Chapter 1149

After all, he was the one who had shattered the alchemy laboratory in Beast Pen City, disrupting one of the other's plans; unlike General Ji Xia, he really was just a nobody.

The other party could probably kill him with a flick of a finger!

Thinking about it that way, it was actually quite thrilling!

The joy of a comeback must be exactly like this!

Starting from blocking a big shot's plan and becoming a thorn in the big shot's flesh, the more sleepless nights he caused that big shot, the more successful the comeback proved.

Ultimately successfully tripping up that big shot would prove the comeback a success.

Although it sounded thrilling, did he really have that ability?

If he chose the latter, then it wouldn't concern just Lin Cheng alone—he still had Miss Qianhui, and Xiaohong, and the newly appeared Valkyrie Ailin; by then it truly wouldn't be like before, a state where one person ate well and the whole family didn't go hungry.

He would also have weaknesses, he would also have a day when he could be threatened; preventing those days when he could no longer happily do whatever he wanted—just thinking about it was annoying.

But he wasn't a child anymore either; an adult had to have an adult's sense of responsibility.

One reason he had refused Miss Qianhui's affection until now was that he wasn't prepared yet.

This affection was too heavy, too heavy for Lin Cheng.

It meant settling down and building a career, it meant responsibility, it meant he was no longer alone, it meant family.

All of this was too heavy for Lin Cheng; he instinctively resisted it from the bottom of his heart.

But these things would come sooner or later, wouldn't they?

The weakness of his past life, when spoken of, was laughable—a man already in his twenties, still like a childish, chuunibyou kid, full of childishness.

Lin Cheng, a left-behind child from young, had witnessed far too much of the world's warmth and cold at such a tender age; even though his parents later returned to make up for it doubly, the void in his heart could never be filled—reclusive, as if he had seen through the mortal world's hustle and bustle.

Rather than calling it reclusive, it was better to say he was escaping reality.

He tried to fantasize about living in his own beautiful world, hiding inside his turtle shell—that was the best, that was also the safest, even if it meant abandoning some things, that sort of way.

But deep in his heart, he was yearning just the same!

I could have endured the darkness, had I never seen the light.

But now, the sun has made my loneliness even more desolate.

There's a saying: when the clever you begin to realize that problems exist within yourself, it means your soul has already begun to rebel; all you need to do next is simply struggle on naturally.

After all, fools are incurable, aren't they?

Perhaps this is what growing up is.

No longer running away, gladly accepting, calmly facing it—let it be good or bad!

Walk a path that belongs to oneself, a path of self-redemption?

While Lin Cheng was lost in deep thought, the turmoil in his heart—Valkyrie Ailin seemed to sense something; her worried gaze stayed on him, she reached out and held Lin Cheng's hand, fingers interlaced, her warmth passing through their palms.

This warmth undoubtedly left Lin Cheng's spirit in a daze; the first time, the very first time a girl had taken his hand.

So a girl's hand could be this warm too, as if it would melt the icy fortress in his heart.

He wanted to let go, yet couldn't bear to!

In the past, even when he went out on dates with his nominal first love, he never thought to hold her hand; even after they became a couple, that couple seemed merely nominal—his lonely heart always felt he was alone, instinctively acting alone from within.

Watching movies together, drinking milk tea, going shopping—a perfunctory smile on the surface, yet inside he was mocking himself: even swapping in a stranger would be no different, wouldn't it!

Truly a life lived in solitude.

"What's wrong?" Lin Cheng thought of many things, the complicated thoughts and feelings in his heart forcing his voice to carry a trembling hoarseness.

Valkyrie Ailin smiled and raised the hand she held tightly with Lin Cheng's; on her flushed little face, her gaze was incomparably firm.

"No matter when, no matter what happens, I will be with you! Because you are my true destined one—fate brought us together—no matter what, we will be together!"

"Hehe!"

Lin Cheng laughed at Valkyrie Ailin's innocence, and Valkyrie Ailin also laughed happily.

As he laughed, a teardrop Lin Cheng himself hadn't noticed overflowed from the corner of his eye.

This tear should have fallen long ago.

What shed away was the cold, heartless inner defense line.

If his past-life self had met girls like Valkyrie Ailin and Miss Qianhui, perhaps the ice in his heart would have melted long ago; now, it didn't seem too late.

In one's life, one must fight for oneself at least once, do something one will never regret for a lifetime, so that when one can no longer move there will be something to talk about.

"I've decided!"

"System! Investigate to the end!"

"Maybe I'll regret it later, but the me right now believes the future me won't regret it either. The only regret is not letting me meet that Sun Zi sooner—if I'd met him earlier, I would have dragged him out long ago! And pummeled him crazily on the ground!"

"Host has chosen the investigate-to-the-end option. Confirm?"

"Confirm!"

"Issuing new quest."

"The Rising Forgemaster! Quest description: The suicide of alchemy master Master Jianong—the trail has gone cold, and the system only knows that Jianong seemed to have colluded with a certain imperial prince of the Empire's royal house. The current host is completely disregarded, unable to even draw attention. Quest requirement: reopen the shop and complete the Forgemaster certification, raise fame. Quest duration: six months. Quest reward: Unknown."

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