When the great doors of the Inch Heart Dojo were pushed open, they let out that dull "creak" unique to old-fashioned wooden doors.
Kevin Kaslana stood in the doorway, the morning light drawing a long shadow out behind him.
He was wearing that same white shirt in which, only yesterday, he had slapped his resignation letter down on his supervisor's desk—the top two buttons undone, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
Although that face of his was still handsome enough to make you want to call the police, the air of an Office Slave who'd just crawled out of "007" hell still clung between his brows, making him look like a vampire who hadn't quite woken up yet.
However, the moment he took in the scene inside the room, those dead-fish eyes of his snapped a full circle wider.
This was… way too outrageous, wasn't it?
In the left-hand corner, that girl with dark circles under her eyes, hammering furiously away at her computer and muttering "the polygon count needs to come down a bit more"—wasn't that Nuwa, Dr. Mobius's assistant, the one who treated her figurines as her very life?
Under the corridor on the right, Su Mei sat with one leg crossed over the other, the calculator in her hand clacking away, her shrewd look making it seem as though she were working out how to sell this dojo for a good price.
But what truly made his whole worldview collapse was the scene right in the center.
That Ah Hua, who normally never cracked a smile, all righteous bearing, who walked as if measuring out each pace—she was at this moment bowing slightly, holding a cup of hot tea in both hands, offering it to the one seated in the grand master's chair… Kiana?
"Little Grandmaster, this is this year's freshly picked Pre-Rain Longjing. Please, have a taste."
Fu Hua's voice was as reverent as if she were in the presence of a living fossil.
And the one seated in the chair was none other than that slightly bashful "undocumented" girl he had seen not long ago—the one he and Mei had had to sort out a Household Registration for.
At this moment, she was taking the teacup with a thoroughly convincing air, sipping at it, then nodding with mock solemnity: "Mm, not bad. Xiao Hua, you've been very thoughtful."
Kevin felt something in his brain snap.
Little Grandmaster?
That dimwit of a girl who couldn't even memorize her own ID Card number had become a founding patriarch?
And what's more…
He looked over at Su Yu, seated beside Kiana.
That guy was sitting right next to Kiana, documents in hand, every so often turning his head to murmur a few words to her.
The distance between the two of them… was far too close.
Close enough that Su Yu's arm was practically pressed against Kiana's shoulder.
Close enough that when Kiana laughed, she would naturally tilt her head toward Su Yu's side, her hair brushing across his cheek.
That kind of atmosphere.
That intimate, faintly clingy closeness that paid no mind to anyone else in the room.
Father and daughter? A bit odd.
Brother and sister? Not quite.
A young couple?
Kevin's heart gave a "thud."
Was this still the same Kiana who used to hide at the sight of strangers, like a startled little rabbit?
This was nothing less than a house cat that had already been tamed and was now frolicking freely within its master's territory!
Just what kind of enchanting potion had this Su Yu fellow poured down the throats of Fu Hua and the others?
Wasn't that whole "Little Junior Sister down from the mountain" script made up on the spot?
How had this bunch of martial artists all come to believe it? Had this Tai Xu Sect practiced their martial arts so hard they'd practiced their brains broken?
"Yo, you're here?"
Just as Kevin was still in the middle of questioning his entire existence, Su Yu had already spotted him.
He set down the documents and walked over with a smile, his relaxed, easygoing manner forming a stark contrast with the bitter, grievance-laden "wage-slave funk" that hung all over Kevin.
"Thud."
Su Yu raised his hand and landed a none-too-gentle punch on Kevin's shoulder.
"What are you spacing out for? Stunned by the scene?"
"Su Yu."
He drew in a deep breath and pointed at that crowd of demons and monsters inside.
"Tell me the truth… did you cast some kind of hex on them?"
"Nuwa I can let slide, but Fu Hua… that's Fu Hua we're talking about. Why on earth would she call Kiana 'Little Grandmaster'? And Kiana… has she been possessed by something?"
Su Yu shrugged and popped the tab on a cola, a soft "fizz" bursting into the air.
"What? Jealous? Jealous that my Kiana outranks you in seniority?"
He took a sip of cola, his face the very picture of taking it all for granted.
