The moment those two mysteriously powerful words left his mouth, the smile on Herta's face vanished without a trace, replaced by utter, uncontrollable astonishment.
For a brief instant, she even wondered whether she had misheard him—or whether some bizarre cosmic entity had latched onto her.
But only for an instant.
Because she had very clearly seen Jiang Ling's lips move.
What exactly was wrong with this guy from the company?
In that hazy memory, he had called her an old woman pretending to be young, and now he was calling her Mom?
What the hell was that supposed to mean?!
Herta stared at him blankly. It took her quite a while to recover before she finally asked,
"You—! Wait... what exactly did you just call me?"
"Ahem... My apologies, Lady Herta. I got carried away."
The moment he saw Herta standing there in stunned disbelief, Jiang Ling knew his goal of derailing the conversation and reclaiming control had been achieved. He gave a dry cough, then spoke in a composed tone.
"After all, for researchers like us, every member of the Genius Society is someone we admire."
"And when one is suddenly standing before the one and only, peerlessly brilliant, breathtakingly beautiful Lady Herta in person... it's only natural to get a little overexcited."
"As for why I used that particular form of address... let's just say it has something to do with my personal history. But that is not the main issue today."
He paused briefly, then straightened up and continued,
"Jiang Ling, P40-ranked researcher of the Interastral Peace Corporation. My purpose in visiting the space station today is to represent the company in discussing cooperation with you regarding Project Mirror."
"...Are all company people this good at talking as if only their own version matters?"
Watching this young man—who one second had been acting like some strange roleplay enthusiast and the next had switched flawlessly into serious corporate drone mode—Herta could not help twitching at the corner of her mouth.
Although she had come prepared, she still had not expected Jiang Ling to be even more erratic than he had seemed in that blurred fragment of memory.
Still... Jiang Ling's personality and behavior were not the point.
One reason she had decided to "receive" him personally was to see whether she could find any clues from him related to that memory.
The other was to see whether, after laying eyes on her true self, he would still dare call her an old woman pretending to be young.
The first part had not yielded much so far.
But the second...
Ha. Those two words, followed by that string of lavish praise, had already made his stance perfectly clear.
It was easy enough to run one's mouth online. But face to face with the unparalleled, stunningly beautiful Lady Herta herself, who wouldn't want to shower her with praise and call her Mommy?
The thought that Jiang Ling's attitude had shifted from old woman pretending to be young to a woman worthy of being my mother put Herta in an unexpectedly good mood.
She always claimed she did not care how the outside world judged her, but...
in truth, she rather enjoyed seeing people like Jiang Ling visibly change their attitude the moment they saw her true form.
With that thought, Herta let a faint smile rise to her lips. She turned away nonchalantly and began walking toward the conference room as she spoke.
"Think whatever you like. Since you say you're here to discuss business, then let's go somewhere suited for discussing business. As it happens, I have a few things I'd like to ask you too."
"Ask... me?"
Watching Herta's retreating figure, Jiang Ling blinked rapidly, completely at a loss as to what she meant.
Herta had questions for him? Seriously?
Could it be just as he had feared from the start—that she already knew what the Strategic Investment Department was planning, and intended to make an example of him?
Sigh... being wedged in the middle like a sandwich really was unpleasant.
Though if the two slices of bread happened to be Lady Herta and Miss Zhenzhu...
maybe it would not be so bad?
At that thought, Jiang Ling pressed his lips together and glanced sideways at the screen that had appeared before him at some point.
["Blue · How to Use a Genius" has taken effect. Current activation count: 1]
"...Let's just hope you keep working."
Jiang Ling sighed inwardly, then quickened his pace to catch up with Herta as they headed toward the conference room.
...
As a genius, Herta reserved her patience only for people and matters that genuinely interested her.
So once the two of them were seated at the conference table, she wasted no time and got straight to the point.
"To be honest, I don't particularly care about your research or your proposal, nor do I care whether you invited me because you want to make more money or because you actually want to do research."
"Because compared to all that, the thing I care about more... is you, Jiang Ling."
"...Huh?"
Hearing those words, Jiang Ling froze in the middle of organizing the proposal papers, his brain briefly short-circuiting.
Faced with those calm, serious crimson-violet eyes, he found himself momentarily unable to process what he was hearing.
As a transmigrator who had dealt with Herta before, Jiang Ling naturally did not believe that some absurd scenario like the overbearing genius falls in love with me could possibly happen to him.
There could only be one reason she had taken this so-called interest in him:
She knew what the Strategic Investment Department was after, and she wanted to see how he would try to cover up the truth.
Surely it was not because she somehow knew he could perform Persona Extraction—and also knew he had once called her an old woman pretending to be young?
If that were actually the case, she would probably have transformed on the spot into some terrifying arresting force and dragged him away long ago. There was no way she would have waited until now.
Thinking this through, Jiang Ling steadied himself, then looked up at Herta and said with great seriousness,
"Lady Herta, as a scholar, I do indeed hold feelings of admiration toward you as a genius, but..."
"I still need to make one thing clear: I sell my skills, not my body."
"Oh?"
Hearing that, Herta arched a brow. The scrutinizing look in her crimson-violet eyes gradually shifted into faint amusement.
She remembered what had happened in that fragment of memory.
One moment this man had been righteously proclaiming how important the company was to him, and the next he had been demanding that she pay more if she wanted him to jump ship.
Ha... It seemed verifying whether the Jiang Ling before her was the same Jiang Ling from that memory would not be difficult at all.
As if struck by a thought, Herta's lips curved upward. She rose from her chair as she spoke.
"You say, from the company's point of view, that you sell your skills and not your body. But... if you became my person, then that problem would cease to exist, wouldn't it?"
In the span of a single sentence, Herta had already crossed the distance between them. With the key-shaped wand in her hand, she tilted Jiang Ling's chin up slightly, a meaningful smile resting on her lips.
"Join the space station. I can offer you twice the salary the company pays. And this collaboration on that Mirror project can proceed smoothly as well."
"Most of the time, you can just focus on that project. When you have time, you can come help me test a few new things. But if you refuse..."
Herta narrowed her eyes. The smile on her face made a chill crawl straight down Jiang Ling's spine.
Then she spoke, her tone full of teasing menace:
"You wouldn't want those superiors of yours finding out this cooperation has fallen through, would you?"
-------
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