Chapter 78 – Strategy Meeting

After school, Lin Xi received a message from Captain Zheng Mo: Sebas was already waiting outside Z City No. 1 Middle School.

This strategy meeting would be held at Zheng Mo’s home.

Like Lu Yi, Lin Xi was more than happy to visit Zheng Mo’s huge mansion. Dinner tonight was sure to be extravagant.

“Miss Lin Xi, let’s go.”

Shi Yu, the “gentle pretty girl,” greeted her with a smile.

Lin Xi: “…”

Shi Yu kept up her gentle-pretty-girl act in class, and Lin Xi had to admire her top-tier acting skills.

In class, she and Shi Yu continued to maintain the relationship of ordinary classmates who had little to do with each other.

But Yang Shanshan, who didn’t know what was going on, furrowed her brow. “Miss Lin Xi, are you close with Miss Shi Yu?”

Yang Shanshan had been trying to work up the courage to invite Lin Xi over to her house for dinner, to properly thank her for tutoring her lately.

Without Lin Xi, Yang Shanshan didn’t think her grades could have risen from the very bottom to somewhere in the middle.

She had just about mustered up the nerve, only for Shi Yu to swoop in first.

Sure enough, hesitate and you lose…

“Miss Shi Yu and I are just ordinary classmates,” Lin Xi said.

Getting her to admit in front of outsiders that she was close with Shi Yu would feel worse than killing her.

“That’s good…” Yang Shanshan muttered. She could only invite Lin Xi another day…

“Goodbye, Miss Lin Xi.”

“Mm. Bye.”

Lin Xi and Shi Yu went downstairs together.

“You’re not planning to sink your wicked claws into poor Miss Yang Shanshan next, are you?” Shi Yu asked in a low voice.

Lin Xi rolled her eyes at her. “What am I, some man-eating demon? You probably don’t know this, but thanks to my tutoring, Shanshan’s grades have improved by a huge margin.”

At the mention of grades, Shi Yu looked utterly baffled. “How do you score so well? Are you cheating somehow?”

“Think about it. The moment you get home, you’re either gaming or reading manga, and the rest of your time is spent being horny. You don’t study at all.”

Lin Xi: “…”

“Horny, my ass!”

“I’m naturally gifted and highly efficient at studying.”

“One day of studying in the classroom is worth a whole week of your studying.”

“Bullshit,” Shi Yu said, unconvinced. “Tell me your study secret, and I’ll tell you one of my secrets too.”

Lin Xi’s study secret was that she was a transmigrator. How could she possibly tell Shi Yu that?

“My secret to studying is ninety-nine percent talent and one percent sweat. Now it’s your turn to tell me your secret.”

“Get lost,” Shi Yu said flatly. “Weren’t you the one encouraging everyone in class to study hard?”

“Yeah. I can’t exactly say all my improvement is thanks to talent, can I? That’d be too much of a humblebrag.”

“You really know how to put on an act.”

“You’re the bigger act. Pretending to be some ‘gentle pretty girl’-aren’t you disgusted with yourself?”

Seeing Shi Yu reach out, Lin Xi dodged at once. “What are you doing? We haven’t even left school yet and you already want to start something?”

“I’m not trying to start anything,” Shi Yu said, brushing the hair by her ear. “At school, I’m a gentle pretty girl.”

Lin Xi: “…”

The “intimate” interaction between Lin Xi and Shi Yu was all taken in by Zhao Xinning, who stood in the corridor of the teaching building.

Zhao Xinning clenched her fists.

“They may be carrying out another special operation,” Pluto said.

Zhao Xinning had come prepared. “On the way to school with Xi this morning, I secretly put a micro-listening device in her schoolbag.”

“No matter what operation they’re planning, I’ll know every detail.”

“We’re going home right now,” Zhao Xinning said, walking down the stairs. “Their operation may give me an opportunity to kill Shi Yu…”

…

Once they were off campus, Lin Xi spotted the silver-gray Bentley parked not far away at a glance.

