Ye Xuan was struck dumb.
Then he looked at Lin Shiru.
He saw Lin Shiru flush immediately.
"Mum, what are you talking about? I would have had to be a very good man in my previous life to have such a wonderful wife in this life. Go cooking, please."
Ye Xuan replied immediately.
He kind of knew what Su Yunmeng was thinking.
Was she encouraging him to pursue Lin Shiru?
What a great mum he had!
However, Su Yunmeng actually did not need to have done that because he had planned to confess his love to Lin Shiru that night.
"You... Okay. Okay. I'll go cooking."
Su Yunmeng did not want to overdo things to piss Lin Shiru off, so she did not stick to the topic after a brief mention of their future, and then she went to the kitchen.
However, while leaving, she gave a thought to Ye Xuan's response. In her opinion, Ye Xuan must know what she was thinking and what to do next.
Lin Shiru flushed even more after hearing Ye Xuan's words. She hurried to follow Su Yunmeng.
Ring...
Not long after the two had left, Ye Xuan received a call.
Ye Xuan looked at the screen and found it was Qi Liangcai calling him.
"Bro."
Ye Xuan greeted without thinking as soon as he answered the call.
"Come on, Ye Xuan. You are the vice dean of Jiangzhou University now. I'm not comfortable hearing you call me bro."
Qi Liangcai felt itchy all over his body as soon as he heard Ye Xuan address him that way.
"Haha, so what should I call you then? Qi? Liangcai?"
Ye Xuan smiled. He sounded a little sarcastic.
"Eh..." Qi Liangcai was dumbfounded, but then he said in an imposing manner, "Shoot. How dare you! Just call me bro! If you dare call me another way, I will keep shouting 'Ye Xuan, you are a bastard' across the campus. Don't you dare forget about your humble family after your success!"
Ye Xuan smiled. He said, "Well, tell me, what are you calling for?"
"Nothing important. I just want to ask you whether you have time tonight so that we can get together. There will be no strangers, just Wei Shan, Lv Jing, Li Yanting, and Yang Yuxin."
Qi Liangcai said.
"You want us to get together?"
Ye Xuan was struck dumb. He had formally graduated.
He should hang out with them on such an occasion indeed.
"Okay. I will see you tonight."
He agreed with a nod.
It was at noon, so it was still early.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})He was going to confess his love to Lin Shiru at night.
So, he could meet Qi Liangcai and others before that.
He was afraid they would not invite him ever again if he refused them this time.
"I knew you would come, but you know, if you are busy, you still can take a rain check."
Qi Liangcai said, laughing.
"It's okay. Let's do it today."
Ye Xuan shook his head.
He was going to drink some alcohol in the evening to embolden himself.
Otherwise, he would be a little too worried.
He felt it was very likely that Lin Shiru already knew his feelings for her.
And she probably would not reject him.
But he was still a little nervous. He wondered whether he was overconfident.
After all, he had never done anything like that before. It was the first time in his life.
"Ye Xuan."
Lil Wan came out of her World of the Elves not long after Ye Xuan had hung up the call.
"Yes?"
Ye Xuan looked at her.
"I want to have lunch with you and your family, too."
Lil Wan said, looking at him and pouting.
Ye Xuan had promised that to her before, but it had been a long time since they had come back, and he did not call her out even once. She was quite angry about that.
"That's all? The food hasn't been ready. I would certainly call you out if it were ready, even if you hadn't reminded me of that."
Ye Xuan said in a low voice.
"Really?"
Lil Wan beamed immediately.
"Of course. Did I ever lie to you?"
Ye Xuan promised her.
"That's great."
Lil Wan landed on his shoulder.
Seeing that, Ye Xuan felt relieved.
Lil Wan was different from his other beasts.
They grew up together, so he did not completely see Lil Wan as a beast. Instead, for him, she was a... Well, it was also a little hard to define their relationship.
He did not know how to describe his feelings for Lil Wan.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"Ye Xuan, lunch is ready. Go and wash your hands."
While Ye Xuan and Lil Wan were talking, Lin Shiru said to him as she set the table.
"All right."
Ye Xuan got to his feet immediately to wash his hands. Then he helped her bring the dishes.
Su Yunmeng made a lot of food this day.
The table was full of food. She was apparently very happy.
She was happy because Ye Xuan had been appointed as vice dean of Jiangzhou University for real.
Ye Xuan sat down when all of the dishes had been put on the table. He picked up his chopsticks and was going to try the braised meat. His mother prepared this dish with his favorite meat.
"Wait a little bit. Shiru hasn't sat down yet."
