Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Chapter 333: Chapter 29 Designing a Play for Immortal Venerate Xie
 

Xie Ruoxi’s earth-shattering kneel had Yan Yu bewildered.

What was the last thing she kneeled for?

It seemed to be when I was going to delete her gaming account… No, although she did kneel down then, she was propped up on her hands, in a “Coach, I want to play basketball” posture, which strictly speaking, wasn’t too humiliating.

But this time, it was a genuine kneel-down. How embarrassing, you beautiful mess! Are you completely shameless?

Wait, something’s off here.

Xie Ruoxi isn’t someone with much patience. The first thing that showed was her lack of interest in training, always whining about hardship and wanting to give up; then her older brother stepped in to discipline her, which at least got rid of her constant whining, but her performance on the battlefield was still not up to par—especially compared to Lin Ning. She seemed even less proactive, hesitant, and timid.

Yan Yu had originally thought this was due to her lack of real combat experience, a kind of “timid phase” unique to novices. But now, considering her habit of kneeling at the drop of a hat, it seemed more likely that the reason was deeply rooted in her personality.

Weakness!

Herbivorous animals, even when facing carnivores smaller than themselves, think of fleeing first rather than fighting back. Is it because they can’t win? No, it’s actually a problem with their nature.

To solve this problem, it’s definitely not enough to just increase training; it’s necessary to start with correcting her mindset.

Time for some strong medicine!

Yan Yu quickly made up his mind, looked down at Xie Ruoxi kneeling on the ground, and suddenly showed a menacing smile:

“Here’s the deal, as long as I help you with this problem, you’re willing to do anything, right?”

Xie Ruoxi instinctively felt a bit scared, but then she thought that maybe the captain was just trying to scare her, so she mustered her courage and said:

“Of course!”

“Alright then.” Yan Yu waved Su Yunjin over, “Whisper in my ear.”

——————————

After Xie Ruoxi’s parents arrived at the station, the aunt’s family also followed.

“Aren’t you going to see your Qianqian first?” Xie’s mother tried to send them away.

“I’ll go see Xixi first.” The aunt said with a smile.

Xie’s mother stopped talking. She cared about her image and couldn’t bring herself to say something as blunt as telling them to leave.

Xie’s father took a taxi, and everyone hurried to the address given by Xie Ruoxi.

Along the way, as they moved further from the city center, the aunt gradually relaxed.

Living so far out and still a cultivator? Aren’t cultivators all part of the government’s establishment? They might even get assigned collective housing, who would live in the suburbs with you?

“Maybe she got scammed by a pyramid scheme,” she quietly said to her husband.

Xie’s father, sitting on the other side of her husband, faintly overheard what the relative said. He twitched the corners of his mouth, turned to look out the window, and became silent.

It’s not that he hadn’t spoken up for his daughter. It’s just that every time he did, he ended up being embarrassingly proven wrong by his daughter, to the point where he was almost numb to it.

It couldn’t really be a pyramid scheme, could it? Hahaha… When we get there, regardless of the actual situation, we’ll first rescue our daughter and then call the police.

Xie’s mother sat in the passenger seat, oblivious to the relative’s comments, and was quite calm.

It wasn’t that she had confidence in her daughter, but rather, she believed her son wouldn’t lie to her. Xie Rushan had always been an honest child, hardly ever lying.

When the taxi arrived at the destination, everyone got out and looked around, only to find that the area was filled with villas?

“This is the place.” Xie’s mother looked at the photo her daughter had sent on her phone and compared it with the house in front, then said.

And so, the aunt’s smile faded away.

In their village, every family lived in a three-story building, some quite impressively built, but they all paled in comparison to this villa. With a view of the mountain and sea, a lawn garden, neat and beautiful hedges and fences outside, and even a riverside gazebo in the backyard—it was as grand as the luxurious houses of the rich in Miti’s movies.

In contrast, the apartment Qianqian and her husband had just bought in Jinling—even though it was a “subway house” just 2 kilometers from the subway station—seemed utterly insignificant in front of this suburban villa.

…Perhaps it was a shared rental.

As this thought emerged from the depths of her mind, it was like a drowning person suddenly grasping at a straw, giving the aunt a reason to investigate further.

“Go ahead and go in, I’ll help you with your stuff,” she said, eagerly offering help to Xie’s mother.

Xie’s mother waved her off, indicating she could manage, and then went ahead to the door and knocked.

“Coming!” a voice from inside called out, Lin Ning’s voice.

Xie Ruoxi’s voice was the soft and tender type, but the girl responding inside had a clear and vibrant tone, immediately indicating she wasn’t the younger daughter of the Xie family.

Auntie suddenly got excited, shooting her husband a look that meant, “See, I told you they were cohabiting. Maybe they’re even involved in some sort of pyramid scheme.”

Her husband didn’t catch her drift, merely keeping silent.

At this moment, Lin Ning, in her usual clothes without any makeup, hurriedly came to open the door. She welcomed the four elders into the house. Once she learned they were Xie Ruoxi’s relatives, she took the initiative to make tea for everyone.

