Chapter 1186: Chapter 1184: The Future Is So Far Away, Will You Go See It With Me?

The moment Lynch stepped onto the stage, he became the focal point of everyone’s gaze.

The former university journalism Professor, as a bystander, watched Lynch from an observer’s perspective and couldn’t suppress the emotions constantly sprouting in her heart—sighs, envy, and jealousy.

This is Talent.

Yes, it’s a kind of innate ability.

Even if he didn’t speak and just stood there, people’s eyes would still surge toward him and fix on him.

A truly enviable Talent.

Young, handsome, sunny, confident—he was more proficient in acting than any actor.

In fact, before she was hired by Lynch, she had already studied this young man and had even used several of his TV appearances and public remarks as case studies in her lectures.

He knows very well how to make people like him more.

For different groups, he has different approaches, like right now.

His outfit wasn’t that formal, just a somewhat casual set of clothes. Not formal enough, yet at this moment no one felt he was dressed inappropriately.

Especially after he stood on the stage and quickly said, "This is my hometown," people all the more stopped thinking that way.

They only felt that Lynch dressing a bit casually was because he didn’t treat the people here as outsiders—this is his hometown, and the people here are all his "family."

From a scholar’s perspective, Lynch’s lines were a bit nauseating, but it was undeniable that when that cheesy line was combined with his looks, his smile, his attitude, everything suddenly became very natural.

Just a young man giving back to his hometown, what could be wrong with that?

She sighed, then felt somewhat relieved. If Lynch ever went into politics, there might be no place for Catherine, and naturally no place for her.

She had taught journalism for half her life, constantly dealing with current affairs and politics, and she too had hoped to make a breakthrough in this field...

She tilted her head and looked at Catherine, another girl one couldn’t help but envy.

This world really is, just as people say, a world that belongs to the young!

Right now Lynch had no idea that the university journalism Professor was having so many inner thoughts; he was simply conveying his ideas to everyone.

"I know better than those big capitalists what you—or rather, what we—need!"

He waved his arm and pointed to the sky. "A lighter burden. Yes, I know—we can’t crush an entire family’s finances just to send our children to school. I’m not that cruel."

"Right now loans might only have a maximum term of three to five years, and that’s far too heavy."

"After we’ve paid all those bills, it’s already very hard to scrape together enough money to service all kinds of loans. It’s too difficult for every one of us."

"I will change that!"

"A new university that most people are qualified to enter, with low tuition."

"Student loans with terms of ten, fifteen, even twenty years!"

"Maybe in the future there’ll be even more. Catherine and I think the same way."

"We are all victims of the current education system. We want it to change more than anyone else does. Just like Catherine said earlier, maybe we still can’t make that day come for everyone."

"But at least here, in our hometown, we can make it happen..."

"We are changing history!"

"We are creating the future!"

A successful campaign speech—though some of Catherine’s opponents described it as "a shameless, despicable speech."

Because Lynch had appeared. He had almost become a banner of Sabin City, especially after Darkstone Airlines began site selection for a local factory and even planned to put part of the plant in Sabin City. At that point, everyone’s Faith in this big kid became unshakable.

His family workshop had helped many local families in need during the Great Depression. Now he was building a factory locally and was going to change the educational environment of the city and even the entire state.

Letting someone like that show up at a campaign rally was the biggest kind of cheating!

But they could only complain in their hearts. The next time they saw Lynch, they would still have to wipe the sweat from their palms, bend slightly with a somewhat fawning smile, extend their hands, and show an expression of "It’s an honor to shake hands with Mr. Lynch."

Later in the evening, the speech was broadcast on television, and very soon people learned of the "ambitions" of these two young people.

The plan for Lynch to build a university had never been disclosed to the public. That very night, the mayor called, hoping to meet Lynch, but Lynch wasn’t available.

He was out running.

"Jogging is good for your health...," Lynch said as he jogged with Catherine in the park.

He was already used to jogging. Catherine was slightly out of breath, but Lynch didn’t stop to let her rest. Instead, he encouraged her to keep running.

"Once you take office, your work will only get busier. You’ll find that even in a city that seems this peaceful, there are actually so many things that need you."

"Anytime, with anything, you won’t have the chance to manage your health as easily as you did before."

"You’ll have to carve out time to exercise. Jogging is good. You can do it in the morning when you get up, or at night before you go to bed."

