Girl, There's Something Wrong With You - Chapter 45

After finishing the grapes that Cui Xiaoniang had peeled, Cheng Jinyang also completed most of the piled-up work.

He rubbed his temples, feeling mentally fatigued.

The problems looming before him were twofold: the imminent invasion of the refugee army from Jiangbei and the ever-watchful demons from the northern regions. These two threats endangered the entire human world, but their scale was far beyond what a group of seventh-grade ability users like his could handle.

In fact, the current human society’s attitude towards demons was essentially one of “three no’s”:

Can’t defeat them, can’t manage them, can’t negotiate with them.

The aristocratic bureaucrats of Taicheng knew that the Jin Empire was no match for the demons, so they could only focus on maintaining the tattered imperial order, doing their daily work as mere patchers.

The lower-grade aristocratic families, such as the Shendu fifth-grade Cheng family, basically had no right to participate in imperial affairs. Therefore, they couldn’t care less about the situation in the north and focused on tending to their own small territories.

As for the commoners from various walks of life who were not from aristocratic families, whenever the topic of demons came up, they would just argue online. Young warriors would clamor about marching north to conquer the demons and reclaim the lost territories; rebels would sarcastically ridicule, calling others “willing tools” and “aristocratic lackeys”—both sides would argue incessantly, but neither were genuinely trying to solve the problem, just passing time and indulging in verbal sparring.

In other words, the biggest problem facing the human world was right there, but everyone was powerless to do anything about it, so they tacitly set it aside, pretending it didn’t exist. Even Cheng Jinyang himself could only go with the flow for now.

On the Cheng family’s side, with the reconstruction of the Tianluo department completed, their finances had almost recovered to a healthy state.

Looking at the income flow data reports, the most dangerous period was after the death of Cheng Benhe, the old master, when the entire clan was forced to relocate to Qixia District, losing a large portion of their properties and Tianluo personnel. From then on, things only got worse and worse… until the appearance of the Iron Giant ended the war, and the data slowly began to improve.

Cheng Jinyang could confidently say that the Shendu Cheng family had managed to turn a profit and make a beautiful comeback, and it was under his personal command.

Because of this, his prestige within the family had reached its peak, far surpassing that of his uncle’s era, and even approaching the level of Cheng Benhe, the old master.

Many mid-to-lower-level managers within the clan started finding ways to bypass Cheng Yuexian and Cheng Huaiyan, submitting various requests directly to him, trying to curry favor and show their loyalty.

Cheng Jinyang always handled these opportunists with a subtle touch, neither completely blocking their path nor allowing them to get too out of hand. Whenever he was unsure about something, he would ask Miss Wang, who would sneer and mock him a few times before giving him detailed advice, helping him manage these people effectively.

After approving the last email, Cheng Jinyang shut down his computer and stood up, seeing the girls laughing and playing in his office:

Cui Jinqi and Yang Wangshu were playing games on the screen; Chu Qingqing and Li Qingwan were discussing martial arts, occasionally sparring; Xing Yuanzhi and Wang Wanrou were sitting on the sofa, whispering about something, probably discussing what happened this afternoon.

Speaking of which, Cheng Jinyang thought of something more troubling: except for a certain 14-year-old kid, the other five girls would either reach adulthood this year or next.

For aristocratic families, the average marriage age for women was around 20. Assuming engagements happened a year in advance, they would typically be engaged by 19.

This meant that the time for them to wander around freely was running out.

Take Xing Yuanzhi for example, from the fifth-grade aristocratic Hejian Xing family. At her current advancement speed, she would reach the sixth grade in three months, at which point she would be second only to the clan leader and could choose whomever she wanted to marry, or even stay single for a few years without any issue.

However, for Chu Qingqing and Yang Wangshu, in their fourth-grade families where sixth-grade members were as common as dogs, they would need to reach at least the fifth grade to gain freedom, which at the current pace would take about three years. Wangshu might be an exception, but the Chu family would unlikely allow Qingqing to remain single until 21.

As for Wang Wanrou, Cui Jinqi, and Li Qingwan, the situation for these five aristocratic girls was even more precarious.

Even though today’s matter with Miss Wang wasn’t settled yet, if she didn’t marry Xie Qiudu, the Taiyuan Wang family would certainly find some Li Qiudu or Cui Qiudu for her to choose from.

And similar situations would likely occur with Cui Xiaoniang and Teacher Li… If any of them were forced into an arranged marriage by their families, was he supposed to go and chase off their suitors? How could he have that much time!

No, he had to speed up leveling up!!!

Feeling a sense of urgency and fear, Cheng Jinyang was suddenly overcome with a feeling that time was slipping away.

It was strange. If the thought of “the demons are about to attack” drove him to train with ten times the effort, the realization that “if I don’t get stronger, the girls will marry someone else” gave him a thousand times the motivation.

On reflection, even if the demons did come, the empire’s higher-ups would be the ones to worry about it. If the sky fell, the tall ones would hold it up. But if he was too weak and the girls married someone they didn’t like, he would probably regret it for the rest of his life.

“Ahem!” He coughed loudly and knocked on the table, forcibly drawing everyone’s attention to him.

The girls all stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him with various expressions.

“Um.” Cheng Jinyang’s thoughts suddenly stalled, and he instinctively smiled, “The night is short, why don’t we go to bed early tonight?”

…

In the dream, Songjiang ruins.

Ye Ru sat on the rooftop of an office building, looking out at the dense swarm of puppets on the street below.

Suddenly, she looked up and calculated the corresponding time in reality.

Hmm, he should have already brought people in.

Ye Ru leaped from the rooftop, landing steadily on the ground in an instant, drawing the attention of the wandering puppets around her.

The next second, the puppets turned their heads back in a daze, as if they hadn’t seen anything.

She extended her arm, used her demon power to draw a few runes in the air, and finally made a hand seal, uttering an unintelligible note.

The runes flickered a few times and gradually began to glow.

A few minutes later, Cheng Jinyang, who had just entered the dream, suddenly heard Ye Ru’s voice in his ear:

“Cheng Jinyang, I’ve found you.”

“You are… Ye Ru?” Cheng Jinyang quickly stepped back a few paces, making sure the girls in front of him didn’t notice, and then cautiously asked in a low voice.

“It’s me,” Ye Ru said, “I have something to tell you, and I suggest you keep it to yourself and not tell the girls around you.”

“How can I trust you?” Cheng Jinyang asked warily.

“You don’t need to. Believe it or not,” Ye Ru said calmly. “What I want to tell you is about the battlefield in the Songjiang ruins and Su Lili.”