Love, Gun, Cupid

"No, it's your problem. Lin Jiade, you're only nineteen."

Lin Jiade was a little confused: "What's wrong?"

"At nineteen, full of delusions and passion, you are eager to do great things but are unprepared for difficulties, so you are sometimes enthusiastic and sometimes frustrated, unable to control your emotions and going to extremes."

Lin Jiade felt he had been criticized again, and he said somewhat unhappily, "Don't worry, teacher. I don't have any grand ambitions; I just plan to live a peaceful life."

“But your demeanor, your temperament, your actions all tell me that you are doing what you consider to be a big deal,” Teacher Yang said. “I think you should discuss this with someone.”

If it refers to helping Kapok win the qualifying rounds, then this is indeed a major concern for Lin Jiade right now. But which elder can he consult?

So he gently shook his head: "They don't understand, and you won't understand either. This is something beyond your comprehension."

"I'm a little worried about you. Things don't seem to be going very well for you," said Teacher Yang. "All I can say is that you should stay on the right path, communicate more with people, and avoid impulsively doing anything that will ruin your life and make you regret it."

Lin Jiade looked at Professor Yang with surprise. The female PhD student blushed slightly and turned her head away, saying, "You are my student, so it's normal for me to care about you."

"Thank you."

Lin Jiade turned and left. Teacher Yang's words did not cause him any emotional fluctuation, because she was an outsider. Her common sense and morality were useless in the matter he was involved in. In the other side of the world that he knew and participated in, people were more barbaric, more brutal, and more unscrupulous.

Everything is for winning; as long as we win, everything else can be ignored.

He believed in Kapok, and his latest partner must share the same thought. After a difficult negotiation on Wednesday afternoon and throughout Thursday, Emerald Curtain sold her hopes of going further in this competition for 18 dinars.

At the signing ceremony, Lin Jiade saw Cui Mufenglian's expression shift from relief to dejection. Finally, she forced herself to remain composed and left the scene. Her face remained calm, but as she turned away, loneliness and sadness filled her back.

Lin Jiade and Cui Mufenglian's paths crossed only on Wednesday daytime. They weren't particularly close, but they still felt a sense of kinship. Having come this far, to leave so sadly—who could truly accept that?

Mu Mian watched her retreating figure and said, "She must have been very unwilling. It was a 60/40 split between us, but it wasn't to the point of surrendering without a fight, so her hand was shaking when she signed."

“But she chose love,” Lin Jiade sighed. “Love is such a strange thing; it actually made her risk her future… But will her family hate us?”

"Yes, but at their level, all their actions are based on interests rather than personal feelings... Of course, I can't say they can always remain shrewdly indifferent. From top to bottom, everyone in the empire is just a mortal, and mortals make mistakes."

"Anyway, we've already got one foot in the semifinals," Lin Jiade said. "Senior, please allow me to ask for leave on Friday morning."

The competition venue was very close to Fuxing City, so Kapok planned to leave on Friday afternoon. She agreed and then asked, "What's up?"

"See Wei Ying off; she's returning to the Heavenly Realm tomorrow."

"Approved. Say goodbye properly."

Mu Mian drove Lin Jiade home. Seeing that no one was around, she waved, and Lin Jiade leaned in to meet her at the window, their lips meeting. They had barely separated when they heard Wei Ying's displeased voice: "So you really enjoy having affairs?"

Lin Jiade, who had been caught first, was initially a little flustered, but his expression gradually calmed down. As long as he wasn't embarrassed, it was Wei Ying who would be. The celestial resident scratched his cheek and said, "I wasn't out for a walk, I didn't mean to bump into you."

"Keep this a secret."

"It doesn't matter anyway, I'm going back tomorrow," said Wei Ying. "I want to talk to Kapok. Don't worry, I don't plan to bully her."

Lin Jiade looked at Mu Mian, but Mu Mian didn't respond. Only then did he leave, his repeated turning back to look at her made Wei Ying chuckle. Her body slipped into the car door, and then reassembled itself in the passenger seat.

“You win,” said the reed warbler.

What do you mean by that?

“Some things, like when I taught Lin Jiade, I hoped he would rely on his own strength to be an upright person and do things with integrity, but you successfully made him fall into depravity, falling to the same level as you.”

You have tarnished honor, tarnished dignity, and tarnished your own conscience. Even when you're winning, look at what you've done: stealing your opponents' core secrets through fraudulent means, threatening them to withdraw from the competition and forging new alliances, accepting financial support from backers through secret channels with promises made, and now you've even directly bribed your opponents to fix the match.

What you showed Lin Jiade was only the part you thought he could accept—something that hovers in the gray area between morality and law, accompanied by a fork of the dark side, while you yourself ate the equivalent of a bowl of ramen.

