My Daughter Gives Me Infinite Rewards

Chapter 16: The Real Deal

Lucas still didn’t win it on the second round.

But this time, he hit noticeably more balloons. The attendant stood off to the side watching, the casual look on his face tightening a little. During the first round, this guy had looked like any ordinary tourist. By the second, his hands were already much steadier.

Before the third round began, Lucas lifted the gun again.

He didn’t rush to fire.

He lined his eye up with the sight, steadied his wrist, and rested his finger lightly on the trigger. In the distance, the balloons stretched across the board in bright rows—red, blue, yellow—each one pinned tight to the wood.

Bang.

The first balloon burst.

Bang.

The second.

The third.

The fourth. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Beside him, Cici covered her mouth, her eyes wide and round. The attendant’s gaze shifted from the prize rack to Lucas’s hands.

The final shot landed, and another balloon exploded on cue.

This time, he had enough points.

When the attendant took down the rainbow unicorn, he gave Lucas a few extra looks.

He couldn’t quite make sense of it.

The man had clearly been terrible at first. How had he suddenly gotten so accurate?

Lucas took the rainbow unicorn from the attendant and waved it in front of Cici.

Cici was so happy she almost jumped.

"Daddy won!"

"I won it for Cici."

Lucas smiled and handed the unicorn over, then quickly remembered they still had more to play. He turned back to the attendant.

"Could you hold onto the unicorn for us?" Lucas asked the game attendant with a smile. "We’ll come back for it before we leave."

The attendant took the plush and nodded.

"Sure. Just don’t forget it."

Lucas picked Cici up and kept walking.

The afternoon slipped by.

The amusement park had other games too—archery, basketball shooting, things like that—but Cici wasn’t very interested. Lucas didn’t push her. He had brought Cici out to have fun today. Picking up skills was just a bonus.

When Cici wanted to ride the little train, he rode it with her. When she wanted to watch people blow bubbles, he held her and stood off to the side with her. When she pointed at the ice cream and looked a little too long, he bought her a small one and reminded her to eat slowly.

By afternoon, the sky began to darken.

Lucas looked up. Dark clouds were pressing in from the distance, and the wind had picked up a damp edge.

"Cici, we have to go home."

He lifted her into his arms.

"Look. There are a lot more dark clouds now. It’s probably going to rain."

Cici wrapped her arms around his neck, still reluctant to leave.

"Daddy, the amusement park is so fun."

She looked back at the carousel and the balloon booth behind them.

"Can we come here again later?"

"Of course."

Lucas agreed right away.

He really did need to come back.

His driving skill and shooting skill could both improve here, and Cici liked the place too. That way, practicing skills wouldn’t feel like training anymore. It would feel more like spending time with his daughter.

Before leaving, Lucas picked up the rainbow unicorn again.

Cici hugged it the whole way and refused to let go.

They took a cab home. The car hadn’t been on the road long when thunder rumbled overhead. Rain soon began striking the window—first a few drops, then faster and denser, until the street outside blurred behind the glass.

Lucas watched the rain beyond the window and tightened his arm around Cici, holding her more securely.

A house was too expensive. He couldn’t force that yet.

But a car—he needed to buy one soon.

And if he wanted to buy a car, there was one problem he had to solve first.

Money.

Lucas leaned back in the rear seat and started calculating.

So far, he had picked up quite a few skills: cooking, fairy-tale writing, drawing, soccer, penmanship, driving, shooting, and Spanish.

If he trained drawing and penmanship to a top-tier level, he should be able to make money from them, but their levels weren’t high enough yet. Cooking could make money too, but he had no interest in cooking for other people. Soccer and driving could certainly bring in serious money once they reached a high enough level, but he wasn’t about to play soccer or race cars just to earn cash.

Right now, the easiest skills to monetize were fairy tales and Spanish.

He could keep telling Cici fairy tales little by little, and the skill leveled up quickly. Later, he could submit stories online. Maybe he would be able to earn manuscript fees soon.

Spanish was even more direct.

He was already good enough for simultaneous interpretation. He could take on difficult translation jobs online.

Spanish-English work was not hard to find in New York.

The market was crowded, sure. Plenty of people could speak both languages, and basic translation jobs didn’t pay much.

But real-time interpretation was different.

Legal meetings, medical consultations, business negotiations—those required accuracy, speed, and nerve. Most bilingual people couldn’t handle that level of pressure.

Lucas could.

As long as he chose the right jobs, making money wouldn’t be a problem.

"Daddy, I really miss Mommy."

