Chapter 66: The Same Front
This sudden shock was enough to leave everyone stunned. Kris forced a smile, maintaining his composure as a host. "Everyone, please don't stand outside. If you have anything to say, come inside and speak..."
Although the others nodded, they had no intention of moving. Their eyes wandered around, not daring to look at Nuhra who was standing in front of them.
"Please come in, everyone. I'm not a professor or an admiral now. I'm just a family member of Chris." Nuhra took the initiative to step forward and said sincerely.
Seeing that Nuhra had already spoken, if they continued to hesitate, it would be tantamount to not giving him face, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and walk into the pavilion and sit down.
Everyone held their breath, made no sound, and quietly sat down in the seats they thought were suitable. At the same time, they tacitly left the seats on both sides of Nuhra's chair empty.
For Chris, the most difficult moment has passed. Nuhra made things clear for him, and the mountain of pressure finally faded away. Chris sat next to Nuhra tacitly.
The housekeeping robots coming and going delivered a variety of delicious snacks to the pavilion. If you ignore the solemn expressions of everyone present, this was definitely a perfect tea party.
Chris stood up and poured tea for everyone to lighten the mood, then got straight to the point. "I called everyone here today mainly to discuss our black market investigation plan."
When the important matter was brought up, everyone forced themselves to suppress the unspeakable thoughts in their hearts, sat up straight, and turned serious. Seeing this, Chris put down the teapot and cleared his throat. "This story begins a few days ago..."
Chris briefly explained Tim's situation in the hospital, Tim's "surrender," and Nuhra's request to join the plan. When he talked about the other two things, everything was normal, but when Chris mentioned Nuhra's concerns about the investigation plan, the atmosphere changed again.
Margaret and Joan were key figures in Corris's original plan. Now that Nohra has intervened, there are many more things to consider, such as how to conceal Margaret's secret connection with the black market from Nohra, and Joan's ongoing investigation into the black market... These are strictly speaking "gray area" situations. How will Nohra deal with them?
Joan remained silent. She was naturally taciturn and would only express her opinions on the most critical issues. Margaret knew that she had to ask some questions. "Admiral Nuhra, I appreciate your attention to the investigation, but I still have some questions..."
Before Margaret could finish her words, Nuhra smiled slightly, raised her hand to gesture to interrupt, and said gently, "I'm sorry, Margaret, it's my fault for not making myself clear... My position has always been to investigate the truth. As for other matters, as long as they don't cross the line, I think these are all minor mistakes that can be tolerated, right?"
Margaret was stunned for a moment, but quickly regained her usual decent smile and responded repeatedly, "Yes, I understand." She had no doubt about the meaning of Nuhra's words. She glanced at Chris, who was sitting next to Nuhra, listening calmly to the conversation of others... Needless to say, Nuhra's understanding of them definitely came from Chris.
When she first learned about the relationship between the two, her first reaction was suspicion. Margaret didn't believe that such a pair of "partners" with such different ages, experiences, and social status could get along smoothly, or even trust each other.
The answer to this question is now slowly emerging... In Margaret's eyes, Corris became more mysterious. At least she did not expect that the introverted and tough Corris would have a relationship with Nuhra, an admiral with a special identity.
And Nuhra's image in her eyes was also subverted... At least in the perception of the imperial nobles, Nuhra was an ambitious man with mixed reviews: his abilities had to be recognized, but his origin was despised by many, and the power he possessed was envied... But in Corris, he was just a peaceful... person.
Seeing that Chris's eyes seemed to be fixed on the cake in his hand, Nuhra took a piece of cake and placed it on the plate in front of Chris while "chatting" with Chris's friends.
"...My preferred plan is this: while we operate, the Royal Guard and some members of the Seventh Army will be responsible for setting up defenses outside the black market. If our operation fails, we can still capture them all in one fell swoop... And the troops entering the black market will not be a single team, but divided into four or five groups, trying to look after each other." Nuhra explained the simplified part of the plan to them. "Chris said at the time that Margaret and Joan were planning to enter the black market, right?"
Qiong, always polite and courteous to those above him in power, replied, "Yes, Admiral."
"Well, if you want to go, just follow me and Chris." Nuhra didn't completely exclude Margaret and the others from the plan. "Oh, Ian and Lauren, you can also observe and learn with the others outside."
"Oh, okay, thank you." Ian finally had the chance to speak and agreed hurriedly. Lauren also nodded quickly.
"I'm very happy to have such good companions like you by Kris's side," Nuhra said, gently placing her palm over Kris's hand on the table. "I hope you can be more tolerant and make progress together."
"Yes, we are good friends with Chris!" When talking about other things, Ian, who had been a little depressed, finally became a little energetic and responded cheerfully.
Margaret smiled politely, glanced at Chris first, and then said to Nuhra sincerely, "Please rest assured, Chris studies very hard. We usually train and chat together very harmoniously."
Joan hummed, agreeing with Margaret's assessment of Chris's hard work. Lauren timidly chimed in, "Yes, Chris has helped me a lot."
The person most deeply touched by these words was the person involved, Chris. After traveling through time and space to this unfamiliar world, he was lucky enough to have a group of good friends. Even though they seemed a little off at first, their friendship gradually warmed up in the process of training and facing challenges together... Thinking of this, Chris's throat choked with emotion.
