"You... you..."
However, in the face of Bai Yi's words, Lemon only widened her eyes, her attention completely focused on the fact that Bai Yi had just slapped her.
She stared blankly at the breathtakingly beautiful young girl before her—a nobody whose star status could not even reach her ankles. A surge of pure rage welled up from within.
"You dare hit ?!"
Gritting her teeth, Lemon subconsciously raised her right hand to strike back, but Bai Yi anticipated the movent, raising her own right hand to grab Lemon's wrist in a vice grip.
"Smack!"
Following that, Bai Yi raised her left hand and delivered another resounding slap.
"..."
Those two slaps were enough to completely clear the daze from Lemon's eyes. Clutching her cheek, she stumbled back a few steps, staring at Bai Yi in sheer shock.
anwhile, Bai Yi looked down at her own hands in astonishnt, montarily stunned.
Right, just who had our dear Bai Yi been going up against all this ti?
The martial arts expert Master Ye, the Invincible Destructive Golden Bomb Piggy King, the Tentacle Demon An Le, and the Horror Clone Person Sakuramiya Hitomi...
As soone at the absolute bottom of the food chain, she could not beat any of them and had almost lost all her self-confidence.
Looking at it now, it was not that Bai Yi was too weak, but that everyone else was simply far too strong!
"You... do you want to ruin your career?! Do you know who I am? You actually... you actually dared to slap my face?!"
"Heh..."
Facing the threat, Bai Yi simply let out a cold chuckle.
What a joke.
Did she forget about Luxi'na, the Queen of Eagle Country whom Bai Yi had t earlier during the charity concert at the hospital?
Her star status in the entertainnt industry was even higher than Lemon's, yet Bai Yi had not given her an ounce of face, let alone soone like Lemon.
Not to ntion, Zuo Jiangqin had been constantly nagging her earlier about building a good relationship with this Lemon.
She was already deeply annoyed, and now this situation had presented itself...
"Oh my, did I hit you just now, Teacher Lemon?"
"What did you say?!"
"Well, no one here saw it anyway, right?"
Bai Yi scoffed coldly, throwing the exact words Lemon had just said right back at her.
Shaking her hand as if dusting off dirt, she added coolly,
"Your nose is stiff as a rock. Slapping you just hurts my hand... You've had quite a bit of work done on your face, haven't you?"
"You!!"
Hearing this, Lemon's pupils shrank, and her perfectly curated expression twisted into sothing ferocious.
She clenched her fists tightly. Not one to be outdone, Bai Yi firmly grasped the pocket watch in her hand.
"Tick... tock..."
"Miss Lemon? Miss Lemon?"
At that mont, the faint call of a Golden Lion Group staff mber echoed from outside, breaking the tense standoff between the two.
"Ah, just as I thought. Miss Lemon, your assistant said you were over here. The car prepared for you has arrived. Would you like to depart now?"
Within seconds, the staff mber walked over. It seed he was there to escort Lemon to her al with Yan Huan.
"..."
Lemon did not answer imdiately, instead shooting a glare at Bai Yi.
Her intuition warned her that Bai Yi was absolutely serious. If she went to the al, Bai Yi would very likely tag along.
After all, Bai Yi had heard everything she said earlier. Even without hard evidence, if the paparazzi released the news and Bai Yi decided to speak up, complications would surely arise. It was too risky...
After weighing her options, the anger on Lemon's face instantly dissolved into a sweet, flawless smile.
"I am so sorry... I thought about it carefully, and my schedule this afternoon is just too tight. I think I will have to pass. I will have my assistant settle the transportation fees and any other costs with you later. I truly apologize."
As she spoke, she even offered a polite bow to the staff mber.
"Oh, oh, no problem at all! I will just head down and let them know."
"Mhm, thank you for the trouble~"
Seeing Lemon back down, Bai Yi slowly relaxed her grip on the pocket watch.
The mont the staff mber turned away to make the arrangents, Lemon's expression snapped back to an icy glare.
Looking at Bai Yi with a cold face, she whispered softly,
"You are going to regret this, Bai Yi. Just you wait!"
Bai Yi rely sneered. Gripping her pocket watch, she gave a dismissive wave of her hand, completely unfazed.
"..."
'Looks like you have never experienced a real dirty trick, have you?'
'Just wait until I turn on Indifference and give you a piece of my mind. That will teach you to behave.'
