Elysia set down the shopping bags in her hands and leaned against the pantry counter like a famous detective.
"Oh my, our innocent little Kiana really didn't notice at all, did she?" Elysia leaned in closer, lowering her voice as though sharing some earth-shattering piece of gossip. "Think back carefully — just now, at the elevator, when Su Yu and Eden's eyes met."
Kiana frowned, racking her brain. "Their eyes met? Wasn't that just a normal greeting?"
"Not at all!" Elysia raised a finger and wagged it gently in front of Kiana. "That kind of lingering, tugging gaze is definitely not the look between an ordinary investor and the person being invested in. And it wasn't the clear-eyed concern of an older sister looking at a little brother either. How should I put it…"
Elysia tilted her head back slightly, as if weighing her words. "It felt like they were exchanging something. Do you know Morse code?"
At Elysia's prompting, the scene at the elevator suddenly flashed through Kiana's mind.
She realized with a jolt that Eden's gaze had, in fact, lingered — deliberately or not — on the pocket of Su Yu's down jacket that had once held her hand, and on that gray scarf.
That gaze had been full of a composed, understated generosity, yet laced with a faint thread of dangerous possessiveness!
Just as Kiana's imagination ran wild with various scenarios, her heart souring a little, Elysia abruptly changed tack, her eyes turning sharp.
"Hmph, there's only one truth!" Elysia raised her index finger, pointing at Kiana with a dead-serious expression. "Su Yu and Eden must be secretly plotting some earth-shattering project behind the whole studio's back!"
"Huh?" Kiana was stunned.
Wait, after all that build-up, she'd thought Elysia was about to say something like "Su Yu and Eden are having an affair" — and instead this?
"Don't play dumb, Kiana!"
Elysia leaned in close, radiating pressure.
"Didn't you go to Uncle Yang's Anti-Entropy company today? I already knew something was off!"
"Ever since the beta test of Ordinal Scale started, Su Yu's been running over to Anti-Entropy all the time, and he's poured huge sums of money into that 'live mech tie-in' and 'venue construction' business. As their main investor, Eden must know everything!"
Elysia crossed her arms and gave a couple of smug little hums. "They must be discussing the next step of this secret alliance right now! And you went along today to inspect the results with Su Yu, didn't you… Confess honestly — are the three of you secretly preparing some industry-shattering new game or project behind my back!"
Listening to Elysia's thoroughly 'well-reasoned' deduction, Kiana felt a cold sweat break out across her back.
New game project, my ass!
What they'd actually been discussing was how to use mechs to fight off the Honkai Beasts about to descend on Arc City!
That so-called 'venue construction' was actually an energy shield buried beneath the city center!
As an ordinary person in the studio who knew nothing of the truth, Elysia's guess had veered wildly off course — from 'saving the world' to 'business venture.'
But she had, without a doubt, hit the bullseye on the core fact — that Su Yu, Eden, and Kiana shared a secret alliance hidden from everyone else!
"I—I don't know what you're talking about!"
Kiana avoided Elysia's gaze like someone with a guilty conscience, fumbling to grab a few gift boxes and head for the door, cold sweat beading on her forehead.
"Oh, we just went to check some data with Uncle Yang, that's all! There's no secret project! Auntie's waiting for me to bring her snacks, I'll go hand out the gifts first!"
Watching Kiana flee like a startled rabbit, Elysia, left alone in the pantry, lifted her chin smugly.
"Hmph, so obviously guilty. She really can't lie to save her life."
Miss Pink Elf hummed a happy little tune to herself.
"Looks like our naughty Su Yu is definitely preparing some huge surprise for all of us~ How exciting~"
────────────
By the time Su Yu stepped out of the stairwell, the office's central air conditioning was already at work, quickly scattering the faint trace of Eden's perfume still clinging to him into the air.
He walked straight down the hallway back to his own office.
In his mind, he was running through the arrangements for the new season of streaming — the script, the planning, and that impending bombshell, Amazing Grace.
And after the new update went live, the next wave of Spatial Rifts, growing in intensity once again.
