He'd do it.
He was absolutely capable of it!!!
Seeing Liuli frozen in place, her face pale and ashen, unable to say a word for a long time, Qiji thought she was worried about the Kamishiro Family behind her. He kindly offered a solution:
"Are you worried about the Kamishiro Family?"
Liuli looked at him blankly, still not fully recovered from the terrifying image of herself wetting her pants.
"How about this? If they blame you, just tell them I interfered and ruined your mission. They can come find me."
Qiji spoke lightly, as casually as if he were asking what was for lunch.
"I'll help you-"
"-kill them all."
?!
Those words left Liuli stunned once again.
This devil had just calmly said he would beat her until she wet her pants in front of everyone...
And now, in that same calm tone, he was saying he would help her kill the people from the Kamishiro Family, who controlled and tormented her, making her life worse than death?
He was clearly a devil...
Since he was a devil,
he shouldn't say something so moving as if it were nothing!
Whether he said he would kill her or help her kill the people from the Kamishiro Family...
Both had unexpectedly stirred a faint ripple in her long-dead heart, one she couldn't understand herself.
"Qiji... can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead." Watching the numbers in his livestream keep climbing, Qiji was in a good mood and readily agreed.
"How... do you know all this?"
About her lineage, about the Kamishiro Family...
Why did this guy know so much?
Hearing the question, Qiji didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he stared quietly at Liuli for several breaths before slowly opening his mouth.
The viewers in the livestream were curious too, and they all pricked up their ears alongside Liuli.
But the instant the words left Qiji's mouth-
"Whoosh!!"
A powerful gust blew through!
An ill-timed draft happened to sweep in through the window beside them!
It came with a howl!
The strong wind swallowed his words. Onscreen, Qiji's trench coat billowed and Liuli's hair flew.
And amid the howling wind, Liuli, who had just managed to make out something, seemed unable to believe it-
She looked sharply at Qiji, frozen in place.
Chapter 8: Don't Be Silly
With the wind cutting in, Qiji delivered the audacious line he had spent several whole kun years thinking up.
Then, as his words fell, he turned crisply without lingering.
The hem of his trench coat cut through the air as he made a dashing exit.
He had shown off and left, hiding his achievements and his name.
Only Liuli remained, standing there in a daze.
The sheer amount of information in Qiji's ambiguous words had completely short-circuited the girl's brain.
Of course, the viewers in the livestream had short-circuited too:
"??? He said something? What did he say?"
"Fuck! It had to go wrong at the crucial moment! What the hell is with this wind?!"
"Director! Did you arrange this wind?! Turn the volume back up, bakayaro!"
"Hajiqi definitely said something incredible just now! Look at Liuli's face!"
"I'm dying to know! Any brothers here who can read lips? Translate it, quick!"
"Lip-read my ass! He's wearing a mask! Even a lip-reader couldn't help!"
"Fuck! I'm dying here!"
"Whatever, it doesn't matter what he said. Just look at the atmosphere! The mood! I'm shipping them first!"
As Qiji's figure was about to disappear down the corridor, Liuli suddenly snapped out of her daze, driven by what seemed like instinct. She took half a step after him and called out:
"Qiji!"
"Hm?"
Qiji, who had already reached the corner, stopped and turned slightly, his mask facing her.
"..."
Under his calm gaze, Liuli opened her mouth, only to find her mind completely blank.
She had called out to him on a strange impulse, but now that she'd stopped him, she had no idea what to say or do.
In her panic, the shattered lenses on the floor caught her eye.
She hurriedly pointed at the fragments and said weakly:
"M-my glasses... Qiji, you'll... pay me back for them, right?"
"...Huh?"
Qiji froze for a moment. He hadn't expected her to call him back just to try to shake him down.
You could talk to Qiji about anything else, but money was absolutely off-limits!
"That's your punishment for doing something bad."
Liuli acted as though she hadn't heard him. She crouched down on her own, picked up the pieces of her glasses one by one, and gathered them in her palm.
"But... these glasses are very precious to me. They mean something irreplaceable."
As she spoke, her voice actually choked up, and she squeezed out several tears in succession.
"Holy shit, the bad woman's crying!"
"Anyone buying the bad woman's tears?"
"Brother Ji's a real tough guy—made one cry right off the bat!"
Qiji silently watched her performance.
Having seen the general plot of the first season, he naturally knew that what this woman did best was use her pitiful appearance and superb acting, combined with Mind Echo, to achieve her goals.
But Qiji wasn't falling for it.
Just destroying one pair of Liuli's glasses already counted as him holding back his bad mood after waking up.
But Liuli clearly looked like she intended to latch onto him.
She raised her tearful eyes, her voice pleading:
"Qiji, you broke my... you broke my glasses. You'll... take responsibility for me, right?"
"Don't be silly. That's the price you pay for disturbing my afternoon nap."
Qiji tossed out those words without looking back and disappeared from the girl's sight.
[Ding!] [System notification: Livestream popularity rising!] [Host, please keep up the good work!]
Watching the popularity of his personal channel continue to soar, the corners of Qiji's mouth lifted slightly beneath his mask.
Sure enough, in the early stages of the plot, frequent collaborations with the controversial "major streamer" Liuli were the best traffic hack for boosting his popularity!
Comments were still flooding the screen, and the discussion was as heated as ever:
"Hahaha, the bad woman deserves a good lesson!"
"Come on, streamer, just pay her back for a pair of glasses!"
"I'm dying. Did you see what the streamer ate for lunch? Pay her back? Does he even have the money?"
"Who said anything about paying with money? (Laughs)"
The bell rang for afternoon class.
Teacher Tsukimi strolled leisurely into the classroom and let out a soft exclamation when he saw the broken instrument.
The students' gazes immediately converged on Huomu, some openly and some discreetly.
They waited for the show, for the teacher to investigate, for Huomu to be called to account.
Earlier, in a fit of anger, they had spoken recklessly, saying things like Huomu should go jump off the roof...
After calming down and thinking it over, they had felt a little scared.
Fortunately, Huomu had chickened out.
On the one hand, they were relieved. On the other, their resentment at "nearly being burdened with guilt because of this trash" began to surface again.
Huomu kept his head down, a little nervous.
He wanted to prove his innocence, but he had no clues to the real culprit's identity.
He didn't know how he would respond when the teacher questioned him.
But to his surprise, Teacher Tsukimi merely muttered:
"The instrument's broken? That's great. Now we don't have to do that troublesome echo potential test."
Although the echo crystal supplied the energy for the echo test, he had to concentrate on controlling it the whole time. It was a hassle for him too, and it disrupted his novel-reading.
Now that he could openly slack off, he couldn't have been happier.
Teacher Tsukimi plopped down on his stool, propped both feet on the lectern, and happily pulled out the romance novel he was halfway through.
As he flipped through it, he said casually, "The two entrance exams this afternoon are a theory exam and a practical exam. We'll do the theory exam first. Liuli, go to my office and bring back the exam papers on the desk."
Hearing this, one student couldn't help raising a hand, his voice full of disbelief:
"Teacher! Someone destroyed the instrument! The echo crystal inside is gone!"
"I saw it. I'm not blind."
"If you saw it, shouldn't you investigate?"
"It's not mine. If the school lost something, it can investigate on its own."
Everyone was utterly stunned to hear Yuejian say something so irresponsible.
Yuejian showed no awareness of his responsibilities as a teacher. He flipped through his novel without looking up and added, "Oh, right. Since I'm not very responsible, you don't have to call me teacher either."
"Unbelievable! This teacher!"
"He and the streamer are a crouching dragon and a fledgling phoenix!"