Love, Gun, Cupid

"?!"

“That happened some time ago. I ran away from home, quickly spent all my money, and then relied on this method to become a homeless person.”

"And then?" Lin Jiade asked.

"Then my family called me back home, and I got a severe scolding," Mu Mian replied.

"Why did you run away from home?"

“I come from the City of Brilliance.”

Lin Jiade nodded: "I know."

"That place is teeming with monsters. The desire to become stronger and to pass on that strength to future generations outweighs everything else, so disgusting things often happen there."

Lin Jiade nodded, indicating that he understood. He recalled Korobochka's situation; Korobochka had come so close to happiness, but her infertility changed everything, becoming the cause of the subsequent tragedy.

"My parents were mid-level figures, just one step away from being considered big shots. During an operation to wipe out an alien resistance, they were cursed, a curse that would make it extremely difficult for them to have children."

They tried many methods, even having sex with people other than their partners, but either they miscarried, or they gave birth to deformed children; the best outcome was that they gave birth to ordinary children.

"So, you were an ordinary person when you were born?"

Kapok shook her head: "No, those are my brothers and sisters. My parents considered them a disgrace and sent them to ordinary families. As for me, I was my parents' last attempt. They succeeded, but they also failed."

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Chapter Twenty-Two: The Story of the Kapok Tree (Part 2)

"What do you mean?" Lin Jiade asked.

Mu Mian didn't rush to speak because the fast food had arrived. She first unwrapped the hamburger, took a bite, and then drank some instant coffee. The battle and brainstorming she had engaged in that evening had stimulated her appetite to the point that even ordinary fast food tasted delicious to her.

No, what makes fast food delicious isn't necessarily hunger; Lin Jiade sitting across from her is the best seasoning.

"I am a successful individual because I have the talent to learn magic; I am a failure because I cannot reach the level of my parents' achievements."

My parents will only invest resources in my life if I am able to surpass them in the foreseeable future. They once planned a bright future for me, but they are disappointed as I grow up to be increasingly mediocre.

Therefore, they made a decision: to use me as a mother, to introduce superior bloodlines to breed offspring who could surpass them. After my first menstruation, they would utilize my reproductive capabilities to realize their dream.

“Bastard!” Lin Jiade said.

"That's true, so when I heard the news, I ran away. But I was young then and didn't know how to plan my escape route. First, I spent all my money. Then I ate at fast food restaurants along the way. Most of the owners would call the police to help me find my parents, so I had to live in the wilderness."

In a daze, I found myself at Mount Jiuhua, where I was temporarily taken in by a nunnery. This is a Buddhist holy site, but it is also a place where people full of desires and ambitions stay for a short time.

At Ten Kings Peak, I witnessed people forging swords with their own bodies, acting as both craftsmen and swordsmen. They forged themselves, and even those with naturally dull talents could continuously surpass themselves through repeated destruction and reconstruction. The price was merely the loss of some human characteristics. Swords have no gender, and swordsmen need not distinguish between genders.

Recalling the sword that the cotton tree transformed into at the end of his battle with Korobochka, Lin Jiade said, "It was a very beautiful sword."

“My parents thought so too, so they came to Jiuhua Mountain to bring me back home. Of course I tried to escape, but they eventually caught up with me and brought me back. However, the results I showed during my escape made them give up on using me as a tool for reproduction, and I was no longer able to reproduce.”

After that, they began to invest resources in me, hiring powerful people like Korobochka to be my tutors. I was outwardly obedient, but I was always calculating their sunk costs.

The moment I reached my predicted value, I fled Brilliant City once again. The sunk costs left them helpless; they no longer had the energy to raise a second child.

Every extra day I live uncontrollably outside causes them pain… The thought of that fills me with joy.”

After finishing her speech, Mu Mian immediately started eating the fast food in front of her. People tend to eat very quickly when they are happy or sad. Lin Jiade couldn't see Mu Mian's expression and didn't know if she was really happy.

"Alright, that's all I have to say for now regarding the part you're curious about. It's getting late, I'll take you home."

Mu Mian drove Lin Jiade downstairs. As Lin Jiade closed the car door, she rolled down the window and said, "I'm sorry to have made you listen to so many complaints."

"It's nothing, this is just normal interaction between me and Senior Kapok. Senior, do you still have a chance to turn back into a woman?" he asked.

"My childhood ended on the day I had my first period. It was a nightmare. Whenever I think about being a woman, I can't help but think about how my parents used me as a breeding machine."

