The Auspicious Ingot at the bottom of Qisan Reservoir won’t be discovered any time soon.

Jiang Tao isn’t in a hurry to retrieve it either.

After finishing his call with Bai Yulan, he turned around and headed in the direction of Jiang Family Manor.

When he got back to his front door, it was already 11:41.

Seeing the main door closed, Jiang Tao knew Xu Li and Jiang Xue must have gone to their parents’ house.

He parked the car and walked to the entrance of his parents’ house.

Before Jiang Tao even entered, he could hear laughter and chatter from the courtyard, it was quite lively.

Seeing the Passat parked at the door, it turns out his in-laws were here.

After spending more than a week in Beijing, the interaction between the in-laws and Jiang Tao’s family has become more frequent.

The relationship between the two families has also become increasingly close.

"Xiao Tao’s back~"

"Jiang Tao’s back."

"Honey~"

"Brother-in-law."

Seeing Jiang Tao enter, everyone greeted him warmly.

The harmonious gathering today was entirely thanks to Jiang Tao.

Unknowingly, Jiang Tao had already become the indispensable "central figure" uniting everyone.

Jiang Tao looked at everyone and said with a smile:

"Mom and Dad, everyone, don’t bother anymore, someone invited us for lunch today."

"Someone’s invited us for lunch? Who, honey? Zhiquan or Yu Fei?"

Xu Li, curious about the meal invitation, looked at Jiang Tao, thinking it was most likely one of those two brothers.

Jiang Tao laughed and said, "Neither, it’s another friend. You don’t know them, I’ll introduce you today."

Xu Sha also curiously asked, "Where are we eating, brother-in-law?"

Jiang Tao said, "At Baiyulan Hotel."

"Baiyulan Hotel? Wonderful!"

Upon hearing it’s at Baiyulan Hotel, Xu Sha’s eyebrows danced with joy.

Though Baiyulan is not well-known nationally, in Ping County, it is undoubtedly the most prestigious hotel.

Being able to dine at Baiyulan Hotel is definitely an honor for a native of Ping County.

Jiang Tao laughed and said, "When we get there, don’t be shy with my friend, order whatever you like."

"Got it!"

"Second brother, who is this friend? Male or female?"

"Female."

"Female? When did you get a female friend? How come I didn’t know? How old is she? Is she pretty?"

Upon hearing Jiang Tao’s friend is a woman, Xu Li got a bit jealous.

Her sour tone made everyone burst into laughter.

Xu Li is really missing the point here.

Since Jiang Tao dares to bring everyone to meet this friend, there surely isn’t anything problematic between them.

Otherwise, he would be hiding it.

"She’s the daughter of a friend of my master, she’s more than ten years older than me, definitely not as pretty as my wife."

Jiang Tao stepped forward and hugged Xu Li’s waist, complimenting her without a trace.

As expected, the sentence "definitely not as pretty as my wife" filled Xu Li’s heart with joy.

As for saying she’s the "daughter of my master’s friend," it’s a story Jiang Tao concocted after discussing with her.

Jiang Tao’s nominal master Sun Xiaobao has passed away, and now there’s no way to verify it, whatever he says goes.

They chatted a bit more before everyone headed out laughing and joking, in three cars towards the direction of Ping County town.

Around twelve-thirty at noon.

A black Mercedes G-Class, a Mercedes GLS, and a black Passat drove one after another into the large open-air parking lot in front of Baiyulan Hotel.

Hotels around Ping County can’t compare to the high-end Five Stars hotels in big cities in terms of class.

But this large parking lot is unmatched by those other hotels.

The open-air parking lot in front of Baiyulan Hotel covers twenty or thirty acres, with quite good landscaping.

No matter when you visit, there will absolutely never be a shortage of parking spaces.

After parking their cars, everyone walked towards the hotel’s main entrance laughing and chatting.

"When I used to work, I often heard our manager talk about how upscale Baiyulan Hotel is, I never thought we would almost become regulars here."

Xu Wencheng looked at the luxurious decoration style of Baiyulan Hotel’s exterior and remarked with a smile.

"Haha, that’s right, we used to do a bit of work over here, just watching those big bosses in luxury cars come and go."

"As workers, we could only eat buns and drink hot water on the side, envious of their lives."

"Now we can boast to old friends that we’ve dined at Baiyulan Hotel."

Jiang Wen’s gaze fell on his son, who was chatting and laughing with his daughter-in-law ahead, feeling a deep sense of pride.

He never dreamed his family could live this kind of life now.

Wearing clothes bought by his daughter, each piece costing hundreds, and shoes costing over a thousand.

Being picked up and dropped off by luxury cars worth millions.

Only the second day back home from Beijing.

And this is the third time dining at such a high-end hotel like Baiyulan.

After living a difficult life for so long, suddenly living so luxuriously feels a bit hard to get used to.

"I heard the owner of Baiyulan Hotel is very well-connected, even our manager is very courteous when he sees him."

"Yes! When I was working with a boss before, I also heard that the owner of Baiyulan Hotel is not someone to be messed with in Ping County."

"There was once a local boss who thought he had some connections, made a ruckus here and overturned a table."