My CEO Harem Cultivation System

Li Yang was gone. 

Not everyone noticed it as he expected… as he wanted it to be. The Mermaid Narissa and the Tigress Taiga were no longer at the bar and had immediately left once he himself parted ways with them to be with Bo Lifen—but the Mermaid did not expect that the Tigress would tag along with her.

It was like a stray cat on the street following you until you arrived home and demanded your hospitality. 

"Can Taiga stay with you tonight?"

"Don't you have some other place to stay?" Narissa stopped outside of the door of her hotel room to give the tigress spirit an unamused look. 

"... Taiga was staying at the Shou Temple Sect in Chongming Island, but it's too tiring to try to get back there. Taiga would have to get past all of the ghosts and evil spirits that lurk around there."

"I don't care. Aren't you supposed to be some fiery feline?" 

"Taiga does have fire roots—but what's that got to do with any of these?" The spirit cultivator gave her a smile. "Just think of it as a sleepover because Taiga thinks we have to get along sooner or later."

"Why do we need to get along?" Narissa gave her a dirty look.

"... If we're going to live together down the line?" 

.

.

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Only a certain individual knew that he left the city again and only another one knew and paid attention to the fact that he was missing. Bo Lifen who originally left him to have dinner by herself was now at Shen Society and sitting in one of the lounge chairs.

Compared to the head of the society and the one cultivator currently staying at the office, she was distressed and looking at the clock.

"So let me get this straight," Shen An Na looked up from her textbook to give the older woman a look. "You were expecting Li Yang to head here because you noticed a discussion erupt between him and Mou Gu at the diner?"

Bo Lifen wasn't someone who liked to engage with cultivators beyond than necessary, they were all troublesome, but she gave the young woman a nod. Nobody needed to mention that she sort of came running to the Shen Society's headquarters.

"Yes, I came here to meet him... but the two of us can see that he isn't here. It's been ten minutes already since I last saw him."

"Well, unless he turned invisible and he's been secretly here all along. Yes, he isn't here." 

"That's not very funny, An Na." 

"You know, I'm still trying to grasp the idea that you know him as well." Shen An Na closed her book to look at the reason why the usually reclusive member of the Bo Family came forward to report this situation. 

It was as exactly as Bo Lifen might have wanted it to be—their relationship or what could have been the incidents surrounding her and Li Yang were unknown to many. People needed to mind their business!

Except she was asking for a favor.

Shen An Na rubbed her chin and thought about it some more. "Then again, the Heavenly Jade Pavilion has a lot of rich customers so he could have been one of those customers that you met along the way." 

"My great-grandmother knows him."

"But you care enough to report this to me… and were actually expecting him to be here?" 

The Tea Sommelier hung her head for a moment. If the man actually came here then there would have been no need to explain herself at all and for people to wonder her intentions at all.

"As far as I'm aware, the man only discovered the cultivation world recently so I'd rather not have him go jumping from one situation to another. That's inherently risky… but something seems to have come up."

"What exactly came up?"

"That I do not know." Bo Lifen answered truthfully. The two of them only bickered and slept with each other, discussions about anything else were off the table.

"—I know what's up." The door swung open, Mou Gu sauntered inside of the room and raised a hand. "Hey, Lifen. I didn't expect that you'd be here."

Bo Lifen scrunched up her face. "As others have already told me that. But you've chased after Li Yang, right? Where did he go and why isn't he with you?"

"Easy on the questions—first one, yes, I chased after him throughout the city. I can't believe that he's still at the Qi Gathering Stage… I would have already attempted to breakthrough the next stage if I were him," Mou Gu said.

"Oh, so he has a knack for cultivation even at his age?" Shen An Na raised a brow. "Impressive."

"You know he's not that old," Bo Lifen muttered. 

"Well, you're saying that because the two of you are at the same age." Mou Gu chuckled. 

"Just tell us where he is."

