Chapter 944: Chapter 944: Shadow?
“Your Majesty, may I ask about my assignnt?”
Taville stood before with a soldier’s upright posture, but there was unease on her face, and her voice lacked its usual confidence and vigor. It was surprising to see this ever-energetic researcher looking so embarrassed. I was a bit stunned at first, then I recalled that during the task assignnts following the recent incident, Sandora had allocated each part of the work down to specific individuals, yet Taville was left without an assignnt, and so of the tasks ant for her research departnt were given to other groups instead.
Well, no wonder the spectacled girl in front of seed so uneasy: she probably thought this was a punishnt for her ssing things up, and naturally, she’d feel significant pressure.
Of course, as a Xyrin Apostle, Taville wouldn’t complain about any punishnt imposed on her; orders from higher beings are executed with absolute compliance—that’s the mission of a Xyrin Apostle. However, as an emotional “person”, Taville inevitably felt dejected, especially since this “punishnt” involved suspending her research projects. For a scientist, nothing could be more dreadful. Even though Taville’s unease was quite understandable, it was sowhat different compared to a typical Xyrin Apostle, in short, she was more humanized. This was because Taville was considered part of the new generation of Apostles. Even though she arrived on Earth with Pandora and was one of the first generation apostles born during the Old Empire, her independent growth took place after the establishnt of the New Empire, thus Taville learned to develop richer personal emotions through interactions with our family. I personally think this is a pretty good developnt.
“You should just take a break for now.”
I wasn’t sure if Sandora really intended to “punish” Taville, but I knew she wasn’t actually angry at Taville for her mistake this ti. As soone intimately close to Sandora, I had a good understanding of my lover’s emotional shifts. Although analyzing the current situation revealed that Taville had a significant role in the deep-diving ship’s wreckage, as previously ntioned, on such uncertain projects, no one can ensure perfection, hence Sandora probably had no intent to bla Taville. Instead, she might have wanted to use this opportunity to give Taville a break, to adjust her burdens—and there’s also a fifty percent possibility that dinner ti is approaching, and our Queen, who links her thinking to her stomach, was simply ruled by hunger and casually handed this ssage before leaving…
Based on the degree of telepathy I share with Sandora, I feel this possibility is quite high?
“I only wish to…” Taville said quickly, but I waved my hand before she could finish: “I understand your point, don’t worry, no one will force you to leave the research post, but you really need a break. You say the deep-diving ship’s accident was due to your carelessness, but honestly, no one in research can avoid mistakes—you just happened to make a significantly impactful one, I think you’re too stressed. Right now, giving you a few days to rest would be far more beneficial than having you hurriedly handle aftermath tasks. Don’t get excited yet, consider this: how many mass projections have you activated in the past month?”
Taville opened her mouth and revealed a number: “One hundred and twenty-five, with thirty-seven ongoing research projects simultaneously…”
Now it was my turn to be dumbfounded: I casually asked, not expecting Taville to say sothing so surprising! Wow, does she have a multi-core brain…
“Well, you could basically form a small army yourself, thirty-seven research projects, aren’t you trying to exhaust yourself?”
“I’m a special Apostle Tribe mber, with a great advantage in parallel data processing.”
“But there’s still a limit,” I resisted giving a karate chop to this mature woman’s head—which I usually used to discipline a bunch of little girls at ho, but it wasn’t suitable for a sophisticated woman with a class leader vibe like Taville, “Sicaro claims to be unbeatable by city managent yet Ling ng managed to trap him at the alley three tis in a row? Human capabilities are limited—those who aren’t human have limits too.”
Initially blabbering nonsense, Taville found herself speechless after a long pause because normal logical people usually can’t keep up with my leaps—Qianqian being the exception, as she’s capable of jumping faster than this.
“Go rest for a while, it’s not a punishnt nor a dissatisfaction with your work,” I said earnestly, patting Taville’s shoulder, feeling like a town enterprise leader encouraging an employee, “Consider it a holiday from the organization. Ever since I t you, I’ve never seen you take off that white coat. Now, here’s a seven-day holiday for you; go enjoy so personal entertainnt, maybe buy a few nice clothes, otherwise, I might think your coat is a system-bound skin…”
Taville: “Uh… oh, if that’s your order.”
Although she still looked a bit unwilling, at least the unease and depression had faded; how delightful.
After returning from Shadow City, the family was indeed preparing dinner. Anwina, who stayed behind, had already set up a lavish feast, organic, inorganic, and suspicious compounds all spread out in an array, marked distinctly for “Mortal Dining Area” and “Sandora Dining Area” based on diners, in two colors of plates. When I arrived, Big Sister was repeatedly grabbing Little Baobao off the table: the little girl was in a curious mode, biting everything she saw including Dingdang, who was parallelly running around with a piece of green vegetable —such a nostalgic scene.
