Chosen: Beyond Fate

With the new boss taking power and the old struggles and bloodshed finally brought to an end, Lei Yaoxing had washed away the past with his own blood.

Now that everyone had gotten both the public explanation and the actual compensation they wanted, representatives from every side got up and left one after another. Chen Yubo also hurried over to his brother’s side, fussing over him with endless questions.

Ji Jue leaned back in his chair for a long while. He raised a hand and removed three rubber bands from the back of his head, staring at them in his palm for quite some time before letting out a silent sigh.

“Heading out?” Tom asked.

“Yeah.” Ji Jue looked away without the slightest regret and flicked away the last melon seed shell. “The snacks are gone, the business is done. Why would I stay here any longer? To flatter the new boss? Forget it. I’m not part of the syndicate anyway. What about you?”

“I can’t leave!” Tom declared loudly. “That bastard Chen Xingzhou scammed me out of such a huge sum. I’ve gotta squeeze a little more of the final payment out of him!”

“Then good luck collecting your wages.” Ji Jue smiled faintly, waved goodbye to Tang Qian, and threaded his way through the crowd. As he passed by, he stumbled as if by accident and bumped into the person ahead of him, instantly looking embarrassed. “Ah, sorry about that.”

“It’s fine.” The unfamiliar woman who turned around had been smiling at first, but the moment she saw his face, she froze. After giving a small nod, she hurried away. She left behind only a faint trace of perfume, causing Ji Jue to remain standing there for a long while with his eyes lowered, deep in thought.

He heard the sound of wheelchair wheels turning behind him. Chen Yubo was pushing Chen Xingzhou over.

The chubby man no longer carried any of the gloom or anxiety from the past days. His eyes were brighter now, practically glowing with joy, as though he would sprout wings and fly into the sky at any moment. In truth, he really was about to soar straight upward.

He was now the younger brother of the Wasteland Assembly’s boss, as well as the younger brother of Cliff City’s boss. Wasn’t that a world of difference from before?

From this day onward, every underground business in Cliff City had become the private property of the Chen family, all of it subject to Chen Xingzhou’s word alone. And yet, Chen Xingzhou showed no obvious delight. He remained calm, his smile warm and welcoming. He even took the initiative to extend a hand.

“Mr. Ji, this is our first proper meeting. I still haven’t formally thanked you.” He glanced at the woman who just left and smiled pleasantly. “What’s wrong? If you’re interested, I could introduce you to her.”

“No, it’s nothing.” Ji Jue replied, “She just feels vaguely familiar somehow.”

“That’s normal,” Chen Xingzhou said. “We’re all from Cliff City. If you wander around enough, faces start looking familiar.”

“I see.” Ji Jue nodded in realization, catching the last traces of the fading perfume beneath his nose before casually remarking, “No wonder.”

“Young people truly are formidable.” Chen Xingzhou’s smile softened, full of appreciation. “The future belongs to people like you.”

Ji Jue shook his head. “Forget it. I think being a craftsman suits me better. At least it’s simple.”

Chen Xingzhou paused. “Simple?”

It was the first time he’d heard someone speak so boldly, calling a craftsman’s path, something countless people spent their entire lives pursuing without success, “simple,” and doing it as though it were the most natural thing in the world. For a moment, he genuinely could not tell whether this was the ignorance of someone who didn’t know his own limits, or the confidence unique to a true genius.

All he could do was sigh. “So full of vigor. Truly impressive.”

Ji Jue nodded. “Maybe because there are far too many things in this world harder than being a craftsman?”

And so, Chen Xingzhou said nothing more.

Ji Jue laughed. “What’s wrong? Isn’t today supposed to be a great occasion? Why so quiet? This calls for celebration.”

As for Chen Xingzhou’s attitude, Ji Jue genuinely could not care less. Whether the man was the boss or not had jack shit to do with him. What, was he gonna march into Tidesound Workshop and beat him up?

As the savior of Chen Xingzhou’s younger brother, even if Ji Jue kicked the guy’s wheelchair over, Chen Xingzhou would probably crawl back up and give him a thumbs-up, praising the kick for being perfectly executed.

So what exactly did he have to fear? Why would he hold back?

