Love, Gun, Cupid

Lin Jiade didn't notice that in Jasmine's words, the "bright future" excluded her from the picture. But then, he remembered what he had said to Jasmine when they met again last Thursday (September 27th) after she rejected him, when he dragged her out of the elevator.

“Wherever you are, I will pull you out of the mire. We don’t need a pathetic, thick barrier between us,” he said.

Jasmine hugged him even tighter, as if she wanted to become one with Lin Jiade. Then she suddenly let go and said, "I will not run away anymore. I will end my nightmare with my own hands."

Or perhaps it will end in a nightmare. She added to herself.

Lin Jiade saw the resolute look in Jasmine's eyes. This was the weakest yet most spirited Jasmine had ever been since they met.

He felt a little lonely, but also happy, because he knew that Jasmine no longer needed his help. And when Jasmine decided to leave, their lives, which had been completely intertwined, began to separate.

However, he also needed a separation. Because if he and Jasmine continued to live the same life, their lives would eventually become stagnant.

Those different encounters will be introduced into the parts of their lives that still overlap, like fresh water washing over them, bringing novelty and surprises.

Upon receiving the text message, Mumian and Hehuan immediately set off. Mumian was fully armed, while Hehuan stayed at Lin Jiade's house for the time being—Hehuan's abilities were not suitable for direct combat, and besides, she herself had requested so.

She curiously peered into Lin Jiade's bedroom, coughed when she saw his underwear, and glanced at it quickly twice more. However, her interest soon shifted to Du Juan.

Looking at Lin Jiade's "mysterious helper," Hehuan felt a pang of jealousy, but she still extended her hand in a friendly manner. Dujuan shook hands with her, smiling brightly, but Hehuan always felt that she was being spied on.

After seeing Lin Jiade and Jasmine come out, Hehuan instructed them, "I have already contacted a hospital for you. There are elders in your family there, so you will be well protected after you arrive."

"Thank you," Jasmine said.

"If you want to thank someone, thank your boyfriend. After all, he's the one who hired me and Mumian." Hehuan waved. "Have a safe journey."

Kapok stood at the door, sword in hand, to prevent Jasmine's enemies from launching a surprise attack from the elevator. The three of them went downstairs together. Inside the elevator, Jasmine said to Kapok, "Thank you. If a battle breaks out tonight..."

"Nothing much to say, just did my best." A deep voice came from inside the Kapok helmet. "But you, you've changed."

Jasmine grasped Lin Jiade's hand; that was the answer. Kapok gave a soft snort, seemingly displeased that they had to put on a show of affection before their final battle.

Kapok took the lead, quickly scanning the surroundings before starting the car. Lin Jiade was deeply grateful for his senior's righteousness, but this also caused him confusion—

His relationship with Jasmine could be attributed to love, but the unrelated Kapok not only went to great lengths to help him, but also took on enormous risks that night. What he gave was incomparable to what his predecessor had given.

He thought, "I'll ask when I get the chance."

Lin Jiade and Jasmine sat in the back seat, and Mu Mian started the car, breaking the silence of the neighborhood. Not far away, a man with a stiff face dialed Brother Drinking Water's number, reported the situation, deleted the call history and Brother Drinking Water's number, and his eyes regained their clarity.

"How did I get here?" the one-off reconnaissance guard, who had been used, muttered to himself.

After hanging up the phone, Drinking Water Bro looked around. All four of his teammates were there. The Money-Grubbing Sow hacked into the surveillance system and quickly spotted the vehicle carrying Lin Jiade and the other two.

"Drinking Water Bro," he instructed, "The pay-to-win sow provides real-time intelligence. Tuna and Overtime Guy, follow me. Barbary Witch..."

The woman whose name was called looked up blankly. When Brother Drinking Water saw the hickeys and bruises on her body, he got a headache. This useless witch was really of no use. All she did was sleep with men.

Drinking Water Bro didn't notice the complicated look in the overtime worker's eyes when he saw the Barbary Witch. He thought for a moment and said to the Barbary Witch, "You are responsible for keeping an eye on the residential building where the Red Dragon's offspring are located. You don't need to fight. Just report the situation in a timely manner."

Barbary Witch agreed and was the first to leave the base. After Overtime Man and Tuna also went downstairs, Drinking Water Guy opened his briefcase and checked the magic his employer had asked him to cast on Jasmine.

"Killing people isn't enough, do we have to destroy their spirit too?" he muttered.

"What did you say?" asked the pay-to-win sow.

Looking at his teammate, who was wearing cat ears and had been cooperating well with him these past few days, Drinking Water sighed. The "pay-to-win" sow had a figure like a devil, but unfortunately her appearance was too mediocre. Otherwise, he would have liked to have a casual fling with her.

With that in mind, he cast a mind spell on the gold-spending sow to prepare for the next spell—when he returned after completing his mission and uttered a specific incantation, the gold-spending sow would completely forget him and destroy all information about him.

Drinking Water Bro confidently left, but the moment he left, the pay-to-win pig that he was theoretically controlling burst out laughing.

"I never expected that I would have such a talent for acting."