Su Yunmeng happened to walk over. She gave Ye Xuan a tap on the back as soon as she saw that.
"Come here, Shiru. Take a seat here."
Then she let Lin Shiru sit down next to Ye Xuan. "This is a special and memorable meal. Before we start, Ye Xuan, use your cell phone to take a photo of all of us first. We will start eating after the photo."
"Okay. You are the boss."
Ye Xuan was rendered helpless. He had to restrain his eagerness for that half-fat half-lean piece of alpaca meat and took his cell phone out.
"I can help."
Lil Wan took the cell phone as soon as she saw Ye Xuan take it out, and she was going to take a photo for the family.
"No. Lil Wan, you should take this photo with us."
Lin Shiru suggested right away.
"No, I won't do that. I am too small."
Lil Wan said in a bad mood.
She never liked to take photos.
She was too small.
"You are an elf. Elves are small. And you've grown a lot since the first time I saw you."
Lin Shiru said with a smile, "By the way, I read something before. I believe elves can be as big as a human when their cultivation level reaches a certain level."
"Really?"
Lil Wan's eyes lit up immediately.
They had the shape of the new moon.
She was looking at Lin Shiru with excitement.
"No kidding."
Lin Shiru smiled at her.
"That will be great."
Lil Wan flew a lap around Lin Shiru. Her unhappiness with the latter was immediately gone.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})She started to regard Lin Shiru as a family member right away.
Ye Xuan was astonished by what he had seen.
He was surprised that Lin Shiru had made a good impression on Lil Wan so easily.
"Come on. Let's take a photo together. I want to take it with you!"
Lil Wan was so happy that she landed on Lin Shiru's right shoulder.
Then she left the cell phone suspended in the air. Throwing Ye Xuan a look, she said, "Xuanxuan, move a little toward Ms. Lin. Why are you sitting so far away from her?"
"?"
Ye Xuan threw Lil Wan a look. He was dumbfounded.
He always knew Lil Wan was easy to handle.
Very easy to handle.
But he was still surprised that she was so easy to handle.
However, since Lil Wan had mentioned it, he certainly should take this chance to move his stool closer to Lin Shiru.
Like, very close.
And he made the victory sign behind Lin Shiru so that it looked like she had two horns on her head.
On the other hand, Su Yunmeng gave Ye Guotao a sign so one of them shoved Lin Shiru toward Ye Xuan and the other shoved Ye Xuan toward Lin Shiru.
Click!
With a click, a family photo was taken.
Whoosh!
Ye Xuan grasped the cell phone. He looked at the photo carefully and found it was perfect.
He and Lin Shiru looked like a new young couple in the photo.
More than that, the man was handsome and the woman was pretty.
He set the photo as the wallpaper of his cell phone right away.
Next to him, Lin Shiru gave him a stare when she had seen Ye Xuan's hand on her head.
Ye Xuan grinned.
...
"Linlin, I will have dinner with Qi Liangcai and a few other friends tonight. I'll go to your place after dinner. You will let me in, won't you?"
"And there is something I need to talk with you about. Please stay tuned."
Lin Shiru spent some more time at Ye Xuan's home after lunch. Then she left.
After all, as a vice-dean of Jiangzhou University, she still needed to work.
Before she left, Ye Xuan tugged at her clothes and then told her that while giving her a light touch on her hand.
"Okay."
Lin Shiru seemed to have guessed what Ye Xuan was going to say to her that night.
She did not even dare look at him.
She left after a brief nod.
"I'll get what I won't, won't I? Yes! I definitely will!"
Seeing Lin Shiru leave, Ye Xuan, very nervous at the moment, gave himself a pep talk.
...
"Ye Xuan, cheers."
Time passed quickly. The evening came in the blink of an eye.
In a restaurant on the food street of Jiangzhou University, Qi Liangcai and others raised their cups to clink with Ye Xuan.
And they all drank up.
Including the three girls, Lv Jing, Li Yanting, and Yang Yuxin.
"Ye Xuan, I have something to tell you."
After finishing the alcohol in his cup, Qi Liangcai said looking at Ye Xuan, "Have you found anything unusual lately?"
"Unusual? What is unusual?"
Ye Xuan asked out of confusion.
Qi Liangcai pointed up at the sky. "Up there. I've had the feeling that something is gonna happen these days, but it doesn't seem to be anything bad. I just feel like I will ascend to heaven."
"Ascend to heaven? You are daydreaming!"
Ye Xuan showed an odd expression.
But he did not notice one thing while Qi Liangcai was speaking.
Li Yanting, sitting next to him during the dinner on purpose, threw a look at Qi Liangcai in surprise, but she did not say anything.
