Lisa stayed at Yin Manor for two days after she got back to N City, where Jihyun practically stuffed her with tonics and healthy foods upon seeing that she had become thinner.
“Lili, come look at my calligraphy.” Grandfather Yin called Lisa over as he put down his brush. After his arm healed, he started trying out many different avenues of life that he had never tried before, greatly surprising the other members of the family in the process.
Lisa poured a cup of tea and walked over to him, looking at the words he wrote as she did. “Strong and bold lettering, but also graceful at the same time. Good job, Grandfather, you’re old but gold!”
Grandfather Yin chuckled, before sighing softly. “Old, I really am old. I heard Taehyung say that you’re quite good at calligraphy? How about you show this old sack of bones how it’s done?”
Lisa took the pen and thought for a bit, before writing four words on the xuan paper.
‘花好月圆’ (Lovely Flowers, Round Moon)
These words weren’t as strong and bold as the ones that the elder wrote but were like the product of an immortal, fluid, and spirited while having its own style, and just from a glance at it Grandfather Yin’s eyes brightened. “Such spirited writing!”
He was born as a farmer’s child, so he valued the education of the younger generation greatly. Sadly enough, his son wasn’t all that smart, while his grandson used his smartness in less satisfactory places, so this goddaughter that Jihyun had taken in pleased him greatly. Lalisa was smart, polite, pretty, and even had great calligraphy skills, why couldn’t she have been his biological granddaughter?
In other words, Grandfather Yin actually had quite a grudge over this.
“Really? I’ve had so many tonics lately that I feel as if it’s affecting my head.” Lisa felt her words were ugly the more she looked at it. She would definitely have to practice when she got into the virtual space later on.
It was true that hard work was the root of all success, and she couldn’t let up even for just a second. Anything could only be piled upon weeks and months of practice, and quite frankly, she wouldn’t know what she would do if she lost her daily activities.
Grandfather Yin realized that the girl was actually quite displeased over her own writing, so he tried to reassure her, “Lili, don’t be too harsh on yourself. It’s already quite an achievement to write something like this at your age. Even if it’s not to the level of those masters, you’re already leagues ahead of all the people in your generation, and all you need is time.”
“I understand.” Lisa nodded, knowing that Grandfather Yin was worried about her, but she was different than everyone else. As the host of the system, she could stretch one day into a year, and as the saying goes, with great strength comes great responsibility, so she couldn’t very well discipline herself to the standards of her age bracket.
Seeing that his words hadn’t quite gotten through to her, he only sighed, knowing that this child had gone through a lot even though she was only a young girl. He only wanted her to live and enjoy the same woes and happiness as the ones of her age, and not have her days filled with stress.
As he thought so, he wrote down the words ‘及时行乐’ (carpe diem) on the paper. “Child, I know that I won’t be able to convince you, but you must remember that you can let yourself go and be lazy sometimes when you’re tired, you have the support of…” Grandfather Yin swallowed the name Jeon Jungkook before he continued, “The Yin family, so you can afford to be capricious sometimes.”
Lisa waited for the words to dry slightly before she took the paper to be framed up.
She looked back at the old man that already had snow-white hair as she let her heart be warmed by his words. The luckiest thing that happened to her in this life was that she found a bunch of people that genuinely cared for her.
She had already stayed at Yin Manor for two days and was about to leave, and while Jihyun was reluctant to have her leave, she didn’t force her to stay, only sending loads of tonics and precious food that hadn’t been finished to Jungkook’s villa. After that, she called Mrs. Zhang on the phone for hours, and the two settled on meal plans for Lisa every day after.
Lisa: …Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here!
After she hung up on the phone, Jihyun thought for a bit before having the butler send a bunch of new clothes over too, and after she got everything done with and stopped nagging, she pinched Lisa’s supple cheek. “You’re finally getting some color back in your cheeks after a few days… Look at you, getting so frail after such a short time, how can I rest easy while you’re off in the Imperial Capital?”
Jihyun knew that Lisa got into A University, and while she was still quite unwilling to let her go, she still found the silver lining in the cloud. “Thankfully, you’re going to A University and not abroad, or else I’d only get to see you in a few years!”
After two hours of Jihyun fussing over her, Lisa finally stepped through the doors of Yin Manor. She drove her pink Lamborghini to the southern part of the city, which was the territory of the Wu family.
