Chapter 37

When Shen Tianyi saw his goddess, he instantly forgot that Xu Qingran, who frightened him, was sitting beside him. He swung his feet on the sofa and said, "No child can say no to a Duo Lili concert after school!"

Xu Qingran watched for a while but didn't see anything special. "Why?" he asked, puzzled.

Shen Tianyi stared at him wide-eyed, unable to believe it. "What do you mean, why? You don't know Duo Lili?"

"She's the most famous idol singer in the Kaian Empire!"

Apparently, the main reason Duo Lili was so famous was her exceptionally rare D-Type Soul Spirit Type. Even more remarkably, her Spiritual Pool had reached SS-Class, allowing her to infuse her Mental Power into her singing and spread it to everyone who heard her.

Even if each person received only a tiny amount, it could still restore a little of the Mental Power they had used up.

Because of this special talent, the empire had not forced her to match with an E-Type from the Evil Tower, nor had it required her to join the military as a logistics officer. Instead, it allowed her to help everyone in the way she liked.

Xu Qingran saw the longing in Shen Tianyi's eyes, then looked at the online audience count in the billions. Puzzled, he asked, "Are Type Ds that popular?"

Shen Tianyi nodded vigorously. "Of course! Who doesn't like D-Types? They're even more precious than Type Es!"

Type Ds were another opposite of E-Types. Most people with this Soul Spirit Type were handsome men and beautiful women with pretty, soft, and adorable looks. Their personalities were also exceptionally gentle and mild. Even though some D-Types were highly capable fighters, they weren't fierce in the least and didn't eat people.

So, for many people, the dream was to have a D-Type partner all to themselves.

Shen Tianyi thought of Xu Qingran, who had inexplicably been assigned to him, and his smile suddenly turned into a frown.

Alas, one look at this fiancée told him he was a violent, fierce Type E who would follow in his youngest uncle's footsteps.

After listening to Shen Tianyi's explanation, Xu Qingran tried sitting with him and listening for quite a while, but he didn't feel much. Maybe it was because he had never been in the habit of obsessively following celebrities or idolizing them. Just as he was about to get up, someone pushed the front door open.

The sight of Shen Tingyu's face, so handsome it looked as if he alone had received Nüwa's favor, sent the system's preposterous fabrication from not long ago jumping into his mind without warning.

His expression instantly darkened, and he shuddered as he waved those absurd memories away.

Shen Tingyu was a little surprised to return and find the two of them, one grown and one small, sitting harmoniously together on the sofa. He offered no comment, though he raised an eyebrow slightly when he met Xu Qingran's gloomy gaze.

How come I don't remember provoking him recently?

Still, that didn't stop Shen Tingyu's mood from improving a little.

He chuckled and teased, "Nephew-in-law, so you like Duo Lili too?"

Xu Qingran's gaze turned even colder and fiercer. "Honestly, if you're really that busy, you don't have to come home."

Shen Tingyu thought there was probably something wrong with him.

He wasn't interested in people with good tempers and agreeable dispositions. But someone like Xu Qingran, who had a fiery temper and could have a sore spot struck at any moment, made him want to provoke him until he lost his temper, like deliberately teasing a pufferfish.

Of course, he stopped just in time, before Xu Qingran decided to fight him. Smiling, he said, "I'm terribly sorry. I've taken leave, so I'm afraid I'll be home for the next few days."

Xu Qingran's expression faltered for a moment. "You're a general at the headquarters, and you can just take leave and not go in whenever you want?"

"This is the first time I've taken leave this year," Shen Tingyu replied. "Even generals want a break sometimes."

Though he called it leave, he couldn't really be idle. The military district he managed was about to begin another round of cleanup operations in the worst-hit areas, and he still had to make preparations and draw up plans for carrying them out.

At the dinner table.

The three of them and Sister-in-law Song made four, and they ate with proper manners.

Shen Tianyi was no longer as resistant to Xu Qingran as he had been over the past few days. He even served him food, then lifted his chin and put on an aloof air. "It's what I should do."

Xu Qingran wasn't in the habit of staying silent during meals. Remembering the email he had received, he asked Shen Tingyu, who was sitting across from him, "How come I haven't seen Xiao Zhang these past couple of days?"

He was the driver responsible for taking him on longer trips.

Shen Tingyu picked up a bite of food with his chopsticks and replied, "Someone in Xiao Zhang's family fell ill. Since I was planning to take a break myself, I gave him a week off."

Then he asked, "Do you want to go out?"

Xu Qingran briefly explained the email he had received. "It's fine. I can drive. Just lend me the most ordinary one, and I'll go by myself."

Shen Tingyu put down his chopsticks. "I might not have what you'd call an 'ordinary' vehicle in my garage."

He was making no secret of showing off his wealth.

"Besides, they're all registered with only my personal information, and you can't use the ones I share with Xiao Zhang either."

Xu Qingran thought that if he'd known this would happen, he would have flown a shuttle back from the Xu Family himself that day.

He was just about to brazenly ask whether he could register his user information temporarily when, before he could speak, Shen Tingyu said, "I'll take you."

Xu Qingran: ?

Those words hit him no less hard than "the apocalypse is here."

Shen Tingyu saw his undisguised astonishment and laughed. "Don't look at me like that. It's not as though I'm a bad person. There's no need to be so surprised that I'd help with something while I'm at it."

Xu Qingran made no comment.

Granted, since they had met and spent time together, Shen Tingyu hadn't done anything wicked, aside from being a bit of a bastard. But Xu Qingran had automatically classified him as "not a good person" from their very first meeting.

Maybe this was the sixth sense a "villain" had upon meeting his own kind.

In any case, he was certain Shen Tingyu wasn't nearly as gentle on the inside as he appeared.

As he grumbled inwardly, Shen Tingyu added, "Besides, I need to go to Grandis University anyway, so it's on my way."

Xu Qingran didn't refuse again.

The next morning, after going out for two laps, he returned to find Shen Tingyu already waiting in the living room.