Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Jingliu: You'd Better Mean That

"Little Wangshu~"

Only after the portable cart had smoothly pulled away from the bustling crowd near the academy did Jingliu slowly settle her emotions.

Though the rims of her eyes were still faintly red, as if a streak of crimson had been painted at their corners — tinged with lingering hurt.

"There's really nothing between us. We've only known each other two days."

Wangshu explained earnestly while keeping his eyes on the road.

Two days was simply too short. Far too short — let alone the fact that the other party was a Swarm Lord, a creature that Senior Jingliu and Asta in the group chat held in deep hostility.

"..."

Little Jingliu said nothing. She lifted her small face, crimson eyes gazing at Wangshu with a calm that had lost its earlier fire. Her lips pressed together.

"It's different between us."

Wangshu's tone turned uncharacteristically serious, carrying a note of urgency. Work was work, life was life. Two days on the work front passed in a blink, but four days of living together — every minute and every second mattered.

"I can't tell."

Little Jingliu lowered her eyes, arms crossed over her chest, sitting beside him. The seat was only so wide — they were practically shoulder to shoulder — yet she deliberately angled her body to the other side, holding herself rigid.

Not once touching Wangshu. Like a sulking little hedgehog with all its quills raised.

Until a moment later — still not quite at ease, or perhaps simply curious — she quietly shifted, leaning over the cart's low backrest, poking her little head out to peer at the crowd receding behind them.

Noon dismissal at the academy. People heading home and people eating lunch milled about in a sea of motion, but she immediately spotted the bad woman Huoshi, lounging in the sun without a care in the world.

Wangshu looked back too. Seeing Huoshi's gentle profile in the sunlight, he suddenly froze.

Wait — the data collector!

He'd been so caught up bickering with little Jingliu that he'd completely forgotten to get it back from Huoshi!

"I don't like her."

Jingliu's voice was muffled, carrying raw, unhidden emotion.

Wangshu's smile turned pained, his voice faintly trembling: "I don't like her either."

"That sounds like a lie."

Jingliu raised her eyes again, cutting through the pretense without mercy.

In the distance, the bad woman was still standing there. She'd even noticed them looking back — a smile blossomed on her face as she gave a gentle wave, displaying something in her hand.

Before Jingliu could make out what it was, Huoshi flicked her wrist. The small object traced a precise arc through the air, sailing toward their cart.

Jingliu's fur bristled instantly.

"What is that?!"

......

Huoshi watched the little cart disappear around a corner before finally withdrawing her gaze. Then her eyes shifted, glancing toward a blue-tiled rooftop in the distance.

The androgynous figure had vanished — an Emanator of Abundance.

"Cangcheng really is a wonderful place. All sorts mixed together, everyone getting what they need."

Huoshi murmured to herself.

Xianzhou natives with their new-era pioneering spirit were here, chasing gold and dreams.

The IPC favored Cangcheng too — the war between the Xianzhou Alliance and Abundance dragged on endlessly, but the Xianzhou, as the premiere force under the Hunt Aeon, offered commercial value and strategic significance that no one could overlook.

"Propagation, the Hunt, Abundance."

She tilted her head skyward. The artificial canopy simulated a sky washed clean of clouds. By day, the Langgan Tree's pale glow was barely visible, but the pure, unadulterated Abundance divine power it contained was tantalizing — achingly covetable.

"The Langgan Tree — its fruit like pearls, warm and lustrous as jade."

The pieces suddenly fell into place. All of them. Abundance's offspring needed the Langgan Jade Tree — so what about Wangshu, whose Propagation source fusion was incomplete?

Not that it concerned her. Wangshu himself didn't seem to care about the Abundance Emanator. No need for her to worry either.

That rich, sweet aroma slowly receded into the distance. Faintly, she could still hear little Jingliu sulking in the distance, along with her insistence on trying the data collector herself.

【Bright Future Chat Group】

Wangshu: "Emergency help — how do I delete data from the data collector?"

Jingliu: "Why would you delete it?"

Wangshu: "Little Jingliu got competitive and used it on herself too."

Jingliu: "..."

Wangshu: "@Asta"

No response. After a long while, Asta finally squeezed in a single message.

Asta: "Chat later — just discovered an interesting new arrival at the station. It's finally my time to shine."

She went offline again after that.

As the station chief of Herta Space Station — and a responsible one at that — being busy was only natural.

Jingliu: "I still can't figure out why the past me would get competitive. Or use that kind of device."

Wangshu: "It's all the Alluring Swarm Lord's fault. When she was fulfilling the deal today, she deliberately used suggestive language — saying our agreement was about 'children' — and only then produced the data collector."

Wangshu: "I tried to explain, I really did. But little Jingliu genuinely doesn't believe it's just a data collector."

He didn't know where little Jingliu's imagination had gone. He also didn't understand why such a small data collector was so exquisitely crafted, complete with a plum blossom insignia — looking unreasonably elegant.

Jingliu: "So what does that have to do with me being competitive?"

Wangshu: "We're really close."

Little Jingliu had fallen asleep. The data collector seemed to have a sedative effect — it now lay quietly in her gently curled palm.

Sleeping Jingliu looked especially docile, all traces of waking stubbornness, liveliness, and little temper stripped away. Her soft blue-and-white gradient hair draped across her plump little cheeks, rising and falling with her steady breathing — the movement barely perceptible.

Only her lips remained faintly pressed together, as if she was still a bit indignant even in her dreams.

Jingliu: "Oh..."

She could understand, actually. Wangshu was, in a sense, her past self's friend. Given little Jingliu's cool yet insecure personality — with that undercurrent of protectiveness — she'd almost certainly watch over little Wangshu.

It was just that Wangshu's phrasing was terrible. Insisting on calling Huoshi's behavior "suggestive," then mentioning that little Jingliu "got competitive" — it left her with a strange feeling she couldn't quite name.

【Jingliu has requested entry into Wangshu's world. Awaiting Wangshu's app... Time parameter error. Request failed. For details, please refer to Case #1 in the group archive.】

Wangshu: "..."

Jingliu: "..."

Wangshu: "Senior?"

Jingliu's reply was swift: "It's nothing, little boy. I tapped the wrong thing."

Wangshu was quiet for a moment, then decided to take the offered exit: "Yeah, the chat group interface really is poorly designed. Way too easy to mistap."

Jingliu: "Candle.jpg"

Wangshu, trying to lighten the mood: "Don't_ask_a_warrior_of_light_such_dark_questions.jpg"

Jingliu: "Where am I... right now?"

Wangshu: "In the cart. Still sleeping."

Jingliu: "Then never mind."

Little Jingliu was indeed in the cart.

But the cart had long since parked steadily at the front door. Wangshu had killed the engine. There were no seatbelts, but with little Jingliu leaning against him, she didn't need one.

He bent down and carefully lifted the sleeping girl. She was light — soft as a cloud.

Wangshu gazed at her completely defenseless sleeping face, then gently brushed those few mischievous strands of hair from her cheek and tucked them behind her ear.

"Let's skip just one more afternoon today. If a teacher comes for a home visit, that's fine — I'll always be on little Jingliu's side."