Chapter 74: Chapter 74 Sun Yuan’s Dream

Translator: 549690339

These past few days, the workload at the Forestry Bureau had been heavy, yet Sun Qing was quite happy.

One reason for his happiness was that his son, Sun Yuan, had lived up to expectations and been accepted to Wuyue Advanced Middle School.

Another reason to be cheerful was that recently, Director Chen Qiming seemed to value him quite a bit; not only had he been frequently giving guidelines at work, but he also took good care of Sun Qing in daily life, showing a strong intention of grooming him to be the successor at the Forestry Bureau.

In the past, Sun Qing never expected to become the director of the Forestry Bureau.

Because his talent for cultivation was average, and in his forties, he was only at the fifth level of Qi cultivation.

With such strength, it was decent enough to be a Chief Clerk, basically waving goodbye to leadership positions like director.

But the recent favor from Chen Qiming reignited Sun Qing’s hopes for promotion, and his life was also filled with a new drive.

Before this, Sun Qing’s drive had always been to change his life through investment. Now, his work had shown significant improvement, and investment seemed less important.

“Chief Clerk, here are the records of changes in Wuyue’s fishery resources over the past few years,” said an employee of the Forestry Bureau.

“Alright, just put it here,” replied Sun Qing.

“Okay then.”

At this moment, Sun Qing’s office was piled with mountains of files, large and small—the newly delivered records of fishery resources looking quite endearing in front of those great piles.

As the Chief Clerk, years of work experience allowed Sun Qing to have a pretty good idea about the resources surrounding Wuyue.

For example, forest resources were generally on the decline.

As for mineral resources, they were essentially facing exhaustion.

As for fishery resources, they were generally on a steady increase.

If the latest round of statistics from the Forestry Bureau did not vary much from previous years, then the Liang Kingdom’s resource census had nothing to do with their Forestry Bureau.

This was the advantage of a quiet job; while the power wasn’t great, one almost never had to take the blame.

“Mr. Sun?” Director Chen Qiming arrived at Sun Qing’s office.

Sun Qing stood up immediately and said, “Director, do you have any orders for me?”

Chen Qiming waved his hand, “No orders. Didn’t you say at noon that you had a family dinner tonight? It’s almost time to leave work. You go ahead, or you might get stuck in traffic.”

“Director, this, it doesn’t seem quite right,” Sun Qing hesitated.

“Oh, it’s fine, everybody has emergencies from time to time. Go on, go on.”

“Director, then I will take your kind offer and leave first,” Sun Qing said.

“Wait,” Chen Qiming stopped Sun Qing, pulling out two bottles of Spiritual Liquid from his storage bag, “You have two kids at home, right? Jiang Cheng and Sun Yuan, isn’t it? Here, this Spiritual Liquid was sent to me by a relative from out of town, take it.”

“Director, Spiritual Liquid is quite expensive,” Sun Qing declined.

Chen Qiming thought to himself: You think I want to give it away? If it wasn’t for the fact that Jiang Cheng has something on me…

“Take it, we’re colleagues after all.”

“This…”

“Take it, take it. It’s also a small token from your uncle.”

Jiang Cheng hadn’t been home during normal human activity hours for many days now.

But with the Muscle Relaxation Talisman incident as a precedent, his aunt and uncle let him be, allowing him to “start a talisman business” outside and come home at any time he wanted.

It had been two or three days since Sun Yuan’s middle school exam results were released.

But due to Sun Qing being busy with work, they hadn’t had time to celebrate, so today Sun Qing had specially taken leave to call out Jiang Cheng for the whole family to go out and enjoy a meal together.

Jiang Cheng was rarely home early, but when he did return, he found himself constantly watched by Sun Yuan.

“What’s up?” asked Jiang Cheng.

“Didn’t you forget something?” Sun Yuan said.

“Something?”

“Yes.”

“What’s that?”

“The autograph!”

Upon hearing Sun Yuan mention it, Jiang Cheng remembered.

He had been too busy with talisman drawing recently and almost forgot the promise he made to help Sun Yuan get Lin Yao’s autograph.

Jiang Cheng, always a man of his word, replied, “Wait a moment, I’ll ask her.”

Under Sun Yuan’s watchful gaze, Jiang Cheng went back to his room and took out a communication talisman.

Jiang Cheng: My cousin wants an autograph from you, can you give him one?

Lin Yao, on the other side of the communication talisman, almost instantly replied to Jiang Cheng’s message.

Lin Yao: What autograph? Yao’er’s autograph?

Lin Yao: Sure.

Lin Yao: But for fairness, Jiang, you have to promise Yao’er one thing.

Jiang Cheng: Can I just pay for it?

Lin Yao: No!

Jiang Cheng: Then forget it. Don’t need it.

Lin Yao: ?

