Chapter 20

June 30, 1997.

Today is a day for the whole nation to celebrate together.

Hong Kong Island, a child separated from the motherland for a hundred years, is about to return to the mother's embrace.

The world's eyes are focused on Hong Kong Island, and people from all walks of life are gathered at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

At 23:56, the flag guards of China and Britain entered the venue, and the flag-lowering and flag-raising ceremonies symbolizing the handover of power in Hong Kong Island between the two governments began. All Chinese and foreign guests attending the ceremony stood up. The eyes of the whole venue were focused on the flagpoles erected on the east and west sides in front of the main podium.

At 23:59, the British national flag and the Hong Kong flag were slowly lowered amidst the music of the British national anthem. With the slow lowering of the "Union Jack," Britain's century of colonial rule in Hong Kong was declared over.

At midnight on July 1, 1997, the exciting and sacred moment arrived: the People's Liberation Army Military Band played the majestic national anthem of China, and the national flag of the motherland and the regional flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were slowly raised together.

The whole hall stood solemnly, with thousands of eyes paying tribute to the bright five-star red flag and the Bauhinia regional flag. This is a moment the Chinese nation has long looked forward to, a moment that will be recorded in world history forever!

The whole venue was boiling; many people's eyes were filled with tears of excitement, and thunderous applause lasted for a long time. The lenses of cameras and video cameras flashed continuously, recording this solemn historical moment.

Although he is a small, insignificant person who is good for nothing in real life, the country is still that country, and here, Wang Yan's status and position can influence many things.

Just like Long Teng, to tell the truth, it's not much different from a terrorist organization; none of them are good things.

The "Little Prince" isn't afraid of China; after all, a big country wants face. The "Little Prince" is just afraid of people like Wang Yan—what if he gets hot-headed and plays around by blowing things up with terrorist attacks when he has nothing to do? Even if he finally gets Wang Yan killed, he'll be finished too. You only have one life; it's not worth getting angry with a reckless person.

What's more, the two countries had long agreed on the negotiations, and he didn't need to do any more small actions to disgust people; if he didn't disgust them but got himself killed instead, wouldn't that be more than the loss?

Therefore, the process was quite smooth. Of course, the "Little Prince" also held a grudge against Wang Yan, and it was inevitable that he would join the team to finish off Long Teng.

It's just that now Wang Yan's status is getting higher and higher, and his cultivation is also getting higher and higher.

In the time that followed, Wang Yan's life returned to normal.

Long Teng had developed for so many years, so naturally, it had a sound system, and there was no need for Wang Yan to worry. He would just look at the group's various reports every once in a while, and occasionally promote some outstanding personnel to higher positions; there was nothing else for him to worry about.

After having nothing to do, naturally, it was constant learning.

Now Wang Yan mainly studied Sinology, and he had basically visited all the famous Sinology masters in the country. Now his level was about the same as a graduate student in this field. Now his Chinese level was at the professional LV3 level; this wasn't anything else, but mainly his understanding and expression ability of the text.

And during this period, Wang Yan also came into contact with Daoism; those masters themselves had a certain understanding of this stuff, and he also learned a lot. But the masters were Sinology masters, and this master was a specialist; he wasn't omnipotent. Moreover, these Sinology masters mostly studied those Confucian things, as well as Western philosophical thoughts, which were still quite a bit worse than the level of proper Daoist priests.

It was precisely for this reason that Wang Yan began to visit these Daoist experts in the country.

Cultured people, after all, have circles, and Sinology masters know the roots and bottoms of those who are truly capable. It was also through their introduction that Wang Yan could accurately find Daoist priests with sufficient levels.

Still the old routine; although the Daoist priests had been practicing Daoism for many years and were more open-minded, there was no reason to refuse Wang Yan's kindness, right?

Therefore, every time Wang Yan arrived at a place, he would throw money to ask for the way without saying a word. First, donate money to repair and build the Daoist temple, and then enter the door to visit and ask for advice.

Sinology was already a bit mystical, and Daoism didn't even need to be mentioned.

Emptiness, inaction, opposition, unity, and so on and so forth.

It made Wang Yan dizzy and confused; he didn't even have the interest to find someone to practice shooting anymore.

In this situation, even if his spirit was strong, it was useless; this stuff depends on IQ and relies on accumulation.

The more he learned, the more he felt it was broad and profound. Isn't there a saying that cognition is a circle—that is, the more you know, the more confused you become. Wang Yan was also like this; his circle was getting bigger and bigger, he understood fewer and fewer places, and the road he had to walk was still very, very long.

The more Wang Yan learned, the more he felt his own ignorance. And this ignorance prompted him to constantly learn, making him deeply addicted to it, unable to extricate himself.

Time passed slowly in Wang Yan's learning, and now it was already 1999.

After this period passed, Wang Yan's Daoist level was just barely entering the door; he hadn't even formed a skill. Fortunately, after asking for advice from various masters, his foundation was laid well, and he could slowly learn and comprehend it himself in the future.

This day, Wang Yan was handling affairs at Long Teng's headquarters. Suddenly, he received a system task completion prompt.

To tell the truth, he hadn't even thought he could complete it, thinking he would have to die naturally in this world to go back. He didn't expect it to be completed silently; this was really an unexpected surprise.

He didn't rush to return, but let his underlings investigate what happened to Chen Yongyi that allowed him to complete the task.

The next day, Chen Yongyi's information was placed in front of Wang Yan.

After Wang Yan arranged for Chen Yongyi to become a probationary inspector, he became a regular in less than half a year.

And not long after, perhaps because fate is hard to change, he met A-Mei just like in the original drama.

When the two met, it was like a blind man meeting a green bean; they quickly fell in love.