It’s been some time, and she thought it was about time to see if anything had come from her sudden whim to have them learn ancient martial arts.
She was actually quite expectant about it.
They were practicing ancient martial arts in a location that was left behind from back in the day when the Wu family delved in mobs and triads, and while it was just small, it was still guarded by the subordinates of the Wu family.
Lisa got down the car and walked over to tell them what she was there for, and when the bodyguard saw her, his first reaction was to be amazed by her beauty, and when he heard that she was here to look for Jimin, he nodded as if it were only natural before taking out his phone and smiling politely at Lisa. “Please wait here, miss, I’ll let you in after confirmation.”
Upon hearing that a girl with the surname Manoban was there to see him, Jimin was surprised and excited. “I’m coming right now!”
His tone was so excited that the young man that was standing guard looked at Lisa again with renewed curiosity, before glancing at the expensive-looking car. Was she an heiress of an influential family? Goodness, was she his future mistress?
As he thought of this, he became even more respectful of the girl in front of him, no wonder his young master would come out to get her personally.
Not a minute later, Jimin ran out, his eyes brightening even more when he saw Lisa. “Lisa, here!”
Lisa squinted as she looked at him from afar, noting that his footsteps were light, his eyes were bright and that he had a thin veil of chi around him, and while it was not nearly enough to be in Beginner, it was only a matter of time before he became an ancient martial artist.
When he made his way over to her, she suddenly attacked in an action completely in Jimin’s surprise, and while he reacted, he couldn’t dodge her attack in time. With a single hit, he was knocked onto the floor.
While their reunion ended up embarrassing Jimin from the get-go, he crawled up from the ground and pat his clothes with a smile. “Lisa, don’t make me lose my dignity in front of all my subordinates!”
All the subordinates: Sorry Young Master, we’ll act like we didn’t see it!
The young bodyguard: F*ck, the future boss lady is a violent woman!
“How have you not improved after such a long time?” Lisa walked in together with Jimin, her tone disdainful.
Jimin laughed before he replied, “Don’t look down on me, I’ve been winning against Rosé all this while!”
Even though neither of them was as naturally gifted as Kihyun, Jimin was quite athletically inclined already, and under the effect of the pills that Lisa gave them, their progress was actually quite excellent.
Jimin brought Lisa to the open-air martial arts hall, and there was only a single girl practicing the spear in the center.
“Yao Kihyun’s not here, that brat…” Upon mentioning Kihyun, Jimin couldn’t help feeling jealous. “We all started at around the same time, but he’s leaving us behind as if he’s riding on a rocket! I would be fine with it if he were as hardworking as us, but he only comes here to practice just a couple hours a day, sometimes one, while he spends all his other time outside doing who knows what!”
Such a lazy person could beat both he and Rosé at the same time, and this was the second person that made him question his talent after Lisa.
“I don’t want to admit it, but natural talent really does count.” Lisa sighed. “Don’t be disappointed with yourself, you can already be counted as decent in the ancient martial arts world.”
With Kihyun’s talent, he would probably be able to enter a legacy base with the lowest requirements, wouldn’t he? When she found that Kihyun had entered Beginner successfully, both she and the system only guessed that Kihyun was a hard worker, but the truth was the opposite! No wonder Jimin was so huffy puffy over it.
“Lisa, does the ancient martial arts world really exist? Why does it sound like something from those online novels about secret societies?” Jimin was still quite in disbelief, and even when he could feel Chi, it still felt like a dream.
Upon seeing Lisa, Rosé wiped her sweat and walked over.
Lisa greeted her before she spoke again, “Not only ancient martial arts, but people with supernatural abilities exist too, but it would be better for the general public to not know about everything. Can you imagine the panic it would cause?”
Jimin thought for a bit before he nodded, knowing how everything would go out of order if people knew that such a group of people existed.
“I can finally feel a stream of chi…” Rosé said, but her tone didn’t sound all that happy.
“Hah, really!” Jimin laughed and nudged. “Congratulations!”
His teasing tone was quite clear, and Rosé’s cool exterior cracked for all but a second as she kicked ferociously in his direction. “Buzz off!”
Jimin’s reflexes were leagues greater than they were before, of course, and while he couldn’t defeat Lisa, it was still a breeze for him to dodge an attack by Rosé.
