Invincible Me Only Wants to Slack Off

Yukino immediately shook her head. "No... I can't accept three people under one roof right now."

"Is that so?" Chen Tian let out a low laugh, the vibration in his chest reaching her ear. "But did you know? Marin's already seriously considering helping me expand the household."

"What?!" Yukino suddenly broke free from his embrace, her almond eyes wide. All traces of shame and annoyance were gone, replaced by sheer shock. "How could she... how is that possible..."

This was Kitagawa Marin! Chen Tian's publicly acknowledged "official girlfriend"! The woman countless female fans wished they could kill!

Chen Tian watched her stunned expression, the smile on his lips deepening. "She saw the same things you did—things beyond common sense."

He paused, his tone carrying a steady, commanding calm. "Add to that the funds I've built up through the concert and the investment strategy I'm laying out... She realized that building power takes time. The future Chen Family will become a deeply rooted house."

Yukino froze.

The supernatural abilities Chen Tian had shown, the vast wealth empire he was quietly building beneath the surface...

What Kitagawa saw was a future further ahead. The outline of a true noble family was quietly taking shape in Chen Tian's hands.

Her mind involuntarily drifted to the shadow of her grandfather.

That dignified old man—on the surface, he only had her grandmother as his wife, but everyone in the family knew he kept several other residences outside.

And that Shiongo Family... Shinomiya Kaguya's father, the head of the house—did he lack for mistresses and illegitimate children? And Kaguya herself, wasn't she...

"So," Chen Tian's voice pulled her back. He reached out, his fingertip brushing lightly across her cool cheek, his gaze deep. "Yukino, are you really content to be a secret lover who can never see the light of day? Or..."

He paused deliberately, looking into her eyes. "Do you want to stand by my side, together with Marin?"

Yukino's heart began to race out of control. Content? Those two words stabbed into her heart like needles.

Why... why should she have to hide? Why should Kitagawa get to...

Her hand instinctively clutched the hem of her clothes. Her lips moved, but the word "no" refused to come out.

Chen Tian watched her struggle and decided to stoke the fire a little more.

He lowered his voice. "Do you know why Siongo Gaan has always had Kaguya invite me to banquets? Even knowing that Kaguya has feelings for me, he never keeps her away?"

Yukino was still lost in her chaotic thoughts, her eyes dazed.

Chen Tian let out a soft laugh. "Because people at that level understand far more than ordinary people—especially about Japan's twisted social structures."

He leaned close to Yukino's ear, his warm breath brushing against her sensitive earlobe. "He knows that once Kaguya becomes my woman, the Shiongo Family can use that to climb higher."

Yukino's heart skipped a beat. She was about to refute this absurd claim when Chen Tian added in an even lower voice, "Including... that noble lady in the kimono behind you."

"What?!" Yukino's pupils contracted sharply. She whipped her head around—

Just a few steps away, her mother, always impeccably dressed and exuding an air of dignity, Kikuko Yukinoshita, stood there quietly.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows across her expensive kimono.

A faint, reserved smile—the kind unique to the old nobility—lingered on her face. Her gaze rested calmly on Chen Tian and Yukino, as if she had been watching for quite some time.

The air froze instantly.

Yukino felt all the blood rush to her head, then drain away, leaving only a cold numbness.

All those thoughts about noble family rules and her unwillingness were instantly drowned by the panic of being caught by her mother.

She instinctively tensed, trying to pull away from Chen Tian.

"M-mother..." she forced out, her voice hoarse.

But Chen Tian didn't move. In fact, the hand that had been tousling Yukino's hair slid naturally to her waist, holding her firmly in place with an unyielding gesture, stopping her retreat.

There was no trace of panic on his face at being caught. Instead, he raised a calm, even slightly amused smile, meeting Kikuko Yukinoshita's scrutinizing gaze head-on.

"Good afternoon, Lady Yukinoshita." Chen Tian's voice was steady and clear, breaking the dead silence. "What a coincidence, running into you here."

The sleeve of Kikuko Yukinoshita's kimono trembled slightly. Under Yukino's horrified gaze, this proud mother slowly bent at the waist, offering a standard bow.

The two attendants behind her immediately bowed at a ninety-degree angle, their movements as synchronized as if rehearsed countless times.

"Good day, Mr. Chen Tian."

Her mother's voice rang in Yukino's ears.

She stared wide-eyed as her mother straightened up, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips—the exact expression the Yukinoshita Family reserved for honored guests.

The sunlight suddenly felt blinding. Big Orange had already hidden in the bushes, only a nervously bristled tail sticking out.

"It seems my daughter shares a very close relationship with you," Kikuko said, her gaze sweeping over Chen Tian's hand still resting on her daughter's waist. Only then did Yukino realize she was still half-leaning against Chen Tian. She tried to break free, but his hand held her firmly in place.

Chen Tian let out a light laugh. "Mm. She's my girlfriend."

Yukino's head snapped up, staring in disbelief at the sharp lines of Chen Tian's profile.

How could he admit it so openly? In front of her mother? In a public place where paparazzi could snap a photo at any moment?

