Love, Gun, Cupid

He tilted his head back, and water droplets from his hair fell onto Jasmine's shoulder, then down her back to the ground, merging into the water stains on the floor, reflecting Lin Jiade's uneasy expression.

"Jasmine, what do you think about this?" he asked.

"I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm glad that I have one less person to share you with;

On the other hand, she's a good ally. In your network of philanderers, she's not too bad. I never know if the person who replaces Mumian will be worse than her.

Furthermore, without her forceful change of your path, I wouldn't have met you. Therefore, I am a beneficiary of her barbaric actions, and it's somewhat unconvincing for me to speak ill of Kapok on your side.

Jasmine and Lin Jiade clung to each other even tighter: "I have no other expectations of you, as long as we can live like an ordinary couple and have many, many children."

Ordinary couples don't have many children, Lin Jiade thought with a chill running down his spine.

Jianlan, who was lying in bed embracing her boyfriend, had a different perspective. Her side-lying position caused her collar to curl up, revealing a cool fragrance, which was the result of Jianlan using cosmetics specifically for necromancers to maintain herself.

"Jasmine is worried that something worse will replace the kapok tree? I'm actually happy about the uncertain future, because the next person you're destined to marry could very well be a cute, rich, powerful, petite, childlike rich girl."

“Uh, you’ve repeated yourself because you have money,” Lin Jiade said.

"I'm just emphasizing the importance of money."

“Snobbery and favoritism are not virtues.”

"You're so annoying," Gladiolus touched his forehead with hers, "I did this for you."

It's clear that your personal desires are also involved. Lin Jiade thinks that you only like petite girls because it's easier for you to imagine them as your children and cherish them.

"For the sake of the family..." Lin Jiade muttered.

The following day, December 24th, was the winter solstice of the empire. On this day, the daytime was the shortest and the night the longest in the Northern Hemisphere. In ancient times, astronomy was not yet developed, and they could not accurately describe this phenomenon, but could only observe it. Therefore, they gave the winter solstice many seemingly plausible explanations, which gradually developed into a festival.

The winter solstice customs vary across the ten continents located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. Fuxing City has experienced major population changes, resulting in distinctly different winter solstice customs in the same region. This can be seen in the fact that the university cafeteria sells winter solstice dumplings, noodles, and glutinous rice balls at the same time.

Lin Jiade ordered a plate of pork and chive dumplings. After putting down the plate, he went to the counter to ask for vinegar and mixed it with the chili sauce made by the cafeteria auntie, which was made with mutton fat and sesame seeds. When he came back, he found that there was someone sitting next to him.

Hehuan was eating glutinous rice balls. She picked up a spoon, scooped one up, blew on it, and carefully took a bite, but it was still too hot to handle. Her eyes immediately welled up with tears.

Lin Jiade hesitated for a few seconds, then sat down. He Huan glanced at him cautiously: "Are you here for the club today? There's only a week until the competition."

"Come."

"Really?" Hehuan's face lit up with joy. "Okay, but don't stand me up."

"But let's make some things clear first: I'm not the same person I used to be, and my relationship with Kapok can never go back to what it was before."

There was a hint of pleading in Hehuan's voice: "At least be friends? Mumian has been atoning for her sins, and she has done a lot for you."

"Unfortunately, these two things cannot be balanced, so I both love and hate her. I hope that Kapok... Senior Kapok also has this realization, so that we can get along peacefully and more easily in the future."

Hehuan was a little disappointed: "I understand."

"Of course, this will not hinder our friendship. I have only gratitude and endless loyalty to you, Senior Hehuan."

“But, to cheat on your best friend and flirt with her ex-boyfriend is absolutely the behavior of a bad woman.” Hehuan shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t intend to be a bad woman.”

Hehuan remained loyal to Kapok's friendship, so she left with her tray. Lin Jiade thought this was for the best, because Dujuan might use Hehuan to fill the vacant third spot... kick Kapok aside and then attack Hehuan? Lin Jiade didn't have such a scumbag mentality.

Nevertheless, Lin Jiade kept looking back as he went to club activities, until Wei Ying, who was following him invisibly, impatiently pushed him, allowing him to stumble into the club meeting room and meet Kapok.

Extra chapter added

Chapter Ninety-Six Professional Attitude

The moment Lin Jiade saw Kapok, he thought he would utter vulgar words to humiliate the person he hated most in his life, but unexpectedly, he felt that he didn't hate her that much.

So he glanced at her quietly, his emotions complicated. Mu Mian greeted everyone as usual, and when she came to him, she raised her hand... then slowly lowered it, and whispered, "It's good that you're back."

With a week to go before the competition, the organizing committee released a map of the Temple of Diana and its surrounding woodland. The map shows that the outermost part of the map is a sea area, surrounded by land on two sides.

