Shen Qin stiffened. It was true—the pain caused by a hunger strike that was tantamount to suicide was immense, yet it was all transformed into pleasure. In fact, she secretly felt a sense of euphoria.

The meal in front of her added fuel to the fire; after a long period of fasting, the joy of eating again was stronger than she had ever imagined.

The two combined caused her to uncontrollably let out a long moan, "Goo..."

"...You don't do *that* while eating, do you?"

Seeing her suddenly start trembling uncontrollably, Xu Shi revealed a playful expression, "My God, should I say you're a real...?"

Immersed in the afterglow of the ultimate experience, Shen Qin, unusually, did not refute his words.

The main problem is that she couldn't find any reason this time... She herself started the hunger strike, and it was Xu Shi who persuaded her to eat...

Do you think this bastard is taking advantage of her suspicions? Perhaps he is... but the main factor is still her; to put it bluntly, she's just being a fool.

She wasn't in the mood to delve into those matters right now; she just wanted to eat her fill first. As for forgetting about her brother, those things seemed to be irrelevant anyway…

Under the influence of "implanted victimhood intent," she was unaware of how smoothly such thoughts arose, and it took her a while to become alert as if waking from a dream.

wrong!

How could I think like that?!

Miss Shen Qin was completely dumbfounded when she realized that there was something wrong with her thinking.

How could she possibly have any appetite now? Suppressing the lingering weakness, she forced herself to stand, turning her head away in shame and indignation, "...Go away."

"You're going to beat up the cook after you've had your fill, huh?"

Xu Shi didn't indulge her. With just a slight movement of his fingers, a torrent of pleasure instantly overwhelmed her, causing her to collapse back to the ground.

"Haa..."

Gasping for breath, Miss Shen Qin uncontrollably stuck out her tongue.

"You always seem to have a problem figuring out your own place, Miss Shen Qin."

Xu Shi stepped on her head with one foot, saying, "You can't tell me what to do, but I can tell you what to do."

"If I don't want this to happen again, I advise you to be more obedient."

This was only because she said "leave" instead of "get out." Otherwise, Chairman Xu wouldn't mind letting her fall into a coma for three days and three nights because of the cake nest. When she woke up, she wouldn't even know who Chen He was, let alone who she was...

"Um……"

These words served as a better warning than anything else, and even though she was extremely unwilling, Shen Qin could only reluctantly agree.

Xu Shi was fairly satisfied with her attitude. This scoundrel always preferred that the girls figure things out on their own, and he just needed to put some pressure on them.

"Let me tell you something serious."

So he chose to stop there, maintaining the same posture and becoming serious, "Didn't you ask me before why I brought you out? Well, I'll tell you then."

"Our purpose in this journey is to explore the new continent located outside the City of Night Sin, and to find traces of 'Heavenly Principles'."

"The principles of Heaven?"

This was a new term for Shen Qin, and she was a little confused for a while.

"They're the masterminds behind the destruction of your 'Tianhe' and 'Zheguang' factions ten years ago."

Xu Shi explained, "The existence of these people is a threat to me, so of course I have to find them and chop them to pieces."

"...Do you have any news about them?!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Qin's voice suddenly rose.

It's clear that she's quite fixated on this matter.

Having personally experienced all of this, even though she was young at the time, it left a deep impression on her, an indelible mark.

Her mind wasn't solely focused on Shenhe... or rather, she also harbored thoughts of revenge.

Not yet.

Xu Shi shook his head regretfully, "That's why we came out to look for it. I think you would also be willing to contribute your own efforts, right?"

"..."

Shen Qin remained silent.

Of course, she also wanted to find out the mastermind behind the destruction of her life, but she was now tied to Xu Shi, which inevitably made her feel some resistance.

If only I could be with my brother...

Before she knew it, she had fallen into Xu Shi's favorite perfect model of "although this or that, but having no choice but to do this or that".

In a daze, she felt the person in front of her become somewhat blurry again, and she knew that her mental state was deteriorating again...

However, Xu Shi carried her brother's aura, which made her somewhat reluctant to wake up for a moment.

Even with her head still being stepped on, she couldn't stop...

The girl was caught in a deep dilemma.

...

Shen Qin wasn't the only one struggling with this dilemma; someone on the other side of the warship was in a similar situation.

Xia Ke'an stayed in her room, absentmindedly making notes about what she had seen and heard along the way.

Actually, putting everything else aside, it's quite an interesting job—mainly thanks to the diversity of marine life.

There are many things she has never seen before that require detailed analysis. In addition, the biological mutations caused by the "rust fog" mean that the same organism can have many different forms.

This rendered the existing literature useless, and she had to name many of them herself... It felt like she was expending a lot of brain cells.

But it was clear that her attention wasn't on those things; her mind was preoccupied with something else.

That was something that happened some time ago.

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