1586

"You!"

Owen’s face turned ashen. If he thought that I would control myself because Yiyi’s family was present, he thought wrong. In fact, I felt like I was acting too restrained regarding this matter for a while. Despite all my warnings and threats, the sonuvabitch still wouldn’t stop chasing after my girlfriend. If I was High Fighting Spirits or Du Thirteen, the guy would be lucky not to go home with a pig-sized face.

He rose to his feet like he wanted to do something, but slowly slid back into his seat with anger in his eyes. "We said we would have a fair fight over Yiyi[1]!"

Lin Xiao looked surprised. "A fair fight? Er…"

Liu Wanru also frowned a little. "You mean you want to compete against Lu Chen for Yiyi’s affection, Owen?"

Owen nodded. "That’s right. I love Yiyi as well. That is why I want a chance to compete against Lu Chen and prove that I’m more suitable for Yiyi than he is…"

Chest burning with righteous anger, I said in a low voice, "Love is about love, not suitability. How do you not understand such a simple thing?"

Lin Yixin straight up slapped the table, rose to her feet and smiled dangerously at Owen. "I love Lu Chen, and I hate you. You want a chance to compete against Lu Chen? How about I give you the chance to be tossed over by myself?"

Owen’s complexion turned purple at the threat. Seeing that the atmosphere was souring quickly, Lin Xiao hurriedly let out a cough and said, "Come now, this is hardly the appropriate way to interact in a family gathering, is it? Youngsters these days, why must you argue until your necks are red when you can just sit down and talk things out properly[2]… Now that I think about it, I haven’t introduced Lu Chen to the rest of the seniors in the room. Much apologies…"

Lin Xiao pointed at the middle-aged man who looked to be around 55 years old beside him and said, "This here is my second brother, Lin Yang. He’s currently working as the head of a department at the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Transportation, and the one beside him is his wife[3]. The one over there is—"

I greeted the relatives as Lin Xiao introduced them one by one.

Lin Yang was a fat man who looked to be around 100 kg or so. He looked like he had lived like a prince his whole life, but the deep intelligence—or more accurately, the cunning of an old wolf—behind his eyes told a different story. Not anyone could become the head of a department.

Lin Yang looked at me and smiled. "Lu Chen reminds me of my 20-year-old self. I was just as young and impetuous as he was back then. Not bad at all, boy. You too, Yiyi…"

Lin Yixin chuckled. "You praise us too much, second uncle…"

……

Lin Yang looked at Owen and asked, "Where are you working, Owen boy?"

Owen declared confidently, "Oh, I dabble in real estate. Other than my property management company I run two headhunting companies and one other business. I generally earn my living in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai."

Lin Yang exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, not bad! You are quite accomplished for your age. How old are you again?"

"29 years old."

"Not bad at all! You must have over a hundred million in personal assets, right?"

Owen chuckled. "Around seven hundred million, yes. The financial turmoil in the past two years was so bad that I wasn’t really able to make a serious investment. Things should get better in another two years though. The best thing to do during this time is to learn from a senior like you. The waters of business are so murky that one wrong step can mean the end, so one must be cautious…"

Lin Yang immediately praised, "You’re young, but you’re also humble and cautious. Those are very good traits you have…"

Lin Yang then shot Lin Yixin a meaningful smile. "Yiyi, I know you have extremely high standards, but are you sure they can be… matched?"

He purposely emphasized the word "matched" and shot me a glance. It didn’t take a genius to know what he was implying. Bastard!

……

Next, Lin Yang turned to me and asked me the same question he had asked Owen, "How about you, Lu Chen? Where are you working right now?"

I answered, "I’m not. I’m currently playing a game called Heavenblessed."

"Oh, Heavenblessed! I know that game. You’ll have to be living under a rock to not know about it these days. Have you built a guild in the game yet? I heard that guild founders earn a lot of money…"

I nodded. "Yes, I have. I make about a couple million per month…"

"Not bad, not bad…" Lin Yang smiled so wide that his wrinkles looked bent. "Not as good as Owen, but not bad…"

Indignant, Lin Yixin said, "Uncle, he’s also a member of Eternal Moon, you know."

"Oh? Really? What position is he holding?" Lin Yang asked smilingly. "Is it programming? I heard that Eternal Moon’s programmers are all amazing. Some even say that they’re the best in the entire world."

Lin Yixin shook her head. "No, not a programmer."

"Is he a tester then?"

"Nope!"

"A manager?"