"Why the sudden change of plans?"
Bai Yi watched as Lemon strutted away into the distance. Soon after, her own assistant hurried over, looking bewildered.
"Sothing ca up. Send Yan Huan an apology text for , and make sure to pass along my regards to the older sister who went with him."
"Understood."
What?
The older sister who went with him?
Ye Shiyu?!
Bai Yi, who had just finished handling the situation and was cheerfully shadowboxing the air in triumph, suddenly widened her eyes at those words, once again puffing up her cheeks like an angry pink pufferfish.
"He really is a scumbag! Sakuramiya Hitomi already publicly announced her relationship with him, yet he goes out for a private al with another girl and brings Ye Shiyu instead of his girlfriend?!"
"And you too, Ye Shiyu... You were so incredibly possessive before, yet now that Yan Huan has publicly claid soone else, you still throw yourself at him?!"
"So much for turning over a new leaf! Bah!"
"Love-struck fool! Showing off your displayed suppression!!"
Bai Yi muttered angrily, puffing her cheeks out as she increasingly regretted her impulsive decision to stand up for Yan Huan just monts ago.
'Even if cyberbullying is terrifying, isn't his girlfriend the eldest miss of the Sakuramiya family? His godmother is a top executive at Ye International, and he has Aruiya backing him up too!'
' helping him was completely unnecessary!'
'No, Bai Yi, you must always rember: you are now an aloof and cool goddess completely out of his league.'
'From now on, whatever happens to him has absolutely nothing to do with . I will never ddle in his affairs again!'
'Never!!'
Swearing a venomous oath along the lines of, "If I ever interfere in Yan Huan's business again, I... I am a puppy," Bai Yi pouted as she stomped back to her lounge to prepare for the variety show scheduled to start that afternoon.
anwhile, on the other side of town, Yan Huan had just taken a seat by the window of a streetside restaurant.
He stared at the ssage Lemon had sent to his phone, slightly taken aback.
"She's not coming?"
So suddenly?
Yan Huan did not have much to say, so he simply replied that it was alright.
He was just about to text Ye Shiyu to let her know, but on second thought, given the ti, she had probably already set off. There was no need to make her trip a total waste.
Since they were already here, he might as well just have a al with Ye Shiyu.
It worked out perfectly, actually. His previous plan had been a success.
If handled correctly, perhaps Ye Shiyu could still...
Just as he was brainstorming how to calm Ye Shiyu down and get things back on track, from the corner of his eye, the phone screen in his hand suddenly reflected an expressionless face. It was Ye Shiyu, staring down at him from above.
"!!"
Yan Huan's pupils contracted sharply, and a subconscious chill shot down his spine. For a horrifying second, he thought Ye Shiyu was going to crawl out of his phone screen like Sadako.
But a second later, he realized that Ye Shiyu had simply arrived and was standing silently right behind him.
"...Sister Shiyu!"
He instantly equipped his Mask of Perfect Poise, turning his head to reveal a handso, welcoming smile.
"I'm sorry, that younger sister suddenly had an ergency and said she couldn't make it. It looks like it will just be the two of us eating."
"...Alright, Xiao Huan."
Ye Shiyu scrutinized the smile on Yan Huan's face. After pausing for a second, she nodded and walked over to the opposite side of the table, gracefully taking her seat.
"Here, Sister Shiyu, take a look. What would you like to eat?"
Yan Huan scanned the QR code on the table, then handed his phone over to Ye Shiyu so she could order.
But she did not take it. Instead, she abruptly glanced out the window, as if noticing sothing.
"..."
In the distance, directly across from the building, a paparazzi—the very sa one who had spoken with Lemon earlier—was staked out in a hidden corner of a stairwell, his cara positioned and ready.
Truth be told, he was incredibly professional. His hiding spot was extrely inconspicuous; at first glance, he practically blended in with his surroundings.
"Why isn't she here yet..."
It seed he had not received any ssage from Lemon. He kept his eyes glued to the cara's viewfinder, waiting for her arrival so he could snap that crucial money shot.
For example:
The young man grabbing Lemon's hand, while Lemon's face displayed embarrassnt and resistance...
Ah, just a single picture like that could tell a vivid story, far more eye-catching than any explosive headline.
There was an extra girl with him?
Even better!
