The award ceremony finally opened on time.
Ke Jin received two awards, one for the "Best Newcomer Award" and the other for the "Most Creative Card Award" for Spicy Duck Neck. Although he had memorized the acceptance speech by heart beforehand, when he actually went on stage, Ke Jin was still so nervous that his expression was stiff. After all, it was his first time attending such a large event.
It was already very late when the ceremony ended. The hotel we were staying in was not far from the venue, so after we got together, we walked back together.
On the way, Secretary Xiaobai and the others were beaming with joy and were very excited. They kept praising Ke Jin for how great his performance was today and how much his old enemies hated him but could only stare at him in hatred. Ke Jin felt embarrassed and awkward, but Gu Qianqian and the others listened with great interest and asked questions from time to time. Finally, when the girls said they were tired, had a good time and were completely thirsty, Secretary Xiaobai took out a handful of small notes from her pocket and stuffed them into Ke Jin's hands.
"What are these?" Ke Jin picked up one in confusion. There was a string of numbers written on it, which looked like a phone number.
"Someone asked us to pass on the contact information to you." Secretary Xiao Bai said happily, and winked at Ke Jin teasingly, "There are a lot of very good girls in there, don't miss them!"
"Well, there are some nice handsome guys." A girl next to him interrupted, "The ones with blue slips are them. If you mind, pick them out. If you don't mind, you can add them and chat."
Ke Jin: “…………”
There was a trash can right in front, and when Ke Jin walked up to it, he stuffed all the notes into it, doing it quickly and mercilessly.
"Xiao Ke!!" Several of the girls who handed over the notes had a good relationship with Secretary Xiao Bai. She was planning to recommend them, but Ke Jin just "threw the flowers" like that. Bai Ran was stunned for a long time before coming to his senses, "Why did you throw them all away? Do you have a girlfriend?"
Ke Jin really wanted to complain: If I don't throw them away, do I have to add them one by one? ? Besides, if I don't complete the system task, I will lose my life, okay? How can I have the mind to fall in love at this time!
The words of explanation came to his lips but they felt so powerless, so Ke Jin twisted his tongue and simply pretended to admit it.
"...Yes, I do."
"What?!!!"
A single stone caused a thousand ripples, and everyone was stunned. Even when Ou Nuo accidentally bumped into the flower bed on the side of the road, no one noticed.
"Is this true?! Didn't you say there was no such thing before?"
"Is this a recent thing?? There was no sign before! How could you hide it so well??"
"We're from different places." Ke Jin began to talk nonsense seriously, "We knew each other a long time ago, and we just confirmed our relationship recently."
"Oh..." Everyone suddenly realized.
Although some of the more gossipy people like Secretary Xiaobai and Gu Qianqian were eager to actively get more detailed information, they were all brushed off by Ke Jin with the excuse of "I'll bring it over to meet you later, and I'll tell you more about it then." Knowing that the other party didn't want to talk in depth, everyone tacitly changed the topic and stopped asking questions.
The group arrived at the hotel quickly. Everyone booked a standard room, so Ke Jin naturally stayed in the same room with Ou Nuo.
It was already very late. After returning to the house, Ke Jin helped Ou Nuo wash up first, and then quickly sent him to bed. After that, he took off his makeup in the bathroom with great effort and clumsiness. Only after taking a shower did he feel completely refreshed and relaxed.
It’s better to be natural! It’s so hard for girls who put on makeup every day!
Ke Jin wiped his dripping hair and walked out of the bathroom happily. He suddenly saw a person sitting cross-legged on his bed. He was so scared that he almost screamed.
"Ounuo?" Ke Jin took a closer look and was immediately at a loss whether to laugh or cry. "It's so late, why aren't you asleep yet? What are you sitting here in a daze for?"
"You're lying." The boy stared at him, with a bit of arrogance and stubbornness in his eyes. "I'm with you every day, and I've never seen you communicate frequently with anyone. You must be lying just now!"
This child had a frown on his face while washing himself. So he was thinking about this?
Ke Jin smiled and made a "hush" gesture.
"Now that you know, you must keep it a secret for me."
The other party was stunned for a moment, probably because he didn't expect Ke Jin to confess so easily. After a while, he spoke in a daze.
"Are you really lying?"
“…”
Didn't you just insist confidently? It turns out that you are actually unsure? ?
"Why?" Oloy immediately asked, "Why would you lie about something like this?"
"If I don't say that, I'll keep getting introduced to other people." Ke Jin wiped his hair and sat on the bed. "I don't want to date, so I can only deal with it this way for now."
"Why don't you want to talk? Are you not interested? Or..." The boy paused suspiciously, his expression seemed a little nervous, "Or... do you already have a target?"
Ke Jin looked at Ou Nuo in surprise: "Ou Nuo, have you been with Gu Qianqian and the others for too long recently? How come you have become such a gossip?"
A pillow immediately hit him: "Don't change the subject!"
"…Because I'm busy." Ke Jin answered honestly, "I don't have the energy to talk about this before I finish my work… Well, let's talk about it after I finish my work."
"Oh..." The boy nodded slowly, seeming relieved.
Ke Jin glanced at the wall clock and found that it was already past two in the morning. He hurriedly urged Ou Nuo to go to bed, but the child refused to go to the other bed. Ke Jin really didn't have the energy to coax him, so he could only agree that the two of them squeezed together, and finally he reluctantly lay down on a single bed.
Ke Jin turned off the desk lamp, crawled into bed comfortably, and was about to fall asleep happily when he suddenly felt someone kicking his leg.
"When will you be done?" Ou Nuo's voice came from the darkness.
Oh my god, why is this kid so energetic tonight? Isn't he sleepy at all? ?
