Chamber of Commerce

“There’s no teacher named Kong? Xia Chong, is it possible you remembered wrong?”

Xia Chong immediately shook his head. “Shopkeeper, I may love daydreaming, but I don’t have amnesia. One of my most important academic talents is having an exceptionally good memory. Forget the teachers who taught my class—I remember every teacher in the entire school. There was no one named Kong Rong.”

Chen Miemie thought for a moment, then described Kong Rong’s appearance.

“Do you remember this person? Perhaps he used a different name at school.”

“There’s no such person.” Xia Chong was absolutely certain.

Chen Miemie pondered briefly. “Let’s set Kong Rong aside for now. Continue with the story of you and Shi Buyi.”

“All right. My school career ended with the graduation examination.

“I became a Mystic, while Shi Buyi returned injured. He had failed.

“Unexpectedly, he even comforted me. He said that simply making it back alive counted as good luck, and that finding a job he was interested in would be pretty good too.

“When I first joined the society, busying myself with all sorts of matters as a newcomer to the mystical world, he became a bus driver.

“Shi Buyi was a stubborn man. Once he set his sights on a goal, he would make a plan and carry it out with ruthless precision.

“After becoming a bus driver, he often encountered the same situation.

“Someone would arrive at the stop a little late and wave from behind, hoping he would wait, or open the door again so they could get on.

“But he never opened the door for anyone who was late, no matter who they were.

“Whether it was a child running up breathlessly, someone furious and pounding on the door or the side of the bus, or even an elderly person struggling to raise a trembling hand and signal for him to stop, he would never open the door.

“His rigid adherence to the rules, with not the slightest room for compromise, got him into plenty of trouble.

“But he stood by his actions. He believed he had done nothing wrong—in fact, he believed he had been completely correct and had not caused any loss to the passengers already on board.

“Nearly a year passed like this.

“One day, he drove the bus into a stop.

“He closed the doors and was about to start the vehicle when he saw me hurrying toward the platform in the mirror.

“That day, I had just endured wave after wave of nightmares. My face was pale, my steps unsteady, and I felt as though I could collapse at any moment.

“I didn’t know the driver was him. I waved and called out, signaling for him to wait.

“He opened the door.

“On my way back, I happened to come out of the [Wellness Hall]. The bus stop was still a short distance away.

“After the treatment, I had recovered somewhat, but I was still weak.

“I wasn’t trying to catch the bus this time. I simply walked slowly toward the stop, figuring that even if I tried, I wouldn’t make it in time.

“When I finally reached the stop, I found that the bus was still waiting there.

“The passengers had been waiting for quite some time and were becoming agitated. They kept urging him to drive on, but Shi Buyi continued waiting.

“Only after I had taken my seat did he start the bus.”

“That’s just a small matter, isn’t it? What special significance could it have?”

“It did have significance. Shi Buyi was reported because of it, and his workplace fired him outright.”

“So he didn’t resign on his own. But being fired over something so minor—that doesn’t seem reasonable.”

“It wasn’t reasonable. He didn’t know how to curry favor with people, he didn’t fit in, and he wasn’t good with words. His superiors had been dissatisfied with him for a long time. He was about to be selected as an outstanding professional in the industry, which would have taken someone else’s opportunity. This time, they found an excuse to deal with him.”

“What was your reaction when you found out?”

“Of course I was furious. I wanted nothing more than to kill his superior.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing.

“After graduation, I moved into the society, and the frequency of our contact gradually decreased. He clearly didn’t want me to know.

“By the time I found out, half a month had already passed. Fei Liang happened to notice that Shi Buyi’s name was missing from the publicly announced list of outstanding professionals in the industry. After investigating, he learned what had happened.

“Besides being angry, I felt even more guilty.

“Although his superior had harbored a grudge against him for a long time and merely used this incident as an excuse to act, in the end, it had still happened because of me.”

Chen Miemie sorted out the entire chain of events.

“You felt that you had caused Shi Buyi to lose his job, so you were consumed by guilt and never told him about your illness?”

“I did feel guilty, but not because he lost his job.

“I have the ability to find him a better job, and I could even help him beat up anyone who had wronged him and vent his anger. Those problems would have been easy to resolve.

“The real problem was that after being dismissed, Shi Buyi left the city on his own. When he returned, he had become a Mystic.”

Chen Miemie said nothing. If Shi Buyi had gained a blessing in disguise, Xia Chong would not have looked so grave.

As expected—

“Shi Buyi became a Mystic, but he paid a terrible price.

“He suffered irreversible mutation. His body turned to stone, and he lost all sensation throughout his entire body.”

Chen Miemie’s attention had never truly been on Shi Buyi. From beginning to end, it had been focused on Xia Chong.

“You should understand the crux of your multiple-dream problem by now, shouldn’t you?”

Xia Chong nodded. “Thank you, Shopkeeper, for pointing out the key. Whether it was the nightmares or the multiple dreams, you helped me find the cause behind each of them.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“I will find my true self and stop pretending that I’m only interested in having fun. I will return to the path of academic theory and become a ‘genius’ once more.

“I will set my sights on becoming a Grand Scholar, establish a clear direction, tell the society about my plans, and continue to improve myself.

“I will find Shi Buyi, explain everything to him, stop blaming myself without his knowledge, and do everything I can to help him.”

“Clap, clap, clap~”

Chen Miemie applauded softly.

“I hope you can truly do all that.”

“I will. After all, I’m a genius.”

As a customer, Xia Chong had completed his commission. Now it was time for him to pay the price.

He pointed to the stack of documents on the table.

“Shopkeeper, does my future have something to do with this stack of documents?”

“Yes. They contain the major events that will take place in Sealed Book Hall over the next several decades. You don’t need to know how I obtained this information, and you don’t need to question whether it’s genuine.

“What you need to do is use your intelligence, act as my representative, and secure as much of the dividends of the times as possible as the city develops.”

“When you say ‘the dividends of the times,’ do you mean wealth?”

“More or less. Real estate, supplies, company shares, technology patents, outstanding talent, and so on—all of them fall within that scope.

“Also, remember this: You must not let anyone know about this. You cannot even allow anyone to suspect that you know the future.”

“I’m still a little confused, and I don’t fully understand. But I understand what you mean, and I’ll do as you say. Shopkeeper, whose name should I put these assets under?”

A dim yellow light shone from Chen Miemie’s pair of Eyes of the Eternal Moon.

“Establish a chamber of commerce. Call it the [Everlasting Moon] Chamber of Commerce. For now, you will serve as its public representative.”