Chapter 125 - 122: Sensibility

Chapter 125: Chapter 122: Sensibility

Jiang Chaosheng’s brow furrowed slightly when he heard the almost pleading tone in Xia Li’s voice.

He didn’t understand why Xia Li would use such a subservient tone to invite him to a meaningless ceremony.

He wasn’t the highest administrator of the South Sea. His appearance at the ceremony wouldn’t help her in any way.

’Is she trying to suck up to me?’

’If that’s the case, she would have been better off just tying up Liu Weiqian and delivering him to me, just like how she smartly gifted me Black Rose Manor.’

’What on earth is she hoping for?’

’A conspiracy?’

’Then she must have a death wish.’

Jiang Chaosheng said,

"After the ceremony, bring Liu Weiqian to Black Rose Manor."

He thought Xia Li was being rather tedious.

Her time would be better spent on something productive.

On the other end of the line, Xia Li’s voice was clearly disappointed.

"Understood, sir. Please don’t worry."

The disappointment in her tone was like... a child whose father had refused to watch her school play.

After hanging up, Jiang Chaosheng was lost in thought.

He felt like he had seen that kind of disappointment somewhere before.

He stood up, preparing to head back to Antique Shop Zero.

A beautiful woman was walking toward him at the entrance.

She wore a red qipao, like a blazing fire in the middle of winter.

When the woman saw Jiang Chaosheng, she said in surprise,

"Jiang Chaosheng?"

Jiang Chaosheng looked up.

He remembered this woman.

She was his neighbor, the proprietress of this very Rose Cafe, named Xu Wei.

...

Xu Wei seemed to be in a great mood, the joy in her eyes impossible to hide.

Because... one of her employees had encountered a paranormal incident.

In the past, she would have never believed in talk of ghosts and gods.

But things were different now. She was eager to hear these stories.

Because she had become a Fifth Level Member of the Mutual Aid Association.

Fifth Level Members were considered die-hard fans of the Mutual Aid Association.

Every Fifth Level Member would receive a [Mysterious Task].

The content of the [Mysterious Task] was: Collect information on urban legends.

An ordinary person would definitely find this task absurd, but members of the Mutual Aid Association were different.

They were both obsessed with and dependent on the Mutual Aid Association.

The Mutual Aid Association was like a benevolent old mother; when she told you there were ghosts in the world, you had no choice but to believe.

Xu Wei had specifically instructed the streamers under her to start a ghost-hunting show.

Red Hat and Blue Hat were members of this show’s team.

Xu Wei would send them to any place with strange legends, hoping they would actually run into a ghost.

This would also serve as indirect proof of the Mutual Aid Association’s Truth.

Xu Wei had already sent the details about the Workers’ Department Store incident to the Mutual Aid Association’s customer service and was just waiting for her reward.

...

Xu Wei said with a beaming smile,

"When did you get here?"

Jiang Chaosheng replied,

"About half an hour ago."

Xu Wei glanced at the table Jiang Chaosheng had just been sitting at.

"Don’t you like coffee?"

She saw an untouched cup of coffee on his table.

Jiang Chaosheng nodded honestly.

"Not really."

Jiang Chaosheng glanced at his watch.

"I have something to do, so I’ll be going."

With that, Jiang Chaosheng left the Rose Cafe.

Xu Wei murmured as she watched his retreating figure,

"I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before... But where?"

Xu Wei thought for a long time but couldn’t recall, a small smile playing on her lips.

"I still can’t remember. But he must be loaded, right?"

’He wasn’t interested in my looks, and he owns an antique shop at such a young age—he has to be a rich tycoon.’

’She loved rich tycoons the most and admitted she was a gold digger, deeply obsessed with money.’

...

「South Sea. Antique Shop Zero. Study.」

Jiang Chaosheng sat in his chair, spacing out.

He was clearly a person with very little empathy, yet he was starting to become sensitive.

He could detect the disappointment in Xia Li’s voice before she hung up.

He’d seen this kind of disappointment before.