"I already told you, Kiana is the reclusive Little Grandmaster of the Tai Xu Sect, one who never shows herself to the world. Before, she was just keeping a low profile; now, for the sake of the studio's development, she has no choice but to come down from the mountain and take charge of the big picture—perfectly reasonable, no?"
"Reasonable my foot."
Kevin rolled his eyes, but his tensed shoulders relaxed.
Absurd as it was, this really was exactly the sort of thing Su Yu would pull off.
"I thought when you said before that you wanted to start a studio, you meant the sort of… dabbling-for-fun thing, a few people eating instant noodles and writing code in a rented apartment."
Kevin looked at Su Yu, a note of seriousness creeping into his tone.
"I never expected… you'd actually go and do it for real. Such a grand setup, such a luxurious lineup?"
"When has your foster father here ever not been for real?"
Su Yu reached out, hooked an arm around Kevin's neck, and gave that head of white hair a hard rub.
"You tell me—have I ever screwed you over?"
Kevin slapped his hand away with an expressionless face and began rattling them off one by one, as if reciting a treasured inventory:
"Freshman year, you said you'd take me to a mixer—turned out to be hauling bricks for the anime club."
"Sophomore year, you said you'd treat me to a feast—turned out to be fighting for the discount window at the cafeteria."
"Junior year, you said you'd help me and Mei deepen our bond—turned out you spent the whole night being a third wheel right beside us, and you even ate my portion of steak."
"Stop, stop, stop!"
Su Yu hurriedly coughed a couple of times, cutting off this barrage of memory-lane killer blows.
"Those were all the trials and errors of youth! Not important! What matters is the result!"
He threw an arm around Kevin's shoulders and steered him into the room.
"Come on, come on, first go say hello to your future colleagues. They may all be familiar faces, but we still need a sense of ceremony."
Pushed along for a couple of steps, Kevin suddenly came to a halt.
He turned around and looked at Su Yu, his expression growing somewhat heavy, even carrying a trace of… solemn tragedy.
"Su Yu."
He lowered his voice, speaking at a volume only the two of them could hear.
"Hey, in all seriousness."
"Eden's investment, an office building in the city center… that money-grubbing woman Fuxi actually agreed to sign off on it?"
Kevin looked at Su Yu, a strange look coming into his eyes.
"Su Yu, I know you're well-liked in the Golden Courtyard… but isn't this taking it a bit too far?"
"That bunch of neighbors of ours, well… they're rather… peculiar."
"To get along with every single one of them—in all these years, you're the one and only oddity who's managed it."
"I always used to think that if one day you started dating Pardo, or Mobius, I'd find it reasonable. But…"
Kevin stopped, turned around, and pressed both hands down on Su Yu's shoulders.
That handsome face wore an expression of the utmost grief, as though gazing upon "a wayward youth about to set off down a road of no return."
"That's Eden we're talking about."
"A world-class superstar. A wealthy lady worth tens of billions."
"You little rascal… don't tell me you've really… spirited her away?"
Su Yu: "..."
Every single one of them—how could their minds all be so filthy?
In your eyes, am I really just some pretty-boy gigolo who only knows how to live off a woman?
You've simply spent too long getting to know Elysia in the Golden Courtyard, and caught Elysia's gossip virus too, haven't you?
"Kevin, is your head stuffed full of paste?"
"I already said she's an investor! An investor! A pure monetary relationship! How have you turned into as much of a gossip as Elysia?!"
"I know, I know."
Kevin waved a hand, wearing an "I understand it all, no need to explain" expression.
He patted Su Yu's chest and counseled him earnestly and gravely:
"I know that with your salted-fish, want-to-do-nothing personality, your head must be full of 'Auntie, I just don't want to work hard anymore.'"
"But take a word of advice from your buddy."
"Sister Eden's status is far too lofty. If your secret underground romance ever got exposed…"
Kevin made a throat-slitting gesture.
"You'd be hacked to death in the street by those hundreds of millions of fans, and not even I could save you."
"Pfft—"
Su Yu nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.
"Underground romance my foot! Can't you have a little faith in your foster father? Am I the kind of man who'd sell his looks for money?"
"Yes."
Kevin's answer was firm and unequivocal.
"Didn't you say it yourself before? In the face of money, what is a man's dignity even worth?"
Su Yu's mouth twitched—that had been a joke, a bit of meme-play, just an offhand remark, that's all.
