Jiang Jialie had to marvel at Gadelia’s extravagance.
After dealing with the matter of Tu Kunpeng, Jiang Jialie followed Gadelia’s instructions and drove the car to a 4S dealership.
Then Gadelia bought a new car and took Jiang Jialie back on the road.
This time, Gadelia was driving herself. Though she was still tired, it didn’t matter.
Look, Jiang Jialie was so shocked she couldn’t speak. Her face turned pale from the shock.
“You’re not keeping that car?”
“I could give it to you if you want, but you’d have to wait until it’s repaired.”
Shaking her head like a rattle-drum, Jiang Jialie repeatedly refused.
She was afraid that Gadelia would use this as an excuse to force her into working for her for life. Without pay, even.
Rich people are terrifying! They always want to empty her already meager wallet.
“I planned a way out for you later. Isn’t that good?”
Gadelia smiled gently, as if she truly wanted to help Jiang Jialie. If you didn’t consider the context, that is.
“No thanks. I’d rather be the one in charge of my own life. I don’t need anyone’s help.”
While waiting for the red light at an intersection, Gadelia turned her head to glance at Jiang Jialie, who was gripping her seatbelt tightly.
“I was actually planning to go to your school and find a way to get you out of military training so you could come straight to work at my shop.”
Hearing that she wouldn’t have to do military training, Jiang Jialie’s eyes lit up. She immediately gave her past self a mental slap in the face and agreed to Gadelia’s arrangement.
“When do I start work? Can it be tomorrow? How many hours a day? Can I take leave? Do I get holidays off?”
After pledging her loyalty to Gadelia, Jiang Jialie showed her true colors, firing off three rapid questions that revealed a young person’s attitude toward work.
“Stop, stop, stop!”
Seeing the green light, Gadelia floored the accelerator, causing the unprepared Jiang Jialie to nearly slam into the windshield.
“I feel like you’re not here to work for me—you’re here to be my boss.”
Holding her forehead with one hand, Gadelia couldn’t keep up with the thinking of young people like Jiang Jialie at all.
I’m not that old, am I? I just can’t understand.
Looks like I’ll need to learn from Jiang Jialie properly! Otherwise, after leaving Zhou Ming, I won’t even be able to guess his thoughts.
“Go to school today, and you can start work tomorrow.”
Under Jiang Jialie’s extremely worshipful gaze, Gadelia pulled out her phone, opened a messaging app, and handed it to Jiang Jialie.
“Add me as a friend. My contact info and account are the same.”
Jiang Jialie added Gadelia as a friend, then tried to call Gadelia. After confirming that Gadelia’s phone rang, she felt reassured and returned the phone to Gadelia.
Gadelia’s avatar was a black vortex emitting purple light. The background was a snowy scene, the kind people post on social media when they’re traveling.
Jiang Jialie remembered there had been safety education at school, and the teacher had emphasized not to easily trust people online who pretend to be rich and travel everywhere.
She sneaked a glance at Gadelia. After confirming that Gadelia wasn’t looking at her, Jiang Jialie opened Gadelia’s account in the messaging app.
She silently reminded herself:
“From now on, I’ll be watching you. Don’t even think about keeping Zhou Ming all to yourself.”
Gadelia’s actions had indeed had an effect on Jiang Jialie. Now Jiang Jialie’s impression of Gadelia had improved a lot, and even the matter of competing for Zhou Ming seemed less hostile.
“Gadelia, you feel like one of those old people who haven’t kept up with the times at all.”
While driving, Gadelia chatted with Jiang Jialie.
“Alright, then teach me how to keep up with the times and compete with you for Zhou Ming. How about that?”
Jiang Jialie was taken aback. Her pretty face was full of hesitation. Her hands kept moving on the seatbelt, nodding and shaking her head repeatedly. She didn’t snap out of it even when they arrived at the Yucheng University gate.
“We’re here.”
After reminding Jiang Jialie, Gadelia looked around but found no parking spot.
Jiang Jialie’s eyes were vacant. After getting out of the car, she stood still without moving.
By the time Gadelia parked the car and walked over leisurely, there was still no light in Jiang Jialie’s eyes.
She gently pushed Jiang Jialie, but seeing no reaction, Gadelia sighed helplessly and left on her own.
This kid is hopeless!
Relying on her money power, Gadelia successfully got Jiang Jialie out of military training and into another abyss.
As she left the school, Gadelia confirmed Jiang Jialie had returned to normal, which made her a little relieved.
If something happened to Jiang Jialie, Zhou Ming would pursue the culprit across thousands of miles. And her plan could be declared a failure.
On her way back to her residence, Gadelia suddenly thought of Zhou Ming.
Hmm, she really should go see Zhou Ming. After all, she had agreed to his request.
With a thought, Gadelia locked onto Zhou Ming’s location.
In a small alley in District 15, he was in the middle of eliminating energy beasts.
“Zhou Ming!”
Li Yaoming shouted, hurling his already empty pistol at a purple thunder lizard energy beast that was about to ambush Zhou Ming from behind.
Taking advantage of the energy beast’s momentary stagger, Zhou Ming reversed his grip on his blade and spun around to slash at it.
The long blade fell. The energy beast was split in two, then dissolved into black smoke.
Though he wanted to rest, seeing more than a dozen energy beasts still around, Zhou Ming exhaled and lifted his blade to continue exterminating them.
In just a few hours on duty, they had already handled four energy beast incidents.
The squad members in Zhou Ming’s team had all run out of pistol bullets. Now they could only fight hand-to-hand.
“Did we poke a nest of energy beasts today?! Damn it, they just keep coming!”
Zhang Bolei extended his tail to sweep away the energy beasts trying to approach, cursing.
Li Yaoming and the others, barely holding themselves up, stood back-to-back to eliminate the beasts nearby as best they could.
“Zhou Ming really has blade energy!”
Li Yaoming watched Zhou Ming charge into the horde and valiantly slay the beasts, couldn’t help but exclaim.
“Captain, aren’t you about done too?”
As the second youngest member of the team, Li Yaoming felt he had to play a role and not let the captain hog all the credit and glory.
“You talk too much, kid. Shut up! I’m conserving my energy. What the hell do you know?”
Propping himself on his knees, Zhang Bolei panted heavily.
He looked up at Zhou Ming, who had already killed over twenty energy beasts, and was utterly shocked.
Did he take some fucking drugs? So fierce.
No, as the captain, I can’t be outdone by a probationary Lantern Bearer!
Forcing himself to stand, Zhang Bolei charged in again.
After their arduous struggle, the energy beasts were finally all eliminated.
Sitting on the ground, Li Yaoming looked at Zhou Ming, who still had strength to spare, and couldn’t help remarking:
“Zhou Ming, what did you do yesterday? You’re so energetic today. Did Gadelia buy you some foreign imported potion?”
Zhou Ming was also surprised by his own abundant stamina. But then he remembered that Gadelia had said supernatural ability users could absorb the dissipated Guizang after energy beasts were eliminated to strengthen themselves, so he wasn’t that surprised.
Zhou Ming wiped the sweat beading on his forehead, leaned against the alley wall, and looked up at the sky.
“No imported potion, but I did take a quick-acting heart pill.”
Then he pulled out his phone. Zhou Ming had originally wanted to browse some videos to relax. He suddenly noticed that both Gadelia and Jiang Jialie had sent him messages, so he tapped on them.