The other party acted swiftly and decisively, traits that, in the public's mind, leaned more toward being "masculine."
Obviously, she couldn't be treated like an ordinary girl.
Of course, that was just a stereotype, it didn't mean that women couldn't be decisive or tough.
Zero considered himself quite open-minded.
After all, his male subordinates in the past, some loved wearing powder, some loved crying.
There was no behavior or personality trait that truly belonged exclusively to men or women.
Zero thought for a bit, and suddenly realized that the "persona" he'd created, one that could kill anyone who knew too much, happened to perfectly match Jingliu's tastes.
Two birds with one stone.
But… this persona of a man with no sense of security, isolated and lonely, that was completely different from his real personality, wasn't it?
Zero decided to go back to the forum to look for inspiration.
[Share flirty lines that make your lover unable to leave you]
[Love tips, how to praise your partner until they turn lovesick]
[Sincerely recommend memorizing these 100 golden quotes to win your lover's heart]
Zero was half-dead from cringe after reading those posts.
Things like, "Your hands are so warm," "Your heart's beating so fast," "I only care about you," "I'm only like this with you"…
It was like reading the titles and synopses of the books Jingliu liked, he couldn't handle it. He just couldn't imagine himself saying those kinds of things.
But… since he himself could be "cringed to death," that meant other Aeons, and other people, could be too.
So he bookmarked several posts about "pretending to be weak while being secretly strong," and shared them all with Hua as a test.
[Hua: …Send one more and I'm blocking you.]
He thought about it for a moment and reluctantly stopped.
Alright, the torment would end here.
After all, he only had this one military strategist. If he lost Hua, who else would he find? Should he go torment the other "in-the-know" one, Tengxiao? That poor guy would probably cry from sheer terror.
Zero wasn't a devil, he quickly gave up that idea.
He'd even thought about asking Aha to pull the Aeon of Erudition back into their old "Cosmic Family Group Chat," then send those posts there and "cringe" every god at once.
After some thought, he decided to save that for his dear friend Aha.
What if, after reading them, Aha developed resistance to that kind of talk? Then how would he torment him later?
Soon, Hua sent another message.
[Hua: We picked out some books for you. Read them first, then we'll talk.]
Zero accepted gladly, after all, he was the kind of person who took advice seriously.
The next day, he received a delivery at the library, over a dozen books in total.
Among them were quite a few titles Jingliu had once recommended.
Jingliu's reading age, though… was clearly under two years old.
With plenty of time on his hands in the library, Zero casually picked one up and skimmed through it, reading ten lines at a glance, quickly summarizing the main conflicts between the male and female leads, and the ways they were resolved.
As he read, he realized something strange, the storylines were bizarre and completely illogical by his standards.
He couldn't understand it.
If the male and female leads' love was opposed by their families, shouldn't they just eliminate the families? How was that difficult?
Zero switched to another book. Still the same, completely illogical.
The male lead liked the female lead one-sidedly, and the female lead had a bunch of admirers around her.
That was easy to solve, wasn't it?
Just eliminate all the men better than him, right?
And since it was a story written for readers under two years old, he could choose gentler methods if necessary.
Just remove the better options around the heroine, then throw money like crazy, problem solved.
It's just dating. How hard could that be?
Zero couldn't understand the characters' logic, they were all way too strange.
He forced himself to read halfway through, flipped another page, and came across a picture book.
Its title was particularly eye-catching, "Teaching Children How to Express Love."
The book looked a bit old, the cover decorated with cute little animals, and a bright band around it read, "Children's Picture Book."
Zero, "..."
He felt like he was being mocked.
He opened his shopping app and searched for more information about the book.
After looking for quite a while, he couldn't find it, only on secondhand platforms.
He looked at the keywords, and instantly fell silent.
The listings all said things like "children's picture book," "a must-have for parent-child reading," "preschool education," and so on.
Under "recommended reading age," it said, three to six years old.
A passing colleague caught sight of the book and exclaimed, "Oh wow, Zero, you have a kid now?"
Zero, "...No, this is for a friend."
The colleague, all enthusiasm, immediately sent him more links through the jade communicator.
Patting his chest confidently, he said, "My kid grew up reading these picture books! Just copy what we did, it works perfectly!"
Zero nodded stiffly, then turned around to ask Hua for an address.
Once he got it, he ordered every single book from that colleague's list, without changing a thing, and shipped the entire batch straight to Hua.
He deeply felt the other party couldn't be trusted, so he gave up on the books altogether and started scrolling through his list, picking out targets to torment.
Before he could choose a lucky victim, Tengxiao sent a message.
[Tengxiao: My lord, this subordinate has failed. You told me to keep an eye on Luofu these days, but something slipped through. There's now a new "Envoy of Elation" there.]
[Zero: Mm.]
Zero thought, 'what's the big deal?'
As long as Aha wasn't there to destroy Luofu, it wasn't a problem.
[Tengxiao, But this envoy… is Baiheng.]
Zero, '???'
His thoughts spun wildly.
'Baiheng, you're really something, huh? Being Luofu's playboy wasn't enough for you? You've started making friends with Aeons now?'
Zero was used to focusing only on results, reasoning backward from outcomes.
But when it came to Aha's actions, there was no point in overanalyzing.
And since Xianzhou held the ultimate weapon, there was no need to fear any Aeon.
No big deal.
Looking at the overly stressed Luofu general, Zero actually felt the urge to comfort him for once.
[Zero: Don't worry, it's fine. No problem.]
He even gave an example from his own personal experience.
[Zero: The first time I met Aha, He gave me a gift that could destroy an entire planet. This is nothing compared to that.]
Tengxiao didn't reply for a while, then started sending a bunch of flattering words, before abruptly changing the subject to the current Marshal.
[Tengxiao: Forgive my boldness, but… did something happen to the Marshal? At the last meeting, after she and the Chief Strategist read a message on the jade communicator, she seemed… not quite herself.]
Zero, "..."
Surely it wasn't because she'd taken on the strategist role for him.
Zero was speechless. After comforting Tengxiao with a few words, he stopped replying and went back to scrolling through his list.
Ever since yesterday, when he'd called Jingliu "sister," she hadn't taken the initiative to message him again.
'Probably too shy.'
Zero could barely hold himself back.
After seeing her flustered, with that new expression so different from before, he just wanted to tease her more.
He picked a photo of his cat and sent it to Jingliu.
This time, she replied, answering the question he'd asked yesterday.
[Jingliu: I like it.]
[Jingliu: I mean the cat.]
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