Kapok shrugged indifferently: "I have never said that I represent justice, nor do I need Lin Jiade to represent justice. Justice is something that is absolutely correct in the Empire, but the problem is that justice needs to be defined by the government. If it is defined by private individuals, it is nothing more than the abuse of vigilante justice."

I once believed in swordsmen roaming the world with their swords, but I eventually discovered it was just a fairy tale. Xinghai was one of the empire's strongest swordsmen, yet even he couldn't completely control his destiny.

Swordsmen and swords have never been about justice... We have all accepted this reality and objectively identified the ways in which we can live happily in reality.

"Thank you for your guidance, Miss Reed Warbler, but the Celestial Realm is different from the Empire. The common sense you hold may not apply here. You are high above, and we hold you in awe, but even after that awe, we still go our own way, learning nothing from history."

With the air of a victor, Kapok said cheerfully, "Goodbye, Miss Reed Warbler. I hope this trip to the Empire will be a wonderful memory for you."

The reed warbler narrowed its eyes: "It's too early to consider yourself a victor, human. You will soon pay the price for your ruthless methods."

"Is this a prophecy?"

“No, it was just a feeling.” Wei Ying turned and left. “I hope you can stay calm then.”

Chapter 74 The Warbler's Proposal (Bonus Chapter)

How did the reed warbler and the kapok tree part ways? You'll know after the reed warbler returned and snatched the soda water that Lin Jiade was offering her, then gulped it down herself.

She waved her phone: "duo queue tonight?"

In the farewell atmosphere, most of Wei Ying's requests were fulfilled. Today, she was treated like a princess in the Lin Jiade family, and even though Jasmine disliked her, she tolerated Wei Ying's loud and boisterous behavior at home.

The others made room for them, and after Du Juan turned off the lights, only the two of them were left in the living room.

Lin Jiade focused on the game until they were knocked down by their opponent in the final match, just a hair's breadth away from victory.

The young man slammed his fist on the sofa in frustration, feeling a smooth, soft sensation spreading across his legs. He looked up and saw Wei Ying sitting at an angle, her legs pressed against his calves.

"Continue?" he asked.

"Next game."

The result of the thirty-minute battle was that Lin Jiade was killed by someone using cheats. The other party shot his corpse several times and mocked him in the public channel, saying that humans are intelligent beings who use tools, and that cheats and scripts are the tools of intelligence.

This is a common excuse used by players who cheat or use scripts. Lin Jiade wanted to report them, but as expected, he was kicked out by the anti-cheat system. He sighed and said to Wei Ying, "Want to play another round?"

Wei Ying hummed in agreement. In the third round, they were still eliminated by the cheater with X-ray vision and aimbot. Lin Jiade sighed. Cheats always seem to appear in large numbers on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

He took two bottles of soda from the refrigerator, placing one over Wei Ying's side. The latter didn't touch it, but instead hooked her leg around his calf, causing Lin Jiade to fall onto the sofa.

"Hey, what are you doing..."

Just as Lin Jiade was about to get up to protest, he felt a heavy, solid sensation spread from behind him. Wei Ying's arms invaded his sides and closed around him. Her head rested on his right shoulder, and strands of her hair playfully teased his cheek.

"Wren?"

“We are not siblings, not teacher and student, not friends, not lovers, we are nothing, I know that very well. I am just a passerby in your life... But in the darkness, in the place where we pretend not to see each other, we can also pretend that all of this is possible.”

"you……"

"What are you having wet dreams about? I'm not a carbon-based life form."

Wei Ying nudged Lin Jiade's cheek with the tip of her nose, giving Lin Jiade the illusion that she had kissed him. He reached out and awkwardly touched Wei Ying's head, and this time Wei Ying did not resist.

"Lin Jiade, even so, are you still going to continue with Kapok?" she asked.

“We have been winning all along, which proves that our method is correct. And Kapok must win. The worst outcome is that she is defeated by her own sisters and loses her value, then her heartless parents may take her home at any time to be a breeding machine.”

The fear of being a birthing machine became a persistent nightmare for Kapok. The first time we hugged and kissed, I touched the goosebumps on her skin. What was wonderful to me was something that disgusted and terrified her.

Therefore, she must win to maintain her opposition to her parents. So, even if it means resorting to any means necessary, she will push Kapok to the throne.

"What if you don't win?" Wei Ying asked.

"I……"

"You still want to rely on my sister, right? She's very good to you and always helps you. You're aware that you don't want to cause her trouble—when you can barely handle things. But when you face crises that you can't handle, you want to rely on her."

Lin Jiade, whose thoughts had been exposed, nodded somewhat awkwardly, like a young person who talks about independence but actually still relies on his family for support.

"You may ask your sister for help, but please consider your own worth. Don't sell your soul to her completely. She likes the process of turning things from being out of control to being in control, and once she has control, she will quickly get tired of what is completely hers and discard it."

