"Dr. Mobius?"
Hearing this name, Su Yu did not show the terror or evasive expression Eden had anticipated.
He merely lowered his eyelids a fraction, gazing at an emerald-green leaf that had fallen by the edge of the bench, and stayed silent for a long while.
The wind passed through the layer upon layer of ornamental trees in the hotel's rear garden, giving off a soft rustling that completely smothered the faint, barely-there strains of the symphony drifting from the distant hall.
Facing Eden's gaze, in the end Su Yu only let out a long sigh.
"Sister Eden," he lifted his head, meeting those eyes that seemed able to see through everything, "I hope you won't keep pressing me about this."
"You're protecting me?"
"Mm."
"You think you're qualified to?"
"No, but this is the only thing I can do."
A few seconds of silence.
From the distant banquet hall came the faint sound of a piano, broken into fragments by the wind.
Eden took a step forward.
Su Yu instinctively wanted to retreat, but her hand had already lifted.
That hand, carrying the fragrance of red wine, in the end only came to rest lightly atop Su Yu's head.
"I understand." Eden's fingers gave Su Yu's soft hair a couple of rubs, neither too gentle nor too firm, the sharpness in her tone fully reined in. "If you don't want to say it, I won't force it out of you."
There was an indescribable tolerance in her movements.
"Everyone has their own secrets," Eden withdrew her hand, her gaze falling on that tiny tear in her stockings that a tree branch had just snagged open, then shifting back to Su Yu's face. "Even me—I'm no exception."
"But I need a promise."
Eden's tone suddenly turned serious, her line of sight level with Su Yu's.
That sense of pressure unique to a mature woman once again settled over him along with the shortened distance.
"Can you promise me that you'll absolutely never do this kind of dangerous thing again?"
Su Yu opened his mouth.
He understood perfectly well that as long as he nodded now and said one word—"okay"—he'd be cleared of today's ordeal.
This wealthy big sister before him would not only keep pouring her countless funds into his studio, she'd also escort and shield him with her unfathomable connections in Arc City.
But he swallowed the word back down.
Fenghuang said nothing.
The System didn't pop up a window either.
The one making the judgment at this moment was Su Yu himself.
Kiana's face flashed through his mind.
The Herrscher of the Void's awakening progress bar, the percentage that climbed higher after every memory collection, and that "what happens after 100%" the System stubbornly refused to disclose.
He was Kiana's Anchor.
He was also the only one who could pull Kiana back when she lost control.
If one day in the future, that percentage reached its end.
If Sirin once again seized Kiana's body.
If in that instant, he chose safety and stood idly by.
Then what would happen to Kiana?
He didn't even know what gang, what conglomerate, or what trouble crawling out of some dimensional rift would jump out at him tomorrow.
How could he possibly guarantee his own absolute safety from now on?
"I'm sorry, Sister Eden."
Su Yu shook his head and broke away from Eden's gaze.
"I can't guarantee that."
The wind passed between the two of them.
Eden said nothing.
Her hand hung at her side, her fingertips curling slightly, then loosening again.
"Do you know what you're saying?"
"I do."
"You know this isn't the answer I wanted to hear."
"I know." Su Yu didn't dodge her gaze. "But if I said okay, I'd be deceiving you. I don't want to lie to you."
Eden looked at him for a long time.
Upon hearing that answer, no anger surfaced in Eden's beautiful eyes; instead, something far deeper settled within them.
It was the care an elder feels for a junior, mixed with admiration for his talent and audacity, and seemingly laced with some ambiguous boundary that even she herself hadn't fully sorted out—ultimately condensing into a quietly suppressed worry.
The two of them stayed locked in this standoff.
It lasted for about a minute.
In the end, Eden drew in a deep breath.
The fabric of her haute couture gown gave off a faint rustle as her chest rose and fell.
"Tonight, twelve o'clock."
Su Yu was taken aback. "What?"
"The front gate of the Golden Courtyard."
Eden smoothed back the hair the wind had tousled, stepped to the side with her bare foot, and bent down to pick up the high heel that had fallen at the edge of the boardwalk.
"I'll be waiting for you there."
"Sister Eden, what are you—"
"One secret has to be exchanged for another secret."
Eden held the shoe in her hand without putting it on, standing before him with one foot still bare.
"You won't tell me what happened to you—fine, but there's no way I can sit back and ignore what you're doing."
Her gaze sank.
