Chapter 64: The Dead Bring Promotion, Filth Brings Fortune

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Chapter 64: The Dead Bring Promotion, Filth Brings Fortune

“Compared to that woman’s dream just now, I think the dream I had was much scarier.” Yu Shenliu said this with a beaming smile, completely oblivious to how utterly at odds his expression was with his words.

Chen Yuan said, “So what exactly did you dream about?”

Yu Shenliu knew Chen Yuan was only humoring him at this point, but he didn’t mind. Keeping his arm around him, he felt the warmth radiating from Chen Yuan through his clothes as he said, “I dreamed about a dead person.”

Maintaining a calm expression, Chen Yuan asked in the same unruffled tone, “And then? Who was this dead person? An older relative of yours who had passed away? A colleague or childhood friend? Or someone else?”

Dreaming about the dead was perfectly normal. In fact, many people dreamed about relatives who had already passed away. Sometimes it was simply a dream; other times, strange things happened that couldn’t be explained by scientific principles, and people would call the inexplicable part a “visitation dream.” Still, dreams about different people did indeed have different meanings when it came to dream interpretation. Although Chen Yuan was only humoring Yu Shenliu, he wasn’t about to make things up just to fob him off.

“Just a dead person. A plain, ordinary dead person. Not a soul or anything like that, and someone who had nothing to do with me. I didn’t know him, and I’d never had any contact with him. I simply dreamed about someone lying there, and somehow knew that he was already dead. That’s all.”

People often somehow received information in their dreams for no apparent reason, like Yu Shenliu somehow knowing that the person was dead without any explanation. There was nothing particularly strange about that.

Only after Yu Shenliu finished recounting the dream did Chen Yuan turn his head and study him, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

“What is it?” Even though Yu Shenliu’s skin had become remarkably thick by now, being stared at by Chen Yuan still made him feel a little uncomfortable. So he asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I remember you haven’t been working in Jincheng City for very long, right?”

Yu Shenliu nodded slightly, then shook his head. “It’s not particularly long, but it’s not exactly short either. It’s been nearly two years.”

For a long time before that, although he was supposedly in charge of economic affairs, he had been kept under control and held little real authority. It was only after meeting Chen Yuan, over these past few months, that he had truly begun to show what he was capable of.

In fact, after getting to know Chen Yuan, Yu Shenliu had realized that he had changed quite a lot. And those changes weren’t limited to his work. They extended to the things he knew, the world he had been exposed to, his own perspectives, and so on. He had changed, and he had been changed.

There was a rather sentimental phrase, “changing for love,” and sometimes Yu Shenliu wondered if perhaps that was what was happening to him.

When Yu Shenliu said it had been nearly two years, Chen Yuan looked even more astonished. He muttered, “You became deputy mayor at such a young age. And now you’re already about to get promoted again after less than two years?”

“Promoted?”

“Fame and rank are like coffins, wealth and possessions like filth.” Chen Yuan recited this first, then explained, “The ancients believed that fame, rank, wealth, and status were like the decaying corpses of the dead, while money and riches were like the filth found in a latrine. In fact, if you simply dream about things like corpses or filth, it’s actually considered an auspicious sign. For example, if you dream about a dead person, it means you’ll soon be promoted.”

Although such things might not feel particularly pleasant to dream about, dreaming of them was actually the sort of auspicious omen everyone wanted.

“Modern society doesn’t use gold and silver as currency directly anymore. We use paper money instead. Otherwise, there’s an even more specific interpretation: dreaming about urine means you’ll gain silver, while dreaming about feces means you’ll gain gold.” Chen Yuan tossed that in casually, though no matter how you put it, the topic was rather disgusting.

Yu Shenliu, however, looked somewhat bewildered after hearing Chen Yuan’s explanation. “The odds of that happening are way too low, aren’t they? Normally, I have to serve in one place for five full years before I can be transferred. And honestly, given my age, getting this position in the first place has already made plenty of people jealous. I haven’t exactly accomplished anything particularly impressive either. It would be far too difficult for me to climb any higher.”

As he spoke, Yu Shenliu shook his head. From a practical standpoint, the result of Chen Yuan’s dream interpretation really didn’t seem likely to come true.

Yet Yu Shenliu’s trust in Chen Yuan was anything but ordinary. He knew that the chances of Chen Yuan being wrong were extremely small. Or rather, Chen Yuan simply wouldn’t be wrong when it came to metaphysics. So he merely raised his doubts and began considering whether there might be something else at play.

“If this promotion happens at this juncture, then either I’ll be taking on an additional position at the grassroots level, or I’ll be entering the standing committee .” He rubbed his chin and spoke in a low voice, as though talking to himself, though in reality he was helping Chen Yuan understand the specific circumstances.

“Joining the standing committee… those people have been blocking me from moving any further. At this point, getting onto the standing committee is basically impossible. So I suppose I’ll be taking on some additional position.”

“Yuanyuan, what do you think?”

Chen Yuan silently stared at Yu Shenliu, feeling rather speechless. Hadn’t Yu Shenliu basically talked himself through the whole thing already?

