The year of Linhai City is slightly different from the rest of the Red Continent. According to the custom here, the snow falls into the New Year's pass, and as soon as the snow falls every year, the whole city gradually has the flavor of the New Year: those who began to buy New Year's goods, those who asked people to write Spring Festival couplets, and the monks who returned to the city from far away——— the crowd that poured in from the city gate every day, although it was not mighty, but it was definitely magnificent.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, there are almost no people on the street, and all the markets will close early. As for some prominent families, the business is usually handed over to the clan to be taken care of, and they also choose to close the accounts on this day, but in these big families, they are quite particular about this matter of reporting and closing accounts, which is called "remittance".

At this time, Mu Zhenhai, the head of the Mufu family, sat in the study, listening to the collection of the heads of the various families.

"The head of the family, this year's Chengnan Danfang expenditure ...... Revenue..... Chengbei ....."

"Head of the house, this year's pawnshop ......"

......

After the collection of books by each branch was completed, Steward Liu stepped forward to take the account books one by one, and handed them to Mu Zhenhai with both hands.

"Master, the total turnover of the four industries of Danfang, Qilou, pawnshop, and auction house throughout the year is 5,379,431 spirit stones, and the cost is 1,784,000 pieces, and the total profit is 3,595,431 spirit stones, which is two percent higher than last year's profit. Please take a look at it. ”

Mu Zhenhai opened the ledger, flipped through a few pages at random, and then stopped looking at it.

"All the heads of the family have worked hard, let's go back to the room to rest first. At the reunion banquet in the evening, let's have a few more drinks. ”

"Thank you, master. ”

Several heads of the divided families thanked each other, made a bow, and then retreated, leaving only Steward Liu still on the side.

Although this Steward Liu only has the cultivation in the middle stage of body refining, he has been following Mu Zhenhai for decades, and he is just right in life, he naturally sees Mu Zhenhai's face, which is not very good from the beginning, but what the owner of the family is worried about, he is not sure, so it is inconvenient to ask.

Just when he was in a dilemma, Mu Zhenhai himself opened his mouth first.

"Joy, is it snowing outside today?"

Steward Liu turned around and pushed open a small crack in the window behind him, looked at it, and replied: "Back to the master, it's falling, the wind and snow are just right, suitable for viewing, master, are you going to the backyard snow viewing platform?"

"No, I'll just ask casually, you take it seriously. Mu Zhenhai said with a smile. After a pause, he continued: "This is Chinese New Year's Eve, you will be busy, and you will have to serve me if you are busy with all the chores in the mansion. I'm the head of the house, like I'm a nobody, I'm sorry for you!"

Mu Zhenhai's words are also true, Mufu, as the leading local family, is naturally more particular about the Chinese New Year's Eve New Year's dinner, not to mention the selection of ingredients, dishes with these details, just the seat arrangement of hundreds of people in this and separate families, and the seating order of elders and juniors, is enough to make people busy. But this Steward Liu has this ability, he can put everything in order, and he has never had any mistakes in decades.

"The old man is serious, this is what Xi should do. Listening to Mu Zhenhai's successive words, Steward Liu was even more confused, and he didn't know what he was thinking at this time.

Mu Zhenhai picked up the cup on the table, took a sip of tea, and asked a little unintentionally: "By the way, how are you preparing for this year's competition between the master and the juniors?"

As soon as these words came out, Steward Liu's heart suddenly brightened. No wonder looking at Mu Zhenhai is full of sorrow and roundabouts, it turns out that the crux of the matter is here!

The tradition of the competition between the younger generations of the Mufu and the family has also been around for a long time. This competition is held every year, often in the reunion of the dinner and wine after the three rounds of the launch, initially set up, just for the banquet to cheer, but also a small assessment of the juniors of each family, the winner will be given some strange small objects as a reward, and the losing side will also get the elders' ear to face the life.

Until more than 400 years ago, Mufu was facing a shortage of green and yellow crops. At that time, the head of the family, Mu San Province, in order to cultivate juniors, set this competition that was originally a prize to please the head of the competition, and set it as the main project on Chinese New Year's Eve every year, and also formulated the rules of one small test every year and one big test every four years, and each family only needs to send three juniors as representatives, and at the time of the big test, all juniors who are more than twelve and less than eighteen must participate. The top 10 winners in the small test and the top 10 in the big test will be rewarded with magic weapons, spiritual weapons, cheats, etc., which are rarely seen in ordinary times, and will get the best cultivation resources before they become adults. It is under such a mechanism that Mufu has ushered in rapid development. It can be said that Mufu can become the dominant force today, which is not unrelated to the restructuring of Musan Province at that time.

And this year, it is the time of the quadrennial test. Of course, if it was a simple big test, it would not make Mu Zhenhai feel a headache, what really made Mu Zhenhai difficult to talk about was his son Mu Yinan, who was going to participate in the competition.

Knowing the crux of the problem, Steward Liu didn't hide it, he took a step forward slightly, and asked in a low voice, "Master, you mean, Second Young Master, right?"