"You found nothing unusual? Is it really just my illusion?"
Qi Liangcai scratched his head.
"In my opinion, it's only because you've been sleeping too much."
Wei Shan threw Qi Liangcai a helpless look.
Qi Liangcai had told him and Lv Jing about this more than once.
But both of them thought it was only his illusion.
However, Ye Xuan looked at the Three-Legged Bluefire Crow standing on Qi Liangcai's shoulder after hearing what the latter had said.
[Three-Legged Bluefire Crow: Five Stars
Beast Level: Silver (High)
Abilities: Three-Legged Bluefire Crow Aspect, Blue Fire Sky Burning Technique...
Status: in the middle of mutation and evolution under the effect of a half-awake special talent, will evolve into a Gold Five-Star Three-legged Solarfire Crow very soon.]
Qi Liangcai's cultivation level had enhanced a lot recently.
Ye Xuan thought about how long it had taken him to achieve the Diamond level from the Dark Iron level.
During such a short time, Qi Liangcai's Three-legged Hellfire Crow evolved into the Three-Legged Bluefire Crow, and more than that, it achieved the high Silver level from the low Silver level. That was really fast.
And it was still mutating and evolving. It probably would evolve into a Gold-level Three-legged Solarfire Crow very soon.
That made him quite curious.
He wondered what new talent Qi Liangcai had got.
But maybe even Qi Liangcai himself did not know that.
After all, this talent was only half awake at the moment.
At the same time, Ye Xuan figured that it was probably due to the awakening talent that Qi Liangcai had been feeling weird.
But he did not say anything about that.
He figured he should wait until Qi Liangcai's talent had been completely awake.
"Ye Xuan, you are a vice-dean of Jiangzhou University from now on. Don't forget to take care of your old classmates."
At this moment, Li Yanting raised her glass with a big smile to toast Ye Xuan.
"Sure thing."
Ye Xuan clinked glasses with Li Yanting.
Li Yanting seemed to have specially made up for the dinner. She looked even prettier than usual, but she was still in the same outfit.
It was still a white half-sleeve blouse, a light blue skirt, and a pair of white sandals.
But maybe she had bought many pieces of the same clothes.
That was why she was always in the same outfit.
Ye Xuan could not help but look at the text printed on the chest part of her clothes while clinking with her. It was especially well written, with a perfect blend of delicacy and force.
He could not help but stare at it.
Although he kept reminding himself that he already had Lin Shiru, the calligraphy just looked too nice.
Besides, Li Yanting was sitting right next to him. He could not help but feel a little awkward.
"Ye Xuan, what do you think about Yanting? Don't you think she is especially beautiful tonight? You know what? She spent a lot of time making up because you said you would have dinner with us."
Seeing the two clink glasses, Yang Yuxin said in a joking tone.
"Wow... Really?"
Ye Xuan felt a little awkward. He did not know what to say.
He had to fudge the answer. Then he got himself a refill and raised his glass again. "Guys, you really didn't have to do this. I've just been cultivating a little faster. Countless opportunities have come up since the appearance of the Ancient God Planet. Maybe some of you will exceed me shortly. Don't forget about me by then."
"Haha, I will call you Lil Ye when my cultivation level exceeds yours!"
Qi Liangcai burst out laughing.
He spoke his mind directly.
Ye Xuan laughed, too.
They kept clinking glasses and drinking.
The dinner went on until seven or eight o'clock in the evening. Ye Xuan suggested they call it a day, so they were all going back.
Although Ye Xuan had drunk quite a lot, he did not forget he had something important to do that evening.
He did not want to keep Linlin waiting.
"Eh?"
However, when the group had left the restaurant, Yang Yuxin seemed to receive a message. Looking at Ye Xuan, she said, "Ye Xuan, I've got an emergency and need to leave right now. Yanting has drunk a lot today. Maybe you can escort her back?"
Did she drink a lot?
Are you kidding me?
We are all Beast Tamers.
We are not average human beings.
However, Yang Yuxin left in haste as soon as she said that to Ye Xuan without even saying goodbye to them.
"Ye Xuan, we should go, too. See you."
Then Qi Liangcai and others blinked at him and also left.
What the hell!
Ye Xuan was totally dumbfounded.
What is this?
I'm busy tonight!
Besides.
This is Jiangzhou University.
No one knows how many Seeds of the Void Linlin left across the campus.
Linlin can know everything that is happening here, okay?
He felt he had been framed.
Qi Liangcai and others did this out of good intention.
But he really could not handle it.
