Sun Yuan pulled out a brand-new magazine from the bookshelf, titled "Wu Yue Youth."
The book was quite famous among students, and Jiang Cheng had also seen it when he was in school.
"Wu Yue Youth" wasn't cheap, but the quality was high. It was full color printed, mainly featuring the pretty young ladies from various industries within Wuyue City.
The issue that Sun Yuan took out had Lin Yao's beautiful face delivering a knockout on the cover.
This enchantress of the Demonic Tao was youthful and beautiful, with brows and eyes like a painting, and her cover photo's smile seemed to bring the entire Wuyue City back to spring.
Jiang Cheng recalled that although Lin Yao had many suitors, she actually hadn't done anything outrageous, hadn't made big news, nor had she followed the route of a celebrity.
Even so, her fame had spread to other middle schools. Even his cousin Sun Yuan had become her fan.
It could only be said that being born with such charm was terrifying indeed.
Sun Yuan pointed to the picture in the magazine, "Lin Yao from your school, you know her, right?"
"I've seen her."
"Are you close?"
"Not at the moment."
Sun Yuan looked disappointed.
But he soon got over it. His cousin, Jiang Cheng, was so honest and straightforward that he didn't seem like the type who would be close to Lin Yao. How could someone who hesitates so much in conversation possibly know Lin Yao?
"Keep this magazine here for now. When I get into high school, you help me get Lin Yao's autograph. If I don't, you can do whatever you want with me. How about it, deal or no deal?"
Getting Lin Yao's autograph wasn't difficult for Jiang Cheng. If anything, he could just buy it.
Jiang Cheng didn't believe that if he proposed a fair trade and offered to buy it, Lin Yao would refuse.
The only obstacle was that he really didn't want to have too much to do with Lin Yao.
Lin Yao entered the Immortal Sect and was later discovered by the Demon Sect to be fit for the Demonic Tao. Before joining the Immortal Sect, there was a period of university life. Before that came the period right now, the summer holidays after the college entrance examination.
As long as he didn't attend the same university as her, and only interacted with her once more during the summer holidays, it should be fine.
Wanting his cousin to do well in his exams, Jiang Cheng decided to take a risk.
"Deal."
Sun Yuan put up his little finger, "Pinkie promise."
Jiang Cheng didn't play such childish games; adults needed to resolve things in an adult way.
"I need another piece of paper to write a betting agreement."
Sun Yuan: …
...
At the dinner table, Jiang Cheng's aunt, Zhou Wen Yue, started a conversation.
"Jiang Cheng, which university are you planning to go to?"
There were not a few prestigious universities in Liang Kingdom, and each university's main collaboration was with a different Immortal Sect.
The process of choosing a university was basically about choosing which Immortal Sect you wanted to go to, then selecting a key university that collaborated with that Immortal Sect. This way, it would be much easier to enter the Immortal Sect later on.
Jiang Cheng hadn't yet thought about these things; lately, he just wanted to think about buying a house.
There was no issue that couldn't wait until after he had bought a house.
"Auntie, I'm not sure yet. I plan to wait for my scores to come out before deciding. But I'll definitely go to Capital; I'll choose from the universities there when the time comes."
Capital was the capital of Liang Kingdom and also the place with the most prestigious universities in the entire country.
"Sun Yuan, look at your cousin."
Zhou Wen Yue used the skill "The Neighbors' Child."
Sun Yuan was hit by the skill "The Neighbors' Child," taking 30 points of mental damage, with an added silence effect.
Jiang Cheng picked up his bowl, looking at Sun Yuan beside him silently eating his rice.
Truthfully, Sun Yuan's grades weren't bad, but it depended on who they were compared to. Compared to Jiang Cheng, they were indeed a bit lacking, but compared to his classmates, they were considered excellent.
With middle school exams coming up soon for Sun Yuan, lacking confidence was not an option.
Of course, the main thing was, Jiang Cheng didn't like to be the "bad guy."
Seeing that he was about to become the "bad guy" in his cousin's mind, Jiang Cheng thought, he needed to do something to change that image.
The best way to transform an image in interpersonal relationships is to say something with high emotional intelligence.
Jiang Cheng felt his emotional intelligence was quite high, and he was particularly good at discovering others' strengths.
