CHAPTER 17
Sheng Qing glanced at the time; it was exactly twelve o'clock. He left the room and ran into the Qin siblings.
"Sister Shengqing has forgiven me, right?" Qin Feiyu strode to catch up with Shengqing and walked alongside her, her face full of sincerity.
"He said he'd treat you to a meal with his allowance. We're going to have a special meal together today, so don't be shy." Qin Feiyan gave her brother a sharp, piercing look.
Qin Feiyu seemed to be wearing a mask of pain, forcing a smile as she nodded and said, "Okay, whatever you like."
"Don't worry, I won't be polite." Sheng Qing said with a sly smile, and affectionately took Qin Feiyan's arm.
The three walked side by side toward the exit.
"Have you forgotten something?" A cold voice came from behind.
"What?" Sheng Qing turned his head and saw Meng Yunxi standing expressionlessly against the light.
Seriously? Even though I'm the one asking him for a favor, they won't even let me have lunch?
"I plan to come over after lunch." Sheng Qing still tried to resist.
Meng Yunxi didn't say anything, stepped between the three of them, and walked straight towards the office.
Should he agree or disagree? Sheng Qing hesitated.
"Go on, I'll treat you to dinner tomorrow." Qin Feiyan nudged Sheng Qing and then asked Qin Feiyu, "Are you sure you're okay?"
"No, no problem, I wouldn't dare to speak up," Qin Feiyu muttered. "The captain doesn't seem too happy, you'd better go quickly."
Yeah?
Sheng Qing then let go of Meng Yunxi's hand and jogged to catch up with her.
"Meng Yunxi, why are you walking so fast? Are long legs such a big deal?"
Meng Yunxi remained silent, but gradually slowed her pace.
We arrived at the office in silence.
"Sit down." Meng Yunxi closed the door and gestured for Sheng Qing to sit down in the chair in front of the desk.
"No need," Sheng Qing said as Meng Yunxi moved the things on the table aside and then turned around to take out several boxes from a cabinet.
What are they trying to do?
I could faintly smell the aroma, and I couldn't help but swallow hard.
Sheng Qing watched as the boxes filled with food were opened and then placed on the table one by one.
"What are you standing there for?" Meng Yunxi handed over a clean bowl and chopsticks. "Weren't you hungry?"
"Ah!" Is this an invitation to dinner? Sheng Qing was utterly astonished.
"What, is there a thorn on the chair?" Sheng Qing sat down blankly, pushed the bowl forward, and took the rice that Meng Yunxi served.
"Not to your liking?" Seeing that Sheng Qing hadn't touched his chopsticks, Meng Yunxi asked calmly, "Or are you afraid I'll poison him?"
"H-How could that be?" Sheng Qing smiled awkwardly and picked up a mouthful of rice with his chopsticks.
"Don't worry, I made it myself, it's very clean and hygienic." As she spoke, Meng Yunxi changed to a clean pair of chopsticks, picked up a piece of meat from some kind of animal, and handed it over. "Try it."
What happened? Are they going to fire me, or do they need something from me?
As Sheng Qing took the delicious-looking piece of meat from the bowl, he carefully examined Meng Yunxi.
The former tasted excellent, melting in the mouth. The latter remained expressionless, his intentions unclear.
"Captain, your cooking skills are really good." Sheng Qing took a moment to give a thumbs up. "Unlike me, I'm clumsy, my main job is just to keep myself from starving."
"Is that so?" A faint, almost imperceptible smile appeared on Meng Yunxi's lips.
Qin Feiyu was talking complete nonsense, but Meng Yunxi was in a pretty good mood.
"Captain, is there something you want to tell me?" Sheng Qing was uneasy. Could he be treating me to this "execution meal" in order to get me fired?
Meng Yunxi paused, seemingly deep in thought.
No way, really?
I haven't received my salary yet, and I've only just settled into the apartment that was assigned to me.
"Captain, I was wrong. I will never sneak out of the city again."
"Captain, did you see my kill stats today? I've improved a lot. With your keen eye, you can see that I still have a lot of potential, right?"
"Captain, look, I'm still wearing this bracelet perfectly fine. If you fire me, where am I going to get the money to pay you back?"
