Chapter 165 Holding the Tai'a Axe Upside Down (2)
Shu Ningmiao turned the doorknob, and Xixi, who was waiting outside, twitched her ears and peeked out, looking up at her with her little face: "Are you finished talking?"
"Hmm." Shu Ningmiao responded coldly. Xixi wanted to say something, but was pushed into the office by the bald man who was staring at her.
Shu Ningmiao noticed the monk's scrutinizing gaze: "I'm off work."
"You." The monk frowned and stared at her, uttering a single word but not finishing it. Shu Ningmiao lost patience with him and was about to continue walking forward when he called her back.
"I'm watching you," the monk said gruffly. "Don't think you can just let what happened before go by."
"What is it?" Shu Ningmiao replied calmly.
"The office, that Intorini who assassinated me." The monk scratched his forehead, annoyed by her attitude. "With the speed at which you rushed to claim credit, you could have stopped him from using his supernatural device, right? Why didn't you stop him?"
"I didn't notice." Shu Ningmiao's expression didn't change at all: "Are you trying to shift the blame to me? At least I caught the person. You should reflect on your own speed."
"You'd better not," the bald man scoffed, "don't let me find any evidence against you."
Shu Ningmiao ignored him.
She intended to question Weston, but just then the elevator went down one floor, and another staff member rushed in.
She casually canceled the button on the Weston floor, and the staff member happened to look up, a hint of surprise appearing behind his thick black-rimmed glasses: "You are... Shu Ningmiao."
Shu Ningmiao observed his face without making a sound.
I don't know him.
She probably saw it when she was running errands for the urban planning office.
The staff member was overjoyed and handed her the document, saying, "I've stamped this. You can go back and give it to your Sister Sun."
She's not very well-informed and didn't know she was no longer working in the city planning office.
Shu Ningmiao had no intention of taking the form from his hand. She crossed her arms and looked at him until he started to feel awkward.
The elevator began to swerve, and she caught a glimpse of the text on the form out of the corner of her eye.
The table listed some decorations, which were expensive. I hadn't heard of any major events Pinheis had recently held, so the purpose was probably the speech Lucicolet mentioned.
At this point, Lucicolet is not afraid of being shot dead by a stray bullet.
She glanced at the procurement deadline and calculated the time for the speech. There were at most two weeks left. Time was indeed very tight. No wonder the Urban Planning Office had also been assigned the task.
In other words, Shu Changyan should be back in the capital in two weeks at the latest.
She took the form from the other person, said nothing more, and pressed the familiar floor button.
After being reassigned, she never went to the city planning office again.
Although I hadn't been gone for long, the office seemed to have completely changed.
There were still only a few people left in the office, but Sun Chongqing, who was usually nowhere to be seen, was sitting in the office today. When she looked around, she found that Lu Ling was nowhere to be seen.
Not only was she not there, but Lu Ling's workstation was also very clean, with no personal belongings visible.
Sun Chongqing took the form with a heavy heart. Seeing Lu Ling staring at her workstation, she sighed deeply: "Lu Ling has taken sick leave."
Shu Ningmiao looked away: "Aren't you coming anymore?"
Sun Chongqing checked the form and made sure the seal was in order before speaking: "It's hard to say."
"There are a lot of people taking sick leave lately," the man sitting in the corner said. "If only you were still in our urban planning office, we'd be overwhelmed with work."
Shu Ningmiao gave a polite but distant reply before leaving and going to the restroom on this floor.
During normal working hours, there was no one inside.
After splashing her face with cold water, her mind cleared up a bit after a full day on duty.
The walls were inlaid with elongated, seamless mirrors that stretched all the way to the ceiling, reflecting her hair, which was damp with water droplets, and refracting her snow-white face and the pale blue under her eyes from different angles.
She stared at her face in the mirror; in the pale light of the bathroom, her skin appeared taut.
The dark eyes in the mirror were like a pair of inorganic glass beads, fixed on her, her face as hazy as the moon reflected in water.
Wei Shengqianheng's hand reached out from behind her; it was an even more lifeless color, as white as a dead pottery.
He tilted his head and looked her over for a long time, then sighed softly, "How pitiful."
Shu Ning braced herself against the pool, and a feeling of nausea immediately crept up from deep in her throat.
She gagged, but because she had no appetite, she couldn't vomit anything; her throat just felt even more painful.
Wei Shengqian clung to her, his arms tightly wrapped around her neck, his black hair snaking across her body like a snake. He smiled as he stared at her in the mirror: "You might as well just die."
She couldn't drag the imagined Wei Shengqianheng by his hair into the pool, nor could his entangled arms harm her.
Therefore, Shu Ningmiao simply raised her head, took out a tissue to wipe the water droplets off her face, and coldly replied, "Why don't you just die?"
“I am already dead.” Wei Shengqianheng said in a low voice, “Isn’t it ridiculous that the precious resources that humans fought so hard to fight for and protect are the source of my power? As long as Pandora exists in this world, I will never disappear.”
"It's better to be dead than to suffer the pain of living in this world."
Wei Shengqianheng ran his slender fingers through her hair, his unwavering pupils giving his face a somewhat eerie appearance: "Look at you, what if you also get Manla disease?"
“Unpredictable, unavoidable, this is the fairest punishment on the planet; anyone has a chance of drawing this worst possible lot.” His voice was like a lingering curse. “Do you know what it feels like to lose everything? Disease will gnaw at your body, steal your powers, and destroy your dignity bit by bit. You feel different from others—then, pain will devour your strength piece by piece, until you can no longer utter a plea, until you can no longer get up, until you become a skeleton!”