“Whoa-” Lin Xi couldn’t help marveling. “Just how many luxury cars does Zheng Mo’s home have?”

Sebas, the old butler in a crisp suit and polished shoes, stepped out of the car with impeccable grace and opened the door for Lin Xi and Shi Yu.

This time, Lu Yi had arrived first and was already sitting inside.

As soon as Lin Xi got in and sat down, Lu Yi leaned over, using her thigh as a pillow.

“Lin Xi, I’m a little sleepy. You don’t mind, do you?” Lu Yi asked drowsily.

How could Lin Xi possibly mind giving her Neko teammate a lap pillow? “Not at all. I don’t mind one bit.”

She reached out, wanting to gently pat Lu Yi’s head, but Shi Yu shot her a glare. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Lin Xi had no choice but to give up.

The car started moving. Lin Xi glanced at the sky. It looked like it might rain.

Thinking back to that awful experience of entering the Dark Domain last time, Lin Xi felt a little nervous about this kind of weather.

“Relax,” Shi Yu said. “There’s no way we’d be unlucky enough to stumble into the Dark Domain of a Special-Grade Disaster Kun twice in a row.”

Lin Xi told Shi Yu not to go raising flags like that. She was terrified Shi Yu’s jinxing skills might have been blessed by the gods.

“Mr. Sebas,” Lin Xi asked, “does this car happen to be equipped with a Gatling gun that spits blue flames?”

Sebas replied, “No Gatling gun, but it does have RPG rockets.”

Lin Xi: “…”

Curious, she asked, “Does Zheng Mo’s home run an arms factory or something?”

“Well…” Sebas only apologized. There were some matters he was not at liberty to discuss.

“It’s fine.” Lin Xi quickly said she had only been asking nonsense.

Lin Xi understood. They might all be teammates, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t each have their own secrets.

“Shi Yu, you said earlier you were going to tell me a secret. What was it?”

“You have to tell me your secret to studying first.”

“I already did. You just didn’t believe me.”

“You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

Shi Yu’s hand twitched. Lin Xi hurriedly said not to mess around, and not to disturb Lu Yi while she was sleeping!

Shi Yu lowered her hand and said with a wicked smile, “The secret I was planning to tell you was my measurements. You must be very interested in that kind of thing, right?”

“W-Who’s interested?” Lin Xi turned her head away. “With your figure? Heh-“

Shi Yu felt more offended than she ever had in her life. “When we get back today, you’re dead.”

Lin Xi: “…”

…

The car drove into the villa.

Although the sky was overcast, not even half a drop of rain had fallen.

It had been smooth sailing all the way.

“Lu Yi, wake up,” Lin Xi called softly.

After spending the whole ride pressed up against her Neko teammate, Lin Xi was in an excellent mood.

Lu Yi woke up, her eyes still heavy with sleep. “Is it time to eat?”

Lin Xi and Shi Yu both fell silent. The only things Lu Yi seemed to care about were sleeping and eating…

After a moment, Lu Yi finally came fully awake. “Oh, right. We still have to hold the strategy meeting. We can’t eat until after the meeting…”

The three of them entered the villa’s main hall together.

Zheng Mo and Qin Ling had already been waiting for some time.

“Please, everyone, have a seat.” Zheng Mo gestured, and the maids standing to the side prepared steaming cups of fragrant, sweet black tea for the three newly arrived guests.

Zheng Mo had Sebas and the maids leave. Soon, only the five of them remained in the hall.

As soon as Lin Xi and the others sat down, Zheng Mo got straight to the point.

“Today marks the first strategy meeting of our newly formed squad.”

“Our next operation must succeed. Failure is not an option.”

With Zheng Mo, both Captain and young mistress, unleashing her full presence, Lin Xi grew serious as well.

She took a careful sip of her black tea.

It was delicious!