Love, Gun, Cupid

Gladiolus was already cold, and the threat in her words almost froze Rafaam. She protested, "This is a threat to my person! This is illegal and criminal behavior!"

“First of all, you’re the perpetrator. Have you forgotten what you did last month?” Jianlan said. “If we both submit reports to the arbitration body, do you think they’ll believe you or me?”

"You're clearly a top-level professional, yet you're standing up for that pretty boy and bullying me, a mid-level professional. How dare you... eh?"

The moment Rafaam finished speaking, she almost lost her composure as a blonde loli. These were her thoughts, but they slipped out unconsciously. She looked at the sword orchid's fingertips and exclaimed in astonishment, "You... used witchcraft on me."

"Want to see more?" Jianlan asked.

Rafaam shook her head vigorously. In order to survive, she had no choice but to contact Yi Lu Ting Feng again after a long time, hoping to steal more secrets from her best friend to save her life.

Surprisingly, Yi Lu Ting Feng didn't blacklist Rafaam. Instead, she answered the phone immediately. The two sisters had a heartfelt conversation on the phone, and Rafaam shed tears of emotion. After hanging up, she turned to Jian Lan and smiled through her tears.

"His emotional management and facial expression control are amazing." Lin Jiade was secretly shocked.

Jianlan was in charge of overseeing Rafaam's meeting with Yilu Tingfeng. Lin Jiade said goodbye to Mumian, promising to see her again that evening. He ate his hamburger and went home, picking up a plastic bag and saying, "Weiying, this is for you..."

He suddenly remembered that the little girl who was aloof outside but noisy at home had returned to the Celestial Realm, and gently shook his head. He placed the fast food on the table and found two notes there. Jasmine said she was attending a classmate reunion she couldn't refuse, while Dujuan told him that she was going back to the Celestial Realm to work on her thesis and check on her sister.

The house was cold and quiet. Lin Jiade sat on the sofa like a lonely old man for a while, then took out his phone to ask if anyone wanted to play football or online games. There was no one to play football, and he couldn't find enough people to play games. He put down his phone and went back to being in a daze.

"Take a nap," he muttered.

Lin Jiade had a dream in which he wandered through a desolate city. The soil beneath his feet was soft as sand, and the moon had replaced the sun, so the sky was often dark and the earth was stained with silver.

Loneliness permeated the air. Lin Jiade wandered for a long time, but could not find a single person like him. Only the unchanging full moon accompanied him. Its light was mesmerizing. In his loneliness and helplessness, Lin Jiade took the full moon as his spiritual support.

But the moon did not respond to him, no matter how earnestly he pleaded, how loudly he argued, or how he made blasphemous gestures toward the moonlight; the full moon still responded with its frosty white light.

If the moon possessed consciousness, then its countless years of existence would have kept it utterly indifferent. Compared to this immeasurable age, his short nineteen years of life were not even a fleeting moment. Thinking of this, a sense of emptiness arose in his heart.

Then he was slapped awake.

Lin Jiade opened his eyes groggily and, upon seeing Jasmine, reached out and pulled her into his arms. Jasmine smelled of sweat, cosmetics, food, and alcohol, but he didn't mind. He rubbed his cheek against Jasmine's cheek and noticed that her face was hotter than usual.

“You’ve been drinking? You’re still a minor,” Lin Jiade said.

"The boys brought some alcohol, and at their urging, everyone drank a little."

"Ah, I've been there too. The more adults forbid something, like drinking, the bolder and more clever students will use all sorts of methods to bring beer to school and secretly share it. Each person doesn't get much, but everyone is immersed in the forbidden pleasure of breaking the rules. It's just a small thing, but it excites us who are still minors."

You're only nineteen!

"Believe me, if you experienced these things at nineteen, you would also have the illusion that you are already twenty-nine."

