This snowfall is much heavier than the weather forecast predicted.
When Yu Sheng and his friends started simring the hot pot, it was already transitioning into a moderate snowfall outside the window. By the ti Hu Li put her beloved chicken atballs into the pot, the moderate snow had turned to heavy snow, and as the streetlights lit up, the wind started blowing, the howling sound sweeping through the old city alleys, carrying snowflakes flying past the street lights, adding a touch of hazy charm to the scene outside the window.
A group of people were crowded in the "Special Service Station," disguised as a courier pickup point, simring hot pot and watching the heavy snow falling outside through the window.
Halfway through the al, Li Lin rembered they were missing sothing, so he braved the snow and wind to fetch a case of beer from the small supermarket at the corner, while Yu Sheng casually opened the door and visited Qianfeng Ling Mountain to bring back a variety of rare mountain ingredients from the Immortal Banquet Hall, throwing them all into the pot to cook.
In the steaming hot pot, Immortal Herbs entwined with atballs, tofu skin wrapped around Spirit Fruit, occasionally emitting spiritual light, occasionally steaming with vapor. Zheng Zhi watched with chopsticks in hand for a while, still a bit uneasy: "... Is it okay to eat this?"
"No problem, no problem, I asked Xuan Che, these are export types, ordinary people can eat them freely," Yu Sheng casually remarked while helping Hu Li mix her sesa sauce, "I even got a box of Gastric Health Pills from the pill room, might co in handy later."
"But this thing is glowing..."
"Added special effects—it's over twenty more per pound when sold to outsiders."
"... Those Immortals are not very straightforward."
anwhile, Hu Li used her tail to pull up a can of beer from the cardboard box beside the table, opened the beer can, and gulped down several swigs, yet smacked her lips, puzzled as she looked at the words on the can: "No taste at all, bland like water... Not as good as the one I had with Little Red Riding Hood last ti."
"It's different, the one you had last ti had a higher alcohol content."
Yu Sheng replied casually, suddenly sensing a waft of cold air nearby. Upon looking up, he found Erin squatting on the windowsill, the little puppet sneakingly opening a crack in the window, leaning her head over to catch the snow blowing in through the crack, gleefully catching a flake or two and playing happily.
"Close it, close it, it's hard to gather so warmth—if you really want to play, go outside."
"Tch..."
This al took nearly two hours, and towards the end, Yu Sheng almost couldn't rember what was actually cooked in the pot. Anyway, Li Lin and Zheng Zhi couldn't eat any more halfway through, leaving the latter part of the hot pot session as Hu Li's own joyful ti, cooking whatever ca to her mind. She even found the fire not hot enough and used her own Fox Fire till the assorted ingredients were transford into a bubbling, wavy mush, finally coming to a stop.
No matter what was in the pot before, now it was a pot of Fox Stew.
Yu Sheng felt that the fox girl had so culinary genius in her, as no matter the ingredients, recipe, or procedure, she could turn them into a pot of Fox Stew—as if, in her hands, the end of cooking was mush.
When it was ti to head ho, Hu Li took the whole pot away—she planned to keep the stew for a midnight snack.
"I'll wash the pot and return it to you guys later." Coming out from the "courier pickup point," Yu Sheng, feeling a bit embarrassed, said as he turned back.
Standing at the door with one hand on his stomach and the other holding a Gastric Health Pill, Zheng Zhi said generously: "No problem, no problem."
The vacant lot between the "courier pickup point" and No. 66 Wutong Road was already covered in a thick layer of snow.
For Erin, this snow was knee-deep.
The little puppet joyfully hopped and skipped through the snowy ground. The freshly fallen snow was soft and fluffy, not like snow a few days old that could trap or trip her, but she would still purposely dive into the thicker parts and then rush over covered in snow, diving into Yu Sheng's coat or climbing onto his neck—even though each ti she was picked up and shaken vigorously in the air, she would still giggle and enjoy it endlessly.
Hu Li carefully held her still-steaming stew pot, wearing a satisfied smile, her eyes glowing brightly in the night.
The demon fox girl's large tail swung unconsciously behind her, even sweeping a path through the snow.
Yu Sheng and Luna walked along the path swept clear by Hu Li's tail towards the warm lights of No. 66 Wutong Road.
...
Inside the Special Service Director's office, Baili Qing stood by the broad floor-to-ceiling window, silently gazing at the scene outside.
At this mont, beyond the window wasn't the undulating mist but directly the real-world scenery—a Boundless Night City under heavy snow with myriad household lights.
In the silence, Baili Qing yawned widely.
Huge eyes quietly floated outside the floor-to-ceiling window, tilting left and right, finally resting before Baili Qing.
"Too cold?"
"Just seeing the sight of falling snow makes sleepy," Baili Qing said lightly, casually waving her hand, and the snowy scene outside the French window was once again covered by the usual layer of gray-white haze. Then she turned and returned to her desk. "Did you go and see the dark alley yourself? How's the situation?"
