The sunlight outside the glass curtain wall was a little glaring.
"Thanks, Hack Bunny." Su Yu spoke unhurriedly, with a relaxed ease that came after the dust had settled. "Looks like deciding to lay my cards on the table for you was the right move after all."
From the other end of the line came an utterly unsparing cold snort.
"Cut that out. The sentiment card doesn't work on me."
"You'd better convert that gratitude into cold cash. If you don't give me a bonus, I'll go file a real-name report with the Labor Bureau that you're exploiting underage child labor."
Su Yu lowered his head and chuckled.
"No problem. I'll wire it to you together with next month's cat-food money."
He turned around, leaning his back against the scorching-hot glass.
"So what about that Auntie? What do you plan to do? Lay it all out for her directly?"
"Don't."
Bronie answered with iron-clad decisiveness.
"I really wouldn't recommend letting more people in on Kiana's business. In this overly peaceful world, an otherworldly visitor with that kind of freakish strength is a walking time bomb for herself. The more people who know, the more dangerous it is for her."
Bronie paused, a touch more headache creeping into her tone.
"So, BOSS, how do you plan to face Theresa? Right now she's pegged you as an accomplice of that scumbag Siegfried."
"Just now at the milk-tea shop, she even mentally cooked up a hundred-thousand-word epic about you secretly raising an illegitimate daughter in the Deep Mountains and Old Forests on someone's orders."
Su Yu rubbed the bridge of his brow.
This world's Theresa had such wild flights of imagination that not becoming a scriptwriter was a genuine waste of talent.
"I'm not close with this world's Theresa — we're just acquaintances."
Su Yu sighed.
"You said it yourself — the fewer people who know about Kiana, the better. Since she wants to go care for Kiana, then let her."
He thought of the sight of Kiana curled up in a ball on the sofa last night, seen from behind.
"Even if it's not the same person, seeing that face will at least make that girl feel a little warmer."
"Then BOSS, you're in for plenty of trouble from now on."
Bronie gloatingly popped a bubble of gum.
"She's now convinced Kiana is Siegfried's illegitimate daughter. To get ironclad proof of the scumbag abandoning his wife and child, she's definitely going to stick to you like a wad of super-strength taffy, day in and day out."
"You'd best prepare a tight, watertight story in advance, or sooner or later you'll get tangled up in that prime-time-melodrama logic of hers."
"The cart will find its way around the mountain when it gets there." Su Yu wasn't all that worried. "If down the line I confirm she's genuinely good to that girl, it won't be too late to find a chance to tell her the truth then."
The corner of Su Yu's mouth quirked upward.
"As for right now... I'll just have to let Kevin's old man take one for the team."
The communicator went quiet for two seconds, then burst into a fit of completely unconcealed laughter.
"Kevin must have dug up your ancestors' graves in his past life." Bronie laughed until she was gasping. "In this life, not only did you drag him in to work like a beast of burden, but his old man even has to take this huge fall for you. You two really do deserve to be called blood brothers with different fathers and different mothers."
Su Yu didn't refute it, and went on to give a couple more instructions about the security system setup.
"Fine, whatever makes you happy."
Bronie sucked down the last of her milk tea, the straw making a gurgle as it hit the bottom.
"Alright, BOSS, if there's nothing else, I'm hanging up. Theresa's taxi is about twenty minutes out — hurry up and tidy yourself up, get ready to greet your first interviewee."
"Mm."
"Oh, right."
Bronie added one more line before hanging up.
"About the raise — I'm serious."
"Got it."
The line went dead.
Bronie stared at the rabbit wallpaper as the phone screen jumped back to standby, and spat the flavorless bubble gum out of her mouth into a tissue.
A triple agent.
Hiding things from Su Yu for Kiana.
Hiding things from Kiana for Su Yu.
Hiding things from Theresa for the two of them.
And now another layer had been added: hiding Kiana's true identity from Theresa for Su Yu, while at the same time playing along with Theresa in a grand production of "investigating the illegitimate daughter."
A quadruple agent now, basically.
Bronie tossed the empty cup into the sorting bin and pushed open the glass door of the milk-tea shop, stepping out.
The July sun was vicious. She tugged at the hood brim of her windbreaker, covering most of her face.
"More money," she muttered.
"I'd better get that raise!!"
Arc City Tower, top floor.
Su Yu stuffed his phone back into his pocket and pushed open the door of the small meeting room, stepping out.
In the office area, Fuxi was standing behind Griseo, holding a black coffee, looking down at Griseo drawing.
