Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

They are the elite among the extraordinary, the wielders of power. A financial empire of this scale would be impossible to find in China or Siberia; only the loose structure of Europe allows for the existence of terrifying giants like the Shaniat family. They can even buy a castle and all the surrounding land to create their own domain, presenting themselves as medieval nobles in the 21st century.

But when the Shaniat family stood on his side, Shen Liang no longer disliked the tycoons or the nobles.

P.S.: To prevent theft, I will post half of the update at once, and the other half a few hours later.

Actually, I don't want to implement anti-piracy measures. Pirate readers might become legitimate readers eventually. Some people say that a high wall only blocks those who don't want to come; those who should pay will pay, and those who shouldn't pay will rather not read at all.

But I got rejected.

They sent me private messages criticizing me for being greedy, only caring about money, and for padding the plot and fooling people. They also said that so many books on a certain platform are pirated and no one is taking measures to prevent piracy, so I'll never become a great author.

But I actually made a mistake yesterday. I didn't implement anti-piracy measures. I just made a formatting error, but people thought it was an anti-piracy chapter and criticized me so much.

Why?

Okay, then I'll install security features.

Chapter 207 I can't hold it in any longer!

Walking down the thickly carpeted corridor to his room on the third floor of the main castle, Shen Liang threw his luggage onto the bed, hesitated for a moment, and decided to go to the toilet and take a shower first.

Then he discovered that the castle truly lived up to its name, just as Kiana had said, it was extremely inconvenient.

To what extent is it inconvenient?

The room does not have a private bathroom.

Shen Liang could roughly guess that in this kind of building, the bathroom should only be in the master bedroom. He was staying in the guest room where most of the Shaniat family members lived, since the master bedroom was reserved for Cecilia, Sirin, and Kiana of the main family.

The guest rooms only have washrooms. If guests need to use the toilet, they have to go to one of the three public washrooms on each floor, and each washroom has three toilets. In other words, there are nine toilets on each floor, even though there are about twenty young women living on each floor.

According to the map of the Shaniat house that the maid had given him, the nearest bathroom was just two corridors away when he went out.

Shen Liang opened the door and saw a pair of beautiful nuns walking past his door hand in hand, chatting and laughing. When they saw him open the door, the two girls from the Shaniat family even greeted him.

Shen Liang immediately put on a sweet smile and said repeatedly, "Sister, you can handle this." Then she closed the door and sat down on the bed with a contorted expression.

Damn it, I never thought of that!

He was the only man in the huge Shaniat family home. Everyone here, from the young lady to the maids, secretaries, and security personnel, was a girl. The family had never planned for a man to come in from the beginning. They probably never even thought that Shen Liang would need a bathroom!

The public restrooms in this godforsaken place are all for women!

He, the peerless king of the Western Kingdom, Lord Kaigozen, and the current regent of the goddess of gods and humans, actually died from holding his pee.

To be honest, the Shaniat family didn't even provide him with a maid or anything. Well, a teenage boy shouldn't really have that kind of thing, but the Shaniat family has eight or nine hundred service staff. Picking one to help him familiarize himself with the family rules would be good. He's not really a native of the Saintess lineage, and he has a terrible sense of direction indoors. He can get lost in a building playing Left 4 Dead 2, let alone a seven or eight-story castle.

However, given Shen Liang's pride, going to the women's restroom was absolutely out of the question. He would rather pull open the light barrier and go to the Narukami Shrine to use the restroom... Anyway, when he left, he was already at Shadow Mountain, so teleporting back to the shrine at the top of the mountain wouldn't be a problem.

Just then, someone knocked on the door. Shen Liang stopped what he was doing and mustered the last bit of patience to open it. He couldn't hold it in any longer. He hadn't gone to the toilet on the plane, and then spent two hours with Maria at the church on the way to Neuschwanstein Castle. Half a day had passed in all that back and forth.

Anna entered, dressed in her familiar attire: a black beret, a lace-trimmed cape, a pure white strapless miniskirt underneath, and white lace stockings on her right leg—a style favored by all the girls of the Shaniat family.

Perhaps because of their lineage as "saints", the girls of the Shaniat family always like to dress themselves in light colors, such as white nun's or priest's gowns, white knee-high stockings or garter stockings. They still retain a touch of pure gentleness amidst their holiness and asceticism, so pure white beauties are always pleasing to the eye.

Ever since Cecilia brought Kiana and Sirin to Aisha to help him out, Shen Liang had almost forgotten about Anna. She was sent by Sirin to be his translator, and after the battle at Aisha, Anna quietly left him and returned to her family. Shen Liang's mind was filled with the shock of seeing the Holy Maiden and the joy of reuniting with his sister, and he didn't even notice when Anna disappeared.

"Sister Anna?" Shen Liang was delighted to see a familiar face in the unfamiliar castle. It was a girl who had fought alongside him on the battlefield, a friend with whom he had shared hardships, though their friendship wasn't particularly deep. "You're here too? I thought you had left long ago."

