The Chief Strategist habitually ignored his superior's words and began telling Xianyu about Yaoqing over the past three hundred years. "Thanks to you, Yaoqing natives have never wanted for food or clothing. Though there have been occasional wars... their benefits were paid in full, enough to keep them comfortably fed and clothed for the rest of their lives."
The Chief Strategist continued, "The head of the household you wanted to visit died in battle, leaving behind his wife and a son who's about to start elementary school. Shall we go now?"
Xianyu immediately stood up, picked up the bag of practice exercises, and followed the Chief Strategist. Yaoqing natives lined their entire route, visibly excited yet restraining themselves enough to keep their distance from him.
Children swarmed around Xianyu, pressing fruit or candy into his hands before darting away.
At a loss, Xianyu carefully cradled everything they had given him.
"...Huh? Thank you."
The two were forced to stop repeatedly, stretching what should have been a walk of just over ten minutes into nearly half an hour.
Partway there, Xianyu could no longer hold everything and had to put it in the bag full of practice exercises for the time being. Only when no one was around did he transfer the children's gifts into his system inventory.
Long accustomed to such sights, the Chief Strategist glanced over and said calmly, "How many times have I told you? Wear something with wide sleeves next time and hide it a little. Could you stop being so obvious?"
Xianyu paid little attention, nodding perfunctorily before a child caught his eye.
The child had blue hair and black eyes and was engrossed in a book.
Xianyu opened the child's stats panel and stared in astonishment.
Nearly every stat was maxed out. This was easily