Ch. 21
Chapter 21. Surprise Blind Box—Isn't This Surprise a Little Too Big?!
Another intermediate slacker gift pack. These slacker rewards were triggering a little too often.
Jiang Yichen thought it over and decided not to open it yet.
After all, an intermediate gift pack had a chance of yielding a Supreme-grade reward. If I save a few and open them together, maybe the payoff will be better.
Jiang Yichen gave a faint nod. His gaze swept across the audience murmuring below the stage before finally settling on Su Linyu.
"Young Master Jiang, Miss Su, please take your seats below the stage. The graduation ceremony still has to continue," the host said respectfully.
Su Linyu nodded and looked at him with a smile. "Brother Yichen, let's go down."
"Wait." Jiang Yichen caught Su Linyu's hand and placed the rewarded surprise blind box into her palm. "A gift for you."
A gift?
The moment Su Linyu heard those two words, she froze in a daze, then jumped up in excitement.
"Wow! After four years, I finally got a gift from Brother Yichen!"
She grabbed the host beside her. "Did you prepare fireworks?"
"Uh... Miss Su, what do you need fireworks for?"
"I want to set them off to celebrate. This is such a memorable moment. Brother Yichen gave me a gift! I'm so touched!"
Su Linyu held up the antique little box in her hand as though she wanted everyone to see it.
Look, Brother Yichen gave me a gift.
Jiang Yichen watched her beam like a child, feeling both helpless and faintly ashamed.
Ever since he had fallen for Lin Wan in his previous life, he had never given Su Linyu another gift.
Yet Su Linyu remembered his birthday perfectly and prepared gifts for him on every holiday.
Even when he had smashed the gift she had spent months preparing right in front of her, she had never blamed him. She had simply kept giving him more.
When it came to pure devotion, Jiang Yichen was no match for her.
"Miss Su, we didn't prepare any fireworks..."
"Ah? All right, then." Su Linyu looked a little disappointed, but she immediately turned eager again as she looked at the antique box in her hands. "Let me see what kind of gift Brother Yichen prepared for me."
Even though the tiny box did not look like anything especially valuable, that did not matter in Su Linyu's eyes.
Even if Jiang Yichen had given her a single chopstick, she would have been overjoyed.
Click!
Su Linyu flicked open the box with her finger. Dense white Spiritual Energy burst out of the small box and spread through the entire venue at astonishing speed.
"Whoa, that Spiritual Energy is so dense. I can't even see what's happening on stage."
"What kind of gift did Young Master Jiang prepare? It looks incredibly high-end."
"This is too sweet. Young Master Jiang and Goddess Su are perfect together."
"No! My goddess!"
"..."
While the crowd was still bewildered by the dense mist of Spiritual Energy, Su Linyu and Jiang Yichen on the stage were wrapped within it.
The Spiritual Energy slowly wove itself into clothing...
Su Linyu's long hair was gathered into an elegant low chignon, topped with a silver crown inlaid with tiny diamonds.
As the white Spiritual Energy dispersed, Su Linyu appeared in an off-the-shoulder white wedding gown. Layer upon layer of gauze formed a cascading skirt, as though she were wrapped in a soft white cloud.
The tiny diamonds hidden along the hem shimmered under the lights, echoing the brilliance of the diamond ring on her finger.
Jiang Yichen, meanwhile, wore a fitted white suit, with a rose at his collar that stood out all the more brightly.
???
What... Su Linyu, this is...
When the white mist of Spiritual Energy finally cleared, Jiang Yichen froze where he stood.
Looking at Su Linyu before him, with her translucent jade-like skin and eyes that seemed to hold warm light beneath her long lashes, he suddenly remembered the wish she had never fulfilled.
In his previous life, he had fallen into Jiang Feng's trap, which led the Su family to come and break off the engagement. Su Linyu had then been forced by her family into a marriage alliance with the Zhou family.
So all along, her wish had been to put on a wedding dress and marry him.
"Wow! Brother Yichen, do you want to marry me?" Su Linyu held a bouquet of white flowers in her hands and lowered her head, a blush creeping onto her cheeks.
Jiang Yichen pressed a hand to his forehead, glanced at the audience below, and nodded. "Do you like this gift?"
The moment the words left his mouth, the white Spiritual Energy floating in the air suddenly contracted into a ball. Then, with a BOOM, it burst apart and blossomed into beautiful, dazzling fireworks.
Su Linyu looked up. The colors of the fireworks reflected in her eyes, and for a moment she seemed completely stunned.
In the past, whenever she brought up the engagement to Brother Yichen, she would be scolded every single time.
But now, Brother Yichen had given her a wedding...
Tears streamed down Su Linyu's face as she said in overwhelmed disbelief, "I like it. I like it so, so, so much!"