“Captain, I know you’re not the kind of person who cares about money. Although this bracelet was a gift from the Queen and I couldn’t afford to pay for it, I really can’t take it off.”
In his anxiety, Sheng Qing began to confess his crimes, trying to evoke a shred of sympathy from Meng Yunxi.
Meng Yunxi also reached out her hand, seemingly wanting to take Sheng Qing's outstretched hand, which was adorned with a bracelet. But then, remembering something, she withdrew it. Finally, she frowned slightly, coughed lightly, and interrupted Sheng Qing's incessant chatter.
"What are you talking about? Who said you were going to be fired?"
"Stop calling me 'captain' all the time. It's annoying."
“I told you, call me by my name.”
After speaking, he turned his gaze to Sheng Qing's face, which was alternating between pale and red.
"Meng Yunxi?" Sheng Qing met Meng Yunxi's gaze suspiciously, blinked, "You're really not going to fire me? Then what do you need me to do?" Could it be that you're going to assign me some particularly dangerous mission, or ask me to achieve a certain result within a time limit?
"The food's getting cold, let's eat first." Meng Yunxi looked away and used the serving chopsticks to pick up another piece of meat and hand it over.
Sheng Qing was restless, but still pretended to be nonchalant and finished the meal.
He had intended to help tidy up, but Meng Yunxi stopped him. He stood awkwardly to the side, watching her busily tidy up the mess.
Sheng Qing glanced at the wall clock; it was still early. Then he heard Meng Yunxi suggest, "Let's talk as we walk."
Sheng Qing silently followed Meng Yunxi to a secluded path.
Looking around, it looked somewhat like the deserted path I had come to when I was threatened last time.
"What are you going outside the city for?" Meng Yunxi asked in a flat tone.
"Practice how to control that strange fragrance." Sheng Qing was a little unsure of himself.
"Do you think this is the reason for your rapid progress?" Meng Yunxi speculated simply.
"Besides this, there shouldn't be any other reason, right?" Sheng Qing thought carefully, struggling with whether to confess the time when he lost control of his body due to the pressure.
"Is there nothing else?" Meng Yunxi seemed unconvinced.
"Actually..." Sheng Qing was still honest and told the whole story.
Meng Yunxi stopped and carefully examined Sheng Qing for a while, her brows furrowing.
After a while, he started walking again.
“It is indeed very strange.” Meng Yunxi turned to look at Sheng Qing again. “But there shouldn’t be such a powerful monster around Mengcheng, otherwise we would have received a report long ago.”
"I thought I was going to die there, but it actually spared me." Sheng Qing also looked puzzled.
“I’ll go again tonight, I’ll go meet them.” Meng Yunxi said as if it were a very ordinary thing.
Indeed, skill breeds daring.
"Really? That's great!" Sheng Qing was worried about not being able to find someone to protect him.
"I'll invite you to the afternoon training session, and see if we can spot any clues."
"Okay." Sheng Qing nodded vigorously, as he was just looking for a mentor.
Meng Yunxi's monster-killing simulation training was indeed quite effective; Sheng Qing basically had to exert all his strength to barely complete the kills.
After four consecutive attempts, Sheng Qing's physical and mental strength were starting to give out, so Meng Yunxi agreed to pause and left the room.
Sheng Qing slumped to the ground, her chest heaving up and down, and it took her a while to recover.
Why don't we check the air and the condition of the spring?
Sheng Qing sat cross-legged, and a few minutes later, following his mental memories, he arrived at that special space.
The aura swirled and gathered like water, then dispersed again, as if it had just experienced a surge.
Sheng Qing resisted the urge to open an exit and slowly withdrew his divine sense.
His mental strength seemed to have recovered somewhat, so he got up, opened the main interface, clicked off the flashing red message dot, and went into the chat window with Meng Yunxi.
Open each screenshot and zoom in.
Please ensure that the score is steadily increasing and the overall evaluation is generally fluctuating between B and A.
It may seem normal, but by combining the training difficulty with Sheng Qing's data from last week, it's easy to conclude that he has made rapid progress.
After agreeing on the evening's itinerary with Meng Yunxi, Sheng Qing put the matter aside and began to intensify his elemental power training.
