But Chen Yan didn’t move.
He hadn’t forgotten that its "antiquity" was only the most basic aspect of Yongtong Bridge. Its real specialty was tugging at people’s emotions.
"Master Zhao," Chen Yan spoke up despite the older man’s impatient glare, "I need to give you a heads-up. Aside from its age, there’s something quite special about this bridge..."
"Enough, enough!" Zhao Changlin waved his hand, cutting him off before he could finish. "I’ve dealt with antiques my whole life. I’ve seen all sorts of bizarre things. Do I really need your warning?"
Seeing this, Chen Yan knew there was no point in arguing. He simply shrugged and turned to leave.
At 6:00 PM.
Chen Yan was sitting in the ticket office, going over the accounts with Sun. When he looked up, he saw Zhao Changlin standing in the doorway, his expression complicated and filled with an indescribable sense of conflict.
"Heading home, Master Zhao?" Chen Yan asked. He put away the checklists, let Sun clock out for the day, and stood up to pour a cup of water. He hadn’t seen Zhao Changlin all afternoon. Without a doubt, the old man had spent the entire time over at Yongtong Bridge.
"That bridge..." Zhao Changlin finally spoke up after Sun left, his voice a bit hoarse. "You mentioned this afternoon that it was a little special. Can you go into detail?"
"You’ve already felt it yourself, haven’t you?" Chen Yan smiled as he handed the older man the water. "That’s exactly what I meant. It’s not just a simple ancient bridge."
"It really isn’t." Zhao Changlin nodded, a tone of marvel in his voice. "I’ve dealt with antiques my whole life, but this is the first time I’ve encountered something so uncanny. I’m completely blown away!"
He suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, that thing isn’t dangerous, is it? We can’t just ignore everything else just to make a buck!"
"Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing." Chen Yan tapped his chest with complete confidence. "I brought the bridge here, and I know its ins and outs. You can rest easy."
"That’s good, then." Having worked with Chen Yan for three years, Zhao Changlin trusted him. Seeing his confidence, he didn’t press the matter. "Alright, you really struck gold this time, kid. I’m taking off!"
Chen Yan blinked as he watched Zhao Changlin walk away briskly. Did the old man’s steps seem a bit more relaxed than before?
A week passed in the blink of an eye.
In his office, Chen Yan was holding his beat-up phone with its cracked screen, grinning foolishly at the display.
The amount of traffic Yongtong Bridge attracted was even stronger than he had anticipated. Ever since that female tourist posted a video after visiting the bridge, foot traffic in the Ancient City had been slowly but steadily increasing.
This upward trend wasn’t very obvious during the first week. However, starting in the second week, Chen Yan had used his amateurish photography skills to snap a bunch of shots of Yongtong Bridge and posted them on the Ancient City’s official Notes account. From that point on, the Ancient City’s ticket booth hadn’t sold fewer than ten tickets a day!
Chen Yan knew perfectly well that the official account alone couldn’t have achieved such remarkable results. But he couldn’t deny that Yongtong Bridge had built up an incredible word-of-mouth reputation among its previous visitors. Almost every tourist who stopped on the bridge would go home and post a video or share their feelings on their Friends Circle. Over time, this slowly accumulated into a small wave of reputation and traffic.
"A bridge that makes you want to cry" and "A real ancient bridge inside a fake ancient city"—these two tags had practically become the standard captions for videos posted by anyone who had visited Yongtong Bridge.
Even though almost all these new tourists were coming exclusively for Yongtong Bridge, completely ignoring the rest of the Ancient City and heading straight for West City Street upon entering, it didn’t matter. As far as Chen Yan was concerned, as long as they bought a ticket, it didn’t matter if they just came in to use the restroom.
Over the course of two weeks, Ning’an Ancient City—which used to struggle to sell even a single ticket in a month—had successively sold 98 tickets.
At 50 Yuan apiece, 98 tickets meant that even if they just maintained their current revenue level, it would cover almost half of the Ancient City’s monthly expenses.
This finally gave Chen Yan a chance to catch his breath. He had been so backed into a corner that he had even momentarily considered selling his blood just to keep the Ancient City running.
Then again, while it didn’t matter where tourists went as long as they bought a ticket, Yongtong Bridge was ultimately just a small stone bridge. Its limitations weren’t obvious right now with small crowds, but if more tourists started showing up, its lack of capacity would soon become glaringly apparent.
Just imagine it: you finally get to the weekend and travel all this way just to catch a glimpse of the bridge that makes people want to cry. But when you arrive, you find it absolutely packed with tourists. Forget about actually walking on the bridge—you can’t even see the bridge itself. That would definitely ruin the experience and could even spark arguments.
So for Chen Yan, there were still many problems left to solve. It was far from the time to relax.
After scrolling through the comments under the Ancient City’s official account for a while, he didn’t let himself get lost in the sea of unanimous praise. Instead, he put his phone down and began to think about the Ancient City’s future development.
As the heir and general manager of the Ancient City, thinking ahead was a basic necessity. He could, of course, stubbornly rely on Yongtong Bridge for the rest of his life, but not only would that be unambitious, it also wouldn’t be a safe bet.
There were plenty of old bridges in the country; there were easily over a hundred real ancient bridges. Even if Yongtong Bridge came with a unique emotional resonance ability, its ceiling was clear. Even if he squeezed every last drop of its potential, it would at most be enough to sustain the Ancient City’s normal operations and keep it from returning to the brink of bankruptcy.
"If only I could bring that entire city here. That would be absolutely stunning!" Chen Yan thought.
Recalling his time-travel experience from half a month ago—especially Qinghe Street, which was so full of Ancient Rhyme and bustling life, and the massive, hazy ancient city he had seen while standing on Yongtong Bridge—his imagination couldn’t help but run wild.
After completing that time-travel journey, and especially after nearly getting stabbed through the heart at the very end, he had initially been left with quite a bit of lingering trauma regarding time travel.
But today, he suddenly realized something. Whether he wanted to expand and glorify this fading Ancient City left behind by the previous two generations, or solve the lingering mysteries in his heart regarding the system and that prosperous city, he had to study the system further. He needed to figure out how to do more time traveling!
[DING—]
[Yongtong Bridge (Resonating State) has triggered emotional resonance.]
[Resonance Level: High.]
[Anchor stability slightly increased.]
[DING—]
[Anchor stability increased -> 8% (Extremely Low). Scene Integration feature unlocked. Initiate Scene Integration (Beginner) for ’Qinghe Street’?]
Just as he made up his mind to properly study this system that had fallen into his lap, two consecutive system notifications suddenly rang out in his mind.
Chen Yan paused in surprise for a moment, and then his eyes immediately lit up!