She laughed as she dialed the number saved as "Cupid" and said, "They're on their way."

Chapter 72 Engagement (2)

Not long after Mu Mian drove away from the residential area, Lin Jiade, who kept looking back, noticed a car following behind him, with the other party making no attempt to hide their intention to stalk him.

Lin Jiade nervously took out the "toy gun" that Du Juan had lent him. This gun might only be considered a toy in the Heavenly Realm, but here it was lethal after being loaded with bullets.

Of course, he wouldn't fire without Kapok's orders. Jasmine's struggle with her enemies was confined to the limits permitted by the Empire, and using magic in the street clearly exceeded the Empire's tolerance limit.

So he simply gripped the gun handle, watching the vehicles following them, his breathing growing heavier. In his previous 19 years of life, he had only been in a few fights—to stand up for his brothers who were being bullied on the basketball court.

This time, however, there won't be the civilized fighting style of pushing and shoving each other and hurling insults like on a basketball court. There will be bloodshed, injuries, and perhaps even death.

The pressure made Lin Jiade's palms sweat. He wiped his hands on his pants, bit his lip, and continued to watch the pursuers behind him, praying in his heart that they would retreat so that they could reach the hospital peacefully.

Contrary to expectations, the other side followed closely, and their vehicle was of superior performance to Lin Jiade's. So, they quickly overtook and cut off his lane... in a brutal way that incited road rage in the driver.

Kapok remained calm. The man in the tight-fitting suit glanced at Jasmine through the rearview mirror and asked, "What do you think?"

Jasmine glanced at the electronic map: "Then let's drive to the road they left me. It's right at the end, the place that Hehuan divined, the place with the best feng shui for us."

The kapok tree turned around, crashed through the construction warning barrier, and entered a road under repair. The road workers showed no sign of working overtime, leaving the road deserted and desolate.

Kapok immediately stepped on the gas and accelerated at full speed, with the cars following behind. Lin Jiade wanted to check the situation. But Jasmine pounced on him and pinned him down.

The glass shattered, and black lines flew overhead, smashing the windshield and bouncing to the ground, weaving into a net that covered the road. Kapok jerked the steering wheel, drifting the car to avoid the black web.

Forced to turn, Kapok and the pursuing vehicles were now traveling in opposite directions. Without thinking, the man in the tight suit stepped on the gas and said, "Jasmine!"

Jasmine understood the meaning of kapok. She placed her hand on the steering wheel and the car door, and square pieces of paper spilled from her sleeve, covering the interior of the car. An orange barrier enveloped the vehicle.

At the same time, she reverted to her true form, her tail tightly wrapping around Lin Jiade's waist, while her claws dug into the seat, securing herself and Lin Jiade beneath her to the seat.

The pursuers reacted too slowly. By the time they tried to cast a spell on the vehicle, Kapok's vehicle had already crashed into them. The rear of the other vehicle immediately lifted up and then slammed heavily to the ground.

Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the orange shield of the Kapok truck's front end before it shattered. The pursuers' unprotected trucks were twisted and deformed, with their shattered parts scattered everywhere.

The two cars spun and weaved, their bodies screeching with pleasure as they rubbed against each other, sparks flying. From the outside, it looked like Kapok's car needed major repairs, while the other vehicle was practically totaled.

Only after the tremors in the space completely disappeared did Jasmine pull her claws out of the car. She looked at Lin Jiade beneath her with concern, and her head went blank when she saw his face covered in blood.

"I'm fine, don't worry, it's just a nosebleed!"

Lin Jiade sat up, and as he said, his face looked frightening now, but that was only because of the blood flowing from his nose, which stained Jasmine's clothes and then smeared onto his face.

As for why he had a nosebleed, it was because when Jasmine took action to protect him, her chest was directly in his face.

The two vehicles collided, and Mu Mian's car suffered, as did Lin Jiade's face, which was being rubbed back and forth by a steel plate. He only suffered battle damage from a nosebleed, thanks to the enhanced physical condition from the magic potion and the increased resistance to blows from the external healing medicine Mu Mian had applied to him.

Jasmine looked down at her blood-stained chest, and in an instant, she understood why. Her face immediately darkened. Lin Jiade quickly comforted her, "It was just an accident."

"It will grow up," Jasmine whispered.

"Ok?"

"I mean, it will grow up!"

Although Jasmine was determined, Lin Jiade was not optimistic that she could upgrade to a curved screen, and that she shouldn't be worrying about it now.

But this incident unexpectedly aroused Jasmine's ferocity. Whether she was annoyed by her toddler-sized size or regretted hurting Lin Jiade, her tail straightened and pierced through the car door, separating it directly from the car body.

Jasmine got out of the car, her powerful tail swishing as she threw the car door directly at the pursuers' vehicle. Just before it hit, a flash of cold light appeared, and the car door split in two along its trajectory.

The gray-haired old swordsman ran straight toward Jasmine, but stopped abruptly two seconds later. He heard a gunshot, the bullet hit the ground in front of him, and exploded. The flying cement and dirt obscured his vision.