Shu Ningmiao suddenly turned around: "You don't need to tell me about your experience!"
Wei Shengqianheng's smile widened: "You're scared? You're scared."
Having calmed down from her initial anger, she asked, "Which of these things did you do: the supernatural device on that Intori person, or the sudden outbreak of Manra disease?"
“The answer is—” Wei Shengqianheng drawled, “neither.”
Shu Ningmiao glanced at him with utter disgust, threw the tissue into the trash can, and headed straight for the elevator without looking at him again.
When Weston saw her, a hint of surprise flickered across his face. There were some things he couldn't say over the terminal, and she had been incredibly busy lately, working closely with Lucico.
He was originally looking for her too, but she appeared in front of him first.
Before he could speak, Shu Ningmiao acted more like the owner of the office than he did, already half-sunk into the sofa. This was probably the only space in the entire United Building where she could relax.
Weston's deep green eyes scanned her, seemingly analyzing her current mood through her expression.
She asked, "Do you have any sedatives? Even tranquilizers will do."
Weston's voice immediately turned cold: "Even if I had it, I wouldn't give it to you."
She raised her hand, her fingertips twitched, and Pandora magically opened the second-to-last drawer under her desk, releasing a sealed syringe into her hand.
She flicked off the protective cap of the syringe with one hand.
He stepped forward, snatched the syringe from her hand, and threw it on the ground. He grabbed her wrist with one hand and saw the dark circles under her eyes more closely. "Shu Ningmiao, what are you doing?"
He hadn't scolded her in that tone for a long time.
She had a terrible headache, yet her mind was eerily clear. Even if she explained things to Weston, it would be of no use to someone as detached as Wei Sheng Qian Heng. Besides, compared to all the troubles she was dealing with, the mental torment Wei Sheng Qian Heng was the least of her worries.
Her tone softened: "I'm just under a lot of pressure."
Weston loosened his grip on her wrists slightly, and the black strands of hair that had fallen as he bent over were damp with cold sweat.
Her silence only made him more aware of her exhaustion; an unprecedented sense of powerlessness crawled through his body like an extended thread.
"What's the current status of Manla's disease?" Shu Ningmiao decided to forgo using medication for temporary relief and asked him directly, "Will you be in charge of the follow-up research?"
“It’s not good. According to the predicted trend, there may be another major outbreak. I’m not in charge of the research on the drug for Manla disease. It’s a joint research project between the School of Life Sciences and the Pandora Institute. I’m not very knowledgeable about Manla disease. As for the treatment of patients, it’s been handled with confidentiality in mind, so I don’t know much about it.” Weston rubbed his forehead and leaned down. “Don’t get involved in this for now. We’ve analyzed all the patient data, and we still can’t determine the triggering factor.”
He didn't want to receive the devastating news of her illness while he was already overwhelmed with work.
Shu Ningmiao: "Previously, people generally believed that contact with Pandora's waste would increase the probability of getting sick, but this view should no longer be valid."
“Yes.” Weston confirmed her words. The vast majority of the Pinneans who fell ill had not been in contact with Pandora’s waste, so this cause was ruled out first.
Not only did they fail to obtain any useful clues, but the little information they had also lost its way into the fog.
Manla disease can't just break out for no reason. If there's anything that might be related to it recently, it's this war with Intori.
Why did the war with Intori lead to the outbreak of Manla disease?
In the mist, a vague answer floated in her mind; she seemed to grasp it, yet also seemed not to.
“Weston.” She looked up, her eyes shining like polished gems. “If you were in charge of researching Manra disease, could you develop a cure?”
Weston remained silent for a moment, his dark eyelashes lowering to partially obscure his deep gaze.
"I can't do that right now."
He wasn't the kind of person who would boast and try to boost his confidence when he knew there was no way to succeed. Manla disease isn't a virus; it doesn't have any pathogens, it's not contagious, and its cause is unknown. Unscientific things can't be deconstructed by science. He doesn't believe in any religion, but judging from the manifestations of Manla disease, it's more like a curse, a seed of curse that sprouts out of a person's body for no reason.
Shu Ningmiao's lips curved calmly, as if she had already guessed his answer: "So there are things you can't do either."
Weston looked at her, his gaze lingering on her face for a few seconds: "There are many things I can't do."
Shu Ningmiao turned her face away: "How is Arcia recovering lately?"
Weston's tone was as usual: "He can already try to walk on his own."
After that, Arsya's condition improved significantly, and she no longer needed life support devices.
Arsia's persistent illness was merely a side effect of her body's inability to withstand the strings. Shu Ningmiao knew this was a benefit of her lost memory; her mind and body had finally achieved a certain balance.
“Take Arcia away from the medical center temporarily and find her a quiet place to recuperate. Send the bill to this number.” Shu Ningmiao said calmly. “I’ll find someone to handle things between the medical center and the police station.”
"Miss Shu, do I need this little bit of money?"
Weston chuckled coldly, took off his monocle, and held it up in front of her eyes, trying to make her open her eyes wider: "Reason."
Shu Ningmiao rationally analyzed: "The first place affected by the outbreak of the Manla disease is the medical center. If Lucicolai's method can no longer be concealed, the conflict will be intensified even faster."
She couldn't predict what would happen next, but since Arsia's health had finally started to improve, she wanted to move Arsia first, just in case.
Weston wouldn't refuse her; he and Arcia would both listen to her.
Her hand moved from Weston's forehead to his shoulder, patting him lightly twice.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