"Sun Yuan, don't be depressed, your aunt was actually complimenting you."
Sun Yuan looked up from his bowl of rice: Huh?
Sun Qing put down his chopsticks: Should we go for an Immortal Sect theme for the new restaurant?
Zhou Wen Yue waved her hands repeatedly: It's not like that, I didn't, stop making things up.
Jiang Cheng explained, "Aunt was praising your ability to learn, especially how good you are at learning from others."
Sun Yuan rolled his eyes.
"Jiang Cheng, what my mom means is, I'm nothing compared to you, just a useless son."
Zhou Wen Yue thought to herself, the little rascal is going to be the death of me.
She was about to explode when she heard Jiang Cheng calmly begin to explain.
"Auntie, Sun Yuan is willing to compare himself to trash just to highlight your great maternal love. Sun Yuan is really too filial."
When Sun Yuan heard Jiang Cheng's explanation, he almost choked on a mouthful of rice.
He swallowed hard, put down his bowl, and yelled at Jiang Cheng, "Jiang Cheng, I didn't!"
Jiang Cheng nodded to show he understood, then took Sun Yuan's bowl to serve him another full bowl of rice.
There was silence at the dinner table.
Jiang Cheng was quite satisfied with his high-EQ remarks.
Today was another day of saving family relationships.
"You can tell Sun Yuan is in a good mood today. Usually, he only eats one bowl of rice."
Jiang Cheng enjoyed praising others.
Sun Yuan didn't want to talk anymore. He felt that none of the three family members could outtalk his cousin. Forget it, might as well just eat.
Zhou Wen Yue subtly kicked Sun Qing under the table, signaling him to say something to break the awkward silence.
Sun Qing didn't know what to say and hesitated a long time.
"Jiang Cheng, you're not young either. Your uncle and aunt discussed with your parents before, not letting you date during high school. But once you're in university, they actually encourage you to have a relationship. After graduation, your classmates will either join society or the Immortal Sect, and it will be harder to find someone then."
Jiang Cheng answered honestly, "I understand, but I haven't considered it for the time being. When I meet the right girl, I will definitely try. Uncle and aunt, don't worry."
Sun Qing and his wife nodded slightly.
Jiang Cheng had always been honest, even if he dated, he was not likely to cause any trouble in romantic relationships.
At least in terms of love life, Jiang Cheng was still very reassuring to the adults.
...
After dinner, Jiang Cheng returned to his room and took out the textbooks he had bought for the Talisman competition.
He wanted to review the knowledge required for drawing talismans.
Jiang Cheng could still easily draw talismans now. However, drawing talismans according to the steps in the books and developing talismans according to his own ideas were two completely different things.
The "Muscle Relaxation Talisman" was clearly a brand new Healing Talisman.
Developing it from scratch was not an easy task.
But thanks to the bottom-line thinking of a numerical strategist, Jiang Cheng was optimistic about the difficulty of developing the "Muscle Relaxation Talisman."
If he had no confidence at all, he wouldn't have taken on Huang Wutong's task.
Jiang Cheng planned to use the relatively common auxiliary talisman "Physical Enhancement" as a blueprint for developing the "Muscle Relaxation Talisman."
"Physical Enhancement" itself is an auxiliary talisman that works by acting on the human muscles, allowing physical strength to increase under the influence of the talisman.
Jiang Cheng intended to take advantage of the convenient conditions provided by "Physical Enhancement" in its action on muscles, adding some electric shock effects that are beneficial for muscle relaxation to the function of the talisman.
If someone exercised vigorously during muscle relaxation, it could rightfully, oh no, unfortunately lead to muscle cramps and the inability to move.
Adding the electric shock effect wasn't difficult, but the challenge was controlling the strength and precision of the shock.
After all, the heart is also a muscle, and it's always performing vigorous exercise.
If the electric shock affected the heart and caused someone's heart to stop beating, that was clearly not Jiang Cheng's intended therapeutic meaning of "relaxing muscles."
He just wanted patients with tense muscles to stop moving and rest for a while. What bad intentions could be mixed into such humanitarian concern?
"We don't have any books about muscles at home, so it looks like I'll have to go to the library to borrow an 'Anatomy' book for research tomorrow."