"Already has a girlfriend but still lets his imagination run wild, relentlessly stalking his childhood sweetheart who has now beco a big star?"
See? Isn't that even more explosive?
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, I really am a genius."
Crouched in the stairwell, the paparazzi could not help but admire his own brilliance.
But in the very next second, hundreds of ters away, just at the limits of naked eyesight, the expressionless girl behind the glass window suddenly turned her head. Her dead, stoic gaze locked directly onto the paparazzi.
"Buzz!!"
In an instant, the image in his cara distorted, bursting into colorful, rippling waves as if the signal was failing.
Imdiately after, the paparazzi's eyes turned completely hollow and unfocused.
Just like that...
He was hypnotized through his own cara.
"..."
In the next second, he sluggishly stood up, grabbed his expensive cara with both hands, and unceremoniously chucked it right off the building.
"Crash!!"
The cara smashed to pieces on the ground far below, but his expression remained entirely blank.
It wasn't until a mont later that his eyes suddenly rolled back into his head. Foaming at the mouth, he collapsed to the floor, completely losing consciousness.
"..."
"Is sothing wrong, Sister Shiyu?"
"...Nothing."
Ye Shiyu smoothly retracted her gaze, taking a slow, nonchalant sip of the lemon water in front of her.
Now that the two of them were unexpectedly alone, Yan Huan sensed an opportunity.
His strategy from this morning had been correct. If he could keep this up and lower Ye Shiyu's guard, he might actually be able to completely shake off her surveillance.
With that in mind, Yan Huan prepared to press on with his plan.
"Xiao Huan..."
However, before he could utter a word, Ye Shiyu abruptly set down her glass and stared at him, her face devoid of any emotion.
"What is it, Sister Shiyu?"
"...Xiao Huan, today you invited
to accompany you privately to et that 'younger sister', and this morning you even... hugged ... So, I want to ask, Xiao Huan, what exactly are your feelings toward
right now?"
Pausing for a second, Ye Shiyu tilted her head, looking almost adorably oblivious as she posed the question.
She looked just as shy and insecure as she had been when she claid to turn over a new leaf and gave Yan Huan flowers earlier.
Sensing Ye Shiyu's apparent shyness, Yan Huan's heart stirred slightly. He decided to turn up the charm and lean fully into his act.
"Sister Shiyu has always been very good to , and you are always so understanding..."
"Clasp."
Without warning, Ye Shiyu's icy-cold hand shot out and grasped Yan Huan's hand across the table.
Her slender fingers trembled slightly, as if initiating such physical contact was the absolute limit of her cold, reford self.
She averted her eyes slightly. Though her face remained largely expressionless, a careful observer would notice how tightly her lips were pressed together—an unguarded display of her imnse nervousness. "Gulp."
Feeling the contours of her palm against his, Yan Huan did not pull his hand away. He simply listened as she spoke, her gaze seemingly darting away in evasion.
"Xiao Huan, you know... even though I said all those things to you before, I still actually... Xiao Huan, I just want to know, do you like ? In a romantic sense, not just as an older sister... even if it is just a little bit."
It seed she desperately wanted to wring a definitive answer out of Yan Huan.
Despite her flat tone, Yan Huan could clearly sense the heavy emotion embedded within her words.
"..."
Yan Huan's pupils narrowed slightly. After a brief mont of rapid calculation, he saw a glimr of hope—a way to finally break free from Ye Shiyu's hypnosis and surveillance.
Thus, in the very next second, he gently squeezed Ye Shiyu's hand in return. He averted his own gaze, avoiding direct eye contact with her.
Boosted by the Mask of Perfect Poise, the shyness written across his face was absolutely flawless...
"Yes... I do, Sister Shiyu."
"..."
However, suddenly, there was no response whatsoever.
If it weren't for the fact that he was still holding onto Ye Shiyu's hand, Yan Huan would have suspected that she had suddenly vanished into thin air.
Receiving absolute silence, Yan Huan blinked, his averted gaze instinctively drifting back toward the girl sitting across from him.
But the mont his eyes shifted—
He shockingly realized that Ye Shiyu's expressionless face was already inches away from his own, staring directly into his soul.
She did not blink. She did not speak. She showed no emotion.
She just... stared at Yan Huan.
"..."
"!!"