Chen Yuan’s speechless expression looked very amusing to Yu Shenliu. He curled his lips into a smile and leaned closer. Before Chen Yuan could react to what he was doing, he quickly rubbed his nose against the tip of Chen Yuan’s nose. It was like the affectionate gesture of small animals, sniffing and nuzzling against each other.

It was an extremely close distance, and the momentary intimacy was unmistakable. Yet because it wasn’t actually a kiss, Chen Yuan had no grounds to object.

Yu Shenliu had learned his limits very well. Even when he acted on a sudden impulse to get close to Chen Yuan, he still knew where to draw the line. And he drew that line perfectly, taking every advantage he could without crossing the boundary of Chen Yuan’s tolerance.

So when Chen Yuan realized what had happened after that brief nuzzle, he couldn’t help blushing. How had he let Yu Shenliu take advantage of him again? Wasn’t he supposed to figure out some way to keep his distance?

Thinking about it, he probably should have gotten angry at a time like this. But Chen Yuan had never been accustomed to losing his temper. And when he thought about it, Yu Shenliu hadn’t actually done anything to him. He had merely nuzzled his nose against his.

If he had kissed him like last time, then Chen Yuan would have had every reason to get angry. But this… he genuinely couldn’t find a reason to be angry.

Then, looking at Yu Shenliu’s cheeky grin, Chen Yuan decided that, indeed, there was no need to get angry. If he got angry with Yu Shenliu, he would probably be the one at a disadvantage.

He silently raised a hand and rubbed the tip of his nose, pretending that nothing had happened. Then, with complete composure, he said, “Anyway, based on your own reasoning, you’ll be taking on some additional position. But generally speaking, even if it’s just an additional position, wouldn’t people still rather not see you move up and then get promoted again? In other words, this position itself should be something that they have no choice but to hand over to you.

“Considering that you’re currently in charge of education, it’s probably education-related as well. When everyone was trying to pass the responsibility around, they ended up pushing it onto you.”

Watching Chen Yuan’s every reaction, Yu Shenliu felt both helpless and secretly delighted. To be honest, being too calm was the least adorable thing about Yuanyuan. Because of his calm personality, it was difficult for Yu Shenliu to get the reaction he wanted whenever he teased him.

But the rarer the reaction, the more precious it was. That barely perceptible flush just now had been more than worth it.

And from another perspective, this calmness was actually the most adorable part of Yuanyuan’s personality too. If Chen Yuan were the sort to make a huge fuss over everything, Yu Shenliu would probably find it difficult to accept. Would someone like that even be Chen Yuan anymore?

Really, there was just something satisfying about getting an exceptionally calm person to show some emotion. Thinking back to the way Chen Yuan had jolted awake and shoved him away the last time he kissed him, Yu Shenliu still found the memory worth savoring.

“Actually, Yuanyuan, I think you could think a little more broadly.” He continued following the line of analysis. “To be honest, I haven’t accomplished anything particularly impressive in education. If they want to put me in charge of something, they’d at least have to prove that I have some particular talent for whatever it is they want me to do, right? So far, there seems to be only one thing I’ve done that’s actually worth mentioning.”

“What?”

“The depression and suicide problem among the students at Zhuowen Academy.” As he voiced the conclusion he had arrived at, Yu Shenliu secretly watched for Chen Yuan’s reaction.

Surprised? Of course he would be. Although Chen Yuan had already become quite conflicted over many of the government’s practices in this world and had developed a certain degree of psychological preparedness, he had never imagined that the small bit of help he had given last time could actually be regarded by others as one of Yu Shenliu’s accomplishments.

And now, it might even be connected to Yu Shenliu’s promotion.

For a moment, Chen Yuan was practically unable to process it. He stared blankly at Yu Shenliu.

He looked just like a silly little puppy staring at its owner. Yu Shenliu forcibly suppressed the urge to reach over and ruffle his hair, merely giving a firm nod.

Chen Yuan simply didn’t understand the way government departments operated as well as he did. In fact, this sort of seemingly “ridiculous” situation was extremely common in Huaxia. After years of it, everyone had simply grown accustomed to this bizarre way of doing things.

That was why, after just a few words from Chen Yuan, Yu Shenliu could more or less guess what strange direction the whole matter would eventually take.

“So, Master Yuanyuan, if those people really want me to deal with these sorts of extraordinary incidents, then I’ll have to rely on you. Without you, I simply wouldn’t be able to survive.” He half-jokingly put on a girlish tone at the end of the sentence.

The smile on Yu Shenliu’s face looked rather dubious, appearing downright sleazy in Chen Yuan’s eyes. Or perhaps there was another word for it—calculating?

At this point, Chen Yuan genuinely felt a bit of a headache coming on. He didn’t mind having a few well-connected customers, but he had never expected to become completely entangled with the government, to the point where he was practically turning into an unofficial government employee.

What he hadn’t seriously considered was what any of this had to do with him even if Yu Shenliu really did have to take on such assignments. Chen Yuan could have simply left Yu Shenliu to deal with it himself and refused to get involved.

Yet after Yu Shenliu brought up the matter, Chen Yuan hadn’t even considered the possibility of shirking his responsibility and simply ignoring the whole thing.

Had Yu Shenliu lured Chen Yuan down this path? Or had Chen Yuan already, somewhere in his own heart, come to accept that this was his responsibility too?

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