MTL - Protect Our Patriarch - Chapter 81 Stepping stones on the road of Emperor

“Block him.”“He's technically still my boss.”“Then block him with dignity.”The call ended again.And then started again.I let out a sound somewhere between a growl and a sob, then finally answered with the enthusiasm of a snail crawling through salt.“Yes, Mr. Walton?”“Have you changed your mind yet?”I collapsed onto the towel and gazed at the sky as though it might consume me entirely if I pleaded sweetly enough.“Do you ever take a break?” I asked, shielding my eyes with one hand.“You're avoiding the question.”“Because it's a dumb question.”He exhaled, the sound sharp and irritated even over phone. “It's not a dumb question. It's a business offer.”“It's a weird offer-one that I already said no to.”There was a brief pause, and I could practically hear him clenching his jaw through the speaker.“You are acting unreasonably.”“ Unreasonable?” I sat up. “I'm not the one drafting fake girlfriend contracts like it's a normal Tuesday.”“Isabella-”“Certainly not, Mr. Walton.” I mimicked his tone perfectly. “I told you I'm not doing it. You need to find someone else to play pretend with.”SYNOPSISIsabella Miller thought saying no to her boss’s fake dating offer was the end of the story.But Adrien Walton doesn’t take no—especially not when he’s convinced she’s a gold digger.Suddenly, her student loans are piling up, her father’s vet clinic is on the brink of eviction and her brother is about to be kicked out of college. Coincidence? She thinks not.Adrien Walton is calm, calculating—and he's just pulled every string to corner Isabella into the perfect position.Now she’s stuck choosing between pride and survival.So she agrees to his offer: be his fake girlfriend.No feelings attached. No drama. Just business.Or so she thought.“Conference Room B. Fifteen minutes,” he said, passing by without a glance.The folder he pushed across the table landed with a thud.I opened it. The contract. All of it.---Enemies to lovers? Check.Slow burn? Hmmnyea.Banter so sharp it might file your nails? Yes.Delicious workplace tension? Of course.Tension that could melt steel?Absolutely.Smut?? Wanna find out?Welcome to corporate romance warfare. There’s no escaping this contract.

In his previous life Bai Lang was a small star. He rejected his boss and stupidly engaged in a relationship which he thought was true love.

At nineteen, Dexter was already one of the world’s most celebrated authors. His books topped charts. Critics praised his genius. Fans devoured every word. But behind the acclaim was a lonely boy—raised without parents, love, or real friends—just stories.He published his first novel at fourteen. By seventeen, he was a literary star. But the higher he rose, the hollower it felt.Then came the writer’s block. The headaches. The blackout. And the transmigration.Dexter awoke in the body of Daylan, a disgraced young man in a crumbling, medieval world laced with steampunk tech, divine law, and political unrest. Daylan had already failed two of the three sacred Trials—rites that determine one’s magical potential. He was drowning in debt, entangled in plots to overthrow a corrupt Divine Church, and branded a lost cause.With no way back, Dexter took the final Trial—the most brutal of them all—and began a path that would earn him the whispered title: Soldier, Poet, King.But as his powers grew, one question haunted him: Did he truly die? And if so, who—or what—chose to bring him back?

As a senior Green Tea, Bi Ming recently became addicted to watching love variety shows and she found a very interesting phenomenon:

As long as the girls are more popular and people can’t find any real black spots, they like to call them “Green Tea”.

As long as you don’t like a girl, using “Tea” to describe the other party seems to be able to win back a city and humiliate her maliciously.

No matter what the character of the girl is; innocent, lively, gentle, kind, or bright and generous, as long as they use the word “Tea” to label the other party, they can scold her to their heart’s content.

“She is also green tea?” Bi Ming watched the sour netizens in the comment area jumping up and down to scold the most beautiful and well behaved girl in the show as ‘Green tea girl,’ and she couldn’t help sneering, “I still have too little knowledge.”

Real green tea can make you cry without crying. As a green tea herself, Bi Ming was well versed in the ‘tea art’. Even if she changed men like she changes clothes, whenever she hooked her finger, someone will lick it. Moreover, she could also render the lemon essences who were jealous of her speechless.

Just when she sighed, a light sphere calling itself the “Green tea system” appeared.

“Congratulations on seeing through the essence and summoning this system.”

“As we all know, ‘green tea’ has become the best way to stigmatize attractive girls in today’s society. ”

“Some girls, who do not meet the standard of green tea at all, are framed as green tea and have no power to fight back, which greatly reduces the reputation of green tea.”

“Ms. Bi Ming, as a senior green tea in this world, would you like to go to other worlds and let some ignorant frogs at the bottom of the well, who have wronged good people, experience the real tea art?”

Bi Ming smiled lightly: “It sounds very interesting.”

- Description from Novelupdates