The land is surrounded by mountains to the north and south, with only a small port in the southwest for landing. Near the port is a fishing village, from which two roads branch off. One road leads northeast to Raven Town, where the women are the main source of the Diana Virgins, a sect armed with religious weapons.

Another road leads to the woodland, located to the west at the same latitude as Raventown. The temple is nestled amidst vast forests, hills, and branching mountain ranges that extend from north to south.

"It's truly unimaginable that such a secluded and ancient area could be preserved in modern society," said one member of the community.

"It's definitely closed off, but it can hardly be called ancient. According to rumors, a secret shipping route continuously delivers information and materials from modern society to the Temple of Diana, meeting the needs of the people in the fishing village and Raven Town. There might even be modern weapons there," said Kapok.

"In any case, sectarian armed forces alone should not launch an attack on you from the coastline. To establish a tight interception along the coastline would require at least a battalion of troops, and according to the Empire's religious management law, such sects can have a maximum of no more than 120 troops."

Kapok spread out the newly made map: "The woodland, fishing village and Raven Town are connected by a Y-shaped road, so deploying troops at the junction of V and I can complete the blockade."

"What if we don't take the road?"

"You could go through the jungle, but that's too dangerous, not only because of the threats from nature, but also because of the king of the jungle."

Lin Jiade's return invigorated Mumian, and her enthusiasm also inspired the other team members, leading to a lively discussion on site.

Although Lin Jiade and Mu Mian had a falling out, his professionalism and desire to cooperate with the team made him cooperate with Mu Mian's work. In front of outsiders, everything was normal between them. Only when everyone left and the white mist blurred the world outside the window did they resume their true relationship in a private atmosphere.

“I’ll take you,” Kapok said. “This is a continuation of the club activities; it doesn’t count as anything between us.”

"Thank you, but Gladiolus will drive to pick me up. It's not good to always trouble you; people might misunderstand."

"Sorry……"

"Don't say that, senior, don't come any closer." Lin Jiade slammed his fist against the wall. "Why you of all people? Why did I develop those feelings for you? And why did you destroy my dreams?!"

“I wanted to lie to you until the very end, I wanted to lie to you for the rest of my life. It’s something I’ll regret, and I often feel pain because of it.”

Kapok stopped her attempt to approach Lin Jiade and turned to look at the same window: "If I hadn't destroyed your dream, you might have already shone in youth competitions, or you might have been waiting for a chance to start in the first team, or you might have made an appearance in lower-level competitions, or you might have been ruthlessly eliminated before signing a professional contract, going to university and becoming a physical education teacher who always takes sick leave."

Regardless of what the future holds, good or bad, Lin Jiade, you will live your life as an ordinary person. You may be alone, you may live a simple life, you may be happy and fulfilled, but you will not have any connection with this world, and my life and yours will never intersect again.

I don't want that kind of life. If I had another chance to go back to the end of that summer, I would still persuade you to give up football and come to our world. You're hard to persuade, so I would stage another car accident to lead you down this path.

I love you, even if you hate me, that's my resolve.

Lin Jiade looked at Kapok: "This is pathological."

“People on our side, people from the Hart family, are abnormal, that’s the norm. How I regret that I should have taken you away the night I met you and raised you to be the way I wanted you to be.”

“I allow you to have such delusions, but delusions are just delusions.”

Lin Jiade glanced down at his phone. Jianlan had sent him a message. He looked at Mumian and said, "See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

Lin Jiade could feel that Mu Mian's gaze followed him for a very long time, until Jianlan's car drove out of the campus, and he could still feel Mu Mian's gaze lingering on him.

"If I feel sorry for you, I can send you back," Jianlan joked.

"And then? In order to be with me forever, she bound me into the shape of a sword, caressing me, using me, cleaning me, maintaining me, and admiring me every day?"

"As for Kapok... it is indeed capable of doing such a thing."

"How much do you know about her?" Lin Jiade asked.

"It all comes from Korobochka, who tutored Kapok for a while. Kapok didn't talk to Korobochka about you; what she confided in Korobochka most was regret—regret for her lack of power."

"Anyway, I'm not interested anymore. I've already punished Kapok, and I've personally crushed her hopes. Now, I'm more interested in how to get revenge on Kapok's sisters."

"Like I said, the most direct step is to help Kapok defeat Earth Peach, who should be the second person you hate the most."

Lin Jiade nodded: "That's true."

After that, Lin Jiade and Mu Mian worked seamlessly together during training, but after training ended and he reverted to human form, he immediately became cold towards Mu Mian. Mu Mian tried several times to go home with him, but Lin Jiade didn't give her the chance.

