Love, Gun, Cupid

Lin Jiade glanced at it, silently left the room, sat on the sofa, and called Jasmine, who was still at Sanam Dongdo University. The ice cave quietly approached, and Lin Jiade patted her head while talking to Jasmine.

"Lin Jiade, what's that sound coming from your end?" Jasmine asked.

Lin Jiade looked down at the ice cave, picked up the remote control, turned on the TV, and said, "Just got off work, let's watch TV for a while."

Are you still busy with work over there?

"Hmm, I just had a mission today. As usual, it took a few hours to plan and a dozen minutes to complete... Hmm, ah, I'm just wondering what these criminals are thinking. They hired a few weak, unqualified, and haphazardly acquired superhumans and dared to come to Linhai City and cause trouble."

Jasmine spoke to him a few more times. In the background, her roommate urged her to go take a shower together. The showers in the dormitories at Sanam Dongdo University were basically unusable, so the girls went to the public bathhouse to shower, and at that time they were without makeup.

Driven by a certain subtle psychology, the girls in the dormitory, who usually have eight groups of six, only have a consensus on the matter of showering. They agree on a time to shower together, and they all go without makeup, so as not to give the little bitch in the dormitory... the opportunity to put one down and praise another.

Jasmine followed the girls around purely because she didn't want to be confessed to or get close to by male classmates. Her social skills had improved since high school, but her personality remained rather aloof.

Jasmine hung up the phone, and Lin Jiade sat on the sofa casually changing channels. When he switched to the news channel, he saw Hehuan, wearing a gray suit and skirt, standing in the front row of a certain investment project in Fuxing City.

After choosing music magic instead of her previous divination magic as her main magic, Hehuan gradually regained her ambition. Now, she is starting to familiarize herself with the revolving door between politics and business, or business and politics, by engaging in local business activities.

Soon after, the urgent knocking on the door overlapped with the sound of Ice Cave swallowing. Ice Cave returned to its room, and Lin Jiade went to open the door, only to find it was Kapok.

"Ah, I thought you would go straight home." Lin Jiade was somewhat surprised.

"Your house is closer, I'll just take a nap and then leave."

"actually……"

Lin Jiade wanted to say, "You can stay," but Mu Mian was unwilling. If the record of a certain activity were to be engraved on one's body as tally marks, then Mu Mian would have the fewest tally marks on her body.

She has compromised and accepted her identity as a woman, experiencing what it feels like to be a woman, but she is extremely resistant to the possibility of giving birth, so her handbag contains a surprising number of security measures.

Every ten days or so, she would stay at Lin Jiade's house. If the intervals were longer, Mu Mian would stay there. After graduating from university, she became busy, often flying to other continents to negotiate with all sorts of people as the acting head of the Hart family.

Mu Mian went straight to the bathroom, leaving her clothes outside. Lin Jiade picked them up one by one and put them in the laundry basket. He noticed her handbag outside and spoke to her through the door.

The two talked mostly about swordsmanship and law enforcement magic. After about half an hour, Mu Mian opened the bathroom door, and out of the steam were her long, maroon hair and alluring body.

“There’s still enough water in the water heater for another shower,” Mu Mian said. “Let’s hurry up and finish this. You have to go to work tomorrow, and I have other things to do.”

“If you think this is your girlfriend’s obligation, then you don’t have to,” Lin Jiade said. “I’ve already completed my two dungeons this week.”

He turned around, intending to tease Mu Mian. The moment he saw the handbag outside the bathroom, he knew what Mu Mian was thinking. Sure enough, the mark on Mu Mian's chest flickered like a breathing light. She reached out and grabbed Lin Jiade's clothes, asking urgently, "What if I wanted to?"

Amidst laughter and cheers, Wei Ying said goodbye to the audience and ended the broadcast. She then checked the messages in her fan group for two more minutes, and their effusive praise made her feel quite satisfied.

She turned around, her gaze passing through the wall, her smile freezing on her face, then turning into a gritted teeth.

