Are You Very Unhappy? Then I'm Happy

Three days later.

Tianyuan City's gates finally appeared at the end of his vision.

The instant the signal connected, Jiang Chuan's communicator began beeping nonstop.

He opened it and took a look.

Most of the messages were from his parents.

An accident during the secret realm teleportation had left him out of contact for three whole days. His parents must have been terribly worried.

"You go find the city lord first."

Jiang Chuan patted Xu Yinyin's smooth, springy thigh, privately marveling that adolescent girls really were full of collagen.

He instructed Xu Yinyin, "Check who made this year's enrollment list. I'll go home and let my family know I'm safe, then find a chance to meet up tonight."

Xu Yinyin's cheeks flushed slightly, her expression filled with nothing but obedience.

"Yes, Master."

"Ahem..."

Jiang Chuan nearly choked on his breath. He hurriedly said, "You can't call me Master in front of other people... Just call me Senior!"

"...Yes, Senior."

Jiang Chuan jumped down from the wooden kite-shaped flying artifact and watched Xu Yinyin enter the city ahead of him.

He could not help but sigh inwardly.

The effect of the A-rank talent Emperor's Oath was truly overbearing.

After the contract was bound, nothing about Xu Yinyin had changed.

Her memories,

her personality,

her understanding,

everything remained exactly as it had been.

Only her attitude toward him had changed. She had become one hundred percent obedient; even if he ordered her to die, she would not hesitate in the slightest.

It had twisted her will at its very root.

There were two ways to sever this influence.

The first was for him, the contractor, to voluntarily give up his bond with Xu Yinyin.

The other was for a professional with a spiritual cultivation far above his own to forcibly sever the connection between them.

Other than that, even if he were killed, Xu Yinyin, as the bound party, would die immediately rather than have the contract lifted.

Naturally, Jiang Chuan would not easily dissolve his contract with Xu Yinyin.

After all, she was still quite useful...

Don't misunderstand.

What he meant was her status as a "member of Stellar Crown Academy's elite class."

With that tiger skin draped over her, forces large and small throughout the Federation had to show her some respect, making everything much easier to handle.

Whether Jiang Chuan could obtain an enrollment spot at Stellar Crown Academy would also require him to leverage her status.

After thinking it over,

Jiang Chuan finally opened his communicator and checked his messages.

Unread messages: forty-seven. Forty-three of them were from his mother.

Two of the remaining messages were from his father.

They were not long.

The other two were from Shen Erbiao, the scavenger he had traded with before. He had found quite a few more pieces of scrap equipment and wanted to ask whether Jiang Chuan was still buying.

Jiang Chuan opened his mother's messages first. As he scrolled through them from top to bottom, guilt quickly appeared on his face.

The first message: [Son, are you coming home for dinner today?]

The second message: [Son, why didn't you come home today?]

The third message: [Jiang Chuan, are you even there?]

The fourth message: [Son, don't scare Mom. Reply as soon as you see this.]

The fifth message: [I called the Blazing Fire Battle Group. They said you haven't checked in for two days straight.]

The sixth message: [Son, did something happen to you?]

The dozens of messages after that were more or less the same. They went from anxiety to anger, then fear and helplessness, making Jiang Chuan's heart ache.

He composed himself and quickly called his mother.

The call was answered after a single ring. Wang Xiulan's voice came through, anxious and hoarse, as if she had just been crying. "Jiang Chuan?!"

"Mom, it's me!"

"Where the hell have you been?!"

Wang Xiulan's voice suddenly rose, making Jiang Chuan hold the phone half a meter away from his ear. "Three days! A whole three days! You didn't send even one message! Your dad and I thought you... thought you..."

She could not continue. Suppressed sobs came from the other end of the line.

Jiang Chuan's nose stung. He said softly, "Mom, I'm fine. There was just a little accident. I couldn't connect to the city's network, so I spent a few days out in the wilderness. I've already made it back."

"Bad signal? Where did you go that the signal could be bad?"

"Just... outside the city. Deep in the mountains and forests. It's normal not to have signal there."

"What was a dismantler like you doing deep in the mountains and forests?!"

Jiang Chuan opened his mouth.

Only to realize he had no way to answer that question.

He could hardly tell her that he had gone to the Nightmare Secret Realm, finally cleared it with great difficulty, only to be teleported a thousand miles away—and had even conveniently picked up a bargain daughter-in-law for her?

"It was just... an accident."

He gave a vague explanation.

Wang Xiulan fell silent for two seconds before ultimately not pressing further. "Your dad went to Captain Su again to look for you. They sent people out to search for two days. You... you child, why can't you ever let us stop worrying?"