"Absolutely not!"

Lin Yang was stumped. "Well, I don’t know what else he can be, girl. I have a friend who works as a manager at the Shanghai branch and earns 400k a month. Lu Chen is even younger than Owen, so he can’t possibly hold a position higher than that, can he?"

Lin Yixin giggled as she revealed the truth. "But he can, second uncle. He’s the CEO of the company~~"

"WHAT? The CEO? That’s impossible! Is he the CEO of the Shanghai branch of the China server?"

"Actually, he’s the CEO of the entire corporation, second uncle…"

"That’s just impossible! Impossible!" Lin Yang sounded like he had just encountered a ghost. "Wait. I know! You’re just teasing me like you always do, you naughty girl! Well, I’m not falling for it this time. I’m going to make a call and find out the truth right now![4]"

He pulled out his phone and called someone immediately—

"Hello, Brother Liu? Yeah, it’s been a while. Can I ask you something? Is the CEO of your company a Chinese? Ah? He is? What is his name then? WHAT? LU CHEN? Are you sure? Are you absolutely certain about this? Okay, how much are his personal assets worth? Tw… TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY BILLION?? USD?!!"

……

Lin Yang looked completely out of it when he finally hung up. He looked at me with dazed eyes and murmured, "Are you really the CEO of Eternal Moon’s international headquarters, Lu Chen?"

I nodded. "Mn. I’m just the proxy of the real CEO though."

Lin Yang’s complexion turned purple. "That… that is enough money to rank among the richest billionaires in the world! At your age… and Yiyi managed to get you to be her boyfriend??"

The second brother turned to look at Lin Xiao. "Your daughter… is truly a good judge of character!"

Lin Xiao looked astonished as well. "When did you become the CEO of Eternal Moon, Lu Chen?"

I coughed. "You guys are exaggerating things. I told you I’m just the proxy…"

Lin Yixin examined Owen’s complexion and snickered. "Yo, someone turned deathly pale all of a sudden? You still wanna ‘compete fairly’ against my Lu Chen, Owen? Still wanna show off that 700 million worth of assets that your dad transferred under your name?"

Owen clenched his fists tightly for a moment, but his frown suddenly faded away from his features. Then, he broke into a smile and said, "Alright, I give up. You can have Yiyi, Lu Chen. So, since you’re Eternal Moon’s true boss, wanna make a business deal with me? I would like to advertise a milk tea chain brand through Eternal Moon’s products. I promise you that we’ll both come out the victor of this deal…"

I simply looked at him and replied politely, "Sorry, we only work with companies that are true power brands…"

Owen: "..."

Lin Yixin giggled so hard that she almost couldn’t keep herself from hitting the table. She had always been one to take delight in her enemies’ misfortune, and it didn’t look like she was going to change this nasty habit of hers anytime soon.

……

After dinner was over, we ditched the elders and went to the theme park. We had already agreed beforehand to spend the whole night offline.

We took a Ferris wheel ride. Lin Yixin was standing by the window, watching the stars in the sky and the lights on the ground. I hugged her from behind and said smilingly, "You feel great…"

Lin Yixin snorted. "Pervert!"

I asked her, "Feeling better, Yiyi? This is the first time you asked me to take you to a theme park."

"It’s because…"

She turned around and favored me with her starry eyes and entrancing smile. "I strongly believe that you will recover from this, but if the heavens don’t favor us, and we are to be separated for eternity… I want to do everything we can do before our time is up. I don’t want to regret it later…"

I held her tightly and replied, "Mn. I’ll accompany you no matter what it is you want to do!"

"Okay then. Let’s go sing at the karaoke before going home?"

"Sure!"

……

It was past 10 pm when we arrived at a karaoke box and sang. More accurately, Lin Yixin was the one who sang while I sat on the sofa and listened to her. It took her a long time to finally tire herself enough to lean against my chest. Still trying to sing, she cried into my shirt while holding the mic. When her sobs finally stopped, she returned to her feet with a smile and continued singing until almost midnight. Only then did we drive back to the workshop and sleep together. Of course, we only cuddled. All I wanted to do at that moment was to protect her. She might seem invincible on the outside, but I knew just how close her mental defenses were to collapsing.

The next day, we woke up very early in the morning.

A couple of cars were parked outside Snowy Cathaya’s workshop. The first car was He Yi, Xinran, Beiming Xue and the rest of the girls, and the rest of the cars were Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Du Thirteen and more. As expected, they came after knowing that I was here.

