Real Women Never Look Back at Explosions
The Demon Realm, at the auction house.
If you asked Shu Fu how she felt right now, the answer would be regret. Deep, profound regret.
She had only thought that “stepmother fiction” could defeat a domineering CEO. After all, even in the “single mother runs away with the baby” genre, the CEO only recognizes his own child.
In stories of this sort, the heroine might return to the CEO several years after going abroad, looking glamorous and radiant as a hot young mother, with one or more genius sons by her side. Then the domineering CEO would corner her at the company, on the roadside, in a bathroom… anywhere and everywhere imaginable—and pin her against a wall, demanding answers as she stubbornly tipped up her chin and declared:
“President X, just leave! This child isn’t yours!”
Of course, there was one prerequisite for this sort of plot: the child had to belong to the domineering CEO.
If he hadn’t been the one to sow the seed all those years ago, the CEO wouldn’t even spare the child a glance.
That was why “she has already become someone else’s mother”—a stepmother—was indeed an excellent excuse for discouraging a domineering CEO. It was particularly effective against a president like Nan Gongming, who was obsessed with pure, innocent little white flowers.
—But Shu Fu had never expected this.
Although Nan Gongming was as tacky and cliché as they came—one man capable of supplying a video-reviewing YouTuber with a year’s worth of material—he was not an ordinary CEO.
His unique trait was that, in the same story, most domineering CEOs would usually identify only one female lead.
But as the saying went, “Life has no rehearsals; every day is a live broadcast.” Nan Gongming’s life had no script either. At the very least, he could switch female leads every day without missing a beat.
Simply put, his female leads were disposable.
Thus, when faced with the brilliant stepmother drama Shu Fu had improvised on the spot, President Nan was deeply moved. He tactfully backed off—only to immediately shift his target and turn his attention to the “stepdaughter.”
As he strode toward them with steady steps, radiating the imposing aura of a supreme tyrant, Shu Fu still hadn’t realized how serious the situation was.
She looked at him with complete confidence, drew a deep breath, and prepared to repeat the stepmother scenario she had just performed—
Nan Gongming: “Woman, I can refrain from courting your mother. So how about I court you?”
Shu Fu: “?????”
—No, seriously, what the hell are you courting your father for?!
She never would have imagined that after making such an aggressive move, she would hook a complete idiot. The boomerang had circled the arena three times before landing squarely in her own forehead, spraying blood with a sharp hiss.
“…”
With blood spurting from her skull, Shu Fu experienced the true meaning of being “completely overwhelmed” for the first time.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t like your type…”
Nan Gongming seemed to have anticipated that answer and immediately asked, “Then what type do you like?”
Shu Fu glanced at Jiang Xuesheng. “…Someone like my brother?”
Jiang Xuesheng: “…Heh.”
He had been her master, her boyfriend, and her wife. Now he had become her brother as well. He certainly had a rich range of attributes—one relationship, a thousand different experiences.
Nan Gongming was quite generous about it. He promptly declared, “Since that’s the case, I’ll entertain your entire family as well. It’ll be a good opportunity to see what sort of person your elder brother is.”
Shu Fu: “…”
To be perfectly honest, if you really invited our whole family over, by the time we left, you might not have a home anymore.
She quickly began calculating how to refuse when Nan Gongming added, “By the way, aren’t you very concerned about that moon jiao? In that case, I’ll buy her for you.”
Without waiting for Shu Fu to respond, he turned around and ordered his attendants to continue bidding. No matter what, they had to win.
The attendant looked troubled. “Master, judging from the situation, the Cunning Demon Lord seems determined to have her. In my opinion, we need to focus on strengthening ourselves right now. There’s no need to offend him over a single auction…”
“What situation? Don’t follow the situation. I am the situation.”
Nan Gongming rebuked him. “Even without this moon jiao, don’t you think the other Demon Lords want to kill me? This face is already ruined. There’s no point worrying about whether someone tears it further.”
Shu Fu: “…”
Good heavens, he had actually said something sensible!
For one fleeting moment, he even looked like a proper Demon Lord!
What was even more astonishing was that although Nan Gongming was a hopeless fool when it came to romance, he maintained an astonishing level of calm and clarity on the battlefield.
“The Cunning Demon Lord wants to buy the moon jiao most likely because his cultivation has stagnated and he can no longer advance. He has no choice but to rely on rare pills and medicines. If we snatch this deal away from him and prevent him from advancing, that may benefit us.”