Cici curled up in Lucas’s arms, her voice going quiet.

"If Mommy came with us too, that would be so nice."

Lucas looked down at her.

At the amusement park, plenty of children had both their moms and dads with them. Cici had seen it, and she had remembered. She was only a little over two years old, so she couldn’t say anything too complicated, but even little kids knew what it felt like to want what other kids had.

Lucas stroked her hair.

"When Mommy comes back, you can talk to her about it. We’ll all go to the amusement park together, okay?"

Cici lifted her little face.

"Mhm."

She hugged the rainbow unicorn tighter, her eyes brightening with fresh expectation.

"How about Daddy tells you a story?"

"Mhm."

Lucas had a lot of fairy tales in his head now. Even without a book, he could tell Cici one.

Rain tapped against the car window as he lowered his voice and began. Cici leaned against him, her fingers gripping the rainbow unicorn’s ear, and slowly quieted down.

After they got home, Lucas made dinner.

Dinner, bath, pajamas—after the whole routine, Cici was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open. The moment Lucas laid her on the bed, she fell asleep hugging the rainbow unicorn.

Lucas covered her with the blanket, then quietly went to the study.

There was a desk in the study, along with a monitor and a keyboard. It wasn’t a complete computer setup, but it was enough. Lucas connected his laptop, opened a web page, and started looking for translation work.

Soon, one job caught his attention.

It was an urgent Spanish-English translation package. The materials included business contracts, supporting notes, and a short client memo. The deadline was tight, so it was no wonder not many people had taken it.

The pay was twelve hundred dollars.

Twelve hundred in one night.

Not bad.

For an ordinary translator, a job like this might take several days. If the translation quality was poor, they might be asked to revise it, or even end up in a dispute and fail to get the full payment.

But for Lucas as he was now, this job was doable.

He didn’t accept it right away. First, he clicked into the client’s profile and looked it over.

Payment verified.

Good reviews.

The milestone had already been funded.

After confirming all that, Lucas accepted the task.

Once the files opened, he scanned the contents, and his fingers quickly settled onto the keyboard.

Line after line of English filled the screen. In his mind, he broke apart the Spanish source text—contract terminology, sentence structure, tone, and details—then rendered them into English almost as fast. In many places where an ordinary translator might need to stop and look things up, he only paused briefly before continuing to type.

The sound of the keyboard soon filled the study.

Lucas noticed it himself.

His typing speed had become much faster than before.

It was probably an effect of his improved constitution. His fingers were steadier, his reactions faster, and typing for long periods didn’t tire him out as much.

Originally, he had estimated four hours.

In the end, it only took a little over three.

Lucas checked the translation twice from beginning to end. Finding no obvious problems, he submitted the finished file through the platform.

Even if the client tried to withhold payment, he had only spent a little over three hours on it. Worst case, he could appeal through the platform.

The next morning.

Inside a translation agency in Manhattan, a project manager had just sat down at his workstation when a submission notification popped up in the lower-right corner of his screen.

"Huh? Already?"

He stared at the notification, frowning.

Their company handled a large number of translation projects. When they were too busy, they would outsource some work to freelancers online. He remembered this Spanish-English project very clearly.

It had only been accepted last night.

And now it had already been submitted?

"Please don’t tell me this is a rushed mess."

He opened the file with very low expectations.

Around the office, the clatter of keyboards mixed with the sound of printers. At first, the project manager only skimmed a few lines casually, ready to find problems and send it back for revision.

A few minutes later, his hand froze on the mouse.

"This..."

The translation was clean.

The terminology was accurate, the sentences natural, and the contract sections hadn’t been carelessly altered. The tone of the memo also matched the original. For several difficult paragraphs, he deliberately compared the translation against the source twice. The work was steadier than what he got from plenty of the company’s regular translators.

This was not a beginner.

And it definitely didn’t look like something rushed out at the last minute.

He glanced at the submission time again.

From accepting the job to submitting the file, it had only taken a little over three hours.

The project manager leaned back in his chair and drew in a breath.

Damn.

This guy was the real deal.

If they could keep a freelancer like this on call, the company would be able to accept more difficult, higher-paying projects, and the profit margin would get a lot better.

He approved the milestone on the spot.

Then he sent Lucas a message through the platform.

"Excellent work. We’ve released the payment. Would you be open to more Spanish-English projects?"

After sending the message, he paused, then added another line.

"If you’re interested, here’s my direct email and phone number. We can also schedule a quick Zoom call to discuss long-term cooperation."