Yan Huan's breathing instantly hitched. The sheer terror of the mont completely shattered his composure; even the Mask of Perfect Poise failed to withstand the shock and slipped off.
In the exact instant his mask fell and his true expression leaked through, Ye Shiyu finally parted her lips and spoke in a chillingly flat voice.
"Xiao Huan... you liar."
What?!
Hearing those words, Yan Huan's entire brain short-circuited.
In a split second, the cool hand he had been gently holding transford into a block of absolute, freezing ice.
A bone-piercing chill surged through his fingertips and directly into his body, nearly robbing his right arm of all sensation.
"Buzz!!"
At the exact sa mont horror washed over him, Yan Huan noticed Ye Shiyu's eyes slowly shifting into a deep, hypnotic purple.
Hypnosis?!
Counter-parry!!
The instant he saw her eyes changing color, Yan Huan violently threw his Mask of Perfect Poise back on.
"Clang!!!"
Along with an illusory, crisp tallic clash that only Yan Huan could hear—
Yan Huan suddenly felt the mask on his face beco ten thousand tis heavier.
The crushing weight dragged down his facial features and muscles, generating an agonizing, tearing pain.
However, if it was only for a short burst, he should be able to endure it.
If this drag continued for a prolonged period, the skin on his face would probably be ripped clean off.
But...
He had not been hypnotized!
His body responded normally, devoid of the paralytic sluggishness of mind control.
The counter-parry was a success!!
"..."
But deep down, he knew the Abilities granted by the Modifiers were never without severe drawbacks.
He had actually daydread about triggering a counter-parry with An Le beforehand, then keeping the Mask of Perfect Poise permanently glued to his face so he could effectively beco a naturally resistant sacred body just like Aruiya...
Absolute daydreaming.
"Hm?"
Seeing that Yan Huan had not succumbed to her Hypnosis, the deadpan look on Ye Shiyu's face finally wavered for the very first ti.
"Rumble..."
The mont her Hypnosis failed—and the mont she realized Yan Huan fully understood what she was trying to do—Yan Huan felt the entire world plunge into an abyssal gloom.
An unimaginable, suffocating terror began to brew around Ye Shiyu.
Ye Shiyu's reaction was vastly more terrifying than any other Host discovering that Yan Huan knew about the Modifiers!!
"Bzz... bzz..."
On the table, Yan Huan's phone abruptly spiderwebbed with dense cracks, instantly dying.
The restaurant fell into a deathly silence.
The cheerful background music playing from the speakers slowly warped, degrading into twisted, ear-piercing static.
"..."
Amidst the absolute dead silence, Ye Shiyu's eyes widened, though her expression remained horrifically blank.
She locked onto Yan Huan and suddenly spoke.
"Xiao Huan... It seems you have been hiding a great many things from
all this ti."
Have to...
I have to escape!!
Feeling the overwhelming terror closing in around him, Yan Huan's pupils shrank to pinpricks. He violently wrenched his hand out of Ye Shiyu's grip.
"Smack!"
To his surprise, she was not gripping him very tightly at all. He managed to break free effortlessly.
The sheer force of him tearing his hand away left Ye Shiyu seated motionlessly in place, while Yan Huan spun on his heels and bolted straight out of the restaurant toward the adjacent shopping mall.
"Haah... Haah!"
It was only as he was running that Yan Huan realized his entire body was absolutely drenched in cold sweat.
He sprinted like a madman, shooting a desperate glance back over his shoulder. He found that Ye Shiyu was still sitting exactly where he left her. She had not made any move to chase him.
'I can... I can get away.'
Panting heavily, Yan Huan dashed into the massive shopping mall. All the storefronts were wide open, yet, bizarrely, there was not a single soul in sight.
Not a single shop clerk, not a single shopper...
It was the peak of the lunch hour when they arrived! This place should have been packed with people!
"We sincerely apologize to all visitors..."
"The mall has now reached its closing hours. Very soon, we will be turning off the lights to rest..."
"Could all visitors still within the mall's operating areas please swiftly... de... bzz... bzzzz!"
Over the PA system, a sweet, automated female voice eerily broadcasted a closing announcent right in the middle of the day.
But as the announcent played, sharp bursts of static steadily swallowed the audio, contorting the announcer's voice until it no longer sounded remotely human.
Even the words being broadcasted twisted into sothing unnatural and grotesque.