“I gave Taville a holiday.”
Seeing Sandora’s gaze drift towards , I casually ntioned it, as she probably intended to ask that.
“Mm, it’s good for her. Many research projects under her had made substantial progress recently, but they’ve approached her limit.”
“Workaholics are bound to have problems sooner or later,” Miss Lin sighed earnestly, “I used to have a colleague who was a workaholic, often out on assignnts for a month or two without coming ho.”
Despite guessing what Lin Xue wanted to say, I cooperatively asked: “And then? Did sothing happen?”
“Later, his wife chased him to Dubai from thousands of miles away, catching him red-handed with his mistress—his wife was also with the organization, specializing in intelligence…”
The moral of the story is to never expect anything profound from Miss Lin’s stories—funny how I was just looking forward to her anecdote a mont ago.
After dinner, it was still pouring rain outside. Usually, the sumr days are long and it should still be bright outside at this hour, yet the heavy rain turned it gloomy, like nightti, with only a faint yellow glow on the horizon. Such heavy rain made heading out for a post-dinner walk impossible, so I continued watching the rain from the window.
Qianqian sidled up beside , mumbling, “It’s so boring at ho, I want to go out and play.”
“What’s the fun in going out in such a downpour, if you’re bored, take a stroll in Shadow City instead, they just switched to a seven-day Sunshine Autumn The Pack, should be enough for you.”
“Shadow City is different from outside, it’s not lively,” Qianqian’s sole criterion for life’s pleasure is liveliness, “Or I could activate the Shield and circle the city’s water system? Always wanted to do that since childhood—running around outside in the rain and all that.”
I considered stopping her, but when I turned, Qianqian was already gone: that girl, what terrifying speed, once she makes up her mind, she just goes for it!
However, various random and impulsive acts of Qianqian had long beco part of daily life at ho, beyond a re sigh, there wasn’t much else to do, so I just glanced at the gloomy sky and figured it might be reasonable. I was just about to stop her when I realized she was already gone: that girl never waits…
Her reminiscing about dashing in the rain sparked so mories in as well from when we were young and lived in a neighborhood full of old houses. Just like she said—indeed, back in those days, our neighborhood’s roads were famously bad, and a day snowy or rainy was like liberation day for the children of our whole lane. We’d race through the rain, cover ourselves with plastic sheets and run wildly, splash in the big water puddles on the fields, imagining we were wading in the South Pacific, fantasizing distances between the old town’s ditches and the flood channels of the entire city, but nothing could stop two children with vibrant imagination, right?
Years have gone by, and now here I am, turned into soone who sits at the doorstep sipping tea from a tiny kettle and watching rain pour from the eaves…
“Though the weather’s awful, it’s nice to sit and feel the breeze, don’t you think?” Lin Xue sat beside , watching the curtain of rain beyond the eaves.
The big house at ho, despite appearing quite odd due to multiple renovations, not quite a warehouse or a villa, is at least well-equipped as a mid- to high-end residence. It includes a particularly large open porch at the front door. The wide eaves block the falling rain, making the doorway a great place to enjoy the rain. Lin Xue and I sat side by side on the dry ground at the entrance, one sipping tea noisily and the other peeling chestnuts, resembling a rich landlord with his wife.
“You can be quite artsy at tis?” Hearing Lin Xue’s romantic sigh about the rain, I tilted my head and blew warm air into Miss Lin’s ear. “This doesn’t sound like sothing my fiery mistress would say.”
“Stop causing trouble, this Miss Lin has been rolling through noble education before fifteen. Just because I’m usually a bit wild doesn’t an I can’t be graceful. Don’t ruin the mood. It’s rare for to keep you, this romantic blockhead, company outside in the cool breeze.”
Being able to describe the etiquette lessons of a noble lady as rolling through the mud and dirt, I had little hope for Miss Lin’s gracefulness. Especially when she said this while still fighting with over chestnut kernels.
“It’s really so relaxing here, much more comfortable than at ho,” Lin Xue shifted slightly, naturally leaning against my shoulder. “There’s a whole set of rules at ho, eyes watching you everywhere, while being with you dum-dum, it’s like whatever you do doesn’t matter. Haha, tell , isn’t it hilarious that your royal lifestyle isn’t as strict as the rules of one rustic landlord family like mine? I really don’t know how those old masters can have so many complicated rules.”
I was quite surprised, “You really think of your family as a rustic landlord?”
“Of course! The Orochi were sent off for correctional education, so who on Earth isn’t a rustic landlord.”