Nuhra glanced sideways, gazing at the profile of Kris gently and intently, and squeezed Kris's warm hand under his palm with an obvious sense of comfort... Kris seemed to have sensed something, looked back at Nuhra, and smiled at him with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
As attentive as Joan and Margaret were, they definitely saw what happened, but chose to pretend they saw nothing.
Nuhra knew he was there, and Corris and his friends couldn't have a good chat. Not long after, he found an excuse to leave: "You guys chat slowly, I have a meeting to attend, so I'll leave first."
Chris was a little confused. Hadn't Nuhra already taken leave? What other meetings were they planning? But with everyone present, he couldn't ask directly. He nodded briefly, indicating he understood.
When the others saw Nuhra getting up to leave, they all stood up and respectfully watched him leave. It wasn't until Nuhra entered the villa that they finally woke up from their trance and looked at Corris with accusatory eyes.
Kris humbly lowered his head, accepting his friends' dissatisfaction: "I'm sorry I kept it a secret from you... Mainly because we didn't want to expose our relationship so soon."
"Chris," even Margaret, who had a strong ability to accept things, felt a little helpless. "Next time, next time you want to announce something so important, can you give us a heads-up?"
Ian slumped on the table like a soft invertebrate, feeling hopeless. "Oh my God, is this world still real?" Lauren wasn't much better. She just kept drinking tea, trying to cool herself down and calm down.
Joan was still the calmest person, but the way she looked up at the glass dome of the greenhouse revealed that she was also uneasy.
"I'm mainly worried about you guys... I'm worried that you will think I..." Chris held his forehead, unable to say anything.
"Don't worry, no one can tell. If you hadn't told us, we wouldn't even have guessed it." Margaret couldn't bear it and tried to comfort him. "Besides, as long as they truly love each other, it's their business if others say something."
"That's right. If some people knew about this, they probably wouldn't even have time to be jealous." Joan turned her head and said sarcastically. It was a rare occasion for her to interrupt the conversation.
Seeing that his friends did not show any discomfort with the relationship between him and Nuhra, Chris finally felt relieved.
Ian, who was still lying on the table, raised his head slowly and said in annoyance, "If I had known earlier, I would have prepared something more as your wedding present. Chris, you are so unkind..." Lauren's hand was still shaking as she put down the teacup, but a smile appeared on her pale face. She was just watching her friends joking around.
After the laughter, they began to discuss the previous search by the Student Union: "Speaking of which, how is the investigation of the surveillance and anonymously reported IP addresses going?" Chris had never forgotten these two things, and now he took the opportunity to ask with concern.
"The video analysis says there's progress. My friend spent a long time debugging, and finally saw a little bit of Relex powder falling out of the temporary worker's body just before it went out of frame." Ian sat up straight, lowered his head, and quickly clicked at the end point for a few moments, transmitting the processed surveillance footage to Chris. Chris then picked up his terminal, opened it, and watched the entire process.
Margaret frowned and said, "To be honest, given the current situation, being reported is no longer the most important thing. I think we can focus on the black market."
As the direct victim of the report, Lauren wasn't particularly anxious to find the person who framed him. He agreed with Margaret, "Well, they haven't taken any new actions yet. We can just ignore them for now..."
"Oh, I was going to mention that IP address," Ian was reminded, finally remembering the other piece of evidence he had. "It came from Tim Jax's terminal. He didn't try to hide it at all."
Chris felt a headache coming to him. The situation was so complex and confusing that it was truly difficult to grasp. Joan observed the crowd from the side. When no one had anything else to say, she slowly spoke up, "Look at the bright side. Those who are on our side are very powerful now."
"Yes," Corris cheered up. "There are too many forces involved in this matter. Only by keeping a low profile can we protect ourselves."
After roughly confirming the future action goals, the atmosphere became lively again. Everyone really enjoyed the flower tea and snacks in front of them, and chatted in the viewing pavilion until Margaret said goodbye on behalf of everyone else.
"Are you leaving so soon?" Chris was surprised and tried to persuade you to stay, "I wanted to invite you to stay for dinner."
"No need. We've already troubled you this afternoon." Lauren echoed Margaret, and Joan and Ian also expressed their intention to leave.
Chris's persuasion failed, so he stood up and walked them back to where they had parked. "Thank you for coming today, and thank you... for accepting the relationship between Nuhra and me."
"It's nothing, just be happy buddy!" Before getting in the car, Ian patted Nuhra's shoulder earnestly. He was very carefree and it was obvious that he was so scared that he didn't dare to breathe when the news was announced.
Margaret made a "come on" gesture to Chris, then pulled Joan and Lauren into the car. Chris stood there and watched their car whizz away until it turned off the main road and could no longer be seen, then he turned back to the villa.
Nuhra, who had said she had a meeting in the middle of the tea party, was now standing in the living room, staring at Chris who had just entered with a smile on her face: "Did you have fun today?"
After successfully announcing their relationship, Kris's nervousness vanished and he returned to normal. He rushed into Nuhra's arms like a cannonball, hugged his waist tightly, and whispered in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "I'm very happy... Having you and my friends around me, there's nothing better than this."
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The author has something to say: Because it's so hard to write and update every day, I have 0 drafts saved, and I have to attend classes and prepare for exams... I can't take it anymore [burst into tears] From now on, I will update three times a day and take one day off! I will definitely save up the drafts for the next book before posting it [please] [please] Please pre-collect and collect [hug]
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