Chapter 571: Black Card! The Child of Destiny Is About to Flex!
"What? Do you want me to say, 'Princess, please get in the car'?" Shen Anyu asked teasingly, his eyes filled with a smile.
Ji Xiaolin spat, then hummed softly, saying haughtily, "Shen Anyu, since you're so insistent, I'll reluctantly agree." Despite her words, Ji Xiaolin's previously melancholic and gloomy brows smoothed out, her eyes curving into joyful crescents. The oppressive weight that had settled on her shoulders seemed to evaporate under the morning sun, replaced by a giddy, rebellious thrill.
A notification chimed, silent and invisible to all but Shen Anyu.
[Ding! Detected an increase of +1 in Destined Heroine Ji Xiaolin's favorability. Plundered +3000 Destiny Points!]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Zhang Zhiyun suffered a blow. Plundered +9999 Destiny Points!]
Human emotions are rarely in sync. One person's elation is often another's abyss.
At this moment, while Ji Xiaolin's eyes were crescent moons of pure delight, Zhang Zhiyun's face was turning a ghastly shade of green. The color seemed to seep down from the crown of his head, a venomous jealousy poisoning his features.
'What… what is happening?' The question ricocheted around the inside of his skull.
A furious buzzing filled his ears, drowning out the sounds of the morning traffic. He had extended invitations to Ji Xiaolin for breakfast, for lunch, for a simple walk—multiple times, each one met with a cold, dismissive refusal that chipped away at his pride. She had treated him like a persistent fly to be swatted away, an annoyance beneath her notice.
Yet here was Shen Anyu. With a single, casual offer, he had accomplished what Zhang Zhiyun couldn't. And Ji Xiaolin hadn't just agreed; she had blossomed. The joy on her face was radiant, genuine, and utterly devoid of the icy disdain she reserved exclusively for him.
'Is she still my fiancée?' The thought was a shard of ice in his gut. His fiancée. A woman betrothed to him, a bond sanctioned by their elders, was about to be whisked away for breakfast by another man, right before his very eyes. The public humiliation was a physical force, pressing in on him, stealing the air from his lungs.
Initially, he had rationalized her behavior. Zhang Zhiyun had convinced himself that Ji Xiaolin avoided him out of shame, out of a deep-seated guilt for having lost her purity. He had been preparing a grand speech, a magnanimous declaration that he, Zhang Zhiyun, did not mind. He could forgive her. He would accept her, flaws and all, because he was a man of great character. He had also assumed her coldness was her default nature, an aloofness she showed to everyone. A princess's pride, perhaps.
But now? What was this?
The warmth and enthusiasm she directed at Shen Anyu shattered all his carefully constructed delusions. It wasn't that she was cold to everyone; she was just cold to him.
Zhang Zhiyun's gaze locked onto Shen Anyu, and for a fleeting instant, a murderous glint flashed in the depths of his eyes. The raw, primal urge to eliminate the threat was overwhelming. 'This man is asking to die!'
Shen Anyu, however, seemed completely immune to the killing intent rolling off the young Celestial Master. His handsome face was a mask of relaxed amusement. He met Zhang Zhiyun's glare with an indifferent, smiling gaze before turning his full, charismatic attention back to Ji Xiaolin. With a deliberate, theatrical flair, he reached out and pulled open the passenger door of the Rolls-Royce. His movements were fluid, elegant, and infuriatingly graceful.
"Princess Xiaolin, please get in the car."
"You're so annoying, always talking so much~" Ji Xiaolin retorted, but her words lacked any real bite. A delicate blush crept up her neck, painting her small face in a charming shade of pink. She ducked her head and slipped into the plush leather interior of the Rolls-Royce, her eyes widening slightly as she sank into the unparalleled comfort.
[Ding! Detected an increase of +1 in Destined Heroine Ji Xiaolin's favorability. Plundered +3000 Destiny Points!]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Zhang Zhiyun is enraged. Plundered +9999 Destiny Points!]
The sound of the system was like sweet music to Shen Anyu's ears.
