Sehun was extremely nervous when he rushed over. He was afraid that something terrible might have befallen Rosé. If that was to happen, he'd definitely be crushed by Lisa's fists, in addition to facing his brother's wrath.
He definitely was not anticipating such a gory scene to play out before him.
At this moment, the ones who should be crying are probably the elders of the Tang family.
Sehun shed a tear of sympathy for the men sent by the elders. How unfortunate of them, to bump into Lisa. Sehun peered down at his phone and realized that there was an astronomical number of missed calls from his brother. He glanced up at Taehyung and said, "You escort Xiao Rosé back."
"Where are you going?" questioned Taehyung with suspicion in his voice.
"I'm gonna go find my brother." Sehun couldn't be bothered with idle chit-chat. Without hesitation, he kicked Taehyung out of his vehicle.
Taehyung hopped out of the car immediately, barely missing that kick. His face darkened instantly. How dare this guy try to kick him! "Second Cousin, are you trying pick a fight with me?" Taehyung cracked his knuckles, a gesture to show that he was eager to fight.
Sehun narrowed his eyes and flashed him a dangerous look. "Say that again?"
"Second Cousin! Second Cousin! Second Cousin!" Taehyung hurriedly repeated these words before making a final dash for Rosé's vehicle. The moment he slid into her car, he urged her to stomp on the pedal.
"..."
Sehun went silent. Taehyung has been back for so long and yet this was the first time he felt the urge to punch him. He was under restraints back in the ancient martial arts world but it had only been a few days since he came out here. How on earth did he manage to turn into this so quickly?
Whilst contemplating, he drove over to the residential district next to A University. He recalled Chanyeol buying a house here.
Chanyeol was still wide awake when he arrived. He was sitting at the bar with a glass of fine alcohol on hand. Why did he have a fully-loaded bar in his temporary residence? God damn was he enjoying himself here! With a face devoid of emotions, Sehun located a bottle of red wine which he poured a glassful for himself.
"Good choice." Chanyeol eyed the wine bottle Sehun had picked. He was amused, as his brother had picked the most expensive bottle of wine he had in his collection. "You drink?"
Sehun gulped down his glassful of wine in one go, the sight of which made the corner of Chanyeol's mouth twitch awkwardly.
"You aren't going to ask me if everything's alright with Xiao Rosé?" By now, Sehun had already downed half a bottle of wine. He turned toward Chanyeol, who had called and texted him incessantly to ask about Rosé. Why then, was he shrugging this matter off as if it was nothing?
"I don't have anything much to ask about. She's been with Miss Lalisa for so long after all. Even I have no idea which level she has reached now." Chanyeol waved his hands casually as he was just slightly concerned earlier. With Lisa by her side, he said a silent prayer for the poor souls who dared to mess with them.
Sehun chuckled. "You seem to know her quite well."
His brother did not respond immediately to this statement. Instead, he switched over to another topic. "Have you stopped going to the Trial Tower?"
"Yeah, it's been a couple of days since I've last been there." Sehun tightened his grip on the wineglass.
"Go back tomorrow," said Chanyeol as he patted his brother on the shoulder. "Your phone couldn't be reached. Grandpa called me up yesterday to tell me just this."
"I'm not going back." Sehun stared back at Chanyeol with dead serious eyes. "Brother, I sparred with Taehyung yesterday. Without using my tricks, he is already on par with me."
Chanyeol was in the middle of pouring himself a glass of wine when his brother said that. He was so shocked that he spilled precious drops of red grape alcohol over the floor. Instead of mulling over it though, he stared up with a bewildered expression at Sehun. "Didn't he just start learning ancient martial arts?"
"Yeah, the last time he left the ancient martial arts world, he was around level 40 at the Trial Tower. No more than half a month has passed and yet he's level 50 now," said Sehun as he stared down at his wine.
Chanyeol was again, so stunned that the wineglass fell out of his hands, shattering into a million pieces when it hit the floor.
"She brought the Trial Tower from the ancient martial arts world, out into the secular world. Also, the time ratio is 7:1." Sehun peered up and wiped the sweat off his brows. "I forgot to mention that it's an improved version of our Trial Tower, with zero side-effects after entering it."
