Neglecting One's Proper Duties

In the afternoon, Lin Yu and Xia Yueshan walked out of the anime convention center shoulder to shoulder.

Both were a bit curious about each other.

Neither had sought the other out for such a long time—what had they been up to?

"What were you doing in there?"

"How come I didn't see you this whole time?"

Xia Yueshan fired off the questions first.

Lin Yu sniffled and rubbed the tip of his nose guiltily, saying,

"Nothing much, just walked around and browsed."

"After that, I just hung out in the food court."

"The deep-fried squid there was actually pretty good."

"What about you?"

"What were you doing all this time?"

"Playing 1v1s,"

Xia Yueshan said with his hands in his pockets, putting on a lazy, matter-of-fact look.

Lin Yu looked at him and blinked.

Xia Yueshan stared back at Lin Yu without blinking an eye.

"And then?"

After waiting ages for a follow-up that never came, Lin Yu just asked directly.

"And then I came out here with you."

Xia Yueshan's eyes showed a hint of disdain, as if he couldn't understand why Lin Yu would ask such a stupid question.

Lin Yu smacked his lips. Just as he was about to say something, he hesitated and scratched his head.

Finally, after silently searching for the right words, Lin Yu spoke up again to confirm:

"So you're telling me that the whole reason you dragged me all the way here to go to this convention with you was just so you could sit there and PvP with a bunch of random dudes in tank tops and shorts?"

"Yep."

Xia Yueshan grunted an affirmative, sounding foolish yet somehow a bit suave.

Lin Yu stayed silent for a long time before finally giving Xia Yueshan his assessment:

"You're built different."

Far from feeling ashamed, the disdain in Xia Yueshan's eyes only grew. He gave Lin Yu a sidelong glance and said scornfully,

"I can tell right away that you don't understand the Will of Fire."

Lin Yu didn't take the bait. Instead, he sighed and said with deep emotion,

"Thank goodness your parents still have your sister."

"Otherwise, they'd be better off considering rolling a new account as soon as possible."

Xia Yueshan scoffed coldly and curled his lip, saying,

"My sister?"

"She got completely bamboozled by some blonde punk, to the point where she even agreed to let her boyfriend have a third and fourth girl on the side."

"Honestly, I think she's worse off than me."

"What the—!"

Having his sore spot poked, Lin Yu felt a pang of guilt.

But generally speaking, adults have an inherent, unreasonable buff against kids.

So Lin Yu didn't care about the details. Flying into a rage out of humiliation, he reached out to let Xia Yueshan experience a little brother-in-lawly love.

Xia Yueshan ran off with a cheeky laugh.

The two of them joked and messed around all the way back, and it was already evening by the time they returned to the hotel.

Father and Mother Xia weren't currently at the hotel; due to work, they had to stay in the neighboring city for a few days.

Meanwhile, Xia Muzhu had gone out for a small get-together with her old college roommates today and had returned quite early.

After the three met up, they naturally headed out to eat.

Once their delicious dinner was over,

the sky outside had turned completely dark.

However, it wasn't exactly late.

It was only pushing eight o'clock in the evening.

For certain night owls, they wouldn't have even eaten breakfast by this time.

At Lin Yu's suggestion, the trio found an amusement park and happily played for a while longer.

It wasn't until approaching ten o'clock, when the park was about to close,

that they finally left.

Standing in front of the amusement park gates, Lin Yu suddenly had another idea. Looking at Xia Yueshan and Xia Muzhu, he suggested:

"Let's go watch a movie."

"Didn't the sequel to that super popular movie just come out recently?"

"Want to go see it together?"

At this, let alone Xia Muzhu, even Xia Yueshan frowned a little.

Actually, Xia Muzhu had wanted to go back to the hotel right after dinner.

?

What was there to do back at the hotel so early?

The obvious, of course!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder—that wasn't just an empty saying!

In truth, Xia Muzhu wasn't so dependent on that sort of intimacy that she couldn't live without it.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have stayed single until her current age.

But whenever Lin Yu was around, she could never quite control her desires and easily let her imagination run wild.

Not to mention it was already ten o'clock.

If they went to see a movie now, they wouldn't get out until midnight at the earliest.

After that, where would they find the time to get down to business?

Xia Muzhu didn't want to watch some stupid movie, but she was too embarrassed to state her true intentions out loud.

So she could only turn her face away resentfully, puffing out her left cheek in reluctance, sulking in silence.

Xia Yueshan's thoughts were largely the same as his older sister's.

He had had a blast at the amusement park tonight.

If they were going to catch a movie later, Xia Yueshan didn't really mind.

After all, who doesn't like going out and having fun?

The problem was that Lin Yu's behavior on this trip was very off.

In the past, whenever Lin Yu met up with his sister, they couldn't wait to send him away, or the two of them would make up some random, flimsy excuse and disappear, only to return ages later.

And now?

Not only did they do absolutely nothing yesterday,

but looking at the situation, Lin Yu was trying to dodge it tonight too.

If it were the past, Xia Yueshan wouldn't have cared about this kind of stuff at all.

But now, this bastard Lin Yu had three girlfriends!

Three!

It was hard not to let your mind wander in that direction!

Sigh.

Thinking of this, Xia Yueshan, who believed he had seen through everything, couldn't help but let out a worried sigh.

It looked like this guy Lin Yu really couldn't keep it up anymore.

"Let's go, let's go."

"Off to the movies."

Ignoring the reluctance in both their eyes, Lin Yu forcibly dragged them to a theater to watch a movie.

The movie was great.

It wasn't at all like the shoddy cash-grabs that most movie sequels turned out to be.

Whether it was the set pieces or the plot, you could tell a lot of care had been put into it.

But Lin Yu couldn't focus his mind on the film.

Actually, Lin Yu didn't even know what was wrong with himself right now.

Or why he was being so awkward and conflicted.

He had already done the deed, and he had made up his mind not to stop until Xu Mingyao was half-dead from his torment.

He should just keep walking down that path.

Yet, Lin Yu kept feeling like something pesky was dragging at his ankles.

It made him feel so guilty that he hardly dared to be alone with Xia Muzhu.

What exactly was...

?

Something was suddenly stuffed into his other, empty hand.

Lin Yu looked down in confusion and found a bottle of traditional stamina pills in his hand.

When he looked up and saw Xia Yueshan giving him a look that said men understand, Lin Yu wanted nothing more than to punch his lights out.

What the hell was this kid thinking about all day at his age?

He had zero sense of propriety!

Glaring at Xia Yueshan in annoyance,

Lin Yu casually slipped his hand into his pocket...

...