"Everyone in the Golden Courtyard can't afford to lose you. Fuxi can't, Ellie can't, and neither can I."
"So come see me tonight. I'll take you somewhere."
Su Yu wanted to say something, but Eden gave him no chance.
"I want to have a match with you."
"A match of what?"
"You'll know once you come."
Eden turned with the high heels in hand and took two steps toward the banquet hall.
The torn stockings stepped across the wooden planks, producing a faint scuffing sound.
After a few steps, she stopped, tilted her head, and shot Su Yu a glance.
"Don't be late."
There was an added note of danger in Eden's voice—one that would absolutely never appear under the glare of the flashbulbs.
Su Yu was stunned for a moment and was just about to say that he still had to go back in the middle of the night to keep an eye on the art team revising the original artwork.
A semi-transparent light screen popped up before his eyes.
Bold red text, flashing like firecrackers set off at New Year.
[High-Risk Daily Quest Triggered!]
[Quest Name: The Wealthy Big Sister's Late-Night Invitation]
[Quest Description: The world-class superstar Eden has extended you a midnight invitation.
Location: The front gate of the Golden Courtyard.
Content: Unknown.
Danger Level: Unknown.
But what can be confirmed is that Eden hides within her a secret that even you don't know about.]
[Completion Reward: Greatly increase the bond level of Eden's tarot card [The Empress], unlock Eden's exclusive side-story plotline.]
[System Note: The soft-rice meal has already been served right up to your lips—Host, stop putting on airs and hurry up and take a bite!]
Su Yu finished reading the pop-up, swiped it aside, and tucked it away into a corner.
"Sister Eden."
Eden, who had already reached the doorway, turned her head back.
"Tonight, I'll be there."
Eden said nothing more.
She pushed open that brass-carved glass door and walked inside.
The door closed behind her.
In the rear garden only Su Yu remained. The wind blew over, and the fragrance of rose petals tangled together with the lingering scent that belonged to Eden, swirling into a knot within his nostrils.
He rubbed his own neck.
The spot where he'd been pinned earlier was still a little warm.
Last night he rode out alone to rescue his old father-in-law, and today he got thoroughly thrashed by Sister Eden at a hotel—and was even coerced into going to see her alone tonight.
The way these days were going, he was drifting further and further from the lazy salted-fish life he'd dreamed of.
How bitter.
The night completely swallowed the clamor of Arc City.
Su Yu set the late-night snack on the dining table, watched Kiana contentedly tear open the packaging, and only then turned and walked toward the entryway.
For the entire afternoon, he had been showing Murata Ryusuke and Himeko around that newly renovated top-floor studio.
The more Ryusuke looked, the more he liked it, and the gaze he turned on Su Yu had become incomparably fervent, as if he'd already settled on him as this "prospective son-in-law."
The old man came this close to whipping out the household registration book on the spot, pressing his and Himeko's hands down to register them at the Civil Affairs Bureau then and there.
If it weren't for that meeting Arc City University had scheduled for the evening, the old man would probably have gone to haul the whole Civil Affairs Bureau over tonight.
Thankfully, he'd just barely managed to scrape through this hurdle.
"Kiana, I'm heading out for a bit. There's some work matters I need to handle."
"Oh, okay!"
Kiana's mouth was stuffed full of fried chicken, cheeks bulging like a hamster.
Clearly her attention had been completely captured by the fried chicken.
The heterochromatic-eyed kitten Chongchong watched all of this from the side and let out a remarkably human-like sigh.
It seemed a little exasperated, like iron that just wouldn't become steel.
But maybe that was just an illusion.
After all, it was only a kitten—aside from being able to turn on the air conditioner and the fan by itself, there was nothing else about it worth noting.
Su Yu grabbed the coat hanging by the door, shut it, and went downstairs.
The little electric scooter was parked at the entrance of the residential block.
He swung onto it and twisted the throttle; the motor gave off a rather unimpressive hum.
The night wind poured in through his collar.
The sound of the wheels rolling over the seams in the pavement was especially clear on the empty streets.
The streetlamps swept past overhead one after another, stretching his shadow long and then shrinking it short.
A "beep" sounded in Su Yu's earpiece.
"BOSS."
Bronie's voice popped up.
"Speak."
"That winding mountain highway in the suburbs of Arc City—it's been blocked off by someone tonight."
Su Yu's scooter rounded an intersection.
"Blocked off? Road repairs?"