Mu Mian stopped trying and focused on training, which also caused her to drift apart from Lin Jiade, just as Lin Jiade had hoped.

But fate seemed to play a cruel joke on them. Lin Jiade and Mu Mian's seats on the high-speed train were connected, and they had to endure the awkwardness of their ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend meeting again after their separation.

At one point, Lin Jiade looked out the window and saw a train traveling in the opposite direction on another track, heading towards Fuxing City. He looked somber and stared blankly as the two trains disappeared completely from his sight.

"Are you... alright?" Kapok asked.

“My parents are sitting up there,” Lin Jiade said, looking away from the car window. “They’re back, but I’m leaving to spend the New Year with someone who isn’t me.”

Chapter Ninety-Seven East Wind Valley

“I…I’m sorry,” Kapok said.

"No, it's not your fault, it's just that the schedules overlap."

They took the high-speed rail to Dongfeng Valley, the venue for the final match of the qualifying rounds. The reason they chose to be there was also to promote local products.

Dongfeng Valley ranks third in area among the 15 cities in the 18 districts, but its GDP ranks third from the bottom. This is because it mainly relies on agricultural planting and livestock breeding. Although it supplies 70% of the grain, vegetables and meat in the entire region, it has no bargaining power, and its processed agricultural products do not have the competitiveness of those brands that have taken the lead in the market.

Therefore, the organizing committee held the final competition in Dongfeng Valley in order to enhance the brand value of this region and promote local agricultural products. In this way, they can achieve a clever promotional effect at a very low cost.

As a result, the four contestants and their teams were arranged to have a meal in the media spotlight as soon as they arrived at Dongfeng Valley, and the food on the table was all made from local agricultural products.

Everyone understood the organizers' intentions and praised the simple meal. After achieving their goal, the media withdrew. Di Tao looked at Lin Jiade, who was dining at another table, and said to Mu Mian, "What a surprise. I thought Mu Jin had succeeded."

"Success? I'll teach you a lesson on the field."

While the internal grudges of the Hart family continued, the other two contestants, Yi Lu Ting Feng and Qi Yan Li, had a relatively friendly conversation for a while. If we take Mu Mian's combat strength (including Lin Jia De) as 100 points, Di Tao has about 95 points, Yi Lu Ting Feng has 80 points, and Qi Yan Li has 79 points.

They were very worried about the Hart sisters—despite rumors that they were at odds and would team up to eliminate outsiders in the competition, they approached another non-Hart member with due caution.

"They looked like they wanted to kill each other," said Yi Lu Ting Feng.

"After all, they're from the Hart family. Who knows if they're just putting on an act?"

All the way is a living doll. Her size is similar to that of the original Rozen Maiden. She has a baby-like figure and her appearance is like a canary.

In fact, she replaced her body parts in the style of the canary, and even modified her weapon into a pale yellow umbrella with a deformable mechanical structure.

On the other side, Qi Yanli possesses the natural beauty of a diamond elf, with golden hair and silver eyes. Her weapon is a traditional diamond elf longbow, which looks very simple.

She had an exceptionally keen sense of wind energy, but her hearing was somewhat impaired, so she only caught snippets of conversation and drew incorrect conclusions.

"It seems the two Hart sisters are vying for the same man."

Although the conclusion was wildly wrong, the story of the two sisters turning against each other over the same man was a classic plot. Before Qi Yanli had more accurate gossip, she could only rely on hearsay and see what useful information the sisters could reveal in their feud.

The result was disappointing; the conversation between the ground peach and the kapok tree revolved around the theme of "after-school sala," and they got tired of listening to it after a while.

When they went out to face the media, their expressions changed to beaming smiles. Lin Jiade followed behind Mu Mian with a blank expression. When taking commemorative photos, Mu Mian's hand unconsciously reached for Lin Jiade's hand, but Lin Jiade dodged it.

The day was December 30th. After finishing the remaining series of rituals, it was already six o'clock in the evening. Lin Jiade lay in his room, reading Jasmine's descriptions of life at home in writing.

Although Wei Ying's appearance was restored to his original state, some abnormalities were still apparent to those familiar with Lin Jiade. This made it difficult for Jasmine to rush down from the 17th floor (Lin Jiade's home had been restored to a state of living alone) to smooth things over for Wei Ying.

It's normal for boys in love to change. Jasmine took another photo. Lin Jiade's parents were busy in the kitchen. They would have hot pot on December 30th, New Year's Eve dinner on December 31st, and January 1st was undecided, but there would still be wine and dishes.

"The reed warbler was very greedy, and couldn't wait to eat and drink. I really don't know how a celestial creature could like human food."

"Besides the meal arrangements?" Lin Jiade typed.