Chu Chen's Goal

"Xiao Chen, I miss you!"

Those soft, murmured words instantly made the atmosphere between them ambiguous. Chu Chen was caught off guard and could only brace himself before replying softly, "Xiao Ke, I miss you too."

Wu Ke sounded very happy when she heard this. She even forgot about the form of address she usually cared about so much and said gently:

"Mm, it's getting late. Go have dinner, and remember to eat more, okay? I'll check when the time comes, so if you've gotten thinner... hmph! Also, go to my father's place and save my online contact information. We can communicate online from now on. Mm... mwah! Bye-bye!"

Before Chu Chen could react, she hung up.

"Bye... bye."

Chu Chen remained in the same posture, holding the phone. Wu Ke's attitude left him unsure what to do. It would be unreasonable to say that he felt no affection at all for such a beautiful and adorable girl, but he truly had not been prepared for any of this.

The key was that romance had always been a minefield for him. It was not something he could accept so easily. He thought about it for a long time, yet still had no idea how he should interact with Wu Ke in the future.

"Forget it. I'll take things one step at a time."

In the end, Chu Chen could not think of any good solution. He could only adopt the idea that things would work themselves out when the time came, and deal with it then.

"Ah, it really is warm. And quite comfortable, too." Aunt Wu looked delighted and relaxed.

When Chu Chen came outside, Uncle Wu and the others were studying how to use the therapy device he had brought over. Judging by their appearance, they had basically figured out how to operate it.

Seeing Chu Chen come out of the room, Uncle Wu asked somewhat gruffly, "Finished your call? What did you say to Xiao Ke?"

He was no longer angry that Chu Chen had "wasted" money. He had figured it out just now: this was, after all, the child's filial gesture, so it could hardly be considered "wasting" money. However, Grandma Wu and Aunt Wu had ganged up on him over the matter, making him lose face, which was why he was still speaking to Chu Chen in that tone.

"We just chatted for a while. She also asked me to come here and save her online contact information."

Chu Chen knew Uncle Wu's temperament. After hearing Aunt Wu and the others criticizing him, he had known that Uncle Wu would surely give him a hard time afterward.

After saving Wu Ke's online contact information and bank account number, as well as the phone number of Uncle Wu's friend who worked in security, Chu Chen seized the opportunity to lavish praise on Uncle Wu. In just a few minutes, he had flattered Uncle Wu into beaming with joy. Aunt Wu and the others watched the sight of the "father and son" from the side and covered their mouths, laughing.

After making Uncle Wu happy, Chu Chen explained several precautions for using the therapy device. Then he took them off to enjoy a cheerful meal.

To keep Uncle Wu and the others from feeling that it was too expensive, Chu Chen had reserved a private room and ordered the dishes early. Although the mouthwatering flavors told Uncle Wu and the others that the price could not be low, they never imagined that even after the discount, the dishes Chu Chen ordered that day had cost more than four thousand yuan.

Everyone ate to their heart's content. When they were parting, Uncle Wu said to Chu Chen, "I forgot to tell you. The last time I visited Old Liu, I mentioned you to him. He's quite interested in you."

Chu Chen immediately asked, "Uncle Wu, do you mean Old Liu has agreed to let me visit him?"

Seeing how eager Chu Chen looked, Uncle Wu smiled and said, "All right, he did ask me to bring you to visit him this Sunday. But you should be mentally prepared—Old Liu will definitely test you. Also, bring that pile of Tang Sancai fragments with you. Old Liu wants to see them with his own eyes."

Chu Chen nodded repeatedly, excited. With his supernatural ability, he certainly would not fear any test. Still, he could not help grumbling inwardly. How could this Tang Sancai imitation be so popular? Almost every senior figure in the collecting world he knew wanted to see it.

That was not a problem in itself, but by now almost everyone knew that he had mistaken this Tang Sancai piece for the real thing. It made him feel rather embarrassed.

On the other hand, when he thought about it differently, this was actually a good thing. With his supernatural ability, his future collecting career would surely be colorful. Imitations would basically never escape his grasp, and because he had already made this mistake, people would not find it abrupt later on.

After all, if someone had never made a mistake in appraisal yet somehow became a great collector, that would be far too absurd. Some people with ulterior motives might even become suspicious of him.

