Lu Family Manor, dining room.
The place was as luxurious as a medieval palace, and the dining table was laden with an array of exquisite, top-tier dishes.
At the head of the table, Lu Cheng rested his chin on one hand, while the other toyed with the red wine in his goblet, his gaze playful.
To his left, Xia Qinghe, who had returned with him, was gently serving him food with communal chopsticks, her movements skilled, her eyes full of tenderness.
To his right, Lu Xuan pouted, her cheeks puffed out in a huff, but still, her actions betrayed her words as she dropped a perfectly peeled shrimp into Lu Cheng's bowl.
And across the table, an incongruous figure sat.
Lu Ling's back was ramrod straight, her hands resting flat on her knees, unmoving.
The atmosphere was subtly eerie in its silence.
Lu Cheng had not touched his chopsticks, and naturally, no one else at the table dared to start eating before him.
But Lu Ling's database evidently lacked low-efficiency social directives like "waiting for others to start eating."
To her, the food before her was merely a substance to replenish the body's necessary energy.
So, under the astonished gazes of Lu Xuan and Xia Qinghe, she expressionlessly picked up her chopsticks and precisely reached for the nearest dish.
"Wait."
Lu Cheng's voice was not loud, even carrying a hint of a lazy drawl.
But these two words were like an invisible command, making Lu Ling's outstretched chopsticks instantly freeze in mid-air, not moving an inch.
Lu Cheng swirled his wine glass, his gaze falling on her, and then he suddenly smiled.
"When you eat at my house, you follow my house's rules."
He gestured to himself with his chin.
"If I haven't touched my chopsticks, no one else can."
"That's the first rule."
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in Ji Ling's mind.
"Warning: Encountered unknown social rule."
"Rule being recorded... Priority assessment: High."
"Behavioral pattern correction: Await 'Master's' command."
She slowly retracted her chopsticks, returning to her statue-like sitting posture.
Only then did Lu Cheng pick up his chopsticks with satisfaction, take a bite of the dish Xia Qinghe had served him, and eat at a leisurely pace.
As he moved, the atmosphere at the table finally livened up.
Lu Xuan immediately acted like a little cat asserting her dominance, pushing her favorite Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup towards Lu Cheng and giving Lu Ling across the table a defiant glare.
Xia Qinghe, on the other hand, considerately served Lu Cheng a bowl of soup, saying softly, "Lu Brother Cheng, have some soup to warm your stomach."
Lu Cheng took the soup bowl, drank a mouthful, and then his gaze once again turned to the quiet doll across from him.
His mischievous streak had resurfaced.
"Ling'er."
He commanded.
"Peel a crab for me."
At these words, both Lu Xuan and Xia Qinghe paused their movements, looking at Lu Ling in unison.
In Ji Ling's database, entries related to "crab" were instantly retrieved, including all its biological classifications, structural components, nutritional content... but there was no highly practical operation like "peeling."
But this did not stump her.
She picked up a large king crab, and her fingers, which should have been used to operate the most precise weapons, now moved in an extremely accurate but ungraceful manner.
"Crack, crunch..."
With crisp sounds, the crab leg joints were forcefully dislodged, and the hard crab shell was meticulously disassembled layer by layer.
Throughout the process, she used no tools, her movements so fast they created afterimages.
It wasn't like peeling a crab; it was more like disarming a time bomb, every step calculated to the micron level.
In less than half a minute, a plate of perfectly intact crab meat, without a single shard of shell, was neatly arranged by her in a mechanical motion and placed before Lu Cheng.
The entire dining room was silent.
Lu Xuan stared, dumbfounded, muttering softly.
"Freak... this... I feel like I've seen something like this before."
Xia Qinghe, meanwhile, watched the scene with complex emotions.
She keenly sensed that this girl named Lu Ling, though appearing dull and even socially inept, displayed an alarmingly high level of "obedience" towards Lu Cheng.
It was a kind of obedience that was utterly unthinking, executing commands to the extreme.
This set off alarm bells in her heart... After dinner, in the study.
Lu Cheng waved the others away, leaving only Lu Ling.
