Chapter 2400: Giving Up on Oneself

Chapter 2400: Chapter 2118: Giving Up on Oneself

After sending off Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and others, it wasn’t long before Zhao Yun came to work. It was evident that Lyu Bu didn’t give Zhao Yun much pressure; at least Zhao Yun didn’t have the overwhelming disaster kind of pressure, and he even came over to handle the year-end taxes.

“Oh my, Zilong, why are you here?” Chen Xi looked at Zhao Yun, who had changed into a Confucian Robe, seemingly not taking Lyu Bu seriously at all and coming over to work.

“Haha, there’s no way around it. There are still many things unresolved. After all, this concerns the livelihood of the people next year. I’ve thought it over once or twice and decided that personal issues aren’t as important as this. Let’s solve the people’s livelihood first,” Zhao Yun said with a smile as he sat down and started reviewing a pile of documents about grain output from various regions.

“You better go train so that when the Marquis Wenn comes in a month, you can enjoy the new year properly,” Chen Xi said with mild annoyance, pointing to Liu Ye, “Look, Ziyang says he’ll handle it, so you can focus on training.”

Liu Ye nodded silently. He wasn’t stupid. Compared to Zhao Yun coming to work year after year and not being able to work every year because of being beaten by Lyu Bu, it would be better for Zhao Yun to gain combat strength comparable to Lyu Bu so he could work every year.

“Regarding the Marquis Wenn, you don’t have to worry about it. That’s not something that can be solved in a matter of a month or two,” Zhao Yun said rather casually. “Since it can’t be solved, let’s not waste time on it. Besides, my personal issues are not more important than the people’s meals next year, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“…” Chen Xi looked at him in horror, “Zilong, could it be that the Marquis Wenn has knocked something loose in your head? Even if the month’s rush training is useless, you should at least train hard to avoid being black and blue during the new year. As for taxes, we have it covered. You can rest assured there will be a satisfactory explanation.”

Zhao Yun paused and, after a while, said with a hint of helplessness, “I feel that even with a month’s training time, I still wouldn’t be able to beat him, so I’ve decided to focus on doing some proper work.”

“Even one of his clones is almost as strong as me. When he personally comes, I basically have no hope,” Zhao Yun shivered, “So, I might as well focus on some proper work. I mean, it’s just getting beaten up anyway; even if I can’t beat him, he won’t kill me. I’m sure of that. Since I won’t be killed anyway, better to plan for people’s livelihood.”

Zhao Yun’s firm determination, strangely enough, seemed a bit off.

“Your way of thinking is wrong. You should be thinking about taking down the Marquis Wenn, thrashing him. You’re the strongest,” Chen Xi rambled on, catching everyone’s attention.

“The problem is, I feel like I can’t win,” Zhao Yun said, looking at his right hand, “Completely can’t win, so there’s no point wasting time.”

“Zilong, trust me, this is a mindset issue,” Chen Xi said earnestly, running over and placing a hand on Zhao Yun’s shoulder.

“Zichuan, it’s not a mindset issue. I truly can’t win. The previous one was a clone, yet his effort rivals the Breakthrough Level. It’s simply unbeatable,” Zhao Yun expressed, feeling like throwing things. He had given up but pretended to be calm.

“Brother-in-law, your master just called for you!” Just when Zhao Yun was feeling down, Ma Chao appeared in the Political Office, excitedly calling out to Zhao Yun.

“Uh, what’s the matter?” Zhao Yun got up and asked, then bowed to Liu Ye and the others, “My master needs me for something. I’ll head over first and return later to deal with governmental affairs.”

Then Ma Chao left with Zhao Yun. Not long after, a fierce aura swept across them, accompanied by Zhao Yun’s shout, “General Zhang, what are you doing? And General Guan, stop it!”

A loud rumble came from the west of the city. Chen Xi and Li Youu exchanged glances and sighed, then they all sat back down to work. As expected, Zilong needed some discipline.

But just as they were about to start working, Chen Xi jumped up, quickly ran to Guo Jia, and said with a serious and grave expression, “Fengxiao, the organization plans to entrust you with a difficult yet glorious task…”

However, before Chen Xi could finish, Guo Jia slapped away the hand Chen Xi had placed on his shoulder, “Enough. I have plenty of things to do here; there’s a pile of work here. Spare me. If there’s any difficult and glorious task, I recommend Xiaoo Zhi. His capabilities now surpass mine in every aspect, and he can take on heavy responsibilities!”

“Hey, hey, hey, although I’m happy you said my capabilities exceed yours in every aspect, don’t throw the burden my way. I’ve got a lot going on too. Cut me some slack. I’m still figuring out if we can come up with an operational plan for merging soldiers from various localities by next March,” Fa Zheng grumbled unhappily, though he was quite pleased with the first half of Guo Jia’s words.

