DDT - Chapter 97
Chapter 97: Tycoon's Daughter (5)
The second floor of Yeluo Tavern was usually empty. The patrons who came for a drink were mostly common folk from the neighborhood, not the wealthy sort. The rich went to the grand restaurants. Only during holidays would someone book a private room at the tavern for a family gathering or the like.
At this moment, the door to Private Room No. 1 on the second floor was shut tight. A warm light seeped out from the crack beneath the door. The room's window was closed, so anyone passing by on the street below could only see the bright glow from within the window, its panes decorated with paper cuttings.
Inside the room, on a slightly worn leather sofa, Chi Junluo and Yi Shuhan sat facing each other. Between them, on a low wooden table, were two cups of steaming green tea.
Yi Shuhan was slowly recovering from the complex emotions of the previous moment. She sat with her head lowered, maintaining her etiquette, her eyes still a little red. The information she had absorbed tonight had been a massive shock to her worldview. On top of that, she had been caught red-handed by the senior sister she'd been following for months, and had been touched all over. Even if they were both girls, it was still embarrassing!
Yi Shuhan's mind was still a chaotic mess. She tried to think through the jumble of her thoughts, figuring out how to explain her stalking behavior to her senior sister.
Chi Junluo sat across from the heroine, looking perfectly at ease, showing no sign of awkwardness. The Heavenly Dao, however, had been struck in the softest part of its heart by the heroine's teary-eyed and wronged expression. Its heart ached for her. The pained Heavenly Dao threw all its suspicions from the past two worlds out the window. To hell with the clues, to hell with identity suspicions! At this moment, the Heavenly Dao knew only one thing: the heroine was its reverse scale! A dragon has a reverse scale; touch it and face its wrath!
So, while Chi Junluo appeared calm on the surface, she was actually on the verge of being driven mad by the wailing Heavenly Dao in her sea of consciousness.
The most urgent task now was not to comfort the heroine, but to appease this great deity living in her mind!
"This Deity is the Heavenly Dao of an entire world! That is This Deity's most important heroine! And you made her cry!"
"A dragon has a reverse scale! Touch it and face its wrath!"
"This Deity would sooner jump into the sea than forgive a wretch like you who mistreats the heroine!"
"Waaah!"
The Heavenly Dao was half-submerged in the sea of consciousness, its limbs flailing, stirring up monstrous waves. The effect was comparable to Nezha wreaking havoc in the sea…
Chi Junluo truly regretted ever getting involved with this little brother.
"Stop your crying. Isn't this a rare and excellent opportunity to get close to the heroine?" Chi Junluo said in a calm and persuasive tone.
"Hic!" The Heavenly Dao hadn't cried like this in a long time. This time, it was real crying!
"Think about it. We came all this way to this world, yet you can't sense where the Power of the Heavenly Dao is or how to obtain it. Don't you think we need to use some unconventional methods?"
"In the previous worlds, we had to get in close contact with the part where the Power of the Heavenly Dao was located to collect it. Now that we don't know which part it's in, wasn't this a great chance for me to touch as many places as possible to see if I could find it?" Seeing that the sea of consciousness was gradually calming down, Chi Junluo continued her explanation. "It was dark tonight, and no one could see anything. Didn't that avoid unnecessary embarrassment? If I didn't touch her tonight, would you rather I wait until broad daylight and just go for it? Forget about cultivating feelings then, I'd probably get a slap across the face, right?"
The Heavenly Dao stopped its tantrum. It had finally calmed down. What Chi Junluo said made a lot of sense. It was convinced.
"Ahem, fine then. This Deity will reluctantly… forgive you." The Heavenly Dao climbed out of the sea, shook itself off, and walked toward the dark little house in the corner.
As for its earlier over-the-top, domineering pronouncements, the Heavenly Dao pretended it had said nothing. If it just covered its ears, it couldn't hear its own bombastic words.
Having dealt with the whining Heavenly Dao, Chi Junluo turned her attention back to the young woman sitting before her.
Before she and the Heavenly Dao had arrived in this world, the original body and the organization had long since discovered Yi Shuhan's stalking. The very first time she was followed, the original body had spotted the sneaky little girl in the rearview mirror of a parked car. Initially, she had planned to simply shake off the amateurish tail. But when she pretended to casually turn her head, she saw the adorably clumsy girl nearly trip over her own feet trying to avoid her gaze. After that, she decided to test her a few more times. The little thing was just too foolish; the original body's intuition told her she wasn't a spy with malicious intent.
After the first incident, the original body had thoroughly investigated Yi Shuhan's family background. Once she confirmed that this little fool posed no real threat, she secretly began playing a stalking game with her.
The original body had received the most professional training. After learning of Yi Shuhan's status as the heiress of a powerful family, she decided to play the long game. She would use the heiress's curiosity, leaking bits of information during the stalking to lure the cat to take the bait. A new-age young woman who had participated in patriotic protests against the new government's inaction in the war, and who had been educated at the Dragon Kingdom's most prestigious and progressive institution, was exactly the kind of fresh blood the organization needed. Moreover, Yi Shuhan's background was formidable. If they could recruit her into the organization and her family's power could be used, it would be perfect!
The organization likely shared the original body's thoughts, so they didn't intervene, tacitly approving her somewhat risky decision. After all, if anything went wrong with Yi Shuhan, the Secret Party's existence would be in grave danger of being exposed. Of course, fortune favors the bold. If they shied away from every unknown risk, the Secret Party would never have made it this far!