The attendant’s face was clouded with sorrow—mainly because his heart was bleeding over the money—but he had no choice except to obey. Thus began his arduous bidding campaign, accompanied by sighs of distress.
“This attendant was left to me by my father. He grew up with me and doesn’t really understand the rules.”
Nan Gongming was quite magnanimous toward his subordinate and did not take the man’s attitude to heart. He turned to Shu Fu and explained, “My surname is Nan Gong. What’s your name?”
“I—”
Shu Fu nearly blurted out “Shu Daqiang,” but quickly changed her answer.
“My surname is Shu. My name is Shu Xiaolou.”
Shi Xiaolou had spent all these years enthusiastically making up and spreading rumors and gossip as a way of getting revenge on Jiang Xuesheng for bullying him. It was only fair to let his reputation suffer a little for once.
“‘A little tower listening to spring rain through the night, in a deep lane, apricot blossoms for sale at dawn’? What a poetic name.”
This domineering CEO had apparently read a few books. After offering his offhand praise, he turned to Jiang Xuesheng and the others.
“You two brothers, I was presumptuous earlier. Why don’t you come over as well? I’m very interested in your little sister.”
Jiang Xuesheng and Wu Yao: “…”
Although the Demon Lord’s attitude was quite decent, and he had opened by calling them “brother,” why did they still feel so conflicted?
Liu Ruyi: “…”
No, I’m the stepmother here. I’m the one with the most complicated feelings.
When it came to improvisation and making things up on the spot, Shu Fu was a master. She immediately fabricated names for everyone:
Shu Xiaolou for herself, Shu Yiye for Jiang Xuesheng, and Shu Chunyu for Wu Yao.
As for the stepmother, Liu Ruyi, naturally she was called Xinghua. Her main role was to be sold off.
Jiang Xuesheng: Why does my name sound a little suggestive? Or am I imagining things?
And Nan Gongming did exactly as he promised. He purchased the moon jiao maiden for a staggering price, personally went up onstage to bring her down, and delivered her to Shu Fu.
“Now, you can relax, right?”
“Um…”
Seeing how sincere he was, Shu Fu couldn’t help asking, “Nan Gong, what were you planning to do with her when you bid for her?”
“What was I planning to do?”
Nan Gongming looked puzzled. “Since the Eastern Sea moon jiao is a useful talent, naturally I was going to recruit her under my command and have her fight and kill for me. I can’t simply let someone use her as an ingredient for a pill. Other than that, what else would I do with her?”
Shu Fu: “…”
—What a perfectly respectable reason. So you’re actually serious about your career!
My apologies. I underestimated you.jpg
Come to think of it, Nan Gongming didn’t kill women. Naturally, he was even less likely to eat them or force them to serve as cultivation vessels. His ideas were still stuck at the stage of “men work to support the family while women stay beautiful.”
If all the straight men with sexist attitudes in the world were like him, perhaps the world really would be a more peaceful place.
Of course, no matter what variety of straight-man chauvinism it is, in the end, it will inevitably be crushed beneath the wheels of the times.
The only difference is that some people get run over by a bicycle, some by a truck, and some are repeatedly flattened by a five-hundred-meter-long train.
Meanwhile, the envoy sent by the Cunning Demon Lord saw that the plan had fallen through and naturally grew restless. He immediately came over to pick a fight, speaking in a pointedly sarcastic tone:
“Demon Lord Nangong. Leave some room for others, and you’ll have an easier time meeting them in the future.”
“Heh.”
Nan Gongming let out a soft laugh, lifted his chin forty-five degrees, and raised one eyebrow and the corner of his mouth—looking slightly expressionless, if anything. He was the very embodiment of the words “wickedly charming and arrogantly unrestrained.”
“Not at all. We’re all hoping we’ll never see each other again, so there’ll be no need to leave any room. I don’t want to see you. What, do you want to see me?”
The envoy: “……”
—Of course I’m hoping you drop dead tonight, but can I actually say that out loud? Why don’t you understand basic social etiquette?
At the same time, the host announced brightly:
“While we have everyone’s attention, we have one more piece of news to share!”
“As everyone knows, there is an arena under our Demon Lord’s command where captured cultivators and demon beasts are often forced to fight one another for everyone’s entertainment and betting pleasure.”
“With the addition of this moon jiao, the divine-beast descendants sold through our hands over the past several hundred years now number more than a dozen. Here, we sincerely invite all of the buyers present: if the divine beasts in your possession are still alive, why not bring them to the next arena match and let them compete against one another?”