Catherine was running beside him, panting. "Do you... usually do this too?"

Lynch nodded once. "Didn’t you watch that show they aired some time ago?"

"I did." Catherine nodded, a somewhat odd smile on her face. "I thought that was scripted and rehearsed. Are you really that busy every day?"

Lynch shook his head. "Not really. Most of the time it’s relatively easy. I still have time to take a nap every day."

"The higher up you go in any industry, the easier it gets, because the specific tasks are all done by specific people. Right now, you’re that ’specific person.’"

"If you become Governor, Senator, or even President, you’ll understand that your daily work is just sitting down with some familiar faces to have meetings, signing a few documents, thinking about how to socialize after work, or where to go on vacation when you’re off."

Catherine looked at the distant sky for a few seconds. "It sounds very far away. I still feel like I’m dreaming."

Lynch slowed his pace a bit. "Far away?"

"No, not at all."

"Four years have passed, Catherine. After the next four years, you’ll be a mayor, or in the State Senate."

"Another four years after that, you might have the chance to run for Governor, or to get a seat as a Member of Parliament."

"By that time, each of us may be about to迎来一次重要的机会."

He stopped, took the towel from Austin’s hand, and wiped the sweat from the girl’s face.

The girl let Lynch wipe the sweat on her face and neck. Her cheeks were flushed a healthy red from exercise, and she was a little shy. She looked at Lynch. "What kind of opportunity?"

Lynch then wiped the sweat off his own head and face, and said with a smile, "War."

"Let’s walk a bit."

He tossed the towel back to Austin and started walking with Catherine.

"In the future there will inevitably be another war that reshapes the world order. You know, only war is fair."

"Because bullets don’t choose their targets. Whether it’s civilians, nobles, politicians, soldiers, even the President, the bullet doesn’t care where it’s fired from or where it’s going to land."

"War will also bring more opportunities to politicians. Every decision that can influence a war will be reckoned with after the war ends."

"Some people will benefit from it, and some people will lose something because of it."

"And only in that special period of war will the society around us, and the entire world, let go of some of its prejudices."

"People won’t think you’re unfit to become a high-ranking official of the Federation just because you’re a woman."

"People also won’t think you have no right to climb higher just because you’re a woman."

"At that time, ability is what matters most. As long as you have ability, you’ll definitely be able to climb higher without any obstacles."

"If you like reading history, you’ll understand that every time a large-scale war breaks out, some people end up on a completely different life path."

"Our future lies in that war!"

Catherine listened very intently. "Seven or eight years from now... that feels a bit far off..."

Seven or eight years later she would be past thirty. For someone who had just turned twenty-four, that really felt too far away.

But Lynch’s tone was a little different. "We only have seven or eight years left. Our time is tight."

"Only once you reach the level of Governor or Member of Parliament will you have the chance to show what you can do."

"If you’re too low in the hierarchy, even if you’re right, you still won’t be able to influence national policy. You can only do that when your position is high enough."

"We both have to work hard, Catherine."

Catherine looked a bit puzzled. "Why do we have to work this hard?"

Lynch turned his head to look at her, a slightly mischievous smile on his face. "Don’t you think that since we’ve gone to all the trouble of coming into this world, we should at least leave something behind before we go?"

"I don’t like a mediocre, ordinary life—nobody knows you came, nobody knows you left, they won’t even know you ever existed in this world."

"I don’t like that. I want people to remember me. Ten years, a hundred years, even longer from now, when the young people of the future are like we once were..."

"Sitting in a classroom, opening a book, reading our names on the page, reading about the things we did—that is what it means to live, and to keep living on."

Lynch stopped walking and took Catherine’s hand. "I’ve never forced anyone, and I’m even less willing to force you."

"If you think this is boring, you can choose to walk away. I won’t blame you; I’ll only support you."

Catherine thought for a moment. If she let go of what she had here, she would be even more lost about the future.

She didn’t know what she would do.

Be an ordinary woman, marry an ordinary man, have two or three ordinary children, and then muddle through an ordinary life?

Maybe she once thought that was nice, but as things changed over the past two years, she had gradually lost interest in that.

She turned her hand to grip Lynch’s, raised her head to look at him. "If that’s where you want to go, and there’s no one to go with you, you won’t mind if I go with you and take a look, will you?"