A rough outline had already taken shape on Griseo's A3 drawing paper.
She was drawing the Arc City skyline outside the window.
But not the realistic kind of architectural sketch — rather, it had been rearranged through her own unique color system.
The glass curtain walls of the skyscrapers had been painted in varying shades of blue-violet; the sky was great swaths of warm orange blended with lemon yellow; and the edges of the clouds had been lightly scraped out with a white colored pencil into a fuzzy, downy texture.
Fuxi watched for a while.
"Griseo, you painted that office building purple, but it's actually gray."
Griseo lifted her head and tilted it to one side.
"But its color really is purple."
Fuxi didn't press further.
She was already used to Griseo's logic.
In the eyes of this little painter, the colors of the world were different from what ordinary people saw.
What she painted wasn't the surface color of objects, but something deeper.
When Su Yu walked over, Fuxi turned her head and glanced at him.
"Finished your call?"
"Mm, work stuff."
"What kind of work?"
"Personnel."
Fuxi's lenses flashed.
"Personnel? Your studio doesn't even have an HR department. What personnel are you managing?"
"We might be hiring a new recruit pretty soon."
Fuxi didn't ask further.
She flipped open the tablet and pulled the purchase list back to where they'd left off.
"Let's continue. Item eighteen, soundproofing material. The soundproofing in that recording-booth room doesn't meet standard and needs a new layer laid down. I've got quotes from two suppliers..."
The two of them went on going through the list item by item.
Griseo drew quietly off to the side. Her strawberry milkshake had been sucked down to the bottom, the straw gurgling; she set the cup down and switched to a warm-yellow colored pencil.
But before even twenty minutes had passed.
The chime announcing the elevator's arrival at the top floor sounded.
Outside the studio's tightly shut frosted-glass doors, a furtive, petite silhouette had suddenly appeared.
Theresa pressed herself against the door frame and took three deep breaths.
Absolutely mustn't beat the grass and startle the snake.
She frantically recited her code of action in her mind.
If Su Yu really was an informant planted at Kiana's side by that old fox Siegfried, then rashly charging in and shouting would surely put him on guard.
It might even cause Siegfried to immediately relocate little Kiana's hiding place.
She had to ingratiate herself first, lull the enemy's nerves.
Theresa quickly drew up a battle plan in her head.
She was, after all, Bronie's nominal older sister, and she'd had some prior contact with Su Yu at the bar.
At a time like this, all she had to do was bring out her invincible sweet-idol business-mode, and dealing with a straight guy who did nothing but play games all day would be a piece of cake.
Using the reflection off the corridor's smooth, glossy wall, she adjusted her expression into a flawless, off-the-charts-sweet signature smile.
Then she shoved the doors open.
"Hello there, Su Yu, long time no see~"
A voice so sweet and sticky it could practically be drawn out into threads echoed through the empty office area, the trailing note even carrying a playful little twist.
Theresa walked in with light, mincing little steps, hands clasped behind her back, head tilted slightly, her two white twin tails swinging through the air in lively arcs.
Fuxi's fingers tapping at the screen came to an abrupt halt.
She slowly swiveled that ergonomic chair around.
Fuxi's gaze went over the reflective rims of her gold-wire glasses, sweeping back and forth a full three rounds between the white-haired loli at the door who was desperately radiating waves of cuteness and Su Yu's stiff face.
The expression on her face shifted rapidly from initial astonishment into an extremely complex disdain laden with strong moral condemnation.
"Su Yu."
Fuxi's voice carried not the slightest fluctuation, yet it exuded a coldness that could freeze a person on the spot.
"Tell me the truth. The reason you've never made things official with my little sister — is it because deep down you're actually a hopeless lolicon?"
Su Yu's Adam's apple rolled up and down with difficulty a couple of times.
He looked at Theresa standing at the door desperately radiating waves of sweetness, the line "do you have any idea how old this white-haired shorty actually is" already spinning on the tip of his tongue.
But right after, Bronie's account flashed through his mind — that security door torn clean off its roots, and those Tiger Claw Gang thugs writhing and wailing on the ground.
Swallowing that line back down was the final compromise he made for the sake of his own personal safety.
If he exposed her secret here, his own skull would most likely be slammed straight into his chest cavity on the spot.
Although he was confident he could beat Theresa in a fight, the moment those words left his mouth he'd be in the wrong from the start, and even in an actual fight he'd have to yield a few points to her.
"Sister Fuxi, quit joking around." Su Yu cleared his throat and pointed toward the one still playing innocent at the door. "This is an idol who's been all the rage online lately — the magical girl teriri."