Chanyeol went silent. "... Do the elders know about this?"
"I don't think things would remain so peaceful if they were to know about this," replied Sehun whilst shaking his head.
He recalled how an elder had been defeated so badly by the Peace Squad that he had picked up the Buddhist faith. Chanyeol silently put his glass down. "I get it. There is no need for you to return to the ancient martial arts world. I'll tell Grandpa about this tomorrow."
"Talk nicely, I don't want to send him into shock." Sehun put down his wineglass and located an empty guest room where he could lay down and rest. He had been continuously triggered by Kihyun for the past two days; he needed to thoroughly rest his soul and mind. Else, he'd end up like that elder, who was pushed past his limits and ran off to meditate.
In the living room, Chanyeol remained seated. He thought about it and in the end, he couldn't help but send Jungkook a text message-[That person has already left your family, why the struggle?] Half of the elders in the ancient martial arts world seemed to have been spooked by that girl!
Jungkook had just finished reading a document sent to him from the ancient martial arts world when he received the message. He responded with a simple reply-[I'm flattered.]
"Big boss, I've just received news from Donghyuk. The problem they faced in N City has already been resolved," reported Jaehyun who entered the room after knocking. "Donghyuk could not confirm who it was that intervened and he's asking you about our next move."
The dark screen of his phone lit up. Jungkook picked up his device and read the new message. His ink-dark eyes were shrouded behind his long lashes. Surprisingly, his tightly pursed lips had loosened up greatly. "Tell him to stop searching, that person's in the police station right this moment."
"Police station? I get it now." Although he had no idea how Jungkook knew that, he did not doubt that his boss was speaking the truth. His mouth opened and closed as if he was about to say something but words failed to come out.
"Spit it out." Jungkook patiently rolled up the sleeves of his crisp white shirt. The bony structures of his forearms shone underneath the fluorescent lights. "After that, we'll head on over to the mountain to take a look."
Jaehyun bowed his head immediately. "Um... it's that Madam Jeon has moved into your residential district." Jungkook's movement of rolling up his sleeves froze up. He peered up, revealing a look of amazement on his face. "I see," he replied.
He slapped his forehead. Jungkook was stuck between a rock and a hard place. What was his mother up to? Thank goodness that lass hasn't been around the capital recently, else there would be no way he could remain so calm at this moment.
He walked out the door with Jaehyun trailing behind him. As they went, random thoughts popped up in his mind. 'I see? What does he mean by that? What reaction would that count as?'
***
N City.
Lisa packed the men up and sent them straight to the police station. Fearing that the people there wouldn't be enough to restrain these people, she made sure to send Jungkook a heads up.
She went straight to Nine Heavens after that.
Although Nine Heavens has expanded greatly since their move to the Imperial Capital, the core unit controlling its operations remained largely the same. They were there when the company started expanding and hence, these people had grown familiar with Lisa.
It was nearing 10pm now. The lights at the highest level of Nine Heavens' office building had yet to go out.
Nine Heavens' administrators in N City were all elites, hand-picked by Jinhee, who handed over a large pile of documents over to Lisa.
Lisa flipped through the pages rapidly, scribbling down amendments here and there. It didn't take long for her to work through the entire pile. "Your performance is good, I hope you'll keep up the good work. There are however, a handful of issues with this proposal, all of which I have already corrected." She pushed forth a smaller pile of documents.
The manager she was talking to was also originally working under Jinhee. He had a pretty good idea on how capable Lisa was. He nodded immediately when he heard what she said. "I understand Miss Lalisa, you should take a rest soon. Mr. Mu has ordered me to book a hotel room for you. Allow me to send you there right now."
"No need for that, I'll head over there myself. Remember to send me information on the Baixing Village Tourism Base tomorrow." With a wave of her hand, Lisa left the place with the system by her side.
The administrator sat down where Lisa was sitting and started looking through the errors in the proposal which she had pointed out. Looks like he's gonna pull an all-nighter here again.
The secretary, who had been standing nearby was a newcomer who had no idea who Lisa was, let alone how terrifying she was. However, seeing how respectful the administrator was toward her reminded the secretary to not to mess with the young lady. After all, she was one of the very few individuals that were lucky enough to make it through Nine Heavens' rigorous selection process.
