"The Fight for the Shadow was supposed to be nine contestants standing on the same starting line and competing fairly," said Li Shutong laughing next to the bonfire, "But the world is not fair itself. All of the Shadow candidates have various families and groups behind them, and these supporters would do whatever they could in their abilities to push the candidate they wanted to the throne."
"Qing Huai had the Fourth Branch supporting him, so what about the others? Who are they supported by?" asked Qing Chen curiously.
"It's not only the Fourth Branch that's supporting Qing Huai. The Third Branch, whose candidate was replaced by you, is also supporting. He even got support from the Li Family. It can be said that he has been given high hopes." Li Shutong smiled, "After I kill him for you, I wonder how miserable these people would be."
Qing Chen felt that the relationships were a little strange, "I can understand why the Third Branch would choose to stand on his side. If Qing Huai can become a Shadow in the future, it would naturally benefit the Third Branch, but what does this matter have to do with the Li Family?"
"Because Qing Huai's grandmother was from the Li Family," Li Shutong said with a smile, "These large corporations have long been intertwined, such as the marriage that the Kamidai Family wants with the Qing Family. For example, if Kamidai Sorane got married to you, and you became the Shadow, you may be able to control your generation of descendants so that the Kamidai Family does not affect the Qing Family, but what about future generations? Will Kamidai Sorane's son make decisions that favor the Kamidai Family? The impact is long-lasting and subtle.”
"How can you even use Kamidai Sorane and me as an example?" Qing Chen felt something weird was happening…
Li Shutong smiled and said, "Why are you being shy all of a sudden? If you like her, I'm going to get this done right away for you. We don't need to wait for 3 more years."
"Stop. Stop right there." Qing Chen quickly changed the topic, "So, the head of the Qing Family was also afraid of this happening, which is why he picked me, the most powerless descendant, to be married to her. This way, the Qing Family would least likely be affected. Is that right?"
"I don't know about that," said Li Shutong, "The current head of the Qing Family is a very mysterious person. He rarely appears in public and doesn't make many decisions directly. Very few people know what he's thinking."
Qing Chen muttered, "With the Fight for the Shadow happening generation after generation. Won't it be a waste of talent? It's nine candidates every time after all."
"Not really," said Li Shutong, smiling. "During this time, some candidates who knew that they couldn't win would forfeit. For example, Qing Huai has a great advantage right now, there might be people who think they'll die if they continue. In that case, they will give up on their ambitions and turn to support Qing Huai instead."
Just like a real fight for the throne, the heirs would all have a party of their own.
However, for a weak candidate, choosing a strong one to side with would be a wise choice.
Qing Chen asked, "So, is Qing Huai one of the most likely winners of this?"
"I can't be certain right now. No one can," said Li Shutong, "But Qing Huai did graduate from the Pyro Military Academy, and he became a lieutenant directly. Now, he is an officer in the Second Federal Army, quite a bit better than most other Shadow candidates,"
"What Level is he?" asked Qing Chen.
"You don't need to worry about that for now," said Li Shutong, "Don't need to overthink a dead person."
Qing Chen, "…"
At this moment, two people emerged from a tent in the autumn hunting team not far away.
The two waved their hands around and giggled. Uncle Li sighed, "Those two are high on dopamine pills. More and more of these useless people are in the corporations now."
These two people slowly approached the bonfire. One of them started at Li Shutong and giggled, "You two servants, get some more firewood here for us! Can't you tell the fire's almost out?"
Qing Chen got nervous all of a sudden as he saw from the corner of his eyes that Li Shutong was about to get up.
He quickly held down his teacher's arm and said, "I'm going to add some firewood."
Having said that, Qing Chen swiftly made the bonfire of the autumn hunting team's camp a little more vigorous.
The two playboys returned to their tent with a smirk on their faces.
Qing Chen looked at his teacher Li Shutong, "Are you going to start a fight just now? It's really unnecessary. I got things like this, you don't need to worry about it. I'm afraid you will kill them all."
Li Shutong sighed and said, "Xiao Chen, your teacher is under a lot of pressure to keep them alive."
Qing Chen, "…"
Right… You're the strongest here… Everything you say is right.
He glanced down at the countdown on his arm.
Return countdown: 166:45:21.
Another seven days.
"I'm going to bed," Li Shutong said. "Aren't you going to sleep yet? Yiyi got that tent ready for you."
"Teacher, can you not gossip like this," Qing Chen didn't know how he should react to this, "Good night, I'll be here to observe for a while."
He didn't say what he was observing.
…
The next morning, the Kamidais took the lead to pack up.
Li Yinuo pulled those playboys out from their tents one by one and threw them into their cars.
Some were still drunk, and some were still dozed from the pills they took.
There were nearly a hundred people in the autumn hunting team, yet more than half of them could barely move.
Qing Chen said quietly to Li Shutong, "No wonder the corporations wouldn't give these people any power. If they did, the corporations would've collapsed a long time ago."
Li Shutong nodded, "The younger generations in every corporation are always very polarized. Some are very smart, yet some are very idiotic."
Only Nan Gengchen was sitting silently by the bonfire, hugging his knees and watching Li Yinuo throw those people into the car one by one.
Qing Chen could sense that the other party really wanted to look at him, but he tried his best to hold back again and again…
"Quite some progress," said Qing Chen to himself quietly. If it was before, this guy wouldn't be able to hold on for this long.
Hold up, Qing Chen suddenly felt that something was wrong.
He revisited his memory and found that one of the playboys seemed drastically different from before.
Yesterday, when that playboy just came to camp here, he looked cheerful and mischievous.
Today, not only was he not drunk, he even stopped talking to his buddies. All he was doing was cautiously looking around.
He avoided the crowds. Not because he wasn't social but because he was trying to get used to all this.
Qing Chen looked toward Li Yinuo. Although she seemed not to be aware of this, she still glanced at the person three times within a minute.
She must have noticed.
However, she didn't know that he wasn't the only time traveler.
On the other side, a young man was playing with the other playboys.
It was as if he was putting up a superb performance.
Qing Chen found it fascinating.
A pro player was here.
However, no matter how good his acting skills were, he couldn't fool Qing Chen. Not only because one's habits were hard to change, but also…
Qing Chen saw him peeking out from his tent last night.
Almost every time traveler wants to take a look at the outside world after transmigrating.
That was also why he told Li Shutong that he wanted to observe for a while.