What would have happened if I hadn't run away? Being led around like a slave, like a commodity, to be examined by strange men, subjected to their thorough internal and external inspections, then mating with the highest-paying, superior offspring, becoming pregnant, raising the child while still a child myself, and then continuing to reproduce… No!

Kapok's hands trembled as she gripped the steering wheel. Was it fear or anger? Lin Jiade didn't know. He could only say, "Calm down, calm down, senior. It's all in the past."

Kapok took several deep breaths and finally calmed down: "Yes, it's all over...really?"

She started the car and drove away. When Lin Jiade returned home, he saw Wei Ying lying on the sofa playing games. One of her legs was draped over the back of the sofa, and a flesh-colored gap appeared between her trousers and the hem of her shirt.

These two sisters are completely different. The older sister is surrounded by a holy aura, while the younger sister is completely unguarded and could be exposed at any moment, Lin Jiade thought.

Wei Ying glanced up at him, then turned her head away. Lin Jiade returned to his room, feeling her gaze constantly watching him, even when he was sleeping with Jasmine in his arms.

"Jasmine..."

Just as he was about to voice his strange thoughts, Jasmine tugged at his collar and sniffed, then lifted his arm, and then straddled him to smell his scent, muttering, "The scent of kapok on you... is stronger than before."

"Huh? Ouch!"

Before Lin Jiade could react, a dull pain struck his waist. He hugged Jasmine and said, "We didn't do anything. I swear, Senior Kapok only talked about some things from the past!"

Jasmine let him go, snuggled into his arms, and sighed, "I will always remember your kindness, and part of my relationship with you is out of gratitude."

"I know."

"So I cater to your personality, showing the side you like, being more obedient than a human being. I accommodate you in all important matters, even if it means sharing you with other women, but when I think of what you've done for me, I can only awkwardly admit the established facts, but that also means that my gratitude is being consumed."

My gratitude will diminish, and my attempts to please you in terms of personality and life will become increasingly perfunctory. Then, the parts of my personality that I don't want you to see will be revealed to you. Red dragons and humans, there is a deep rift in our beliefs that separates our races.

Don't give me that chance. I'm truly afraid that one day, jealousy will consume my reason and I'll do something terrible to you. Let me live on, grateful to you, pretending to be a human girl, until you turn to dust.

"No, you won't," Lin Jiade gently hugged the other person and said truthfully, "You can't beat anyone, even if you really lose your mind, it won't cause... Ouch!"

A moment later, Lin Jiade came out carrying a quilt and a pillow under his arm, and gestured to Wei Ying on the sofa to shoo her away: "Alright, I'll sleep here tonight, make room for her."

The warbler withdrew its feet and occupied the shorter side of the L-shaped sofa. Lin Jiade was already very sleepy. He arranged his pillows, covered himself with the blanket, and closed his eyes as darkness fell.

"Goodnight," he murmured.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, Wei Ying's voice came from across the sofa: "Goodnight."

Chapter Twenty-Three: When in Rome, do as the Romans do

The next day, when Lin Jiade awoke with a start from suffocation, Du Juan's face came into view. Then, she lifted his head, tossed the pillow aside, and replaced it with another soft surface... He rested his head on Du Juan's lap.

Du Juan pointed to the opposite corner, and Lin Jiade saw Wei Ying lying on one side, sleeping soundly with a cushion in her arms, her feet unceremoniously resting on his calves.

Lin Jiade's first reaction was that she dared to rub her socks, which she had worn all day, on his leg, but then he remembered that the celestial observers were sterile, so it was fine.

"How so?" he asked in a low voice.

"My sister is adorable, isn't she?"

Lin Jiade glanced at her again. The sleeping reed warbler lacked that annoying arrogance; her sleeping face was peaceful and gentle, reminiscent of a small animal taking a nap. So he nodded, his hair brushing against the hem of the cuckoo's skirt beneath the pillow, while the cuckoo's skirt rubbed against her skin, making overlapping "rustling" sounds.

“It’s better than when I’m awake,” Lin Jiade said. “But don’t tell her that.”

"Yes, ever since she blew up the school, she's been depressed at home. She even dreams about blowing up the school again, and she looks very distressed."

"Then let her continue to suffer."

“Here, she found joy in life and regained her usual sleeping face. That’s why I’m offering her a lap pillow – thank you, Lin Jiade.”

