After Su Yu spent a full twenty minutes explaining, drawing on every ounce of eloquence and logical reasoning he possessed in his life—
And after swearing a vicious oath that he absolutely had not sold his body, Kiana finally, reluctantly, accepted the premise that "Eden is simply a rich fool with too much money... ah, no, a woman with a discerning eye."
In the living room, that priceless property-transfer agreement had been tossed carelessly onto the coffee table, and beside it sat a half-finished can of Happy Water.
Kiana sat cross-legged on the sofa, hugging that now slightly deformed big HOMEI plushie.
Chongchong lay sprawled on the sofa, those heterochromatic eyes sweeping back and forth over the two of them, with a look that seemed to say "foolish humans."
Kiana's gaze drifted back and forth between that agreement and the screen of her own phone.
On the phone screen was the shopping-cart interface of a certain online store.
A graphics card in a black-and-red color scheme lay there quietly, and the five-digit number in the price column had, just a few days ago, still struck her as an enormous sum.
But now...
Compared to that office building beside it—located in the city center, complete with floor-to-ceiling panoramic windows—this graphics card was simply like... a grilled sausage from a roadside stall.
No, it wasn't even worth a grilled sausage—a grilled sausage still cost a thousand yuan. This was flat-out a fifty-cent pack of instant noodles from a convenience store! And the kind that came with collectible cards, at that!
"...Um, Su Yu."
Kiana's voice was muffled.
She pressed her chin against the top of HOMEI's head, her gaze a little unfocused, her fingers picking at the doll's seams.
"Do you think… that when it comes to gifts, more expensive really is always better after all?"
She paused, then added a line that only made her cover-up more obvious:
"I'm just… just asking casually! I mean, that rich madam gave you something so expensive—you must be really happy, right?"
Su Yu was sitting on the carpet sorting documents, and at these words, his hands paused.
He lifted his head and looked at his very own Paramecium, who was clearly panicking like crazy inside yet was still forcing a calm expression onto her face.
He'd already known earlier that Kiana was secretly preparing something for him, but he hadn't expected this girl to out herself like this.
So she'd been wanting to give him a gift all along.
He hadn't expected Kiana to be so considerate. What was this sour twinge in his heart, this old-father-like surge of emotion?
But on the surface, he still had to put on a face that knew nothing at all.
Even though this was honestly far too hard, for the sake of not spoiling Kiana's fun, he'd just have to bear this suffering himself!
"Happy? It's alright, I guess."
Su Yu shrugged.
"But that's an investment, it's work, it's a debt of gratitude that has to be repaid. That's a totally different thing from a gift."
He set down the documents in his hands, turned around to face Kiana, and his gaze grew gentle and earnest.
"Kiana, you have to understand. The value of a gift has never lain in how many zeros are on its price tag."
"It lies in... who it's from."
"If it's from people I'm not close to, even if they gave me a mountain of gold, I'd only find it a bother."
"But if it's from you..."
He smiled, the expression on his face impossibly gentle.
"Even if you gave me a fifty-cent pack of Little Raccoon crispy noodles, or a weird rock you picked up off the road... as long as it's from you, I'd consider it the most precious thing in the whole world. I might even buy a frame for it and hang it on the wall."
"Wh-what's with that..."
Kiana's face went "poof" and turned red in an instant, all the way up to the tips of her ears.
She slapped Su Yu's hand away in one motion and wrenched her head to the side, her voice loud as if to mask her pounding heartbeat.
"Wh-who would give you crispy noodles?! Am I that kind of stingy person?! Idiot Su Yu! You childish brat!"
Though she cursed and grumbled out loud, her body was perfectly honest.
On that face turned away from Su Yu, the corners of her mouth were soaring upward madly, impossible to press back down no matter how she tried.
And that signature ahoge, as if it had received some powerful signal, sprang "whoosh" straight up, swaying merrily in the air.
Meanwhile, her inner self had already transformed into a Husky and started bolting off at a wild sprint.
"Did you hear that? Did you hear that?! He said he likes anything as long as it's from me! What does Eden giving him a building count for? That Miss Pink Elf, whatever she gives is totally lame!"
"The one Su Yu cares about most is me! Me, Kiana Kaslana! Heh heh heh… that graphics card is still pretty competitive after all! I win! This round is my total, sweeping victory!"
Watching that white-haired little fluffball grinning foolishly with her back to him, Su Yu shook his head helplessly.
This white-haired dummy was so easy to coax it was almost heartbreaking.
Having soothed the jealous little vinegar jar at home, Su Yu stood up, took his phone, and walked out onto the balcony.
Time to get down to real business.
He dialed the number saved as [Su Mei].
"Ring— ring—"
After two rings, the call connected.
From the other end came a wave of noisy background sound, like the scene of some upscale cocktail party, accompanied by Su Mei's voice carrying a hint of languid, shrewd big-sister charm.
"Hello? Eldest Senior Brother? Calling me this late—is something urgent? If you're looking to draw an advance on next month's living expenses, then I'll have to file a report with Senior Sister Lin first..."
"It's not about money."
Su Yu looked at the night scenery outside the window, a sly grin curling at the corner of his mouth.
"Sister Mei, I'm calling to let you know—the studio's funding has been secured. And what's more... I've pulled in a major backer that you know, too."
"Oh?"
