"Mr. Li Pu!" Mei finally couldn't help asking, "What on earth are you trying to do?"
"Just once!" Li Pu stretched out a finger and said, "Just once. I know doing this is very rude, but I've been torn and hesitating for a long time."
"And doing this actually doesn't have any benefit for me either, but I have my own unspeakable reasons for doing it."
"Please! Kiana! It's just once."
"To touch your face!"
"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" Kiana was so angry she laughed instead. She put her hands on her hips, leaned her upper body forward, and said, "Fine! Come and touch then!"
As long as she got touched, he would give her something to hold against him, and she could violently beat this guy up then.
She would get beaten, her reputation would plummet, she would lose her job, and she would end up in the hospital!
Li Pu saw the situation clearly in an instant. Mei made frantic hints for Li Pu to hurry up and stop while it wasn't the end yet, otherwise there really would be no way out later.
Would he stop?
No!
Li Pu really had been torn for a while. He knew that the relationship between him and Kiana was not harmonious at all, and they were basically antagonists because of what happened last time.
But he still had to do it, to verify his conjecture!
If he won, everything could be readily solved.
But if he lost!
Then everything he currently possessed—his job, his reputation, and even his bonus—would be gone!
This was a desperate, all-in gamble!
He had already placed all his chips on the table, so how could he back down? Besides, even if he backed down, everything could not possibly return to the way it was right before saying those words.
Ignoring Mei's frantic hints, Li Pu closed his eyes.
He was brewing himself up, trying his best to appear calm.
Without any desire...
No!
It wasn't without desire, but with desire! An extremely intense desire; this was not lust, nor the desire for possession, nor ordinary romantic love.
This was another kind of desire!
In his heart, Li Pu kept depicting it, kept recalling it, kept simulating it.
But soon he gave up.
This feeling was simply too difficult to simulate, and he had no way to simulate anything.
At least for now, it should be like this.
Let everything take its course...
Li Pu slowly raised his hand, slowly moved his right hand closer to Kiana's face, and he noticed that Kiana's whole body had tightened up. Like a small leopard preparing to hunt, she would move to attack at any moment.
Still with no way out, letting everything take its course.
Win or lose.
At least he still got to touch Kiana!
He, Li Pu, made a steady profit, didn't he?!
Li Pu moved slowly. The closer he got, the more he felt his hand trembling, the more he could feel the warmth radiating from Kiana's face, and the more he felt a very special sensation appear in his heart.
At this split second, time suddenly passed so slowly, and this distance of less than a few centimeters unexpectedly became so long.
Slowly, slowly, his hand still touched Kiana's face.
At that instant, a feeling like an electric shock surged rapidly in his heart.
For some reason, Kiana suddenly relaxed her whole body. She looked at the young man in front of her—this frail yet handsome young man who was always unserious.
This was a unique feeling, a feeling she had seen countless times and imagined countless times.
At this moment, Kiana's eye sockets uncontrollably grew moist.
In a flash, she seemed to see another person.
Another face.
That was a face she thought about day and night, a face she had thought of countless times!
Mother!
Chapter 27: I Represent the Moon
Swish~
With just a light touch, Li Pu instantly withdrew his hand.
He turned and ran, disappearing from this sports field in less than a minute or two, leaving behind only Mei, who didn't understand what was going on, and Kiana, who couldn't pull herself out of the feeling she just had.
"Kiana! Kiana!"
Mei grabbed Kiana's arm and shook it gently to pull her back to reality.
"What happened?" Mei asked anxiously and worriedly, looking at Kiana, who had tears streaming down her face and was trembling all over, barely able to control herself, "What's wrong with you, Kiana?"
"No... I don't know... I..."
Kiana was incoherent and even felt somewhat absent-minded as she said, "I don't know... I want so much... so much..."
"It felt as if I saw..."
"Saw what?" Mei asked hurriedly, "Kiana?! Kiana!"
"Calm down, steady yourself, don't be nervous!"
"Don't be so emotional."
Mei didn't understand the situation either. She hadn't expected Li Pu to actually touch her, nor had she expected Kiana not to beat up this scoundrel! Just a moment ago, she had been planning whether to step in and prevent everything from heading toward a worse situation if things got to their worst, but now she discovered that even if the situation turned out differently than she had imagined.
There was simply no way to step in and mediate!
Without even knowing what had happened, Kiana just started crying so inexplicably.
Looking at her expression, this wasn't the angry and humiliated crying of someone being teased. This was another emotion, an emotional outburst of a suppressed longing accumulated over many years.
"He... I... He..."
