Chapter 63

Zhang Che knew from the moment he saw the look on Huang Tielan’s face that his guess was right on the money.

It was only when Sun Lan asked once more that Huang Tielan nodded profusely, answering, “That’s right, Auntie. I’m turning eighteen in two days, too!”

Huang Tielan thought, -Since it is such a coincidence, Zhang Xiaoche would probably agree to attend my birthday party, right?

-Uh, no, this should be our birthday party!-

However, Zhang Che’s next words were like a basin of cold water, splashing over her. The images she saw in her head were like imaginary bubbles, instantly bursting. “Hey, you saw this. I’m celebrating my birthday, too. So, I’m very sorry, but I can’t attend your birthday party, Huang Tielan.”

-So he still doesn’t like me. He’s not even willing to celebrate our birthdays together.- Her chubby face immediately turned into a dejected look. She even lamented the fact that they were born on the same day. Otherwise, Zhang Che wouldn’t have any reason to reject her, right?

“It’s fine. I didn’t expect our birthdays to be on the same day, either,” Huang Tielan gave a forced smile, feeling dispirited, and directly bid farewell, “I’ll be going back first then, Auntie. I wish you a happy birthday, Zhang Che!”

Sun Lan noticed her abnormal mood, yet she didn’t know what to say. She too, felt that letting her son celebrate his birthday at another’s place wasn’t proper.

Watching Huang Tielan’s helpless look that seemed to be on the verge of tears, Zhang Che suddenly felt his heart soften. He stood up as well, and said, “I’ll send you out, then.”

—

Out the apartment and down the stairs they went, but neither of them spoke a word. The atmosphere was strangely awkward.

Finally, when they went out the gate of the neighborhood, Huang Tielan turned her head and glanced at Zhang Che, before extending her hand to flag down a taxi.

“Wait,” Zhang Che suddenly walked up. He fished around in his shirt pocket, and took out a shiny beast card. He brought it up to Huang Tielan, smiling, “Didn’t I say that I’ll get you a beast card? Treat it as my birthday gift to you.”

Huang Tielan opened her mouth in surprise after seeing the shiny golden card in Zhang Che’s hand. Her expression immediately went through multiple changes, nearly shedding tears.

-So it’s not that he doesn’t feel anything toward me! Otherwise, why would he gift me such a valuable beast card?-

At this instant, Huang Tielan immediately felt as if life was full of color once more. She smiled radiantly and shook her head, rejecting, “Thanks for your present, Zhang Xiaoche! But I can’t take it. You must have taken huge risks to obtain this gold-quality beast card. This is your trump card for keeping yourself safe. I can’t accept this.”

-What an understanding girl! Perhaps I should try getting along with her? After all, a beautiful heart is what truly matters.-

Zhang Che’s lips widened into a smile. With a flip of his right palm, another beast card appeared between his fingers. “Look, I have another one. So you don’t have to worry about my safety.”

At this moment, Huang Tielan finally revealed an astonished look.

Her mouth widened into a big ‘O’, staring at the near-identical gold-quality cards in his hand. She was this close to suspecting that she was hallucinating.

Then, when she saw that the new beast card in Zhang Che’s hand actually had two hexagrams on it, she was completely at a loss for words.

“Quickly put that away. There are many people around; it’s not good to let others see it.” Zhang Che forcefully stuffed the one-star Mutated Puffersword card into Huang Tielan’s chubby hand, then kept the two-star variant back in his spiritual sea.

As they say, one shouldn’t expose their wealth to the public eye. It was best to let as few people notice the gold-quality beast card as possible.

After spacing out for a while, Huang Tielan finally recovered from her shock. She stared at Zhang Che in disbelief, asking in a stammer, “Zhan- Zhang Xiaoche, you, you’ve already rose to a Tier Two beastmaster?”

Zhang Che nodded, “Yeah, are you surprised?”

Not only was Huang Tielan surprised, she was also appalled. She knew that Zhang Che had only been an official beastmaster for less than half a month’s time. Now he was already a Tier Two beastmaster, and even obtained two gold-quality beast cards, with one of them even at two-star rank! This achievement could already be described as heaven-defying, okay?!

Miss Tielan quickly put the gold-quality beast card in her hand away. She grinned, “I know you’re the best, Zhang Xiaoche! Right, can you tell me about how you obtained this gold-quality card?”

She was indeed very curious about this. To her knowledge, Zhang Che’s best card was only the Fiery Scorpion she gifted him. It wasn’t enough to kill a gold-quality exotic beast with just that!

“Speaking of that, it was all luck.” Zhang Che began telling her about his encounter by the pond on that day, omitting the part about the rainbow crystal. Huang Tielan widened her eyes in shock, gasping continuously.

Of course, Zhang Che wouldn’t say that he used the Fusion skill to get the two-star gold-quality Mutated Puffersword card, either. Instead, he claimed that this one was the leader of the Mutated Pufferswords, and was similarly lured ashore with his baiting method, killing it.

“Not all of this can be attributed to luck,” Huang Tielan said, looking at Zhang Che with shining eyes. “You couldn’t have killed the Mutated Puffersword if you hadn’t discovered its weakness, not to mention getting the gold-quality beast cards.”

As she was unable to visualize the beast card’s attributes, Huang Tielan would need a long time to feel out its strength and weaknesses. Zhang Che then gave her a detailed explanation of the card, shocking her even more.

It had to be said that the Mutated Puffersword’s attributes were truly too strong, especially the Sonic Wave skill; it was a powerful killer move.

“Thanks for your present, Zhang Xiaoche. I really like it!”

—

On her taxi ride home, Huang Tielan’s eyes were shining, thinking in her heart sweetly, -But, what present should I gift Zhang Xiaoche?-

After thinking for a short while, Huang Tielan opened her personal terminal seriously, and sent an encrypted video file to Zhang Che.

—

Turning back to his neighborhood, just as Zhang Che was about to walk up the stairs, he received the video file Huang Tielan sent him, along with a password.

“Hmm? What did she mean by this? Could it be that she sent a selfie of herself to express her gratitude to me?” Zhang Che was very curious about what this video file was. He directly keyed in the password and started watching the video on the stairwell.

The content of the video was, of course, not Huang Tielan’s selfie. It was a tall and muscular middle-aged man in military attire, demonstrating a swordplay routine.

“Tsk, we already have our own subdued beasts; what need is there to practice swordsmanship…”