"Shopkeeper Sylvester, let's make a deal."
Jade pulled out the chair in front of the counter and sat down opposite of Sylvester.
At this moment, the two of them no longer seemed like customer and merchant, but rather two equal representatives at a negotiation table.
Jade could no longer hold back. An obsession she normally would never allow was flooding her mind. She wanted to devour Sylvester like a giant python swallowing prey, to digest all his secrets at once.
Normally, she would never act so rashly. But her greatest interest lay in finding the brightest pearls hidden within raw stones. And when a living vein of ore like Sylvester appeared before her—one whose depth could not be measured, yet shimmered faintly with a myriad of colors—she could no longer restrain her excitement. If she suppressed it any longer, she feared she would lose her sanity.
The intellectual elegance faded from her pale blue eyes beneath the wide hat, replaced by a zealous hunger for knowledge and discovery.
Her tone began calm, but ended sharp and high.
"In the premise of not betraying the Company. With all that I possess, with everything I can give, with no limits, beyond all morals—I will satisfy one request of yours!"
No tricks, no artifice.
Jade chose to be open in this match, laying every chip on the table. She did not seek to profit a hundredfold, but to be stripped bare by her opponent.
And after that, for one answer in return.
"I want you to tell me—tell me the truth. Your actions, what are you expecting from them? What is it that you truly want?!"
"To sell more trash cans!" Sylvester shouted with stirring passion.
W-what? What on earth?
Jade froze, her heartbeat seeming to skip.
But in the next instant, she saw the man before her grinning like a prankster who had succeeded, his laugh ringing with ease and arrogance.
He drained the dregs of tea in his cup.
"If you'd come two days earlier, that's probably the answer I would've given you. But now, I'll let you know my true purpose."
"What is it?" Jade leaned forward slightly, even though the price of her offer hadn't yet been determined. Even though this went against her aesthetics of Preservation—patiently waiting for barren branches to ripen with fruit. Yet when the answer was so close, she couldn't stop herself from drawing nearer.
Chasing it, like a moth to flame!
Sylvester poured fresh tea, blew across the surface. "To seek what I love, to reject what I hate, to spend my days in joy until time itself wears away."
After reciting the ten words, he drank half a cup, then added, "That is all."
"That's all?" Jade pressed urgently.
She didn't understand. Why such an answer?
It was too simple. Far too simple. On this Xianzhou Luofu, or across the Interastral Peace Corporation, such a wish was so ordinary it was almost worthless to say aloud.
"Puzzled?" Sylvester didn't explain, only chuckled lightly. "Let me ask you instead. What kind of answer would make you feel enlightened, make you bow in conviction?
"You think that I, selling trash cans here is for some grand scheme to swallow the universe?"
At this, Jade furrowed her brows. Naturally, that was what she had thought.
No one would believe that someone with countless top-tier Curios would waste time on something meaningless. No one dared make such a conclusion.
But… was she wrong?
"Wrong!" Sylvester finished his cup in one go, then cast the tea set aside. "Not wrong about me. Wrong about the very way you think."
He looked straight at Jade, his eyes stripped of all playfulness.
Rarely, he let his true spirit pour forth:
"Wasted years? Joyful days? To say them is only four words. But from the Era of the Three Tribulations to the rise of the Arbiter-General, from the Borisin Invasion to the sprouting of the Ambrosial Arbor, from the fall of Ketu Mirage upon Fanghu to the descent of the Arbiter's Lux Arrow upon Yuque—how many legends have closed, how many heroic souls scattered? For thousands of years, when has the famed Xianzhou ever known two generations of peace in succession?"
"This land is a land of tragic heroism!"
He struck the solid wooden counter, his voice echoing against the walls and in Jade's ears.
Whoosh—
Sylvester folded his arms across his chest. He didn't raise them like a performer giving a speech.
He simply spoke with conviction:
"When the great river's song is done, turn eastward—science, vast and deep, shall serve the world's need. With my power, I will turn the Xianzhou into a theater of cosmic comedy, one that never ends!"
"Never ends…"
Murmuring the words, Jade gazed at Sylvester in a daze.
Not just living in private happiness, but refusing to see tragedy at all.
That indeed was a grand ambition beyond dispute.
On a Xianzhou walking the Path of The Hunt, on a journey chasing the Aeon of Abundance, such words sounded like a fairytale.
How foolish.
If anyone else had said this—even her superior, Diamond—Jade would have thought exactly that.
But when it came from Sylvester, she could summon no doubt.
"So that's it."
At last Jade's confusion dispersed, and she accepted his words.
She said to Sylvester, "If Shopkeeper Sylvester ever wishes to work with the Company, you may contact me anytime."
"And then—" She rested her chin on one hand, her voice refined and intellectual. "Now Shopkeeper Sylvester may take the fruit of this deal. I will keep my promise, and give my all."
Oh-ho.
Is it that I misunderstood, or does the Company really speak so bluntly?
Give her all…
Hmm. To what extent, exactly?
Looking at the beautiful, elegant woman before him offering herself up so openly, Sylvester couldn't deny—he was tempted.
When it came to women, he had yet to find any blind spots in his tastes.
Jade smiled openly, generously. "What's wrong? Do you have designs on me? I said I would give my all, and I will not break my word."