Chapter 643: Su Yuling? (A Bit Late—For the 12th)

Night, around 6 p. m., still that same French restaurant.

Six people present, two costs involved: the culprit Su Lin, slipped up and got caught, the rest forgotten.

Rain poured endlessly outside the window, contrasting sharply with the atmosphere inside the private room—so solemn it felt like a meeting between two diplomatic missions.

Su Lin looked up at the crystal chandelier used as decoration; how to put it—right now, though something could be done, it was better to just let the mind shut down.

Yi Leina clasped her sleeves tightly over her knees, avoiding eye contact, lips pressed together, head bowed, believing this posture could shield her from the satisfied, delighted, and warmly charged gazes of Su's father and mother.

As she pressed hard against Su Lin's left foot, she sent a message: 'It's all your fault!'

After sending it, she saw the culprit turn his head toward her.

'Disagree? After all this, the full responsibility is 100% yours!' Yi Leina sent another message.

'It's bound to happen sooner or later,' Su Lin replied: 'At this point, you don't seriously think you can back out, do you?'

Smiling, he reached out under the watchful eyes of the others, seized Yi Leina's hand clutching her sleeve, and after her token resistance, pried open her soft little fist, slipped his fingers between hers, and clasped them tightly together.

'Of all times, you decide to become proactive,' Yi Leina sighed silently.

And as usual, after restoring the rationality and demeanor befitting a mage, she smiled serenely and nodded to Su's father and mother.

'Last time you lied to me saying you two weren't dating—no backbone at all!' Su's mother scolded, but her tone was clearly more praise than reprimand:

'This girl is beautiful, has a good personality, and a strong sense of justice—last time she stood up for you. Look at you, after a bit of cultivation, you've changed. Learn from her humility and generosity.'

Then came a string of excuses to praise the girl's virtues, all meant for the other family's ears.

Yi Leina's mother, Victoria, naturally understood, and seized the chance to politely respond and chat.

But that's not right—

Except for being good-looking, everything you said is wrong, Mom.

Su Lin: 'When this self-absorbed little witch has no travel funds, she scams them through fortune-telling, pyramid schemes, and other tricks; when she loses bets, she uses girls who like her to raise money and run away—put those actions in Los Santos and she'd get max stars without a doubt.'

'Sense of justice? That was probably just too much.'

Yi Leina: '?'

Su Lin: 'Sorry, I accidentally sent my inner thoughts as a message.'

In short, her personality is terrible and she's self-absorbed, but she never cheated me out of money, so how to say it—

Su Lin: 'Even so, I still like this witch.'

Yi Leina: 'Are you trying to explain it with something so obvious?'

She half-lidded her eyes and looked at Su Lin.

Their small gestures naturally brought joy to some and sorrow to others.

For instance, Yi Leina's father's face, clouded with despair, as if the world were ending.

In contrast, Su's father's smile grew even brighter—he'd spent decades in a state-owned enterprise; he understood exactly what was happening.

At this moment, he needed to raise a topic to divert the attention of this oddly dressed in-law.

Of course, the topic couldn't be unrelated—it should have some connection.

'Ahem,' Su's father cleared his throat and said: 'Didn't Yi Leina's sister come?'

'Sister?' Yi Leina's father looked up, frowning: 'My child is an only daughter.'

'Only daughter? That's not right!' Su's father blinked, pulled out his phone album, and asked: 'Then is this child a relative of yours?'

The photo showed a little girl with gray hair and glass-colored eyes, eating cake and grinning widely.

Su's mother covered her mouth and laughed: 'This kid joked with us last time, saying she was their daughter. I told her, you two are too young to have a daughter.'

Yi Leina's father froze—he instantly recognized the girl as a miniature version of Yi Leina, yet she stood beside Su's father and mother in the photo.

'Daughter? Isn't this just little Yi Leina?' Victoria leaned over, astonished: 'We have no such relative in our family.'

The atmosphere, which had just begun to warm, suddenly chilled.

As Victoria cast her first questioning gaze toward the two with stiff smiles, the other three pairs of eyes followed—shocked, confused, bewildered.

This is troublesome.

'This child,' Yi Leina nervously lifted her head, forced a crooked smile, and quickly waved her hands to explain:

'It's a long story, with complicated reasons—I'll tell you about her when we get home!'

How could she possibly say aloud about exploiting her Parallel World counterpart, selling her into black factories, forcing her to work as a maid every day?

