Dust Settles

Clenching the beer bottle a little tighter, he took a fierce gulp.

Father Lin nodded and said, "We'll move!"

"I'll head back as soon as Xiaxia wakes up from her afternoon nap, and we can discuss and figure things out properly. Besides, the students are on holiday today anyway, so business is slow."

Mother Lin nodded. "Alright then."

Meanwhile, seeing Mother Lin head out, Lin Xia called Chen Qing to let her know that she had already convinced her parents and that she had asked Jin Ye to help look for a house, among other things.

After chatting with Lin Xia for a bit and hanging up, Chen Qing dialed another number.

"Hello—" A deep, rich male voice came from the other end, carrying an even stronger magnetic resonance.

"Ah-Ye, I heard you've taken full charge of finding a place for Xiaxia?"

"Mhm. Anything else?"

Half-joking and half-serious, Chen Qing said, "Well, I've known you for so long, and I never knew you could be this warm-hearted. Listen, Ah-Ye, that is the single seedling with the most potential I have under my wing. Don't go messing this up and ruining her like you did with Sun Shuiling. I need to keep a close eye on her. This little girl isn't like Sun Shuiling; she's not even eighteen yet."

Jin Ye remained silent for a long while before finally saying, "You're overthinking it."

Chen Qing replied, "I hope I'm just overthinking it, but this young girl has immense potential, and I really don't want to see her buried or destroyed just like that."

Jin Ye thought for a moment. "Understood."

"As for the house, since you've taken it over, I won't interfere. Just let me know when it's all sorted out. You're much better at handling these things than I am."

After exchanging a few more words with Jin Ye, Chen Qing made up her mind that once Lin Xia arrived in City B, she would definitely need to give her some serious warning. No one knew Jin Ye's charm better than she did. The young girl was of tender age and right in the middle of her youth's awakening; even if she possessed a bit of cleverness, she would likely be utterly defenseless against matters of the heart.

Back at the Lin household, the elderly couple packed up the shop, gave instructions to Lin Hui—who was playing wildly at school—and hurried back home.

Lin Xia had just woken up and was lounging lazily on the sofa watching television.

Seeing her parents return and realizing her earlier words had taken effect, she sat up straight. She picked up a grape with a toothpick, popped it into her mouth, and mumbled indistinctly, "Dad, Mom, why are you back so early?"

She had originally thought they wouldn't be back until they closed up the stall for the night.

Mother Lin poured two cups of tea, and the two of them sat down on the sofa next to Lin Xia.

The couple remained silent for a moment before Father Lin finally spoke. "Xiaxia, your mother and I discussed it. We feel that the two of us old folks shouldn't hold you and Xiaohui back, so your mom and I support your decision."

A wave of joy washed over Lin Xia's heart, and she smiled, saying, "Thank you, Dad and Mom, for your support and understanding."

Lin Jiagui shook his head. "No. You've thought things through thoroughly, considering almost every single aspect. Your mother and I don't have any objections. Right now, our family still has over three million in savings. Two million should be enough to buy a quite decent apartment in City B. As for the remaining money, it'll cover transferring you and Lin Hui to new schools, as well as our family of four's living expenses down the road. Your dad and mom will calculate the exact details tonight. But you have to be certain—does that young girl Chen Qing really have the capability to get household registration for our whole family in City B?"

So it was about the household registration after all. Lin Xia breathed a sigh of relief.

It was only the year 2006. In a couple of years, City B's population would reach saturation, and getting a household registration then would be a genuine ordeal.

Right now, however, it should be relatively easy, especially with the backing of *Drizzle*. And failing that, there was still Jin Ye. Though she did not know his exact background, that sheer aura of his was truly not something one could underestimate.

"Dad, don't you worry. Even though I might not be making a fortune just yet, as far as *Drizzle* goes, your daughter here is currently quite a lucrative cash cow—and an upgradable one at that. My future prospects are simply immeasurable."

That was the truth. Her novel *Conquering the Realm* featured both grand, magnificent battle scenes and exquisite, delicate Jiangnan water-town scenery; it could easily be adapted into a television series or a movie.

However, while she enjoyed a small reputation among students, it was still far from enough.

Even Guo Jingming's works took quite a while before being adapted into television dramas; she was certainly not qualified just yet.

Yet, once online literature flourished in the near future, merging the film industry with web novels, countless online stories would be adapted into dramas and films. By then, the books she had written would continue to generate substantial wealth.

"You girl, you really know how to gild your own lily," Mother Lin laughed, though her face beamed with immense pride. "It's just that when we signed the lease for the shop, it was for five years, and we haven't even been here for two. If we rent it out now during the off-season, we won't get much rent at all, and wouldn't that mean we'd take a loss?"

Lin Xia had already thought this through long ago and chimed in, "What's difficult about that? We can just rent the shop to Uncle and Auntie, and let them run whatever small business they like. Besides, once we're living well in City B, there's no way we'd ever come back."

Lin Xia's uncle, Xia Miao, and aunt, Su Susan, had returned from out of town last year and opened a small sundry shop. Because the location wasn't very good, they had to close down after running it for just a year.

Currently, her uncle had found a job selling insurance at an insurance company, while her aunt's employment was still unsettled. Handing the shop over to her aunt would also serve as a form of financial support.

In her past life, the Lin family had struggled, and relations among relatives were lukewarm, with gatherings happening only during major holidays. Now that the Lin family was doing well, the familial bonds had naturally warmed up as well, though her uncle remained as impartial and steady as ever.

