Chapter 210: One Cup and You’re Down

Silence.
Silence.
And still—damn it all—silence.

The gravity in the private room seemed to intensify.
Every breath became difficult.

Lin Xue bit down hard on her lower lip.
Her face was as pale as paper.

“I… I just…”

Her voice trembled.
All the confidence she once displayed so casually during academic discussions crumbled completely under her advisor’s soul-piercing question.

Yes…
No matter how mature or strong she pretended to be in front of others, she was still just a girl who had only just stepped into the world.

Watching his sister like this, Lin Yu couldn’t take it anymore.

Maybe it was the alcohol going to his head.
He felt a fire surging up from his gut and straight into his mouth.

Damn it!

If he still acted like a coward at a time like this, could he even call himself a man?!

“She only did what she should have done, Dr. Reed!”

Lin Yu snapped his head up.
His voice was hoarse with emotion.

The outburst wasn’t especially loud.
But in the deathly quiet private room, it instantly drew everyone’s attention.

“What she should have done…”

Dr. Reed narrowed her long, slender eyes slightly.
A cold smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

“At this point, Mr. Lin, you still naively believe that your choice back then was something you ‘should’ have done?”

“Ah—Dr. Reed! I’m begging you, can you stop beating around the bush already?!”

Lin Yu clutched his throbbing temples.
Fueled by alcohol, he growled through clenched teeth.

“I admit it! I’m an idiot! My brain really doesn’t work as well as you academic elites’!”

“You’re a lofty PhD.
A professor.
A scientist!”

“And me?”
“I’m just a bottom-tier wage s*ave struggling to survive in Xinhai City!
A nobody who’s never even touched a diploma from a prestigious university—just a damn ‘double-non’ graduate!”

He lifted his head.
His eyes were bloodshot as he stared straight at the elegant woman.
His voice was filled with the collapse and despair of a small-time nobody pushed to the brink.

“You people even turn eating a meal into a damn logic puzzle!
Every sentence hides a hundred meanings!
Replying to a single question feels like doing a reading comprehension exam!
Aren’t you tired?!”

“Aren’t you Germans supposed to be straightforward?!”
“Why is it that when it comes to you, you’re better at Tai Chi than we Chinese are?!”

“I’m begging you!”
“Just give it to me straight!”

“—What the hell do you want?!”
“Say it clearly!!!”

Three seconds.

For three whole seconds, it felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room.

Sun Hui pushed up her glasses.
Her eyes behind the lenses were full of shock.

She opened her mouth, clearly about to reflexively smooth things over.

But Dr. Reed’s voice rang out first—cold and hard as iron.

“Fine.”
“Since you want it spelled out, I’ll spell it out for you.”

She stopped toying with her wineglass.
Her hands folded together as she fixed Lin Yu with a sharp gaze.

“Back then, your sister sacrificed experimental materials and results that I had spent years collecting, all to save you.”
“I didn’t kick her out on the spot—that alone was the greatest mercy.”

“And now?”
“She actually has the nerve to come begging me, hoping to use my top-tier resources to perform experimental treatment on you—trying to lift that damned Nurgle curse?”

Dr. Reed let out a snort of laughter, overflowing with undisguised arrogance.

“Heh… just because you’re some magical girl?”
“Just because that body of yours is some so-called rare psionic construct?”

“Don’t think too highly of yourself.”
“Psionic constructs like that… pollution entities have plenty of them too.”

“Sure, the purity’s lower, the structure’s messier—but they’re free.”

She pressed forward step by step, giving Lin Yu no chance to breathe.

“So now, Mr. Lin, tell me—”
“Why should I waste my time and resources on a completely worthless negative asset?”

Lin Yu lowered his head.
He didn’t answer immediately.

“What? Gone mute?”
“Did I stump you?”

“No.”

Lin Yu slowly lifted his head.
His eyes were red from the alcohol.

“I’m not stumped.”
“I’m just… not worth answering such an utterly idiotic question.”

Dr. Reed’s blue eyes flashed sharply.

“Oh?”

“Dr. Evelyn Reed, I thought you were a smart woman.”
“I didn’t expect your vision to be this narrow.”

Lin Yu took a deep breath.
His tone became unnervingly calm—each word cutting like a blade.

“You probably don’t know what really happened in V District back then.”
“Then let me tell you.”

“At the time, an extremely dangerous [Yaoqi]-lineage pollution entity possessed me—a human.”
“If Xiao Xue hadn’t acted decisively and triggered psionic chaos to sever it…”
“That monster would’ve burst free long ago and started a massacre!”