Su Lin: '.'

This was the classic trope—digging yourself deeper with every word.

And your dad's gaze is practically dead.

Fortunately, at that moment, the restaurant server wheeled in a cart and began the Western dining ritual—food unlikely to taste good but priced higher—temporarily averting further questions.

Victoria scrolled through the device called 'phone,' spotted something odd in the photos, but remained baffled.

'Why bring up the worst possible topic?!' Su's mother smacked Su's father hard, her warmth toward Yi Leina's parents rising several notches: 'Come, come, try the specialty dishes!'

Yet beneath that warmth lingered guilt, and she shot Su Lin occasional angry glares.

Realizing he'd picked the wrong topic but possibly uncovered some 'truth,' Su's father chuckled and switched subjects enthusiastically: 'The taste is worse than last time—did they change chefs?'

If you mean the Japanese Little Chef—

Su Lin hadn't invited Weigong Shilang, nor told anyone in the group about tonight's event.

For some instinct, he suspected that if those guys found out, they'd enthusiastically organize tonight's parental meeting for him.

After all, he was too kind and helpful in matchmaking—surely many wanted to repay him?

But they're all bros—Su Lin does good deeds without expecting anything in return.

'Su—' Yi Leina, mid-sip of juice, widened her eyes, turned to Su Lin, face turning crimson: 'Puh—!'

First Heaven Dome · World!

Using the Heaven's Phantasm to pause time and evaporate all the sprayed juice.

Su Lin didn't understand why this devilish girl had suddenly become so flustered, and why that fluster held a hint of excitement and joy.

"Check the group!"

Did tonight's incident get exposed in the group?

It can't be that the whole screen is flooded with blessings—haven't reached that point yet.

As Su Lin looked at the chat group, he let time flow once more.

Inside the chat group, the screen was flooded with repetitive posts and lavish praise.

Star: "Even I, hailed as the Galactic Queen of a Thousand Females, feel the pressure of an interstellar warship! An intriguing woman—you've successfully piqued my interest!"

Huiye of Penglai Mountain: "@Yi Leina, who is more beautiful, her or me?"

Ye Fan: "The woman by the wine stall glows like the moon; her white wrists gleam like frost and snow. Even the holy maidens and princesses of sacred sects and imperial courts would pale in comparison."

Shi Hao: "Too thin."

Lu Mingfei: "."

Ge Xiaolun: "Holy shit. That aura and the look of contempt could make up for any body type, right?! Damn. Tuoni, I'm almost losing interest in the Yongchi Sect party."

Tony Stark: "Can you say that after climbing out of the swimming pool?"

Zi Jin Divine Dragon: "Aowu! Decided! Big Brother Dragon will use this girl's image for a live stream!"

What the hell—did someone share the Book of Immortal Beauties Across Worlds or the Hundred Celestial Beauties Album?

Wait, why is your face so red?

Without warning, Yi Leina tightened her grip on her own hand, a faint blush rising on her cheeks.

Su Lin's gaze went vacant for an instant; his thoughts slowed, slowly scrolling upward through the chat log.

He saw it.

The image Meng Qi had sent was of a woman.

Her waist-length hair flowed like the night sky; her eyebrows were faint ink strokes like distant mountains; her skin was smooth and fine as solidified Bai Yu.

Her eyes held a faint chill, gazing down from above, empty and detached, observing the object in her hand—not with gloom or numbness, but with an ethereal clarity like a winter sun: not dazzling, yet impossibly distant.

That's right.

That gaze matched Su Lin's own exactly—so much so that, after a moment of daze, Yi Leina burst into laughter.

She clung to Su Lin's arm and dragged him away, his mind blank, as if utterly stunned: "You all chat on. We've got something to attend to."

The parents all wore helpless expressions.

"Miss Kelaien's dream is extremely dangerous. After I sent the Ten-Thousand-Worlds Communication Charm inside, it triggered a radiant force saturated with order."

Meng Qi said in the group:

"The source of that force is precisely this woman in the dream world. It resembles Su Lin's light, but is far purer—so pure it's terrifying!"

"If not for being within the Great Luo Heaven, this force would have caused massive disturbances in the Real World."

"I'm not implying Su Lin's light is impure—just that some components could be removed."

Zhang Chuanyan: "Is there really such a beauty in Miss Kelaien's dream? He won't—"

Lu Mingfei: "."