I thought for a mont, “But weren’t the Orochi captured by the Star Domain folks?”
Lin Xue turned, bumping the back of her head against my cheek, continuing to complain about the tediousness of life at ho and the myriad of ridiculous rules.
Miss Lin is soone who really dislikes the stifling old customs at ho. In her words, every family whose assets surpass those of the local township entrepreneurs is a cage. The more money you have, the tighter the cage; the more history, the smaller the cage. When it cos to a family with a hundred-year history and billions of fortunes, basically even if you fart, there would be a dozen or so people analyzing its composition behind you. Not to ntion the direct family mbers causing trouble outside all the ti, running wildly with n of dubious background, which would drive the elders mad. Miss Lin grew up under such strict family discipline, and before she was thirteen, even going out for soy sauce had half a reinforced company in plainclothes following her: though I felt she was exaggerating, it is undeniable that there are many rules in big families.
If it weren’t for her special talent making her a leader in the Superpower Team, and the behind-the-scenes boss of the Superpower Team being her own grandfather, Miss Lin might still be trapped in that cage now.
“Probably beco so kind of socialite, a legendary golden flower vase.”
Lin Xue stacked chestnut shells on the ground, by now almost ten centiters high, muttering softly, “Just thinking about it chills —being surrounded and trained on ballroom dances and social etiquette, you know, just one kind of red wine has four bloody ways to open it. It nearly killed . Luckily, I escaped thanks to my exceptional talent.”
Listening to Miss Lin’s bizarre childhood story, I found it incredible. I don’t know any wine that has four ways to open it, but I do know that the Light Goddess at ho doesn’t care what kind of wine it is; she just bites the cap off with her teeth. That shows how ridiculous those etiquettes were.
“That’s why it’s better here,” Lin Xue comnted sincerely, “Sotis I think even if soone ca to demolish your house, you’d greet them with a smile. Where does this good temper co from?”
I thought for a mont, “Are you subtly reminding that this house has been demolished several tis already?”
Moreover, if I recall correctly, the first demolition was by one of this fellow’s good friends.
While I was idly chatting with Miss Lin, I noticed a subtle change in the ti-space around us. This sensation was very delicate, difficult to put into words, and most people probably wouldn’t notice it: it felt like a fra suddenly went missing from the events around you, a mont too brief to describe got cut, then reconnected.
This feeling wasn’t unfamiliar: Qianqian was back.
Using ti acceleration to travel was a routine skill for Qianqian, sotis she’d use this move to zip around the house. But in reality, that’s only how it seems to people in normal space-ti; in her view, she still walks through the distances slowly in real-ti. Up till now, I never understood why Qianqian used ti acceleration to run back and forth when space transmission was more convenient.
“Done fooling around outside for a few minutes and finally found it boring?”
I turned to see a short-haired girl grinning mischievously, trying to startle . Then I was surprised to see what was in her hand, “Ahem, what are you holding there?”
“This?” Qianqian scratched her head, shaking the string in her hand, “It should be Buddha beads. Just now, a weird uncle passing by the moat tossed them to .”
I was puzzled, “…Why?”
I felt there was another inexplicable phenonon about Qianqian. Why did an uncle passing by throw Buddha beads over… No, wait, why at such a dark, torrential downpour, would there be an uncle by the moat, and decisively passing by there?
At this point, Miss Lin suddenly cleared things up: “The Ghost Festival with a torrential downpour, standing by the moat, a white shadow with a blue glow on their head floating toward you, wouldn’t you throw sothing over? Qianqian, you forgot to turn on your invisibility, didn’t you?”
I was shocked, thinking I really shouldn’t have let Qianqian go out alone…
But another matter quickly interrupted my concern over this: the miss suddenly frowned while covering her eyes, letting out a “woo” sound.
“What’s wrong?”
I hurriedly supported Lin Xue, feeling a wave of anxiety.
“An extrely…bad feeling, a major crisis in life!”
Instantly, I felt the hair on my face standing up. Lin Banxian never jokes around, her alarm caused even Qianqian to rush inside on her toes, but before we could gather everyone for a crisis eting, the miss waved her hand: “Don’t…don’t panic, it’s nothing to do with you guys, it’s about ! Major crisis, a huge life crisis is coming! I seem to be in for big trouble!”
“Hey, don’t scare ,” I grabbed the miss’s arm, while reaching out to feel her forehead, “Didn’t catch a chill, did you?”
“Your sister caught a chill! I’m serious!” Lin Xue slapped my paw away, “There’s sothing very, very troubleso about to happen, but it has nothing to do with the Empire or anything. Even I can’t see what it is this ti. All I can be certain of is that my life will face a major problem, and you, this blockhead, are involved too!” (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)