Time was tighter than he'd imagined, and the plans for Ordinal Scale needed to move forward in parallel.
His current state really was no different from a spinning top.
There was a soft click.
The moment the door shut behind him, Su Yu's footsteps came to a stop.
The instant he stepped into the room, his enhanced senses picked up on something wrong.
The airflow in the room was off, and there was a faint, strangely sweet fragrance lingering in it.
Someone had broken into his office.
And whoever it was had done it with extreme skill — the surveillance cameras at the door and in the hallway hadn't picked up any anomalous readings at all.
Not even Bronie had reported anything to him, which meant the intruder had used some form of supernatural power.
Not many people were capable of that. As it happened, he knew exactly who it was.
Su Yu showed no sign of alarm. He walked calmly to his broad desk, pulled out the chair, and sat down.
The moment he settled into the seat—
There was a crisp click.
The unmistakable sound of a round being chambered rang out right beside his ear, and a cold gun barrel pressed against the back of his head without warning.
"Ta-da~ Our great Producer Su is now a hostage of little old Sparkle~"
Sparkle had been standing behind him for who knew how long, the muzzle pressed square against the back of his skull, her index finger resting on the trigger, her voice dripping with the satisfaction of a successful prank.
She even rose up on her toes, pushing the muzzle in a little harder.
"Now then, I ask, you answer. If your answers don't satisfy me, I can't promise this gun won't go off and threaten your safety, hm?"
Feeling the cold metal against the back of his head, Su Yu didn't even turn around. He simply let out a helpless sigh.
"That gun's loaded with confetti, isn't it?"
"…"
The air behind him went quiet for a second.
"Bang—!"
The trigger clicked. No smoke, no blood — just a ridiculous popping sound as a shower of colorful paper scraps and streamers burst from the muzzle, raining down all over Su Yu's head and shoulders.
Amid the flying confetti, all of Sparkle's assassin aura had evaporated.
She casually tossed the toy gun onto the sofa, then, nimble as a cat, slipped around the desk and hopped up to sit right on top of it.
Su Yu's pen got pushed aside; a folder gave a faint scraping sound as it slid.
She crossed her right leg over the other, her wooden geta sandal dangling half-off her toes, swaying back and forth in front of Su Yu with every small shift of her calf.
A thin red cord was caught between her big toe and second toe; the top of her foot was pale, almost translucent, faint blue veins visible beneath the skin.
Her toenails were bare of polish but neatly trimmed, the tips faintly pink from the cold, like a few cherries fresh out of the fridge.
She swung the sandal slowly, and each time it swung back, the sole nearly brushed Su Yu's knee before stopping at the very last instant, as if deliberately measuring out a dangerous distance.
"Ugh, this is no fun at all. Can't you play along with little Sparkle a bit?"
Sparkle tilted her head, looking bored.
"You could at least act terrified and beg for mercy a little. A man this boring won't win any girls' hearts, you know."
Su Yu casually plucked a piece of colored confetti off his head and looked at this joyful little tormentor in front of him.
"No visit without a reason. So tell me — you came all the way to the studio to find me, did something happen?"
"Aren't you being a bit cold, saying it like that?"
Sparkle toyed with a pen she'd picked up off the desk, spinning it between her fingertips.
She hooked her toes to catch the sandal, pinching the red cord tight between her big toe and second toe so it lay still against the sole.
A wronged expression rose on that face, delicate as a porcelain doll's, her voice turning impossibly resentful and suggestive.
"Have you already forgotten what happened that night?"
"In that dim carriage, we sealed a pact together. With your rough methods, you left an indelible mark on Sparkle's body… and now I must spend every day living in humiliation, under your 'surveillance'…"
The muscles at the corner of Su Yu's eye twitched twice, involuntarily.
"Could you please not make signing an employment contract and me checking your work stream every day sound so bizarre?"
Su Yu cut off her overblown dramatics, unimpressed.
