Assignment and Work

The future? Ji Jue lay on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling. It felt like a somewhat unfamiliar word, even though he had long grown accustomed to hearing it. Back in the day, whenever people who looked down on him sneered and mocked him, they would always say, whether deliberately or offhandedly, "A wild stray with no father or mother will probably have to beg for food in the future." When Mother Lu stewed soup, she would look out at him downstairs carrying a tire on his back while memorizing vocabulary words, and she would always smile, telling him, "You'll definitely make something of yourself in the future." Whenever the wealthy young masters in his research group went clubbing or hit the bars, they would occasionally reply to his messages in a good mood, telling him to work hard so that in the future he could work for their family businesses. When he earned his Tier 3 qualification, that foul-tempered but genuinely kind counselor had looked at him for a long time before telling him, "In the future, you'll definitely be a fine engineer." Many people had spoken to him of the future. Now, with his teacher bringing it up, he suddenly felt that the "future" he had always considered so distant might not be so far away after all. It might even be right before his eyes. For the first time, he realized his future held real value. Following closely behind was an impulse and urgency on the verge of bursting forth. "The future, huh..." he murmured softly. Looking down at the dormant Mirror of Contained Forms in his hands, he let out a long breath after a long pause and pushed himself up. Perhaps it really was time to give it some thought. * * * "Up here already?" When Ji Jue found his teacher in the study, Ye Xian, who was looking over documents with her head down, seemed rather surprised. She took off her glasses and glanced over. "I thought you'd at least go show off your new prize to A'chun." "Uh, well..." Ji Jue felt an instant flush of embarrassment. "Even if I liked bragging, I wouldn't be that shameless, right? Besides, something like this..." Showing off the family heirloom right in front of a legitimate descendant of the Ye clan—and that descendant being a senior sister who had always treated him so well... Even if his morals were questionable and his personal standards were in a state of sustainable perpetual decline, he wasn't completely deranged. "She wouldn't care. Or rather, she'd love nothing more than to dump this burden off her shoulders. Do you really think she's the type to joyfully set out to revive the clan?" "..." Fair point. True enough. It was genuinely hard to picture his slacker senior sister exerting herself to govern diligently and battling heaven and earth. "She's very open-minded about these things. Don't forget, donating the former clan assets to the Church of Chongguang was her own initiative," Ye Xian said impassively. "A legacy is just a legacy. As long as it gets passed down, it doesn't matter whether the name attached is Ye, Ji, or anything else. While as your teacher I don't want you turning into some fool whose head is stuffed with clan, power, and profit, now that the item is in your hands, how you handle it is up to you. Just don't let all that blood and sweat go to waste." "That's way too far ahead." Ji Jue sat down and sighed softly. "To be honest, none of it even feels real yet." He had barely set foot through the doorway. Moving forward with feet planted firmly on the ground was the proper path; there was no point daydreaming about what to do after winning five million. While he had indeed envied the Tong family's dominion over half a city and the Lou clan's vast enterprise, if he were actually forced to throw himself into those endlessly tangled, complicated struggles, he would pass. "Then let's talk about something serious." Ye Xian pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Have you thought about what you want to do in the future?" "Uh..." Ji Jue scratched his head for a good while, remembering a childhood dream. "An astronaut?" "If you submit your resume to the Federal Space Agency right now, those bastards would rush out with their shoes on backward to welcome you. The Star Wars program lacks a front just like you. A cup of tea and a pack of cigarettes every day, sitting around on the clock waiting to punch out—peaceful, leisurely, and totally carefree." Ye Xian nodded. "Sounds pretty good, honestly." "..." Ji Jue's face twitched. He thought about it for a long time and genuinely couldn't detect a trace of sarcasm or mockery in Professor Ye's tone, making it impossible to be sure. "Teacher, are you serious?" "Why wouldn't I be?" Ye Xian countered bluntly. "If you're serious, I naturally have no objections. As long as you don't lounge on the sofa next to me every day eating potato chips and dropping crumbs all over the floor, anything goes." She let out a rare, helpless sigh. "One parasite in the house is enough. Any more is an eyesore." Ji Jue deeply agreed. He even felt the urge to nod. "The lineage of Embers is certainly tight-knit, and the bond between master and apprentice is taken especially seriously. But when all is said and done, people are different. There are cases of fathers and sons turning against each other, to say nothing of masters and disciples." Ye Xian shook her head coldly. "Back then, I broke away and established my own door because of that old fossil Tianlu, so naturally I won't force history to repeat itself in reverse on you. Besides, fools who can only follow every step behind their teacher annoy me just to look at. If you have any thoughts, there's no need to beat around the bush. Regardless of whether your reasons or motives are legitimate or not, if you're sure you've thought it through, I will support you." Generally speaking, workshops and apprentices signed contracts. From loose agreements allowing complete freedom of movement to indentures devoid of any dignity, none were rare. Yet conventionally speaking, the relationship between apprentice and teacher, between artisan and workshop, was virtually always bound. By custom, once an apprentice attained the status of artisan, no matter how much they yearned for independence or freedom, they would serve in the workshop for at least five to ten years—and those who stayed for a lifetime were hardly uncommon. After all, the cost of cultivating an artisan was far from low, and the pressures of survival on an artisan were no lighter than on anyone else, not to mention their terrifying consumption of resources. Who wouldn't want to advance steadily with a workshop and a school at their back? Rare talents like Ji Jue—who could be turned out to pasture and still drag home little surprises every few days—were