"...You're telling me you've already built a competent merc crew, pulled off a bunch of jobs, and that over the past eight years you parlayed the pocket money I gave you into a net worth in the hundreds of millions?"
Xu Wanxue tilted her head, eyes widening as if she were staring at a devil. Her tone wasn't so much questioning as practically shouting.
"Sis, you don't have any bugs in here, right? I'm not ready to go public..." Lin Mo glanced around the room, looking a little knotted up.
"No!" Xu Wanxue snapped, still visibly stunned. She took several long breaths to steady herself. "Don't talk. Let me process this!"
The surprise had hit like a tornado.
She didn't even know how to describe what she was feeling. If she had to compare it to something, it was like those TV dramas where the down-and-out protagonist suddenly learns his father is a billionaire and only pretended to be poor to toughen him up.
In a way, it was similar—except the "father" was her brother. Flip the roles again—if she were the older brother and Lin Mo the younger sister—it'd be a story about a rich little sister bankrolling her big bro. Might even make for a hit show.
Her own little brother had done in eight years what it would take her decades of sleepless, foodless grind to accumulate…
By comparison, the mercenary feats he'd racked up in the past few months almost felt like footnotes.
The more she thought about it, the heavier her mood became. She'd always believed she was the "successful one," able to give Lin Mo a stable environment to grow up in. But with his current wealth, he'd never needed her money at all…
"Then why," she asked with a hint of grievance, "did you still take your allowance from me every month without batting an eye?"
"Uh... well..." Lin Mo scratched his head, thinking a second. "Call it seed funding. I might be very good at making money, but even I needed some initial capital. Your allowance covered that gap. So if you think about it, half of what I have now is thanks to you. If you want, I can hand over—well—half."
Truth was, if she wanted, he'd let her manage everything. He only amended it to "half" because he still needed funds on hand to keep up appearances.
Moved but still doubtful, Xu Wanxue asked, "You really made all that from playing the market?"
"More precisely, investing—stocks were only part of it," Lin Mo said, choosing his words. "Take the World Cup a few years back. When massive capital piles into an event, it spawns huge betting markets. If a major upset's coming and I can feel it beforehand, one swing can net tens of millions… And then there are things like crypto—gray areas and all that. The sources aren't always… squeaky clean, so I keep a low profile. But to be blunt, at this point money's just numbers to me."
Xu Wanxue let out a long breath and slumped back on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. "You're basically playing life with cheat codes..."
Lin Mo said nothing. In a sense, he was.
"So tonight you told me all this because you wanted to lay your cards on the table?" After a while, she sat up and looked at him, eyes deep.
He sighed. "Not confession—just… the time felt right to tell you the truth."
"What's your goal, then?" Her tone slipped into negotiation mode, face solemn.
"To take back my freedom—from you," he said evenly, earnest. "I want you to understand me. I want to act according to my own will. I'm not a normal kid. I can take care of myself. I hope you can trust me."
Honestly, he felt awkward saying it. On the outside, he was still just a sixteen-year-old. Hard to sound convincing.
But he had to say it.
If this incident hadn't happened, he probably wouldn't have come clean so soon. No matter what he accomplished, in her eyes he was always going to be a sixteen-year-old boy—not the capable leader that people like Maine or Jack saw.
Hearing his request, Xu Wanxue was quiet for a long time. The severity in her expression softened into a helpless, doting smile.
Gently, she said, "The truth is, I've never really tried to cage you. Whenever you had something you wanted to do, as long as you talked it through with me, I didn't refuse you."
Lin Mo's brow lifted; his hands had unconsciously clenched.
"Maybe my love was too heavy," she went on, "and made you feel like I was limiting you. But you've told me everything now. Since I agreed that night, I'll agree again this time." She sighed—a concession.
She knew that if she refused, Lin Mo would abide by her rules anyway. But given where things stood… there was no need. It was time to let go.
The air thickened in the lounge. Neither of them spoke.
Out of nowhere, guilt pricked at Lin Mo's chest. No matter how much money he made, what did it matter? People who love you most want you safe and happy, not rich. Against that kind of love, anything he offered would look selfish. He had his own road to walk. He couldn't stay by her side forever.
A knot with no clean solution. He shelved the thought and stayed quiet.
"If you really want to take point on this, I won't stop you," Xu Wanxue said at last, voice earnest. "Promise me you won't do anything stupid. Stay alive. Stay healthy."
"I will," Lin Mo said. And he meant it. He kept his promises.
"Good. Then I'll take you to the AV bay. We've already found the mole."
Lin Mo blinked, startled. He looked up at her face. "That fast? When?"
"While we were talking," she replied calmly. "You've never worked inside a corp, so you wouldn't know: regular employees don't have privacy. Once they show their hand, finding them is trivial. And you said the sabotage was done on the AV—narrowing the pool makes it even easier."
Lin Mo was stunned. He hadn't expected the company to move this fast.
This wasn't a mole hunt. This was setting the pot and catching the turtle.
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