"Do not... do not leave..."
"Forever... shh... shhh... forever..."
"Stay here... bzz... bzz..."
Yan Huan's eyes widened in horror as he saw the steel security shutters beginning to roll down from every entrance and exit. He realized with terrifying clarity that if he did not run, he would be trapped in here forever.
What kind of sick joke is this?!
Gritting his teeth, he instantly ripped off his shirt.
Bare torso!!
As more of his skin was exposed, his Stamina experienced another explosive surge.
In the very next second, jaw clenched tight, he shot toward the main entrance like an arrow freed from its bow.
"Xiao Huan, where are you going?"
As he sprinted desperately for the exit, the lights throughout the entire mall began shutting off, section by section.
First, the blinding overhead lights plunged into darkness, followed imdiately by the storefront displays on either side of him.
"Click."
With every light that died, the display cases flanking the stores morphed. The previously diverse, stylish mannequins inside the glass suddenly all seed to shift—taking on the chilling, expressionless visage of Ye Shiyu.
She stood there within the suffocating darkness, hundreds of pairs of identical, dead eyes watching Yan Huan as he tried to flee.
"Aaaaahhhhh!!"
Yan Huan did not dare look back. He simply bolted toward the exit as Ye Shiyu's frigid voice echoed relentlessly around him.
"Clack, clack, clack!!"
The tal shutter was dropping rapidly. It was already too low for him to run through standing up.
"Are you kidding ?!"
But he refused to give up. Gritting his teeth, he threw himself into a reckless slide.
"Screeech!"
With the sharp screech of fabric tearing against polished floor tiles, he slipped right under the heavy steel shutter in the exact fraction of a second before it slamd shut against the ground.
"Haah... haah..."
Yan Huan was completely drenched in cold sweat. Standing right in the middle of a sun-baked main road at high noon, he looked back. The mall behind him was totally blacked out, its doors sealed tight.
Thank god...
He got out.
As for what to do next... Ye Shiyu had already discovered that he knew about the Modifiers.
He would figure that out later. For now, just keeping his life was already—
"Hm?"
But just as Yan Huan was celebrating his narrow escape, he abruptly noticed sothing profoundly disturbing.
It was high noon. Broad daylight. He was standing right in the middle of a busy comrcial street in Kyogo Ward.
So why...
Why was there absolutely no sound?
Yan Huan's eyes went wide. He frantically whipped his head around, surveying his surroundings.
He saw that the entire street was completely, utterly deserted.
No cars. No pedestrians.
Only...
The sunlight, far off in the distance, violently snapping off section by section.
Yes.
It was almost impossible to imagine such a phenonon occurring on an open-air street—sothing that should only be possible with artificial lights in an enclosed corridor. But...
It was happening right in front of him.
"Boom."
The natural sunlight bathing the broad avenue was being aggressively snuffed out in chunks.
It was as though one side of the world remained locked in high noon, while the extinguished sections were plunged into eternal, suffocating night.
And right there, in the center of the deathly silent street, standing squarely on the dividing line between blinding day and pitch-black night...
Ye Shiyu stood rigidly, her face perfectly blank, staring straight at Yan Huan.
"Xiao Huan... where are you going?"
"Boom!"
Another massive block of daylight died. As if teleporting through the void, Ye Shiyu instantaneously reappeared right at the creeping edge of the encroaching darkness.
"Aaaaahh!!"
Yan Huan was terrified out of his wits. His primal instincts took over, and he spun around to run in the opposite direction.
But when he looked back, he saw the exact sa phenonon tearing through the other end of the street.
In front of him and behind him, the sunlight was being aggressively switched off, just as the lights had been in the mall.
He had absolutely nowhere left to run.
"Boom!"
The rays of the sun in the sky above were violently extinguished, one by one.
Yan Huan had barely managed to take two steps before he was swallowed completely by the pitch-black void. He couldn't even see his own fingers stretched out in front of his face.
The only thing he could feel was a hand—as cold as a block of frozen ice—abruptly resting upon his shoulder from behind. Ye Shiyu's hand.
"Xiao Huan...
"Even if you are a naughty liar, I... I will still love you very much. I will love you right up until I can personally watch you turn over a new leaf."
Standing directly behind Yan Huan, she whispered into the darkness,
"Co.
"It is ti to go ho... Xiao Huan."
Defeated~
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