Out of curiosity, she asked the general manager, "Sir, do you trust what that young lady is saying?"
"See for yourself." The general manager picked up the proposal with the errors and passed it to the secretary. He didn't seem to fear a privacy leak as everyone here was striving up the company hierarchy. Only an insane person would willingly jump ship upon being hired by Nine Heavens!
The secretary pulled out a random document. She looked down at the notes written down in jet black ink, the smooth artistic strokes, and how much it resembled the flow of water.
She took a moment to gasp at how impeccable Lisa's writing was before she started actually reading what they actually were. A short while later, she was stunned. She flipped through the pages, one by one. Every single one of her notes appeared to cut right to the chase. Effortlessly, she could point out the issues using a couple of words and from there, propose a new, amended solution.
The secretary lowered this document and picked up another one. It ended up being the same thing.
In such a short amount of time, what started off as a simple question now turned into an unending reading session. She could never have expected to finish reading each and every solution plan that Lisa offered. Perplexed, the secretary asked another question.
"Sir, who was that person we met just now?"
"Didn't you keep telling me that you wanted to meet Boss Lalisa? Well, there she was. You don't recognize her do you?" asked the general manager in a nonchalant manner.
"Ahhhhhhh! My idol! Why didn't you tell me beforehand!? I don't know if we can still be friends after this! I've missed my chance to speak with my idol because of you!"
"..."
The general manager: It's my fault now?
***
Lisa took the elevator down the building. As she walked toward her hotel, she gave Yoongi a call.
"Boss Lalisa, you called?" Yoongi, who was currently at the Imperial Capital was still playing cards with Jieun and his buddies when he received Lisa's call. He shoved his cards into Soobin's hands and walked over to a corner to answer the call.
"Yea," responded Lisa.
"I remember Soobin's birthday is soon approaching. Tomorrow, I'll transfer a percentage of the Manoban family enterprise's ownership to him."
Although Jinhee had acquired Nine Heavens, he did not merge Manoban Enterprise's assets with Nine Heavens. Instead, they were allowed to expand as a separate corporate entity and this was what Lisa wished for. After all, Nine Heavens had grown so large that the addition of Manoban Enterprise did not matter to them.
Yoongi was at a loss for words when he heard this. Silently, he stole a glance at Soobin who was playing cards excitedly. To receive a medium-sized enterprise as a birthday gift, only Boss Lalisa was able to pull this off in real life. However, her mentioning Manoban Enterprise reminded Yoongi of another matter. "Oh right, is Manoban Enterprise facing any problems as of late?" It's been months since a report was last submitted.
Lisa laughed. "It's already been settled. You should be receiving the related materials tomorrow. Soobin is still underage so you should help manage his gift first. It might be awhile before I come back to the capital."
It's been settled? Yoongi was astonished. He was about to ask another question when his phone was snatched away by Namjoon, whose face was covered in paper strips from losing the game. "Boss Lalisa, you told me you'd come here... what about the web editing department?"
Before he could continue blabbering on, Lisa hung up on him.
Namjoon: "... sonuvab*tch!"
Lisa saw a familiar white car approaching her right after she put away her phone. She stopped walking as the white car rolled to a stop next to her. The car window came down, revealing Jihyun behind it. For some reason, she seemed slightly unhappy. "Lili, why didn't you tell me that you're coming back!" If not for Jungkook, she would not have known about it!
Lisa laughed helplessly. "Mama Jihyun, apologies." She was only here for a couple of days so she didn't want to bother the Yin family.
The white car drove off.
A minute later, multiple figures emerged from the dark.
"Mr. Yi Donghyuk, did you discover who the interventionist was?" A tall woman wearing only a red dress in the middle of winter asked. She scanned her surroundings with a pair of dark green eyes that seemed to emit a mysterious glow. The woman had a pair of thick black eyebrows which paired well with her soul-catching eyes. It was quite obvious that this person was a foreigner. Though, her Mandarin was smooth and sounded almost local.
Donghyuk fiddled with the compass before replying, "Miss Cecillia, there seems to be energy waves around N City. It's no longer at the city center though. We'll have to scout the nearby counties for it."
They received two pieces of news when they came to N City. One was that there was an internal crisis within N City and the other was that there was an energy wave surrounding the perimeter of the city.