Jiang Cheng turned off the communication talisman, took out his storage bag, and retrieved three Medium-grade Spirit Stones.

According to the previous bet, if Jiang Cheng failed to get the autograph, he had to compensate Sun Yuan with three hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones, which were equivalent to three Medium-grade Spirit Stones.

Just as Jiang Cheng was about to step out of the bedroom, Lin Yao initiated contact through the talisman once more.

Jiang Cheng didn’t want to deal with her, but thinking of the matter about the autograph, he still pressed to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“Jiang.”

Jiang Cheng frowned and said, “What is it?”

“Yao’er has been quite free lately.”

“You’re free, what does that have to do with me?”

“I… Jiang, you can come to visit Yao’er. You won’t have to spend any money, as long as you’re willing to spend some time with Yao’er and go for a walk, Yao’er will take care of the expenses.”

“I’m not free.”

“Then, then Yao’er can come to visit you. Just being able to see you would be enough, I promise not to disturb anything important for you.”

“No.”

There was silence on the other end of the communication talisman, so Jiang Cheng said, “Hanging up.”

“Wait! Don’t hang up yet, Jiang!”

Hearing Jiang Cheng was about to hang up, Lin Yao’s tone immediately became frantic.

“What else do you want to say?”

“I… Jiang, sometimes Yao’er wonders, that day when you confessed to Yao’er, if Yao’er hadn’t rejected you, would we be a couple now?”

“There are no ifs. Goodbye.”

After Jiang Cheng hung up, it wasn’t more than a second before Lin Yao called back on the communication talisman.

Jiang Cheng didn’t plan to answer, but Lin Yao kept calling. It seemed she had to say a few more words to him.

“What do you want?”

“Jiang, recently when Yao’er sleeps at night, I always dream of you…”

“Nothing important, goodbye.”

“Don’t! Don’t hang up, Jiang, Yao’er just wants to say one last thing!”

Jiang Cheng stayed silent, waiting for her to speak.

But the communication talisman fell into a spell of silence.

Just as Jiang Cheng thought the signal had been lost and was about to hang up,

Lin Yao’s extremely nervous voice came from the other side of the talisman:

“Jiang Cheng, if I say I’ve come to like you, would you agree to be my… be my… boyfriend?”

Jiang Cheng didn’t hesitate for a moment. He didn’t answer whether he was willing or not, but instead said directly, “I don’t believe it. Goodbye.”

Jiang Cheng hung up the communication talisman and went outside to see Sun Yuan.

“Here’s your Spirit Stone. I really couldn’t get Lin Yao’s autograph,” Jiang Cheng admitted defeat.

Sun Yuan held the Spirit Stone without a trace of joy in his eyes.

He didn’t want the Spirit Stone at all!

What he wanted was Lin Yao’s autograph!

Unfortunately, his expectations for his cousin were too high.

Maybe from the beginning, he shouldn’t have expected Jiang Cheng to be able to strike up a conversation with Lin Yao.

After all, Jiang Cheng used to stutter when speaking to female cultivators.

How could he be expected to get Lin Yao’s autograph?

Lin Yao hugged her pillow tightly, curling up in a corner of the sofa.

Large tears, accompanied by sobbing, fell unstoppably from the corners of her eyes.

In a moment, a large part of the pillow was soaked.

Regardless of Jiang Cheng’s rejection, avoidance, or impatience, Lin Yao had been mentally prepared when she took the initiative to call him.

Because it wasn’t the first time that Jiang Cheng had rejected or avoided her.

One more time made no difference.

But when she had considered it for a long time and finally decided to follow the voice of her heart, to let go of her usual pride and face, and confess to Jiang Cheng,

Jiang Cheng’s “I don’t believe it,” instead of “I’m not willing” or “I don’t like you,”

Completely penetrated all of Lin Yao’s psychological defenses.

It trampled her already crumbling dignity from head to toe.

In Jiang Cheng’s heart, she didn’t even have the most basic trust, so how could she dare to hope for his affection?

Lin Yao buried her head in the pillow, full of regret.

If she had just accepted Jiang Cheng’s confession from the start, if she hadn’t wanted to play with Jiang Cheng’s feelings, if she had been honest with Jiang Cheng from the beginning, if…

Time passed, and Lin Yao gradually stopped crying.

The immense grief and regret were too much for her brain to bear, to think, a blank slate.

Now, Lin Yao’s spirit was on the verge of collapse, and if the situation continued to deteriorate, she might lose her mind and become someone unable to face reality.

Whether it was her body or subconscious, everything Lin Yao possessed was striving for survival, attempting to save her dying soul.

In the end, Lin Yao’s subconscious grasped at a straw that could save her life and even change her fate.

Her eyes slowly becoming clear, at that moment, there was only one thought in Lin Yao’s mind: If she could truly atone and change all the things Jiang Cheng disliked, might he forgive her and give her another chance?