The team left the embassy with a few bruises and bandages, but big smiles.
"Okay, how did you do that?" Xuanji asked Liwu.
She laughed and replied, "I hold in all my bad luck and then make a wish on a coin for it to be transferred to the guiltiest person in the room."
Xuanji snorted. "That sounds like nonsense."
She shrugged. "So did systems, until they fell."
The team laughed, re-entering the car to be whisked away to another destination.
"This whole thing has put in the mood for strudel." Weijun mumbled.
Nobody groaned or laughed. They all went for strudel!
****
anwhile, back at ho, another storm brewed--this one over coffee. Tai Alix and Madam Xu, sat elegantly in a garden cafe in Beijing. Madam Xu had taken a private flight to the city to et her in-law. They were sitting with porcelain cups in their hands, asuring each other.
Tai Alix had a cool gaze where Madam Xu appeared to be nervous. It was their first face-to-face since the wedding that had bound their families together.
"President Alix," Madam Xu began, voice dripping with polite tension, "Thank you for agreeing to et ."
Alix smiled. "Call Alix. Our children are married to each other after all."
Madam Xu breathed into her cup. While Alix was being nice, she wanted to get the big issue out of the way before dropping honorifics. "Yes..err..President Alix, I must confess that this eting is not all social. I need so...assistance."
Liwu arched a brow. "Assistance? You an beyond stopping my daughter from making chandeliers fall and soup explode in your face?"
Madam Xu chuckled awkwardly. "Well, that doesn’t happen anymore. This concerns my younger son--Weifeng. As you and the rest of the world know, he has a girlfriend. A charming girl, but she has him wrapped around her finger with the help of an unsuitable system."
Alix sipped her coffee, reserving her judgent. "Unsuitable how? Is it responsible for the billion yuan necklace?"
Madam Xu groaned. "So you understand." She leaned closer, whispering as if the roses on the table might overhear. "That system is supposed to be a beauty system. But, I personally think it has manipulative abilities. She nags him...and he doesn’t complain. In fact, the more she complains, the stronger her hold on Weifeng gets. When she cries, he just wants to give her the whole word. At this rate, his shares in the company might end up in her hands."
Alix chuckled. "Ah, the horror of every wealthy family, their hard earned fortune leaking outside. You are not wrong, beauty systems are manipulative by nature. They exist to make us all fall in love with the host."
Madam Xu clasped her hands dramatically. "Exactly. If you resist, they sprinkle in charm or sothing to force us to sigh and sign over whatever the host wants. I want you, as the president of the SOB, to find a reason to strip her of it. Surely, there must be a regulation against people like Manman weaponizing their systems to manipulate others."
Alix tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Technically, systems are only revoked if they endanger public safety or cause life threatening damage. Buying your girlfriend a stupidly expensive necklace...hmmm....that could qualify as financial warfare."
Madam Xu exhaled deeply. "Thank God! Oh thank God, there is sothing you can do about this. If she was not a system host and he bought her the necklace, I would call my son an idiot and confiscate his money. But, she is one. There is more to the story than what it appears to be. Weifeng has always made the most sane financial decisions in all my children. It is possible she might move on from him to soone else. She is a danger to the public. The highest threat level."
Alix teased, "Oh my, she is practically walking around with a loaded gun."
The two mothers dissolved in laughter. Alix said, "We could pull her from the public eye and classify her as a national threat. Deploy her to interrogate criminals--they would confess in minutes."
Madam Xu brightened. "Exactly! If she charms criminals, fine. But not my son. He too soft hearted. A champion of ants and babies. He cries when his soup is too salty. She will eat him alive."
Alix leaned back, amused. "So you want to draft a bureaucratic excuse to strip her system, all to protect your son’s taste buds and wallet."
"Yes!" Madam Xu declared, slamming her cup down. "For the sake of family harmony! Putting Manman and Liwu in the sa environnt is not healthy for my heart. At this rate, my son’s are going to beco enemies. And that is not the worst part, it is the disrespect. I asked her to donate the necklace for charity and I would give her another from my prized collection and a villa in Shanghai and she told not to bother. That the necklace was a spoil of war." She raised her hands. "What war?"
Alix scoffed. "Clearly, the imaginary war between her and Weifeng and my daughter and Weijun."
Madam Xu snorted. "I never thought that Manman was this kind of person. She always seed so well behaved, kind, polite and sweet. Most of all, she was sensible. It is the one thing I expect from my daughters-in-law."
While the won were talking, one of Alix’s bodyguards ca over and whispered sothing to her. It made Alix raise her brows and smile. Then, she looked at Madam Xu with a gleam in her eyes. "I have news."
Madam Xu looked at her curiously.
"Your Manman is here, and she has brought friends. She is wearing the very necklace that started this scandal."
The bodyguard handed Alix a a mini laptop that could be folded to fit into the palm of the hand like a phone. The guards had already hacked into the security footage of the high end garden cafe.
Manman was in the cafe, with her friends and crew. She was from so shooting an advert for a perfu company. The scandalous necklace had featured in the ad, because the company wanted to create a buzz.
As soon as Manman opened her mouth, the first words out were an insult to Madam Xu and mockery of Liwu.
Alix raised her cup towards Madam Xu in mock salute. "I think she could use a silence system. Give a week and I will fix our mutual problem."
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