"I took a look, and there was no sign of the 'Knights,' but the ti-space structure is indeed changing," Baili Xue's voice ca out of nowhere, and her eyes sohow appeared on the computer screen in front of Baili Qing. "Additionally, I took a trip to Mist City and over by the 'Museum,' focusing on places where 'Space Rifts' appeared during the previous World Bridge incident... I checked a total of five locations, and four of them have varying degrees of space distortion."
Baili Qing slightly frowned, "Are they all newly appeared?"
"Yes," Baili Xue's eyes moved slightly up and down, "but the degree of distortion is actually very small, basically only I can observe it, except for the dark alley—it might be because it's the original rift connection point and was once eroded by the power of the On Goddess, the ti-space structure there is clearly much weaker than other places, and many spots are quite unstable. However... there is also good news."
"Good news?" Baili Qing raised her eyebrows almost imperceptibly.
"The dark alley is covered with marks left by Yu Sheng, and those cats are about to be marinated – when I was there, the 'cats' were patrolling the alley like a patrol team. If the Venerate Saints Monastery really plans to do sothing over there next... they're in big trouble."
Baili Qing nodded thoughtfully, her expression unchanged, but those who knew her well (like Baili Xue) could see that she was close to laughing out loud.
Just then, the sound of footsteps from outside the door suddenly interrupted the sisters' exchange.
There was a knock at the door, and after Baili Qing responded, a slightly thin middle-aged man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt pushed the door open and walked in.
He was the on-duty manager of the technical departnt.
"What's going on?"
Baili Qing, sitting behind her desk, controlled her urge to yawn and raised her spirit to ask.
"Director," the middle-aged man greeted, placing the tablet he was holding on the desk, "We've just sent the data returned by Zheng Zhi to the technical departnt for analysis. Among the environntal paraters he automatically recorded with his phone, we found sothing rather unusual."
Baili Qing's eyes beca imdiately serious, focusing on the screen of the tablet computer.
She knew Zheng Zhi had encountered an 'Abnormal Phenonon' in the old city district; Yu Sheng had already sent her a ssage about this, and afterward, Zheng Zhi also used the Special Service Bureau's internal system to transmit the environntal paraters recorded during his encounter back to headquarters.
The Special Service Bureau has a sophisticated process for handling similar incidents: each agent carries various recording devices, and when they encounter supernatural events, all the environntal paraters around them are transmitted back to the technical departnt, where an expert team on standby 24/7 conducts rapid analysis to provide response plans or accumulate reference material for future actions.
However, under normal circumstances, ordinary analysis reports don't usually reach the desk of the 'Director.'
But Zheng Zhi, a special 'Super Intern Agent,' is clearly an exception—the incidents he encounters and the corresponding technical analyses are directly overseen by her.
Baili Qing's fingers quickly slid across the screen, and the report's contents were read word by word by her eyes.
"...So key readings are consistent with the characteristics when space rifts were opened during the World Bridge incident?"
She raised her eyes to look at the opposing technical departnt manager.
"Yes," the middle-aged man nodded with sowhat serious expression, "but the crucial point is this part—waveforms are consistent, but intensity is very weak, to the extent of being able to identify only a small portion of key features..."
"Just give the conclusion," Baili Qing said lightly, "I'm already very familiar with these waveform graphs."
"Sure. According to data transmitted by monitoring equipnt throughout the city, no space rifts were generated within the Boundary Land during the event. Therefore, these 'weak signals' recorded by Zheng Zhi's work phone likely didn't originate from the Boundary City, but rather... from 'afar,'" the middle-aged man across the desk said seriously and slowly, "According to my deductions, what he observed at the ti should be a partial overlap of a remote ti-space with the Boundary Land, and due to the special 'constitution' of the person involved, his personal device was also affected by the 'overlap,' and his phone actually recorded environntal paraters from the 'other side.'"
Baili Qing's body leaned back on the chair.
"'The other side'... You an a hidden sanctuary of the Venerate Saints Monastery?"
"From existing intelligence, that seems to be the case."
"So, within the Venerate Saints Monastery's sanctuary, there was a phenonon similar to the opening of 'rifts' during the World Bridge incident," Baili Qing pondered, "and what they're doing is affecting the Boundary Land..."
Saying this, she paused, then shifted the conversation abruptly: "How much analysis work is left?"
"We've currently analyzed less than a third of the records," the middle-aged man said, "Zheng Zhi transmitted a lot of data, and there are many parts in between that were affected or clearly abnormal, so screening and restoration are substantial tasks."
Baili Qing nodded: "I understand, but it still needs to be completed quickly; I have a bad feeling—those lunatics from the Venerate Saints Monastery are undertaking sothing very dangerous."
"Yes, Director!"
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