Hearing this sentence, Xu Lin was stunned.
Was this kind of melodramatic TV plot really going to play out on him?
But wasn’t this role usually played by the male protagonist’s mother?
Where’s my five million? Did you take a cut?
But leaving Lin Shen Xue? Right now, it wasn’t a question of whether he could leave or not, okay?
Xu Lin didn’t know what expression to make and could only keep a straight face.
“What, with that expression, are you trying to say you still want to have it both ways and refuse to give up that Witch senior?”
Luo Qiu Zhu raised an eyebrow, her gaze beneath the sunglasses radiating a chilling killing intent.
Wait… Witch senior?
Li Zhi Ran… wasn’t this supposed to be about leaving Lin Shen Xue?
“Luo classmate, if I heard correctly, you’re not talking about Lin classmate, right?”
“The first one you’re thinking of abandoning is actually Shen Xue!”
Luo Qiu Zhu’s voice rose, her body slightly arching as if to stand, but seeming to realize the surroundings, she forcibly suppressed her voice and sat back down steadily.
Yet Xu Lin still felt the other’s anger.
“You don’t oppose me approaching Lin classmate?”
“Of course I oppose!”
Luo Qiu Zhu’s voice was resolute.
“But right now, you still can’t leave Shen Xue.”
But then she gritted her teeth again.
Isn’t this blocking both ends?
What exactly is she trying to do?
“Anyway, you must cut ties with that Witch senior!
“Otherwise, if something happens to Shen Xue because of this, I won’t let you off!”
Xu Lin confirmed he hadn’t misheard; she wanted him to leave Li Zhi Ran.
This was beyond his expectations, as he had planned everything assuming Luo Qiu Zhu was here to confront him and make him leave Lin Shen Xue.
After all, that had been her style before—how could her best friend be two-timed, yet instead of telling the two-timer to get lost, she was asking him to pull back the other leg and stand firmly on her friend’s boat?
But could he really cut ties with Li Zhi Ran as she said?
Not to mention that the person in question was somewhere watching and listening to the situation here—right now, it wasn’t whether he could leave Li Zhi Ran, but whether Li Zhi Ran would let him go.
In Li Zhi Ran’s eyes, he was now the Young Hero who could save the world; unless he found a second savior, that is.
Of course, this wasn’t something to consider now.
“Kid, what does your silence mean?”
An impatient voice came through.
Xu Lin instinctively looked at Luo Qiu Zhu in front of him, but the gaze beneath her sunglasses glared back.
“You’re silent and making that expression—what does it mean?”
It wasn’t Luo Qiu Zhu who had spoken earlier, but Li Zhi Ran.
No, that wasn’t right!
It was—
“Kid, you’re not really going to give up on Minerva just like that, are you?”
The voice he had just heard was Noxis’s.
“Noxis!”
Soon, Li Zhi Ran’s voice rang out, seizing the mental communication with him.
“Young Hero, it’s fine; agree to it.”
Then came her resolute voice.
“Magus-dono, you mean…”
Xu Lin pressed the owl figurine.
“Agree to cutting ties with me.”
For a moment, Xu Lin couldn’t tell which was Li Zhi Ran’s true intention.
Is she testing me?
“It’s just that in places others can’t see, I can discuss it carefully with Young Hero again. Next time, I’ll be careful not to let her discover it.”
“Young Hero, our goal is to tame the Gravity Witch’s guardian; even if it involves core interests, we can agree first, then deal with her insincerely.”
…So that’s what she meant.
Learning that Li Zhi Ran wasn’t testing him but choosing a more rational approach, he breathed a sigh of relief.
This is going underground—no, wait…
But since the person involved had spoken, naturally…
“Kid, hold it right there for me!”
A scolding voice came through his mind.
It was still Noxis.
This made Xu Lin, who had been about to respond to Luo Qiu Zhu, stop with the words at his lips.
“Didn’t expect you to be quite the devoted one.”
A voice came from across, of course laced with sarcasm.
This was direct double torture!
“Minerva, let me finish!”
It seemed Li Zhi Ran and Noxis were arguing over there, but ultimately Noxis seized the mic.
“Kid, let me tell you, your attitude is wrong!”
“Facing that little hoof, you shouldn’t hand over the initiative; that way, you fall into a disadvantage!”
“L-Little hoof?”
“Of course I’m talking about the one in front of you—who else would I mean?”
Noxis’s voice carried a hint of danger.
“But that’s not important. What matters is you need to change strategy. If you keep this up, you’ll only follow that little hoof’s rhythm and get eaten alive—no talk of taming or not.”
“So, kid, don’t you understand? Right now, you actually hold the initiative.”
“Are you listening? Why aren’t you replying?”
Now Xu Lin had no idea what was happening on Li Zhi Ran’s side, but it seemed the other was in some kind of rampage?
At this moment, he’d rather believe Noxis was real and not just another chuunibyou role Li Zhi Ran played.
Yet Noxis’s voice, identical to Li Zhi Ran’s, made it hard for him to distinguish easily.
A bit chaotic.
But what he could do now was simple: go along with it.
Otherwise, before anything went wrong with Luo Qiu Zhu, the other side would inexplicably fall.
“What initiative?”
A pleased light laugh came from the other side—unsure if it was Noxis or Li Zhi Ran.
“You’re the one the Gravity Witch has taken a fancy to.”
That’s saying…
“Otherwise, why would her magic lock onto you and not others?”
“Just as that little hoof said, ‘right now you still can’t leave the Gravity Witch’—she must have seen some issue with the Gravity Witch from her perspective.”
“So now she can neither let the Gravity Witch leave you nor let you leave the Gravity Witch; she can only target Minerva.”
Toward the end, Noxis let out an angry purrrr sound.
“You kid, you can’t even see the situation clearly. That little hoof has no cards in hand; she’s trying to bluff you, yet you’re muddleheaded, falling behind and preparing to abandon Minerva!”
Is that abandoning? Wasn’t it Li Zhi Ran who agreed to deal insincerely—agree on the surface, continue in secret?
Of course, he didn’t dare say this now.
“What do you mean she has no cards?”
Then Xu Lin caught a strange point in her words.
“Does she really know any of your secrets? Just that photo? Would she dare release it? Or rather, would she really dare escalate things to where the Gravity Witch finds out?”
Indeed…
Given her previous decisive style, if she didn’t send the photo and directly expose his so-called “two-timing,” fine—but now she was meeting him privately, not to make him leave Lin Shen Xue, but to leave Li Zhi Ran.
This clearly showed she didn’t want to blow things up.
“It seems you’ve understood.”
“Kid, now, use your initiative—tame that little hoof ruthlessly for me!”
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