"She's going back to the Heavenly Realm next year."

"Didn't you know? My sister applied for a position in the 18th district of the Cupid Guild. She'll be returning to the Celestial Realm in March and will officially go to Linhai City at the end of August. With her abilities, Linhai City and Fuxing City are not far apart."

Lin Jiade was initially overjoyed, but then his feelings turned complicated. He cautiously asked, "What do you think about this?"

"What do I think? I want to tear you to pieces, but keep you alive, and then take your head home to become our new member."

It's all because of you that my sister, who originally just planned to make a living in the Empire, stayed; it's also because of you that she abandoned what was right and insisted on what was wrong, causing me to be ridiculed by a mere mortal like Ququ; it's all because of you that I've learned that being with family members can be such a joyful thing.

I've been watching, observing those mundane interactions centered around you—something almost unthinkable in my family. Even though my sister and I are close, we maintain a distance; she has her privacy, and I have mine…

I said, "I have a suggestion."

"What?" Lin Jiade asked.

The reed warbler said in a fervent voice, "I have come to guide you onto another path. To be more specific, I will use my energy to transform your body, making you a true divine protector."

Then, you won't need to resort to underhanded methods; you can control the kapok tree and win honestly. Your old dreams may be destroyed, but that doesn't prevent you from having new ones—

Since you're willing to sacrifice for your family members, once you elevate Kapok to the highest rank as a swordswoman, granting her a status comparable to her parents, she won't need to dwell on being seen as a birthing machine. When you embrace and kiss her, she won't need to restrain herself, but can fully enjoy it.

The warbler became more and more excited as she spoke, gently swaying as she did so. If one could see the silhouettes of the man and woman from a distance, it might lead to some misunderstanding.

Lin Jiade's memory was awakened. Five years ago, Mu Mian seemed to have suggested that he take another path that summer. From the current perspective, she suggested that he take the path of a swordsman.

If he had debuted at 14 instead of being forced into it by Du Juan at 19, he might have achieved greater success as a magic researcher. But he made a choice, embracing an ordinary dream, and then lost it, just like he suddenly lost Kapok.

The reed warbler and her invitation now seem like a replica of the past. She and the kapok are almost the same age, the same naivety, the same rebelliousness, and the same unhappy family.

Although it was just a coincidence, when faced with a similar situation, Lin Jiade couldn't help but make the opposite choice, because he had already made a mistake once before, so he couldn't make the same mistake again.

“Okay, I promise you,” he said.

This is an extra episode of the Italy vs. Spain match.

Chapter 75 The Price of Impulsiveness

Wei Ying paused for a moment, then found a towel and stuffed it into Lin Jiade's mouth. She said, "Bear with it, change will bring pain."

Lin Jiade nodded. He was very skilled at doing this because almost every time he took a potion, it was accompanied by a painful change.

Pain can be endured and become a habit. Given time, Lin Jiade felt that he could follow Du Juan's teachings and draw joy from pain.

Wei Ying flipped Lin Jiade over and straddled him. Lin Jiade glanced at Wei Ying, who was looking down at him, and turned his head away shyly, burying his face in the cushion. Infected by his shyness, Wei Ying squeezed his waist with her thighs and said, "Why are you always thinking about that kind of thing!"

“Because you’re beautiful…and feel amazing.” Lin Jiade explained in a low voice, “There’s no way around it, boys aged 14 to 22 are basically just like the teenage version of Teddy Bear, and there’s also the pro version of Teddy Bear. It’s instinct.”

"Really?" Reed Warbler said with a hint of schadenfreude. "I hope you can stay like this from now on."

Her arm transformed into a strange weapon combining a key and a sword, piercing Lin Jiade's chest and twisting. In the excruciating pain that reached his very soul, Lin Jiade saw his skin, fat, muscles, and bones separating, while the grass-green flames belonging to the Reed Warbler filled these gaps.

For the first time, Lin Jiade saw what he looked like. He hoped it would be the last time, because he saw the House of Representatives also separating from him, enveloped, pulled, and strengthened by energy.

At this moment, he was also grateful for the separation of the House of Commons, otherwise he would have suffered excruciating pain and eternal psychological trauma... although, this scene is now already a psychological trauma for him.

Suddenly, the side of the reed warbler closest to the window was bathed in silver light. The reed warbler stopped moving and looked out the window with Lin Jiade.

The curtains could not keep out the reed warbler, but the reed warbler saw that the night was empty; the curtains could block out Lin Jiade, but the full moon rose in his eyes.

When Wei Ying turned around, she realized that the situation was getting out of control. The energy she had injected into Lin Jiade flowed back into Lin Jiade's body. The silver mist replaced her power and filled the gaps in Lin Jiade's body, piecing them together. Within seconds, Lin Jiade was restored to normal.