Now that things have reached this point, even if he were still foolish or dazed, he could see the current situation clearly. Actually, if he and Wu Hao hadn’t grown up in the same village, he wouldn’t have been able to fully understand Wu Hao’s identity transformation yet. He wouldn’t have dared to entertain any thoughts otherwise.

After all, he was just a small-time thug, far from being a true desperado. To put it bluntly, he was involved in petty thefts and minor crimes. Even though he had joined a relatively powerful gang of thieves, it was nothing compared to the real underworld.

Moreover, he had been scared out of his wits by Wu Hao’s bizarre methods earlier. Now, hearing that Wu Hao had hired more than a dozen bodyguards at once, he realized that Wu Hao had money, people, and strange combat skills. Even an idiot would know that someone like him couldn’t afford to provoke such a person.

So, he didn’t care about saving face anymore. He didn’t even have the heart to make threats behind his back. All he wanted now was to leave and enjoy himself for a while since he still had 500,000 yuan!

“Let’s go! Let’s head to the city first. This place has nothing for us, and I’ve been sick of it for a long time!” Yao Kaiyin called out to his followers, and they all left town in a van.

Two days later, Wu Xiaoxiao, as usual, had just stepped out of the school gate with her good friend Wen Wen when two female bodyguards in plain clothes approached her. They spoke respectfully to Wu Xiaoxiao, “Miss, Mr. Wu sent us to take you home.”

“Xiaoxiao, are they the bodyguards your brother hired for you?” Wen Wen whispered in Wu Xiaoxiao’s ear. Although Wen Wen had grown accustomed to having a wealthy friend like Wu Xiaoxiao, seeing that her brother had hired bodyguards made her feel something entirely different.

To most people, there are different levels of wealth. Ordinary rich kids might just flaunt their money with sports cars, but having dedicated bodyguards means they are not just ordinarily wealthy.

“It should be them!” Wu Xiaoxiao whispered back to her friend. Wu Hao had already called her a few days ago about the bodyguards, but seeing them in person was still a bit overwhelming.

After a brief conversation with the two bodyguards, Wu Xiaoxiao confirmed their identities and pulled Wen Wen into a car parked by the roadside.

The two bodyguards didn’t react to Wen Wen joining them because they already knew from the information Wu Hao had provided and from observing Wu Xiaoxiao at school who her close contacts were.

As Wu Xiaoxiao got into the car and left, the nearby passersby and some students started to talk.

“Who do you think those two women who picked up our goddess Xiaoxiao were?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Given the setup, they must be bodyguards arranged by Xiaoxiao’s family,” someone replied confidently.

“Aren’t bodyguards usually men?” another person asked, puzzled.

“Who says bodyguards have to be men? There are plenty of female bodyguards now!” The person was right. The number of female bodyguards has indeed increased significantly. Many security companies train and recruit women, although truly skilled female bodyguards are still rare.

As for those highly attractive and capable female bodyguards, they are even rarer. But Wu Hao hired female bodyguards solely to protect his sister, not like some wealthy people who seek attractive and strong female bodyguards for other reasons.

With his abilities, Wu Hao didn’t need anyone to protect him. Moreover, the things he did couldn’t be seen by others, so he didn’t need bodyguards around.

After returning to the freighter with his drone, Wu Hao immediately started modifying the ship. Although the modification process was tedious, Wu Hao was used to such tasks. After all, he had done plenty of monotonous work before.

Wu Hao spent nearly ten days on the freighter, completing all the modifications.

“Zero, activate the device!” Wu Hao ordered the ship’s intelligent control program after a thorough inspection.

The ship’s control program was essentially a subordinate to the intelligent program at the Qinling base, with real-time connectivity via satellite.

Notably, the ship’s seawater extraction device was fully automated by the intelligent program. This device occupied a large space because it needed to extract a lot of seawater for processing.

While seawater contains various minerals, their concentrations are very low. Wu Hao’s device primarily extracted deuterium for fusion, not all the other minerals.

Once the seawater extraction device was activated, the entire ship-based operation started running. Wu Hao stayed on the ship for another day to ensure everything was functioning correctly before taking some freshly extracted deuterium and leaving for the Qinling base.

The Qinling base expansion was progressing steadily, entirely managed by intelligent machinery and robots. Although the construction was slow without Wu Hao’s direct involvement, he wasn’t in a hurry.

For Wu Hao, the goal was to develop the base into a fully intelligent research and production facility. If everything depended on him, there wouldn’t be any intelligence at all. His main work focused on developing more advanced, intelligent manufacturing equipment and industrial robots, as technology is the primary productive force. Wu Hao was perfecting this productivity to its fullest.