Jiang Chuan's heart skipped a beat.

His father had gone to Su Lie again?

The last time, in order to get him into the Blazing Fire Battle Group, his father had already used up the favor owed from saving Su Lie's life.

And now he had gone to Captain Su for help again. The debt of favors was only growing.

"Mom, let's not talk about this now. I'll send Dad a message!"

He hurriedly ended the call and called his father instead. The call was quickly answered, and Jiang Mingyuan's tired voice came through. "You're back?"

"Dad, I'm back."

"It's good that you're back."

Jiang Mingyuan did not ask any questions, but his tone made Jiang Chuan feel worse than any interrogation could have.

"Dad, I'm sorry, I..."

"No need to say anything. It's good that you're back."

Jiang Mingyuan interrupted him. "Hurry over to the battle group and apologize to Captain Su. They sent several teams out looking for you and delayed plenty of work. We need to remember this favor."

"...I understand."

Jiang Chuan sighed.

Azure Bamboo Alley.

The Blazing Fire Battle Group's flag snapped sharply in the wind.

The courtyard was empty. Jiang Chuan pushed the gate open and was about to head upstairs when he saw someone coming down from the second floor.

Su Lie.

The captain of the Blazing Fire Battle Group, Su Yao's father, and a peak fifth-rank professional.

Jiang Chuan had only seen him in the news before. In person, he was far more imposing than in photographs.

He wore dark red battle armor, broad-backed and powerfully built, with rugged features and eyes as sharp as a hawk's.

He came downstairs and paused when he saw Jiang Chuan, then continued down.

He stopped before Jiang Chuan and looked down at him.

"Jiang Chuan?"

"Yes."

Jiang Chuan stood properly and answered honestly.

Su Lie looked him over from head to toe. His gaze was not particularly fierce, but it was certainly not friendly. After several seconds, he spoke. "Your father asked me to find you a job, so I assigned you to my daughter's team. It wasn't because you're particularly outstanding. It was because your father once did me a favor."

There was no fluctuation in Su Lie's tone, but that very calmness made Jiang Chuan feel even more guilty.

"On your first day reporting in, you were absent without reason. On the second day, you didn't even attend the team's regular training. And on the third day, even better—you disappeared completely!"

"Yao Yao told me you were relying on your elders' connections to ignore the rules."

"I didn't believe her."

"Now it seems she was probably putting it mildly!"

Jiang Chuan had no answer.

He wanted to explain.

But he realized everything the other man had said was true.

What else could he say?

That Su Yao had deliberately excluded him by recruiting another dismantler?

If he complained about the man's biological daughter right in front of her father, then his emotional intelligence and actual intelligence might as well sit at the same table as amoebas.

"Your father hasn't had it easy."

Su Lie's voice softened slightly, though it still carried the tone of a reprimand. "He's injured, yet he mines day and night to pay for your schooling and your awakening. He pulled strings through several layers of connections and swallowed his pride to beg me, all to find you a way forward. And you? You've been here for nearly a week, yet you haven't shown even a shred of proper conduct!"

"Uncle Su, I..."

Jiang Chuan wanted to say that he was already a junior dismantler and had not done nothing.

"Don't call me Uncle."

Su Lie raised a hand to cut him off. "In the battle group, you are a member of the battle group. I am the captain, and you are a member. Rules are rules. Since you're young and don't know better, I won't pursue this matter. But if there's a next time, no matter whose son you are, the Blazing Fire Battle Group will not keep you."

With that, he no longer looked at Jiang Chuan and strode out of the courtyard.

Jiang Chuan stood where he was, watching Su Lie's back disappear around the alley corner before silently exhaling a breath he had been holding in.

Just then,

a sarcastic voice came from behind him. "Well, well, who do we have here? You disappeared for a whole three days and made the entire battle group mobilize. I thought you died out there!"

Jiang Chuan turned around expressionlessly and saw Zhao Han's punchable face.

Zhao Han sneered and continued, "Honestly, you'd have been better off dying outside. At least you wouldn't have come back and made everyone miserable!"

Jiang Chuan raised a brow. "You're very unhappy to see me?"

"Obviously..."

Zhao Han was about to say more when his vision blurred. Jiang Chuan had already appeared in front of him.

Bang!!

A dull impact rang out. Zhao Han's eyes bulged abruptly, his body folding like a cooked shrimp as his face instantly turned crimson. He could not utter another word.

Jiang Chuan patted him on the shoulder. "Thanks to you, I'm much happier now."