Nipping the Lapdog in the Bud

"This is my classmate Ling Yun, he's here to visit and have dinner today."

Jiang Yingqing quickly replied, deliberately emphasizing "classmate" and "visit."

"Classmate?" Chen Xuanyu's tense nerves relaxed slightly, and a sense of superiority returned to his face.

He sized up Ling Yun from head to toe, a self-proclaimed friendly smile curving his lips, and strode into the dining room.

"So you're Yingqing's classmate. Hello, my name is Chen Xuanyu, a friend of Yingxue. Since you're Yingqing's classmate, I'll call you Brother Ling Yun, if you don't mind?"

Ling Yun looked up at this "classic" uninvited guest, finding it somewhat amusing.

The hostility was as obvious as a searchlight, they couldn't even be bothered to act?

To encounter such a "pure" story NPC these days was truly... nostalgic.

He remained expressionless, merely nodding faintly, "Please."

Chen Xuanyu, acting as if he belonged, added a seat at the table with the greetings of Father and Mother Jiang, right next to Jiang Yingxue.

During the meal, he tried his best to ignore Ling Yun's presence and started looking for various topics to strike up a conversation with Jiang Yingxue.

"Yingxue, I heard a Michelin restaurant just opened in the east of the city..."

"Mm."

"How are Uncle and Aunt doing? My father mentioned the other day..."

"Good."

"Are you busy with work lately? You seem..."

"Alright."

No matter what Chen Xuanyu said, Jiang Yingxue's response never exceeded three words, and her gaze rarely fell on him.

However, even these stingy responses seemed to satisfy Chen Xuanyu, his face showing an almost devout expectation and a barely perceptible attempt to please.

This guy... even Fei Yangyang would offer him a cigarette and call him senior.

Ling Yun, while savoring the crab meat Mother Jiang had given him, amusingly watched this live-action "Simp Chronicles."

Jiang Yingqing, sitting beside him, leaned closer and quickly whispered an explanation in a low voice.

"Chen Xuanyu's dad and my dad are old friends and business partners. He and my sister basically grew up together. He's been relentlessly pursuing my sister since childhood, and even after being rejected countless times, he still won't give up. His skin is thicker than a city wall!"

Her tone was full of disdain.

Perhaps feeling that Jiang Yingxue was too difficult to win over, or wanting to display his superiority in front of a new "potential threat," Chen Xuanyu finally turned the conversation to Ling Yun.

He cleared his throat and spoke in a tone of elder caring for a junior, "Brother Ling Yun, are you still in school? High school or university? Take my advice, at this stage, studying is the most important thing! Study hard, get into a good university, and after graduation..."

He paused, a condescending smile appearing on his face, "You can come find me, or my dad's company. Arranging a decent job won't be a problem. Young man, your future is important!"

As soon as he said this, the dining table fell silent.

Jiang Yingqing was so angry she almost snapped her chopsticks.

Father and Mother Jiang frowned slightly.

Jiang Yingxue turned her head sharply, her icy gaze piercing Chen Xuanyu like a physical object. Her face, usually expressionless, now clearly showed displeasure.

Her voice was not loud, but it carried an undeniable coldness, clearly reaching everyone's ears:

"Chen Xuanyu, you're meddling too much."

"Ling Yun is my boss."

This statement struck Chen Xuanyu like a bolt of lightning! The smile on his face froze completely, his blood drained instantly, and he looked extremely ugly.

He looked at Jiang Yingxue in disbelief, then at the calm Ling Yun, his fingers gripping the wine glass so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Boss?! Jiang Yingxue... was actually defending this man, speaking to him in such a long sentence and with such a cold tone for the first time?!

And the content... was for another man!

The immense shock and humiliation instantly overwhelmed Chen Xuanyu.

"Oh, really? Then Brother Ling Yun, you're quite amazing. You haven't even graduated high school yet and you've already found a job."

"I wonder what kind of job it is, that Yingxue has to work for you."

Hearing that Jiang Yingxue was working for Ling Yun, Chen Xuanyu's heart skipped a beat, and his sense of superiority faltered.

