After that, the three talked for a while more before Yao Jiamu came sauntering in. After just a few days, his entire demeanor had changed from one of a brash youngster that knew nothing of fear to someone that could be called a mature and reliable man.

Upon seeing Gu Xiqiao, his serious expression turned back to one of a youngster as he waved at her. “You’re back!”

“She’s here to fight you!” Without waiting for Gu Xiqiao to speak, Wu Hongwen immediately shouted and looked at the other boy with a scheming expression. He had been bullied by the other so much in all these days and there was finally someone that could take revenge for him. How could he let this chance go?

Hearing his words, Yao Jiamu’s gaze was filled with an expectant, anticipating gleam.

He had only discovered some of the wonders of the martial arts book that Gu Xiqiao had given him, and he felt as if he had become worlds apart from how he was in the past. He had become the second-in-command of a small triad with his fighting skills, and he continued to amass his connections and resources. His dream wasn’t to just be a small second-in-command, after all.

He planned to become the greatest boss of the underworld in N City and take over the place of the boss that was in the position right now! If it were in the past, he wouldn’t have such lofty desires, but now that he had the fantastic Firefly illusion Record, he would use it to expand his influence!

Gu Xiqiao turned over and raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure you want to fight?”

“Yes!” Yao Jiamu nodded seriously. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to beat her, of course, but he just wanted to see what the difference between them was.

“Alright, I won’t go all out, don’t worry. “Gu Xiqiao realized that she would be taking too much advantage if she used a weapon. “Let’s just go easy, yes?”

The two came to the middle of the arena while Xiao Yun and Wu Hongwen spectated, and their expression changed like so: Seriousness—Disbelief—Twitching lips—Numbness.

It was a completely one-sided battle, where Gu Xiqiao stood there in place and only counterattacked with her palms against Yao Jiamu’s fists, her lower body so firm on the floor that it seemed to be rooted there, while Yao Jiamu was repelled and fell onto upon impact.

As he did, Gu Xiqiao grabbed one of his arms and smacked a palm right onto his head with a smile, and the punishment-teaching session went on for a while as she commented with a smile, “Not enough power, your feet aren’t grabbing the ground well, you look like you’re daydreaming…”

With each comment, Yao Jiamu was twisted to correct his form and smacked in punishment, until he kneeled onto the ground in defeat, his hair matted with sweat and his expression twisting as he felt indescribable pain.

Standing in front of him was a girl with clear eyes whose jet-black hair moved with the breeze, and from a distance, she might have looked like she came right out of a shoujo manga… If it weren’t for the heaping pile of Yao Jiamu in front of her.

Wu Hongwen clamped his mouth shut after it had become agape as he was watching Yao Jiamu being punished. “Thank goodness that wasn’t me.”

“It actually felt quite nice when I first looked at it, but…” Xiao Yun trailed off, but she continued internally, ’I’m actually quite sympathetic towards him now…”

Yao Jiamu didn’t hear what the two were saying nor would he have cared if he did. Now, he only felt a strange, unfamiliar surge of energy flowing in his body from bottom to top, and for a second, he felt as if he were wrapped in a warm blanket, and in the next, he felt another surge of pain.

After ten minutes of this, the pain subsided like the tide as his gaze became clear again, and Yao Jiamu felt as if he was filled with power. With a punch onto the ground, dust was sent flying all around him.

Gu Xiqiao raised a hand to wave the dust away, none of it getting onto her in the process.

After the dust settled down, everyone saw a tiny crater under Yao Jiamu.

After a moment of silence, Wu Hongwen shouted, “F*ck, he gets to become stronger after being beaten up? Er Qiao is too biased!”

“What, did you forget that you were the one that instigated it?” Xiao Yun commented eerily.

Wu Hongwen: How could I have known it would turn out like this!

And so, the two muttered, “Yao Jiamu became stronger again…” “It’ll be easier for him to bully us than before…” “Yao Jiamu’s such a b*tch*ss…” for a few times like a mantra before they looked up at him like ghosts that didn’t pass on because of a grudge.

A certain refreshed Yao Jiamu: Thanks for the help, Little Wu!

Wu Hongwen: Please stop talking, I just want to slap myself from half an hour ago!

Gu Xiqiao walked over slowly. “You two would probably be able to do that too if you play fewer games and work harder.”

“No, I can’t abandon all of my waifus, I can’t say goodbye to those beautiful immortals in the sky, I am unwilling to leave my guildmates…” Wu Hongwen said dramatically before he realized that Gu Xiqiao’s expression was quickly shifting into one of annoyance, so he quickly stopped. “No, but do I have any chance of becoming stronger than Little Woody over there?”

“Probably not.” Gu Xiqiao replied without a second thought as she took out her phone from her pocket.

“What if I give up playing video games?” Wu Hongwen asked again.

Gu Xiqiao sighed and stuck the phone back into her pocket. “There’s no way to cure your stupidity, but we need to go now.”

“Wait wait wait! Final question!” Wu Hongwen grabbed his chest dramatically.

Gu Xiqiao turned around and smiled, before saying, “Yes I have loved you before; No I won’t go to bed with you; No I don’t have money; To save the world; No I won’t regret it; I don’t know how to solve this question; I’m busy tomorrow; No, I haven’t finished my homework; Yes I do like pineapple on pizza; I put cereal in before milk; I don’t know if pigeons are spies from the government; The force of the slap on your face just now was twenty-five Newtons; The area of the psychological damage I have done to you is nine centimeters squared. Any more questions?”

Pfft!

