Mythical Three Kingdoms

”Hey, you guys didn’t all fall for that, right? I was just bullshitting.” Chen Xi suddenly switched tones and burst out laughing, but everyone else completely ignored his sudden change of style.

”Alright, Zichuan, you don’t need to comfort us.” Jia Xu said helplessly. ”We more or less understand the situation now. Can you still remember that much of it?”

”I can, but it’s meaningless. A lot of that stuff just can’t be used right now.” Chen Xi shrugged. ”That stuff is totally unsuited to this era.”

The others merely shook their heads at these words, not buying Chen Xi’s obviously consoling tone. Whether it suited this era was another matter entirely—this was knowledge granted by a Heavenly Person.

”Uh, Master, if I want to read part of it, would that be alright?” Lul Xun asked carefully, having realized he might have accidentally touched some taboo.

”Oh, it’s nothing. Once we’re back home, whatever you want to read will be there.” Chen Xi curled his lip. He might not actually be an encyclopedia, but pretending to be one was still barely within his abilities.

After all, this was a thousand years earlier. Many disciplines were only at a very rudimentary stage, and quite a few didn’t even exist yet, just mixed into other fields.

In an age like this, with the accumulated wisdom of a thousand years of later generations, Chen Xi could rely on his downstream-historic Innate Nature advantage to pretend to be an encyclopedia and fool people without any difficulty. What’s more, he’d said from the start that he was still two-thirds short of knowing everything.

Heaven only knew what exactly one-third of infinite wisdom meant as a concept. Anyway, once he added that limitation, if there ever was some problem he really couldn’t solve, at least he’d have some room to maneuver.

”Thank you, Teacher.” Lul Xun said excitedly.

”Oh, you’re my only disciple. I’m planning to have you inherit my mantle. If I don’t pass it to you, it might get lost.” Chen Xi curled his lip. ”Judging from how things look, people in this era who are better than you can probably be counted on one hand.”

Lul Xun’s face flushed bright red at these words. Chen Xi praising him so bluntly made him a bit light-headed—and his master was actually going to pass the mantle on to him!

”A mantle heir, huh.” Jia Xu glanced at Lul Xun. ”Boyan really is a very suitable choice. It’s good you’ve made up your mind so early.”

”You make it sound like you care more about my disciple than I do.” Chen Xi suddenly acted like a nutcase again, publicly declaring Lul Xun’s status to Jia Xu. But in truth, Chen Xi actually spent less time teaching Lul Xun than Jia Xu did.

”Ah, ah, ah, I’m gonna run a lottery for New Year’s!” Before Jia Xu could refute him, Chen Xi’s train of thought jumped tracks again. Guo Jia calmly picked up the new topic. ”Oh? What kind of lottery are you doing? Same as last time?”

”I feel like there’s just no way to follow his topics.” Zhou Yu said helplessly. Once Chen Xi’s conversation started jumping around, it became impossible to pick up the thread.

”...” Guo Jia’s words reminded Chen Xi of the cheating during the last lottery, and he suddenly remembered something important. ”We don’t have a finale treasure this year.”

”Last time the finale treasure was Boyan, right?” Zhuge Liang said with a sigh. ”And then Miss Mi drew him. Are you planning to use a living person as the finale again this time?”

”Don’t you think that compared to Boyan, the treasures everyone else drew were more than a whole level weaker?” Chen Xi said irritably.

”Uh, speaking of which, I remember there were five girls last time, and three of them drew so-called ’skills that would keep them worry-free for the rest of their lives,’ but I don’t recall seeing them particularly wealthy.” Guo Jia recalled last time: Wang Yi, Gan Lu, Chen Shuang and the others had drawn things that were supposed to guarantee a worry-free second half of life.

”On one hand, production can’t keep up. On the other, they can’t use this to make money in the short term.” Mi Zhu answered for Chen Xi.

”Uh, now that’s strange.” Guo Jia asked with a very puzzled look.

”Nothing to fuss about. Just establishing connections, gathering raw materials, and a bunch of other stuff takes a lot of time.” Mi Zhu shook his head. ”They only trial-produced a portion, and then I rejected their request for large-scale production.”

Guo Jia looked at Mi Zhu speechlessly. You could’ve just said you weren’t letting them start the business. What was the point of saying so much?

”Oh, that one’s on me. I did overlook it. With the country not yet stable, we really shouldn’t be playing with this sort of thing. So that means only Gong Youu’s daughter actually made money?” Chen Xi said, a bit embarrassed.

”’Made money’ doesn’t begin to cover it. Do you understand what a monopoly is? That’s outright robbery. It’s only because mountain folk don’t rely on picking that fungus to live that I haven’t arrested her for disturbing the market.” Mi Zhu said crossly.

”Oh, then I’ll open this technology up ten years from now.” Chen Xi curled his lip. ”If you’re that upset, you can have the government cultivate it.”

”Forget it. These two years aren’t suitable for competing with the people for profit. Besides, there’s a management issue here. Does a business like hers fall under our jurisdiction, or the local authorities’? Is this considered agriculture and sericulture, or commerce?” Mi Zhu asked, disgruntled.

”When we have time, have someone screen out all those hard-to-handle government orders. We’ll sit down and discuss how to classify them.” Chen Xi said with a smile. ”But now that you mention it, I’m even more interested in the New Year’s lottery. I do need a finale item, though.”

By this time, Xun Yu and the others had almost finished asking about the idle chatter from before, and were somewhat interested in Chen Xi’s lottery idea.

”When you run the lottery, can you guarantee a given person will draw what they’re supposed to?” Xun Youi asked Chen Xi via Voice Transmission.

”Uh, not a hundred percent, but seventy or eighty percent is doable.” As soon as Chen Xi heard Xun Youi’s question, he knew the other man probably had some plan.

”Everything else is easy to arrange. Which of you will recommend a finale Secret Treasure for me?” Chen Xi shamelessly looked around at everyone.

”Honestly, I think Lyu Ziming is pretty good.” Seeing Chen Xi’s gaze land on him, Xu Shu decisively sold out his teammate.

”I’m already married.” Lyu Meng refused without hesitation. Way too embarrassing.

”My second brother, Sima Zhongda, is quite suitable.” Sima Lang hesitated a moment, then spoke. He thought this was a pretty good idea. His second brother was somewhat picky and hadn’t found anyone suitable yet, and Sima Lang trusted Chen Xi’s taste.

”Oh, oh, oh, Zhongda! Zhongda it is, then. Zhongda’s quite a character. But can you smooth this over?” Chen Xi was overjoyed and turned to ask Sima Lang.

”That wouldn’t be Boda’s problem. As long as the person you pick is suitable, it’ll be fine.” Chen Qun laughed loudly. ”If you pick someone unsuitable and Zhongda ends up turning her down, don’t expect us to take the blame.”