"...It's hard to say." Knowing that if he didn't answer, the other party would definitely ask endless questions, Ke Jin yawned and said vaguely while thinking about the system's "ultimate task", "The fastest time will be ten or twenty years, and if it's slower, it may take thirty or forty years."
"Thirty or forty years?!" Oloy almost jumped up from the bed, "Why do I have to wait that long for you?! In that time, others can even have grandchildren!!"
Ke Jin's eyelids were fighting, and he didn't even think about what he heard. He just subconsciously asked back: "Huh? What are you waiting for me for?"
Oloy: “…”
Oloy: "...Did I say I would wait for you?"
Ke Jin: “Yes.”
Oloy: "You heard wrong, I definitely didn't say that!"
"Oh." Ke Jin turned over and closed his eyes again, "Well, that means you won't wait for me."
Oloy: “…”
Oloy: "I, that's not what I meant... One or two years is definitely fine, and ten years is tolerable, but you're jumping straight to thirty or forty years, isn't that too much? You're not a workaholic, are you so busy that you don't even consider dating others? Or do you have any special requirements? What...what are your criteria for finding a partner?"
After waiting for a long time for no response, Ouloi looked over and found that Ke Jin had fallen asleep.
His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince almost vomited blood - he had rarely put down his dignity to "communicate honestly", but the other party actually fell asleep? ! Do you know that this is a crime of deceiving the emperor in our country? ! Who gave you the courage? !
Oloy was so angry that he wanted to kick the guy off the bed, but firstly, he was too small to do that, and secondly... he couldn't put his feet down, so he could only push the young man angrily.
"Just stay busy with your own business! You deserve to be single!"
"Well... being single is also good..." Ke Jin, who had fallen asleep, muttered. His voice was hazy, but it was particularly clear in the silent night.
"No one should wait for me... Heh, it's useless to wait."
Oloy: “…”
Ahhhhh, can you hit someone yourself?! This guy is so infuriating! !
***
After the award ceremony, Ke Jin returned to Qixing City and plunged into his busy daily work.
Because of the extensive publicity by the Card Pool General Administration and the media's coverage, the results of this year's selection also triggered a wave of discussion among the public, and Ke Jin and his card pool became more well-known. Before this hot topic cooled down, his chain card pool in Rainbow City opened. With the publicity from all sides, on the opening day, the number of customers who came to draw cards broke the highest record of the number of customers received by the Rainbow City Card Pool in a single day in five years. Director Mo of the Rainbow City Card Pool Bureau was so happy that his mouth was crooked with joy. He ordered an honorary plaque overnight and hung it in the small courtyard of the chain card pool the next day.
More than a month of hard work finally paid off, and Ke Jin was very happy. The popularity of the chain card pool not only brought in huge income, but more importantly, it also brought in a large amount of card pool points.
Now Ke Jin has 5444 points in the card pool of the system, of which 1500 points come from the operation of the new card pool, and the rest come from daily operations. Ke Jin spent 1000 points to purchase five card formulas from the system mall, and he saved the remaining points for the time being, preparing to exchange a BUFF such as "limited-time card drawing probability increase" for the two card pools after the New Year holiday, so as to increase revenue during the peak customer flow.
However, before preparing for the New Year holiday activities, one thing temporarily disrupted Ke Jin's plan - or rather, as soon as the news was released, it quickly attracted the attention of the vast majority of card users in Chikongzhou, and even the Qixing City Card Pool Bureau held two special meetings for this purpose.
——The first seven-continent joint card pool card exhibition on Azure Star.
***
Compared to other card users, Ke Jin actually received the news about this exhibition the next day after returning from the award ceremony.
At that time, Director Tai secretly told him that in order to promote the development of the card pool industry, the federal government of Azure Star intended to follow the example of other planets and hold a global card pool exhibition. However, from Director Tai's tone, although this exhibition is of great significance, the scale is not large, and card users from various continents need to be recommended to participate. Ke Jin was listed in the annual selection of Chikong Continent, and there is a certain chance of being recommended, but his biggest shortcoming is that he has been a card user for a short time. Although he is the "best newcomer", he is still not qualified to participate in this global exhibition that represents the overall card pool level of Chikong Continent.
"But we will try our best to help you get it." Director Tai promised, "You also need to make some preparations. The exhibition is scheduled to open soon. Once you get the recommendation qualification, you may be able to leave immediately."
Ke Jin expressed his anticipation for this, but not too much - rather than looking directly to the world, he was more concerned about how to open the remaining 29 branches in Chikongzhou within the remaining ten months.
Unexpectedly, within a week after Director Tai actively sought the opportunity, the Card Pool Administration of Chikongzhou directly released the news of the exhibition and expressed their welcome to card users from various cities to register for the competition. They would conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the registered card users, and announce the shortlisted list based on the final score ranking.
This open and honest approach is naturally much fairer than private recommendations. Later, Ke Wei also received confirmation from Director Tai: In the early stage, all cities were actively seeking recommendation quotas from the Kachi General Administration, and the General Administration was overwhelmed by it. It just so happened that the exhibition suddenly increased the number of candidates by a large margin, and it seemed that they intended to expand the scale of this exhibition. Since there were sufficient quotas, the Kachi General Administration lowered the threshold and directly allowed fair competition, and the competent ones took the position.
At that time, all the card users in Chikongzhou took action, submitted materials and actively registered. For most of them, whether they could participate in the exhibition was not important, and the final ranking announcement was more exciting - Azure Star did not implement a card pool rating system, and the measurement of the card pool level was very vague. However, the comprehensive scoring standard this time overlapped with the card pool rating system. As long as you register, you can see from the final list how your card pool ranks in the entire Chikongzhou. In other words, this is a comprehensive ranking among card users!
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