Chen Xingzhou let out a quiet sigh and patted the hand resting on his shoulder. After a brief look of surprise, Chen Yubo voluntarily left, giving the two men privacy.

“It’s just... a bit of reflection,” Chen Xingzhou said slowly. “All this time, I’ve felt that reaching my current position depended not only on scheming, calculation, and methods, but even more so on luck.”

He turned back to glance at Chen Yubo in the distance, a fool who was happily taking pictures of stray cats with his phone and grinning like an idiot.

He sighed from the bottom of his heart. “But now that I think about it, my dumb little brother’s luck is far better than mine. Simple fools get simple blessings, as long as they’re not complete morons. If you ask me, if you stopped interfering with him so much, he’d probably have even more good fortune.”

With both hands in his pockets, Ji Jue asked one final question. “Anything else you need, Mr. Chen?”

“Actually, there is one more important thing.” After a brief pause for thought, Chen Xingzhou reached into his pocket and pulled out something he had clearly prepared in advance. “Yubo told me you didn’t take a single cent. When I was lying in the hospital bed, you told him to donate the inheritance and do good deeds. You’re a good friend. A truly rare kind of good friend. We’ll handle this matter exactly as you suggested.”

What he handed to Ji Jue was merely a sheet of paper, light and thin, yet the format and heading looked strangely familiar, as though he had seen them somewhere before.

In fact, there were two documents. One was a cash donation receipt totaling more than 4.641 billion Fedra, down to the exact odd amounts and loose change. The other document was a proxy agreement for shareholding and stock liquidation, involving shares in more than dozens of companies, including several wildly popular publicly listed corporations, along with numerous valuable assets.

Every last one of them had been entrusted to the Radiant Church for holding and sale, with all proceeds to be used entirely for charitable work. What left Ji Jue utterly dumbfounded was the signature at the bottom of both the donation receipt and the authorization agreement.

It was not Chen Yubo’s, nor Chen Xingzhou’s, but Ji Jue’s.

Wait, what?! Me?

His eyes widened. He leaned in closer, examining the signature carefully, checking it over and over again. Even after a long while, he was still completely baffled.

And then he saw the final item Chen Xingzhou handed over. It was a tiny badge.

To put it simply, it was just a metal pin with no spirit matter fluctuations whatsoever. The emblem of the Radiant Church was engraved on its surface, bordered by three layers of gold trim, with Ji Jue’s name carved into the back.

Finally, it had been stamped with the mark of the Radiant Spirit as proof against forgery. This was the only token of gratitude the Radiant Church offered to major donors. It was also a true luxury item, one impossible to buy with any amount of money and rarely ever seen within the circles of fame and power.

Only those who had genuinely donated tens of billions to charitable causes, saving countless people from illness, suffering, and despair, could receive this badge from the hands of the Radiant Church. It could not be sold, nor transferred. After Ji Jue died, someone would personally come to retrieve it and enshrine it upon the Wall of Good Deeds within the Central Sanctuary.

To put it simply, this was a genuine, globally recognized Certified Good Person badge!

With this thing on him, Ji Jue could pretty much walk anywhere like he owned the place. Even if he traveled to the Central Lands or entered the Empire, anyone who saw the badge on his chest would lower their head in greeting and welcome him warmly.

He could probably walk straight into the governor’s mansion, smack the governor’s bald head, and say, “I think you’ve been handling things pretty poorly lately,” and the governor would smile apologetically and reply, “You’re absolutely right.”

Officially, the badge carried no actual authority, but its true influence had long since spread into every aspect of society. No one hated a genuinely charitable and virtuous person, and no one could sincerely feel disrespect or resentment toward someone wearing the Radiant Benevolence Badge.

Ji Jue had become a verified benefactor within the Radiant Church.

Starting today...

Chen Xingzhou smiled faintly. “Before coming here, I told the Elder about you. He said thank you. He’d like to invite you to meet sometime when you’re free. From now on, you’ll always be an honored guest of the Radiant Church. No matter where you go, they’ll be your friends.”

Ji Jue lifted his head and looked toward the Elder surrounded by the crowd in the distance. The aged man turned back toward him and nodded once more, his gaze overflowing with sincere warmth and admiration.