Now that Chi Junluo had arrived, her desire to use Yi Shuhan coincided with the original body's, but for different reasons. The original body's goal was the super-conglomerate Yi Family behind Yi Shuhan, whereas Chi Junluo's was the Power of the Heavenly Dao hidden somewhere in Yi Shuhan's body, as well as to further cultivate their relationship in preparation for contracting the soul fragment before she left.
The method for contracting soul fragments was just too cruel. Even after doing it four times, Chi Junluo still felt it was a hurtful process. But she had no choice. For now, she couldn't find any other way to contract the soul fragments besides stimulating the heroine after establishing such a deep bond.
Using her, huh…
"Classmate Yi, do you realize how dangerous your actions were tonight?" The emotionless question floated from Chi Junluo's lips. Yi Shuhan was already nervous and guilt-ridden, and after being stared at by Senior Sister Chi for so long, this distant tone made her feel as if she had been plunged into a world of ice and snow. She shivered lightly.
Seeing the heroine tremble, Chi Junluo was puzzled. Since when was she so scary?
Yi Shuhan's just-calmed heart began to race again. She lowered her head, her lips moved, but what came out was not an explanation. "Why don't you call me Shuhan?"
Both of them froze for a moment at her words. Yi Shuhan's large eyes held a trace of confusion. Why would she say something like that?
She wasn't familiar with Senior Sister Chi. They had only spoken once before, and this was only their second face-to-face conversation. Why did she feel as if her relationship with the person before her shouldn't be like this?
So strange!
Chi Junluo was also dumbfounded. The last time they met, she had called the heroine "Classmate Yi" after she introduced herself. Why would the heroine suddenly say something so ambiguous? Upon closer reflection, her tone seemed to carry a hint of complaint and sadness?
Before Chi Junluo could think any deeper, Yi Shuhan changed the subject. "Senior Sister, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have followed you secretly."
Chi Junluo pursed her lips and cautiously chose a more neutral form of address. "Ahem, Junior Sister, I'm not blaming you for… following me home. I just want you to understand that your actions are very dangerous. You're old enough to be responsible for your own safety."
Hearing Senior Sister Chi call her "Junior Sister," Yi Shuhan felt another arrow pierce her heart. Her subconscious kept telling her that their relationship shouldn't be something as simple as senior and junior sisters. As for what it should be, she couldn't figure it out herself.
"I understand," Yi Shuhan said, her voice full of disappointment.
Chi Junluo looked at the obedient and well-behaved girl with her head bowed and the almost tangible aura of dejection surrounding her, her mind full of question marks.
She and the heroine had no interaction before the protest, right? Why did the heroine act like she knew her so well???
Could she have met the original body when they were children? That couldn't be right. The two girls grew up worlds apart. How could they possibly have met…?
Before Chi Junluo could finish searching the original body's memories, she heard Yi Shuhan ask, "Senior Sister, did you just say this is your home?"
"Mm," Chi Junluo nodded instinctively, still lost in her memories.
"So this tavern is owned by your family?" Yi Shuhan looked at her somewhat distracted senior sister, a little displeased. A living, breathing person was sitting right in front of her, and her senior sister could still think about other things! She was not happy!
"Mhm," Chi Junluo was getting a little dizzy from searching the original body's memories.
"Senior Sister is so mysterious and even has a gun. Are you part of the legendary Secret Party?"
"Mhm… huh?" By the time Chi Junluo realized what she had said, she quickly added a questioning "huh." Unfortunately, the clever heroine had already seen through her!
"I guessed long ago that the elusive and low-key Senior Sister was a member of the Secret Party!" Yi Shuhan sat up straight, declaring the identity she had "tricked" Senior Sister Chi into "accidentally" revealing!
A flicker of a smile flashed in Chi Junluo's eyes. She put on a stern face, looking slightly displeased. "Classmate Yi, do you have any idea how much danger you're in right now?"
Yi Shuhan looked directly into Chi Junluo's eyes and didn't respond.
Chi Junluo patted her pocket, trying to remind Yi Shuhan of the dangerous object that had been pressed against her head earlier. "I'm a ruthless killer, you know. If my hand had slipped just now, you'd be gone."
Yi Shuhan looked at Chi Junluo's "I'm very scary, I'm very terrifying" expression and suddenly relaxed. She leaned back gently against the sofa. "Senior Sister must have received professional training. How could you make a rookie mistake like your hand slipping?" Then she added with conviction, "Senior Sister would definitely not harm Shuhan."
Before Chi Junluo could recover from her surprise at the heroine's inexplicable confidence, the next words she heard made her blush.
"Senior Sister is always looking out for me, even if she likes to touch her junior sister all over."
A smile played on Yi Shuhan's lips. Although she wasn't sure why she felt so certain that her relationship with this senior sister—who was so unnoticeable yet had uniquely captured her attention—should be more than just that of schoolmates, she had a feeling that their bond might not stop at being classmates or ordinary friends.
Seeing her senior sister's slightly reddened ears, she added, "But if that person is Senior Sister Chi, Shuhan doesn't mind." After saying that, she gave a "bashful" smile.
Chi Junluo was dumbfounded. She still hadn't figured out what was going on with this heroine, whose speech and smile had suddenly become so strange. But at this moment, looking at the beautiful heroine who was like a "delicate flower," she just wanted to say one thing to her: "You're so provocative."
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