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Every time Lin Jiade returned home after being away for two days, he found Jasmine especially adorable. Jasmine had been drinking today, and her face looked even more radiant. The feelings she had been suppressing with medication were beginning to soften. Since it was just the two of them at home, she unusually fooled around with Lin Jiade until the evening.

Fortunately, Lin Jiade was sober and kept his interactions with the little female dragon within acceptable limits. At seven o'clock in the evening, he and Jasmine went out together, while Hehuan's car was parked outside the residential area.

Jasmine sat in the passenger seat, and Hehuan glanced at her and said, "You took a shower, you can't not dry your hair properly, it's winter now... ah."

Realizing something, she awkwardly shut up. Her embarrassment made Lin Jiade and Jasmine uncomfortable as well. Hehuan coughed and said, "Junior, have you eaten?"

Lin Jiade felt even more embarrassed. Jasmine got home around 3 p.m. She and he fooled around until 6 p.m. when she went to take a shower. She didn't even have time to eat. However, the details were too embarrassing to talk about.

“I haven’t eaten,” Jasmine answered honestly. “I haven’t had time to eat.”

"You guys...be careful to restrain yourselves."

Hehuan wanted to angrily denounce the immorality, but if she considered it from Jasmine's perspective, she might have gone even further than the person in question—at least under Jasmine's care, Lin Jiade could still function normally, while she would make the person she liked so weak that he couldn't leave the bed.

"Could we buy some food first?" Lin Jiade asked.

"Since neither Kapok nor I have eaten, I'll call her out."

Hehuan acted decisively. Half an hour later, Lin Jiade and his group of four were already eating hot pot. The main dish was mutton, and among the side dishes, Hehuan earnestly put some ingredients on Lin Jiade's plate that were said to have aphrodisiac properties.

Half concerned and half teasing, she secretly laughed at Lin Jiade's embarrassed expression. But in her playful mood, she ignored the feelings of the other two. Jasmine and Kapok exchanged glances, came to almost the same guess, and blamed each other.

Early morning of July 12th, the European Championship final Italy vs. England, vote, the correct answer will get an extra chapter.

Chapter 81 Competition Format Changes (Part 1)

Lin Jiade suddenly realized that the people he was with were the same group he had been on his first mission as a member of the gang. In just one hundred days, he had made two of them his girlfriends, and if he wanted to, he could win over the last one as well.

"We've been traveling for so long, shall we relax tonight?" Hehuan said while preparing the ingredients. "Swimming or bowling?"

Sending Jasmine swimming in this weather would be almost like subjecting her to torture, so Lin Jiade answered on her behalf: "Bowling, perhaps."

Jasmine, however, felt uneasy. She had been having fun all day and was still playing at night, which meant she hadn't studied. Studying is like rowing against the current; if you slack off for a day, it might take two days to get back into the swing of things.

“Just play for a little while,” Mu Mian said. “As for the exam preparation, with your current physical condition, you should be able to catch up on the missed progress by staying up all night to study, right?”

Jasmine nodded. After Gladiolus joined the family, she was filled with jealousy, but she also admitted that she had benefited from her rival, and the faster recovery speed than planned was the best proof of that.

After they made their decision, their eating pace suddenly quickened. Lin Jiade apologized to Jianlan and accepted her invitation to go swimming together privately. He imagined her in a swimsuit; even the most conservative style would look amazing on Jianlan with her great figure…

He couldn't think about it anymore. Mu Mian got up to pay the bill, He Huan scrolled through her phone, and he carefully served Jasmine with tissues. Jasmine, who was sitting closest to him, noticed his unusual behavior and suspected that he was in heat with He Huan.

Hehuan was inexplicably framed for seducing a married man, but she didn't care about that. When Mumian returned, she stood up and said, "Something's happened!"

"What's wrong?" Kapok asked.

"They're going to change the competition format again."

"Seriously? It's already the semifinals, how can they change it? Even if they do make changes, shouldn't they implement them in next year's knockout stage?" Lin Jiade complained.

"I don't know exactly who pushed for the reform, but the organizing committee is voting on it. However, this is just a formality, and it will definitely be passed."