Tuna glanced at Lin Jiade to the side. The young man was holding a .45 caliber revolver with a less-than-standard gun-holding posture. Behind Lin Jiade, the figure of the overtime worker appeared like a ghost.

As the overtime worker reached for his briefcase, just as the handle of his murder weapon, the kitchen knife, was pulled out, Mu Mian swiftly passed Lin Jiade and kicked the overtime worker's knife-wielding hand.

The overtime worker's weapon was shoved back into his briefcase. He tried to pull the weapon out by pushing aside Mu Mian's feet, but Mu Mian naturally wouldn't let him have his way.

While the two were locked in a fierce struggle, Mu Mian said, "I'll deal with the old swordsman, you handle him?"

“Okay,” Lin Jiade said.

"Put aside your moral burden for now. If you lose, Jasmine will die."

Kapok's words further fueled Lin Jiade's fighting spirit; he looked at the overtime workers as if they were his wife's murderer.

Kapok loosened her footing, turned, and ran towards the tuna, while Lin Jiade pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the overtime worker. Jasmine took in the entire battle, but she couldn't support either side because Drinking Water Guy, carrying a briefcase, appeared in front of her.

The man wearing the water-drinking mask looked like a bank robber. After looking Jasmine up and down, he said, "You're weaker than I thought. No wonder you guys were out tonight."

"Weak? Still, I'm more than capable of dealing with you all," Jasmine said coldly.

"You seem to have misunderstood something. I didn't come here to kill you. The person who really wants to kill you is being stopped by your companions."

Brother Drinking Water glanced at Kapok again and said, "However, your men won't last much longer either. It wasn't until your car wrecked my car that I realized that the old man was actually my strongest member."

Arsenal 0-1 Everton, so there was no extra chapter.

Chapter 73 Engagement (3)

"The strongest?"

Kapok was Jasmine's top choice, but Jasmine didn't believe it. Drinking Water Brother turned to the side and gestured for her to watch. Jasmine watched the battle between Kapok and the tuna while keeping a watchful eye on him.

As modern swordsmen, their battle began with a gunfight. Tuna used a double-barreled shotgun; he pulled the trigger, and the shotgun fired, a dense barrage of steel pellets flying towards Kapok.

Kapok pulled the trigger on the hilt of her sword and thrust it into the ground. A yellowish-brown wall rose up, taking the brunt of the steel balls. The bodysuit-clad monster used the wall as cover and pulled out a miniature submachine gun to fire at the tuna.

The ring on the tuna's hand gleamed, and a pale blue shield rose from beneath his feet. But unexpectedly, the bullets fired by the cotton began to slow down at the start of the firing and came to a stop when they reached the tuna.

In the blink of an eye, Kapok emptied a magazine, while Tuna was surrounded by a hail of bullets. As Kapok stepped out from behind cover with her sword, Tuna immediately turned her gun and opened fire.

Kapok snapped her fingers, and all the bullets exploded instantly, blue flames engulfing the tuna's figure. The man in the tight suit had no illusions; he used his sword to cut through the flames, leaving a deep wound on the unsuspecting tuna's ribs.

Jasmine felt that the outcome was already decided at this point. Once Kapok dealt with the opponent, either Kapok or Lin Jiade would gain a local numerical advantage.

Thinking this way, she relaxed a bit and immediately spat a mouthful of flame at Brother Drinking Water. Brother Drinking Water did the same, spitting out a jet of water like a faucet to extinguish Jasmine's flames.

"Although I didn't drink water to counter your fire breath, I didn't expect it to be so effective," said the Water-Drinking Guy.

Jasmine's answer was to activate the Thunder Magic. At the moment of activation, she caught a glimpse of the battle on Kapok's side out of the corner of her eye. Surprisingly, Kapok was caught in a fierce battle.

“Is it surprising? Tuna is the weakest among us, but he has the strongest fighting spirit. He has nothing left but the will to kill you to sustain him.”

Your helper is very strong, but ultimately she is a hothouse flower, who has never experienced a life-or-death battle and lacks the corresponding awareness.

Let me reveal one more thing: the tuna didn't plan to go back alive, so he asked me to cast a spell on him to temporarily block his pain and fully unleash his body's potential.

At his age, this is the only way he can try to kill a dragon.

Jasmine remained calm. In the past, she had been forced to do illegal work for the former lord to survive, so it was her own fault that her enemies had come looking for her now. However, she had no intention of dying.

As the cotton tree brushed past him, Lin Jiade had already opened fire on the overtime worker. Just like last time, the overtime worker raised his briefcase, and the magic attached to the bullets spread across the briefcase, but did not harm the person.

The overtime worker carried his briefcase forward, while Lin Jiade took a few steps back. Lacking shooting training, the recoil of the .45 caliber revolver in his hand made it difficult for him to shoot with the standard posture.

So he cosplayed as a Western cowboy and used the hip-fire method. Lin Jiade felt that he was as handsome as McCree, just short of shouting "It's high noon!"

But to outsiders, Lin Jiade's shooting posture was hilarious, with a hint of paying homage to the soulful shooting style of black men.