“By then, not just your pitiful materials—”
“The entire D District would’ve been reduced to ruins overnight!”

“This is mistake number one—sacrificing the big picture for the small.”

Lin Yu raised one finger.
Then he raised a second.

“You’re obsessed with studying pollution entities.”
“You dream of controlling that chaotic power.”

“Hah…”
“A madwoman.”

“When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.”
“To those existences, a human like you—brilliant yet arrogantly self-assured—”
“Is the perfect toy.”

“You think you’re the hunter?”
“No. You may already be the prey—”
“Locked onto by a creature that specializes in schemes and deceit.”

“You see the trees, but not the forest.”
“You care only about what’s in front of you, never what’s behind you.”

“This, too, is mistake number one.”

Lin Yu stared straight at the queen seated on high.
A mocking smile curled at his lips.

“Dr. Reed, let me give you a line.”
“I read it in a book once.”

“…What?”

“People who study academia—”
“Don’t laugh at them, it won’t do.”

“……”

Silence.

A suffocating silence.

The entire private room seemed frozen in time.
Even the dust in the air stood still.

Lin Yu lowered his head.
He had already prepared himself to be thrown out.

‘Yeah… talking back to a big shot like that—no matter how you look at it, that’s outright heresy, isn’t it?’

Tsk…

‘How did I not hold myself back and just go off on her like that?’

But thinking it over carefully, Lin Yu knew—
Even if he did it all again, he’d still make the same choice.

Because he was her brother.

How could he stand by and watch his sister be bullied like this?

Honestly, right now he really wanted to grab her hand and say,
‘To hell with this graduate program—we’re done!’

Overbearing.
Hot-blooded.
Full-on sister-protecting maniac, right?

But once he calmed down, fear crept in.

‘Did I just ruin her future?’
‘What if she can’t even finish grad school now?’

She had worked so hard for that degree.

Tsk…

Damn it all!
What the hell was the right thing to do anyway?!

“Hehehe…”

Suddenly, suppressed laughter broke the stillness.

“Hehehehehe—HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

Dr. Reed suddenly covered her face and burst into laughter.
She laughed so hard her shoulders shook.
So hard that tears seeped from the corners of her eyes.

“Good—!”
“What a sharp tongue!”

She laughed as she pointed at Lin Yu.
There was no anger in her eyes—only a strange, glittering light.

“No wonder you two are siblings—carved from the same mold!”

“The sister looks obedient and meek on the surface, but deep down clings to her principles without yielding an inch.”
“And the brother—such a rebellious seed.”
“Looks like dead weight, yet there’s a lion hidden in his eyes…”

“Ah… being contradicted so directly does sting a little…”
“But—”

She suddenly picked up the untouched baijiu in front of her.
Tilting her head back, she downed it in one bold gulp!

“Haha—!”

As the fiery liquor went down, a breathtaking flush rapidly spread across her fair cheeks.

Her gaze turned hazy.
Her finger wobbled as she pointed at Lin Yu.

“Ah… Mr. Lin…”
“I like… I really like people like you…”

“Ah… how do you say it in Chinese again?”

“Right!”
“A hero!”
“A true man!”
“A heroic man!”

She laughed drunkenly.
Stripped of her usual aloofness, her smile bloomed like a red flower.

“Then… I agree!”
“Deal! Let’s make a trade!”

“You’ll be my test subject!”
“And I… I’ll treat that damned curse of yours!”

“I’ll prove it to that bullshit monster—”
“That science is the real truth!”

Lin Yu’s heart jolted.
His brain went completely blank.

“Holy shit… what the hell…”

Were all these foreigners secretly hardcore masochists?

Begging her politely did nothing.
But the moment he went head-on and tore into her, she got excited instead?!

For a moment, Lin Yu had no idea what to say.
He could only let out a string of meaningless sounds.

“Uh… uh…”

“Sun Hui…”

Sun Hui called out helplessly.

“Mm…”

Suddenly, Dr. Reed’s body went limp.
Her head slammed onto the table with a loud bang.

She was completely out cold.

“Professor?”

“…Don’t… let him go…”

Even unconscious, Dr. Reed continued to mumble indistinctly,

“You must… catch him…”
“Slice… slice him…”

Lin Yu’s eyelids twitched violently.

No wonder she’d been putting on airs and refusing to drink at first…

So that’s what it was…

She was a one-glass knockout?!

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