Love, Gun, Cupid

The joyful dinner ended with a slightly heavy discussion. To change the mood, Jianlan talked to Lin Jiade about her new workplace, the Special Tactics and Rescue Service Team, on her way back.

If a magic researcher/wizard expert/oracle protector possesses a heart of justice, and this desire outweighs all other desires, then an organization that fights crime and maintains urban order becomes the best destination for all three.

Lin Jiade was intrigued. If it came down to fighting, he would like to smash his iron fist into the face of the bad guys. He remembered the organization and thought that if he didn't plan to take the postgraduate entrance exam after graduating from university, he would apply to it.

When they got home, Jasmine was drinking duck blood and vermicelli soup. Dujuan testified that before that, the Red Dragon offspring had already devoured three baskets of xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) and a plate of bean curd sheets. Seeing Lin Jiade return, Jasmine stopped eating somewhat embarrassedly, but her eyes kept glancing at her own bowl.

"Do you need me to make some more?" Jianlan asked.

“No need, this is enough to fill me up,” Jasmine said.

"Didn't you eat outside?" Lin Jiade asked.

Jasmine put on a mask of pain: "I was with my classmates... so I could only eat the portions they were used to."

Lin Jiade laughed heartlessly. Jasmine rolled her eyes at him. He walked over, patted her head, and said, "Eat slowly. My time is yours until you fall asleep."

These words deeply moved Jasmine. Later, she learned that he had been the one urging her to study all this time. Watching the precious footage of young Homo sapiens attempting to tame the red dragon's offspring, Gladiolus said, "Don't you think things are fine as they are?"

“Nothing lasts forever, and our inherent passion doesn’t allow us to remain unchanged,” the cuckoo replied.

Gladiolus went back, while Cuckoo put on her headphones and talked to her sister. Reed Warbler was studying at Celestial High School and had not yet decided on her future career path, hesitating between Cupid, recommended by her sister, a lawyer, recommended by her mother, and a combatant, recommended by her father.

Coincidentally, she had accidentally destroyed her alma mater during the Celestial High School League Tournament and was ordered to go home and reflect on her actions for a month, so she wanted to come to her sister's place to relieve her boredom.

In this regard, Du Juan and Lin Jiade need to discuss it. She passed through the wall and found Lin Jiade talking to Jasmine about visiting his parents together, but it conflicted with Jasmine's schedule.

“In that case, I have a suggestion,” Du Juan said. “The purpose of bringing Jasmine is to make an impression on Lin Jiade’s parents so that their relationship can be officially announced. So, as long as Jasmine appears in front of them, that will be enough.”

"What mischief are you up to now?" Jasmine asked.

"Naturally, I'll play Jasmine and convey the greetings to Lin Jiade's parents on behalf of the main character."

“Dream on, how would I know what you’re going to do?” Jasmine replied.

“However, not this time. My sister Weiying is planning to relax here, so I also plan to take her on a trip this time. It will be good for her to go with Lin Jiade so that they can look after each other.”

Jasmine vaguely remembered the reed warbler. If the cuckoo was arrogant, at least it knew how to disguise itself and give people the illusion of being approachable. Then the reed warbler was an existence that wore its arrogance on its face, looking down on these complex branches of carbon-based life forms.

Du Juan continued, "Even if you don't agree, Lin Jiade's school has a winter sports meet this week, and there are no classes from Thursday to Sunday. I'll still take him on a trip, and he might even turn into someone like you. He can't stop me."

If you're worried about learning, you can have video calls for online classes.

Even if Du Juan is crazy, she wouldn't possibly let her own sister join the game, right? She's her blood relative. Jasmine thought.

With this in mind, Jasmine agreed. She was actually very interested in meeting Lin Jiade's parents. In her understanding, meeting the parents was almost equivalent to officially announcing her status as his wife. For the insecure offspring of the Red Dragon, she needed this kind of affirmation even more, so that she would feel that she was in a superior position in Lin Jiade's relationship.

Although... it's self-deception, Jasmine is a dreamy girl now.

Lin Jiade also vaguely felt that Du Juan's sister didn't actually like him, but he could tolerate it, considering it his attempt to repay Du Juan's kindness. However, the thought that the Jasmine he had brought to meet his parents was a fake Jasmine made Lin Jiade feel strange.

After settling things off with the two parties involved, Dujuan contacted her younger sister. Upon hearing that it was a joint operation with her sister's lover, Weiying reluctantly agreed... This was better than being confined at home.

Lin Jiade then proactively called his parents to coordinate the itinerary. At the end, he stammered that he was bringing a female friend along. There was a three-second silence on the other end of the line before the reply came: "Girlfriend?"

"Ah."

"Okay, that's great, really great. What does the little girl look like? How old is she? Where does she go to school?"

