Chapter 112: Dissolving the Engagement

At five in the morning, inside the conference room.

Old Master Shen yawned, his eyes flicking sideways to take in everyone seated around the table.

“You were all conscripted by the state too?”

Among the younger crowd, he spotted Su Tiancheng—someone he could actually talk to—and his eyes lit up as he asked the question.

“No, strictly speaking, you can’t put it that way,” Su Tiancheng replied.

Old Master Shen: “……?”

Su Tiancheng: “No conscription. We’re locals here to begin with.”

In the face of Old Master Shen’s inquiry, Su Tiancheng felt a touch of embarrassment. After all, the man was an elder by generation, yet here he was, roused from sleep in the dead of night over some juniors’ business and hauled in.

But the moment he remembered that this whole affair involved Luo Shang, that flicker of awkwardness vanished in a hurry.

“You just need to follow the orders from above. I can’t tell you anything else.”

Su Tiancheng had given it some thought. Since the state hadn’t informed Uncle Shen about specifics like Luo Shang’s supernatural ability, that meant they didn’t want him knowing—and there was no reason for Su Tiancheng to spill the beans.

For any ordinary person, learning that Luo Shang possessed a devastating supernatural ability capable of destroying the world would be far from a good thing.

The usual outcome was just like his own.

It was better to simply carry out the required actions without knowing the full details.

“A classified project, eh…” Old Master Shen nodded, signaling his understanding.

Well, it might as well be classified—hell, the clearance level was pretty high… Su Tiancheng mused inwardly.

Shen Changqing was there too, sticking close to the younger folks alongside Su Mingyao. He’d gotten the full rundown from Su Mingyao and was still reeling from the shock. Only by being in the same room with everyone required for dissolving the engagement did he feel even a shred of safety.

He was grateful that Luo Shang didn’t want him dead just yet, but at the same time, he despaired over how his life still dangled on a knife’s edge.

If he’d known Luo Shang’s boyfriend was going to show up, he would’ve demanded to end the engagement right after the recognition banquet! No way he’d have dragged it out this long!

Shen Changqing had even felt a smug little thrill before, figuring that a powerhouse like Luo Shang having once been his fiancé proved he wasn’t so bad himself. He’d vaguely toyed with the idea of delaying the dissolution.

But now Ke Yanjin had appeared, scaring him half to death. He wished he’d never crossed paths with Luo Shang at all.

Old Master Shen racked his brains but couldn’t for the life of him figure out why the state was meddling in a private family matter like the marriage alliance between their younger generation and the Su family. Why demand an immediate end to Shen Changqing and Luo Shang’s engagement? Why swap in Su Mingyao as the new party? And why draft such a meticulously detailed contract outlining mutual obligations and responsibilities?

Back when he and Old Master Su had hashed it out, it’d been nothing more than a verbal agreement—hardly this formal…

What on earth was going on?

Old Master Shen glanced at his grandson Shen Changqing, who clearly knew something but hadn’t breathed a word of it to him.

Everyone else in the conference room seemed to share some unspoken consensus, one they were deliberately keeping from him.

Unable to make sense of it, Old Master Shen pulled Shen Changqing aside and asked, “Do you know what’s really behind all this?”

“Grandpa, I think it’s better if you don’t,” Shen Changqing replied.

He had no desire to let Old Master Shen in on the whole messy backstory.

Though whether that was to spare him the knowledge that his grandson’s life could vanish at any moment—or to hide the fact that he’d killed Luo Shang in his previous life—was hard to say.

Grandpa had always treated Luo Shang well, so he doubted Luo Shang would strike at him rashly. The man settled scores on a personal level: kindness repaid with kindness, grudges with vengeance.

“Even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe it,” Shen Changqing added.

Old Master Shen rapped him sharply on the head with his knuckles.

“I wouldn’t believe it? How can you say that if you won’t even tell me? Is it that you can’t say? Some classified project? Looks more like you just don’t want to.”

Everyone in the room overheard his words, and they carried a hint of indirect reproach toward Su Tiancheng.

“This isn’t some staged act you’re all putting on just to dissolve the engagement?” Old Master Shen pressed, suspicion lingering.

“You have to trust our resources. Even if it were a show, I couldn’t requisition armed helicopters,” Su Tiancheng said with a helpless shrug.

“This really is an order from above. And honestly, it’s for the best—for both of them.”

“Yeah,” Shen Changqing chimed in, nodding along with Su Tiancheng, obedient as a son.

Seeing his own grandson lined up with the Su family like that gave Old Master Shen a sharp twinge in his chest.

“You can’t even tell me why?”

“Grandpa, do you really want to know?” Shen Changqing asked, his expression turning grave.

“Of course I do!” Old Master Shen declared.