"Patience is a virtue, Lifen. But yeah, I followed him all the way to the black market again and it seems like he might have headed to Liu Guiren's right hand man. I didn't enter the area itself to remain undetected from their formations. I remained there until they left the market and went to the port though."

"He approached Gen for what reason?" Shen An Na asked. 

"Well, have you ever wondered why not only Li Yang went missing-in-action for the last few months? Even Ying Yue He no longer came to train here."

"... Not really?" Shen An Na admitted. "But sure, tell us why."

"Ying Yue He went to one of the Liu Family's islands to train—I guess she was recruited by someone else." Mou Gu coughed. "I thought she gave up half-way and I decided not to bother her."

Once they heard the news that Li Yang was gone from Taiga—where the Tigress herself left Shen Society to head back to the temple—they assumed that Ying Yue He would most likely not want to involve herself with them.

Nobody expected for her to suddenly just go out of her way to find training elsewhere. 

Bo Lifen frowned slightly. "Who's Ying Yue He?"

"Wait—you don't know his secretary?" Mou Gu gave her a surprised look. "Shorter than you, dark hair in a cute bob and overall just one of the sweetest and silliest person you'd meet?"

Shen An Na and Bo Lifen only stared at him. 

The former did meet Ying Yue He, but it was clear that she was not impressed by his description, whereas Bo Lifen finally recalled this person at last. The woman who politely contacted her about the reservation at Heavenly Jade Pavilion

…and the one who Li Yang brought to Sun Aoyun and Bai Minghua's concert.

"Ah, so he disappeared to search after his secretary," Bo Lifen whispered underneath her breath and tapped her foot on the floor. 

"... Well, there's a good reason for him to do that. You know how the Lius are."

"I doubt that Guiren's father would be directly involved in a situation like this one." Bo Lifen frowned at Mou Gu. "And the guy is actually reasonable enough, I've dealt with Liu Guiren many times already to serve them tea."

The reason why the man decided to not have dinner with her was to look for his secretary.  Before any of this had happened, he was spending time with Taiga and Bai Minghua too and then the man moved on to be with her.

She wouldn't be surprised to hear if Li Yang spent the past months on his training period to be around other women too. There was no need to feel upset about any of this at all since the two of them weren't together.

—but why did it feel like she was simply part of his to-do list? 

Just another of the things that he checked off the list before he aimed for his next agenda? This time it was his secretary—who came after that? Did he have some sort of rotation on the list?

"... Lifen, I'm sure you know that things are different at the Heavenly Jade Pavilion. That's like neutral territory." Shen An Na pointed out. The woman looked deep in her thoughts that it seemed like it was hard to encroach on this matter.

Bo Lifen was pretty stubborn when she wanted to.

She was being stubborn right now.

"I'm just saying that despite how the Liu Group operated in the past which was really… problematic." 

"Problematic only?" 

Bo Lifen couldn't easily just sweep all of the transgression of the group under the rug. Even if she was sort of getting hung up… on stuff.

"There isn't much of a problem now if we're talking about Liu Guiren. He's been taking care of it more than his father, you know? New management."

Mou Gu raised his hand. "Ugh, fine—let's just say I agree with you. But Ying Yue He has a special constitution which is a prized thing. Li Guiren can be more accommodating than his father, but that's because he's willing to cut strings and people that he considers replaceable." 

Bo Lifen sighed. "If you knew that for a fact, then why did you not ensure that Ying Yue He wouldn't get involved with them in the first place?"

Mou Gu knew he was getting nowhere with Bo Lifen for some petty reason. Instead, he just tossed a look at Shen An Na. He might have been saying all of these with a lighthearted tone and chose not to argue, but it wasn't an easy matter.

"I'm asking for permission to chase after Li Yang and the hired ship if possible—we can't just expect him to go there alone. That's like tossing sheep in a pack of wolves… Well, a lone wolf in a pack of hyenas? A nest of snakes? You know what I'm getting to, right?"