“Do you know who I am?” Upon being asked this, Ye Wanqing tilted her head.
“Are you some kind of famous person? This lady doesn’t have any impression of you at all.”
“My name is Su Mu, do you really not remember me at all?”
At these words, Ye Wanqing slapped her forehead, revealing a look of sudden realization.
“Oh~~ Still don’t remember. But I recall the hamster in the Research Institute was called Little Mu.”
‘What a rude brat!’ Su Mu’s lips twitched; she was left speechless for a moment.
‘So the situation now was that this little girl’s memory had a problem, huh.’
Thinking about it, Su Mu couldn’t help but feel troubled, momentarily at a loss over the current circumstances.
After all, this was a completely unfamiliar place.
“Hey, what are you doing?”bJust then, Tang Yin suddenly spoke up from behind, her voice almost identical to Tang Nai’s, but colder by several degrees, carrying a chill as if it could drag a person straight into an ice cellar.
“Is this your first day here? How did you even pass the qualification test in the first place?”
Su Mu inexplicably tensed up, not only because Tang Yin’s appearance was so much like Tang Nai’s, but even more because Tang Yin’s oppressive aura and tone were no less than Luo Linglan’s.
That was the absolute bearing of a superior.
Even though she didn’t lose her manners, and used elegant demeanor to mask her arrogance, the disregard for others still slipped out unconsciously.
The only reason she hadn’t lashed out at Su Mu for the earlier offense was because, in her eyes, a D-rank member wasn’t worth her time—just like when a mouse scurries across your path, no one would go out of their way to chase and crush it, unless the act itself brought some satisfaction or sense of accomplishment.
But once that mouse overstepped its bounds, brazenly climbing onto the dinner table and feasting, Tang Yin would no longer tolerate it.
“Come with me.” Seeing Su Mu stammer for half a day, unable to get a word out, Tang Yin narrowed her eyes, then issued a command in a tone that brooked no argument.
Before her words had fully left her lips, she had already turned away, the last two syllables completely spoken with her back to Su Mu.
‘Pretending to be tough? I might be scared of Tang Nai, but that doesn’t mean I’m scared of you!’
Anger gave rise to courage, Su Mu instantly snapped her knuckles and gave Tang Yin a sharp rap on the head.
The latter, after all, was merely a phantom in the Dream World; since Ye Wanqing was in a weakened state, the phantoms she could conjure didn’t amount to much.
Tang Yin was completely stunned by the blow.
Although Su Mu hadn’t used much force, to Tang Yin, it was an immense humiliation.
“You… what did you just do?” Her eyes were lifeless, gray and dull like a machine, glaring at Su Mu with a gaze that could stare a person to death, as if she could tear her in half just by looking.
“Why don’t you guess what I want to do?”
Su Mu mercilessly grabbed Tang Yin’s ear, bringing her lips extremely close, then said in a volume that nearly shattered Tang Yin’s eardrum.
Tang Yin’s pupils shook violently; she wanted to break free, but it was already too late.
In fact, all Tang Yin had ever displayed to others—at least before Ye Wanqing—was that aloof, commanding attitude.
No one in the Research Institute dared defy her authority, so all she needed was to point and order people about; she’d never had to demonstrate any strength to match her arrogance, which left her completely flustered now.
She desperately tried to piece together the blurry fragments in her mind, attempting to manifest abilities that didn’t truly exist.
But the result was that, even as Su Mu yanked her ear and beat her up, she couldn’t release a shred of Magic Power.
This fellow was now a true idiot loli, the perfect Tang Nai punching bag.
Whenever she wanted to vent her anger at Tang Nai, she could just torment this utterly defenseless, infuriating brat.
She was even weaker than the Tang Nai in Lando’s Dream World.
After all, Lando understood how terrifying Tang Nai could be, but Tang Yin was different; after Ye Wanqing, she had little further contact, so all she could do now was let Su Mu twist her ear again and again, like turning a TV dial, howling in pain.
But Su Mu forgot one thing: some beings, once powerful enough, could sense the presence of their own phantoms in someone else’s Dream World—like Tang Nai.
Tang Yin could just barely achieve this; she could vaguely sense her own phantom suffering in Ye Wanqing’s Dream World, which greatly astonished her true self.
‘What’s going on? Did Tang Nai suddenly go insane?’
To get to the bottom of it, she decided to expend some Magic Power, projecting her consciousness slightly into the Dream World, attempting to briefly share senses with her phantom as a substitute, leading to the following scene.
“Ahhh, you, who are you?”
Feeling Tang Yin’s struggling strength suddenly increase, Su Mu couldn’t help but be surprised, but instead of relenting, she only doubled down, even using a bit of Magic Power herself, determined to completely subdue this queen of brats.
“You don’t need to know who I am. As for what you call me—just call me Master!”
Having been tormented by Tang Nai all day and forced to call her Master in the shop, Su Mu had long since reached her limit.
Now, finally, she had found an outlet for her frustration.
“That’s enough!”vMagic Power surged within Tang Yin’s body, instantly blasting Su Mu away.
A deep, abyss-like pressure radiated from her, leaving Su Mu nearly gasping for air.
After all, she was extraordinary.
Her strength was leagues above Su Mu, who was still stuck at D-rank; even as a substitute, it was more than enough to keep Su Mu in check.
“Let me have a good look at you…”
Just as Tang Yin was about to advance, a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind her.
It was Ye Wanqing—not the silly loli who called herself Karamiti, but a certain long-lost homebody.
“I think she did great, Sister Tang Yin. If anything, you’re the one overreacting.”
Before Tang Yin could react, Ye Wanqing appeared ghost-like behind her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.
In an instant, the oppressive pressure melted away completely.
Tang Yin whipped around to meet Ye Wanqing’s smiling eyes, yet she felt a deep unease.
“So it’s you. After all these years, the first thing you do is cause trouble for your sister?”
“Hmm, Sister, you’re not even concerned about my situation with Tang Nai. It feels like our relationship isn’t as close as you told me it was.”
Ye Wanqing feigned disappointment, placing a finger to her red lips.
Her entire demeanor was so playful that even Su Mu found her hard to recognize.
“This… I forgot. You know I don’t have the best memory. Besides, I was distracted by something else just now.”
Tang Yin changed the subject at once, but Ye Wanqing didn’t respond much, only chuckling softly, as if she’d never really cared in the first place.
“It’s fine. But since you’re here, Sister Tang Yin, why don’t you play a game with me? Just now, this Little Mu Mouse was quite entertaining. How about… you be the maid this time?”