Lin Jiade hung up the phone and said to Jasmine, who was listening in, "Don't mind them. They're just excited that their son found a girlfriend. You know, some parents want the whole neighborhood to know when their child is dating, and they talk about it with a proud and boastful tone... Sigh."

Jasmine replied, "It's nothing. I just want the whole world to know that you and I are a couple... Oh, what's wrong?"

Lin Jiade clutched his chest: "Please, don't be so direct, my heart can't take it."

Jasmine asked, somewhat puzzled, "Can't you tell someone you like them?"

"I'm just too shy."

“Then I’ll say a few more words, a lot more words.” Jasmine gazed at Lin Jiade. “Your shy expression is quite interesting.”

That was the decision. The next day, Lin Jiade went to ask his counselor for leave. When the counselor learned that he was going to participate in the Winter Games, he was a little disappointed because there weren't many male students in the Mathematics Department who could be considered physically fit. But he didn't force him.

Of the two sports meets held annually at Sanam Dongdo University, the summer sports meet is the most important, with the aim of assessing and selecting semi-professionals to participate in the university sports meet, while the winter sports meet is reserved for ordinary students, emphasizing participation.

As Lin Jiade was leaving, he caught a glimpse of Mu Mian's shadow at the window in the corridor. Without thinking, he jumped out of the second-floor window. Mu Mian turned around, saw him, and immediately ran away quickly. Lin Jiade didn't want his senior to escape.

They chased each other for a minute, and then Lin Jiade lost sight of Kapok. He figured she wasn't running that fast; she had simply hidden herself.

He had no choice but to gamble on this possibility, so he took out his phone and dialed Kapok's number. Three seconds later, the phone rang from the bushes next to him.

“Come out, Senior Kapok, let’s talk,” he said.

Chapter Four: Qualifying Match

A kapok tree emerged from the bushes, and the cloaked monster's confusion magic was deeper and darker than ever before. The gloomy aura oppressed Lin Jiade's senses, and he asked, "What happened?"

"I don't want to lie, but I don't want to tell the truth either," Kapok said softly. "I know what you want to ask, but please, don't ask."

Lin Jiade lifted his shirt: "But I have your mark on me. I remember fighting while holding my senior who turned into a sword. How could I not mind?!"

"If you feel resentful because you are the one being unilaterally influenced, then..."

Kapok's fingers slid across her body, and wherever her fingers touched, the black bodysuit seemed like ink being diluted with water, until Lin Jiade could finally look directly at Kapok's body—from her stomach to her lower abdomen.

Lin Jiade saw that his name was also on the Kapok tree, but the difference was that his name was presented on the Kapok tree in the form of a wound. With the Kapok tree's breathing, the blood accumulated in the wound would gush out slightly and be absorbed again, in a continuous cycle.

"This injury... no matter what, let's treat the wound first."

He reached out to grab Mu Mian, intending to take her to the club activity room to treat her wound, but Mu Mian grabbed his hand instead, pressing it against his name. A strange tremor spread through Lin Jiade's lower abdomen; he felt as if he were intimately embracing Mu Mian, and could even vaguely sense her emotions.

“This isn’t a wound, it’s the relationship between us,” Kapok said.

"It's a contract signed to deal with Korobochka. What's its purpose? What impact will it have on our lives? ... In the end, why can Senior Kapok turn into a sword?"

"You have a lot of questions."

“We both have plenty of time,” Lin Jiade said. “You know how persistent I can be when I get serious.”

"You have plenty of time, but it doesn't belong to me."

"I'm very concerned about that, and not only that, I also want to find out whether the senior is male or female, and what they look like!"

"Why would you care about gender?" Kapok asked.

"Because only by figuring out your gender can I repay your kindness!"

Lin Jiade said, "I owe my seniors so much. If the senior is male, I will repay the debt as I would a brother. If the senior is female, I will repay the debt as I would a sister. These two ways of repaying the debt are different."

Moreover, even when we are friends, the way we interact with male friends is different from that of female friends: if the senior is male, I can feel free to make jokes like men and interact with them in a rough and unrefined manner like men.

If the senior colleague is a woman, I will restrain myself and treat our relationship with gentleness.

Ultimately, the issue of our seniority, including gender, has become an obstacle to taking our relationship further. Honestly, the senior is so good to me, sometimes it scares me, because I don't know why you're so good to me, and what I've done to deserve it.

In his excitement, Lin Jiade blurted out everything he had been holding back. He reached out and grabbed Mu Mian's shoulder, trying to force her to answer his question, but he forgot the difference in their strength.

Mu Mian countered by pinning him down, but Lin Jiade shamelessly clung to her, knowing that Mu Mian didn't want to hurt him, and that he couldn't get rid of her unless she did something that would hurt him.

Kapok said impatiently, "Don't do things like a child. You're an adult now!"