They did not foresee that upon arriving at N City, this grave problem would have been resolved by someone else! Donghyuk almost broke down into tears whenever he thought about this. If this went on any further, would he serve any purpose by remaining here? He'd definitely get laughed at by Jaehyun and Hoseok when he went back.
"Sure." replied Cecillia. "Mr. Yi Donghyuk, has Young Master Jeon responded?"
"I have no idea, Miss Cecillia. It's been ages since the big boss contacted me!" Donghyuk made a pained expression when he spoke about this.
Cecillia looked down dejectedly when she heard his response. "Let's go then."
***
Neither Minho nor Grandpa Yin was asleep when they reached the Yin family house. Instead, the dining table was filled to the edges with piping hot dishes.
"Did you come back today to take care of family matters?" Jihyun sat down with Lisa at the table, chatting and watching her as she ate.
Lisa peered up, revealing a slightly astonished expression. "Mama Jihyun, how did you know?"
"Well I received a notice today." Jihyun didn't seem particularly surprised about it. She looked back at Lisa with gleaming eyes. "Does that mean that the huge ruckus in N City today was also a result of your actions?"
To be honest, her question was irrelevant. She already knew that Lisa was more likely than not, behind today's incident.
"How big was it?" Surprisingly, Lisa was the one who was puzzled. She had no idea what she had actually done.
Jihyun laughed when she heard her question. She then whipped out her phone and logged onto the ancient martial arts world's forum which she then showed Lisa. She appeared to be overjoyed when she swiped across the pages. "Look, these are the posts of the old geezers from the ancient martial arts world. Get a load of this old man. He has abandoned his job and ran off to meditate someplace else!"
She looked up at Lisa who was bewildered by the posts. It was quite obvious that she had zero idea on how large of a ruckus she had stirred up now.
She had struck fear into the hearts of many within the ancient martial arts world. They all scrambled around, in search of the place from which such a powerful figure emerged. On the contrary, the people who were directly involved in the matter were much more indifferent.
This really... made Jihyun feel sympathy for the elder.
Still, her feeling of sympathy was overwhelmed by schadenfreude.
"... they're still alright, right?" Lisa was not aware of her own otherworldly potential.
Jihyun grunted coldly. "They can't do anything! All they do is abuse their authority and order people around; they were asking for it! Darling, you did well! At least you taught them a lesson they would never forget!" She did something which no one in the ancient martial arts world could achieve and in an effortless manner!
After saying that, she gave Lisa a warm hug. This must be the legendary rib-crushing hug!
"..."
Lisa was being hugged so tightly that she couldn't speak.
'Oh god at this rate, I'm gonna get asphyxiated!'
Jihyun watched as Lisa finished up her meal before snapping a couple of photos of her, which she sent to her friends' group chat.
Mama Tang: [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG]
It was getting late, and yet her photos still received quite a number of likes and comments the moment she posted the photo on WeChat. Of course, the first one to like the photos was none other than Jungkook, which gave Jihyun a good laugh, followed by her rich lady friends in N City as well as friends from the ancient martial arts world, including Hyekyo.
Jihyun stared at Hyekyo's like which came mere seconds after she uploaded her post. In the end, she chose not to reply to that person. Still, seeing the comments made by someone else shocked her so much that she almost fell out of her chair.
Shu Taehee: "I didn't know that you were familiar with Lili "
Shu Taehee: "Hanbin told me a few days ago that you were living in this tiny residential district. I did not expect to hear that you have returned after moving here today."
Jihyun was stunned by this comment. She looked up instantly at Lisa and asked, "Lili, do you know who this person is?"
Jihyun tapped on Taehee's profile photo and presented it to Lisa.
Lisa glanced at it briefly before responding bluntly.
"You're talking about Aunt Shu. We met a couple of times and I saved her once."
'You're referring to her as aunt?! Baby do you know who she is?! Are you aware that she's now living in the same area as you?!'
"Mama Tang, I'd like to have some milk." The robot next to her feet snapped her out of her state of shock.
Jihyun looked down at the intricately-made robot. It was so smart that it almost seemed sentient. Weird things were the prerequisite to living with Lisa, which explained why she wasn't surprised by it that much. "Hold on for a minute, I'll get it for you right this instant!"