Lin Xia deeply admired the character of her uncle's family; not everyone could act with the integrity her uncle displayed.

Even she herself could not.

Consequently, Lin Xia was very fond of her uncle's only son, Xia Jie. Whenever she saw a nice toy, she would always bring one back for him. Xia Jie was attending kindergarten this year, and when Lin Xia went to City B to sign the contract, she specifically bought him a complete set of Disney school bags, stationery, pencil boxes, and a full set of Transformers toys, which utterly delighted the little fellow.

Whenever he saw Lin Xia, he would beam and scamper over, shouting, "Elder Sister Xiaxia!"

Hearing Lin Xia think of her only younger cousin, Mother Lin's face bloomed with an even brighter smile, and the last lingering trace of discomfort in her heart completely vanished.

Of course it was a good thing to give the shop to her younger brother. Her own parents were getting older and couldn't offer much help to her brother, and while her own family was well-off, handing over cash directly wasn't appropriate either. Even if Lin Jiagui didn't say anything out loud, it would still create a barrier in his heart, especially since he had a whole bunch of sisters and younger female relatives on his own side of the family.

Now that Lin Xia herself had taken the initiative to offer the shop to her aunt and uncle—since it was her beloved daughter who had actively proposed it—Lin Jiagui wouldn't raise any objections. After all, the money in this household had all been earned by Xiaxia anyway.

Sure enough, hearing Lin Xia put it that way, Lin Jiagui's expression remained calm as he simply nodded and said, "There's no rush about things here. The main thing is to get the matters in City B settled properly. Only once things are finalized over there can we deal with our affairs here."

Seeing her father display such decisive leadership, Lin Xia felt genuinely happy inside.

Her father was no longer the aging man from her past life, whose hair had turned gray and back grown slightly hunched from years of selling vegetables.

In Creek Water Town, because she frequently used the spiritual water from her spatial dimension to bathe, and because ever since coming here, Zhao Xin had given them spiritual fruits that Lin Xia always saved and had the whole family share...

Both Father Lin and Mother Lin looked considerably younger than their peers.

Hearing her father say that, Lin Xia immediately declared, "I'll call Sister Qing right away to ask about the specific details of the house. Then Dad and I can make a trip to City B and get the housing sorted out properly."

Just as she was speaking, Chen Qing's call came through.

"Hello, Sister Qing."

"I just spoke with Ah-Ye, and I estimate your housing will be settled by tomorrow night at the latest. Discuss it with your parents and see when you have time—ideally, make a trip to City B to check out the place yourselves so it can be finalized," Chen Qing said straight to the point. "As for the household registration and everything else, I'll entrust some acquaintances to get it sorted out for your whole family. You don't need to worry about that."

"Really?" Lin Xia was somewhat surprised; this was astonishingly efficient. "Thank you, Sister Miao, you've really worked hard."

"Haha, let's skip the extra pleasantries. There's only one condition: you hand me the final manuscript of *Realm* as soon as possible, and I'll consider myself blessed."

"That's easy. I'll go online and send it to you shortly."

"Are you serious?" It was Chen Qing's turn to be pleasantly surprised.

"I never joke when it comes to manuscripts," Lin Xia laughed. "I'm going to hang up now to let my dad and mom know."

"Alright, waiting on your manuscript. Bye-bye."

"Bye-bye."

Because Chen Qing had just spoken with Jin Ye, she had immediately called Lin Xia to brief her on the specifics. Realizing that once they moved, she probably wouldn't be writing manuscripts for a short while, Lin Xia decided to send all her saved draft chapters over at once.

After hanging up, she found the elderly couple staring at her with four wide eyes, which made her chuckle.

However, this wasn't the time to dwell on that. She put on a serious expression and said, "Sister Miao just called to tell me the house has been found. She advised us to make preparations and head over there in a couple of days to inspect the house ourselves, after which she can have her acquaintances arrange our household registrations."

Seeing that all their worries had been neatly arranged and settled one by one, the couple shed all their lingering concerns. The three of them discussed their subsequent steps and then split up to handle their respective tasks.

Lin Xia returned to her study. While waiting for the computer to boot up, she picked up pen and paper to jot down her schedule for the next few days.

If everything was truly finalized and they were leaving, parting ways with her three close friends would indeed be rather difficult to bring up.

As for the manuscript, it was better to send it to Miao Miao sooner rather than later, since moving was, after all, a massive engineering project.

Upon receiving the email, Chen Qing had her own thoughts.

The final volume of *Conquering the Realm* could be proofread and printed before the summer vacation. Lin Xia had chosen the timing quite well; she had originally thought it would be too late before the summer break.

After all, book formatting, manuscript proofreading and typesetting, preliminary advertising, subsequent promotional work, and a whole chain of related tasks all required a detailed schedule.

Now, with Lin Xia's saved drafts in hand, the first issue of *Xinyue* magazine was about to see the light of day. Having acquired the manuscript, Chen Qing naturally threw herself into a frenzy of work, attending meetings upon meetings until she was spinning like a top.

A brief note:

Today in the chat group, I received news that the author of the main-site novel *Domineering the Realm in Martial Arts*, Ten Years of Falling Snow, passed away suddenly at home, and was only discovered two days later. It truly makes one feel... sigh. Many small-time writers in the group usually type away until one or two in the morning every day. I don't want to say too much more, but I hope everyone—whether you're a writer or a reader—takes good care of your lives and cherishes your health. Life is truly so fragile.