Shocking Change

Three days had passed by the time everything was basically settled. With nothing to do for the moment, Dilos decided to stroll through a nearby shopping mall to see if there was anything worth buying to bring back as gifts for Chloe and Gabe when he returned to Smallville.

However, to Dilos's surprise, he ran into Qin Jiayin while browsing the mall. She was wearing a high-waisted white women's hoodie today, with a relatively form-fitting short-sleeved crew-neck shirt underneath. Below that were slim-fit, well-tailored women's wide-leg jeans, paired with the same brown ankle boots as before. Her entire aura felt slightly different from before; to Dilos, it was a mix of cuteness and a touch of heroism, radiating a captivating charm.

Qin Jiayin was currently staring at the desserts behind the glass window with a conflicted expression. The way she looked like she wanted to eat them but was hesitating for some reason made Dilos chuckle.

"Do you really want to eat those?"

The sudden voice beside her startled Qin Jiayin. She whipped her head around to see Dilos, whose face was twitching as he struggled to hold back his laughter.

"Oh, Dilos, you're here too." Seeing it was Dilos, Qin Jiayin let out a sigh of relief, but then she blushed. She straightened her back, trying to look unaffected to hide her true feelings.

"No, I don't want to eat them. I was just looking out of curiosity."

Watching Qin Jiayin's adorable attempt to deny the obvious, Dilos finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Pfft, hahahahaha! If you want to eat, just say so. No need to hide it."

Qin Jiayin gritted her teeth, and the flush on her face instantly spread across her entire complexion, whether from embarrassment or anger. She knew her behavior looked suspicious, but Dilos's merciless laughter and exposure still annoyed her greatly.

She gave Dilos a huffing kick, then turned her head and walked away.

"Hey, hey, hey? Don't go! Can't I just apologize?" Seeing Qin Jiayin actually walking away like that, Dilos quickly stepped up to block her path. She didn't speak, just glared at him fiercely. Seeing this, Dilos gave an awkward smile, then leaned in, trying to appease her: "Don't be so stingy between friends. Besides, it's rare for us to meet, so let's chat a bit more~"

"That sounds reasonable, but didn't we just see each other a few days ago?"

Qin Jiayin nodded at first, appearing to agree. Then her expression shifted, and she asked with a hint of 'confusion': "How can a few days count as a long time? Dilos, your sense of time is seriously flawed. Did you even pass elementary school math?"

Hearing this, Dilos rolled his eyes and countered: "Whether my math is good or not, why don't you test me and find out?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Dilos caught a glimmer of cunning in Qin Jiayin's eyes. He didn't say anything, waiting for her next move.

"Alright, I'll test you." A victorious smile played on the corners of Qin Jiayin's mouth as she said, "I won't make it too hard for you, so you won't have any excuses. Answer this question, and I'll forgive you."

"Fine, fine, fine. Go ahead, ask." Seeing Qin Jiayin's smug little look, Dilos found it amusing and subconsciously played along.

"What is two cubed multiplied by fifteen to the twelfth power, then multiplied by twenty-one cubed?"

"Eh????"

Dilos let out a sudden exclamation of surprise, a reaction that Qin Jiayin found incredibly satisfying. Seeing his 'dumbfounded' expression, the lingering annoyance in her heart quickly vanished.

Well, that should be enough, Qin Jiayin thought to herself. She was just about to grant him her forgiveness, but before she could speak, Dilos's next words left her stunned.

"The final result is 9.61264668164 times ten to the eighteenth power." Finishing his sentence, Dilos flashed a brilliant smile at Qin Jiayin. "Thanks, that really wasn't hard for me."

To be honest, the serum hadn't just modified Dilos's body; his brain had undergone changes as well. His memory and processing speed now left his former self in the dust.

"He's still refusing to lose? What a childish man."

Qin Jiayin twitched her lips in speechlessness. She pulled out her phone to open the calculator to check the math, all while glaring at the beaming Dilos.

"Calculating that fast? You must be guessing. Let me show you the correct answer so you can't deny it."

Ten seconds later...

Qin Jiayin stared at Dilos, then at the answer on her phone, which was identical to what Dilos had said. She looked back and forth several times, finally confirming it was correct...

"No way! How could you possibly calculate that so fast?!"

Qin Jiayin's face was full of disbelief. Although the numbers she picked were random, it was impossible for an average person to get the answer that quickly through mental math. How could Dilos be that fast?