“This is my home, where can I go if I leave…” Anna smiled gently. “Although I’m from a collateral branch, I grew up in Neuschwanstein Castle since I was a child, and I haven’t even said goodbye to you yet. How can I leave without saying goodbye?”

"By the way, congratulations." Anna closed the door behind her, her smile a little cold. "Congratulations to my little brother Pandora. Yes, now you really have to call me sister. Congratulations on becoming Lady Maria's child."

“What’s there to congratulate? We’re just mother and son on the surface. Maria doesn’t like me. She’s a nun. Didn’t you see that she didn’t even feel like leaving the church to say a word to me?” Shen Liang shrugged. “But I don’t care. It’s better if she can’t be bothered with me. I don’t want to be all over her pretending to be a mother and mother all the time. I’d be sick of myself putting on this mother-son act.”

Anna smiled silently. "Don't tell anyone that."

“Sister Anna, I’m not that stupid. But it doesn’t really matter if I say it. Maria definitely doesn’t care that I don’t like her, and what other people are saying… They all know we’re not really mother and son anyway.” Shen Liang said lazily, “Everyone is reasonable. Besides, I’m only here because the Holy Maiden is amazing. I don’t care what Maria thinks of me.”

“You…” Anna lowered her gaze, “Pandora, don’t you know how powerful Lady Maria is?”

Shen Liang was taken aback. "I thought she was just an ordinary nun. She seemed like one of the few devout believers of this era... But judging from your description, she's a powerful Valkyrie?"

“She’s more than just strong; she’s one of only two S-rank members in the Shaniat family.” Anna looked at Shen Liang with a hint of envy. “The Holy Maiden really dotes on you, treating you like a true son-in-law or…son. The mother she found for you is the second S-rank member in our Shaniat family, and the third strongest on the Destiny Ranking. That way, even if she’s gone one day, your background will still be strong, and at least you’ll have an S-rank member to protect you.”

Shen Liang opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Another S-class. With the top human combat power only at the A-class level, the S-class people he came into contact with were practically everywhere.

Cecilia had only known him for a few days, but just because of the title of "potential son-in-law," she already treated him extremely well, almost second only to her daughter.

He had even planned out his funeral arrangements.

She never actually expected Shen Liang to heal her, nor did she care about the Divine Key. As the world's strongest Valkyrie, she seemed to have no desires whatsoever. Perhaps in her view, with a prosperous family and both sons and daughters, there was nothing left for her to worry about, leaving only Kiana, Sirin, and the other young people to live carefree lives.

Thanks to Kiana, he could also experience Cecilia's benevolence, but Shen Liang knew he was not entitled to enjoy these things.

Yet she still showed him the same love she would give her daughter, a love that was gentler than a mother's and warmer than the sun.

"Let's not talk about Maria anymore. What are you doing here, Anna?" Shen Liang's mood was interrupted by his urge to urinate, and he became somewhat anxious. Hua Haiyue couldn't stop his metabolism, and because he was in particularly good physical condition, he felt especially uncomfortable. Under normal circumstances, he could keep that ghost going for six hours.

“I just wanted to talk,” Anna said, sitting on his bed with her skirt up, her face looking worried. “I…I have something I want to talk to you about.”

Shen Liang felt uncomfortable as soon as she sat down. Sitting down meant that she was ready to have a long chat with him, maybe for half an hour or an hour. But sister, please let your brother go. I'm not some kind of confidante radio station that can comfort you. I'm in a hurry to go to Teyvat to use the toilet!

But Anna was a quiet person, and Shen Liang knew that if she didn't have something she needed to talk to him about, she wouldn't have waited so long to speak. It would have been too impolite for her to just run away, so he could only stand there stiffly, not even daring to sit down.

Anna, oblivious to his inner turmoil, placed her hands on her knees, sitting obediently to avoid disturbing his bed, before slowly speaking: "Pandora, someone proposed to me."

"Ah, right, right... Ah?" Shen Liang was just trying to answer when he suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Who?"

Proposal?

Why are you contacting me if it's not a marriage proposal? You should talk to your girlfriends or your parents. I'm just a distant cousin. Why are you coming to me for a heart-to-heart? Don't you have any friends in the Shaniat family?

"I remember you were only nineteen, Anna, right? You got a marriage proposal at nineteen?"

“The legal marriage age in Germany is eighteen, and that’s the age when the saint was proposed to,” Anna said softly. “My parents were very happy about it because he is a senior executive of the multinational conglomerate ‘World Serpent.’ I am a daughter from a collateral branch of the Schariac family, so we are roughly equal in status… It’s actually very difficult for daughters of the Schariac family to find peers of similar status. Most of the men who can match me in status are middle-aged or elderly.”

"An extraordinary conglomerate? Like the Shaniat family?" Shen Liang suddenly realized, "And it's male... just like me, young and promising, indeed young and promising."

"You still dare to talk!" Anna stomped on his foot, somewhat annoyed. Luckily, her high-heeled boots weren't stilettos. "Strictly speaking, unlike the Shaniat family, World Serpent isn't a family, but a conglomerate with an administrative structure similar to a corporation. And the boy who proposed to me... is indeed as young and promising as you. He's also one of the few male Honkai Energy aptitude users in the world, and he's also from China."

