"Grandpa... please wait a little longer. Right now, even I don't know where the gift is."
Wang Yixue looked somewhat unnatural, her brow filled with anxiety.
With her head lowered, she tapped frantically at her phone.
She kept sending message after message.
"Master Xu, where are you?"
"Why hasn't the mecha I ordered been delivered?"
"I trusted you so much. How could you scam me?"
"Please make sure you call me back when you see these messages!"
"..."
Standing beside her, Wang Tianhao noticed something was wrong with his beloved daughter's expression and frowned.
He asked quietly, "Yixue, did that Master Xu scam you?"
"Mm..." Wang Yixue was so anxious that her eyes had reddened.
"Yixue, where's your gift? Stop hiding it. Hurry up and show everyone."
Wang Ning ran over, hugged Wang Yixue's arm, and shook it twice as she urged her again.
"I..."
Tears filled Wang Yixue's eyes, and her chin trembled slightly.
Her face was full of hurt, and she was on the verge of crying.
How could she bring herself to say she had been scammed?
She was about to die of social death!!
Only then was Wang Ning certain that Wang Yixue really hadn't brought a gift, and flowers of delight bloomed in her heart.
Ever since they were little, Wang Yixue had shone so brightly in everything: grades, music, art, Math Olympiads, and more.
Today, she had finally lost to her for once!
Wang Ning fought back the urge to laugh and put on a show of concern.
"Yixue, did you lose it? Don't worry. We can say that 10 cm exoskeleton armor model of mine is from both of us! Grandpa really likes it!"
"No, I didn't lose it."
Hearing Wang Ning say that made Wang Yixue feel even worse.
She had originally prepared a 50 cm mecha model too. Grandpa would surely have liked it!
Now that things had come to this, she could only tell them she had been scammed.
"I did prepare a gift, but..."
Her phone suddenly beeped, interrupting her.
Immediately afterward, a call came in.
She checked the number. It was actually Xu Fan!
Well, well.
Were scammers really this brazen these days?
Wang Yixue immediately answered the phone, fuming.
An exasperated voice came from the other end.
"Miss Wang, where exactly did I scam you? I delivered it last night. It's sitting in the open space outside the villa."
"A 500 cm-tall mecha, something that huge-did you really not see it, or are you pretending not to? I swear!"
"More than twenty calls in one morning. You're really something!"
Wang Yixue froze, her mind struggling to catch up.
She was supposed to be the one blowing up. How had it turned around?
And what was this about 500 cm?
She hurriedly switched to the chat screen.
Only then did she discover that when she placed the custom order two days ago, she had accidentally typed an extra zero.
The mecha that should have been 50 cm had become 500 cm!
In other words, that enormous thing wrapped in red cloth outside the villa was the mecha she had ordered??
Hiss-
Wang Yixue sucked in a cold breath.
"M-Master Xu, please calm down first. I..."
Once she understood this, Wang Yixue's earlier gloom was swept away, and she spoke much more politely.
"You what!"
"I'm not giving you a refund!"
"And you have to send me the rest of the money, or I'll... I'll call and harass you every day! I'll hire a lawyer and sue you too. I won't let you off!"
Wang Yixue was cut off mid-sentence. The voice on the other end had clearly grown frantic.
"No, no, Master Xu, I won't dodge the bill. I'll transfer the balance once I'm done here."
"That's more like it! There's dedicated software for waking up the mecha and tracking its data. I've sent it to you. Check it!"
"Beep, beep, beep..."
Hearing him hang up, Wang Yixue felt a little dazed.
It seemed she had wronged Master Xu.
But this five-meter-tall mecha had been finished in less than two days.
Could it really be impressive and high-end?
Forget it. Getting it made at all was good enough. Wang Yixue wasn't holding out much hope.
The call hadn't been on speakerphone, but everyone around her had heard the gist of it.
Wang Ning glanced out the window, thinking that something so large had to be shoddily made, just a pile of scrap iron welded together into a rough shape.
She had seen plenty of junk models like that.
They couldn't compare with the exquisite 10 cm model she had bought from Eagle Sauce.
Her gaze shifted, and she said with a smile,
"Yixue, it looks like the gift you prepared is wonderful too. Since the birthday banquet hasn't started yet, let's go take a look!"
"Grandpa, would you like to take a look first?" Wang Yixue felt somewhat downcast.
She would rather have waited until the guests left. Embarrassing herself in front of her family was better than embarrassing herself in front of over a hundred guests.
"Oh, come on, let's take a look. It'll only take a few minutes!" Wang Ning egged them on from the side.
"All right, let's go have a look."
Elder Wang laughed heartily and led everyone toward the open space outside the villa, chatting and laughing as they went.
Wang Yixue followed at the very back, her heart tossed up and down.
She could fully imagine what expressions everyone would have when they saw this ugly model.
Standing at the feet of the mecha wrapped in red cloth, Wang Yixue wished she could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
She really was going to embarrass herself this time!
Elder Wang, Elder Hua, the relatives, and the guests all gathered around, curiously guessing what lay beneath the red cloth.
"Yixue, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and pull off the red cloth!"
Wang Ning urged her on, already unable to wait to see Wang Yixue make a fool of herself.
"Little Yixue, Grandpa will like any gift as long as it's from you. Uncover it!" Seeing that his granddaughter seemed a little worried, Elder Wang comforted her.
"Beautiful Yixue, hurry up and show us!" The guests joined in urging her.
Hearing them, Wang Yixue took a deep breath inwardly.
She would throw caution to the wind!
Gripping a corner of the red cloth, she gave it a fierce tug.
The red cloth slid away.
A red mecha gleaming with a cold luster loomed before everyone's eyes, blotting out the sky and sun.
Its sky-spanning presence brought an unparalleled sense of oppression.
It forced countless people to stop breathing.
An angular frame, a domineering, stunning design.
Eyes gleaming with a metallic red light, and an enormous-caliber railgun mounted on its shoulder!
At that moment.
It blew everyone's eyes apart.
A savage wave of shock rose from the soles of countless people's feet and shot straight to the crowns of their heads.
Their scalps were blown clean off!
Wang Ning, who had been waiting to enjoy the show, suddenly shuddered all over, her pupils shaking violently.
Her eyes were filled with disbelief.
With a thud, she collapsed onto the ground.
She had lost her wits, her soul gone.