Chapter Three: An Overview of Life (Part Two)

Lin Jiade returned to his bedroom with the steaming smell of the bathroom, yawned, and found Wei Ying sitting half-sitting on his bed.

He lay down, rolled over to Wei Ying's side, hugged her waist, and pressed his cheek against her thigh. Wei Ying said unhappily, "I'm not Jasmine."

“I can’t tell,” Lin Jiade said shamelessly. “Maybe it’s because you’ve turned into Jasmine too many times, so I want you to turn into Jasmine and then call Jasmine over… Ouch.”

Wei Ying pinched Lin Jiade, bringing him back to his original form. He heard Wei Ying say angrily, "When I think back to how you tricked me into coming down in my dream, the difference between you and now is like the difference between a freshly roasted pistachio and a moldy, damp one!"

"Alright, alright, I know you love pistachios." Lin Jiade kissed Wei Ying's skin. "But that's life. The best image only exists at the beginning. Later, it's about roommates discovering each other's weaknesses and tolerating each other."

"Are you referring to the inclusion of hat tricks this week?"

"Jealous?"

"No, I'm not like you carbon-based life forms, who all act like perverts in order to continue their lineage. Even if you say you hate reproduction, your body is very honest and will squeeze out all the useful parts of you like you're squeezing sugarcane juice."

"Eavesdropping is not a good thing."

"I watched it openly and honestly. Who knew that I would see such a good show when I just finished streaming, was about to play a game with you before going to bed?"

"Next time for sure, next time for sure." Lin Jiade smiled. "The way you're jealous right now is just like Jasmine."

"Who looks like her!"

The topic circled back to Jasmine, and Lin Jiade pressed himself even closer to Wei Ying until Wei Ying laughed and said, "Alright, alright, you should go to sleep."

Years of cohabitation made Lin Jiade realize that Weiying was no longer jealous... Although Weiying couldn't understand why she was jealous, he lay on the bed, and Weiying's body deformed, like a blanket spreading out to wrap him.

He could feel her head resting on his arm, and he could feel her hands and feet sticking out from under the covers and touching his body. At first, he only felt terrified, but now he only felt safe and warm.

"Reed Warbler, do you like your life now?" he asked.

"I'm fine. No one from the Heavenly Realm has come to mess with me. I'm having a fairly pleasant time here. My sister hasn't appeared in my life either. Apart from the fact that you're spending less and less time with me, everything else is fine."

"Feel sorry."

"Why apologize? It's not your fault. Just like you said a few years ago, if we stick together and keep warm, we won't be afraid of anything."

Sleep well, Lin Jiade, we will still see the sun rise tomorrow.

The blanket was pulled tighter, and the touch of the warbler's body enveloped Lin Jiade. Lin Jiade closed his eyes, feeling as if he had returned to his mother's womb, filled with an unparalleled sense of security.

He woke up in the middle of the night, his mouth dry, and got up to drink water. Wei Ying didn't react, which meant she had fallen asleep. Since arriving here, Wei Ying had learned to use sleep to escape the hardships of reality.

The guests at Lin Jiade's house were all asleep, except for one person. At this moment, a person dressed as a maid was quietly cleaning the room. After the thermal sensor on her body detected the nearby heat source, she went to get a glass of water and handed it to Lin Jiade.

"Thank you, Teacher Yang," he said.

“I am no longer your teacher,” Teacher Yang’s voice had a mechanical, cold quality. “Now, I have simply digitized Yang Xuemeng’s personality and placed it in this bionic robot, then filled it with realistic skin.”

Lin Jiade knew, of course, that the maid in front of him, dressed in a maid outfit and wrapped in black stockings, was made of a realistic material. Depending on his wishes and financial resources, the maid could become either plump or slender, and her facial features could be changed at will, just like an otaku's two-dimensional wife who changes every now and then.

When he touched her, the maid's body felt warm, but that was just the result of the heat emanating from the mechanical body buried under her skin. However, that mechanical body, like the skin, was still the maid's disguise, and her true form was a chip no bigger than a fingernail... so tiny, yet enough to recreate a person.