Chen Yongyi was an inspector, and under Hong Kong Island's policy of high salary to foster honesty, his salary and benefits were nothing to brag about.

This was different from his original fate; after discovering that A-Mei was pregnant, the two got married directly and gave birth to a daughter.

Last year, because of some merits, his qualifications were originally a bit lacking. Considering that everyone knew Chen Yongyi was promoted by Wang Yan, which could be considered a gesture of goodwill, he was promoted to a senior inspector.

In these few years, Chen Yongyi could be said to have had a smooth career and a happy life.

It was also recently, looking at his lively daughter, that Chen Yongyi thought of the things from back then and had some feelings.

Once he started thinking, it didn't matter; thinking and thinking, he thought of the words Wang Yan had said to him back then.

At that time, he didn't care at all, but now that many years had passed, Chen Yongyi had also matured, and many things were no longer the hot-bloodedness of back then.

Thinking back to back then, if it weren't for Wang Yan, what would he have become?

The biggest possibility was that he would have been fooled by Huang Zhicheng to continue being an undercover agent until he died; the only difference would be the process.

Chen Yongyi thought of many possible outcomes, and no matter how he thought about it, the final end wouldn't be too good. Maybe he would die in some unknown corner, without even anyone to handle his funeral. Maybe he would have a bumpy life and die in loneliness and depression.

Thinking about it this way, he was really grateful to Wang Yan, thanking Wang Yan for saving his potentially tragic life.

As for Wang Yan potentially having ulterior motives for him, after so many years, he had long since understood.

What level was Long Teng at now? It was competing on the world battlefield, and its opponents were all world-famous financial groups and organizations. What was he, a small inspector, worth?

It was precisely because of this that he understood everything, and this might also be a kind of redemption in the eyes of the system.

In Wang Yan's view, not dying was the best redemption for Chen Yongyi, let alone a happy family and a smooth career.

This was also why Wang Yan started thinking about what Chen Yongyi would need to experience, and also the reason for the very aggressive four-year unification of Hong Kong Island's underground forces.

All mistakes were Wang Yan's fault for being too fierce.

After reading the information, Wang Yan roughly guessed some of Chen Yongyi's thoughts; it was nothing more than recalling the bitterness and thinking of the sweetness.

He didn't dwell on those things anymore; he had spent nine years here, long enough.

Pulling out the system panel, Wang Yan chose to return.

A blue light flashed, and Wang Yan disappeared from where he was.

Wang Yan woke up, enduring the violent collision and impact of memories in his brain.

He had stayed in the world of "Infernal Affairs" for too long, experienced too much, and learned too much. So much so that he had to endure a more intense impact than after returning from the previous world; the last time had tossed Wang Yan to the point of wanting to die, let alone this time.

This feeling once made Wang Yan collapse; the system had reward attribute points. Wang Yan forced himself to pull out the system panel and clicked wildly on the spirit attribute.

Very quickly, a clear spring came from the depths of his spirit, washing Wang Yan's chaotic spiritual world and soothing that endless impact.

Not long after, Wang Yan felt much better. This was because the significant increase in spirit raised Wang Yan's endurance limit. It could be said that it completely offset this memory impact, and the side effects brought by the remaining memories needed Wang Yan to digest himself.

To give an example of this side effect.

A person who has experienced the world, seen through the red dust, and is still in the red dust—how should he continue to face the red dust?

Is it to retire to the mountains and forests and not ask about world affairs?

Or to continue floating and sinking in the red dust of material desires?

Wang Yan is going to continue rolling in the red dust, so how does he need to face it?

Now that he has just experienced two worlds, plus he has learned a head full of Sinology, philosophy, and Daoism, he has had many thoughts about society, human nature, and life. As he experiences more and understands more, what will he be like at that time?

How to look at the world and himself is a problem Wang Yan has to solve for the rest of his life.

Wang Yan is not a fool; he is destined to improve. So as he understands more and his realm gets higher, his views on these two things will not be immutable, but will change from time to time, always changing.

Taking a deep breath, Wang Yan opened the system panel.

Wang Yan

Attributes: Strength 20

Agility 20

Constitution 20

Spirit 18

Unallocated points 0

Storage space 2m3

Skills: English LV3

Fighting LV3

Management LV3

Sales LV3

Sinology: LV2

Philosophy: LV2

... Omitted a bunch of skills.

The most important thing is that the space has been upgraded; the volume has increased by one cubic meter, so he can carry more things in the future.

Strength, agility, and constitution have long been 20; for so many years, he has just exercised daily to maintain his state; after all, practicing more is of no great use.

The task completion rewarded four attribute points, which were just added to the spirit, and the spirit reached 18. Memory and logical thinking ability have been greatly strengthened. Fighting broke through to LV3 seven or eight years ago, and the remaining management and sales have long been professional. Sinology and philosophy are two things, both LV2.

Wang Yan has studied Daoism for two years, and he feels that he is almost entering the door. But that's just a feeling; this stuff mainly depends on enlightenment; when you are enlightened, you enter the door.

Besides the above, he couldn't have spent so many years in vain; he still learned a lot of other skills. Psychology, sports medicine, and so on, a bunch of messy things.

Wang Yan learns everything and looks at everything. Still the same saying: having many skills is not a burden. Walking in the world, knowing a few more tricks is not a bad thing.

In addition, the system also gave a reward of "the next world, after the wish task is completed, you can continue to stay for no more than one year." In his view, this can be considered a vacation time; the system might also want him to relax properly.

Taking a deep breath, he got up and got out of bed, poured a glass of water, and walked to the bedside to look at the night scene outside.

Just added spirit attributes, now he is not only not sleepy, but also very energetic.

After relaxing for a while, Wang Yan picked up a book and started reading; the night is long, he has no intention of sleeping, so he might as well read a book to pass the time.