After a few minutes of fighting on the part of the duo, the three sat down and started asking Lisa questions on cultivation, especially Rosé who didn’t understand much about the book that Lisa had given her.
Lisa had improved a lot in her ancient martial arts, and relatively speaking, she could already be counted as a master level character when compared to Rosé and Jimin. With a single glance, she knew how to solve their problems, but she could only nudge them in the right direction. Cultivation greatly depended on one’s own understanding, after all.
“Kihyun’s probably going to get here in a bit.” Jimin looked at the clock that showed that the time was four o’clock. “He always gets here at around this time, and leaves at six.”
“He’s that busy?” Lisa asked in surprise.
Rosé twisted open the bottlecap of mineral water and drank one mouthful. “I saw him near the school last time, he helped me to fight off some hoodlums. Rumor has it that the triads in this area have been in disarray, recently. I’d like to venture a guess that he’s trying to absorb them all into his own group."
“Oh, he’s getting involved in the underworld?” Jimin rubbed his chin with interest. “How could he have not brought me to play with him? What kind of bro is he?”
“You? In the mafia?” Rosé scoffed. “Tell that to me when you stop carrying your financial business textbook around like its a family heirloom.”
Jimin wasn’t serious sometimes, but he would never give up once he set his mind on something. After he decided to inherit the Wu family’s large business, he didn’t give up no matter what trials and tribulations he faced.
Every day after he practiced, he learned from the seniors in the company, and under Taehyung’s advice, he started doing sales by himself to equip himself with the tools of the trade.
Even though Rosé teased him about it, but she actually respected him quite a lot after he gave up on his choice to go into sports and used all his time and energy to learn the things that he disliked with a passion.
They said that Kihyun was busy with matters all the time, but were they any much idler than he was? One was trying his hardest to learn and inherit the family, while the other was attending talent course after talent course.
Rosé’s brother could take care of their family business so she had much more freedom in terms of picking a career that she had an interest in, but it wasn’t that easy to be an actor, too.
Under every bright and shining exterior hid days upon weeks upon years of blood, sweat, and tears, and the duo learned this very well in just a few days.
They thought that Lisa was just a pure genius that was good in everything that she touched, but now it was clear that she put in hard work too. No one knew how to do all the things she could at birth, and there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
They didn’t know how much effort Lisa devoted exactly, but what they did know was that they were filled with courage and the strength to go on by her when things were the toughest.
After that, the three talked for a while more before Kihyun came sauntering in. After just a few days, his entire demeanor had changed from one of a brash youngster that knew nothing of fear to someone that could be called a mature and reliable man.
Upon seeing Lisa, his serious expression turned back to one of a youngster as he waved at her. “You’re back!”
“She’s here to fight you!” Without waiting for Lisa to speak, Jimin immediately shouted and looked at the other boy with a scheming expression. He had been bullied by the other so much in all these days and there was finally someone that could take revenge for him. How could he let this chance go?
Hearing his words, Kihyun’s gaze was filled with an expectant, anticipating gleam.
He had only discovered some of the wonders of the martial arts book that Lisa had given him, and he felt as if he had become worlds apart from how he was in the past. He had become the second-in-command of a small triad with his fighting skills, and he continued to amass his connections and resources. His dream wasn’t to just be a small second-in-command, after all.
He planned to become the greatest boss of the underworld in N City and take over the place of the boss that was in the position right now! If it were in the past, he wouldn’t have such lofty desires, but now that he had the fantastic Firefly illusion Record, he would use it to expand his influence!
Lisa turned over and raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure you want to fight?”
“Yes!” Kihyun nodded seriously. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to beat her, of course, but he just wanted to see what the difference between them was.
“Alright, I won’t go all out, don’t worry. “Lisa realized that she would be taking too much advantage if she used a weapon. “Let’s just go easy, yes?”
The two came to the middle of the arena while Rosé and Jimin spectated, and their expression changed like so: Seriousness—Disbelief—Twitching lips—Numbness.
It was a completely one-sided battle, where Lisa stood there in place and only counterattacked with her palms against Kihyun’s fists, her lower body so firm on the floor that it seemed to be rooted there, while Kihyun was repelled and fell onto upon impact.