Before Jin Meiting left Antique Shop Zero, she’d had the same disappointment in her eyes.

Jiang Chaosheng was silent for a moment, then wrote in his journal:

"Very strange."

He didn’t know when it started, but empathizing was no longer so difficult for him.

Perhaps it began after he met Yang Xiao and Daji.

Yang Xiao’s loyalty and Daji’s sincerity had been imperceptibly changing Jiang Chaosheng’s state of mind.

’What kind of people are in the Taboo Association?’

’Vicious thugs?’

’Shameless, infatuated women?’

’Arrogant, overbearing female presidents?’

Gradually, Jiang Chaosheng came to a realization.

Everyone in the Taboo Association, before they met him, had been a bunch of lonely, helpless wretches.

He began to rethink his own position and his relationship with the members of the Taboo Association.

’Is Daji merely a Taboo Item?’

’When dealing with her, is my role just that of a Manager who suppresses Taboo Items?’

’It doesn’t seem so. Otherwise, back on the Great Western Sea, I would have devoured Daji without a second thought.’

’Is Jin Meiting just a buyer?’

’To her, am I just her boss?’

’If that were the case, why did Jin Meiting look so wronged when she left?’

It seemed he wasn’t just the Manager, not just the head of the Taboo Association.

Everyone had other expectations of him.

A flash of disgust appeared in Jiang Chaosheng’s eyes.

He didn’t like this. He preferred purer relationships.

Like a prostitute and her client—it should just be a dirty monetary transaction, nothing more.

"Can’t they just obediently act like machines, like tools?"

Jiang Chaosheng muttered in frustration.

Suddenly, Jiang Chaosheng froze, a look of relieved understanding dawning in his eyes.

These people... were never tools to begin with.

They were just human. Purely human.

And as humans, they were bound to have human nature.

Everything they did was driven by that humanity.

Even a yandere-type killer like Yang Xiao couldn’t escape human sentimentality.

As a human himself, he possessed this sentimentality too.

Jiang Chaosheng didn’t like this sentimentality.

But he had to admit that this sentimentality was useful to him.

Take Jin Meiting. Without that sentimentality, she wouldn’t have chosen to leave Antique Shop Zero to work even harder for him.

Jiang Chaosheng thought for a moment.

If humanity could turn the Taboo Association members’ loyalty into faith, and that faith could in turn unlock their potential, then he was willing to try and accept it.

Perhaps if he accepted the humanity and sentimentality inherent to being human, he might unlock his own potential as well.

’Perhaps the role of the Taboo Association members is more significant than I imagined.’

Jiang Chaosheng had originally figured that the Taboo Association members had only two uses.

First, to handle his worldly affairs and take care of problems he didn’t want to deal with personally.

Second, to serve as a group of cannon fodder with decent Combat Power.

All in all, the Taboo Association members were just a group of convenient tools that he could discard at will.

Jiang Chaosheng took out his notebook and wrote:

"The Taboo Sculpture mentioned a ’variable.’ The revival of Taboo Items is becoming more frequent."

"I can have the Taboo Association members try to contain Taboo Items."

Previously, whenever Jiang Chaosheng encountered a reviving Taboo Item, he would only choose to handle it himself with the Old Dragon King or Daji.

He didn’t trust the Taboo Association members, fearing that if they lost a Taboo Item, he would be afflicted with another Curse.

He had never truly taken the Taboo Association members seriously, but now, with the arrival of the ’variable,’ he was willing to extend some trust.

"If the Taboo Association successfully contains a Taboo Item, I can give them some rewards."

This was a way to profoundly strengthen the combat level of the Taboo Association members.

Containing Taboo Items would be a trial, and the rewards would be to enhance their combat strength.

"One day in the future, with their immense potential unlocked, they might become experts who can contain Taboo Items with ease."

Jiang Chaosheng closed his notebook.

No one could say for sure whether Jiang Chaosheng was adhering to his extreme egoism or just finding an excuse to accept his own sentimentality.