Zhang Chulan turned a deaf ear to everyone's disdain and looked at Lu Jin. "Old Master Lu, my bro is just a shameless jerk, all desire and no guts. Please don't take it to heart."
"I'll kowtow to you too!"
Lu Jin hurriedly waved him off. "No, spare me the formalities. I can't handle such a grand gesture from you two."
With that, he looked at Wang Zhuo beside him, who was chatting with his precious great-granddaughter and making Lu Linglong giggle every so often.
The sight made him grit his teeth.
For some reason, this scene always reminded him of those improper fellows on Mount Longhu.
Zhang Chulan couldn't care less about dignity or appearances. Landing a powerful backer was all that mattered!
"Come on, old master. I really do need to thank you properly, and apologize on my bro's behalf."
"If you hadn't offered up the Heaven Communicating Talisman Art, this Luotian Grand Ceremony would never have been this lively."
Lu Jin's aged face twitched at his words. "Hah, so you're taking a dig at me, brat?"
He pointed at Zhang Chulan and turned to Zhang Zhiwei. "Look at this little brat! He's taking a dig at me!"
Zhang Zhiwei laughed heartily. "Haha, of course! Just look whose granddisciple he is."
"All right, consider this old man to have set you up this once..."
Lu Jin stared at the young man before him. "Kid, I won't let you suffer for nothing. I'll promise you one favor. As long as it doesn't go against heaven or my conscience, come to me and mention this someday. No matter how difficult it is, I'll get it done!"
"Oh my, then I really must pay you my respects, old master. You simply have to accept my bow!"
Beaming, Zhang Chulan kowtowed to him without the slightest awkwardness.
Just then, Wang Zhuo suddenly appeared beside him and muttered, "Ask him to bless my marriage. Get the old master to agree to me and Linglong being together. As they say, use it as soon as you get it~"
But he might as well not have bothered muttering. Everyone present had excellent hearing. Who could have missed that?
"Get the hell out of here!" Lu Jin bristled with fury, his eyes bulging. "Anything but that! Not even if you beat me to death!"
"I'd sooner smash my head against a wall than let you become my great-grandson-in-law!"
"I'm telling you, even if I died, even if I jumped off Mount Longhu, I would never agree!"
"Hehe~" Wang Zhuo gave a cheeky grin. "You really shouldn't make declarations like that, sir. You might not be able to take it when they come back to bite you."
While he joked, the phone in his trouser pocket had already recorded those words. Although he didn't know whether he would ever have a use for them, he kept feeling that day would come.
"Great-Grandpa, don't be so quick to refuse~" Lu Linglong's cheeks flushed shyly.
Super handsome.
Good-tempered.
Playful.
And knowledgeable, too.
An exceptional handsome guy like this was something you could only stumble upon, not seek out. Everyone talked about looking past appearances to see someone's heart, but who could truly ignore appearances and look only at the heart?
"Pfft!" Lu Jin nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.
His urge to kill this brat had already reached its peak, and he planned to give him some tender loving care in the middle of the night.
Zhang Zhiwei chuckled, his eyes narrowing until they were almost invisible, then spoke. "By the way, who is this behind Mr. Xu San?"
He was referring to Feng Baobao.
At that moment, Feng Baobao was eating potato chips, the crunching echoing through the room.
Zhang Chulan was momentarily speechless. Although he had known on the way here that they might ask, he hadn't expected it to happen so soon.
Whoosh!
Wang Zhuo instantly vanished from where he stood and appeared by the door. He tugged Feng Baobao's baseball cap a little lower and took out a few chips to eat, his broad back blocking half her body.
"Oh, this is my simple-minded big sister. She was adopted. The doctor said she inhaled amniotic fluid when she was born, so she's a bit slow."
"Please don't mind her. This simple-minded sister of mine gives us no end of worry, so we take her everywhere."
"Really? But everyone says I'm smart as hell?" Feng Baobao crunched on her chips.
Zhang Chulan reacted extremely quickly. "Right, right, she's Brother Liu's older sister. Later, they discovered she had some talent, so she was assigned a job at the company."
Xu San chimed in as well. "That's right. The higher-ups used their connections to arrange a position for Brother Liu's sister. It's also a way of looking after people with special needs."
He deliberately emphasized the words "higher-ups."
The man had powerful backing and was willing to let him borrow that authority, so he might as well milk it for all it was worth!
"..." The three elders fell silent.
Even they had been momentarily dazed by the teleportation Wang Zhuo had just performed, unable to track him for an instant.
What a peculiar brat! Lu Jin marveled inwardly.
Wang Zhuo continued tying up Feng Baobao's hair, making her look neat and tidy.
"Didn't I just put your hair up this morning? How did it end up like this again?"
"Couldn't help it. That idiot kept hitting me, so my hair came loose~" Feng Baobao glanced at Wang Ergou.
"Who the hell are you calling an idiot?" Wang Ergou ground his teeth in anger.
Wang Zhuo ignored Wang Ergou's protest and smiled dotingly at Feng Baobao.
"All right, I'll put it up for you again next time."
"Okay."
Lu Linglong breathed a sigh of relief, her tense heart finally settling completely.
So she was his sister. A sister was fine. A sister was good.
But that disheveled figure from a moment ago had brought someone to Lu Jin's mind.
Wu Gensheng!
So alike... far too alike!
Noticing the emotional shift in the man beside him, Zhang Zhiwei immediately spoke. "Old Lu, let's discuss business first. Business comes first."
"Mm..." Lu Jin answered in a low voice.
"Bring him in!"
As the words fell, a man with long blue hair and a hip-hop cap walked in. It was Ling, one of the contestants.
But everyone's attention was on the man he was holding, whose body was covered in a thin layer of ice and whose face was filled with terror.
"Hey there, sorry for the wait, everyone. This guy's still frozen. He's only just come around."
When Hu Jie saw Wang Zhuo, his terror intensified, and his entire body shook and trembled.
"I see..." Xu San could tell whom he was afraid of, but chose to ignore it.
"Hu Jie of Dongxiang Village has already been brought under Quanxing's control. We can question him about his father Hu Lin's death, though."
Lu Jin cleared his throat. "Originally, we didn't want to alert them either. We might have uncovered something if we'd kept watching him."
"But this brat couldn't hold back his murderous intent anymore, so..."
"So we stepped in!" Wang Zhuo teleported in front of Lu Linglong, keeping within bounds by putting his arm around her shoulders and touching nowhere else.
"Our Liu-Ling duo successfully took him down!"
"Th-that's right!" Lu Linglong lifted her little head proudly.
"You little bastard, did anyone ask you to speak? Get your hand off her!"
Lu Jin gritted his teeth in fury, itching to go over and give the brat another beating.
Lu Linglong spread her arms and stood in front of Wang Zhuo. "Why are you always yelling at Brother Liu, Great-Grandpa? If you keep this up, I won't like you anymore, and I'll never speak to you again!"
Lu Jin: ???
Before you continue