Legend Management Bureau Chapter 247

[ … words ]

“Brother… Jinjianglang?” Du Yu paused in surprise, asking, “A’xiang, do you know this person?”

“Mhm!” Shiranui Asuka nodded eagerly. “His name is Shiranui Jinjiro. He is my older brother, and he’s also the most powerful Time Master in the Shiranui family!”

The Jade Emperor seemed to have heard the commotion over the phone and quickly asked, “Sir, is this immortal a guest of the Legend Management Bureau?”

It took Du Yu a moment to process this before he hastily replied, “Yes, yes! Boss, that immortal is our guest. Could you figure out a way to send him over to the Legend Management Bureau?”

“Alright, since he’s a visitor, that makes things easy,” the Jade Emperor said slowly. “I’ll have someone process his visitor pass right away. Once the paperwork is sorted, a pegasus will bring him to the Legend Management Bureau.”

“Got it, got it! Thanks, boss!”

After hanging up, Du Yu looked a bit hesitant. He turned and asked, “A’xiang, this ‘friend’ you mentioned, the one who could solve all our problems… is actually your brother?”

“Yep!” Shiranui Asuka looked inexplicably proud. “Once Brother Jinjianglang gets here, you’ll see just how incredible a Time Master really is.”

“Is he really that capable?” Zhi Nv inquired.

Du Yu couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. “A’xiang, your brother isn’t some kind of weirdo, is he? Why did the Jade Emperor call him an ‘eccentric’ the moment he saw him?”

‘We already have enough eccentrics around here,’ Du Yu thought to himself. ‘I really can’t handle another one.’

“Hehehe…” Shiranui Asuka laughed dryly. “Brother Jinjianglang is a great person. He dotes on me a lot! It’s just that his magical artifact is a bit unusual, so people tend to mistake him for an eccentric. You’ll understand once you see him! And when you do… you might even get a jump scare!”

“A jump scare?”

Du Yu felt a sense of impending doom. This girl A’xiang was full of mischievous ideas, so he had to tread carefully.

“Alright, let’s not dwell on this,” Du Yu told the group. “From the sound of it, the Jade Emperor will need some time to process the paperwork and send him over. Let’s focus on preparing for the legend of Liu Ling’s drunkenness first.”

After assigning tasks to everyone, Du Yu began rehearsing the scenario with Xiao Nian. She seemed to genuinely love this job, practically overflowing with enthusiasm.

When she first heard that she would be stepping into an actual, historically verified legend, the shock and sheer joy in her eyes had been beyond words.

It didn’t take long for Master Shen to finish crafting the so-called “voice changer,” which he promptly handed over to Du Yu.

Du Yu turned it over in his hand. Surprisingly, it was a tiny earring stud.

Its surface had been polished with a matte finish, dulling its shine. Master Shen had likely done this on purpose so the earring wouldn’t draw unwanted attention.

Du Yu accepted the earring, thanked Master Shen, and headed to Xie Yujiao’s room to ask for her help in applying an array formation to it.

Xie Yujiao sat at her desk with her arms crossed, looking as though she was preoccupied with heavy thoughts.

Seeing Du Yu enter, she waved him over. “Du Yu, come here. I need to ask you something.”

A strong sense of foreboding washed over Du Yu, but he had no choice. Without Xie Yujiao’s array formation, this little trinket could hardly be called a voice changer.

“You… you need to ask me something?” Du Yu offered an awkward smile, pulling up a stool and sitting down while maintaining a safe distance.

“That’s right.” Xie Yujiao stared at him with intense seriousness. “That little foreign girl. What exactly is your relationship with her?”

“Foreign… girl?” Du Yu blinked, then realization dawned. “You mean A’xiang?”

“Yes, that little girl,” Xie Yujiao replied, her expression turning somber.

“She’s a good friend of mine. We’ve been through life-and-death situations together.” Du Yu reminisced about the legends they had braved side by side. Calling it a life-and-death bond was no exaggeration. They had fought Izanami at Yomotsu Hirasaka, rescued Medusa at Athena’s temple, and even huddled together on a giant lotus leaf during the flood at Jinshan Temple.

“So, in your heart, she’s more important than me?” Xie Yujiao demanded.

“Of course,” Du Yu nodded without hesitation.

Xie Yujiao’s face instantly darkened. “Du Yu, I told you before. I don’t care how many women you surround yourself with, as long as you don’t betray me. Yet today, you sided with that smelly artifact refiner instead of standing by me! You affectionately call that little girl ‘A’xiang,’ but you address me by my full name, ‘Xie Yujiao.’ How am I supposed to find any peace with that?”

Du Yu furrowed his brows as he listened, a sudden realization dawning in his mind:

‘If I don’t set the boundaries of our relationship straight right now, I am never going to have a single day of peace.’

“If I don’t call you Xie Yujiao, what should I call you?”