As he did, Lisa grabbed one of his arms and smacked a palm right onto his head with a smile, and the punishment-teaching session went on for a while as she commented with a smile, “Not enough power, your feet aren’t grabbing the ground well, you look like you’re daydreaming…”
With each comment, Kihyun was twisted to correct his form and smacked in punishment, until he kneeled onto the ground in defeat, his hair matted with sweat and his expression twisting as he felt indescribable pain.
Standing in front of him was a girl with clear eyes whose jet-black hair moved with the breeze, and from a distance, she might have looked like she came right out of a shoujo manga… If it weren’t for the heaping pile of Kihyun in front of her.
Jimin clamped his mouth shut after it had become agape as he was watching Kihyun being punished. “Thank goodness that wasn’t me.”
“It actually felt quite nice when I first looked at it, but…” Rosé trailed off, but she continued internally, ‘I’m actually quite sympathetic towards him now…”
Kihyun didn’t hear what the two were saying nor would he have cared if he did. Now, he only felt a strange, unfamiliar surge of energy flowing in his body from bottom to top, and for a second, he felt as if he were wrapped in a warm blanket, and in the next, he felt another surge of pain.
After ten minutes of this, the pain subsided like the tide as his gaze became clear again, and Kihyun felt as if he was filled with power. With a punch onto the ground, dust was sent flying all around him.
Lisa raised a hand to wave the dust away, none of it getting onto her in the process.
After the dust settled down, everyone saw a tiny crater under Kihyun.
After a moment of silence, Jimin shouted, “F*ck, he gets to become stronger after being beaten up? Lisa is too biased!”
“What, did you forget that you were the one that instigated it?” Rosé commented eerily.
Jimin: How could I have known it would turn out like this!
And so, the two muttered, “Kihyun became stronger again…” “It’ll be easier for him to bully us than before…” “Kihyun’s such a b*tch*ss…” for a few times like a mantra before they looked up at him like ghosts that didn’t pass on because of a grudge.
A certain refreshed Kihyun: Thanks for the help, Little Wu!
Jimin: Please stop talking, I just want to slap myself from half an hour ago!
Lisa walked over slowly. “You two would probably be able to do that too if you play fewer games and work harder.”
“No, I can’t abandon all of my waifus, I can’t say goodbye to those beautiful immortals in the sky, I am unwilling to leave my guildmates…” Jimin said dramatically before he realized that Lisa’s expression was quickly shifting into one of annoyance, so he quickly stopped. “No, but do I have any chance of becoming stronger than Little Woody over there?”
“Probably not.” Lisa replied without a second thought as she took out her phone from her pocket.
“What if I give up playing video games?” Jimin asked again.
Lisa sighed and stuck the phone back into her pocket. “There’s no way to cure your stupidity, but we need to go now.”
“Wait wait wait! Final question!” Jimin grabbed his chest dramatically.
Lisa turned around and smiled, before saying, “Yes I have loved you before; No I won’t go to bed with you; No I don’t have money; To save the world; No I won’t regret it; I don’t know how to solve this question; I’m busy tomorrow; No, I haven’t finished my homework; Yes I do like pineapple on pizza; I put cereal in before milk; I don’t know if pigeons are spies from the government; The force of the slap on your face just now was twenty-five Newtons; The area of the psychological damage I have done to you is nine centimeters squared. Any more questions?”
Pfft!
Jimin still hadn’t reacted after Lisa spoke, but Kihyun and Rosé had already burst out in laughter.
A few minutes later after both of them finished laughing, Jimin: “Bahahahaha!!!”
Kihyun & Lisa & Rosé: Is he stupid?
On the two days that she had returned to N City, she still hadn’t met with Jungkook yet because he was busy with the matters of the National Base and maybe some other matters, and she had yet to see Taehyung either, so things must be in full swing at the moment.
In conclusion, the two only contacted each other through short text messages, and even finding the time to call was difficult.
Taehyung just messaged her to go to the Flying Fairy Tower, which was a new restaurant that had opened up in town, and after that, he sent another message as if he knew that Lisa was visiting her friends, inviting them to get a meal together with them. Since they were all quite close, Lisa didn’t make any fuss and just asked them if they wanted to go, to which they all agreed.
Kihyun was actually quite apprehensive about it because he knew that someone that was friends with the trio would be very high up in society, so he wouldn’t fit there, but finally relented after Jimin practically dragged him there with a: “Why are you scared, Little Woody? How can you be a mafia boss in the future if you get cold feet so easily?”