exceedingly rare, and teachers like Ye Xian—who took hands off everything except discipline—were just as uncommon. "For now, I still plan to stay at the workshop," Ji Jue replied solemnly. "My study of the Treatise on Xiang Swords has only just begun. I don't think there's any rush for what comes after." It wasn't as if he hadn't considered these matters. Moreover, he genuinely felt that spending his whole life in his teacher's workshop wasn't a bad deal at all. Once the goal of becoming an artisan was fulfilled, besides studying the Treatise on Xiang Swords, he also planned to find opportunities to gather rare materials and get rich quick. Once he repaired the train and set up his mobile workshop, from then on... he could naturally go wherever he pleased! Huangzhou, Yunzhou, Shuzhou, Haizhou... the Thousand Islands, the Mid-Continent, the Empire... The mortal realm was so vast that a lifetime wouldn't suffice to see it all, not to mention the countless Border Realms and Chrono Ruins. *Roaming the boundless sea at dawn, resting at Cangwu by dusk.* With the Doomsday Express in his hands, all the fine goods and materials in the entire world would be his! Beyond that, as an artisan, he could also put some effort into raising his ranking within the Association: Nigredo, Albedo, Rubedo—three evaluation tiers. Once he attained Rubedo, he could be like his teacher, respectfully addressed as Master wherever he went. On that foundation, push a little further to become a Grandmaster. Along the way, wipe out the Evil Transmutation Cult... hm, and those bastards in the Dragon Cult couldn't be spared either. The things he wanted to do were neither too many nor too few. His goal was to one day charge into the Profound and deliver two hearty backhand slaps across the face of that old geezer Kanemoto, then charge into the Association and deliver two hearty backhand slaps to that old geezer Tianlu. Work hard, strive, and slap faces! The meaning of life was slapping whoever you wanted right across the face! Ye Xian neither agreed nor disagreed with Ji Jue's slap-in-the-face philosophy. In the long silence that followed, she let out a soft sigh. "If you were to follow my arrangements, I would have had you get the hell out of Yacheng." She pulled her gaze back from outside the window and looked at Ji Jue. "While you're still young, whether running wild or doing good deeds, fight your way from the Mid-Continent to the Thousand Islands, then to the Empire, and finally to Midtown. Spars, duels, life-and-death struggles... whatever you like. If you managed to make it back alive, you would naturally be a Master, and there would be no need for me to say anything more about how to walk the path ahead." This was actually the best arrangement. A student like Ji Jue, once unchained, would grow wildly like an uninsured runaway semi-truck barreling forward, bulldozing out a future. As long as the direction was pointed out, there was no need to do meaningless extra work. "N-no, wait—wait a second..." Ji Jue felt entirely unwell. Stunned, slack-jawed. Why did this routine sound so familiar? Why did it sound so much like what you did back then, Teacher... Holy crap, back then Kanemoto also seemed to... Oh no, could this be the school's ancestral tradition? Isn't that a bit too unhinged?! The moment you graduate, you start hunting down your peers and slaughtering them. He had only just managed to make a few friends; after a tour like that, how many would even be left alive? Still, he had to admit this method really forged a person. Aside from being easy to die from and consuming peers at an alarming rate, it didn't seem to have any other downsides. But what if he actually died?! Just as his heart was churning with dread, he heard Ye Xian say: "Though as things stand now, I might have to change my mind." He breathed an instinctive sigh of relief. And then, his heart immediately leapt right back into his throat. Because of Ye Xian's grave expression. She said, "Since you don't have anything specific you want to do, I have a troublesome job to assign to you." Ji Jue unconsciously straightened his posture, sitting upright in solemn attention, waiting for orders. "I should have told you about this earlier, actually. Getting you to take the artisan license exam back then was also for this reason." Ye Xian rubbed the space between her brows and let out a self-deprecating sigh. "Even now, you can still choose, Ji Jue. You don't need to hold back. Whether you accept or refuse, stay here to continue your studies or walk away, it's completely up to you." "Just treat it as a job." She said, "I need you to jump into a mud pit on your own initiative. The consequences are unpredictable." "I'll go through fire and water for you, Teacher," Ji Jue said with an emphatic nod, completely without hesitation. Without even asking why, he blurted out, "Are we killing Xu Chaoxian? Count me in!" "..." Ye Xian fell silent. Ji Jue looked at her, bewildered. After a long pause, he blinked in astonishment. "It's not Xu Chaoxian?" It was rare for his teacher to look this serious. He was already mentally prepared for the whole package: settling his family, donning a mask to storm the Governor's Mansion, and spending the rest of his days on the run. After all, there weren't many things in this world that warranted such gravity from her. "It might be even more troublesome than killing Xu Chaoxian." Ye Xian shook her head, thoroughly incapable of pinning any hope on this student's outrageously derailed train of thought. She could only tell him plainly: "I need you to assume the position of acting factory director at Haian Auto Works." Now it was Ji Jue's turn to fall silent. Dumbfounded. "Huh?" Ji Jue looked lost. After a long moment, he pointed at himself. "Me?" "You," Ye Xian nodded. "Previously, you were only a nominal researcher. Taking up the role of acting director counts as a promotion." "No, wait, this isn't right, is it?" Ji Jue couldn't shake the feeling that something was deeply wrong. "Is that appropriate? I..." "Why wouldn't it be appropriate?" Ye Xian pushed the documents in front of him. "If you agree, the shares in my hands will be transferred to you, making you a member of the board of directors. By raw valuation, these shares are worth around fifty million. But have you truly thought it through?" Ye Xian asked, "Do you understand the meaning behind this?" Meaning? What meaning could there be? A half-dead automobile factory whose assembly lines had been idle for who knew how many years, a mess left behind by the times—what reason was there to restart it? Unless... unless... Ji Jue froze on the spot. Unless what was being restarted wasn't the pointless shell known as Haian Auto Works. At last, realization dawned on him: "Haian Armaments?"