"Unfortunately, in this day and age, adults are rapidly regressing into giant babies due to the information stimulation brought by the internet, so I can now be considered a qualified adult."

Lin Jiade stalled for time, and soon after, Hehuan's figure appeared in their sight at the same time. Mumian pulled him into the bushes and covered his mouth.

"Senior Hehuan is caught in the middle and is in a difficult position. She has always hoped that we can reconcile." Lin Jiade typed on the chat software. "If I can't get what I want, then I will join forces with her and try to get what we want from Senior Mumian."

Kapok replied, "Lin Jiade, you're really despicable now."

"Is it not despicable of Senior Kapok to carve words on my body without telling me the truth?"

After a stalemate, Mu Mian took advantage of He Huan's inattention, carried Lin Jiade away, put him down, and then drove him back to the messy house of the bodysuit-clad weirdo.

The only place in Mu Mian's house that could be considered clean was the toilet. Lin Jiade frowned, rolled up his sleeves, and said, "At least tidy up the room a bit."

“I won’t be staying here for long. I’ll be leaving on Thursday to play my promotion matches.”

"The qualifying rounds?"

"The competition for promotion in professional titles was so intense that there were too many intermediate magic researchers applying for promotion that more screening procedures were needed than ever before. In the end, it turned into a promotion competition—a contest of 50 contestants vying for 3 promotion spots."

"what……"

Lin Jiade felt a little guilty. At a time when Mu Mian had important matters to attend to, he had pestered her with these questions. So he said, "If you have important matters to attend to, I'll ask you after I'm done."

"Once we're done with this, we might never see each other again."

Mu Mian dragged over a chair for Lin Jiade to sit down, then took out a lot of beer from the refrigerator, with only two bags of potato chips as snacks. Lin Jiade drank with him, while Mu Mian remained silent, simply drinking and crunching the potato chips loudly.

It wasn't until Lin Jiade's legs were surrounded by empty bottles and jars, and he was rubbing his head, feeling parched and with throbbing temples, that Mu Mian suddenly stood up and said excitedly to him, "If you don't figure out my gender and satisfy your curiosity, you'll keep bothering me like this, won't you, um, won't you?"

"Huh?" Lin Jiade looked up somewhat slowly. "Senior Mumian, are you drunk?"

"I'm not drunk! I'm just a coward. I only have the courage to speak after drinking enough alcohol. What I should tell you, what I must tell you! The thought of telling you the truth makes me feel terrible, but not telling you makes me feel even worse!"

Lin Jiade laughed and said, "Senior, you are indeed drunk. You can't handle such a little wine. That's lame."

His smile quickly faded, because Mu Mian directly dispelled the confusion spell below her head. When Mu Mian's body appeared openly before him, he instinctively searched for any features that could identify her gender, however…

He forgot his manners, leaning forward and staring intently at Jianlan, his mouth agape in an "O" shape. He looked up, then down, his expression increasingly questioning of life.

Mu Mian walked confidently to him, allowing Lin Jiade to see her more clearly. Lin Jiade leaned back in his chair, slumping into a daze. He heard Mu Mian ask, "Now, how have you decided to repay my kindness?"

Chapter 5 The Reed Warbler (Bonus Chapter) (36→35)

"No..." Lin Jiade only uttered a single murmur.

"Do you see me as a brother, or as a female friend?" Mu Mian tilted her head. "Will we play football together on the green field, or will I be looked at with such lustful eyes, and sooner or later we'll be locked in a passionate battle in bed?"

"Do not……"

"Cheer up! This is the truth that has been bothering you all along, and now it's right in front of you!" Kapok opened her arms wide. "You should cheer up and give your friends and seniors a warm hug!"

Mu Mian tore at Lin Jiade's clothes, and Lin Jiade fought back fiercely. He was somewhat afraid of the drunken Mu Mian, afraid of her madness. In their struggle, Lin Jiade's pants became Mu Mian's primary target.

Soon, Mu Mian got her wish, and Lin Jiade resisted even more fiercely. If he had known that boys could also be violated, he would not have so easily accompanied Mu Mian to drink.

Just as Kapok was about to breach Lim Chia-te's last stronghold and parade his members of parliament through the streets, it suddenly noticed the patellar brace on Lim Chia-te's leg. Kapok suddenly fell silent like a statue, and then slowly withdrew from Lim Chia-te's body.

Lin Jiade left, still in a daze when he returned home. Jianlan had just finished showering, and water droplets from her hair left streaks on her pajamas. She walked over, her fingers glowing with energy, and brought them to Lin Jiade's nostrils; the air he exhaled changed color.

"You drank quite a bit," Jianlan said. "And who is it today?"

"Kapok".

Jianlan poured him a glass of water, which Lin Jiade drank in one gulp. He wiped his mouth and said, "Thank you."

Is there anything I can do to help you?