His family's assets were only around five hundred million at best, slightly inferior to the Jiang family.

What if this kid was from a low-key prominent family...

Last time, at an auction, he accidentally offended the young master of the Wang family, and when his father found out, he was grounded for three months and all his cards were frozen. He didn't want to experience that again.

Thinking of this, his tone involuntarily became probing.

"I just stream games online, and Sister Yingxue is my editor."

Seeing another opportunity to play the pig to eat the tiger, Ling Yun immediately pretended his job was ordinary, his eyes clear and innocent.

"Oh, so you stream games online!"

Chen Feiyu's taut nerves instantly relaxed, and the corner of his mouth even curled into an imperceptible sneer.

"This has no future, and you can't earn much money. Listen to your brother's advice, study hard, and when you graduate, I'll find you a more reliable job. Sitting in an office with air conditioning isn't better than staring at a computer?"

He regained that condescending sense of superiority and began to "pontificate" earnestly.

Ling Yun chuckled inwardly. The groundwork was laid; it was time to show off.

Just as he was about to speak and put Chen Feiyu in his place, his phone suddenly rang.

[Alipay received 200 million yuan.]

"Sorry, I forgot to mute Alipay."

Ling Yun really wanted to give Douyin a thumbs-up right now; it was a stroke of genius.

It directly elevated the act of showing off to a realm of returning to simplicity.

"How is that possible?!"

The relaxed expression on Chen Feiyu's face instantly froze, replaced by disbelief and shock. His voice even changed pitch.

"Didn't you say you were a gaming streamer? How could you possibly have so much money?!"

He suspected he was hallucinating.

The Jiang family members also looked at Ling Yun in unison, their eyes filled with astonishment.

"Why would I lie to you? I am a gamer. What just arrived was my signing fee."

Chen Feiyu's mind buzzed like it had been hit by a heavy hammer, going completely blank.

His family's entire group was only valued at around 500 million. This signing fee alone was worth more than half of his family's business.

"Little Yun, didn't you show me a signing fee of 5 million a couple of days ago?"

Jiang Mingyuan, who had overheard this, also asked with some curiosity.

Seeing that it was Jiang Mingyuan asking, Ling Yun decided to explain the whole process.

"Impressive youth, truly impressive!

"If this momentum continues, in a few years, my old bones might be surpassed by your fortune."

After hearing the explanation, Jiang Mingyuan praised him sincerely, his eyes filled with even greater admiration.

Chen Feiyu, standing nearby, was completely silenced, his face burning.

He quickly adjusted his expression. The arrogance from before had vanished without a trace, and his tone became incredibly humble.

"Yun... Brother Yun! I was blind and didn't recognize your greatness! I admire people like you the most – self-made young talents who have built such a great foundation at such a young age! From now on... from now on, I'll call you Brother Yun!"

His "traditional ability" instantly activated, his flattery smooth and seamless, his posture extremely low.

More than losing face, he was afraid of offending Ling Yun and having his father find out, which would lead to an even worse outcome than last time.

Ling Yun hadn't expected Chen Feiyu to change his tune so quickly.

Ling Yun had thought Chen Feiyu would hold a grudge and try to sabotage him in secret.

In that case, he would have made Chen Feiyu taste his Storm Blade Domain.

Then, if the older generation came, he would uproot the entire Chen family.

He really had read too many novels in his previous life. There weren't that many fools in reality.

Looking at Chen Feiyu's almost fawning and respectful attitude, Ling Yun decided not to dwell on it.

After all, apart from being a bit sharp-tongued, the other party hadn't actually done anything heinous. He couldn't just kill someone because they failed at showing off, could he?

Although he was a cultivator, he was still a youth from a modern, law-abiding society at heart. Killing intent? He really didn't have that.

But the bigger reason was probably that Chen Feiyu hadn't truly angered him. He had treated him as a source of amusement from the beginning.

If someone genuinely angered him, then, unfortunately, he would kill them if necessary.