Watching his own fiancée settle into another man's hypercar, Zhang Zhiyun's control finally snapped. The last thread of his composure frayed and broke.
He didn't care that he knew, intellectually, that Shen Anyu was supposedly the boyfriend of Ji Xiaolin's best friend, Zhou Luyao. He didn't care that this might all be a misguided attempt to comfort a grieving friend. None of it mattered. All he could see was his woman, his betrothed, being far too comfortable, far too close, to a rival male.
His instincts, sharpened by the uncanny premonitions granted by his Luck, screamed at him. He could practically taste Shen Anyu's intentions—they were anything but pure. Men know men. And a Child of Destiny knows a predator when he sees one.
With a surge of desperate resolve, Zhang Zhiyun moved. He slammed his hand against the heavy car door just as Shen Anyu was about to close it, his palm pressing against the cool, unyielding metal. His face was a thunderous mask.
"Ji Xiaolin," he bit out, his voice dangerously low. "You are my fiancée. You cannot go to breakfast with other men!" He felt a need to project strength, to show some of the dominance she seemed to despise him for lacking. He couldn't let her walk all over him.
His forceful intervention, however, had the opposite effect on the fiercely rebellious Ji Xiaolin. Her nascent good mood curdled instantly. A look of profound disgust washed over her features.
"Who do you think you are?" she snapped, her voice dripping with contempt. "Fiancée? I don't acknowledge it. Go find whoever arranged this stupid engagement and make them your fiancée."
Then, a subtle but devastating shift occurred. Ji Xiaolin's eyes flickered nervously toward Shen Anyu, a flicker of fear in them—fear that he might misunderstand. She quickly added, her tone softening as she explained it to Shen Anyu, not to her actual fiancé, "My old man arranged it. He never once asked for my consent. It's just so annoying."
[Ding! Child of Destiny Zhang Zhiyun's mentality has broken down. Plundered +29999 Destiny Points!]
The system's reward was massive, a proof of the sheer magnitude of the psychological blow.
Zhang Zhiyun had been mentally braced for her first sentence. He'd heard that same dismissive venom from her at Hangzhou Airport. It stung, but it was familiar. He could endure it.
But the second part—the careful glance at Shen Anyu, the hurried explanation, the final, dismissive word "annoying"—was a perfectly aimed dagger that bypassed his defenses and twisted deep in his soul. It was a public and explicit rejection, not just of the engagement, but of him as a person, all while prioritizing the feelings of the man beside her.
Her words echoed in the sudden silence of his mind: so annoying, so annoying, so annoying…
He staggered back a step, his body reacting to the psychic wound. His handsome, delicate face contorted in a mask of genuine pain and disbelief. 'Does she really hate me that much?'
Shen Anyu had to physically suppress a laugh that threatened to burst from his chest. He maintained his gentle facade, smoothly closing the car door and sealing Ji Xiaolin inside with him, away from the pathetic figure on the curb. He leaned toward her, his voice a soft, reassuring murmur.
"Then don't mind him."
As he spoke, Shen Anyu reached across her, his arm brushing against her as he grasped the seatbelt. He personally leaned in, his face just inches from hers, and clicked the buckle into place. The gesture was intimate, thoughtful, and utterly devastating to the man watching from outside.
The proximity sent a jolt through Ji Xiaolin. She could smell the faint, clean scent of his cologne, feel the warmth radiating from his body. Looking up at his impossibly handsome profile, so close and focused on her safety, she felt her heart perform a series of chaotic flips in her chest. A captivating blush deepened on her cheeks.
[Ding! Detected an increase of +3 in Destined Heroine Ji Xiaolin's favorability. Plundered +9000 Destiny Points!]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Zhang Zhiyun is exasperated. Plundered +9999 Destiny Points!]
Through the tinted glass of the car window, Zhang Zhiyun witnessed the entire exchange. The sight of Ji Xiaolin's shy, flustered reaction to Shen Anyu's touch was like pouring gasoline on the raging fire of his fury. His blood boiled. He felt a pressure building behind his eyes, his hands clenching into fists so tight his knuckles turned white.