Fuxi arched her slender eyebrows.
"Oh, I've heard of her." She tossed the tablet casually onto the office desk, folded her arms across her chest, her gaze roaming aggressively between the two of them. "So? A wildly popular idol meeting with you in private? Your secret lover?"
The air in the office area froze for three seconds.
Su Yu stared at Fuxi's face, which was practically written all over with the words "enjoying the show," the corner of his eye twitching uncontrollably a couple of times.
"Sister Fuxi." He sighed, his tone full of the helplessness of one who'd given up struggling. "You just flat-out want to watch me squirm, don't you."
Watching his deflated state, Fuxi curved her red lips in satisfaction.
"Correct." She stood up and smoothed out the creases in her skirt. "Too bad there's no prize."
"You two talk." Fuxi headed off toward the other end of the corridor without looking back. "I'll go check whether the equipment wiring in the motion-capture room has been laid out."
The sound of high heels gradually faded into the distance.
Su Yu drew back his gaze and turned to look at Theresa, who was still standing at the door maintaining her sweet smile.
"Long time no see, Theresa. Bronie gave me a heads-up on the phone just now — you're here to talk about a collaboration with our studio, I take it?"
Theresa nodded vigorously.
She walked over with mincing little steps, hands meekly folded in front of her, tilting up that fair, delicate little face, her big eyes blinking and sparkling as she looked at Su Yu, still in that sweet, charming business posture.
Su Yu didn't linger in the open office area; he led Theresa back into that soundproof meeting room.
The glass door closed, completely shutting out the white noise outside.
Su Yu pulled out the chair at the head of the conference table and sat down.
Theresa walked to the seat across from him and clambered up, bracing both hands on the seat.
Because her legs couldn't reach the floor, they could only swing gently in midair, her pink-and-white skirt hem rising and falling slightly with the motion.
"Let's get straight to the point."
Su Yu crossed his hands on the tabletop, his gaze fixed bluntly on the white-haired shorty across from him.
"Why do you want to join my studio?" He crooked his index finger and rapped on the table. "Honestly, this place is still under renovation — we haven't even released a single presentable game PV yet."
"You're a hugely popular idol right now. Collaborating with a ragtag outfit like us, with no future in sight whatsoever — that's just thankless hard work, isn't it?"
Theresa stopped swinging her legs.
She put away that cloyingly sweet business smile and leaned her body slightly forward.
In those big eyes, originally brimming with innocence, a flash of shrewdness wholly at odds with her appearance darted by.
"Last time, at Cioara's bar, I saw it."
Theresa trotted out the spiel she'd rehearsed in her mind countless times.
"I know you've got Eden backing you."
She deliberately made her voice sound full of yearning, even carrying a few fervent tremors.
"Eden is my idol. I dream of collaborating with her just once. Joining your studio is the fastest shortcut for me to get close to her."
She paused, and seeing that Su Yu showed no intention of interrupting, continued to raise the stakes.
"As for my original idol work, you needn't worry at all. I have a professional team that can perfectly balance my appearance schedule with my time here at the studio — I absolutely won't hold up progress on this end."
Su Yu leaned back in his chair, fingers stroking his chin.
This reason was quite sufficient, and fit the persona of a star-chaser.
But if it were merely this, it still wasn't enough to explain that eager attitude of hers to join up.
So he waited — playing dumb while knowing full well — wanting to see what sort of reason Theresa would come out with.
Theresa took a deep breath and threw out the sentiment card she'd prepared.
"As you know," she slowed her pace, her tone gaining a touch of the worry peculiar to an elder, "Cioara's side has always been uneasy about Bronie running wild outside all day long."
"She privately asked me, if possible, to look after that troublesome girl a little more."
Theresa braced both hands on the tabletop and leaned her upper body forward again, closing the physical distance between the two of them.
"But Boss, you can rest assured."
She lowered her voice and played her final trump card.
"I will absolutely never tell Kiana that you've long known she's secretly preparing a surprise, nor that Bronie is working here — before coming, Bronie and I already got fully on the same page."
Su Yu's eyebrow rose.
He genuinely felt a little surprised.
His gaze swept over that still-childish face across from him, and he silently overturned his earlier assessment of her in his mind.
This white-haired shorty — although she wore an easily-fooled loli shell — was actually not the least bit stupid.
These few sentences seemed like rambling all over the place, but were in fact a step-by-step advance.
First using Eden as a pretext to explain her motive, then using Cioara's request to draw the relationship closer, and finally directly throwing out a shared secret as a pledge of allegiance.