Huai Shi: "Since it's in Miss Kelaien's dream, maybe it's a tentacle girl projection of the Fallen Mother Goddess?"

Lu Mingfei: "."

Meng Qi: "By the way, Lu Mingfei, you also have a projection in Miss Kelaien's dream world—I suspect the rest of us do too."

But the chaotic abyss of gray mist is too formidable; without a causal medium, it's nearly impossible to enter."

"We may truly need a source like the Chaos Sea, plus the aid of the Primordial Creator, before I can open a passage into it."

Lu Mingfei: "Kill me."

Meng Qi: "?"

Cold wind blew mercilessly; rain clouds drifted slowly across tonight's sky.

Su Lin let the rain fall on his face, scratching his head with tired eyes, as if deep in thought.

"The Three-Lives Bronze Coffin is too expensive."

Zhou Mingrui felt unlucky—or rather, he shouldn't have sought out this Nidhogg Crown Prince beside him.

Passing by Yùqīng Telecom next to Taichu Group, he suddenly got an impulse and bought a lottery ticket at Yuan Huang's flagship store—only to reveal the latest triple-fold smartphone, which, no matter how you folded it, always had a screen.

That was the newest model on the market—a hard currency worth two or three months' salary if resold; with it, he could work fewer overtime hours under Huang Zong.

Excited, he took countless photos of the phone, planning to bring it back to the company and sell it to that stallion, Huang Zong.

But when he reached the entrance of Taichu Group's building, Li Jiatu suddenly slapped his shoulder, causing the phone to fly out, skidding across the polished floor until it landed at the feet of a girl speaking with Adam, the General Manager.

She turned, bent down, picked up the triple-fold phone, frowned slightly, then

Folded it backward into three pieces.

Was he just destined to never have luck with unexpected wealth?

The girl frowned: "Is this expensive?"

"My brother isn't stingy—it's just pocket change!"

Li Jiatu slapped Zhou Mingrui's chest and shoved the three broken screen fragments into his hands: "Right, Lao Zhou?"

No—compensate me at market price and black-market value.

Zhou Mingrui had intended to say that—but he stared blankly at the girl before him: wearing a man's overcoat over a refined white dress, her expression cold and detached, yet strangely familiar.

"What are you doing here?"

Her eyes were white-gold, giving off a contradictory aura: cold, forbidding, yet irresistibly drawing one closer.

It was deeply incongruous—just like her attire.

"You're trying to acquire Huang Tao's company? So am I. I sent my representative—we can negotiate." Li Jiatu introduced: "This is Zhou Mingrui, Huang Tao's son-in-law. This is Su Yuling, Chairwoman of Taichu Group."

Zhou Mingrui remembered when he had seen this girl before—if he hadn't been focused on his phone, he would have recognized her at once!

Back when he came to Tai Chu Group for his interview, it was seeing this girl walk into the men's restroom that shattered his Dao heart!

As a result, for a long time afterward, he suspected all beautiful girls were men in disguise, and thus developed a female antibody!

Is she/he the mysterious chairperson of Tai Chu Group?!

So young.

The gap between people really is bigger than that between dogs.

"Hey, pull back. You're sinking in." Li Jiatu elbowed him.

Though he hadn't meant it that way, he realized it was impolite.

"Sorry," Zhou Mingrui said politely: "I'm the representative of Director Huang's company, not his son-in-law."

"That daughter-obsessed guy?" Su Yuling asked.

Had the label "daughter-obsessed" already spread through the upper circles, compared to being a playboy?

"You're not that young anymore," Su Yuling said without reason: "Let me set you two up—I won't make you pay for the phone."

"?"

The cost of the phone was negligible—after all, cooperation mattered.

But are you saying this to get me fired?

Just as Zhou Mingrui didn't know how to respond, Su Yuling tilted her head, a faint smile curling at her lips: "I'm joking."

She turned around, gave a few instructions to General Manager Ya, then smiled warmly: "Let's discuss the cooperation."

Su Yuling led the way forward.

Li Jiatu, grinning mischievously, asked: "Do you like a girl like this?"

"A girl?" Zhou Mingrui frowned suspiciously.

He always felt Su Yuling lacked something—she gave off a robotic vibe, yet occasionally revealed a trace of humanity.

"A girl," Li Jiatu repeated seriously: "She's a girl. Remember that."

Had he misunderstood her all along?

So she's a girl.