"Swearing on the field!" Lin Jiade slammed his fist on the table in anger. "Even I know that constantly changing policies undermines the Empire's prestige in this regard."

"What if it's a force from outside the Empire that the Empire cannot resist?" Jasmine said quietly.

Lin Jiade was taken aback: "Celestial Observer...why?"

“Ordinary celestial observers don’t have this kind of power. On the First Continent, I know of only three celestial observers who have similar influence,” said Kapok.

"So, what exactly needs to be changed?" Lin Jiade asked.

"First, the one-on-one battles between the four semi-finalists were canceled, and the stage was set on the Temple of Diana—not in a physical place, but in a virtual space, where the Diana Virgins (the religious armed forces protecting the temple) and the Diana Priests were also projected."

Then, the four contestants enter the arena. If they are both killed by another contestant, they lose one point; if they are killed by Priestess Diana, they lose three points. Similarly, killing another contestant earns one point, and killing Priestess Diana earns three points.

Players who are killed will randomly respawn somewhere in the virtual space. The competition continues until the end, with players ranked first through fourth based on their scores. The top three advance to higher ranks, and the first-place winner earns the right to challenge the priest at the Temple of Diana in the real world.

"Uh, how so?" Lin Jiade thought for a moment after listening. "It sounds like it's more uncertain than the traditional single-elimination system. The ideas of Priestess Diana, the Guardians of the Faith, and other contestants will make the outcome difficult to predict... Well, actually the outcome can be estimated, but the process cannot."

Hehuan tried to say, "Does this also increase people's success rate in challenging Priestess Diana? After all, he is now fighting four contestants in a virtual space, so his tactics and the secrets of the oracle are exposed to high-tech instruments. Even if they cannot fully analyze them, they can still cope with them?"

Regardless, tonight's entertainment was ruined. Mu Mian drove them home, but instead of leaving immediately, she went to Lin Jiade's house, turned on the TV, and tuned to a channel only superhumans could see. Reporters were on the scene reporting on this emergency.

Everyone still held a sliver of hope that a miracle would happen and make the organizing committee stop this arbitrary and crazy idea, but no miracle happened. The organizing committee passed the vote and announced that the final competition would be postponed to January 1.

"Swearing on the court! My parents were coming back that day!" Lin Jiade scratched his head. "How am I supposed to explain that I abandoned them and ran off to who knows where?"

Jasmine patted Lin Jiade's arm: "You can push the blame onto me. It was my whim that I dragged you on this trip."

“No, the only solution now is to ask Miss Dujuan to impersonate me for a few days.” Lin Jiade turned to Jasmine. “I know you two don’t get along. Promise me, if Miss Dujuan is willing to help, you’ll put up with it for a few days, okay?”

Jasmine hesitated. Lin Jiade's suggestion was like trying to sell Hawaiian pizza in the Apennines, which naturally infuriated her. But for the sake of love, she had wronged herself for who knows how many times, and finally agreed with a gloomy face.

"Hey, Miss Dujuan has such great abilities?" Hehuan asked belatedly.

The three people in the know exchanged glances. Hehuan proved her loyalty with her actions. Jasmine nudged Lin Jiade, who forced himself to say, "I'm sorry, there's something I've been keeping from you. Dujuan... she's a resident of the Heavenly Realm."

"Ok?"

Hehuan blinked, stared blankly for a few seconds, and asked, "Where is Miss Weiying?"

"Of course."

"I still don't understand why you're so familiar with the celestial observers?"

Lin Jiade briefly explained the situation. Hehuan's expression shifted from confusion to understanding to resentment. Being excluded by those close to her felt terrible. She bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Well, after all, I was the one who gave up this path, so who can I blame now?" Hehuan sniffed and said, "So, junior brother, you are a divinely protected one?"

"No."