Sparkle clicked her tongue in disdain. "Sometimes I really think you have no sense of humor at all. Lady Sparkle here has millions of followers and is a top streamer, famous across the entire internet! Such a cute and beautiful incarnation personally appears before you, and you don't have any kind of reaction?"
Su Yu looked her up and down and jabbed back without mercy. "Isn't your stream famous for chaotic antics and going feral? Since when did you switch to being a looks-based streamer?"
"Tch! Boring!"
Seeing she couldn't win this war of words, Sparkle simply flicked her toes and sent the sandal flying, landing with a pop on the carpet.
Then, like a lazy cat, she lay right down on her side on the desk in front of Su Yu.
She produced, seemingly out of nowhere like a magic trick, a cartoon-printed box of strawberry milk, and took a sip through the straw.
"Let's put it another way, then."
Sparkle propped her chin on one hand, smiling sweetly at Su Yu.
"Who would have thought that the infamous 'Jiahao,' the man millions of players online wish they could tear apart with their bare hands, is in reality none other than Su Yu, the producer of this masterpiece game."
She extended a slender finger, tracing circles in the air.
"What do you think would happen if I leaked this earth-shattering secret? You don't want everyone finding out you're that notorious villain 'Jiahao,' do you?"
Faced with such a blunt threat, Su Yu showed no panic at all. Instead, he shrugged, thoroughly unbothered, and played right along.
"So, following this classic storyline, are you about to use this secret to exploit me for personal gain?"
Sparkle burst into giggles at how unfazed he was, shaking with laughter.
"You sure know your place right now~"
A sickly kind of delight flickered in Sparkle's eyes.
"Come to think of it, exploiting you — turning this untouchable great producer into Sparkle's own personal plaything — actually sounds like quite the interesting idea."
Suddenly, as if her hand had 'slipped,' she tilted the opening of the milk carton slightly.
The milky, sweet liquid spilled out of the carton, dripping onto her pale, slender calf.
The white liquid trickled down her smooth skin, sliding over the curve of her calf and finally pooling on that glistening jade-like foot raised in midair, mere inches from Su Yu's chest, dripping drop by drop onto the expensive mahogany desk.
"Oops, my hand slipped."
Sparkle tossed aside the half-empty milk carton and tilted her chin up slightly.
"So sticky, how annoying. The great producer Su Yu — to protect his secret, shouldn't he help poor little Lady Sparkle clean this up? Maybe… like an obedient little dog, lick it clean for me?"
Faced with this visually provocative taunt, Su Yu's expression remained unchanged.
He calmly pulled open a drawer of his desk and took out a pure white silk handkerchief.
Then, under Sparkle's somewhat surprised gaze, Su Yu reached out with his large hand and grabbed hold of her slender ankle.
At the moment their skin touched, Sparkle's body tensed involuntarily for a split second.
Su Yu drew the milk-covered foot toward himself, then picked up the handkerchief and unhurriedly began wiping the milk residue off the top of her foot.
His movements were careful, not even missing the gaps between her toes.
Sparkle let him hold her ankle, feeling the warmth of his fingertips through the fabric of the handkerchief.
All the mockery and teasing she'd had ready seemed to land on empty air, like a punch thrown at cotton.
"If you want to play the exploitation game, next time remember to swap the milk for red wine. Also, this desk is expensive — you'll be covering the cleaning fee."
"…Tch, what an incredibly boring man."
Sparkle pouted, a little deflated.
Her toes curled slightly under the motion of Su Yu wiping her foot clean.
But soon, she narrowed her eyes, the curve of her smile slowly fading.
With that same foot, now wiped spotless, she pressed lightly against Su Yu's chest, feeling the steady heartbeat beneath.
"But… I know that beneath this boring exterior of yours, there's something far bigger going on."
Sparkle dropped all pretense of playfulness, staring intently into Su Yu's eyes.
"Tell me, Su Yu."
"Why go through all this trouble to put on a hated persona, deliberately setting yourself against every player out there? What exactly are you secretly planning?"
"As your partner, I should have the right to know the true script of this whole production — shouldn't I?"
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