scolding of Horibei, the patriarch was surprisingly not angry, but still looked comfortable. "Let me ask you first, do you know why I can have influence over the shadows of Konoha?"

"Because you give them money." Horikita let out a cold snort from his nose.

"I'm just an ATM for them, and that's just an influence." The patriarch smiled playfully and shook his head. "Do you know what kind of business the family is doing?"

"Ore, salt and iron, and a bunch of jumbles." Horikita disdainfully moved his hands and counted. "If you want me to say that instead of scattering financial resources and manpower to run so many varieties of business, it is better to concentrate and monopolize a certain thing, and monopoly is the most profitable business, and you actually want me to teach you?"

"If it's just about making money, you're right." Without refuting Horikita's words, the patriarch touched the inkstone on the table, and under Horikita's surprised gaze, the inkstone seemed to have taken root on the table and rotated with the patriarch's strength.

Boom - there was a small tremor, and Horikita stared at the secret door that appeared behind the desk. "And this kind of thing?"

"Follow me." The patriarch got up and walked towards the tunnel behind the secret door, and when Horikita saw this, he closed his mouth and withdrew his tongue and followed.

The tunnel was buried deep in the ground all the way down, but there was no smell of dampness, and the surprised people along the way looked left and right as if they were not sure that this was their own territory.

"Here we are." The view suddenly became empty—a huge basement was filled with dozens of bookshelves, each stacked with ledgers yellowed by oxidation. "From salt and iron armaments to rice and rice, my family has been working hard in dozens of industries for decades, not for money."

"These ...... It's all ledgers? Horibei swallowed his saliva, a little afraid to look at the patriarch's arrogant back.

"Not only the ledger, but also a large amount of information, such as the control of the production and sales market." The patriarch picked up a ledger and flipped through it, with disdain in his eyes. "That idiot thinks that force can achieve all goals, and I ......"

"Control the world with resources and finance!" The patriarch's loud words echoed in the basement, and Horikita looked at his father in a daze, as if he didn't know the person in front of him.

"Is this possible...... Horikita muttered suspiciously.

"It's not possible, it's certain!" The patriarch's eyes were full of sharpness when he looked at Horibei, "As long as I give an order, Konoha will be short of food and clothing within three days, and the economy will collapse within half a month, which is the result of the painstaking efforts of my ancestors." ”

"They could have killed you and taken over everything from us." Horikita calmed down and thought seriously and returned.

"So we have to be able to affect enough industries that even if they kill me, they won't be able to restore everything to the way it was in a short period of time." The patriarch chuckled and set up the bookshelf and patted the non-existent dust on his hands. "Believe me, the masses who have no food to eat, no salt to eat, or in three days will roar and push them down from the seat that makes them intoxicated, so they don't dare to touch me, who will clean up the mess when I die?"

"What do you want me to do?" After a moment of silence, Horikita asked, staring at the patriarch.

"I'm old...... the patriarch said with a sudden sigh, and the rhetoric just now vanished in an instant. I hate to admit it, but I'm really old. My energy is getting weaker, I often doze off when I look at the ledger, my eyesight is declining, and I don't have the energy to manage such a huge financial empire anymore. ”

"It's no wonder that you can't be tired of the affairs of so many industries." Horikita replied sarcastically.

"So I want you to take over." The patriarch didn't seem to hear Horikita's sarcasm.

"Can't do it!"

"You have to do it!" Looking at Horibei, who was stubbornly twisting his neck, the patriarch softened his tone helplessly, "I know it's really hard for you, but I can't leave all the affairs to you at once, and when you can take charge on your own, your two younger brothers can almost help you share the pressure." ”

"As long as you promise, I promise that there will be no more ideas to beat that girl in the shadows." The patriarch made a killer move to Horibei, who was still holding his neck and not speaking.

“…… Good. Horikita tugged at the corners of his mouth and agreed with difficulty. And then, what's next. ”

"Keep doing business." The patriarch said as a matter of course. "To the extent that you can encompass the five major powers in the palm of your hand!"

"......" Horikita looked at the patriarch in a daze, muttering in a voice that could only be heard by himself. You are crazy. ”