“If you call that girl ‘A’xiang,’ then you should call me ‘A’jiao.’ I don’t ask to be treated better than anyone else. I would be perfectly satisfied just being treated the same.”

“Good lord, ‘A’jiao’?” Du Yu smiled bitterly. “Whenever I hear ‘A’jiao,’ all I can think of is an actress from Hong Kong…”

“I don’t care about that. I just refuse to be treated worse than others,” Xie Yujiao huffed, puffing her cheeks.

Du Yu gave her a meaningful look. “Miss Xie Yujiao, you must understand that even if I call you A’jiao, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a name, a label used for outsiders. It won’t make our relationship any closer. What happened between us was just a massive misunderstanding.”

Xie Yujiao jerked her head up. “What do you mean?”

“What I’m trying to say is simple. Right now, every single person in the Legend Management Bureau is more important to me than you are,” Du Yu stated bluntly, offering her the unfiltered truth. “I’ve braved legends with them. Many of them have saved my life, and I trust them completely. But the two of us… we obviously don’t have that kind of connection.”

“I hear you loud and clear. You’re saying I’m worthless compared to any of them?”

Du Yu offered a helpless smile and shook his head. “A’jiao, do you know what you sound like right now? You sound like a girlfriend racking her brains for a reason to pick a fight. You’re so eager to declare sovereignty in front of my friends, hoping I’ll put you first in my heart. But have you ever stopped to think if any of this makes sense? Do you even like me? We’ve only met a handful of times. Why are you so desperate to throw yourself at me without thinking things through?”

Xie Yujiao’s expression turned incredibly grim. She gritted her teeth and shot back, “I… I don’t care! You saw my body, so you have to take responsibility for me!”

Du Yu knew he couldn’t reason with this stubborn girl, so he changed his approach. “Fine. If that’s how it is, I’ll take responsibility. But since you also believe that ‘the husband guides the wife,’ you have to agree to what I’m about to say.”

“Fine, speak!”

“I understand that you want the respect of the other colleagues at the Legend Management Bureau, but a stunt like today cannot happen again. You need to earn their approval through hard work, not by intimidating them with your arrogance. Otherwise, I still won’t side with you. You need to realize that I’m not some mediocre pushover of a man. Cheap tricks won’t win me over; they’ll only annoy me. If you want me to value you, you have to give me a reason to value you. It’s that simple.”

Du Yu locked eyes with Xie Yujiao, his solemn expression sending a sudden jolt through her heart.

For some inexplicable reason, the man standing before her suddenly looked much more appealing than before.

“Y-You make it sound so easy. I don’t know anyone here, so what do you expect me to do?” Xie Yujiao stammered in retort.

“Not too long ago, the Legend Management Bureau only had three employees: myself, Sister Qianqiu, and Xiao Qi. None of the other newcomers knew each other either. But through everyone’s combined efforts, the bureau has grown into a harmonious family. I will not allow anyone to ruin that. Do you understand?”

Xie Yujiao lowered her head in a huff, still somewhat unyielding. “Hmph, you only know how to talk big. If a girl is dead set on dedicating her life to someone, she would absolutely act like me. You’ve never experienced true love, so you wouldn’t understand…”

Du Yu frowned at the words ‘dedicating her life,’ but his tone softened as he spoke. “A’jiao, to tell you the truth, there was once a woman in this world who loved me. She waited bitterly for me for two thousand years. She bled for me, wept for me, endured crushing loneliness for me, and wandered aimlessly for me. She finally managed to cross the river of time just to see me again, yet before we could even exchange more than a few words, she decisively gave up her own life to save mine. I have absolutely no way to repay her now. All I can do is keep her in my heart. Of course, this is a wound that constantly leaves me in lingering pain. Do you think I haven’t experienced love? You’re right, I haven’t experienced standard romance, but I know for a fact that loving someone is absolutely nothing like what you are doing.”

Hearing Du Yu’s story, Xie Yujiao silently lowered her head.

“I don’t need you to die for me or wait a thousand years for me. All I ask is that you stop causing trouble,” Du Yu said softly. “Can you promise me that?”

Xie Yujiao pondered in silence for a long moment before finally speaking up. “So what if she waited a thousand years? What’s the big deal? As long as you give me time, I can do it too!”

Du Yu thought she still hadn’t understood and was about to elaborate, but she abruptly shot to her feet. “Du Yu, just you wait! I’m going to work hard, and I will definitely make all of you look at me in a new light!”

“Haha, alright!” Du Yu chuckled and nodded. It seemed he had finally gotten through to Xie Yujiao today.

Du Yu quietly pulled the tiny earring out from his pocket and handed it to Xie Yujiao. “A’jiao, Master Shen has finished making this stud. Take a look. Can you apply an array formation to it?”

Xie Yujiao nodded with absolute seriousness and accepted the earring.