The same woman who recoiled from his presence as if he carried a plague was now acting like a bashful maiden in front of Shen Anyu. The conclusion was unavoidable, no matter how much it hurt. She had feelings for him.
'But how? I heard them! He's her best friend's boyfriend! What is going on?!' His mind was a maelstrom of confusion and rage.
Meanwhile, his public humiliation was drawing an audience. Several young women who had been passing by stopped to watch the unfolding drama, their phones discreetly angled to capture the scene. They began pointing and whispering, their giggles like the scraping of knives on bone.
"Ooh, I smell a primetime melodrama."
"You've got the fiancé, the handsome rich guy, and the innocent girl. Tsk tsk, what a tangled web."
"It's worse than that. The rich guy is the innocent girl's best friend's boyfriend."
"A love triangle? No, wait, that's a love quadrilateral. Oh my god, this is so messy, I can't even keep track."
"What's so confusing? It's obvious. The rich guy and the girl like each other. The fiancé is the loser in this story. I bet there's some epic family feud or ancient grudge mixed in there for extra spice."
"You guys have wild imaginations. But I think this so-called fiancé is toast. The other guy is driving a Rolls-Royce. I just looked it up—it's a Rolls-Royce Phantom. It costs two hundred million!"
"So the innocent girl dumped her fiancé for money? Threw herself at the rich guy?"
The chatter, a chorus of mockery, drilled into Zhang Zhiyun's ears. He was thoughtful for a moment. Could it be true? Was Ji Xiaolin, his fiancée, so superficial that she'd betray him for wealth, even knowing the man was taken by her best friend?
'Impossible.' Ji Xiaolin was the daughter of Zhang Tianen, the master of Celestial Master Peak, the undisputed strongest cultivator in all of Yanxia. With a background like that, what was mortal wealth to her?
Then again…
A strange expression crossed Zhang Zhiyun's face. He remembered a crucial detail. While Zhang Tianen possessed the power to command fortunes beyond imagination, to conjure billions with a word, his master was a man who cared nothing for fame or fortune. He was currently, almost comically, working as a delivery driver for Shunshun Express.
A flicker of resentment ignited in Zhang Zhiyun's heart, directed at his own master.
'Senior Uncle, Senior Uncle… with your monumental abilities, you could have raised your daughter in absolute luxury. It would have been effortless. Now, look. Xiao Lin is being completely deceived by a rich pretty boy.'
He took a deep breath, forcing the rage down. A new, cold arrogance began to replace it.
'But it doesn't matter. Money is nothing.'
A sneer twisted Zhang Zhiyun's lips. His hand slipped into his pocket, his fingers closing around a piece of cool, heavy metal. He pulled it out. It was a black card, sleek and unassuming, but radiating an aura of immense power—a Supreme Black Card. Globally limited, with no spending limit, it could mobilize hundreds of billions in funds with a single swipe.
A Rolls-Royce Phantom? It was a child's toy. If he wished, he could buy the entire parent company.
The Tianshi Sect had reigned as the undisputed leader of Yanxia's cultivation world for a millennium. The sheer scale of the wealth they had accumulated over a thousand years was beyond the comprehension of ordinary mortals. Even the so-called richest man in Yanxia would be little more than a moderately successful commoner in the eyes of such a colossal entity.
Only a handful of behemoths could even be mentioned in the same breath: the super-clans of the capital, like Yanxia's Shen Clan, Yanxia's An Clan, Yanxia's Gu Clan, and Yanxia's Yu Clan—ancient families that had reached the absolute apex of power—and a few other transcendent, hidden forces. In total, no more than ten families could compare.
Zhang Zhiyun's pained expression vanished, replaced by a smile of supreme confidence.
"Xiao Lin, I will let you know that your fiancé, in terms of both wealth and strength, completely crushes that rich pretty boy!"
Zhang Zhiyun smiled proudly, then hailed a taxi and instructed it to follow.
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