Chapter 1918 - 1898:

Chapter 1918: Chapter 1898:

Upon hearing this, Lin Jiayou was both angry and amused, yet utterly helpless. How could this woman not hear that he was genuinely worried?

This was not some petty lovers’ quarrel!

Even back when he was squabbling with his own younger sister—Luo Qianqian—he had never felt this worked up. Sure enough, women as a species really are both lovable and infuriating! Who knows what’s crammed into their heads! Maybe the left brain is water and the right brain is flour, shake it a bit and it turns into mush. Don’t shake it, just light a match, and it explodes... he honestly had no idea why her temper was this explosive.

He’d never seen Luo Qianqian this hard to coax; this was bordering on unreasonable...

Luo Qianqian had grown up spoiled by all kinds of brothers and family, totally used to being pampered, and this Cong Ying was simply even more over the top!

"What do you want, then?" Lin Jiayou actually laughed in anger. He looked at Cong Ying, face cold as he asked, and his expression could not be called pleasant.

Cong Ying quietly looked at Lin Jiayou. "This isn’t about what I want—it’s about what you want. From start to finish, I never said I was asking anything of you, did I?" Her expression was calm, as if she no longer cared about the person in front of her at all. Only if you glanced at her legs would you notice they were trembling slightly—clearly she was nervous too.

For a moment, Lin Jiayou was actually at a loss for words. What she said made so much sense he couldn’t come up with a proper rebuttal, which made him deeply annoyed inside.

Still, he kept a stern face. "I want you... to withdraw from the competition immediately. You know that place over there..."

"Impossible. This is my chance. How do you know I can’t be the one standing at the very end? Besides, from what I know, people who go there don’t necessarily meet with disaster, right?" Otherwise, how could so many people be signing up?

Not only would they be the first to see the ruins, they could also enter the academy, and might even obtain some secret treasures from the academy. And the task was only to monitor the academy’s Forbidden Land, nothing more. That obviously didn’t sound like a bad deal at all.

So for Lin Jiayou’s concerns, she could easily refute them.

Only there was one very serious problem... the number of women participating in this competition was really tiny. Other than her, there was only one more.

That did make one a bit nervous...

However, the academy’s selection criteria didn’t consider gender at all; women were just fewer in number. And the first round wasn’t even about strength.

On the selection list, it clearly stated in plain words: Selection standard—pleasantness of voice.

That’s right, it wasn’t judging how well you sang, but how nice your voice sounded.

It wasn’t that only clear, airy voices counted as pleasant; husky, low, yet irresistibly sexy voices also existed.

This was something no one had expected, and the academy’s explanation was: if a voice is too awful, it will frighten the students.

No one could argue with that, because it did kind of sound like a fact... If a voice was too horrible, you might even be mistaken for a Spiritual Beast who’d gained sentience or something. Though, ever since the Cultivation World was reconstructed, there hadn’t been any precedent of Spiritual Beasts actually becoming sentient.

"Why can’t I get through to you? What will it take for you to withdraw?" Lin Jiayou was fuming, fists clenching as he fought the urge to just tie her up in a bundle and haul her home to lock her up. But he knew he couldn’t do that—at least not now—or she’d hate him for life. He forced himself to communicate with words... 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

And right at that moment, He Wenyu and Luo Qianqian were bringing food over to find Cong Ying. When they went upstairs, they suddenly spotted Lin Jiayou at the corner, and then smoothly headed up, happily settling in to eavesdrop.

They really couldn’t control their gossipy hearts...

After listening for a short while, the two of them snickered, satisfied that they could move on to the next step. They cheerfully slipped away and went to Forget Worries Tea House.

After hearing what they said, Qin Nuan also snorted a laugh and nodded. "But the two of you didn’t sound like you were listening at the wall—you sounded like you were committing a crime. Do you really think anyone in this courtyard is going to overhear?"

Those two were in the inn; even if they overheard, they were all "our people," weren’t they? And "our people" need to offer a bit of "cooperation."

"Poor Nianan, about to pay a heart-aching price for his dad..." Luo Qianqian scooped up Lin Nianan with a deeply sympathetic expression, then teased Tantan. "And our little Tantan too. But don’t be scared—very soon... um, in about a day, I’ll bring your Brother Mo to rescue you."

"Tantan’s not scared." Tantan smiled sweetly, face full of calm. "For the sake of the little brother having a mom, Tantan’s not scared."

"Tantan, you’re so sensible. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt, as long as you don’t touch it, okay?" Luo Qianqian couldn’t help but warn her very seriously.

Tantan nodded. "Like when my leg was scraped before—it was really itchy, but Fourth Brother wouldn’t let me touch it, right?"

"Your leg got scraped?" Even He Wenyu was stunned.

Qin Nuan sighed, looking at the tree in the courtyard, a bit helpless. "Do you two notice anything different about the yard?"

Following Qin Nuan’s gaze, both of them looked at the tree. It had far fewer branches now...

"What happened to the tree?" Luo Qianqian asked, face full of puzzlement. Even with the old branches, Tantan shouldn’t have been able to reach them... probably.

"Tantan stepped on a table to climb the tree," Luo Yanhai said, equally helpless. "She piled Stones on the table, then when she was about to climb up, her foot slipped and she fell. Her leg got scraped bald."

"I put medicine on it and told her that if she messed with it, she’d get ugly." Luo Yanran added helplessly. "Why would a little girl want to climb trees?"

Luo Qianqian: "...Didn’t my brother tell you I only started behaving after I fell out of a tree and cracked my head?"

"He did..." Luo Yanran nodded. "I even went looking for that tree, but it seems it’s already been chopped down. Otherwise I really would have wanted to bring it home and plant it."

"What kind of hobby is that!" Luo Qianqian was speechless, then looked over at Qin Nuan, arching a brow. "But your two sons—no, actually three sons—you are going to have headaches in the future!"

"Don’t curse me, okay? I still want a daughter!" Luo Yanran immediately yelled.

But as soon as he finished, everyone in the courtyard burst into laughter, especially Qin Nuan, who was laughing so hard she was almost out of breath. "It’s fine; even if the next one’s a daughter, that won’t stop me from still having three sons!"

Realizing what that implied, Luo Yanran glared at Luo Qianqian, looking like he only wanted to punch someone...

"Anyway, Tantan, you’re not allowed to climb trees anymore. Falling down is no joke—it hurts like crazy, you know?" Luo Qianqian still spoke sternly, particularly since the child had climbed onto a table to get up the tree—the difficulty level was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?

Kids these days are way braver than she ever was!