Regardless of the reasons for rapid progress, building a solid foundation is the most fundamental requirement to construct an unshakeable skyscraper.
At five o'clock, Sheng Qing finished training on time. Thinking about their appointment tonight, she jogged a few more steps to the exit.
Unexpectedly, the Qin siblings were even more eager than he was, and their figures were already outside the door.
"The captain didn't say anything offensive, did he?" Qin Feiyan asked with some concern.
"No, no," Sheng Qing replied vaguely. He couldn't very well say that he had gone to eat some random lunch.
"That's good." Qin Feiyan nodded again and comforted him, "The captain should have seen those messages too, but it's not your fault. He recruited you, so he should be responsible for you."
"Huh?" Qin Feiyu asked in a puzzled tone, "When did such a beautiful woman? Uh, a handsome man, arrive in the city?"
Following the line of sight, a strikingly handsome young man from a foreign land, whose gender was ambiguous, stood under a sycamore tree.
A gentle breeze blew, and the yellowed leaves fell, seemingly unable to resist kissing the boy's silver hair. Only after being gently brushed by the boy did they reluctantly drift back to the dust.
The last rays of the setting sun shone on the boy's short white hair, making it gleam and captivating the eye.
So beautiful! Sheng Qing couldn't help but exclaim, this was a beauty completely different from Meng Yunxi's.
If we were to describe these two kinds of beauty using temperature, the former would be as fiery and intensely aggressive as 100 degrees Celsius, while the latter would be as cold and subtly invading as minus 100 degrees Celsius.
At least in Sheng Qing's mind, they were evenly matched.
"Is she a beauty or a handsome man?" Qin Feiyu muttered. "If she's a beauty, I'll go up and chat with her. Well, actually, it's okay to make friends with a handsome man too."
"He seems to be looking this way?" Qin Feiyan was also somewhat mesmerized.
"Hi~" Qin Feiyu mustered her courage, stepped forward and greeted him warmly.
"Hello." The boy's gaze fell on Sheng Qing. "Should I call you Ning Ruyin or Sheng Qing?" The boy gave an innocent smile.
Sheng Qing felt a chill run down his spine, his body stiffen, and for a moment he forgot how to walk.
That voice? It sounds so similar to that alluring voice from last night.
No way? Monsters can now openly appear in the city? And near the training camp no less.
What exactly is it, and why is it calling out to me?
For a moment, various guesses flashed through Sheng Qing's mind, but he still had no clues.
"What's wrong with you?" Qin Feiyan noticed Sheng Qing's unusual behavior.
“I am her friend, Blake from Snow City.” The boy named Blake shifted his gaze from Sheng Qing to another person not far away.
“Please give us some time. It’s been a long time since we had a formal meeting; it’s time to catch up.” Blake smiled at the Qin siblings and gently took Sheng Qing’s hand, which was linked with Qin Feiyan’s. “What happened last night doesn’t count, right?”
A seductive yet extremely stressful voice echoed in Sheng Qing's mind.
"You wouldn't want your friends to never see the sun rise tomorrow because of this, would you?"
"Sweetie, smile."
"Since I'm standing here, you should be aware of my strength."
Sheng Qing's eyes were filled with fear. She looked up at Blake, who still had a warm smile on his face, as if someone else had said the threatening words.
Sheng Qing forced a smile that looked more like a grimace than a cry.
A sharp pain shot through my hand as it was grabbed, as if it would be crushed into sand and scattered by the wind in the next second.
Sheng Qing composed herself and finally put on a normal smile. She said, slightly stammering, "You guys go first, see you tomorrow."
"Goodbye~" Blake also said a seemingly amicable farewell.
"And you?" Blake's gaze passed over Sheng Qing.
Sheng Qing turned her head stiffly, and Meng Yunxi, with a strange expression, was staring at her intently.
"That's it!"
"rest assured!"
Sheng Qing tried to explain with his lips, but then a piercing pain shot through his hand again.
"You're being naughty. Is there anything I can't hear?" Blake whispered softly in Sheng Qing's ear.
"Who are you?" Sheng Qing felt his teeth chattering.
"How could you be so heartless? I'm going to be sad." Blake put on a pitiful look.
"Your friend's stares are too loud, let's find somewhere else to catch up."
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