Was she really gonna grab some milk for this thing?
Lisa looked down emotionlessly at the system. "Do not bully Mama Jihyun." Robots do not typically drink milk, do they?
The system sulked. "... you think I'm an ordinary robot?"
"..."
'Acting like this will only get you handed over to the state, alright?' thought Lisa to herself.
Jihyun brought over a tall glass of milk which she gave to the system. However, Lisa's intimidating presence forced it to hold on to the milk, not daring to take even a single sip.
"This robot of yours is so adorable! Does it have a name?" Jihyun's eyes glowed. She picked up her phone and started snapping away at it. Why does everything Lili own have to be so fun?! Being here at N City made her start to reminisce about the time she had spent with Xixi and Haha.
Lisa took her final bite before calling out: "Jiji."
"..."
'Ah, I forgot, something is inherently wrong with Lili's naming preferences.' She wanted to laugh at its name but she stopped herself from doing so, fearing that she might hurt the ego of the cute little robot.
"Jiji" AKA The System was at a loss for words.
Seems like there is a price it must pay to remain in the real world. In comparison to itself, Xixi and Haha's names sounded much more normal!
***
The next day, Lisa slept on until late morning. She was still asleep when Jisoo called.
She was still half-awake when she made her way to First City High.
"You wake up late? Now that's something you don't see often." Jisoo was surprised as it didn't really fit into the image of a national scholar. Back in their village, Lisa would always wake up at half-past five for a morning run. She did things decisively, calmly and her eyes would always seem to be full of wisdom.
The Lisa standing in front of her today seemed much more sloppy than the Lisa from before.
Lisa patted Jiji's head and smiled. "Vacations are few and far between." Life would not be as leisurely after today.
"Let's go, Jinyoung's probably already waiting for us." Jisoo led Lisa forward. Still, I didn't expect that you would agree to come here."
Last night, Jinyoung had bothered her over the phone for an eternity, begging for her to bring Lisa over. Of course, Jisoo was not prepared to agree to his suggestion right away. However, upon hearing how Jinyoung wanted to thank Lisa for saving his life, and seeing how desperate he was while pleading, she had no choice but to give in.
Half-heartedly, Jisoo gave Lisa a call. Her agreeing to come without hesitation definitely took Jisoo by surprise.
Jinyoung picked a well-known establishment as the venue for their meeting. He only knew a handful of people here in N City, from which he invited a couple of his closer buddies.
Before Lisa and Jisoo arrived, Jinyoung's buddies started gossiping like a bunch of teenage girls. They started speculating about what her face looked like, which was based largely on the fact that she was able to take down ten men in a fight. She probably was a tomboy with rock-hard abs, a face full of muscles, and a hulking figure.
The screen of Jinyoung's phone lit up, which prompted him to head out and welcome their guests.
The men waited inside their private room. In reality, none of them were particularly excited to see the girl who Jinyoung had claimed to be his savior. They instead, had a deep sense of respect for the girl, as one would towards a powerful champion.
"When she arrives, I don't want to see any surprise on your faces. She didn't choose to be a tomboy so no judgemental eyes, okay?" he warned them.
One of his buddies responded immediately. "Aye sir." The troops have been waiting for so long now. It's not like this is their first time meeting a female soldier whose strength triumphed over your average guy. Theoretically, nothing should come as surprising to them.
These men started discussing amongst themselves about how they should show their respect to their guest.
Half of this group of battle-hardened special forces soldiers was wasted in their operation to take down the enemy. Even their big boss had decided to forgo the decision to continue the hunt. Who would've thought that a girl would swoop right in and defeat their foe? This filled the men with shock and humiliation.
A few minutes later, the door of their private room popped open. Jinyoung and his comrades bowed their heads down unconsciously.
Leading in front was a girl who was sporting a light blue coat. She was looking down slightly, allowing her long flowing hair to cover up part of her face. Though, they could still see her pale white neck peeking from underneath.
She peered up only after entering the room. Her face was mesmerizing and her skin, flawless with near-microscopic pores. Her elegance was such that she almost felt spiritual to these men. Her skin was so radiant that the light that shone from the windows made her painful to look at with unshielded eyes.
