My Dream Connects to 3000 Years in the Future

"If I may be so bold," Ning Linglong swallowed, "the person you’re talking about... could it be...?"

She had a feeling she knew who he meant, but she couldn’t bring herself to believe it. ’After all, isn’t that nickname a little too flippant, too disrespectful?’

’Chu Bamboo normally calls him Li Kang, not Lao Li...’

"Yep, it’s who you think it is." Chu Bamboo nodded, hastily shoveling down his last bite of rice before patting Lu Muxue on the shoulder. "Alright, my lady, your ’real-life experience’ for the day is over! If you want to come to my place, that’s fine by me... you might want to consider giving your family a call."

"! Don’t you try to sweet-talk me! We’ve only known each other for a few days! And you’re already getting ideas!" Lu Muxue ground her teeth.

"In that case," Chu Bamboo turned to Li Kang in a flash, as if he’d already known what her answer would be and was just going through the motions. "Could I trouble you to escort this young lady home later..."

"Things haven’t been too safe lately, after all. If something were to happen..." Chu Bamboo trailed off, but his meaning was perfectly clear.

Li Kang gave a slight nod.

With that, Chu Bamboo got up and left the Police Chief Bureau.

Aside from the chatter of other officers eating their meals, the room fell silent.

Lu Muxue held it in for as long as she could, then, like an overinflated balloon, she puffed out her cheeks and went to a nearby female officer to vent her frustrations.

Wall Announcements waited for a long moment, his gaze shifting from Li Kang to his two seniors, Guan Fei and Ning Linglong. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. "So, can we please stop with the cryptic nonsense!"

"Yeah, seriously," Guan Fei chimed in.

In response, Li Kang passed the tablet he was holding to everyone there.

And then, everyone fell silent...

The announcement was actually quite simple. It stated that Jinghai City was establishing a new agency—the Management Department for the Shantytown Redevelopment Area. It also announced the department’s new director: Chu Bamboo!

"Captain, I have to ask!" Wall Announcements posed the difficult question. "In the official hierarchy, who ranks higher? You or Uncle Zhu?"

"...I have no idea!" Li Kang sighed, looking to the heavens. ’But once the Shantytown Redevelopment Management Department is made official, given the sheer scale of the area, even if the rank is technically low... Chu Bamboo will probably be on equal footing with Governor Sun and the others.’

"The higher-ups also said the Management Department’s situation is unique, and that it reports directly to both Governor Su and Governor Lu," Guan Fei added, clicking his tongue. "This... does this mean Governor Lu is really being groomed as the successor? This whole thing..."

Ning Linglong sat in silence, staring blankly into space.

"Actually, there’s no need to be too concerned," Li Kang said, having gradually calmed down.

"Vice Ning, I’m talking to you. Stop looking around. And don’t wear that miserable expression, like someone in your family just died."

Li Kang looked at the current Ning Linglong. Her eyes seemed to hold a lion, albeit a rather dejected one...

He was finding it hard to keep a straight face.

Li Kang tried to reason with her. "It most likely has nothing to do with him marrying into the family... It’s simple: if he had, they’d never give him such a major responsibility right off the bat."

"...That’s right!" Guan Fei realized. Men love to discuss politics, so he knew a thing or two about this. "If this was just about padding his resume, he would have been made a secretary first, then sent down to govern some county, and then promoted step by step..."

"Being parachuted in like this, especially into a brand-new organization... that would cause a massive public outcry! We all know Mr. Zhu is capable, of course... but this move really doesn’t look like the standard way of grooming a successor..."

"In other words, did Ah Zhu really convince Governor Lu to create an entire department for him just from that one interview?" Li Kang arrived at this conclusion. Even knowing how astonishingly capable Chu Bamboo was, he was still a bit spooked. "That’s just..."

"Wait a minute!" Guan Fei’s expression changed dramatically, the realization dawning on him. All eyes in the room turned to him.

"Mr. Zhu is the Director of the Shantytown Redevelopment Area now," Guan Fei said, frantically running his hands through his hair, his voice trembling. "Does that mean he’s not joining our special ops team anymore?!"

Wall Announcements: "...Huh?!"

After a moment of stunned silence, the realization hit Wall Announcements, and a look of pure despair washed over his face.

He had been counting on Chu Bamboo joining to share some of the workload—especially to get the full support of the unions in the Shantytown Redevelopment Area!

But now, it seemed like that plan was ruined!!

"This is why I said it, Captain. You were too soft!" Ning Linglong snapped, her disappointment palpable as she immediately started placing the blame. "Why didn’t you have the guts to fight Governor Lu for him? And look what happened! He poached our best prospect! Oh, and if I recall correctly... you’re the one who gave Uncle Zhu Governor Lu’s contact info in the first place, aren’t you?"

"..." Li Kang stared at his mutinous subordinate, his lips trembling.

’Well, I’ll be damned! You’re only acting so brazen because you’re not the one in charge, is that it? If you’ve got the guts, why don’t you go confront Governor Lu yourself!’

Ning Linglong’s gaze shot back a clear reply: ’That’s a completely different issue!’

...

「Meanwhile.」

Third District Church.

"So, Mo Ban is the person you mentioned? The one who can forge this guy into a weapon?" Chu Bamboo asked, lost in thought.

He sized up the tightly bound assassin... The killer was restrained by a special red silk, which looked thin and fragile. But Chu Bamboo had a strong suspicion... ’Could this be some kind of Spiritual Artifact, or maybe a Forbidden Artifact?’

He didn’t know what method Zhang Hai had used, but the assassin’s mask had been removed. Chu Bamboo didn’t recognize the man... which only confirmed his suspicion that the killer wasn’t a Jinghai local.

The assassin was still unconscious.

Chu Bamboo mused on it. He wasn’t sure if the assassin’s continued unconsciousness was due to the red silk—which he suspected was an Artifact—or if it was because every time the man woke up, Zhang Hai treated him to a "Beautiful Youth Sleep Fist."

Zhang Hai, oblivious to Chu Bamboo’s inner slander, nodded. "Yeah, that’s him. But I can’t get in touch with him. Can you?"

"You can’t reach him even with a phone... so how am I supposed to?" Chu Bamboo rolled his eyes. People from the Moisture Teaching were notoriously hard to find.

After all, Chu Bamboo had a nickname for them: the Brother Tu Mu crew—

In the Real World, once a Brother Tu Mu started a job, he might as well have vanished. He was either pouring concrete at a construction site or on his way to pour concrete at a construction site. You’d be lucky to find him for more than sixty-five days a year.

And that was before you even considered that the Moisture Teaching in the dream world was also the origin of the steam industry. Besides, from what little was known, they were also extremely busy in the Extraordinary sector—

All things considered, they were definitely even harder to track down than their Real World counterparts.

"You call the Moisture Teaching and book an appointment. I’ll go when it’s time," Chu Bamboo said with a yawn.

The Moisture Teaching’s Jinghai City headquarters was in the Fourth District... and on the far side of it, at that. To get there, you had to cross the Second District and the First District, then cross back through the Second and Third Districts on the other side before you could reach it—

The First, Second, and Third Districts... were a bit like the ring roads in the Real World. A series of concentric circles, each one larger than the last...

So, getting to the Moisture Teaching... was going to be a real pain in the ass for Chu Bamboo.