"Fellow?"

“His name is Chen Tianwu, codenamed ‘Night Owl’ in the World Snake Organization. Actually, I’ve always had some contact with him,” Anna said in a low voice. “I know him because he was a victim of the Manila collapse.”

After she finished speaking, she waited for Shen Liang's response, but saw that Shen Liang's face was tightly taut and her legs were pressed together, waiting for her to continue.

"Pandora, what are you doing?"

"Go ahead and say it, why are you looking at me? I don't understand what you're talking about. What Manila Collapse or World Serpent? I don't know what those are," Shen Liang said irritably.

“Three years ago, a Honkai Beast attack occurred in Manila, which was eventually covered up by a plane crash. At that time, I was an A-rank Valkyrie and went to carry out cleanup and rescue operations. I got separated from the team, and while I was fleeing in panic, I encountered Chen Tianwu, who was trapped under the rubble. I used all my strength to dig him out.” Anna narrated little by little.

Shen Liang could easily guess that, in Chen Tianwu's eyes at the time, Anna, as a Valkyrie, was simply an angel descended to earth with light.

“I took him to the medical ward. He was just an ordinary person, but he came into contact with the supernatural side because of this. He was contaminated by Honkai energy but did not die immediately. It was found that he had a certain degree of Honkai energy adaptability. Of course, he is not as powerful as you, but he is still an extremely rare and precious existence,” Anna said. “After that, he joined World Serpent because World Serpent has the ability to modify human bodies and can prolong his life after he was contaminated on a large scale. After that, we started corresponding.

"Correspondence? In this day and age, people still use letters to communicate, and then he falls in love with you because he feels he can't repay your kindness?" Shen Liang joked.

Anna remained silent.

"Do you like him?" Shen Liang shrugged.

“I…” Anna whispered, “I don’t know. I’ve only met him once, and since then it’s been just letters. This time he suddenly proposed, and I don’t know what to do. My parents and everyone around me think it’s a good thing; we’re of similar social standing, and it’s mutual, not some kind of marriage of convenience. I don’t know if I should accept, so I came to ask you…”

"So you don't dislike him?" Shen Liang laughed. "Then let's give it a try. Since we don't know if he likes you or not, but he doesn't dislike you, how about we try dating? Maybe our feelings aren't deep enough right now, but feelings are developed through time together, aren't they? He fell in love with you at first sight. If you don't have someone you like, give him a chance."

The saying goes, "I'd rather tear down ten temples than break up one marriage." As a Chinese person, Shen Liang would never separate any potential couple.

Anna looked at him silently, her eyes somewhat strange, and after a long while she nodded, "Is that so? Is that what you think?"

"But we need to get to know each other for a while before getting engaged. Proposing right away is too fast," Shen Liang said. "Anna, when are you going to meet him?"

"Spending time together... Heh, the engagement party is scheduled for next week. Pandora, you can come too." Anna tilted her head back and sniffed at an angle that Shen Liang couldn't see. When she lowered her head, her gentle smile returned. "There's no time to spend time together. After all, we've been corresponding for three years, so we're quite familiar with each other. I don't dislike him, so it's fine for me to accept it... Um, thank you for comforting me."

"Congratulations, Anna! I have to go now." Shen Liang had no intention of continuing their heart-to-heart talk with Anna. He was practically grinding his teeth. If he couldn't control himself in front of Anna, his life would be over!

"So why is your emotional intelligence sometimes so low?" Torachiyo suddenly chimed in, her tone full of exasperation. "Everyone around her supports her marriage, and she still comes to you... don't you understand?"

[Please don't interrupt me when I'm about to lose my composure!] Shen Liang wasn't listening to anything Hu Qiandai was saying; he was already trembling!

[Tsk.] Torachiyo clicked her tongue in annoyance at being interrupted, then shut her mouth. [You'll regret this, I'm telling you.]

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Chapter 208 Anna, the Green Tea Girl with Maxed-Out Skills

"Is something wrong with you?" Anna saw that Shen Liang's face was flushed red, so she relaxed a little and got up from the bed to touch his forehead.

"Sister, are you done talking?" Shen Liang tried to circulate the Transformation Sea Moon, but the increased metabolism made him even more unable to hold back.

"Pandora, don't you want to hear it?" Anna lowered her head, trying to hide her tearful expression, and forced a smile, "Okay, I'll get right to it..."

"No!" Shen Liang said helplessly, "Sister, can we talk about this another time? I really need to use the restroom. Your Shaniat family doesn't have a men's restroom, so I need to find somewhere else to relieve myself, you understand?"

“Find a place…” Anna’s delicate face flushed red instantly, and she waved her hands repeatedly, “No, no, there are cameras all around the castle, you’ll be caught if you urinate or defecate anywhere! And the castle is full of landscaped gardens and lawns, please don’t do that… and we might even find out…”

Hey! This girl isn't paying attention to what he said about there being no men's restroom; her focus is actually on this?