Lin Jiade showed off the knowledge he had learned from cuckoos and warblers. When he revealed the true nature of the qualifying tournament—that it was not only a way for the empire to select talents who recognized its order, but also a window for celestial observers to find a pet—he felt somewhat dizzy.

"I thought I had seen through the Empire and had chosen to stay away from it," Hehuan said with a wry smile. "In the end, I only knew a little about it. Well, my personal sadness can be easily overcome by my junior brother buying me snacks and drinks."

"Wow, senior, you can still eat... Ouch!"

Jasmine stepped on Lin Jiade's foot, and Lin Jiade got up to go find the offerings for Hehuan.

Chapter 82 Competition System Reform (Part 2) (23→22)

After the organizing committee announced the decision to change the competition format, both the Albizia julibrissin and the Kapok tree became busy – the former was busy making phone calls to sources, while the latter was answering calls from sources.

“I’m going to do my homework,” Jasmine said.

For a moment, Lin Jiade was left with nothing to do. He opened the refrigerator and found that the soda water was gone, so he went downstairs to buy some.

As Lin Jiade passed by the family supermarket in the neighborhood, he recalled the past, when it was his and Kapok's paradise. On summer nights, they would buy two popsicles from the supermarket, listen to the cicadas chirping, and look at the starry sky, feeling incredibly relaxed and content.

However, the timing was wrong, the season was wrong, and the figures lingering in the woods were also wrong. Lin Jiade's hand was gripping his phone; if things went wrong, he would immediately call for reinforcements.

"Who?" he asked in a low voice.

A woman who looked exactly like Kapok emerged from the forest. Lin Jiade couldn't tell which of Kapok's sisters she was, but he felt he should call Kapok over. Just as he thought that, a thorn-like feeling crept up on him, and someone came from behind him.

"You were prepared all along. Who are you, and who do you represent?"

The woman facing Lin Jiade replied, "We've only come to see your weapons, but it seems you're not very good at forging them."

Lin Jiade retorted, "That's why she's your older sister, because she has better judgment than you."

He pressed a key for a few seconds, and a distress signal was automatically sent, but the people surrounding him did not stop him; instead, they waited with great interest.

Soon after, Kapok appeared beside him. She took his hand, not out of affection, but to turn him into a sword at any moment.

“Winter mallow, wild mallow, chrysanthemum mallow,” Kapok called out her sisters’ code names. “Give me a reason for being here.”

Dong Kui, the woman directly in front of Lin Jiade, replied: "It is obvious that among the children born to my parents, only one can inherit their property, status, and connections."

The older sister is the most promising candidate, but recently, the older sister, Di Tao, is not far behind. In order to make up for the talent gap between her and the older sister, Kapok, she took forbidden drugs and performed a secret technique to copy your life in her body at the cost of shortening her lifespan by half.

However, this also sometimes makes Sister Earth Peach think she is Sister Kapok, since her personality and way of thinking have overlapped with Sister Kapok's, so this cognitive confusion is inevitable.

Lin Jiade was secretly alarmed. The Kapok tree at this level has a lifespan of about 150 years, while the Earth Peach tree, in order to catch up with the Kapok tree, did not hesitate to sacrifice half of its lifespan, which is 75 years.

If it were Lin Jiade, he would have already surrendered and become Miss Kapok's dog. What does living another 75 years matter when it comes to winning against Kapok? Perhaps it was this ruthlessness that made Cinderella put on glass slippers, ride in a pumpkin carriage, and compete with the beautiful noble ladies for the prince's attention.

“As for us remaining brothers and sisters, we know we are powerless to compete with you for the position of the next head of the family. For the sake of our future lives, we must choose to stand between the two of you, not necessarily the stronger one. We also want to hear how you will deal with us brothers and sisters after you become the latest head of the Hart family,” Dongkui said.

"Deal with?" Kapok shook her head. "I don't think you'd believe me if I said I felt kinship with you. I just feel that we are all victims of our parents' tragedy, and if I could take everything from them, I would liberate everyone from this tragedy."