Seeing how excited Chu Chen was, Uncle Wu suddenly felt like teasing him. He said, "In the antiques trade, communication is extremely important. If you have any presentable items in your collection, you'd better bring them along too. That way, it'll look like you came prepared. All right, it's getting late. You should head back. Be careful on the way."

When Uncle Wu saw the conflicted look on Chu Chen's face upon hearing that he had to bring collectibles, he felt secretly delighted. That'll teach you to make me lose face today, you brat.

After parting with Uncle Wu and the others, Chu Chen thought that Uncle Wu was truly something else. He had given him a huge problem. What presentable collectibles did he have with him? Forget presentable—the only genuine collectible he owned in the true sense was one item. (The black-and-white jade and the bird-feed container were meant to be sold.)

Uncle Wu knew more or less what collectibles Chu Chen possessed. If Chu Chen had seen the secretly delighted smile on Uncle Wu's face as he left, he would have known that this request was merely revenge for making Uncle Wu lose face that day.

However, this matter also made Chu Chen reflect on what his future goal should be. As for making money, with his supernatural ability, earning money would be extremely easy. Once he had the necessary material conditions, a life with a wife and children would also be relatively easy to achieve, though that sort of thing mainly depended on fate.

What about finding his parents?

This question had always left Chu Chen deeply conflicted. He had always believed that his parents had abandoned him, yet he could not sever that thread of familial affection deep in his heart. As a result, he felt extremely torn.

He thought about it for a while, then stopped dwelling on it. Just as before, he would leave it to fate. If he found them, and if he could forgive them by then, they would acknowledge one another. If he never found them, he would surely regret it, but life would still go on as usual.

As Chu Chen walked and thought, he realized that his only hobby at present was antiques. Since he wanted to set himself a goal, he would become a collector. Now that he possessed a supernatural ability, he already had an advantage over others in appraising antiques. Collecting them would undoubtedly be much easier for him.

Antiques were the crystallization of the wisdom of ancient people, and there was much within them worth studying. His ability to remember everything he saw was also perfectly suited to this field.

As for the money needed to collect antiques, others might worry about it, but Chu Chen did not. If he ran out of money, he could always gamble on raw jade, right? Besides, he only wanted to collect the finest antiques. Items he did not care about as much could be traded away.

In that case, opening an antique shop would be perfect. He could both sell and purchase items, and he could also turn the jadeite he won through gambling into finished products and sell them in the shop. That would make it easier to accumulate capital.

Moreover, as his antique collection and jadeite business developed, Chu Chen's supernatural ability could continue to level up. Since acquiring it, his body had changed greatly, aside from everything else. Not only had he grown much stronger, but it had also helped him break through the Minor Heavenly Cycle.

Chu Chen guessed that the supernatural ability might eventually help him break through to the Connate realm. By then, he might live to at least a hundred and fifty years old. Just thinking about it filled him with excitement. After all, longevity was humanity's most primal wish.

After the ability leveled up that day, he had also felt a force in his left arm continuously circulating along his meridians. As it circulated, the strength in his left arm slowly increased. Although the improvement was minuscule, over time it would become considerable.

He guessed that when the ability leveled up again, new meridians might join the process. In the end, when that spiritual energy circulated through all the meridians in his body, he had no idea what changes would occur. He was filled with anticipation.

However, leveling up the ability was still extremely difficult. The spiritual energy he obtained from that double-eared vase today had increased his progress by less than one percent. He did not know whether the value would be calculated again after being reduced. If it was calculated normally, how could he possibly endure it?

Still, now that he had set a goal, Chu Chen believed that he would eventually fill the progress bar. Even if it was calculated using the normal value, it would amount to no more than antiques or jadeite worth one hundred million yuan. That much money would not be too difficult to obtain if calculated in terms of jadeite.

After returning home, Chu Chen took out Wu Ke's contact information and studied it first. He had never used the email address or chat software mentioned there, but that was not enough to stump him. After all, his learning ability was now ridiculously strong.

After creating accounts for email and the chat software and sending them to Wu Ke, Chu Chen searched online for information about antiques and began studying. With a goal in mind, he found reading much more interesting than before. In the blink of an eye, he had already sunk into a sea of knowledge.

The next day, Chu Chen got up at four. The first thing he did after waking was marvel at his own energy. He had chatted with Wu Ke online until two in the morning and had slept for only two hours, yet he was still incredibly energetic and did not feel tired at all. It was truly unbelievable.