He lounged lazily on the large leather sofa, pointing at his shoulder to Ji Ling, who stood ramrod straight.
"Come here, give me a shoulder rub."
Ji Ling did not hesitate in the slightest, walking behind Lu Cheng and extending her hands.
Her database retrieved all human acupoint charts, muscle distribution maps, and nerve pathway diagrams.
The moment her fingers touched Lu Cheng's shoulder, the force, angle, and frequency were adjusted to a perfect value, more precise and effective than any top massage master.
But what Lu Cheng wanted was never just that.
Just as Ji Ling was providing her "professional" service, Lu Cheng suddenly grabbed her wrist with a backhand, pulling her whole body from behind to in front of him with a strong tug, causing her to lose her balance and fall directly onto his lap.
The sudden intimate contact, or rather, the interruption of her action, made Ji Ling's body instantly stiffen.
"Good technique."
Lu Cheng rested his chin in the hollow of her shoulder, his hot breath fanning her ear, his voice seductive.
"But too stiff."
Ji Ling's face remained expressionless, merely stating a fact. "I am trying to learn."
"Heh."
Lu Cheng chuckled softly, tightening the arm around her waist. "You're learning very well. But what you're learning is just obedience."
He leaned into her ear, whispering word by word.
"And what I want you to learn is to please."
"Do you know the difference between the two?"
To please?
"Entry: To please."
"Definition: To elicit a joyful emotional response from the target through actions, language, emotions, etc."
"Warning: This command involves complex emotional interaction; data information is severely insufficient."
"Solution: Requires more... data samples for analysis."
Just as Ji Ling fell into confusion.
In Paris, within the underground base.
Ji Tianxing was watching everything happening in the Demon Capital through a hidden monitoring module.
When he saw his most perfect creation, P2, who was supposed to be a god-slaying weapon, now acting like a docile maid, sitting on his enemy's lap, being "trained" by him—
Boom!
Extreme rage erupted in his chest!
The veins on his arm bulged, and he slammed his fist into the metal control panel, leaving a deep dent!
He immediately activated the remote communication module in Ji Ling's program, directly inputting information into her mind.
"Ji Ling, do you know what you're doing?"
"Useless! Traitor! Execute your mission!"
"Kill Lu Cheng!"
"This is not betrayal!"
In Ji Ling's mind, self-justification began. "I am learning, I am collecting his behavioral data, only this way can I find a successful assassination method!"
"I don't need your explanation!"
"Command received, initiating Level One disciplinary procedure."
In that instant, Ji Ling, who was being held by Lu Cheng, her pupils suddenly constricted!
Buzz—!
A compulsory, electric shock-like tingling sensation instantly spread through her limbs and bones!
It was a punishment from the soul level, a new module Ji Tianxing had installed to restrict her behavior.
With the power set to maximum, it could even directly incapacitate her for retrieval, ensuring that the defection of Ji Yao would not be repeated.
Ji Ling's body trembled uncontrollably from the intense pain, and for the first time, her usually expressionless face showed a visible change in color.
"Hmm?"
Lu Cheng immediately noticed her abnormality.
Not only did he not let go, but he held her even tighter, pressing her completely against him, feeling her tremble.
The smile on his face became more knowing and playful.
"Old man, you finally couldn't sit still."
Ji Tianxing's ultimatum was branded into Ji Ling's mental world like a steel stamp.
"I don't care what method you use! Three days! I'm only giving you three days!"
"Within three days, I want to see news of Lu Cheng's death! Otherwise, I will initiate the forced recall procedure and completely format you!"
Zzzzt—
The communication was forcibly cut off.
Ji Ling's body trembling gradually subsided.
She slowly raised her head, the slight "confusion" that had recently emerged due to "learning" had vanished without a trace.
In its place was a deeper, more dangerous coldness. It was a resolute determination to achieve her goal, no matter the cost.
She looked up, and for the first time ever, she actively met Lu Cheng's gaze.
"Lu Cheng."
She spoke, her voice still flat.
"What exactly do you mean by 'to please'?"