Cheers erupted from the audience below the stage as well.
Only Jiang Feng stared at the two people on stage with an incomparably dark expression, one hand lifting slightly.
The bodyguard beside him bent forward at once. "Young Master, what are your orders?"
"Three minutes. I want the Ye family gone from the Huazhong Region."
"Uh... Young Master, isn't that a little too short..."
"You dare question me?" Jiang Feng's voice turned icy.
"...Yes, Young Master. I'll take care of it right away."
Jiang Feng gave a slight nod. His gaze fell on Ye Chengyu, who had been knocked unconscious nearby, and his eyes filled with disgust.
"Drag him away and deal with him somewhere quiet. If he appears in front of me again, all of you can be buried with him."
"Yes, Young Master!" Five or six bodyguards nervously dragged the unconscious Ye Chengyu out of the venue.
"Man, you have successfully piqued my interest."
Jiang Feng stared at Jiang Yichen on the stage. "You got lucky this time. But three days from now, during the graduation assessment, you won't be so lucky."
In the latest mock assessment, Jiang Yichen had only reached Level Five of the Second Realm, placing dead last among the entire graduating class. He had not even reached the level of a Third-Realm martial artist required for the graduation assessment.
Once the family elders saw just how worthless this heir was, they would naturally pressure Jiang Zhentian into stripping him of his status as the Jiang family's heir.
He absolutely did not believe Jiang Yichen could break through to the Third Realm in three days.
"Man, I told you before, no one gets to take what I have set my sights on."
Jiang Feng rose gracefully and slowly walked out of the venue.
At the same time, in the viewing room above, Su Zhan watched the surprise Jiang Yichen had prepared for his daughter, his brows drawn tightly together.
Jiang Yichen had first abnormally rejected Lin Wan, and now he had prepared a surprise that looked like a wedding. No matter how he looked at it, this did not seem like something Jiang Yichen would do.
Four years ago, when Jiang Yichen had wanted to break off the engagement with his daughter, scolding and hitting Su Linyu had been the least of it. He had even publicly declared at Su Zhan's birthday banquet that he would not marry Su Linyu, making the Su family lose all face.
For him to change so suddenly today, he must have learned in advance that the relationship between the Su family and the Jiang family was on the verge of collapse, and was deliberately putting on a show for him to see.
He wanted Su Zhan to hesitate. What a scheme.
But a good-for-nothing who had only cultivated to the Second Realm after four years in college thought he could marry my daughter? Daydream on!
Supporting himself with his cane, Su Zhan rose to his feet and fixed his gaze on Jiang Zhentian.
"My daughter's talent and strength are both unmatched. I will never allow her to marry a good-for-nothing."
"If Jiang Yichen does not even qualify to participate in the graduation assessment three days from now, then the engagement between him and my daughter will be called off."
After saying that, Su Zhan turned and left the viewing room without another glance, tapping his cane as he went.
The joy on Jiang Zhentian's face vanished in an instant, replaced by growing worry.
"Ah, it looks like Old Su is already prepared to ally himself with the Zhou family. Right now, he's only looking for a reasonable excuse."
"I don't know whether that brat has truly changed or is only pretending, but with his Second-Realm strength, he doesn't even qualify to participate in the graduation assessment..."
The moment Jiang Zhentian thought about how Jiang Yichen had wasted four years of cultivation for Lin Wan and was still only a Second-Realm martial artist, his head began to ache.
A Second-Realm martial artist was nowhere near comparable to Su Linyu, who possessed SSS-grade martial talent and had already reached the late stage of the Fourth Realm as a Martial Master.
Even if Su Linyu liked him, the Su family would never agree.
The family would also use Jiang Yichen's weak strength as grounds to force him to revoke Jiang Yichen's status as the Jiang family's heir.
Jiang Zhentian rubbed his brow. "That brat really is enough to worry a man sick."
"No, there are still three days left before the graduation assessment. Even if I have to force resources onto him, I still have to get that brat to the Third Realm!"
Right now, the Jiang family was using every possible scheme internally in the struggle over the succession, while outside, the Zhou family was eyeing them like a tiger stalking its prey.
If they lost the Su family's support, the Jiang family's road ahead would be extremely difficult.
Jiang Zhentian took out his phone and made a call. "Uncle Feng, go to the Jiang family treasure vault and retrieve the item I obtained in the Kunlun Ruins."
"Give it to Jiang Yichen. Make absolutely sure he breaks through to the Third Realm before the graduation assessment!"
"Ah? Master, that's the divine object you risked your life to seize. It's the key to your breakthrough beyond the Martial God. This..."
"Stop wasting words. Do as I say."
"...Yes, Master!"