‘Then we need to quickly prepare birthday presents!’
Lin Yuxuan said joyfully, then stood up with her palms pressed together.
As soon as she finished speaking, Yuxuan suddenly crouched down, pressing her hand against her stomach and resting her forehead on the sofa.
She seemed to be in some pain.
A sound like “Grrr~” came from somewhere in her body—the sound of air escaping.
“Yuxuan?”
Watching Yuxuan’s sudden strange behavior, Fuzi couldn’t help but ask in a puzzled, somewhat worried voice.
But Yuxuan immediately sprang back up as if stepping on a spring.
Then, as if nothing had happened, she continued speaking joyfully.
“What kind of present should we get?
I don’t know what kind of gift would be suitable for Chenlian right now!?”
Saying this, Yuxuan casually walked over to Ye Qing, then forcefully pulled him to his feet.
“Dr. Hadi! Sister Fuzi!
Ye Qing and I are going back first to prepare!”
Yuxuan pushed her childhood friend’s back while turning her head to smile and say goodbye to Hadi, who was still sitting on the sofa, and Fuzi, who was still holding Chenlian.
“Hey, wait!
My Nozomi~!”
Ye Qing twisted his head around to protest.
After all, Nozomi was one of the five precious heirloom swords entrusted to Ye Qing by Master.
Leaving it here like this was not right no matter how you looked at it.
“Leaving it here is fine!”
Yuxuan casually dismissed this, still pushing Ye Qing toward the entrance without allowing any argument.
Ye Qing could only helplessly let himself be pushed along.
“Ye Qing! Yuxuan!
Just prepare the presents.
We’ll take care of everything else here!”
Just before Ye Qing and Yuxuan left the living room, Fuzi reminded them in a voice loud enough not to wake the sleeping Chenlian.
Yuxuan turned her head and smiled, waving her hand to show she understood.
Then she continued pushing Ye Qing out of the villa.
After putting on their shoes and walking out of the villa’s door, Ye Qing immediately scratched his head, turned around, and asked Yuxuan with some helplessness.
“Alright, speak.
What exactly do you—”
But Ye Qing’s words were cut off halfway by Yuxuan’s sudden behavior.
As soon as they walked out of the villa, Lin Yuxuan suddenly leaned forward weakly.
Ye Qing immediately supported Yuxuan’s slender shoulders and asked with a serious, somewhat worried expression.
“Hey!
Are you okay?”
Yuxuan half-closed her charming eyes, lacking vitality.
Her hands pressed against her stomach.
Her lips weakly murmured, “Ugh~!
I’m so hungry~!”
She seemed to be suffering quite a bit from hunger.
Tears actually welled up at the corners of her eyes.
Then, with an almost pitiful expression, she stared intently up at Ye Qing.
‘Hey!
What’s this?
If you want me to buy you a meal, just say so!
Why are you looking at me with those eyes!
And do you think that just because you’re like this, I’ll buy…’
Stare~!
Yuxuan’s eyes grew moist.
Her somewhat charming eyes still fiercely stared at Ye Qing.
She also closed the distance between them, as if pleading with Ye Qing.
Her pitiful feeling instantly increased again.
‘Fine.
I admit defeat!’
Ye Qing sighed and spoke in a helpless, defeated tone.
“Fine, fine!
I get it!
I’ll treat you, alright!”
“If you know that, then go already!”
Hearing his answer, Lin Yuxuan immediately and mercilessly pushed Ye Qing away.
Then she continued pressing her hands against her stomach, enduring the rising hunger as she crouched on the ground.
“Grrrr~~”
Her stomach let out another long groan.
“Honestly!”
Ye Qing sighed and could only helplessly comply.
As he walked toward his bike, which he had casually parked outside the now-lifted cordon, Ye Qing couldn’t help but think of what had happened last night.
‘Come to think of it, Yuxuan hasn’t eaten anything since last night until now!’
Thinking this, he rolled his eyes at the sky.
“How tragic!”
He voiced his thoughts.
‘And because her body was injured, her cells must have massively absorbed the remaining energy in her body.
She must be starving by now!
Hey!
Then, as payback, shouldn’t I slow down a bit!?’
Thinking this, Ye Qing suddenly sped up, practically running.
‘Ah, ah, ah, ah!
I don’t want to die again!’
‘The price of payback is a bit high!’
He quickly ran to his bike, then lightly and expertly swung his leg over it.
He rode toward the villa entrance where Yuxuan was, not far away.
Come to think of it, this was not the first or second time he had been forced by Lin Yuxuan to treat her.
And he himself didn’t have much spending money anyway.
Mom was a miser.
Now that he was in high school, he got about forty-something yuan a week.
When he was younger, it was even less.
Especially during the training period, having ten yuan already made him very happy.
He felt like he was a rich guy.
But compared to Haoyang, he was nothing.
Don’t be fooled by how honest he usually seemed—that guy was actually the young master of a wealthy family.
But even though he was very rich, the most he ever took out was fifty yuan.
Still, for me, who was only 11 years old at the time, that was an astonishing amount.
That was the summer vacation of sixth grade.
We were all 11 years old back then.
You could say our ages were very close.
In fact, our birthdays were less than a month apart.
I have to say, the fact that our age ranges were so close also contributed to us becoming close friends.
