After hanging up the phone, Elena was in a great mood and dialed her second call.

"Soldier Uncle."

"It's Elena, haha. Am I really that old?"

It was the first time Elena had heard a middle-aged man having an age crisis, so she reigned in her teasing tone: "Uncle Bruno, hello. You’re not old, you’re only a bit older than..."

As Elena said this, she realized she had almost made a huge mistake.

She wanted to tease Bruno by saying he was only four or five years older than Roan's father, but the moment she remembered this involved internal military matters and national military-political affairs, she absolutely couldn't joke about it. She forced herself to swallow Antonio's name back into her stomach.

"Older than who? Quickly, say it!"

Elena heard Bruno laughing on the other end of the line and felt a great sense of relief. Her eyes darted around as she decided on a different way to tease him to keep Bruno in a good mood.

"I was going to say, just a little bit older than Arthur, the Director of the Bureau of Planned Economy, hehe."

"You actually know him?" Bruno became even happier. "Then you’ve really latched onto a 'golden thigh'—a powerful backer. You know, Elena, he’s about to become a major powerhouse."

Hearing this, Elena became interested.

"Ah? I’ve even driven for him. Exactly how high?"

"Vice Mayor in charge of the economy. The local government has already handed the notice to us; it’s just a matter of a few days for the administrative restructuring before he officially takes office. What? You actually drove for him?"

Elena originally wanted to ask Bruno why he was looking for her, but now she wanted to ask about the major impact of Arthur seeking her out first.

In fact, Elena also wanted to show off a bit.

She was too happy, but this was something she couldn't tell anyone around her. If she did, it would only stir up green-eyed envy and make them feel resentful.

Only an old-school officer like Bruno had the heart to hold her overflowing joy.

"He asked me to help him write a report on building a Special Economic Zone opposite Port Sol. But I remember that’s a military jurisdiction. Uncle Bruno, your military won't seize me and chop off my head, will they?" Elena put on a terrified tone.

"Chop off whose head? Who would dare! Now the Central Military Commission requires the military to serve the people and to divest from military-owned enterprises. No one dares touch you. Go ahead and do it boldly."

Bruno’s voice was clanging and powerful on the other end.

He paused for a moment and continued: "Elena, I can even help you with this. I have the topography, road networks, villages, fish ponds, and even how many people are in each village and exactly what they are planting... I have all the complete data. Do you want it?"

"Wow!" Elena cried out in surprise. She was just worrying about not having those things.

"When can you give it to me?"

"How can it be that easy to give to you? You have to give me something in return!"

Bruno actually made a demand!

"You’re not going to ask me to marry Roan, are you? I can't do that right now."

"You..."

Elena blocked the path directly, leaving Bruno on the other end so frustrated he couldn't say a word.

"Fine, I’ll propose a smaller condition. Help me convince Roan to absolutely accept the military's mission. When the heads of state meet on both sides of the Sangreza River, he will be responsible for standing guard. He must see his father, yet he cannot acknowledge him. This is a dead-set order!"

Elena’s head felt like it exploded.

The desire to joke was completely gone now.

Had the peace negotiations and economic opening negotiations on both sides of the Sangreza boundary river arrived so quickly? In her past life, she remembered this matter being dragged out for three years.

In that case, all her plans had to speed up—faster and faster...

Also, how could she convince Roan to both see his father and not acknowledge him? This was too cruel. Why would the military make such a request? And a dead-set order at that?

Elena’s mind was in a mess, so she confessed to Bruno:

"I’ll try. Actually, he and I are just good friends; we haven't reached the stage of being boyfriend and girlfriend."

"I mean, if I try and fail, will I still get the data?"

"Hey!" Bruno was actually still laughing on the other end. "I’ve already organized the data. Just go and talk to him. The result doesn't matter; as long as you go and say it, I’ll give you the data."

"Alright..."

"Wait..."

Elena stopped Bruno from hanging up.

"What is it?"

"Did you report Mateo for doing business privately? He’s no longer ordering goods from me. I sent a driver to the black market to look for him, and he’s disappeared too. It's so annoying; I was already poor to begin with."

"Bold!" Bruno pretended to scold her on the other end. "This kind of thing cannot be discussed on a military phone, understand? Nor can it be said to anyone. The economic loosening policy hasn't officially come down yet. Keep your mouth shut."

"Uh... sorry..."

Elena finally realized she shouldn't get carried away.

Otherwise, joy could easily turn into sorrow.

"Elena, I haven't reported anyone. Some people hiding might just be scared."

"Understood!" Elena was a bit dejected; she had actually lost a chance to make a fortune just like that. She had originally wanted to earn more jam money. "That's all for now. I'm going to find Roan."

After hanging up, Elena opened the office door only to find Ryker’s face red all the way to his neck. This guy had definitely been pressing his ear against the door eavesdropping.

"Hey, why is your face red?"

Elena deliberately made it awkward for Ryker.

Ryker ignored Elena, ducked into the office, pulled out his notebook, and saw that the second blank page of his "love letter" had been drawn into a bird's nest by Elena's fidgeting hands while she was on the phone. He held up the notebook and complained to Elena: "You really can't keep your hands still..."

Elena didn't care about him and ran off in a flash.

She had to go back and tell Lucy that someone had a secret crush on her; this was a massive deal.

Lucy was clearing the irrigation channels. Standing in the ditch, she was curious why Elena could wander around on the road, and she put her hands on her hips to look at Elena.

"Dear Sister Lucy, I’m giving you three choices. Who are you going to pick?"

"What?" Lucy was baffled by Elena's question. She pointed not far away to Sienna, who was bent over working, signaling Elena to keep her voice down.

Elena insisted on speaking loudly: "I’m letting you pick one out of three men to be your husband. Who would you pick?"

"Do you want to die?" Lucy suddenly exploded and threw a clod of mud.

Elena had anticipated this and dodged.

"Hahaha, I just want to ask you: Matthew, Elias, or Ryker—who would you most want as a husband?"

Lucy really couldn't take it anymore. Carrying her shovel, she jumped out of the ditch and chased Elena wildly.

Elena pointedly hid next to Sienna.

Lucy suddenly understood that Elena wanted to annoy Sienna, so she shamelessly began to analyze the three men.

"Elias is too bookish; I’m afraid I can't handle his talent. Forget it! Matthew's family background is too good, and my family is too poor; we're not a match! Ryker has a big flaw—he’s older and his skin is too dark, but my family is very poor, so we happen to be a good match. I declare, Ryker is my favorite!"

Sienna raised her head and glared fiercely at Lucy, her teeth gnashing in anger.

"You... how could you say that about our Battalion Commander..." Elena pretended to be scared. "To speak of the Battalion Commander like that—watch out, someone might report you for having problematic lifestyle conduct."

Elena ran off. She believed Sienna would definitely exaggerate this ten times over and spread it. By then, it would be equivalent to her helping Lucy confess her feelings.

Elena found Roan at his doorstep.

Roan had just returned from Beldora's temporary hospital. He had removed his gauze, but the scabbing on his forehead was quite obvious.

Roan looked like he was in a bad mood, clearly because Mateo had run off.

He didn't look up at Elena, hitting the straw mat with force.

"It's all your fault. Why did you bring someone like Bruno to sell things?"

Elena believed that a man like Roan would be fine after being angry for two days, so she ignored his mood. She pulled over a stool and instead sat next to Sofia, helping her weave the straw mat.

"Sister Elena, did you see the pattern I wove on the mat? It’s a new style Sister Lucy taught me. Is it pretty?"

"It’s extremely pretty."

Elena followed the little girl's movements, tying the grass into a rope and handing it to her.

"Ah, sadly I can't see it, but I can feel it. It’s very different from the ones I made before. Sister Lucy said the pattern on the straw mat is Second Brother's smiling face."

Elena took a casual glance. It was indeed a smiling human face, though whether it was Marco's was hard to say.

"It really is your second brother's smiling face. Oh, by the way, where did your second brother go?"

"Uncle Bruno said he would send him a schoolbag. He goes to find the mailman uncle every day; he’s probably there again."

"I’m so envious of Second Brother. He can go to school in a few days."

"Sofia!" Elena said very formally. "You don't need to envy Second Brother. When your eyes are better, you can go to school just the same."

"Is that so? That's what I think too." Sofia laughed.