"This ......" Mu Zhenhai, who was pointed to as the central matter, was indeed slightly embarrassed. sighed and replied: "You know the second child, it can only be a shame for him to participate in the competition in this situation." Four years ago, he was not yet on his birthday, less than twelve, and he was temporarily exempted from the competition, and since then, every year of the small test, I have deliberately arranged the children of the second brother and the third brother, but this time it ......"

Steward Liu frowned, and he already thought about it in his heart. Then he bowed slightly and said, "Master, I have a sentence of joy, I don't know whether to say it or not." ”

"But it doesn't hurt to say that. Mu Zhenhai nodded.

Xizhi thinks that it is not impossible to let the second young master suffer a little. ”

Steward Liu looked at Mu Zhenhai's deep brows, and added softly: "The second young master is a piece of jade, the key is to see how to polish it." If the polishing is not good, I am afraid that the position of the owner of this family will be ...... in the future."

"Hey————"

Hearing this, Mu Zhenhai couldn't help but sigh. Why don't you know this?

It is said that this Mu Zhenhai is not like his two brothers, who have multiple wives and concubines, so they have many heirs. He only married his beloved wife He Hongqing in his life, and he only had one daughter and two sons under his knees. The eldest daughter, Mu Siwen, was born with mediocre qualifications, and only cultivated to the late stage of Qi Gathering and then made no progress; the eldest son, Mu Xiwu, was extremely talented, and he built a foundation before he was ten years old, and even worshiped the Taiyi Sect, the head of the nine major cultivation forces in the Red Domain, which can be described as having a bright future. But the good times didn't last long, and in a mountain gate trial a few years ago, Mu Xiwu strayed into a desperate situation, and there has been no news since.

And these two sons, Mu Yinan, can really be described as a "legend". In terms of talent, he is even better than his brother, and he is the kind of person who is truly amazingly talented: at the age of five, he officially stepped into the path of cultivating the truth, and it only took half a day to reach the initial stage of Qi training, and in a few days, he easily cultivated the Great Perfection of Qi Training, and finally successfully built the foundation at the age of less than six years old, which became a sensation. When Mu Xiwu built the foundation at the age of ten, he was already called a genius who had not been met for more than ten years, so Mu Yinan's qualifications were against the sky, which can be seen.

Unexpectedly, although this son has extraordinary qualifications, he has a loose personality, especially has no interest in cultivating the truth, and soon after building the foundation, he neglected to practice. However, because of the disappearance of his eldest son, He Hongqing was very doting on this son, and he was used to eating and wearing on weekdays, even if he caused some trouble, as long as he didn't hurt people's lives, he would go with him. If Mu Zhenhai has a slight complaint, or forces him to cultivate, He Hongqing can quarrel with him. With the protection of his mother, Mu Yinan has no fear, so over the years, he has been living a life of cockfighting and lackeys. In the past few years, his cultivation has not only not risen at all, but also faintly fallen to build a foundation.

After pondering for a moment, Mu Zhenhai slowly got up, and Steward Liu on the side hurriedly stepped forward to pull out the chair, and then asked, "Master, are you going to the second young master?"

"Hmm. Mu Zhenhai first nodded slightly, then shook his head, then laughed twice as if he laughed at himself, and said helplessly: "Let's go to Hongqing first......

Steward Liu was stunned when he heard this, quickly lowered his head, and replied with a smile: "The master is wise." ”

Hearing these four words, Mu Zhenhai was really a little crying and laughing, it seems that he can't take off his "fear of guilt" hat for the rest of his life. I had to point at Steward Liu and scolded with a smile: "You, you..... It's really not serious the older you get. ”

Steward Liu grinned, said no more, and after leaving the study with Mu Zhenhai, he retired first on the grounds of preparing for the reunion dinner. It can be seen that Steward Liu walked away, but Mu Zhenhai turned around and quietly returned to the study.

As the so-called brine point tofu, one thing drops one thing, and things in this world are probably like this.

Mu Zhenhai has served as the head of the family for decades, and he has always been very tough when dealing with the affairs of the clan, and he is also very tough when he represents the family and is involved in diplomacy. But for some reason, as soon as he met He Hongqing, he seemed timid when he started to do things. For example, he just thought that whether it was for the sake of the family or for Mu Yinan's future considerations, he had to talk to his wife today, but at this moment, he was worried that his wife would not agree to her precious son being wronged at all, but he was bored and had to be scolded.

"Knock Knock Knock ......"

Just as Mu Zhenhai was pacing back and forth, thinking about how to speak to his wife, there was a crisp knock on the door outside the study.

"Dad, are you in the study, I'm in!" Before Mu Zhenhai could respond, the door of the study was kicked open.

Coming in through the door was a middle-sized boy. This young man was born white and pure, with a kind appearance, and there was a clear aura between his eyebrows and eyes, but he had a cynical look. Needless to say, this is Mu Yi Nan, the second young ——— of Mufu.