In just a few moves she'd firmly bound herself, Su Yu, and Bronie together on the same rope, looking every bit like one of their own in the same trench.
But on the other hand, she could hammer the matter of Kiana being "this world's Siegfried's illegitimate daughter" into an ironclad, nailed-down fact.
One could only say her IQ really did swing high and low.
But honestly speaking.
Su Yu couldn't find any reason to refuse.
A wildly popular idol who came with tens of millions in traffic, eagerly throwing herself into a startup studio that didn't even qualify as a ragtag outfit, and even bringing her own provisions while asking for nothing in return.
A windfall like a pie falling from the sky — free traffic delivered right to his door — would be a waste not to take.
"Deal."
At the moment the contract was struck, that familiar light-screen appeared before Su Yu once again.
[NEW! Community Bond successfully established!]
[Strength] — Theresa Apocalypse
[Current Position]: Promotion Ambassador / Surface-Level Mascot / Off-the-Books Physical Security
[Bond Level]: Rank 1 (Allies with Ulterior Motives / Your Pseudo-Auntie?)
[Studio-Exclusive Bonuses]:
[Magical Girl's Frenzy]: As long as she posts a single selfie bearing the studio logo, your server bandwidth will need an overnight expansion, and online-buzz acquisition speed +300%.
[Bloodline Suppression (Passive)]: When she appears at the studio, a certain white-haired, twin-tailed CTO employee has an extremely high probability of exhibiting muscle-memory reactions such as standing at attention and writing self-criticisms.
[Theresa Is the Cutest in the World]: This is just a slogan, but if you dare to refute it to her face, you will witness a genuine miracle of physics.
Su Yu quickly skimmed over these fairly normal bonus attributes.
His gaze continued downward.
At the bottom of the System interface, the font color suddenly turned a glaring blood-scarlet, and was bolded a full three sizes larger. A massive exclamation mark flashed frantically on the screen.
[!!! System High-Risk Alert: Life-Preserving Clauses for Coexisting with Theresa !!!]
[Host detected to have successfully captured one wild magical girl. To ensure the Host lives to see the open beta of Honkai Impact 3rd, please be sure to carve the following clauses into your DNA, and silently recite them three times before every interaction with this target:]
[Absolute Taboo One: The Unspeakable Mystery of Altitude]
Never, ever, under any circumstances use within her field of vision any derogatory terms involving vertical-spatial measurement, such as "short," "shorty," or "stubby winter melon." Even when reaching for items placed up high, do not show any expression of pity or mockery.
[Absolute Taboo Two: The Schrödinger Enigma of Time]
If she's in a good mood and asks you to guess her age, please, without the slightest hesitation, look firmly into her eyes and answer loudly: "Forever twelve years old!" Avoid hesitating, avoid thinking, and avoid performing any arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division in your head.
[Violation Penalty Description]
Violate any one of the above, and you will have an extremely high probability of facing the following outcomes:
Being smashed flat into a two-dimensional figure by a solid-wood security door descending from the heavens. Being hoisted up by your collar with one hand and stuffed into a drum washing machine to experience centrifugal force at maximum spin speed. Being forcibly made to gulp down three liters of extremely high-purity freshly squeezed bitter melon juice.
[System's Final Annotation: She really will smash you flat — flat in the literal sense. Remember, you can only deal damage while alive; don't keep poking at the edge of courting death.]
The red warning text lingered on Su Yu's retina for a full ten seconds before slowly fading away.
Su Yu shifted his gaze away from the virtual panel and refocused on reality.
Across the conference table, Theresa was still sitting in that chair.
Because the chair's height was designed for adults, her legs couldn't reach the floor at all, and could only swing gently back and forth in midair.
Pure-white over-the-knee socks wrapped around those slender, straight calves.
Her pink platform sneakers brushed against the metal legs of the desk now and then, producing one or two dull thuds.
Su Yu stood up crisply and, across the broad conference table, extended his right hand toward Theresa.
Theresa hopped down from the chair too, extended that fair, tender little hand, and grasped Su Yu's palm.
The gazes of the two met in midair.
Theresa looked at this man before her, who was very likely Siegfried's accomplice, calculating in her heart how to pry little Kiana's true life story out of his mouth.
Su Yu looked at this free promotional ambassador who'd delivered herself to his door, calculating in his heart how to make Theresa shine and radiate heat with her own traffic, while incidentally using that astonishing "wild imagination" ability of hers to forge a new bond with Kiana.
Both sides concluded this conversation each harboring their own thoughts.
Both felt they'd made out like bandits.
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