Lin Jiade caught a glimpse of the bow on Du Juan's dress out of the corner of his eye. Realizing that there was only a bow between his cheek and Du Juan's belly, his heart raced. He turned to look at the coffee table and said, "You're quite the good older sister."

"That may not be the case."

Lin Jiade lingered on Du Juan's lap for a while longer, a perverse pleasure welling up within him as he thought of Wei Ying's beloved sister providing him with a lap pillow service, completely unaware of it.

The Celestial Observer was impervious to the cold; even in winter, his legs beneath his skirt were still encased in semi-transparent white stockings. It was somewhat perverse, but seeing the white stockings extending from under Azalea's skirt, and the flesh-colored skin peeking through them, made his mouth water.

He thought, "I really want to lick it until it's transparent."

Some things, once you think about them, will pass. When the door appeared on the wall, Lin Jiade sat up abruptly, the sofa wobbling. Wei Ying reluctantly opened her eyes and gently kicked Lin Jiade: "What's wrong?"

You're stepping on my leg.

"Oh."

Lin Jiade yawned and went to wake Jasmine, as he was feeling a bit sleepy. He groggily pushed Jasmine to wash up twice, then sat at the dining table with the other two, watching over Jianlan who was busy in the kitchen.

Twice...two people?

Lin Jiade looked at the warbler beside him and asked, "How did you naturally infiltrate my life?"

Wei Ying played with her hair: "How rude of me. I know the principle of 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'. Since I'm living here, I should adjust my lifestyle to match yours."

Is that what you call cooperation? That's called freeloading!

Jasmine had no objections. She squinted as if sleepwalking. As the temperature dropped, her morning low blood pressure worsened, which might explain why she only went into heat during the first three seasons of her adulthood.

"If that's the case, as long as I control the room temperature, I can keep my kidneys even without exercising excessively?" Lin Jiade wondered.

Gladiolus brought over three breakfasts, then looked at the young diners with maternal eyes, dreaming of raising three children.

As they were leaving, she kissed Lin Jiade and Jasmine on the forehead. Wei Ying touched her own forehead, looking at them with envy, before being lightly touched by Du Juan's lips.

"Thank you!"

Wei Ying hugged Du Juan back, then followed Lin Jiade and the others out. Lin Jiade first put Jasmine in the car, then went to school—using jogging to mobilize his energy while running, in order to improve the precision of his strength control and increase the efficiency of his use.

Upon arriving at school, he pulled out his Celestial Weapon in the restroom and infused it with half its energy. The pain of having the energy drained made him groan involuntarily. When he emerged refreshed after finishing his energy replenishment, his classmates, who had just finished relieving themselves, looked at him with pity.

"It's alright, Lin Huang. Nine out of ten men have hemorrhoids, everyone understands. If it really gets bad, just go to the hospital to get it checked out."

"???"

Lin Jiade's reputation was damaged. He returned to the classroom and sat down. Wei Ying sat next to him, curiously flipping through his textbook and saying, "Why are your notes getting fewer and fewer?"

"Ah, I haven't been doing much lately... Wait, what are you doing here?"

“Visiting the school,” Wei Ying waved her hand, “Don’t worry, others will instinctively avoid this area. My activities won’t affect ordinary people, like this—”

Wei Ying nudged Old Mu as he passed by. Old Mu looked at Wei Ying with a puzzled expression, frowned, and then walked away without saying a word. During class, Teacher Yang's eyes also fell on the Huanlin Jiade no-man's-land in the classroom, and she almost couldn't resist. As a result, she turned her back to the class and wrote on the blackboard a lot more often that lesson.

The culprit behind all this had fallen asleep five minutes into the lesson. Lin Jiade woke her up after class and asked irritably, "Where's your report on the visit?"

"It's uncomfortable to sleep face down here."

"You were like this when you were in class at Mars High School?"

"We spend half a day in academic classes and half a day in combat training, six days a week. Academic classes don't have much weight; the main focus is on combat... but don't mistake me for an illiterate person."

Wei Ying picked up her pen and did a few arithmetic problems on the homework of Lin Jiade's class. She answered them almost instantly, as if what was in front of her was not Advanced Algebra II but First-Order Arithmetic.

Lin Jiade was taken aback: "That's amazing!"

"A sound mind, a strong body, a resilient soul, and a constantly accumulating fighting spirit are the four methods Mars High School uses to mold warriors. These are used in combination to cultivate the ideal warrior."

"You mean blow up the school?" Lin Jiade teased.