Teacher Yang no longer believes she is Teacher Yang. Four years ago, it was Iphigenia who was executed by the Empire, but Teacher Yang sent her back to Lin Jiade's home by express delivery through a dangerous experiment... Despite this, Lin Jiade still feels that she is Teacher Yang.

Teacher Yang's body was provided by the Empire, while the specific attire, such as the disguise skin and clothing covering the mechanical body, was designated by Lin Jiade. Every day, she participated in various experimental missions issued by the Empire through the Internet, standing blankly in the corner without moving. Only after 11 p.m. would she "wake up" and move around at home like a person.

If Lin Jiade didn't give her something to do, Yang Xuemeng might just stand there motionless after waking up, just like she did during the remote experiment. So Lin Jiade gave her a task: to clean the house every day and make as little noise as possible.

If it were the real Yang Xuemeng, who is as lazy as a pig, she would definitely refuse. However, Yang Xuemeng, who has already turned into a chip, faithfully carried out Lin Jiade's instructions. Soon, she saw the crystal-clear water droplets on the floor.

She wiped her hands with a cloth, but then warm water dripped onto the back of her hands. She looked up and was then pulled into Lin Jiade's arms.

"Even so, it's really amazing that you survived."

The mechanical body had no heart, and the disguised skin could not sense temperature. Even so, Yang Xuemeng felt that her power system seemed to be malfunctioning, and a cold sensation spread across her body.

I am not Yang Xuemeng, but I seem to be Yang Xuemeng as well. The maid wondered, how long will it take me to figure this out?

Even today, the mechanical maid Yang Xuemeng still doesn't understand, but she has become accustomed to the man's action of hugging her from behind. She also habitually leans against the man's chest. The data from the pressure sensor describes the "force" of the hug, and the temperature sensor describes the "heat". She closes her eyes and uploads and backs up today's data, just like a human writing a diary.

Lin Jiade had one arm around the maid's waist. The maid's touch was no different from a human's, but her weight far exceeded that of a human of the same level. But so what? He hadn't even spared the ice cave, let alone a robot.

His and her story has a long way to go, so Lin Jiade wasn't in a hurry to do anything out of curiosity. As he drank water, he looked up at the window; the golden full moon hung in the night sky, obscuring his vision.

Chapter Four: The Ideal Life

Lin Jiade, is this the life you want?

Work and women bring two completely different kinds of fatigue, and in the rare gap between the two fatigues, Lin Jiade is finally able to fall asleep alone. Looking at the starry sky outside the window, which is almost swallowed by light pollution, he often asks himself this question.

Whenever he thought this, moonlight would stream into the room, focusing on a human figure: a beautiful woman with black hair sitting on the bed, her white robe outlining her voluptuous and alluring silhouette. She wore moon-shaped ornaments made of gold and silver, yet they did not appear gaudy; they subtly exuded the scent of oak, but were not unpleasant.

Four years ago, Diana asked him if he wanted to start his life anew, and his hesitation said it all, so Diana handed him a golden branch.

After a wait that wasn't long, but not short either, Lin Jiade grasped Jinzhi. He had thought that time would immediately rewind to when he was still a baby, or to the time when he met Dujuan last September.

But Diana, who was controlling the body in the ice cave, was still sitting there. The time was still February 9th. He was still in the ward, with guards outside protecting and confining him... It seemed that nothing had changed.

"So, what did I restart?" he asked, confused.

“There’s nothing to it, it was just a joke,” Diana said. “Life doesn’t offer second chances, and anything that promises or fabricates this temptation is nothing but a complete lie.”

Lin Jiade felt a slight annoyance at being tricked. He looked up and saw Diana with a serious expression: "I hope you can take your life seriously."

Lin Jiade pointed to the wounds on his body, then to the void—representing the people he knew—and whispered, "I've already been very serious, but why do I still have to suffer like this?"

