Love, Fireworks, and the Autumn Festival

For the visitors to the Kunlun District, this year’s Autumn Festival may have been the worst ever. The scheduled fireworks show appeared to be canceled, and the police suddenly took to the streets, herding everyone back to their hotels. Helpless, some tourists could only stick their heads out the windows, hoping for some unexpected delight.

...

Chen Shang and Chiyo Asoyi sat on an unnamed hillside, while Black Calis’s head rolled around on the ground, playing gleefully.

“Even though you’ve been blown up until only your head remains, you seem quite happy…” Chen Shang couldn’t help but laugh.

“Of course! Today was fantastic!” Black Calis exclaimed excitedly. “Controlling the tank’s airdrop was simply amazing! Zihahaha! That’s my style! Go on, praise me too!”

For someone born to chase amusement, today’s events would likely keep her in high spirits for quite some time. As Chen Shang opened the system’s character interface, he saw that Black Calis’s favorability had indeed soared to 65. His Collapse Points had also increased to six thousand, and were still climbing at a visible pace. The special class “Collapser,” which he’d unlocked earlier, had also risen from level one to level three, though it still didn’t grant any new abilities.

The only thing that weighed on Chen Shang’s mind was that Chiyo Asoyi’s favorability remained at 55, unchanged.

He glanced subconsciously at the girl beside him, pondering whether he should say something.

Chiyo Asoyi sat hugging her knees in silence. Her hands, burned in the earlier explosion, had been disinfected and treated, so there was no immediate danger.

—Without realizing it, she really had accompanied him in his mad escapade for so long.

Chiyo gazed at the silent night sky, her heart full of emotion.

Why had she decided to follow him in the first place? Why had she helped him carry out this absurd plan and become his accomplice? Was everything she’d done truly just to assess whether Chen Shang was qualified to join Tokugawa Company?

She felt a searing pain in her hands, her body and soul utterly exhausted.

“Young lady, do you still want to recruit me into the Tokugawa Company?” Chen Shang scooted closer and asked.

Chiyo pondered for a moment, then shook her head. “No, you’re not qualified to join Tokugawa.”

“Why not?”

“Tokugawa isn’t an outlaw organization,” Chiyo turned to look at him seriously. “On the contrary, Tokugawa only wears the facade of the underworld to secretly serve the Asoyi Group. What we need are capable and obedient people, not a complete madman like you.”

Chen Shang stroked his chin and sighed. “If the world were peaceful, and everyone could enjoy life just by living quietly, who would ever choose to be a madman?”

Chiyo didn’t answer, but shifted to the next topic. “The three great sects have been destroyed. The power structure of Kunlun District is about to be reshuffled. According to our bet, you won this time.”

“No, I didn’t.” Chen Shang wagged a finger. “Our original agreement was that I’d blow Kunlun District to the sky without your help.”

“Isn’t that about the same? …I helped because I wanted to.” Chiyo snorted, unimpressed by his excuse. “A loss is a loss. What do you want from me?”

...

The two stared at each other for a moment before Chen Shang burst out laughing. “Hahaha! Why are you looking at me like I’m a pervert? Don’t tell me you really think I like you—hahaha—”

Before he could finish, Chiyo punched him to the ground.

“Ow, you violent woman…” Chen Shang rubbed his head and stood up, grumbling.

Then, as if changing the subject, Chen Shang suddenly asked, “By the way, what do you usually do during the Autumn Festival?”

Chiyo raised an eyebrow in annoyance. “When I was little, the old lady who cared for me would take me to see the fireworks… But in recent years, I’ve always been at Tokugawa Company’s headquarters working during the festival…”

“Because the old lady who watched the fireworks with me is gone, I stopped going.” Chiyo lowered her head, lost in thought.

“That’s a shame,” Chen Shang said with regret. “This hillside is actually the best spot to watch the festival fireworks. In past years, it would be packed with visitors.”

“There are no fireworks this year, and whose fault is that?” Chiyo’s voice was flat.

But Chen Shang took a large red button from his pocket and placed it before her.

