Chapter 38: Li Xingming’s First Clash with His Mother-in-Law

Upon reaching the coordinates provided by Ye Sheng, the engineering vehicles were placed on standby, and police officers set up a cordon to clear an open area. Li Xingming was then brought before the on-site commander.

"Inspector Chu, this is Li Xingming, the person who made contact with student Ye Sheng, who is about to land."

"I recognize you," the man said, looking Li Xingming up and down. "We met at Old Madam Li’s birthday celebration."

"Is that so?" Li Xingming searched his memory but came up empty.

However, he did indeed recognize this man. When he was raiding the polluted zone dungeon a few days ago, this same man had been the on-site commander. What a coincidence. Then again, that was the experience of the righteous "Sun Knight"—what did that have to do with him, Li Xingming?

"Oh, I remember now! Hello, hello, have you eaten?" Li Xingming shook Inspector Chu’s hand enthusiastically.

"…That is not important. Are you certain that student Ye Sheng insists on an autonomous landing?"

"I’m certain. You can just check the chat logs." Li Xingming nonchalantly showed the logs to everyone.

His chat history with Ye Sheng was actually quite vacuous, consisting mostly of "Want to play a round? Let's go!" and "Who is Robert?". They looked like nothing more than a pair of ordinary online gaming friends playing combat simulators together.

Inspector Chu frowned and muttered, "This is tricky..."

"What’s the problem?"

"In an emergency landing, the pilot’s judgment should take precedence. The issue is that Professor Ye is insisting on a video feed to inspect the site, and she may not agree with Ye Sheng’s plan." Inspector Chu paused. "Oh, Professor Ye is—"

"Ye Sheng’s mother. I know."

"..."

*You certainly know a lot, kid...* Inspector Chu thought to himself. By now, the authorities in Maple Sugar City had moved past their initial confusion. When the official "Shan Hai" system first sent out the alert, they had genuinely thought an enemy ballistic missile was inbound and nearly triggered a city-wide air raid siren. Fortunately, their superiors moved quickly to clarify the misunderstanding. Coupled with Li Xingming’s report, the nature of the event was downgraded from a "military strike" to a "high school girl’s runaway adventure."

Although the capital remained vague on details, the citizens of Maple Sugar City had all seen the recent social media hype surrounding Ye Sheng and Li Xingming. Now, Ye Sheng was flying in from the capital in the middle of the night, clearly heading straight for Li Xingming. Such was the charisma of the young master of the Li family—you had to admire it. Not only was he raising Jiang Qianqian at home, but he had also lured the great Ye Sheng to travel a thousand miles alone to see him.

The problem remained: Professor Ye insisted on controlling the site's setup, while Ye Sheng claimed no preparations were needed, creating a contradiction. As the on-site commander, Inspector Chu had to juggle pressure from both sides.

*Sigh...*

After finishing the cleanup of the polluted zone and drinking with the Spirit Bell Tower crew, Inspector Chu had been ready to return to the provincial capital. But a last-minute investment attraction meeting—two drinking sessions in three days—had delayed him, leading to this unfortunate run-in with Ye Sheng’s situation.

*Sigh...*

Seeing the distress on Inspector Chu’s face, Li Xingming considerately offered, "I’ll handle the communication with Professor Ye."

Inspector Chu froze. "No, no, no, student Li Xingming, you only need to handle the coordination with student Ye Sheng..."

"You look like you’re in a difficult spot."

"It’s not difficult, not difficult at all..."

"Listen to me."

Li Xingming took the tablet from Inspector Chu’s hand and initiated a video call with Professor Ye. This only made Li Xingming’s image grow in the eyes of the inspector. Most young people would be terrified in such a situation and try their best to avoid the professor. After all, he was the reason her daughter had run away. While it was true that Ye Sheng was the one who made the choice, it was still a disaster for Li Xingming; one could easily imagine the professor’s wrath being unleashed upon him. *He’s quite a responsible young man,* he thought.

"Hello, Professor Ye. I am Li Xingming. Your daughter, Ye Sheng, is expected to land in three minutes. We will follow Ye Sheng’s instructions: clear the site and make no arrangements."

Professor Ye, on the screen, was taken aback, seemingly surprised by Li Xingming’s calm and polite demeanor. As the saying goes, one does not hit a smiling face; if Li Xingming had acted aggressively or cowardly, the professor could have easily crushed him. But his poised, neither humble nor arrogant attitude caused the professor’s prepared fury to falter. She could only sneer, "You certainly have a thick skin, Li Xingming. You seduce someone else’s daughter, and now you have the nerve to call the shots? What does a high schooler know?"

"I don’t know much, but I do believe we should trust Ye Sheng’s judgment."

"She is blindly arrogant! Are we supposed to just let her mess around without intervening? At that high descent speed, without even a buffer layer, crashing into the ruins of ancient relics... Sure, there are resurrection crystals, but if she sustains an injury or a long-term ailment, especially one involving her soul, who will be responsible?"

Professor Ye grew more agitated as she spoke, clutching her chest to catch her breath. Her eyes darted toward Inspector Chu, who was standing behind Li Xingming. "Xiao Chu, go and deploy the team! Did you bring the buffer materials? There is still time to set them up!"

"Uh, er..." Inspector Chu’s face looked as if he were constipated.

Li Xingming sighed, exchanged a few brief messages with Ye Sheng on WeChat, and then said, "Ma'am, she has a plan. She intends to use the ancient materials within the ruin debris to annihilate the energy output, neutralizing the kinetic energy of the fall through super-vector cancellation."

"…Fine, then how does she intend to handle the spiritual power inertia?"

"As for the spiritual power inertia, she plans to use the magic spirit she acquired this year to trigger an invincibility frame skill to evade it... The aircraft has already begun its descent, and there isn't enough fuel left to decelerate. That means she can only use the move she has planned. If you insist on deploying buffer materials, you’ll only be getting in her way." Li Xingming urged with complete sincerity, "She needs to focus on her maneuvers and can no longer spare the attention to discuss technical details. I suggest you try to remain calm."

Professor Ye sat frozen on the screen for a long time, genuinely attempting to process Li Xingming’s description. It was a conditioned reflex; when a brilliant scholar is presented with a fluent technical explanation—provided the speaker actually has the expertise—they will listen seriously, even if the person is an enemy they would otherwise prefer to see dead.

Suddenly, she shook her head with a look of forlorn realization: "Sigh, Sheng-sheng... perhaps she really has grown up. There isn't a single flaw I can pick out in that entire plan."

"Indeed."

"Don't get too smug just yet, kid," Professor Ye said, gritting her teeth with the look of someone planning to settle scores later.

"I am not being smug."

Inspector Chu looked at Li Xingming in astonishment. *Hey.* This kid was actually quite professional when communicating with university professors. Academics were notoriously blunt, and for someone like him who navigated the world of bureaucracy, they were often difficult to deal with. He had dealt with scholars many times, and it was always a chaotic mess. But if one could persuade a scholar using academic logic, the results were often instantaneous. Li Xingming had pulled it off. It had to be said—he had saved them all a lot of trouble.

"Not bad, young man. It seems you’ve done your research on your future mother-in-law’s temperament?" Inspector Chu patted Li Xingming on the shoulder affectionately.

"What mother-in-law?"

Inspector Chu went awkward. "Haha, I meant Professor Ye... You kid, haha, you have quite a deep sense of emotional intelligence."

"Emotional intelligence? No, it’s a deep foundation of learning."

"..."