"This person here is Miss Lalisa, who saved my life last night." Jinyoung walked into the room, introducing his comrades to his savior. With a blushing face, he glanced at Jisoo.
"This girl here is my deskmate."
As he finished speaking, everyone in the room froze up. Their faces were filled with nothing but pure disbelief.
God damn, where's the frickin' tomboy?!
Where are the muscles?!
Where's the hulking figure?!
She's your stereotypical weak and dainty girl, no?!
It took a handful of minutes before these men gradually regained their composure. After that, they started treating Lisa with unrivaled hospitality.
Jinyoung was instantly left out of the group. He was dumbfounded. Weren't they curious about his classmate? Why had they kicked him out like this? WTF?
"Jinyoung, Third Young Master's next door." The restroom of their private room was occupied by a mate with chronic constipation. Those who needed to take a leak had to use the public restroom outside. Someone whispered this into his ear after he returned to their room.
Jinyoung was wide-eyed. "Why is he here? Tell me you haven't been sniffed out by him."
"Nope, I concealed myself in time," the person replied with a satisfied grin.
"Thank goodness." Jinyoung felt a weight slide off his shoulders. He then continued listening to his brothers boasting in front of Lisa and Jisoo.
Lisa was apparently really into what they were saying. As special forces soldiers, who had been through a hellish training, Lisa had no idea what drills they were put through regularly. As such, she was really focusing on their little education session.
All of a sudden, the door of their room was pushed open by someone standing outside. He was wearing a black suit and his figure was slim and tall. The man had a classic military crew cut which suited his attractive facial features well, especially considering the fact that he was a soldier.
"Third Brother!" Jinyoung stood up from his seat so quickly that he almost knocked over a glass of alcohol.
The men inside the room stood up in unison and greeted, "Big Boss!"
"Are you guys playing?" Jinyoung's brother scanned the interior of the room, pausing for a split-second when he reached Lisa before moving on as quickly as he could.
Jinyoung's legs were shaking. He feared no man except for his brother. "Third Brother, I promise, I won't commit anything unlawful!"
"It's alright. You guys have fun. Today is a day worth celebrating after all." Jinyoung's brother looked away. "I'm just a door away so if anything happens, you know where to find me."
Jinyoung responded hastily. Until he was 100% sure that his brother was no longer behind the door did he let out a long painful sigh. He reached up to wipe the cold sweat off his brows before glaring angrily at his brothers. "Didn't you say that my brother doesn't know I'm here?"
"How would I know if he saw you?!" He really had nothing to do with it! He did make sure to hide away in time!
"His brother really does scare the crap outta people, doesn't he?" whispered Jisoo into Lisa's ear.
Lisa laughed as she put down her glass of alcohol. "What is there to be afraid of? I'm gonna head to the bathroom."
"I'll go with you," said Jisoo.
Lisa glanced at the brooding Jinyoung. Rubbing her chin, she replied, "Sure!"
After the both of them left, someone finally decided to say it. "That robot next to Miss Lalisa seems so human. The way it poured me a drink just now scared the hell out of me."
"Ignorant fool." Jinyoung rolled his eyes at him.
***
"Are you blind?! Do you have any idea how expensive these shoes cost me? You think you can compensate me for this?!" roared Yu Silei whose shoe had unintentionally been stepped on.
She was a B-list celebrity working under Bluestar Entertainment. The young master of the Wang family had apparently fallen for her and because she played her cards well, she had gained quite a lot of assets recently. Since her sugar daddy was impressed by her capability, he brought her here tonight. Sitting in the same room as the mayor made Yu Silei feel as if her heart was about to jump out of her mouth.
While everyone was still discussing serious matters, she took the opportunity to leave the room and apply some makeup. Unfortunately, her shoe was stepped on in the process.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it!" Jisoo jumped up out of shock. She was so taken aback by what Lisa said that she wasn't aware of the person walking towards her.
Yu Silei looked up to find that it was just a plain-clothed girl. In just a split-second, a look of disgust appeared in her eyes.
"What happened?" Lisa emerged from the washroom. With a paper napkin, she wiped her slender fingers dry. She proceeded to look up and stare coldly in the direction where the noise was coming from.