What left her even more breathless was the way the fine lines around her mother's eyes suddenly softened, revealing a genuine smile. "Then my daughter is truly fortunate."

Yukino felt the world spin.

Her mother's stern face, the manga books torn to shreds in her childhood, the harsh education she had endured growing up—all those fragments of memory were overturned in an instant.

She instinctively grabbed Chen Tian's collar.

"I heard Yukino's father had some trouble in the Prefectural Assembly race?" Chen Tian abruptly changed the subject, his fingers soothingly stroking Yukino's lower back.

Kikuko's elegant expression froze almost imperceptibly for a moment. "After my father passed away, there were indeed some petty troublemakers..." She paused with perfect timing, like an actor reciting lines on stage.

"Contact the Gojo Family." Chen Tian cut her off bluntly. "Tell them Nero sent you to find them."

"The Gojo... Satoru-sama's family?" Kikuko's voice rose slightly, and Yukino was shocked to see her mother's delicately manicured fingers trembling faintly.

That Jujutsu Sorcerer Family, spoken of only in hushed tones in both politics and business? The Gojo Family, whom even the Shinomiya clan treated with deference?

Chen Tian nodded, then suddenly leaned close to Yukino's ear and said in a voice only she could hear, "See? I told you worldly rules can't bind us." His warm breath made her earlobes burn. "Your mother's probably already figuring out how to convince your father now."

When Kikuko bowed deeply again, the gold thread of the family crest on her kimono sash glittered in the sunlight. "Thank you for your generosity."

As she lifted her head and her gaze swept over her daughter's stunned face, Yukino clearly saw something in those gray-blue eyes so like her own—something she had never seen before: an emotion close to relief.

"Yukino." Her mother suddenly called out in the gentle tone she used when coaxing her to take medicine as a child. "Come home for dinner this weekend. Your father will be very happy to hear this news."

Not until the sound of her mother's geta faded around the corner did Yukino go limp in Chen Tian's arms, as if all strength had drained from her. Her hands, clutching his collar, were still trembling. "What... what kind of drug did you give my mother?"

Chen Tian smiled and kissed her sweat-damp forehead. "It's not about what drug I gave her. It's that your mother has seen the truth of it all."

He pointed toward the towering Yukinoshita Estate in the distance. "She knows who can bring more opportunities to the Yukinoshita Family. And you—"

His finger slid down to press against her heaving chest. "—will stand by my side, together with Marin."

A rustling sound came from the bushes, and Big Orange squeezed out, its round body barreling straight into Yukino's skirt. Chen Tian bent down, scooped up the fat cat, and stuffed it into Yukino's stiff arms. "New family member. Pleased to meet you."

Yukino looked down at the purring orange cat in her arms and suddenly realized that something more terrifying than her mother's approval was taking root deep in her heart—a seed called "expectation."

Chapter 45: Value

Deep within the Shinomiya Estate, the air in the tea room was frozen solid.

Shinomiya Kaguya sat upright in her chair, her back ramrod straight, like an ice sculpture.

Her usually flawless, exquisite face was now expressionless, save for a pair of deep crimson eyes gleaming with cold light.

At this moment, Kaguya was in the state where all pretense had been stripped away, her "Ice Kaguya" personality in full control.

Across from her, a man lounged casually on the tatami.

His kimono hung loose, his head was shaved bald, and his meticulously groomed mustache and goatee exuded a deliberate air of cynicism.

He was the eldest son of the Shinomiya family, the one who held the reins of the clan's vast industrial empire—Shikoku Kōkō.

Though he appeared lazy, his eyes were like poison-tipped needles, pressing down on Kaguya with an invisible but crushing weight.

Kōkō slowly picked up the delicate sake cup before him, tilted his head back, and drained it in one gulp.

The cup landed on the low table with a crisp tap, jarringly loud in the silent tea room.

He tilted his head slightly, a discomforting smile curling at the corner of his mouth, his gaze slithering like a sticky snake's tongue over Kaguya's icy face.

"Say... Kaguya," Kōkō drawled, his voice laced with feigned concern, "you've invited that Mr. Chen Tian... three times? Four? Why hasn't he accepted even once?"

He leaned forward slightly, the oppressive force beneath his casual demeanor intensifying, but his smile grew wider. "Is your charm... not enough? That doesn't seem like my 'perfect genius' little sister, Kaguya."

Every word was a knife coated in honey, stabbing at Kaguya's deliberately maintained Ice Wall Barrier.

Kaguya's fingers on her knees tightened slightly. She lifted her eyes, those crimson orbs meeting Kōkō's scrutinizing gaze directly, her voice flat and devoid of any ripple, even carrying a formulaic deference:

"Brother, you jest. Mr. Chen Tian's schedule is busy; he has his own considerations. Whether Kaguya is charming or not is hardly the key to the invitation's success. When he chooses to accept, that is his own judgment."

Her words were watertight, perfect as lines rehearsed a thousand times, yet in "his own considerations" and "his own judgment," a hint of detachment seeped through—

And a veiled irritation at being rejected, one she herself hadn't fully acknowledged.