“What do you all think?”
Demonic cultivators had always been filled with both fear and covetous hatred toward divine beasts. Hearing this, they were naturally delighted, and their voices rose in agreement from all sides:
“Good! Excellent!”
“They ought to learn who’s boss!”
“When’s the arena match? I can’t wait!”
“……”
Amid the deafening cheers rolling through the venue like a landslide, the moon jiao girl who had just been rescued seemed deeply frightened. She shrank back nervously.
“Hey, are you all right?”
Wu Yao claimed not to care, but in truth he was more anxious about this young member of the jiao clan than anyone else.
“You’re so young, with barely any cultivation, yet you’ve already become an expert at stirring up trouble. How about it? Learned your lesson? You were this close to being taken away and steeped in wine!”
“…I’m sorry.”
The girl murmured in a low voice and retreated farther behind Shu Fu.
“I—I didn’t mean to. Auntie… the Sect Master said she was going to pass the position of Sect Master to Senior Sister. I just… couldn’t accept the idea of Xuanyu Palace falling into the hands of an outsider. I was upset and acted rashly…”
“‘Outsider’? What, is your Senior Sister not a member of Xuanyu Palace?”
Perhaps recalling the friction between the cloud jiao and moon jiao clans, Wu Yao’s expression turned irritated.
“Little girl, this is exactly what I hate about you moon jiao. You’re antiquated, stubborn, and obsessed with sticking to old ways. Put nicely, you revere tradition. Put less nicely, you’re self-imprisoned in your own backward thinking. It’s rare for someone with any ambition to appear, recruit outsiders onto the island, and build Xuanyu Palace into what it is, yet there are always people who object.”
“Listen carefully. Xuanyu Palace is Lingbo’s hard-won foundation, not some family heirloom belonging to the moon jiao clan. She can give it to whomever she pleases. Do you understand?”
The girl was berated into silence. She could only lower her head and tug repeatedly at Shu Fu’s sleeve, her tear-filled green eyes rippling like spring water.
“I don’t want to stay here. Those people are terrifying. Can you take me away?”
Nan Gongming chimed in, “That would be for the best. This place is full of all sorts of people, including some unsavory creatures. Staying here too long is unpleasant. We should return to my territory as soon as possible.”
The attendant let out a long sigh of relief.
“Master, we’ll have to earn back the spirit stones wasted today somewhere else.”
“Hmph. How hard could that be?”
Nan Gongming was completely unconcerned. He strode away, leaving the furious envoy behind.
He also left Demon Lord Ninglu behind in the process.
Ninglu: “????”
—Perhaps I really should switch sides?
“……”
Behind Nan Gongming, Shu Fu and Jiang Xuesheng exchanged a subtle glance, both understanding the situation perfectly.
He Xiuwen had more than one hideout. If they wanted to infiltrate his arena smoothly and take the opportunity to rescue the other dragon and phoenix descendants, they would still need the CEO standing before them.
For the sake of convenience, this little melodrama about a stepmother—along with a forbidden romance between brother and sister—would have to continue for another couple of days.
And so, the fake family of four followed Nan Gongming, bringing along the frightened, skittish girl, and left the filthy auction house where demons had run wild.
Then, the instant they stepped out of the auction house—
A barely perceptible ripple of spiritual power suddenly swept through the thick, stagnant air, like the buzz of a bee beating its wings.
Every adult present was harboring ulterior motives and possessed extraordinary abilities. Aside from the attendant, not one of them was weak. They all sensed the disturbance at exactly the same moment.
“““—Look out!!!!”””
In the blink of an eye, Shu Fu and Wu Yao shielded the moon jiao girl, Liu Ruyi shielded Shu Fu, and Jiang Xuesheng shielded everyone mentioned above. Together, they stacked themselves into a tightly packed human mille-feuille.
With the group huddled together so securely that not even a drop of water could pass through, Nangong, the CEO, who was one step behind, was abruptly knocked aside and left to cling to the attendant for support.
Naturally, he refused to be excluded. He immediately stretched out an arm in a desperate attempt to join this happy, perfect family.
“Wait, Shu—”
—BOOM!!!!
The CEO’s cry was ultimately swallowed up by the enormous background noise, vanishing without a trace.
Behind them, a deafening explosion and a pillar of fire shot into the sky together, blasting the entire auction house to smithereens and leaving not a single corpse intact.