“What’s this?” Chiyo asked, puzzled.

“Allow me to explain!” Black Calis’s head suddenly hopped over and said, “Little Chen told me that there are several huge bombs buried beneath the three great mountains of the Confucian Sect—enough to flatten half of Kunlun District.”

“It’s pretty sad, isn’t it?” Chen Shang clapped his hands. “It’s like the nuclear arms race before the apocalypse. Everyone knows these bombs would destroy both their enemies and themselves…”

“But as soon as one nation starts building them, the rest have no choice but to follow. In the end, the combined power of these explosives could destroy their world dozens of times over, yet they keep producing more, never stopping.”

“So what’s the button for?” Chiyo asked, still confused.

Black Calis replied, “I’ve already bound the bombs’ controls to my terminal, as for this button… hehehe~”

Before she could finish, Chen Shang pressed the red button.

Seconds later, three dazzling flames shot straight up from the three sects’ mountaintops, illuminating the entire Kunlun District as if it were daytime.

The next moment, everyone in Kunlun District heard the earth-shaking roar of explosions and felt the violent tremors of the ground.

In a hotel room, a little mutant child with five hands excitedly stretched one out the window, shouting, “Mom, Dad, look! Fireworks!”

As if inspired, the tourists all turned to their windows in unison.

Before their eyes blazed a magnificent light, three shattered peaks, a howling wind, and mushroom clouds billowing above the mountains.

“Happy Autumn Festival, young lady~” Chen Shang snapped his fingers and said to the dumbstruck Chiyo Asoyi.

As the fireworks nearly turned the night to day, Chiyo slowly turned to him, astonished. “Is this… for me?”

“It was just a whim,” Chen Shang replied casually, watching his Collapse Points soar to nine thousand.

...

“Pfft…” Chiyo couldn’t help but laugh, the firelight in the sky coloring her face with a dreamy glow.

“As long as you like it.” Seeing her rare smile, Chen Shang smiled as well.

Suddenly, Chiyo grabbed Chen Shang by the collar, a blush spreading across her jade-like skin, as if the first snow had cleared to reveal a breathtaking scene.

“Seems I know what it is you want from me now,” she murmured.

She closed her eyes, lips curving slightly, as if waiting in anticipation.

At the same moment, Chiyo Asoyi’s favorability shot up from 55, finally stopping at 82.

—That’s quite a leap...

Chen Shang thought, his hand searching his pocket.

As Chiyo waited for the expected kiss, she was instead met with something being stuffed into her mouth.

A sweet, sticky sensation melted on her tongue.

“What is this?” Chiyo’s eyes widened as she tried to spit it out.

“Chocolate,” Chen Shang explained. “I noticed you seem to crave sweets, but you never dare indulge.”

Chiyo retorted angrily, “I’m one of the direct heirs of the Asoyi family. I would never eat something as nutritionally worthless as sweets!”

The name “Asoyi” was both her ticket to the upper echelons and the cage that imprisoned her for life.

Just as she tried to spit out the chocolate, Chen Shang covered her mouth with his hand.

“It’s not that you don’t want to eat it—you’re just afraid, aren’t you?” he asked with a gentle smile.

His words brought back memories of her childhood. Once, she’d stolen a piece of candy from the old lady who cared for her, and as punishment, her father had broken the old lady’s bones.

Ever since, she’d never dared touch sweets again.

“If you only fear your family’s rules, then as long as no one finds out, what’s the harm?” Chen Shang let go and lay back on the ground, relaxed.

“Ugh…” Chiyo swallowed the chocolate with a sigh. “You really are bold…”

“Haven’t you figured that out by now?” Chen Shang reached out, scooped up Black Calis’s head, and held it up. “Stop rolling around, Blackie! Come watch the fireworks with us!”

“Who are you calling Blackie, huh?! Stop giving me weird nicknames!” Black Calis shouted, squabbling with Chen Shang.

...

Watching the scene before her, Chiyo couldn’t help but smile, her voice soft as she murmured,

“Happy Autumn Festival, junior.”