Stop Scolding Me, Stop Scolding Me!

So the next second, Xu Shi was almost amused by Xia Wuyou's actions.

He had been resting with his eyes closed in the car. The moment he opened them, he saw her hurrying over in a panic.

"Finished talking? Should I take you home now?"

"Mm..."

Xia Wuyou nodded, then took the suppressant from her combat suit belt and stiffly held it out to him. "This is for you."

If the backdrop had been a cherry blossom tree, Xu Shi might have thought some young girl experiencing her first crush was giving him a Valentine's Day gift.

But that obviously was not the case, so he had no intention of accepting it. "Why are you giving me this? I don't want a gift someone else gave you, especially not a gift from a man."

"This is my... loyalty."

Xia Wuyou gritted her teeth. She was clearly quite displeased by his teasing, but she could only force herself to continue.

"Alright, alright. I acknowledge your loyalty, Miss Xia Wuyou."

Xu Shi could not help laughing at that, but he still did not accept it. "But this is useless to me. Why not give it to the doctor? It'll even save me some money."

"...You said it."

Xia Wuyou did not waste any words and put it away again.

She was more than happy for Xu Shi to do that.

Watching her awkward expression, Xu Shi increasingly felt that Xia Wuyou was like a little cat.

Wasn't she pretty cute?

Xia Wuyou did not know what Xu Shi was thinking. She only felt that the more she looked at him, the more awful he seemed, and instinctively wanted to keep her distance from him.

"There's no need to trouble Chairman Xu with taking me home. I can take the subway myself. I'll report to work on time tomorrow, so please rest assured."

"No need for that either. I was just about to tell you, I'm planning to give you some time off."

Xu Shi waved a hand nonchalantly. "Get a good few days of rest. Your salary will still be paid... though of course, if anything comes up, you'll still need to be available at a moment's notice."

"Really?"

Hearing the words "time off" come from the mouth of someone who devoured people whole without even spitting out the bones, Xia Wuyou wondered whether something was wrong with her ears.

"If you keep asking, I'm going to change my mind." Xu Shi rolled his eyes at her.

"...Understood."

Afraid he might truly go back on his word, Xia Wuyou turned to slip away.

She would thank heaven and earth if she could avoid staying with Xu Shi, and she truly needed time to process everything that had happened these past few days.

She could also spend more time with her aunt... the truth was, she had not had such an opportunity in a long time. The pressure from work had already drained most of her energy.

So in the end, she turned back and gave Xu Shi a slight bow.

"Thank you."

It sounded heartfelt.

On the way back, Xu Shi could not help smiling whenever he thought of what had just happened.

Of course, he did not believe Xia Wuyou's so-called "loyalty." If she could be won over that easily, she would not be the heroine.

He also knew perfectly well that Xia Ke'an had prompted her actions earlier from behind the scenes.

That was clearly an attempt to show goodwill... from that perspective, she was not as simple as she appeared.

That woman was deeply calculating... if anyone really treated her as a harmless little girl, Chairman Xu's advice would be to go back and repeat elementary school first.

Still, her attitude would let him face less resistance. In truth, Xu Shi's target had never been Xia Wuyou alone.

His plan was to bring both aunt and niece under his command, making both flowers bloom.

The protagonist filter was one reason. After all, she had been one of his childhood goddesses... naturally, beauty was only part of it. What he valued more was Xia Ke'an's SS-class ability, which was practically a Bug.

Future Sight

There was no need to explain it further. Those who understood, understood... if he could have such an ability assisting him, it would undoubtedly save him a great deal of trouble in the future.

Especially since he only knew part of the original plot. If he could fill in the missing pieces, that would be ideal.

In fact, at the height of Refraction's glory, Xia Ke'an had contributed at least eighty percent of the credit.

But correspondingly, the side effects brought about by such a heaven-defying ability were terrifyingly obvious.

While waiting earlier, Xu Shi had taken the time to look through her medical records.

Muscular atrophy, albinism, neuropathic phantom pain, narcolepsy, organ fibrosis... there were seventeen conditions in total.

That was why Xia Ke'an had been unable to use her ability for a long time. By Xu Shi's estimate, in her current state, she would be dead before she could even finish the opening motion.

Otherwise, Refraction would not have fallen so easily.

Fortunately, he was in no hurry. Winning their loyalty, like treating Xia Ke'an's illness, was something to be pursued gradually.

For now, it was enough to ensure they no longer had anything to do with Shen He.

Giving Xia Wuyou time off was also part of that consideration. If she spent more time with Xia Ke'an, it would always have some subtle influence.

Besides, he could not keep squeezing this little cat all the time. He had to give her some sweetness now and then.

At that thought, an unreadable smile appeared at the corner of Xu Shi's mouth.

"Young master seems to be in a very good mood?"

Seeing that, Su Lin casually asked.

"Of course I am... Hm? What are you looking at?"

Xu Shi came back to himself and realized that she had switched the vehicle to autopilot mode and was seriously reading through the documents in her hands.

"It's a report from the Engineering Department."

Su Lin answered, "It's feedback on the equipment used in this morning's incident... and it seems rather unsatisfactory."

"...Go on."

Xu Shi raised an eyebrow and leaned forward slightly.

Then the various technical terms coming from Su Lin made his scalp tingle.

Good lord, he did not understand any of it... but he could still grasp the general meaning: quite a few pieces of equipment currently deployed by Serpent Coil were still at the level of several years ago and urgently needed technological upgrades.

"How did this happen? Is the Engineering Department not doing its job?"

His good mood immediately vanished. "I pay them salaries, not to hear the words 'unsatisfactory.'"

"Please calm down, young master."

Su Lin sighed as well. "Actually, the Engineering Department's development had already begun to stagnate during the two years before the old master passed away."

"If I had to put it... this is a leftover problem."

...That did seem to be the case.

Her words reminded Xu Shi.

Even if he had not cared much about the group before, he still remembered this matter.

His father had died two years ago. As his health worsened by the day, his control over the group had gradually loosened.

And when an emperor neared his twilight years, his subordinates naturally began harboring their own schemes... who would still have the mind to do real work?

Thinking about it, it really had not been easy for his father to hand power over to him smoothly.

Though the current board of directors was not exactly under his sole command either.

Still, this was something he had been considering recently.

They said one must secure the home front before dealing with external threats. It might not show now, but if this problem was not resolved, he would inevitably be constrained by others in the future.

And every one of those old foxes was slippery as oil... figuring out how to deal with them gave him quite a headache.

"I'll visit the Engineering Department tomorrow."

He made the decision immediately. It just so happened that he did not need to worry about Spark for the time being.

"Yes."

"But come to think of it, Su Lin, it feels like you understand everything?"

An all-rounder, huh?

"Because someone doesn't pay attention to these matters."

This time, Miss Su Lin made no attempt to hide her jab.

...Fine, alright.

That was what happened when you were ignorant and unskilled... stop scolding me, stop scolding me.