He had been sound asleep late at night when someone burst through the window, yanked him out of bed, and dragged him all the way here. The mere fact that he could still stand and speak right now was proof of how sturdy his body was—otherwise, he would have fainted on the spot in front of them!

Old Master Shen harbored no small amount of resentment, which only made him more determined to uncover the real reason why.

“Because Luo Shang is an Extraordinary,” Shen Changqing explained.

“He’ll be entering a line of classified work from now on, so he can’t fulfill the engagement.”

Of course, this wasn’t entirely wrong—it just omitted a great deal of critical information.

For instance, the fact that Luo Shang’s level of extraordinariness was enough to casually wipe out the entire world, or that his “classified work” actually involved venturing into a place called the Reincarnation Space as a Player.

“I see…” Old Master Shen murmured.

He fell silent for a moment, as if only then processing the words. “An Extraordinary, you say?”

“I knew you wouldn’t believe it!” Shen Changqing said.

There were three sharp knocks at the conference room door, and everyone immediately fell quiet.

A group of people then entered in perfect silence, handing pre-drafted contracts to everyone present. They moved without making a single sound before withdrawing just as quietly, as if they had never been there at all.

“Trained to perfection…” Su Mingyao thought to himself, wondering if they had actually called in the special police just to deliver the contracts.

Old Master Shen examined the contract with a grave expression.

Su Tiancheng and Li Qingshu quickly straightened up in their seats—Su Mingyao as well, though he was seated toward the back.

Across from them sat Old Master Shen and Shen Changqing.

“There’s still one person missing. Little Shang hasn’t arrived yet, and this does concern him, after all. It doesn’t seem right for him not to show up.”

Old Master Shen skimmed through the contract. It was clearly drafted by professionals; with his years of business experience, he couldn’t spot a single loophole… Of course, it was just a matter of dissolving an engagement—there wasn’t even much need for a contract in the first place.

He still didn’t buy Shen Changqing’s explanation. Rather than believing Luo Shang was some kind of Extraordinary, he figured the boy had taken up some top-secret national project, like those research initiatives out in the Gobi Desert or something similar.

Though he’d never heard of Little Shang being involved in scientific research before…

“He’ll show up—at the very end,” Shen Changqing assured him.

“Fine… fine. You’re his parents; you should know him better than I do. Little Shang’s a good kid. Even if he doesn’t marry Changqing, I’ve always treated him like my own grandson. You all know that.”

“We understand,” Li Qingshu replied.

But right now, we hardly dare treat him like our son anymore! More like our ancestor!

Naturally, Li Qingshu knew full well that if Luo Shang ever wanted to play the role of someone’s ancestor, the line of people vying for the honor would stretch from their front door all the way to Paris.

“Just sign here, right? Here you go.”

Shen Changqing let out a huge sigh of relief as Old Master Shen finished signing, like a man who had just survived a disaster.

On the other side, Su Tiancheng and Li Qingshu added their own signatures to the contract, then exchanged documents and signed again.

The agreement only stipulated that Shen Changqing would dissolve his engagement to Luo Shang. It said nothing about his engagement to Su Mingyao—that was a matter for later discussion.

All they cared about was getting Shen Changqing to end things with Luo Shang as quickly as possible, thereby removing the threat to the world. As for the ensuing drama of love, hate, and everything in between among these individuals, they had no intention of meddling.

They only intervened in truly necessary cases—like right now, when they were racing against time.

Most of the time, they provided support from the sidelines, such as psychological counseling and the like.

Su Bingyao’s mental issues weren’t all that severe. The fact that he could still book his own appointments with a psychiatrist, rather than having the state assign one, meant that the authorities viewed his mental state as stable enough—no need for mandatory treatment. If anything, his eagerness to see a doctor suggested a touch of paranoia or hypochondria.

Shen Changqing, however, had been assigned a dedicated team: a professional psychologist and counseling specialist from the state, specifically to address his psychological issues. Their job was to guide his mindset, easing his resentment toward Luo Shang and redirecting it into fear, admiration, reverence, and the like.

All to prevent him from snapping under the pressure, deciding he had nothing left to lose, and attempting to assassinate Luo Shang—which could provoke retaliation not just against him, but against the entire world.

At that moment, a voice echoed in Su Mingyao’s mind.

[Current Progress: —]

Meanwhile, Luo Shang—who had his face buried in the crook of Ke Yanjin’s neck—suddenly paused.

“What’s wrong?” Ke Yanjin asked softly, noticing the oddity as he gently patted his partner’s back.

“Is the rhythm not to your liking?”

“No… it’s nothing…” Luo Shang mumbled indistinctly, nipping at his earlobe with his teeth and grinding down lightly.

Ke Yanjin nodded and let the matter drop.