Hearing Elena being so good to his sister, Roan finally stopped being angry. He called out in the yard: "Elena, what do you want with me?"

"Uh, it's a matter regarding personal feelings," Elena said intentionally, even winking at Roan to signal him not to let Sofia notice.

Roan frowned and said, "Let's go!"

The two of them quickly walked into Elena's yard together.

Roan spoke sourly: "You’re not about to tell me that you’re going to marry Elias immediately, are you? I don't have any good wedding gift to give you."

"I don't have money; I can only wish you happiness!"

Eh? Is he actually jealous?

Elena almost cried out in surprise.

She thought about it and decided to tell the truth after all: "It's not my personal feelings; it's Lucy and Ryker's."

"Ah? You mean the two of them..."

Seeing Roan so surprised, Elena thought, you really are careless—those two have been throwing flirtatious glances at each other all day and you didn't even notice.

So slow!

"I’m telling you, I was in the office on the phone just now and I saw the love letter Ryker wrote to Lucy, ahahaha."

Roan became interested too.

"What was written in the love letter? I want to learn as well."

"Who do you want to write to?"

Asked this by Elena, Roan didn't dare speak, only laughing "hehe."

"But I think we shouldn't tell anyone for now. Sienna will spread this news soon enough; then things will get interesting."

Roan sighed: "I really don't understand why Sienna is always targeting you. I really want to throw her into the pond."

Elena waved her hand and said heroically: "No need for you to step in. This old lady can handle her!"

"So you definitely have something else." Roan smiled bitterly. "Tell me. It’s not bad news about Mateo, is it?"

"Uh..." Elena hesitated for a moment. "I’ll tell you, but you can't get too excited, and definitely don't get angry."

"Then it is about Mateo," Roan muttered to himself.

"No, it's about your father."

"What?" Roan thought he had misheard, his eyes widening.

"The leadership of both sides of the Sangreza boundary river will be meeting soon. At that time, you will be a guard on duty. You can see your father, but you cannot acknowledge him. This is the military's requirement."

Elena said it all at once.

She thought Roan would fly into a rage, but instead, he was very calm.

"So that's how it is. You don't need to worry about me being sad. When my father betrayed this side, I guessed there would be a day of retaliation."

"This kind of retaliation is already quite light."

Elena didn't think that way, though.

"Why do you think this is retaliation? Does the country have so little to do that it would use you alone as a punching bag for retaliation?"

"Then what else could it be? Using me to blackmail the other side?"

Seeing Roan's eyes wide open, Elena continued to shake her head: "I don't think so either. You aren't that important, and your father is only a Deputy Division Commander over there; he isn't that important either. I think there is... another deep meaning. Bruno was afraid you wouldn't follow orders, so he specifically asked me to come and persuade you."

"Then you can rest assured; I will definitely follow orders."

Roan’s tone was very flat, not sounding like he was lying.

Elena found it a bit hard to understand: "Why would you accept this?"

"If I don't accept, what will happen to my younger siblings' futures? Who will help Sofia with her eye surgery? To see my father and not acknowledge him—what kind of pain is that? Sofia not being able to see—that is the real pain!"

"True!"

Elena understood Roan.

After a long silence between them, she finally continued, "I’ll call Bruno in a moment and tell him you’re fully complying with the organization’s arrangements."

"Thank you," Roan actually whispered in gratitude.

Elena went back to clearing the irrigation channels in the fields, but she overheard some people gossiping. Apparently, Sienna had said something to Elias, and now he was headed to the town office in tears to write a letter home.

Elena found it strange. Reduced to tears just by a few sharp words from Lucy?

She didn’t think Elias was that fragile; surely Sienna had said something much worse or had maliciously slandered her behind her back.

Elena was completely wrong.

Elias wasn't crying because of any slander against her. Sienna had learned from Ryker that the high-ranking official Elena knew was about to become the Vice Mayor—Elena was on the verge of being assigned a position of great importance.

And yet, he had managed to throw away his relationship with her.

Elias was crying as he rushed to write to his parents. It was urgent, a dire emergency, at any cost... even if they had to borrow money, they had to propose to Elena’s mother immediately. This marriage had to be finalized now.

If he missed his chance with Elena, his life would be over. He would never, ever be able to get back to the city!