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A strange expression coloured Zhao Jing Lei’s face when he saw the three of them at his doorstep.
“Xuan Mo, this isn’t a team bonding outing…”
Xuan Mo pointed at Ai Er Ge: “He has some special detection abilities.” She pointed at Ling Yun next: “as for him, he’s the assistant, he’s self-funding this trip.”
Ling Yun was bitter: “Not only am I self-funding, I wanted to join this on my own.”
“…” Zhao Jing Lei rubbed his temples. When the throbbing didn’t ease, he rubbed them again before sighing, “they know?”
“Enh…” Xuan Mo looked at Ling Yun, “they do.”
“Alright.” Zhao Jing Lei said no more and instead opened the door to his car, “get on then.”
Ling Yun woke up bright and early this morning, and hence he managed to catch on to their tail before they left. Xuan Mo’s mother left for work before they even got up. Lu Yu Chen was the only abandoned poor soul that was still well asleep, unbeknownst about this sudden trip that cropped up. Ai Er Ge left him a note to inform him briefly about their trip. And with that, the three of them left without a second thought.
Xuan Mo was always one to get things done before updating her mother. Just before she boarded the plane, she dialled for her mother and told her she was travelling with XX.
Xuan Mo’s mother was incredibly saddened by the fact that her daughter was now an independent young lady who was very keen on making her own decisions. There was nothing she could do, apart from reminding multiple times for Xuan Mo to be careful on her trip.
Xuan Mo pacified her nicely and told her she was boarding the plane next before hanging up the call.
By the time Lu Yu Chen woke up and called Xuan Mo, she was already on the flying plane with her phone switched off.
Ling Yun sighed: “So if I didn’t get up early, y’all were just gonna up and leave? And dump me back there?”
“That’s not a concern.” Xuan Mo was calm and collected. “Your existence wasn’t within the scope of our plans to begin with.”
“…if you guys aren’t around, I might have long died or something.” Ling Yun implored. “Even if I’m as only as helpful as an ant, at least show some love and concern for a helpless creature like me.”
“Zhao Jing Lei’s investigating you.” Xuan Mo looked behind them. “I won’t tell him anything, you sort it out yourself accordingly.”
Ling Yun cupped his forehead: “I can’t reveal your identity, but I still need to somehow convince them as to why I found you… Xuan Mo, don’t mind me, maybe I’ll just pretend to be a crazy pursuer that has a crush on you.”
“If you can convince them.” Xuan Mo gave a cold laugh. “They’re as good as the FBI, they can probably find out how many times you dug your nose in a day if they wanted to.”
“It’s fine, I can just say that I made up the things I posted online, the people that deleted my post didn’t leave any traces of it behind anyway. As for how I found you… Mo Mo, when I was on the run, all I could think of was you~~~” Ling Yun gave a gentle expression as he turned to look at Xuan Mo with a loving gaze.
Meanwhile, just as Ai Er Ge was about to choke on nausea beside the two of them, and his head suddenly tilted to the side. The only feature that was left of his face was the area covered by his hair; the rest of his face had turned into a circular plate, his nose, eyes and mouth completely disappearing. The next moment, his entire being shrunk downwards; his stomach caved in and his body was as though it’s been compressed into a hardtack…
His eyes bulging from shock, Ling Yun witnessed the entire episode; no matter how much he’d wanted to, he couldn’t channel any voice in him to make any noise. He leant backwards into his seat in desperation, as though he was on the verge of passing out. Xuan Mo monitored Ling Yun half-heartedly to make sure he didn’t make too much of a commotion while pressing her hands against Ai Er Ge’s head and gave it a hard shove…
It was as though air was suddenly pumped back into Ai Er Ge’s body, and he immediately expanded. When his head returned to its normal shape, it even gave a pop sound. In a blink of an eye, he was back to normal. The entire deflation and inflation situation spanned only a few seconds.
Ling Yun blinked his eyes, his mouth still agape and fists still clenched. For a moment, he’d thought he was hallucinating, until he saw Xuan Mo and Ai Er Ge’s warning gazes before he zipped his mouth shut. He swallowed nervously, and stuttered: “Just, just now, that…”
Slam. Xuan Mo grabbed his collar and stared at him coldly. It was a hard stare that had Ling Yun beading in cold sweat. Xuan Mo slowly released his shirt: “Understand?”
“Yes, yes yes yes I understand…” Ling Yun’s broken voice was as though a radio channel with poor connection.
“Humph!” Xuan Mo pushed him back. Ling Yun slammed into the back of his seat with a hard shove, cold sweat trickling down his back.
He knew Xuan Mo was not someone who liked to joke around, he also knew that he didn’t cross the line earlier, but the joke was just cracked at the worst timing possible — he almost shocked Ai Er Ge out of his human form… if it weren’t for Xuan Mo, they’re dead meat.
And so for the next two hours, Ling Yun was silent throughout; his mouth tightly shut and eyes looking straight ahead.
Ai Er Ge on the other hand was the most relaxed out of the three, and that was very understandable. When a weak creature found him or herself a stronger counterpart that could protect him or her, the weaker creature would be even more relaxed than the protector in the face of danger, because of the latter’s presence… Ai Er Ge didn’t even realise when he’d unintentionally developed such a reliance on Xuan Mo.
While Xuan Mo was an enemy, she was an enemy that had the entire galaxy’s benefit in mind — in other words, she won’t leave him to wreak any havoc while they’re still on the blue planet.
After reaching City D in Henan, they were escorted to a four-star hotel situated in the city centre. In the end, Zhao Jing Lei didn’t leave Ling Yun to fund the trip on his own, and instead booked him a room as well. The three of them freshened up in their rooms before they were called into one of the meeting rooms at the hotel. There were around ten or so people sparsely seated inside. The person seated all the way at the front, was Cheng Ming Xuan.
All decked out in suit, the elegant guy watched as Zhao Jing Lei brought the three of them in. He smiled: “Xuan Mo, you’re quite a surprise.”
Xuan Mo nodded and looked at Zhao Jing Lei. ♢ MY CLASSMATE IS TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS YEARS OLD, CHAPTER 172 is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM  ♢
Zhao Jing Lei pointed at Cheng Ming Xuan and summarised: “The one and only investor of the Golden Stone research team, in other words, our big boss.”
“Doesn’t he do wine business?”
Cheng Ming Xuan smiled and replied: “It’s just that every time you see me, I was doing wine-related business… our family business is much larger in scale, we’re in everything that brings in money… you know? High tech industry generates the most profit out of all of them.”
“And real estate.” Zhao Jing Lei added.
“And, maybe entertainment and media too.” Cheng Ming Xuan smiled again.
“Oh.” Xuan Mo had only asked earlier to make conservation. She wasn’t actually interested in finding out how impressive or eligible of a bachelor this guy turned out to be. And so, she sat down calmly, “what do we need to be briefed about?”