We ate porridge and bread for breakfast in the courtyard outside the villa. The spring wind blew comfortably against the skin.

……

Sitting on a vine chair, He Yi inquired about Lin Yixin’s condition in a concerned tone, "Are you feeling well, Yiyi?"

The latter nodded. "Mn. Don’t worry, Sister He Yi. I have a strong body…"

"That’s good…"

Li Chengfeng spoke up while holding a cup of coffee, "Do you know that a small-scale Nation War happened last night?"

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

He smiled. "It was Cyan Earth City launching a retaliatory assault against us. More specifically, it was Breeze and Rain crossing the Black Sea with 5 million men to attack our Dark Moon City. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated the speed at which we were able to defend ourselves. They weren’t able to gain any advantage since Protective Umbrella and Blazing Hot Lips had responded to our call for help immediately. Also, they surrounded the city with 500k men only to surrender and teleport away immediately after we revealed our 1,000 Bone Dragons. It was quite amusing."

High Fighting Spirits said, "Cyan Earth City got off pretty good all things considered. At least they still have one main city left. The Japanese are a completely different story. Swallow Ear Canton and Ice River Canton have been turned into ruins, and the players weren’t able to retake Purple Grape City despite a long siege. In the end, Red Maple was forced to migrate south with the players of the Japanese server, but even that hadn’t gone smoothly. On the way, they were ambushed by the Russian players of Elephant City… Red Maple called it a tactical retreat, but it sure looked like a continuous string of defeats to me…"

I said, "You guys fought a war last night and still came to visit so early in the morning? Much apologies…"

Li Chengfeng grinned. "Sorry, but your apology is wasted on us. None of us had participated in the war because we were preparing for the WEL preliminaries tonight. It was Xu Yang, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and the others who repelled the enemy."

"I see."

1. T/N: Owen, bro, just find another girl already. Your persistence is admirable, but you’re using it in the wrong place ☜

2. T/N: says the guy who literally instigated this whole nonsense ☜

3. T/N: oh my god, Lin Xiao’s such a traditional man he didn’t even bother giving the wife’s name ☜

4. T/N: Mind you, Lin Yang’s reaction is perfectly understandable. That he’s willing to make a call to confirm this already extremely magnanimous of him ☜

"You!"

Owen’s face turned ashen. If he thought that I would control myself because Yiyi’s family was present, he thought wrong. In fact, I felt like I was acting too restrained regarding this matter for a while. Despite all my warnings and threats, the sonuvabitch still wouldn’t stop chasing after my girlfriend. If I was High Fighting Spirits or Du Thirteen, the guy would be lucky not to go home with a pig-sized face.

He rose to his feet like he wanted to do something, but slowly slid back into his seat with anger in his eyes. "We said we would have a fair fight over Yiyi[1]!"

Lin Xiao looked surprised. "A fair fight? Er…"

Liu Wanru also frowned a little. "You mean you want to compete against Lu Chen for Yiyi’s affection, Owen?"

Owen nodded. "That’s right. I love Yiyi as well. That is why I want a chance to compete against Lu Chen and prove that I’m more suitable for Yiyi than he is…"

Chest burning with righteous anger, I said in a low voice, "Love is about love, not suitability. How do you not understand such a simple thing?"

Lin Yixin straight up slapped the table, rose to her feet and smiled dangerously at Owen. "I love Lu Chen, and I hate you. You want a chance to compete against Lu Chen? How about I give you the chance to be tossed over by myself?"

Owen’s complexion turned purple at the threat. Seeing that the atmosphere was souring quickly, Lin Xiao hurriedly let out a cough and said, "Come now, this is hardly the appropriate way to interact in a family gathering, is it? Youngsters these days, why must you argue until your necks are red when you can just sit down and talk things out properly[2]… Now that I think about it, I haven’t introduced Lu Chen to the rest of the seniors in the room. Much apologies…"

Lin Xiao pointed at the middle-aged man who looked to be around 55 years old beside him and said, "This here is my second brother, Lin Yang. He’s currently working as the head of a department at the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Transportation, and the one beside him is his wife[3]. The one over there is—"

I greeted the relatives as Lin Xiao introduced them one by one.

Lin Yang was a fat man who looked to be around 100 kg or so. He looked like he had lived like a prince his whole life, but the deep intelligence—or more accurately, the cunning of an old wolf—behind his eyes told a different story. Not anyone could become the head of a department.

