"Spirit... Spirit manifestation! Master!"
Naked, with only a towel wrapped around his waist, Master Lai Foo stepped out, with snowy white triangular fox ears perched atop his head, and he looked in Lin Ying's direction with a smug expression.
It was as if he was savoring the joy of a successfully pulled prank.
The makeup artists in the dressing room initially froze, and then their faces erupted into a series of exaggerated expressions.
One of them even fell straight to the ground, eyes rolled back, peacefully slipping into slumber.
"Praying to gods during work hours, that's a 500 deduction..." Lin Ying glanced at the makeup artists and said indifferently.
"Oh..."
With Lin Ying's calm statement, the makeup artists regained their composure, albeit with focused attention on Master Lai Foo, their eyes revealing varied and complex thoughts...
Ancestral worship and divine blessing culture, rooted in history and reality, are deeply ingrained in every person in the Xia Dong Region.
In the face of disasters beyond human control, people harbor hopes that an existence beyond natural forces can counteract natural calamities.
In the past, they were natural disasters.
Now, it could be something else.
Seeing Master Lai Foo manifest so nakedly.
After the initial panic, the makeup artists' second thought was indeed... the Master might indeed be quite spiritual!
If it speaks, at most it's a demon, not to be worshiped.
If it has a human form, then it's an immortal ascended.
Lin Ying clearly understood what everyone was thinking, her offhand remark about a 500 deduction immediately awoke their senses.
Master Lai Foo... might indeed be quite spiritual.
Yet, if incense is burned and papers are burnt during work, Chairman Lin would definitely dock 500 from my pay!
Under Lin Ying's authoritative presence, the makeup artists refocused on their tasks, even reviving the fainted ones, who, once revived by their peers, returned to work.
"Master Lai Foo, please proceed to the wardrobe..."
The tailors picked up clothes and assisted Master Lai Foo in changing outfits.
Because Master Lai Foo and Lin Ying were to attend a banquet together later, their outfits, while different in adornment, shared the same fabric and color—a kind of matte silk, which, under the light, shone with a rippling luster like waves.
"Hmm..."
Black suspenders, a brown shirt, a black tie outside, and in Ansheng's eyes, an ensemble resembling a Harry Potter wizard's robes.
Ansheng looked at himself in the mirror, furrowing his brow, and his fox ears twitched as he inquired of the tailor:
"Do I have a leather high-neck jacket in my wardrobe?"
"Uh... no." The tailor hesitated before explaining to Master Lai Foo: "Leather isn't suitable for a banquet; even if used, it's only a small part. Miss Lin leans toward silk... But you do have a pair of leather gloves."
"Is that so? What a pity then..."
Looking at his reflection, Ansheng lifted his draping scarf to cover his mouth and nose, lamenting, "For tonight's banquet, if I could make a dramatic entrance as a Resident Evil tyrant, I believe my outfit would absolutely shock everyone..."
"... Understood. We'll note your fabric preferences and fashion taste," remarked the tailor, with a twitch of the mouth, but out of professional diligence, she recorded Master Lai Foo's texture preferences.
The quality of an outfit hinges on fabric and cut; Lin Ying favors silks, so she procures different silks for her wardrobe, leaving the final designs to the tailors.
And since Master Lai Foo likes leather, they... might have to contact a leather supplier.
However...
With Master Lai Foo's appearance and stature, portraying a tyrant's oppressive dominance through leather...
The tailor felt the challenge, thinking if tyrants all looked like Master Lai Foo.
Even the game would need to be redirected towards female and parenting genres.
After changing, Master Lai Foo sat beside Lin Ying, as makeup artists approached to match his gray-white long hair to his outfit.
However, while trimming his bangs, Master Lai Foo suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.
......
"Let's head out!"
After finishing her makeup, Lin Ying went to the living room on the first floor, looking toward Ansheng who sat on the sofa, a leather backpack beside him, playing on his phone, she extended her hand.
"Hmm..."
Seeing Lin Ying, in her high heels, her height reaching beyond 1.73 meters, Ansheng reached out to take her hand, standing from the sofa, experimentally pulling Lin Ying's clothing to hide behind her, his form perfectly concealing him.
Lin Ying looked baffled, staring at Master Lai Foo spinning around her: "Master Lai Foo, you are..."
"Hiding behind you, and later, I'll jump out and randomly scare a few lucky spectators..."
Ansheng smiled, then picked up a wide-brimmed hat to cover his head, concealing the ears.
"..." Lin Ying had a peculiar expression.
Later, even if you attend with me without saying a word, it's already frightening enough.
They'll be left questioning who on earth you are...
Lin Ying sat in the extended Maybach, offering Master Lai Foo a chilled Coke, as Lin Shu drove toward the location of Lin Manor, while Lin Ying focused on feeding.
Meanwhile, on the third floor of Lin Manor, in the study, Lin Zhe sat back, with indifference marking his face, casting a sidelong glance at those leaving the study, noting their elderly forms before resuming his cigar lighting.
Lin Zhe was silent, merely holding the cigar before the incense burner, slowly roasting it with a wooden chip, calmly watching as the flame reached the cigar.
"Elders..."
"You don't need to look at me. Hasn't the answer always been obvious? The great-grandfather's ultimate choice can only ever be Lin Ying, and only her..."
Lin Zhe turned, his hands on the armrests, assuming a lazy demeanor: "Outside relatives are just that, after all. Her grandfather was the great-grandfather's sibling."
"So... did you, this bastard, call us here just to spew such nonsense?"
"You sow discord within the clan." Lin Huasi, supported by two others, sat in a European chair, her cane beside her, glancing coldly at the half-blood bastard, devoid of trust.
"Bastard or not..."
Lin Zhe relaxed, saying: "Even if I'm the mutt, so what? After all, I am the great-grandfather's illegitimate child, born right in the Lin Clan's heartland..."
"The information I've touched, the biological science marvels I've encountered... are beyond you, ordinary folks kept penned up."
Lin Zhe laughed heartily, saying: "Don't be fooled when I call you ordinary folks..."
"In truth, what I think is...."
"Where do these lowly beings come from, parading before this new human?"
Lin Huasi's eye twitched, seeing the other elders silent, she snorted coldly:
"A bastard born of a French whore, your family is so poverty-stricken that they can't put food on the table, yet you dare to act so high and mighty. Your mother went to the lunatic's brothel, scavenged plastic bags from the trash, and stuffed them into her... well."
"You... are trash in every sense!"
Though feeble with age, Lin Huasi's verbal attacks were as fierce as ever, striking the very heart of Lin Zhe's mother mercilessly.
With insults here and there.
"Poor wretch, you have no leeway, lording it in our presence. Utter one more distasteful word, and tonight we'll sink this bastard into the sea!"
Lin Zhe's lips twitched, genuinely not expecting such high levels of aggression from the old lady before him.