Kiana was incoherent, and even Mei's comfort could hardly calm her down. She kept looking in the direction where Li Pu had run off.
"Darn it!"
Suddenly, Kiana gritted her teeth, ignoring Mei, and chased straight after him, shouting, "You guy! How dare you deceive me! How dare you toy with me!"
"I must! I must..."
"Find you..."
Kiana's voice suddenly turned weak, and she said urgently in a voice only she could hear, "Mother!"
Li Pu didn't run very far.
Although he couldn't say he was entirely unfamiliar with this school, he couldn't exactly claim to know it inside out either. After all, wasn't this school too huge?
This place wasn't just a matter of having a few teaching buildings, one or two large sports fields, and that's it.
This was a large-scale comprehensive academy encompassing teaching facilities, sports and athletic venues, cultural and entertainment facilities, accommodation, and shopping.
This place wasn't just taking up a fair bit of land; it was truly huge.
If one didn't understand this academy, one would really get lost!
Not daring to run far, Li Pu stopped. He just plunged into the green woods of this academy and halted his footsteps. Panting a couple of times, he hurriedly recalled the feeling he had just experienced.
His guess was not wrong. Some things might indeed be vastly different from what the system said.
This whole operation could be considered a verification of what he, Li Pu, wanted to test.
It really was just as he had imagined.
Theoretically speaking, drawing a character was equivalent to equipping it, but this equipment didn't mean it could be used formally. It should be under some kind of incomplete equipment state.
It could only be triggered through some special scenarios, characters, or time points.
Just like the first duel, when Mei took the initiative to attack and drove him into a desperate situation, it triggered the skill of the character King Arthur at the critical moment of imminent danger, resulting in an instant counterattack.
But he thought the second duel could also be triggered, so relying on King Arthur's skill, he hadn't taken Mei seriously at all and had no sense of crisis.
Thus, it hadn't triggered at all, and Mei had sliced off his waistband with a single slash.
The second test utilized Kiana.
This was one of the tasks given by the system for the character Cecilia: the task of 'maternal love'. Li Pu remembered that Cecilia's character profile had a rather vivid trait.
This trait was 'maternal love'.
Maternal love in itself was a natural trait possessed by any mother. But singled out as a character profile, it meant that there must be something unusual about it.
Li Pu didn't know much about Cecilia's character profile.
At least he knew that Cecilia tried to use maternal love to reform the Herrscher, though she failed in the end...
Yet that also showed that compared to ordinary mothers, Cecilia would actively seek out this trait and use it as some kind of tool to operate.
If facing her own biological child, the already equipped character would inevitably be triggered when she truly touched Kiana.
Even if this Kiana wasn't the real Kiana, but K423, she would still be triggered.
After all, this was her child!
So Li Pu intended to take a gamble and try. Even if it wasn't triggered and he received a severe beating from Kiana, it would still be worth it. After all, touching her meant making a profit.
Think of those Captains in the past who could only lick their screens and stroke their figurines no matter how much they liked them.
He, Li Pu, actually touched Kiana!
Getting beaten up was still a profit!
Li Pu won the bet. The moment he touched her, he felt the intense emotional fluctuations coming from Cecilia. This was an emotion that could not be suppressed, yearning for further expression.
It was also a bond from the depths of the soul, once connected by blood, that could not be severed.
Then Li Pu forcefully broke contact and ran.
It wasn't that he was disgusted or scared or anything.
He just decided to proceed rapidly to the next step.
That was true equipment!
In Li Pu's view, the system might not have told the truth, but!
The system likely didn't tell the whole truth, or mixed half-truths together.
This was a very common thing. Having read quite a few system novels, today's systems were no longer as proper as before. There were plenty of systems that took pleasure in digging traps for traversers!
Saying half and leaving half, intentionally omitting certain important information, or systems mixing half-truths were definitely not uncommon.
He must have stumbled upon such a system.
Therefore, the system's statement about equipment was likely correct, but incomplete. After acquiring the character, the character was already equipped, but this equipment was unreliable at times and had to be triggered under certain special scenarios. So if he wanted it to work a hundred percent of the time, he inevitably still had to perform some special steps.
'Understanding' was one link of it, and another link was very likely hidden beneath the 'Transformation Dance'.
Because the system probably wouldn't make him dance this strange transformation dance for no reason.
And this transformation dance just had some core things hidden inside it.
That was why this transformation dance could have many forms.
It didn't have to be restricted to the 'representing the moon' method.
Synthesizing the things analyzed above.
"Looks like I still have to dance the transformation dance once," Li Pu shook his head helplessly and said, "Well, whatever."
Before you continue