Lin Yang looked at me and smiled. "Lu Chen reminds me of my 20-year-old self. I was just as young and impetuous as he was back then. Not bad at all, boy. You too, Yiyi…"

Lin Yixin chuckled. "You praise us too much, second uncle…"

……

Lin Yang looked at Owen and asked, "Where are you working, Owen boy?"

Owen declared confidently, "Oh, I dabble in real estate. Other than my property management company I run two headhunting companies and one other business. I generally earn my living in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai."

Lin Yang exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, not bad! You are quite accomplished for your age. How old are you again?"

"29 years old."

"Not bad at all! You must have over a hundred million in personal assets, right?"

Owen chuckled. "Around seven hundred million, yes. The financial turmoil in the past two years was so bad that I wasn’t really able to make a serious investment. Things should get better in another two years though. The best thing to do during this time is to learn from a senior like you. The waters of business are so murky that one wrong step can mean the end, so one must be cautious…"

Lin Yang immediately praised, "You’re young, but you’re also humble and cautious. Those are very good traits you have…"

Lin Yang then shot Lin Yixin a meaningful smile. "Yiyi, I know you have extremely high standards, but are you sure they can be… matched?"

He purposely emphasized the word "matched" and shot me a glance. It didn’t take a genius to know what he was implying. Bastard!

……

Next, Lin Yang turned to me and asked me the same question he had asked Owen, "How about you, Lu Chen? Where are you working right now?"

I answered, "I’m not. I’m currently playing a game called Heavenblessed."

"Oh, Heavenblessed! I know that game. You’ll have to be living under a rock to not know about it these days. Have you built a guild in the game yet? I heard that guild founders earn a lot of money…"

I nodded. "Yes, I have. I make about a couple million per month…"

"Not bad, not bad…" Lin Yang smiled so wide that his wrinkles looked bent. "Not as good as Owen, but not bad…"

Indignant, Lin Yixin said, "Uncle, he’s also a member of Eternal Moon, you know."

"Oh? Really? What position is he holding?" Lin Yang asked smilingly. "Is it programming? I heard that Eternal Moon’s programmers are all amazing. Some even say that they’re the best in the entire world."

Lin Yixin shook her head. "No, not a programmer."

"Is he a tester then?"

"Nope!"

"A manager?"

"Absolutely not!"

Lin Yang was stumped. "Well, I don’t know what else he can be, girl. I have a friend who works as a manager at the Shanghai branch and earns 400k a month. Lu Chen is even younger than Owen, so he can’t possibly hold a position higher than that, can he?"

Lin Yixin giggled as she revealed the truth. "But he can, second uncle. He’s the CEO of the company~~"

"WHAT? The CEO? That’s impossible! Is he the CEO of the Shanghai branch of the China server?"

"Actually, he’s the CEO of the entire corporation, second uncle…"

"That’s just impossible! Impossible!" Lin Yang sounded like he had just encountered a ghost. "Wait. I know! You’re just teasing me like you always do, you naughty girl! Well, I’m not falling for it this time. I’m going to make a call and find out the truth right now![4]"

He pulled out his phone and called someone immediately—

"Hello, Brother Liu? Yeah, it’s been a while. Can I ask you something? Is the CEO of your company a Chinese? Ah? He is? What is his name then? WHAT? LU CHEN? Are you sure? Are you absolutely certain about this? Okay, how much are his personal assets worth? Tw… TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY BILLION?? USD?!!"

……

Lin Yang looked completely out of it when he finally hung up. He looked at me with dazed eyes and murmured, "Are you really the CEO of Eternal Moon’s international headquarters, Lu Chen?"

I nodded. "Mn. I’m just the proxy of the real CEO though."

Lin Yang’s complexion turned purple. "That… that is enough money to rank among the richest billionaires in the world! At your age… and Yiyi managed to get you to be her boyfriend??"

The second brother turned to look at Lin Xiao. "Your daughter… is truly a good judge of character!"

Lin Xiao looked astonished as well. "When did you become the CEO of Eternal Moon, Lu Chen?"

I coughed. "You guys are exaggerating things. I told you I’m just the proxy…"

Lin Yixin examined Owen’s complexion and snickered. "Yo, someone turned deathly pale all of a sudden? You still wanna ‘compete fairly’ against my Lu Chen, Owen? Still wanna show off that 700 million worth of assets that your dad transferred under your name?"

