In the kitchen, Ms. Lin set a steaming bowl of pork chop noodles on the table, with two golden fried eggs resting on top.
He sat down and began eating the noodles in great mouthfuls.
Ms. Lin watched her son wolfing down his food.
She sat down beside Lin Wansheng and spoke as if bringing it up casually.
“Oh, right, Jimmy. While you haven’t been home these past few days, your dad renovated our garage a bit.”
Lin Wansheng’s chopsticks paused. He looked up, somewhat puzzled.
Mother Lin did not look at him. She merely used her chopsticks to push the chopped scallions at the edge of his bowl aside for him, then continued.
“He also installed a bathroom for you. Your things have all been moved down there too.”
Only then did she raise her head and look at her son, speaking in a slightly awkward yet gentle tone.
“You can sleep over there. It’s quiet there.”
Lin Wansheng froze completely. He looked at his mother, then at his father beside them, who was pretending to be absorbed in the newspaper.
His heart gave a sudden jolt as he abruptly remembered the things he had hidden under his mattress.
“Mom?” he asked tentatively. “Who… who helped me pack?”
“Your dad,” Mother Lin replied without even raising her head.
“I have to watch the store. How would I have the time to deal with that?”
Lin Wansheng’s heart instantly leapt into his throat. Slowly, he turned his gaze toward his father.
Even his voice sounded a little hollow. “Then… Dad…”
Lin Qiaosheng finally put down the newspaper. He looked at his son, his face bearing the calm composure of someone who had seen through it all but would not say it outright.
“All your things, including your extracurricular books, and also…” He deliberately dragged out the word.
“They’ve all been moved down for you exactly as they were.”
“Don’t worry.”
He paused, then offered a piece of fatherly advice.
“I think some things are better watched online.”
Seeing his son’s petrified expression, he added another sentence.
“Who still reads magazines nowadays? Isn’t that a bit outdated?”
…
…
…
At long last, there was no Qian Dawei’s thunderous snoring.
No faint rustling of his parents occasionally getting up in the night.
And even less of the ear-piercing engine roar of delivery trucks in the early morning.
For the first time in a long while, Lin Wansheng enjoyed a full, undisturbed sleep.
After waking up, he lay in bed, savoring last night’s victory.
Suddenly, a hazy fragment of memory flashed through his mind.
Yesterday on the field, when he saw Li Shuyao cheering for him, something seemed to have flashed through his head.
He hurriedly focused his mind, and with a thought—
Sure enough, the translucent panel unfolded, and a new prompt he had never seen before popped up.
【It has been observed that the Steward is often situated in vital, bustling places. To avoid disturbance by sound,】
【From this day forth, all revelations of the Heavenly Mandate shall be presented in writing.】
Lin Wansheng tapped it open for details.
【Main Thread of the Heavenly Mandate: the fourth stage has been completed.】
【In this battle, you turned back the raging tide and reversed heaven and earth. Beneath the gaze of the masses, you made your name resound; acclaim has gathered unto you, and you have obtained the praise of a thousand people.】
【In accordance with this achievement, rewards shall be bestowed according to merit. You are hereby granted Physique +2 and Insight +1, to strengthen your foundation and prepare you for future needs.】
【In your conduct, Steward, you have acted with swift decisiveness, judged circumstances on the spot, and perceived opportunities ahead of time. Your wisdom and courage have far exceeded expectations; the Heavenly Dao shall also commend this.】
【In consideration of your great merit this time, the Heavenly Dao has taken special favor upon you, granting you a further honor. This reward is extraordinary. Await the proper day; when the opportunity arrives, it shall be presented to you.】
Lin Wansheng looked at the final prompt and pondered for a moment.
So what this meant was that the regular attribute point rewards had already arrived.
There was also a special reward, but it was still being prepared, so for the time being, there was no time to ship it out?
Fine…
Still, overall, the contents of this panel were becoming richer and richer.
At the lower right of his physical data, a new entry had appeared.
On it were three small words: 【Record of Deeds】.
With a thought, he tapped into it.
After 【Record of Deeds】 unfolded, it was divided into two columns, left and right.
The column on the left read: 【Volume of Accomplishments】.
The column on the right read: 【Volume of Pending Deeds】.
Lin Wansheng understood instantly. Wasn’t this just the quest log?
This system just had to write things in a way he didn’t understand.
Forget it. It was, after all, a system from 1885.
Accomplished meant completed; pending meant unfinished. That was acceptable enough.
He studied it carefully and reviewed things for himself.
He discovered that the missions he had received so far could be divided into two types.
One type was independent missions, but he had only done this once—the very first one that rewarded him with the 【Fruit of Speech Spirit】.
He remembered that the reward back then had been marked as “beginner rank,” which meant that the tangible rewards this system gave out were divided by grade.
He wondered whether it would give him missions like that again in the future.
The other type was series missions.
Among them, 【The Road of Enlightenment】 had already had two small missions completed.
The third had also given him a prompt. In that series, it had first asked him to find an “enlightening teacher.”
Then it required him to persist for ten days in paying respects to that revered enlightening teacher.
Now it wanted him to “establish words” and write a “policy essay” for the “Academic Supervisor” to see.
As for how a policy essay and an Academic Supervisor were supposed to be dealt with in this era, Lin Wansheng had no idea.
Seeing this mission, all he could do was: emmmmm.
As for the remaining two series—
One was 【The Way of Survival】, which asked him to spar with five “fit ones.” In the end, the system had treated a bunch of eight-year-old brats as experts.
He had completed it in such a muddled fashion, and he had no idea where the follow-up mission would go off track.
Then there was 【Main Thread of the Heavenly Mandate】. Its ultimate goal was actually for him to resolve the massacre of Chinese miners in Shiquan Town in 1885.
But what kind of joke was that? He wasn’t from the Time Management Bureau. How could he possibly do that?
However, he had somehow stumbled his way through four intermediate steps of this series mission already.
Looking at his quest log, Lin Wansheng arrived at a final conclusion.
This system from 1885 really did have something wrong with its brain.
Mm. It was a total idiot. Appraisal complete.
In short, he had no idea how these missions started, nor did he know how they ended.
So…
He would just leave it to fate.
Still, when it came to money, thanks to the system, things had been much more comfortable recently.
Thanks to that 【Fruit of Speech Spirit】, his mother was now able to hold her own.
He no longer had to be that human translation machine on standby twenty-four hours a day.
He still remembered that just a few months ago, while he was in class, the phone in his pocket would suddenly start vibrating like crazy.
Without even looking, he would know that his mom had run into a customer she couldn’t handle.
Fortunately, he had informed his teachers in advance.
Every time, he could smoothly get a “hallway pass” and rush out of the classroom to serve as a translator.
Now, those nerve-racking days were finally gone for good.
He calculated his little treasury.
As a teaching assistant at Jingxin Zhai, he earned 75 dollars a day, and he had earned another nine days’ worth.
For going to the elementary school to coach that gang of little brats in football, he earned 300 dollars each time. Counting up to yesterday, he had already received 1,500 dollars.
And then there was stand-up comedy. Brother Yu was generous; for his second appearance, the performance fee had already been raised to 500 dollars.
Add to that the windfall of Morgan silver dollars the system had so warmly delivered to him—3,500 dollars.
Lin Wansheng added it up item by item, then finally took out his phone and used the calculator.
Holy sh*t?
Looking at the number on the screen, he could hardly believe his eyes.
He actually already had 8,353 dollars now?
That much?