The reason Yuxuan and I got to know Haoyang and become friends with him was because of an incident one year earlier, when we were 10 years old.
At that time, Yuxuan and I were given a long-term collaborative mission by the Yin clan, which required us to travel around a lot.
This was a trial that everyone selected by the Yin clan had to go through.
Only those who could withstand the trial could continue to maintain their status as Yin warriors.
The mission was to do our best to assist the police and achieve sufficient results.
This was a long-term mission with a mortality rate above zero.
The reason the mortality rate was above zero should be obvious—because there had been deaths.
And as for it being long-term, the mission actually lasted for two years.
So, the main challenge of this trial was how to protect one’s own life and achieve sufficient results while continuously facing various criminals over such a long period.
Facing this challenge, we had to learn how to do our best while also learning how to measure carefully and grasp the right timing.
In other words, we had to play to our strengths, while also having a broad vision and calm, accurate judgment.
And it was during one mission that we unexpectedly encountered this person, Zhang Haoyang.
After that incident, we became good friends, and that continued until that incident this year.
If I remember correctly, it was at a meeting after a mission.
Zhang Haoyang and I arrived early at the agreed-upon location—in front of a large supermarket that was quite bustling in Shengdi at the time.
There was a large tree there, nearly 15 meters tall with a radius of about 6 meters.
What kind of tree it was, I don’t know, but I do know it was an evergreen.
In any case, it was a very large tree.
Because it was so conspicuous, we had set it as our meeting point.
Then, when we saw Lin Yuxuan waving and running toward us with a smile, we both froze.
Then Yuxuan just dumbfoundedly looked at the two of us, as if looking at two wooden statues standing there stupidly, showing a very unamused expression.
Then Haoyang and I, tacitly, burst out laughing at the same time.
No, at first I didn’t want to laugh.
It was because I exchanged a glance with Haoyang, and then neither of us could help it—we laughed simultaneously.
I laughed so hard I clutched my stomach and collapsed into a crouch on the ground.
Haoyang laughed so hard he kept pounding his fist against the large tree he was leaning on.
But all of this was because of Yuxuan’s attire.
No, actually, there was nothing wrong with her attire at all.
It was just that we understood the psychology behind Yuxuan’s choice of outfit.
If I remember correctly, Yuxuan’s outfit at the time was like this:
Denim shorts paired with a plain black short-sleeved T-shirt.
Her long, beautiful hair was tied up in a ponytail.
On her head was a black-and-white cap.
Because we were only 11 at the time, Yuxuan’s height was around 1.3 meters.
We were both around 1.47 meters.
Although our faces still had a bit of childishness, Yuxuan’s outfit could not conceal the temperament she exuded.
Namely, the fact that she was a beautiful, charming girl.
And she had chosen this cooler, more energetic look, obviously trying to cover up her previous appearance.
Because Yuxuan actually hated it when people looked at her through that kind of tinted glasses—the way you look at a beauty.
Here, of course, she was mainly referring to males.
Because most boys who approached her always had ulterior motives.
Either they deliberately showed off their good side in front of her, or they didn’t dare to face her directly.
And Yuxuan was also a beauty with violent tendencies.
No, it wasn’t that exaggerated, but Yuxuan really would hit people.
As long as she deemed someone a hooligan or something similar, and they tried to show off in front of her, she would not hesitate to act.
So, actually, the only guys who could not look at her through tinted glasses and interact with her normally were probably just Haoyang and me.
Here, of course, I mean males.
With females, it was completely the opposite trend.
Because actually, as long as Yuxuan didn’t have those rough behaviors, she was usually very easy to get along with.
And in the eyes of girls, her actions of punishing bad people were without doubt very cool.
But her hair, her eyes, her face would always betray what she wanted to hide.
Because no matter how you looked at her, she was still, as expected, a charming beauty with a 100% head-turning rate.
Even now, when she was angry with her hands on her hips, pouting, she still looked somehow charming.
Ah, by the way, when Yuxuan naturally smiled, this level of charm would increase from the original 100% to 200%.
And Yuxuan was actually a girl who loved to smile.
The number of people bewitched by her must be countless.
Actually, I myself cannot escape such evil claws.
I just restrain myself more.
And Yuxuan was someone I had grown up with, basically inseparable from me, so I had some resistance.
As for Haoyang, he had never intended to treat Yuxuan as a temperamental beauty from the very beginning.
From the moment they first met and spoke, Haoyang was able to talk to Yuxuan very normally.
From this point of view, he really was a strange one.
And actually, was he also a masochist?
Because while we were bursting into laughter, we naturally each took a punch.
I was naturally in so much pain I couldn’t control myself.
But Haoyang was still laughing nonstop.
It wasn’t until he took a second punch that he finally cried out in pain, unable to laugh anymore.
After that, we were forced to treat her.
But that request was really unreasonable.
Because that ice cream was so expensive that even if I took out all my money, I couldn’t afford it.
Haoyang, generously pulling out a fifty-yuan note.
At the time, I thought I was seeing things.
No, I was blinded.
So I also had the good fortune to eat such expensive ice cream.
But I will never eat it again, because it’s just too expensive.
And now, I have to take out my precious spending money to treat her again.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Either way, my heart feels empty right now.
It feels like something is missing from somewhere in my body, filled with emptiness.
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