"You are very serious, seriously running away. You seem to be seriously moving towards your goal, but you are actually seriously running away from the uncontrollable forces behind it."

Although escaping and moving forward are in the same direction, mindset determines their different natures; desperate resistance when forced into a corner and actively drawing a knife to challenge fate in the way both end in victory, but the nature of the victory is different.

Judging from the outcome, your losses can be made up for: time can heal Jasmine's emotional wounds, and with the help of the huge inheritance, she will recover even faster.

It will only take two or three years for Jianlan's body to be reconstructed. The Empire, which needs to give an explanation to its Celestial allies in the near future, is very likely to arrange a muddled account of Korobochka's death in the Holy Land in order to give both sides a way out. In this way, Jianlan's identity will be exposed.

The fear of women caused by the kapok tree can also be overcome; the accumulation of time and daily interactions is the best remedy. The same applies to your relationship with the mimosa tree; as long as you remain honest, the mimosa tree will eventually let go of its psychological burden.

Ice Cave, this child is now pure of heart and has vowed to dedicate everything to you... not out of my will, but based on her own, she simply loves you;

The reed warbler is a little bird in the nest, still relying on you for now, but one day you will watch her grow up, leave the nest, and then return at fixed times, following your memories. She has her own future.

While the Empire's technological development is slow, it is renowned for its reliability, much like this young yet stagnant nation. Therefore, although the experiments she is involved in are still in the technology verification stage, you don't need to worry too much.

"And what about the azalea?" Lin Jiade asked.

"She's a naughty little bird who always needs to get more than others to be satisfied. As long as my influence exists, the cuckoo will not come back."

"You... knew everything?"

“When the moonlight illuminates your silhouette, it means I am gazing at you,” Diana said. “Because I am standing beside you, I know more than you do, except that you can think of everything I have described above.”

Your unease is evident, and it's not just because you're worried about the future of those around you, or tormented by the pain of battle... your frustration stems from helplessness.

In the past, when you lived as an ordinary person, you drifted aimlessly, living a life of going with the flow. You didn't think it was bad because most people didn't understand their own lives. So what if you lived like most people? What if you made the mistakes that most people make?

After the cuckoo led you to witness the hidden landscapes of the empire, you gained power. Your mindset changed, and you felt that you stood above millions of people, the chosen one among the chosen ones of Fuxing City.

You seek to transcend the masses not only materially but also spiritually—not out of curiosity, but to become more outstanding. Excellence, in this context, is a combination of ideals, responsibility, will, and execution.

However, you have no ideals.

An ideal must be a clear and reasonable goal, feasible in practice, and a reasonable requirement for self-development after self-examination. Having power will not allow you to clearly examine yourself; on the contrary, you will be confused by the dazzling world that power brings.

Last year, your ideals were defined by the rules and regulations that Du Juan set for you. This year, your ideals are to rebel against those rules and regulations. But after you shattered those boundaries, you don't know what to do next, and that's why you're so melancholic and lost.

"I……"

Diana interrupted Lin Jiade, who was about to retort, and continued, "Whose wish are you going to fulfill this time, and take it as your own ideal?"

Lin Jiade was somewhat annoyed, this was the instinctive anger that came from his weak face being exposed, and he muttered, "It's so easy to point fingers at other people's lives from an detached perspective."

"It's not that I'm indifferent."

Diana embraced Lin Jiade with her body in the ice cave. She pointed to her head, extracted memories, and sent the secrets the ice cave had heard into Lin Jiade's head. Lin Jiade felt as if he had watched a highly immersive short video, and the secrets the ice cave had heard had a great impact on him.

He looked up at his master, mother, and sister, the celestial observer whose unauthorized extension of life had created a twisted and immoral relationship between them.

“That’s right, Lin Jiade. I’m not speaking to you as an outsider. I still remember the pain and torment I felt when I transformed into a human pregnant woman and delivered you through the birth canal… Although by human ethics you are now my brother, whether we are mother and child or siblings, I am not an outsider, am I?”