Chen Xi opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Fa Zheng continued like a machine gun, “Besides, Zichuan himself is the top-ranked big shot, who can handle everything. He doesn’t really need our help. Don’t you know his speed in handling governmental affairs?”

Hearing this, Guo Jia nodded repeatedly, then, smiling, glanced at Fa Zheng and turned to look at Chen Xi.

“If admitting Zichuan is number one means I don’t have to handle these things, then I have no pressure admitting Zichuan’s status.” Li Youu rarely cracked a cold joke, which rendered Chen Xi speechless, even Li Youu had become like this.

“Speaking of which, if it could exempt me from this wave of exhaustion, acknowledging you as number one is no big deal.” Lub Su suddenly looked up and said, though lately it hadn’t felt particularly cold to Chen Xi, nor had it snowed, Lub Su was still wrapped up like an old man.

“Although you all flatter me like this, I’m delighted, but saying it at this time makes me quite displeased.” Chen Xi retorted irritably, “I have a lot of things on my plate too.”

“So stop looking for trouble out of nothing.” Guo Jia reached out and pushed Chen Xi aside.

“I just intended that when you wake up and dress up every day, you should say ‘Zilong will win’ ten times in front of the mirror.” Chen Xi argued powerlessly, and everyone present couldn’t help but face-palm, though in hindsight, this idea seemed somewhat playable.

“Fengxiao, you must understand this is about whether we can have a capable minister dealing with taxes for four months a year, about whether Zilong can continue helping us with tax duties.” Chen Xi said resentfully, “Or are you planning to take over Zilong’s work next year.”

“General Zhao will win!” Compared to managing state taxes next year, Guo Jia, who initially felt using “Spiritual Talent” for this was somewhat disgraceful, decisively abandoned his decorum.

“That’s how it should be, remember to chant ten times daily, whether Ziyang will undertake national taxes next year, or whether we will all shoulder it, gets down to you!” Chen Xi pressed Guo Jia’s shoulders seriously and said, upon hearing this, everyone, including Li Youu, became significantly more solemn.

“Uh, I’ll try my best.” Guo Jia silently wiped a cold sweat, feeling the pressure was a bit much.

“Slash!” At this moment, a burst of silver-blue radiance erupted from the west of the city, followed by Zhang Fei’s roar, indicating Zhao Yun had been forced into action.

“Everyone, remember to pray a bit, in case, if Zilong is defeated by Marquis Wenn, imagine what a disaster it would be for us, you understand; we have considerable things on our hands.” Chen Xi stated with utmost seriousness, and even Xun Yue among those present, turned visibly more grave.

After all, every year there comes a time when the workload is intense, even Chen Xi had no choice but to be busy.

The end of each year was always like this because the year-end requires making plans for the next year, based on years of Chen Xi’s experience, if he doesn’t wish to be terribly bothered the following year, besides completing this year’s tasks, one must also make the next year’s plan.

And if possible, this plan should best have strong executability, accurate time nodes, and goals for each phase, so one can complete the subsequent year’s work orderly, with reference.

Of course, the ideal scenario would be crafting plans covering several years in one go, these plans don’t require too much detail, just need to progress step by step, completing piece by piece modularly, and finally successfully piecing together the ultimate outcome.

Just like the grand plan Chen Xi once crafted, within less than eight years he successfully penetrated state power into the grassroots public, this is the benefit of steady promotion, knowing what to do when, and finally by assembling everything together, one can successfully achieve the ultimate goal.

“Zichuan, we’ve come to find you, the Mountain-moving Warriors and Banshan Taoists you wanted are ready, along with a batch adept in geomancy, land appraisal, and Feng Shui; they are absolutely the best.” Sunx Qian and Liu Yan arrived together and greeted Chen Xi and others while standing at the entrance.

“Hold on a second, let me approve these documents first.” Chen Xi swiftly perused the remaining part of the documents, quickly noted questions, handed them to Lub Su, and walked briskly toward the Political Office’s exit.

“I’m counting on you two, my big task has arrived, sigh!” Chen Xi sighed and said, he also had many tasks, especially related to the current wave of tomb robber activities, underground pipeline construction, etc., involving more than 200 major cities; accomplishing this within five years would be considered his skill.

Thinking back, sometimes Chen Xi pondered, if he truly wanted to claim leisure, he was indeed quite leisurely, but if he had to work, his workload was especially hefty, simply put, if categorized under the 18 major categories of affairs by the Premier of the State Council from future generations, Chen Xi would be involved with half of them.

“Go ahead, the two of us can handle it!” wrapped up like a bear, Lub Su said without looking up, whereas Li Youu remained silent, diligently writing with great focus.

“You managed to get that group settled so quickly?” Chen Xi said with a smile, the tomb robbers caught by Liu Cao Sunx and the Provincial Governors from various places were sent to Liu Bei’s side for just half a year, yet Liu Yan and others trained them so swiftly.