Wu Hongwen still hadn’t reacted after Gu Xiqiao spoke, but Yao Jiamu and Xiao Yun had already burst out in laughter.

A few minutes later after both of them finished laughing, Wu Hongwen: “Bahahahaha!!!”

Yao Jiamu & Gu Xiqiao & Xiao Yun: Is he stupid?

On the two days that she had returned to N City, she still hadn’t met with Jiang Shuxuan yet because he was busy with the matters of the National Base and maybe some other matters, and she had yet to see Yin Shaoyuan either, so things must be in full swing at the moment.

In conclusion, the two only contacted each other through short text messages, and even finding the time to call was difficult.

Yin Shaoyuan just messaged her to go to the Flying Fairy Tower, which was a new restaurant that had opened up in town, and after that, he sent another message as if he knew that Gu Xiqiao was visiting her friends, inviting them to get a meal together with them. Since they were all quite close, Gu Xiqiao didn’t make any fuss and just asked them if they wanted to go, to which they all agreed.

Yao Jiamu was actually quite apprehensive about it because he knew that someone that was friends with the trio would be very high up in society, so he wouldn’t fit there, but finally relented after Wu Hongwen practically dragged him there with a: “Why are you scared, Little Woody? How can you be a mafia boss in the future if you get cold feet so easily?”

Before the other boy could think about it, he was stuffed into the car by Wu Hongwen, so his only option at that point was to accept.

To be completely honest with himself, he was actually quite looking forward to seeing what their inner circle looked like.

The Flying Fairy Tower wasn’t just a tower, but a large manor that took up a large area in N City, and just from that point alone, the owner of the restaurant must have spent a lifetime’s worth of money.

This restaurant was members only, and the only ticket to enter the establishment was an elusive VIP card.

Many businesses used this style nowadays to stimulate consumerism, or in less fancy words, to make rich kids feel that they’re important by spending their money in an exclusive establishment.

After all, diamond grade VIP cards were all the rage nowadays!

Gu Xiqiao didn’t have a VIP card, but Yin Shaoyuan had prepared beforehand so a middle-aged man immediately came up to them as soon as they parked their car. “Hello, are you Miss Gu?”

Seeing Gu Xiqiao nod, the man smiled politely and directed them towards the restaurant. “Please go inside, Mr. Yin will arrive shortly.”

The man brought them through a long hallway and made two turns before they were brought to an intricately built pavilion in the middle of a manmade lake. On the spine of the pavilion was a sculpture of a dragon that looked as if it were going to fly into the sky, while silk gauzes draped down the sides of the pavilion, the stone tables and chairs barely visible from outside.

“All this fuss for just a meal?” Wu Hongwen grumbled. “I feel so uncomfortable here, can we even eat well?”

Hearing his comment, the middle-aged man smiled politely and replied, “This pavilion was built based on the Classical Gardens of Suzhou, and your privacy is ensured so you can eat in peace!”

Wu Hongwen hadn’t even replied yet before someone spoke behind them, “Didn’t a waiter say that this lakeside pavilion was closed? Why could they enter?”

The middle-aged man’s smile didn’t so much as waver as he replied, “Hello there, dear customer. Indeed, this pavilion isn’t open for outsiders, I hope that you can understand.”

“Are you dumb or am I dumb here? Are you not going to get money when you can?” The man walked over, and his most eye-catching feature was his bald head that made his bold and distinct features stand out even more.

“Me, of course.” The middle-aged man smiled and replied without any hint of anger. “I hope you have a nice meal, dear customer.”

The bald man knew that the owner of the restaurant couldn’t be trifled with, so he only looked at Gu Xiqiao and the others before a light bulb lit up in his head and he looked back at the party behind him. “Xia Zijun, isn’t that the chick you saw at the train station?”

The people behind them walked up to him slowly, and Xia Zijun glanced over upon being told to, and he was stunned for a moment.

“Baldie, what happened to Boss?” One of the men patted the bald man’s shoulder in curiosity. Xia Zijun was one of the most popular and talented people in school, so of course, he had a lot of followers. These were all friends that he had made back in high school, and who had come together for a get-together on that day.

The bald man lit a cigarette and smiled mysteriously. “Your playboy boss has fallen into the net of love! Do you see that chick in the yellow skirt? Your boss drank for three days on end because of her… You remember the time we got him at the bar?”

“Ah! That’s her?” The boy’s eyes brightened in interest and he looked over, but he only saw a thin silhouette. “How does the girl that single-handedly turned Boss into a playboy look like, I wonder?”

As if she heard what they said, the girl turned around, and for a second, the man realized what was unparalleled beauty, and what was called beauty that could make entire cities fall.

After the people in front walked into the pavilion, the young men looked at each other. “Boss has to work hard, then, if she’s someone that can eat in the pavilion.”

“Yeah, you don’t know her? She’s the second daughter of the Gu family that stirred up commotion in N City!” The bald man replied.

“The second daughter of the Gu family? The one that was accepted as a goddaughter by the Yin Family? That didn’t fit my expectations of her.” The boy blinked and ah-ed in recognization. “I always thought that she would have been more of the sl*tty type, but…” She was completely different from the rumors!

The bald man puffed out a mouthful of smoke. “Who knows? I have to get back to the military base later… Hey, what are you still looking at, Xia Zijun? She’s already gone! If you’re a man you gotta be more clear-cut! Either you give up, or you pursue her…”

As the bald man talked, Xia Zijun only sighed softly. He was unwilling to forget her, and to pursue her? That would probably be impossible even if that were in their next life…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep