Chapter 40: Conflict Between Two Sides

Without waiting for Luo Bi to respond, Pei Jing spoke, his voice deep and powerful: "Miss Luo Bi, I have also come to discuss the matter of becoming a Contract Master's assistant. If you are interested in this role, I hope you will sign a contract with the Administration. The Administration will provide you with the strongest protections."

Luo Bi hadn't expected that someone like her, who had awakened a useless attribute, would actually become an object of contention among various factions. She smiled and said, "You aren't the first person to bring this up to me, but I will need some time to consider it."

She didn't dare refuse outright. The Administration held absolute power on Planet Zihuang, and with the Archon himself visiting, it would be incredibly easy for them to settle scores if she failed to show proper respect.

To demonstrate her respect for the Archon, Luo Bi said solicitously, "Please, Archon, have some tea."

Pei Jing graciously picked up the teacup. Beside them, Luo Yan grew dissatisfied; she was the one who had served that tea, yet Luo Bi was acting as if she had prepared it herself. Luo Yan said irritably, "What is there to consider? If you become a Contract Master's assistant, you'll be working with me. You wouldn't leave your own family behind to help someone else, would you?"

Luo Bi's smile vanished. "That's true, we are family—even first cousins. Is that why you slept with my ex-fiancé?" Seeing Luo Yan's face turn pale with sudden realization, she added, "Oh, right, it wasn't intentional. It was just an accident."

As if feeling that wasn't provocative enough, she offered a seemingly kind reminder: "You should be more careful in the future, so you don't 'accidentally' sleep with someone else again."

The words were venomous, a soft-spoken cruelty that hit hard. Luo Feifan, a man who valued his reputation, felt his face darken like the bottom of a pot, while Luo Yan was both furious and anxious. Pei Jing, who was in the middle of drinking his tea, heard this and went, "Cough, cough, cough..."

He seemed to have actually choked, coughing several times in succession without being able to catch his breath.

"You... you..." Luo Yan's finger pointing at Luo Bi was trembling, her face flushing between green and red.

Guan Zhuting watched Luo Feifan's expression with concern. For Luo Bi to say these things in front of everyone was undoubtedly a slap in the face to the Luo family.

Luo Feifan felt humiliated and said in a heavy voice, "Luo Bi, how can you slander your own sister like this? Whether you believe it or not, Hua Chen and Xiaoyan's situation was indeed an accident."

Luo Bi looked innocent. "Did I say it wasn't an accident?"

She acted as if Luo Feifan were accusing her of something. Luo Feifan was fuming! The more he tried to explain, the worse it looked. "Stop talking nonsense. What Xiaoyan said just now is correct. If you become a Contract Master's assistant, it should be for your own family. There is no reason to leave your own kin to help others."

His words were pointedly directed at the Administration; they were actually trying to poach from the Luo family right in front of him, treating him as if he were dead.

Pei Jing chuckled softly. "That is incorrect, Head of the Luo Family. Whether it is the Luo family or any other clan, everyone is a resident citizen of Planet Zihuang. Contributing to the development of Planet Zihuang is a duty every resident citizen must fulfill. There is no distinction between 'one's own people' and 'outsiders' in this matter."

Pei Jing had not become the Archon by being a pushover. Luo Feifan replied with a forced smile, "The Archon is right. However, one stroke of a pen cannot write two 'Luo' characters. Luo Bi is, after all, a member of my Luo family."

To hell with "citizen duties"; Luo Feifan had no respect for such grandiloquent words. He had long heard rumors that Pei Jing had a crush on a dual-attribute Contract Master. The fact that Pei Jing, as the Archon, had personally come to find Luo Bi meant he was most likely here for that dual-attribute Contract Master.

Pei Jing was a public figure, and Luo Bi had heard something about his personal affairs. While she was calculating her own moves in her head, she deliberately glanced at Luo Feifan before turning back to Pei Jing with a sheepish expression, feigning a state of being torn between two sides.

(End of Chapter)