"Well, they were just joking. Ye Xuan, if you are busy, just go back."
Seeing Ye Xuan so frustrated, Li Yanting said, pretending she did not care.
"Well... Okay."
Ye Xuan felt relieved.
He was going to leave right away.
He really did not want to stand with Li Yanting like this. He was too timid.
He was afraid that Lin Shiru was watching him.
In that case, he was afraid his plan for that night would end up in failure.
He was very regretful. He sincerely thought he should have had this dinner with Qi Liangcai and others another day.
"Ye Xuan, wait."
However, seeing Ye Xuan leaving for real, Li Yanting finally could not stay silent anymore. She asked him, "May I ask why you've been cultivating so hard? Do you want to be the strongest man in the world?"
At Jiangzhou University, numerous girls had a crush on Ye Xuan.
She did not feel that way at the beginning.
But over time, she found she was thinking about Ye Xuan a lot.
She actually almost gave up when she had realized Ye Xuan was not very interested in her.
She was going to force herself to stop liking him.
But she felt her heart aching after learning Ye Xuan had been appointed as vice dean of Jiangzhou University.
She figured she would regret it a lot if she did not even give it a try.
So, she asked Yang Yuxin for help.
Standing there and seeing Ye Xuan not interested in her at all, she just could not help but ask him what had been puzzling her.
She wanted to know whether Ye Xuan was going to keep cultivating this way.
Whether he would not think about having a relationship until he was strong enough.
In that case, she thought she would not mind waiting a little longer.
"No, I'm not interested in becoming the strongest man in the world. I only want to be strong enough to protect those I want to protect, like my parents and the woman I love."
Ye Xuan said, shaking his head.
He thought he had better come straight to the point and get himself out of here as soon as possible.
So, he intentionally mentioned there was someone he was in love with.
"You are already in love with someone?"
Li Yanting was struck dumb. She asked, "May I ask who it is?"
She had been paying close attention to Ye Xuan.
But she had never found him especially close to anyone.
Ye Xuan did not answer her.
He only took out his cell phone and showed Li Yanting the screen.
"Lin..."
Li Yanting immediately saw Ye Xuan and Lin Shiru sitting close to each other on the screen of his cell phone.
She opened her mouth wide out of surprise.
She was really surprised that Ye Xuan had been with their Dean Lin.
And there was this photo, which meant he had taken Dean Lin to visit his parents.
They even took a family photo together.
She could not help but tremble.
She felt very sad.
"Congratulations."
She said.
Then she wanted to turn around.
However, when she was about to turn around, gazing at Ye Xuan's handsome face, she somehow said all of a sudden.
"Ye Xuan, you know what? I've been feeling like I'm attracted to something in the sky lately, just like how Qi Liangcai has been feeling. I think I might leave this world very soon... I mean it. It's not a lie... I'm thinking..."
"Could you hug me if you don't mind? Just one hug. Don't worry. I won't keep bothering you in the future just because of that."
"?"
Looking at Li Yanting's rosy face, Ye Xuan felt he might be doomed.
He was even feeling the subtle spatial fluctuation around him at the moment.
He was sure Lin Shiru was watching him.
So, he had to turn Li Yanting down.
Otherwise, all of his efforts would be wasted.
But Li Yanting was after all a girl. He really had no idea how to turn her down without making her feel awkward.
Ring...
Ye Xuan immediately took his cell phone out.
He answered the call without even looking at the screen to see who was calling.
"Ye Xuan, is the dinner over?"
He heard Lin Shiru's voice on the phone.
"Eh..."
Ye Xuan shivered. He answered immediately, "Yeah, it's over. What's up?"
"Nothing. Just a job thing. There are some documents for you to sign to take the post of vice-dean of Jiangzhou University. And it's better to be done tonight so that we can announce your appointment tomorrow."
"Okay. No problem. I'm going back right now."
Ye Xuan replied right away.
He said something else with Lin Shiru and then hung up the call.
He felt he was sweating in the palm of his hand.
Darn it!
What was all that?
He literally freaked out.
He wondered whether his love confession would still succeed that night.
"Ye Xuan, now that you are busy, I'm leaving."
Li Yanting said to Ye Xuan when he had hung up the call. Then she left with a rosy face.
She felt Lin Shiru had found out her attempt to steal Ye Xuan from the latter.
What should she do?
She was so nervous.
She lost the courage to face Ye Xuan.
At the same time, she was feeling very lost while leaving.
She saw how Ye Xuan was smiling when he took out his cell phone and showed her Lin Shiru's photo. That smile made her realize that even if she did not mind being his concubine, she still would not have a chance.