Wasn't it just like a flame war online—on the surface I'm cursing "your old man's flown the coop," but in real life, when we actually meet, don't I still have to politely say "Hello there, Auntie"?
Kevin let out a sigh.
"Still, take a piece of advice from me. A man ought to have a bit of dignity, after all. Living off a woman may be sweet, but you've got to mind your health too…"
Su Yu looked at his thoroughly punchable face, the veins at his temple twitching a couple of times.
"Dignity?"
Su Yu let out a cold laugh, his gaze instantly turning sharp, stabbing straight at Kevin's sore spot.
"The reason you think this way… is because Mei is a great scholar, while you're a house-husband who cooks and does laundry for her every single day, and gets nagged at by her on top of it for not even boiling instant noodles properly, isn't it?"
"What's this called? This is what you call projecting your own circumstances."
Su Yu tutted a couple of times, sizing Kevin up from head to toe.
"Looks like your standing at home is… truly a cause for concern, Student Kevin."
This boomerang struck Kevin squarely in the knee.
That eternally unchanging iceberg face of Kevin's finally showed a hairline crack.
He opened his mouth, wanting to retort, only to find he couldn't come up with a single argument.
Because… as nasty as Su Yu's words were, they were, damn it, every bit the truth.
"...I'm leaving."
Kevin set his face sternly and turned to slip away.
There was no way to keep this conversation going.
Any more talk and even his underpants would be stripped clean off.
"Hm? Trying to run?"
Quick of eye and hand, Su Yu shot out his right hand like a bolt of lightning and clamped it down on Kevin's shoulder.
At the same time he stepped forward with his left foot, blocking off Kevin's line of retreat, and pressed his whole body up against him, locking the other man down with sheer weight and strength.
"You've come all this way—do you really think you can escape from the palm of my hand, Kevin?"
Kevin frowned and instinctively tried to resist.
Although he'd spent these past few years as an Office Slave and his body had gone a bit rusty, he had, after all, once been the ace forward of the school basketball team, and his physical fitness absolutely crushed that of a shut-in like Su Yu.
He dropped his shoulder, meaning to use a clever burst of force to shake Su Yu's hand loose.
"Let go, or don't blame me for…"
Even as Kevin spoke, he poured power into his shoulder, trying to throw off Su Yu's hand.
And yet.
Not a hair's breadth of movement.
That hand pressed down on his shoulder was as if welded in place, steady as Mount Tai.
Kevin went blank for a moment.
Refusing to believe it, he put strength into his waist and tried to wrench himself free by force.
The result…
Su Yu merely gave a faint smile, his fingers tightening with just a touch more force.
An irresistible, immense force came through, pinning Kevin's entire body to the spot.
"??"
Kevin's eyes went wide as he stared at this calm-faced best buddy before him.
This wasn't scientific.
This strength… was it something a human being should possess?
Even Ma Feima, who worked out all the time, couldn't possibly have this kind of finger strength, could he?
"Y-you… you… you bastard…"
Kevin swallowed a mouthful of saliva, staring at that seemingly ordinary, yet truly terrifying, hand of Su Yu's.
"Did you sneak off to get some injections? Or did Dr. Mobius drag you away and remodel you?"
He stared in horror at the top of Su Yu's head.
"Take my advice… getting stronger feels great and all, but whatever you do, don't train until the top of your head goes all pointy and bald! Baldness is irreversible!"
Su Yu: "..."
Pointy bald head my ass.
Then let me ask you—let me ask you—let me ask you!
"Get lost!"
Su Yu cursed with a laugh, put power into his arm, yanked Kevin right back, and hauled him along by the neck into the room.
"Cut the nonsense and get in here and work!"
"From today on, you're the face of our studio. Do a good job, and from now on big bro here will see to it that you live the high life."
Kevin rubbed his aching shoulder as Su Yu dragged him along.
Although he was still grumbling out loud, the corner of his mouth, in a spot where no one could see…
This feeling of horsing around and roughhousing…
It was as if he had returned once more to that summer before life had worn his edges smooth.
"Fine, then."
Kevin let out a sigh, yet the corner of his mouth curved faintly upward.
"Since you're going to all this trouble… then I, as your foster father, can hardly let you lose face, now can I?"
Kevin straightened his necktie and drew in a deep breath.
"Let's go, then—time to go meet your… harem."
"It's the production team! The production team, you bastard!"
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