A tremendous windfall was just beginning to reveal its tempting edge.

“Hey, did you see that?” An old regular’s voice shot up with excitement. “The Star Union just made a decision—they’re going to determine the ownership of the new planet according to inheritance law!”

“Which company is so lucky? I bet it doesn’t even exist anymore.”

“It’s not a company, it’s a family that owned the company, or maybe just a single person…”

Suddenly, everyone in the shop fell silent at the same time, their gazes turning blank. A flood of news erupted online like a volcano, every headline ending with at least one exclamation mark.

“Yixing Corporation… never heard of it.”

“The company’s long gone. There’s a major shareholder, and a bunch of minor ones. The biggest winner should be the major shareholder, right?”

“Of course. The major shareholder’s surname is Shao. The heir… they say it’s being determined, but there will definitely be one.”

“An entire planet, with all those machines and the Guangye farms on it, all going to the Shao family? That’s just insane.”

“It’s been three hundred years—there must be a ton of Shao descendants by now, right? And there are other shareholders too, their children and grandchildren, probably tens of thousands of people.”

“The latest news says the new planet was developed by the Shao family with their own funds, not owned by Yixing Group.”

“The whole planet belongs to just one family? That’s… hey, Old William, isn’t your surname Shao? Could you be one of the heirs?”

“Haha…” William Harper laughed a little awkwardly. “If I were an heir, I’d give each of you a lifetime free haircut voucher.”

“So stingy.”

“It’s already dark outside, and Old William is still daydreaming. If the Shao descendants really owned such a big company, they’d be a huge family by now—why would they be in the barber business?”

The customers burst out laughing. William Harper chuckled along with them. Taking the teasing was just part of the job—he was used to it, but today he felt a bit uneasy.

The customers kept chatting, and after night had fully fallen, they left one by one. The two unfamiliar young men were the last to get up, paid obediently, and didn’t say a single unnecessary word.

William Harper barely managed to keep calm, but in truth, he was completely distracted, his judgment clouded. He didn’t notice the strange look the unfamiliar customers gave him as they left.

Just an hour into the night, the street outside was bustling with people, electromagnetic fireworks still lighting up the sky. William Harper had no mind for business anymore. He locked up, turned off the lights, covered the windows, rummaged through his things, and dug out a microcomputer he hadn’t used in ages. Then he sat down in a chair and started searching for his family tree.

He was careful—not using the chip implanted in his body.

There was no ready-made Shao family genealogy; he had to trace it back through one birth certificate after another, and could only look up his own lineage.

Half an hour later, William Harper shut down the microcomputer, sitting there in a daze, taking a long time to come back to himself.

It was confirmed—he really was a descendant of that Shao family. Coincidentally, the chairman of Yixing Development Group back in the Earth era was named Edward Harper, just one character different from his own name as the eighth-generation grandson.

It seemed that this chairman had only one granddaughter who luckily escaped disaster and ended up on Zhaiwang Star. William Harper was her descendant, and through many twists and turns, the “Shao” surname had stubbornly been preserved.

“So it was all for this day.” A fine layer of sweat suddenly broke out on William Harper’s body. His arm went slack, the microcomputer fell to the floor, and he jumped up, not bothering to pick it up. Instead, he began pacing in circles, his strides long and quick, making the small shop feel even more cramped.

There were still many uncertainties—how many Shao descendants were there, exactly? How would the inheritance be divided? Would the Star Union’s decision change again…

But the joy was already swelling, filling his heart, overflowing his body, searching for any gap to burst out of the room.

“It might all come to nothing,” William Harper muttered, trying to pour some cold water on himself. But no matter what, he couldn’t stay calm. So he unlocked the door and stepped out to join the crowd outside.

The street was packed with people, and the vehicles flowed slowly like thick syrup.

The fireworks show overhead hadn’t ended yet. Now, a giant spaceship appeared, stretching over a dozen kilometers long, almost hovering motionless.

A real spaceship could never get so close to a planet, but this illusion was so lifelike it seemed it might crash down on the city at any moment.

William Harper had never been that interested in spaceships, but now he looked up and admired it for a long while, because it suddenly occurred to him that he might soon own such a colossal thing.

Not just the spaceship—everything looked different to him now. The pedestrians and vehicles on the street, which had been part of his daily life just moments ago, now seemed so much smaller. William Harper even felt as if he were “looking down” on all living things.

Someone bumped into him, turned and cursed, blaming him for standing still for no reason.

William Harper smiled back, too lazy to respond. His thoughts were already flying to that as-yet-unnamed eighth planet. Even if he only owned one ten-thousandth of it, it would be an unimaginable fortune—far surpassing the assets of everyone on this street, no, on all of Zhaiwang Star.

The old city was full of entertainment venues, most of them cheap. William Harper passed them by and headed to a more upscale bar three streets away.