"Repairs my foot—there's a race." There was a veteran's disdain in Bronie's tone. "But I haven't heard of any event, so it's probably some rich second-gen kid wanting to test-drive a car."
"How do you know all this so clearly?"
A two-second pause came over the communicator.
"Obviously."
Bronie's voice pitched up a notch.
"Because there's still a lap-time record on that track that no one has ever broken. A thirteen-year-old girl rode a beat-up secondhand motorcycle and finished the race one-handed in a torrential downpour, leaving second place a full forty-three seconds behind."
"...And then?"
"And then the one who set that record went by the codename Haxxor Bunny." Bronie paused. "That's me."
Su Yu's scooter came to a stop at a red light.
"You were street racing at thirteen?"
"Twelve."
"..."
"Don't use that tone. I just went to test out a newly modified engine, and happened to break everyone's record along the way—it's nothing impressive."
Su Yu decided not to get tangled up in this topic.
"When does the road closure start?"
"Around two-thirty, I guess. Why, BOSS—you want to go have a chance encounter with some wealthy woman who loves street racing?"
Su Yu didn't answer right away.
He did the math in his head—setting out from the Golden Courtyard and taking the expressway to the entrance of that winding mountain highway, the drive would take a little over half an hour.
If Eden had asked him to meet at the front gate of the Golden Courtyard at twelve, then there would be just enough time in between to switch vehicles, warm up, and then drive to the track.
The timeline lined up seamlessly.
The corner of Su Yu's mouth twitched.
"Bronie."
"Hm?"
"I think I roughly know what Eden invited me out to compete in."
The communicator went silent for three seconds.
"BOSS." Bronie's voice changed, carrying a rather uncertain, probing note. "You can't possibly mean to say... that Eden wants to street race with you?"
Su Yu didn't deny it.
"Wait, wait."
Bronie's speech suddenly sped up, and a chair gave a creak, as if she'd abruptly sat bolt upright.
"Eden? That Eden? The world-class superstar? The Eden who shows up at charity galas every single day in haute couture gowns?"
"Correct."
"She street races?"
"It looks that way."
"Are you serious?"
"Do I look like the kind of boring person who'd ride a little electric scooter to the gate of the Golden Courtyard to wait for someone at twelve o'clock midnight?"
Bronie fell silent again.
Su Yu heard the clattering of a keyboard from the other end of the communicator—probably pulling up some data.
"I looked it up."
Bronie's voice rose again, this time carrying a subtle gravity.
"On the racer forums they call this road the Diva's Strings. They say that as a racer, if you don't run a lap on Arc Mountain in your lifetime, then you've lived in vain."
"And in the participation records of the mountain track, there really is a competitor who has never once shown their face. Codename: Golden Diva."
"Golden Diva." Su Yu repeated the name.
"The Golden Songstress," Bronie translated. "BOSS, isn't this way too obvious."
The light turned green.
Su Yu twisted the throttle and the scooter started up again.
"There's one more thing." Bronie's voice popped up again, this time with a touch of hesitation in her tone. "That Diva's lap-time record..."
"What about it?"
"It's eleven seconds faster than mine."
The wind blew past Su Yu's ears.
"...So the fastest-record holder of the mountain track isn't you?"
"I'm talking about the motorcycle category record! She drives a four-wheeler! That's different!" Bronie's voice went shrill. "And the difficulty of riding a motorcycle one-handed in a downpour is on a completely different dimension from driving a four-wheeled sports car, okay! Don't lump them together!"
"Fine, fine, fine—you're the greatest."
"Hmph."
Su Yu's scooter pulled onto the main road heading toward the Golden Courtyard.
The roadside trees on both sides cast scattered shadows under the streetlamps, paving a mottled tunnel across the ground.
"BOSS."
"Hm?"
"You're really going to go street race with her?"
"She's the one who invited me."
"Do you even have a car?"
"..."
Su Yu lowered his head and glanced at the little electric scooter beneath him, whose top speed maxed out at thirty-five kilometers per hour.
"This question, I think Sister Eden ought to help me solve."
"What if she makes you ride this thing onto the track?"
"Then I'll create a new legend—the electric scooter that conquered the mountain track."
"...BOSS, I suggest you be a bit more serious."
"I'm being very serious."
Bronie said nothing more.
The scooter's headlight cut open the darkness ahead, the motor humming away.
In the distance, the silhouette of the Golden Courtyard's iconic building was faintly visible in the night of Arc City.
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