All four of them seemed uneasy. Xie Ruoxi’s parents were nervous because they hadn’t seen their daughter, while the aunt and her husband looked around, assessing how much it would cost to rent a place like this.

“Dad, Mom?” Xie Ruoxi called out as she came down from upstairs, “Auntie, Uncle, you’re here?”

She went to her parents’ side and chatted with them for a bit. Xie Ruoxi’s parents visibly relaxed, but then they heard the aunt ask:

“Ruoxi, are you sharing this place with others now?”

“Hmm,” Xie Ruoxi nodded and said.

Just as the aunt was about to ask “How much is the rent here per month,” her husband, knowing his wife’s character and wanting to prevent her from being too obvious, quickly interrupted with:

“Is it far from where you work?”

“Not far,” Xie Ruoxi forced a smile. “It’s just a twenty-minute walk.”

Her strained expression was mainly due to thinking about the content of her usual work: practicing and getting hit.

But this forced smile in the aunt’s eyes, who already had a paranoid mentality, reinforced her belief that this must be some illegal pyramid scheme or other unspeakable job. After all, who would employ a girl who’d just finished high school? Even housekeeping jobs these days require at least an associate degree!

So she continued to ask:

“Then what exactly do you do as a… ‘Cultivator’?”

“Mostly training,” Lin Ning answered as she brought over the tea, casually replying.

Training… The aunt immediately put on a knowing smile, recalling the warning videos in her social media feed:

Workers standing in two neat rows, led by their manager through various exercise drills, shouting motivational slogans like “The company’s future is my future” and “Always be ready to set out for the development of the Northwest.” They were trained until they were completely numb and incapable of independent thinking, then started to solicit shares for the “Northwest Development” project, with each share costing around a hundred yuan, and a twenty yuan cashback for every relative recruited…

What kind of job requires training instead of education? It has to be a pyramid scheme!

She stopped asking questions, and then Xie Ruoxi’s mother pulled her daughter aside to ask how she was, mainly about whether her work was hard and if she was eating well, to which Xie Ruoxi obligingly answered.

Xie Ruoxi’s father wanted to see his daughter’s bedroom, so she led everyone upstairs. As the two men walked ahead, the aunt deliberately lagged behind, whispering in Xie Ruoxi’s mother’s ear:

“Could it be a pyramid scheme?”

“How could that be!” Xie Ruoxi’s mother became unhappy upon hearing this and tried to shake off her cousin’s hand, but the aunt gripped it tighter and whispered:

“I don’t mean to look down on Ruoxi. Think about it, she only has a high school diploma. Why would that ‘Cultivator’ company hire her? What did they see in her? Nowadays, you can’t even apply for civil service exams without a bachelor’s degree! Just imagine… I mean just imagine, if she got deceived by pyramid schemes, that would be a big problem!”

Xie Ruoxi’s mother actually didn’t understand what a ‘Cultivator’ was, and given her daughter’s lackluster abilities from a young age, she felt somewhat guilty when she heard this, but still said forcefully:

“How could it be a pyramid scheme? Do people from pyramid schemes pay for you to live in a big villa like this? She even transferred tens of thousands of yuan to me recently!”

“Who with a proper job lives in a big villa?” the aunt confidently retorted. “Unless they are businesspeople or stock traders… Can Ruoxi even handle such high-end jobs? Renting a big villa is a way to trick young girls into thinking it’s a quick-money gig, not knowing there’s no such thing as a free lunch!”

Speechless, Xie Ruoxi’s mother’s breathing quickened at the thought that if it were true, she would have to drag her daughter back home, even if it meant losing face in front of her cousin!

Seeing that Xie Ruoxi’s mother had stopped talking, the aunt moved forward a few steps, pulling her husband aside to murmur some sarcastic remarks, essentially implying, “I knew she wouldn’t make it,” and “Now she’s been deceived, the Xie family is in trouble.”

Uncle also felt uncomfortable, thinking it wasn’t nice for his wife to speak ill of others in their home, so he kept silent.

Xie Ruoxi led the elders into the study. Before they could even take a look around, she took out a passbook and handed it to her father, saying:

“After becoming a Cultivator, I completed a few tasks and earned some wages. It’s inconvenient for large transactions, so I might as well give it directly to you, especially since my brother needs money for college.”@@novelbin@@

These days, most people used debit cards, and passbooks weren’t commonly used anymore. The reason she chose a passbook, however, was specifically requested by Yan Yu, the director.

Her father silently took the passbook and opened it in front of his wife and relatives, looking at the string of numbers that represented the account balance.

Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousand, hundred thousand, a million…

A million?!!

In that moment, everyone seemed to be holding their breath, eyes glued to the numbers on the passbook.

Xie Ruoxi’s mother snatched the passbook from her husband’s hands, counting the digits carefully again, her hands starting to shake.

The aunt stood behind with a frozen smile on her face, her muscles so tense they were starting to ache, her mind a complete blank.

Just then, a knock at the door sounded, followed by Yan Yu’s serious voice:

“Comrade Xie Ruoxi, your family has arrived, right? The Military Manor has prepared a reception dinner, and the car is already waiting downstairs.”