Owen clenched his fists tightly for a moment, but his frown suddenly faded away from his features. Then, he broke into a smile and said, "Alright, I give up. You can have Yiyi, Lu Chen. So, since you’re Eternal Moon’s true boss, wanna make a business deal with me? I would like to advertise a milk tea chain brand through Eternal Moon’s products. I promise you that we’ll both come out the victor of this deal…"

I simply looked at him and replied politely, "Sorry, we only work with companies that are true power brands…"

Owen: "..."

Lin Yixin giggled so hard that she almost couldn’t keep herself from hitting the table. She had always been one to take delight in her enemies’ misfortune, and it didn’t look like she was going to change this nasty habit of hers anytime soon.

……

After dinner was over, we ditched the elders and went to the theme park. We had already agreed beforehand to spend the whole night offline.

We took a Ferris wheel ride. Lin Yixin was standing by the window, watching the stars in the sky and the lights on the ground. I hugged her from behind and said smilingly, "You feel great…"

Lin Yixin snorted. "Pervert!"

I asked her, "Feeling better, Yiyi? This is the first time you asked me to take you to a theme park."

"It’s because…"

She turned around and favored me with her starry eyes and entrancing smile. "I strongly believe that you will recover from this, but if the heavens don’t favor us, and we are to be separated for eternity… I want to do everything we can do before our time is up. I don’t want to regret it later…"

I held her tightly and replied, "Mn. I’ll accompany you no matter what it is you want to do!"

"Okay then. Let’s go sing at the karaoke before going home?"

"Sure!"

……

It was past 10 pm when we arrived at a karaoke box and sang. More accurately, Lin Yixin was the one who sang while I sat on the sofa and listened to her. It took her a long time to finally tire herself enough to lean against my chest. Still trying to sing, she cried into my shirt while holding the mic. When her sobs finally stopped, she returned to her feet with a smile and continued singing until almost midnight. Only then did we drive back to the workshop and sleep together. Of course, we only cuddled. All I wanted to do at that moment was to protect her. She might seem invincible on the outside, but I knew just how close her mental defenses were to collapsing.

The next day, we woke up very early in the morning.

A couple of cars were parked outside Snowy Cathaya’s workshop. The first car was He Yi, Xinran, Beiming Xue and the rest of the girls, and the rest of the cars were Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Du Thirteen and more. As expected, they came after knowing that I was here.

We ate porridge and bread for breakfast in the courtyard outside the villa. The spring wind blew comfortably against the skin.

……

Sitting on a vine chair, He Yi inquired about Lin Yixin’s condition in a concerned tone, "Are you feeling well, Yiyi?"

The latter nodded. "Mn. Don’t worry, Sister He Yi. I have a strong body…"

"That’s good…"

Li Chengfeng spoke up while holding a cup of coffee, "Do you know that a small-scale Nation War happened last night?"

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

He smiled. "It was Cyan Earth City launching a retaliatory assault against us. More specifically, it was Breeze and Rain crossing the Black Sea with 5 million men to attack our Dark Moon City. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated the speed at which we were able to defend ourselves. They weren’t able to gain any advantage since Protective Umbrella and Blazing Hot Lips had responded to our call for help immediately. Also, they surrounded the city with 500k men only to surrender and teleport away immediately after we revealed our 1,000 Bone Dragons. It was quite amusing."

High Fighting Spirits said, "Cyan Earth City got off pretty good all things considered. At least they still have one main city left. The Japanese are a completely different story. Swallow Ear Canton and Ice River Canton have been turned into ruins, and the players weren’t able to retake Purple Grape City despite a long siege. In the end, Red Maple was forced to migrate south with the players of the Japanese server, but even that hadn’t gone smoothly. On the way, they were ambushed by the Russian players of Elephant City… Red Maple called it a tactical retreat, but it sure looked like a continuous string of defeats to me…"

I said, "You guys fought a war last night and still came to visit so early in the morning? Much apologies…"

Li Chengfeng grinned. "Sorry, but your apology is wasted on us. None of us had participated in the war because we were preparing for the WEL preliminaries tonight. It was Xu Yang, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and the others who repelled the enemy."

"I see."

1. T/N: Owen, bro, just find another girl already. Your persistence is admirable, but you’re using it in the wrong place ☜

2. T/N: says the guy who literally instigated this whole nonsense ☜

3. T/N: oh my god, Lin Xiao’s such a traditional man he didn’t even bother giving the wife’s name ☜

4. T/N: Mind you, Lin Yang’s reaction is perfectly understandable. That he’s willing to make a call to confirm this already extremely magnanimous of him ☜