Su Mei on the other end seemed to perk up with a bit of interest, and the sound of high heels in the background came to a stop.
"Who? There aren't many investors in Arc City who could catch your eye. Which venture-capital firm? Or some coal-mine tycoon?"
"Neither."
Su Yu dropped the bombshell.
"It's Eden."
"..."
The other end of the line fell into a dead silence.
Even the noisy cocktail-party din in the background seemed to be swallowed up by that one second of silence.
Three seconds later.
"CRASH!"
A loud bang came through, like the sound of something dropping to the floor.
Immediately after came a flurry of frantic, fumbling noises, and then Su Mei's somewhat cracked shriek:
"Who?! Who did you say?!"
"E-Eeeeden?! That Eden?! That Eden who sings?! That Eden of the Golden Courtyard?!"
Su Yu held the phone a little farther away and rubbed his ear, which had gone numb from the shock.
"Calm down, Sister Mei. Yes, that Eden. She didn't just put in money—she even gifted us a whole building to use as the studio—right in the city center."
"I... I..."
Su Mei, who had always been famed for "not changing her expression even if Mount Tai collapsed before her," was at this moment utterly incoherent.
"Eldest Senior Brother, you're not tricking me, are you? Pinch me... no wait, am I dreaming? That's Eden! My goddess! I've been her diehard fan since high school! I even have her out-of-print vinyl records in my collection at home!"
"Oh heavens… me and my idol... have become business partners?!"
Listening to Su Mei's frenzied state on the other end, like a scholar who'd just passed the imperial exams and gone mad, Su Yu couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Who could have guessed that the shrewd, calculating "Second Senior Sister" was secretly a fanatical celebrity-chaser?
This counted as... a collapse of her established persona, didn't it?
Su Yu helplessly rubbed his ear.
"Alright, alright, Sister Mei, calm down."
Su Yu cut off her spellcasting.
"If you keep yelling like that, the neighbors are going to call the police."
"Now that both the funding and the venue are in place, we can't keep running as some slapdash amateur outfit anymore."
Su Yu's tone turned serious.
"Come to the Inch Heart Dojo tomorrow morning—we'll all hold a meeting."
"Renovations, equipment procurement, hiring and expansion… and everyone's salaries and equity distribution—all of it needs to be formally nailed down."
"Before this we were all a slapdash outfit, but since we're going to be working together officially from now on, some things have to be made clear up front."
Hearing "real business," Su Mei finally recovered a sliver of her reason.
She drew several deep breaths and calmed her mood a little, but her voice still carried an excitement she couldn't conceal.
"No problem! I'll go work on the plan right now! I'll pull an all-nighter and get it done!"
But right after, as if she'd thought of something, her tone turned hesitant.
"But... Eldest Senior Brother."
"This salary business… Master Fu Hua's side is probably going to be hard to handle."
Su Mei let out a sigh.
"You know Master's temper. She's always felt that Kiana... ah, no, the Little Grandmaster helping us restore the Tai Xu Supreme Arts is already an enormous debt of gratitude we owe."
"If we try to give her money on top of that… with her character, she'd definitely see it as a desecration of the martial arts, and would refuse to accept it no matter what."
This was something Su Yu had anticipated as well.
Fu Hua, that little antique, was as stubborn as a mule on certain matters of principle.
"As for that..."
Su Yu glanced back at the living room.
Kiana was rolling around on the sofa hugging the HOMEI plushie, her two little feet kicked up in the air and swaying back and forth, looking like she was in an incredibly good mood.
"This humble hermit has his own clever scheme."
Su Yu smiled toward the other end of the line, his tone certain.
"Since Ah Hua respects her teacher and reveres the way so much, and trusts that Little Grandmaster so deeply..."
"Then we just have the Little Grandmaster step forward and issue her a divine decree, and it's settled, isn't it?"
"At that point we just say... this is part of the Tai Xu Sect's revival plan, it's a meal bestowed by the founding patriarch—would she dare not eat it?"
Su Mei on the other end was stunned for a moment, and then came Su Mei's laughter.
"Hahahaha! Eldest Senior Brother, it really has to be you!"
"This move of holding the emperor hostage to command the lords... it's just brilliant! If Master, that venerable elder, knew the truth, she'd probably be so furious she'd unleash a whole set of Inch Force: Open Heaven on the spot!"
"Alright! Then it's settled just like that!"
Su Mei's voice was brimming with drive.
"See you tomorrow! Aiya… just thinking about getting to discuss the Eden-investment project tomorrow, I feel like I'm going to be too excited to sleep tonight! I'm going to pull out all of Eden's albums and give them a listen! Brush up on my goddess's divine charm!"
"Beep——"
The call hung up.
Su Yu looked at his phone and shook his head helplessly.
Every single one of them... why are they all so impossible to set my mind at ease about?
But still....
He cast a glance at the brilliantly lit city center of Arc City in the distance.
That skyscraper towering into the clouds stood quietly amid the night.
That was their starting point.
And also the stage on which Honkai Impact 3rd would soon shake this world to its core.
"Good night, Arc City."
Su Yu put away his phone, turned, and walked back into the warm living room.
Kiana, stop rolling around—go take your bath! Tomorrow you have to get up early to go see your disciples and grand-disciples!
"I knoow——! Nagging old mom! Bleh!!"
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