Chương 59: Chapter 44 — Wedding Negotiations

Lin Che took a deep breath of bathroom-air in, finally filling his lungs with something which wasn't liquid. He reached for his phone, opened the voice recorder, and pressed record. He spoke for about twenty minutes in a stream of consciousness attempting to preserve every minute and relevant detail from his previous life.

He mostly spent time talking about the refinements he'd provided to Xu Fang and Guo Mingzhe's cultivation techniques — in this life he would provide them with the refined versions directly rather than a technique for a generalised profile of a beginner cultivator. Hopefully that would help him ensure having some competent allies. He then tried to piece together the fragments of information he'd been given about the Lin Clan.

His background in life had always been mortal — he, of course, had no information about cultivation until a couple of deaths in post-marriage, and his parents must have been mortal as well, considering how they aged normally. He had grown up in an ordinary apartment in an ordinary city and had gone to ordinary school, and had never once had any reason to believe that cultivation was something that belonged to his family's history. And yet this entire marriage scheme proved otherwise.

The marriage contract was designed to extract some or all — he was not yet sure which it was — of his innate Qi, presumably to provide the Shen Clan with access to multiple different points of interest. The only one he knew of right now was the holy land, but there must have been more. The Lin Clan had remained dormant for a long time, but it was not extinct.

Still, there was nothing productive he could do with all the questions he had right now, as he simply did not have the information required to think any further. Speculating without information was just constructing a story that would feel true but probably wasn't. What he could do was use the Shen Clan. After all, if the Shen Clan had dealings with the Lin Clan, such as the entire marriage pact ordeal, they must have had more information about the Lin Clan's structure and beyond.

After he finished speaking, Lin Che put the phone down and looked at the ceiling for another moment. Then, he finished dressing up and made his way towards his own wedding.

The ceremony was the same as it always was, and Lin Che went through the motions automatically as he had done so in most of his previous lives: he bowed down when he had to and spoke rehearsed lines until it was time to sign the marriage certificate. When the contract arrived, he did not sign it. He put the pen down and looked at Shen Yue, who was sitting across from him.

"I'd like to speak with Shen Bowen before we proceed," he said.

"Now?" asked Shen Yue.

"Now." There was a brief silence in the room as the registrar sat opposite the two of them stared in disbelief. Shen Yue broke the silence by picking up her phone and making the call.

The black sedan came around to the side entrance of the venue with Yang Zichen at the wheel. Shen Bowen stepped out and looked at Lin Che and Shen Yue, who had been hurried out of the office by the registrar as they were 'not the only ones getting married' that day.

"Get in," said Bowen, his voice calm as ever. The partition was down again, with Yang Zichen once again fading into non-presence and only focussing on the road. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Lin Che sat in the middle of the car, with Shen Yue to his left and Shen Bowen to his right.

"I don't appreciate the swindle," began Lin Che. Shen Bowen looked at him, as did Shen Yue.

"Attempting to extract my innate Qi using a wedding contract," clarified Lin Che, keeping his voice even and his hands on his lap.

"I'm telling you this because I want to cut you a deal." Shen Bowen was quiet for a moment; his mind quickly processed the main parts of the conversation: A. Lin Che was a cultivator, or at least had knowledge of it all. B. He managed to evade every single background check. C. He believed he had some sort of bargaining power. He smiled a little.

"And what kind of deal were you expecting to offer?"

"I'm willing to forgive the attempt to fool me and offer you something considerably better than what you were trying to take." Lin Che coughed slightly.

"I will not only provide complete access to the holy land for the Shen Clan, but I will personally help expedite the process," he began.

"I'm not too sure just how much the Shen Clan knows about the holy land, but I will tell you this much: it used to be a zoo containing wolf-like creatures far beyond the strength level that is typically allowed entry into the site. Only a member of the Lin Clan can bypass these restrictions, so only a Lin Clan member can help speed things up so that you can work on your cure for Shen Yue." Shen Yue, to his left, said nothing. He could feel her sit slightly more upright, but she simply stared ahead like a statue.

Even Shen Bowen couldn't disguise the shock on his face, instead having to use his hand to cover the emotions he was showing from view. Eventually, Shen Bowen made a noise.

"You're offering Lin Clan sites, plural?"

"I'm offering to discuss them," corrected Lin Che.

"Whether that discussion produces anything depends on whether this arrangement produces anything."

"And the marriage?"

"The marriage proceeds as normal," said Lin Che.

"Just with a regular certificate this time, please." Bowen looked at him.

"Why?" he said.

"If you're negotiating from a position of resource leverage, you don't need the marriage to secure clan cooperation. Why include it?" Lin Che considered several answers to this question, ultimately deciding on the one most honest to him.

"I have no objection to Shen Yue — I have an objection to being deceived about the terms." Bowen looked out the window for a while. When he looked back, his expression had smoothened.

"I'll need to take this to the elders," he said.

"I can't commit to something like this unilaterally."

"I give you two days to decide," said Lin Che.

"Just drop me off here as I have business to attend to." The car slowed down to a halt on the high street and Lin Che exited the vehicle. He walked in the direction of the antique shop just a couple of metres away.

The council of elders met that evening in the main hall, with seven people around a table, including Shen Bowen. The sect leader was missing, but this matter was not urgent enough to warrant his arrival. Shen Bowen laid out everything Lin Che had discussed clearly, including his awareness of the innate Qi extraction method and specific details of the holy land they had been planning to exploit for resources. When he finished, Elder Mao spoke first.

"And do we know how he knows about Shen Yue's constitution?

"I'm afraid not," sighed Shen Bowen.

"I don't think he could have got that information by himself. I scanned him with my sense and he appeared much weaker than me, though, again, we cannot be sure if that's necessarily the case."

"Yes, he has proven that he can evade all our background checks," said Elder Mao. Elder Fang, at the far end of the table, had the expression of someone who had been correct about something they would have preferred to be wrong about.

"I knew we couldn't trust him. I said the background check was insufficient."

"The background check was thorough by our standards," interjected Elder Mao.

"Lin Che not only managed to hide his own information, but he also has restricted information about us. No amount of background checking would prevent him from getting that information."

"The sites?" asked Elder Wong, who was sitting in the centre of the table on a slightly raised chair. She had successfully gone through rejuvenation and appeared to look like an androgynous teenager, but was the most powerful individual in the room.

"How credible is the offer?" The room fell silent. Elder Wong was typically disinterested in things like this — her presence alone was hardly guaranteed even in discussions involving the entire council.

"I believe it's genuine," said Shen Bowen.

"He provided us with information about the holy land which we have independently verified. And, given his knowledge, I'm not inclined to assume he's wrong about his own clan's geography."

"I recommend we accept the arrangement as offered and see what it produces," said Elder Wong, before stepping up and exiting the room. The remainder of the council discussed it for another hour, which was shorter than most decisions of this magnitude. Elder Fang objected twice but was eventually overruled. When it was done, Shen Bowen was given his authorisation, and the meeting was adjourned. Shen Bowen left the main building and lit a cigarette as he walked towards Shen Yue's residence.

She would prove very helpful in keeping Lin Che in line.