Before the other boy could think about it, he was stuffed into the car by Jimin, so his only option at that point was to accept.
To be completely honest with himself, he was actually quite looking forward to seeing what their inner circle looked like.
The Flying Fairy Tower wasn’t just a tower, but a large manor that took up a large area in N City, and just from that point alone, the owner of the restaurant must have spent a lifetime’s worth of money.
This restaurant was members only, and the only ticket to enter the establishment was an elusive VIP card.
Many businesses used this style nowadays to stimulate consumerism, or in less fancy words, to make rich kids feel that they’re important by spending their money in an exclusive establishment.
After all, diamond grade VIP cards were all the rage nowadays!
Lisa didn’t have a VIP card, but Taehyung had prepared beforehand so a middle-aged man immediately came up to them as soon as they parked their car. “Hello, are you Miss Lalisa?”
Seeing Lisa nod, the man smiled politely and directed them towards the restaurant. “Please go inside, Mr. Yin will arrive shortly.”
The man brought them through a long hallway and made two turns before they were brought to an intricately built pavilion in the middle of a manmade lake. On the spine of the pavilion was a sculpture of a dragon that looked as if it were going to fly into the sky, while silk gauzes draped down the sides of the pavilion, the stone tables and chairs barely visible from outside.
“All this fuss for just a meal?” Jimin grumbled. “I feel so uncomfortable here, can we even eat well?”
Hearing his comment, the middle-aged man smiled politely and replied, “This pavilion was built based on the Classical Gardens of Suzhou, and your privacy is ensured so you can eat in peace!”
Jimin hadn’t even replied yet before someone spoke behind them, “Didn’t a waiter say that this lakeside pavilion was closed? Why could they enter?”
The middle-aged man’s smile didn’t so much as waver as he replied, “Hello there, dear customer. Indeed, this pavilion isn’t open for outsiders, I hope that you can understand.”
“Are you dumb or am I dumb here? Are you not going to get money when you can?” The man walked over, and his most eye-catching feature was his bald head that made his bold and distinct features stand out even more.
“Me, of course.” The middle-aged man smiled and replied without any hint of anger. “I hope you have a nice meal, dear customer.”
The bald man knew that the owner of the restaurant couldn’t be trifled with, so he only looked at Lisa and the others before a light bulb lit up in his head and he looked back at the party behind him. “Mingyu, isn’t that the chick you saw at the train station?”
The people behind them walked up to him slowly, and Mingyu glanced over upon being told to, and he was stunned for a moment.
“Baldie, what happened to Boss?” One of the men patted the bald man’s shoulder in curiosity. Mingyu was one of the most popular and talented people in school, so of course, he had a lot of followers. These were all friends that he had made back in high school, and who had come together for a get-together on that day.
The bald man lit a cigarette and smiled mysteriously. “Your playboy boss has fallen into the net of love! Do you see that chick in the yellow skirt? Your boss drank for three days on end because of her… You remember the time we got him at the bar?”
“Ah! That’s her?” The boy’s eyes brightened in interest and he looked over, but he only saw a thin silhouette. “How does the girl that single-handedly turned Boss into a playboy look like, I wonder?”
As if she heard what they said, the girl turned around, and for a second, the man realized what was unparalleled beauty, and what was called beauty that could make entire cities fall.
After the people in front walked into the pavilion, the young men looked at each other. “Boss has to work hard, then, if she’s someone that can eat in the pavilion.”
“Yeah, you don’t know her? She’s the second daughter of the Manoban family that stirred up commotion in N City!” The bald man replied.
“The second daughter of the Manoban family? The one that was accepted as a goddaughter by the Yin Family? That didn’t fit my expectations of her.” The boy blinked and ah-ed in recognization. “I always thought that she would have been more of the sl*tty type, but…” She was completely different from the rumors!
The bald man puffed out a mouthful of smoke. “Who knows? I have to get back to the military base later… Hey, what are you still looking at, Kim Mingyu? She’s already gone! If you’re a man you gotta be more clear-cut! Either you give up, or you pursue her…”
As the bald man talked, Mingyu only sighed softly. He was unwilling to forget her, and to pursue her? That would probably be impossible even if that were in their next life…