Did he just happen to run into a math problem he had memorized? Qin Jiayin, unwilling to give up, randomly asked him several more complex problems with even larger calculations. The result was that Dilos took at most ten seconds to provide the same standard answer as the calculator.

Now, Qin Jiayin couldn't find any reason to tease Dilos about his math skills, because he had proven with ironclad facts that he wasn't just good at math—he was incredibly good!

"You actually..." Qin Jiayin was at a loss for words. She had heard of people with lightning-fast mental math skills, but when someone like that stood right in front of her, it still felt surreal.

Seeming to read her thoughts, Dilos leaned in teasingly, wearing a mocking smile that looked incredibly infuriating to her.

"Get lost!" Qin Jiayin gritted her teeth, pushed Dilos's face away in annoyance, and turned her head away, refusing to look at him.

But would Dilos let her off that easily?

Clearly not.

At some point, the thick-rimmed glasses Dilos had been wearing were replaced by a pair of elegant, silver-rimmed, non-prescription glasses. He calmly pushed the bridge of his glasses in front of Qin Jiayin, the reflection catching her eyes and making her squint. Then, in a flat, indifferent tone, he spoke:

"Such is the wisdom of mortals."

Qin Jiayin felt as if she heard something snap. That something was called... her sanity.

"DILOS!!!!"

In a coffee shop.

"Alright, alright, don't be mad. It was just a joke." Dilos looked with amusement at Qin Jiayin, who was sitting across from him, puffing out her cheeks and refusing to speak. He felt a bit awkward, thinking to himself, I must have been too idle lately; once I started joking, I couldn't hit the brakes... I'd better lay low for a while.

But no matter how Dilos tried to comfort her, Qin Jiayin wouldn't say a word. She either pretended not to see him or turned her head to look elsewhere. Finally, Dilos had no choice but to put on a miserable face and beg for mercy: "Fine, big sister. No, wait—beautiful, peerless Goddess, what must I do to earn the forgiveness of this lowly wretch?"

Qin Jiayin snorted, glanced at Dilos sideways, and finally spoke:

"I'm just a mere mortal~ how could I possibly set conditions for someone as god-like as you?"

Dilos couldn't help but smile bitterly. He rolled his eyes and replied: "But it is precisely a mortal like you who can earn the admiration of a god-like figure."

Qin Jiayin pursed her lips and said nothing. But Dilos knew her anger had subsided a little; he just needed to push a bit harder!

He immediately raised a finger: "I'll cover your three meals for this week."

Qin Jiayin did not speak, but her face was full of disdain. Dilos then raised another finger: "Two weeks!"

Qin Jiayin suddenly began to toy with her fingers, but she still refused to say a word. Dilos gritted his teeth and said helplessly: "One month. If that's still not enough, you might as well just marry me; that way, your meals for the rest of your life will be covered by me."

"Pfft." Watching Dilos's expression, she couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Are you courting me? If..."

But before Qin Jiayin could finish, Dilos interrupted her.

"To die beneath a peony flower, even as a ghost, I'd be romantic."

"Sigh..." Qin Jiayin looked at the smug-faced Dilos and couldn't help but cover her forehead in resignation: "Is your mouth always this flowery when you talk to girls?"

"Not really." Dilos didn't think too much and spoke directly: "Only with you..."

It was only then that Dilos realized what he had said, and he hurriedly cut himself off. He looked up at Qin Jiayin and found that she had turned her head away somewhat unnaturally, picking up an empty cup and holding it to her lips, pretending she hadn't heard a thing.

The atmosphere became awkward for a moment.

Dilos didn't know what to say, and after a while, just as he was about to speak to break the tension, he suddenly felt a shiver run through his body, and a strange sensation instantly transmitted to his brain.

It felt like danger; it felt like trouble.

Before he could even process what these feelings meant, Dilos's body acted on its own.

He lunged violently at the stunned Qin Jiayin across from him, grabbed her, and the two of them tumbled to the floor because of the movement.

At that same instant, the glass behind them, which had been reflecting the light, suddenly darkened.

With a crisp crack, the glass shattered into pieces. A moment later, a tumbling black sedan tore through the space where the glass had been, whistling as it sliced through the air. With a thunderous boom, it slammed into the cafe's service counter, instantly crushing a waiter who hadn't had time to react or dodge into a bloody mess.