Kōkō tilted his head further, his narrow eyes squinting with a glint of probing cunning. His tone remained languid but carried deeper amusement:

"Oh? Is that so? Busy schedule... considerations..." He chuckled softly, his fingertips tapping absently on the table. "But I've heard that our red-hot celebrity Mr. Chen Tian has been... quite 'at leisure' lately, hasn't he?"

He paused deliberately, savoring the faint stiffness beneath Kaguya's ice-carved mask.

"That awkward little girl from the Yukinoshita family," Kōkō added slowly, "seems to be getting quite close to him. Even Kikuko, that woman with her nose in the air, has been treating him with a respect that's... a bit excessive, wouldn't you say?"

Kaguya's eyes sharpened instantly, the chill beneath the ice surging violently.

Her hands on her knees clenched abruptly.

Kōkō's words were like a cold key, instantly piercing the emotional dam she had forcibly suppressed—Yukino! That Yukino Yukinoshita! And her proud, sharp-tongued mother, even she was deferring to Chen Tian...!

Ice Kaguya's personality could barely contain the raging flames of jealousy, resentment, and fury at being slighted.

She forced her breathing steady, her chest rising and falling slightly.

"Brother," her voice remained icy but carried a faint tremor—the first crack in the ice. "Mr. Chen Tian's associations are his personal freedom. How the Yukinoshita Family acts is none of the Shinomiya clan's concern. As for Kaguya..."

Her crimson eyes locked onto Kōkō, sharp enough to pierce through his hypocritical smile, each word deliberate:

"Kaguya is merely responsible for conveying the family's gracious invitation. Mr. Chen Tian's wishes are beyond Kaguya's interference, nor... is there any need for baseless speculation."

She enunciated the last few words with exceptional clarity, carrying a stubborn pride.

Kōkō's smile deepened, but a glint of satisfied, cold calculation flickered in his eyes.

He watched this sister of his, seemingly forged from steel and ice, and saw that he had finally pried open a crack in her perfect mask.

He leaned back, settling into the cushion again, resuming his lazy posture as if the relentless pressure of moments ago had never happened.

"Heh..." The tranquil atmosphere didn't last long before it was shattered by Huang Guang's dismissive chuckle.

"Tell me, Kaguya, do you know what resolution was passed at the Prime Minister's Official Residence today?" Huang Guang picked up his cup, studying it as if its unique patterns fascinated him.

Kaguya said nothing, her crimson eyes fixed on her brother, who was as cold and venomous as a snake.

Huang Guang didn't mind her silence. He set the cup back on the table, turned to her, and said with undisguised contempt, "That useless son-in-law of the Yukinoshita Family will become a Prefectural Assembly Member of Chiba Prefecture next year."

He leaned his head back against the chair, let out a sneer, and clicked his tongue. "Tsk, tsk. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll have to respectfully call that good-for-nothing live-in son-in-law 'Assemblyman.'"

Kaguya frowned slightly. She knew about this. Yukino's father had been struggling in his campaign for the Chiba Prefectural Assembly seat, with many who opposed the Yukinoshita Family scheming to throw obstacles in his way.

Why had it passed so smoothly this time?

Huang Guang tilted his head back further against the chair, a smile curling at his lips, as if savoring the confusion simmering beneath Kaguya's icy mask.

"You want to know the answer, don't you?"

He suddenly sat up straight, the motion carrying a deliberate burst of force, his gaze stabbing into Kaguya like a blade. His voice dropped. "Because of the Gojo Family! That transcendent Gojo Family!"

He spat out the name, then relaxed back into his seat, his face twisting with undisguised mockery and disdain. "The Gojo Family, who never meddle in political nonsense, actually stepped in this time! All for a measly assembly seat!"

He snorted, picked up his cup, and twirled it between his fingers. "Ridiculous. You understand what this means, don't you? Even the big shots in the Diet, even the one at the Prime Minister's Official Residence, treat the Gojo Family with utmost courtesy and respect!"

Huang Guang spoke as if to himself, yet also as if bombarding Kaguya's psyche. "A family standing at the pinnacle of supernatural power, inexplicably caring about an assembly seat in Chiba... Heh, interesting. Very interesting."

Kaguya's fingers, resting on her knees, had turned white, veins visible beneath her pale skin.

It wasn't because of the Yukinoshita assemblyman himself, but because of the weight of those three words: "Gojo Family!"

As a core member of the Shiongo Family, she knew all too well the suffocating status the Gojo Family held in Japan's shadowy underbelly.

They stood aloof from the world, rarely interfering directly in secular politics. Their power was a terror of an entirely different dimension!

For the Gojo Family to break their own rules and intervene... The influence and personal debt behind this were no ordinary matter! It was absolutely not something the Yukinoshita Family could command on their own!

Huang Guang twisted his neck, as if the earlier straightening had made him uncomfortable. He deliberately pulled an exaggerated, pained face and said in a flippant tone, "All of this, you know, thanks to your crush—Chen Tian."