Knock, knock.
"Co in."
Mu Qingi pushed the door open and entered, seeing Qing Lan buried in work at the desk with a glass of chilled coconut juice placed beside her. She still had pristine features and a flawless complexion akin to a white jade, dressed in ethereal blue robes. The only difference from before was her hair, styled in a parted chignon resembling a swallow's tail.
"Sister Qing Lan!"
Qing Lan looked up at Mu Qingi, adjusted her glasses, and smiled, "You're just in ti."
"Is there sothing you need to handle?" Mu Qingi closed the door and sat down.
"The slave liberation movent by Rong Yao and the others is showing initial success. Now, no one in Xuanzhu County wears a 'Grace Lock' anymore. You need to write an article to let everyone know that Grace Locks are only ant to prevent livestock from going missing, and using them on humans constitutes a heinous cri." Qing Lan handed over a piece of paper, "The key points are all there, and must all be included."
Mu Qingi glanced at it, noticing the first point was "Don't discard severed limbs from exploded Grace Locks; bring them to the dical Bureau for free treatnt, they can even be reattached." Curious, she asked, "If the Grace Locks are being dismantled, how can people still be injured from explosions?"
"Many have been lifelong slaves, and to them, the Grace Lock is a genuine 'grace,' a reward from their masters, and they are completely unwilling to remove it."
"Then let them keep wearing it—"
"The Grace Locks need special Light Energy replenishnt, but when the inner city fire occurred, many Light Energy Replenishers were also damaged and rendered useless. Their Grace Locks couldn't be replenished, and in recent days they've started exploding... Also, the Grace Keys rushed by the Grace Factory are too rough, sotis mismatching, which causes explosions when forcibly removed."
"Moreover," Qing Lan opened a notebook, "The Linhai Army sent soone over, saying they won't investigate our loss of military funds or the escort team being attacked, and they've already withdrawn from Dongyang. Now many fear the Linhai people might invade, this information must be published in the next issue of the newspaper."
"Alright."
"The first phase of reconstruction work on Yin Minghong's side is complete, inform the news departnt staff to keep a close eye. Any good news should be posted directly on the bulletin board at the crossroads, and the prices at grain and oil stores need daily updates to prevent panic from spreading, as everyone is on edge now, overly nervous about the slightest issues..."
"Understood."
"Wen Hong's side is planning the compulsory education classes, although it only includes a few Combat Techniques, as well as foundational theoretical knowledge like Heavenly Machine, Mathematics, and chanics. The earliest it can start is next month, but you should prepare a small section for them. When introducing compulsory education in the newspaper, also provide so basic life knowledge..."
Listening to Qing Lan, Mu Qingi started taking notes on a small notebook, almost forgetting her original purpose for coming until she looked up, noticing Qing Lan quietly glancing at her from the corner of her eye.
At the mont their eyes t, the editor's office fell into complete silence.
After a while, Qing Lan took a sip of the smooth, creamy coconut juice, and nonchalantly asked, "By the way, what did you co to see for?"
You have a thousand nas and ten thousand matters on the tip of your tongue, just to cover up the one in your heart.
Even though life seems fulfilling and busy, you have plenty of reasons to act unconcerned, yet not looking in the mirror, you can't see how lonely and expectant your face is.
If the person who died that day was , if I were him... A strange thought suddenly flashed through Mu Qingi's mind. She shook her head, tossing the odd thought away, and took out a letter, "I received a letter, and I think you should take a look at it."
Qing Lan took the letter, slightly startled, "Mr. Tree-man? Yanjing Royal Academy?"
"Yes, I even thought the author of 'Future Echoes,' Mr. Tree-man, was still alive, so I brought it to you. But..." Mu Qingi frowned, "I suspect this is a prank."
"A prank?"
"You'll see when you look at it."
With a bewildered expression, Qing Lan pulled out the letter. She naturally knew the real identity of Mr. Tree-man—it was just one of Jing Zhengwei's dozens of pseudonyms.
She had read every draft of 'Future Echoes.' He often asked her to proofread the text. Sotis when he didn't feel like writing halfway, he would get Qing Lan to continue—giving her a detailed outline under the guise of 'exercising your writing ability' and letting Qing Lan write on.
If Qing Lan wanted, she could also write about romantic fanfics of the three male protagonists to pad the word count because he was particularly bad at writing romance, so he simply stopped writing it.
'Future Echoes' had so particularly delicate stories and warm interactions between male and female characters, written by Qing Lan.
Even readers could tell, with many assuming Mr. Tree-man might be a female author, not knowing that the author was a Substitute Envoy, sotis writing himself, sotis letting the substitute write.
But Jing Zhengwei had no reason to notify Qing Lan using a pseudonym. Hiding his identity was aningless to him—he must know that once he returned, even overshadowed by Huyan Siluo, the ruling officer, he would still unquestionably be the first person of Dongyang District.
In terms of fa, political achievents, capabilities, and the trust White Night places in him, once he cos back, it'd truly be 'The Silver Blood Association has been tried, how Dongyang District is disposed of and it's up to War God Zhengwei's orders.'
Could it be he doesn't trust White Night? But Qing Lan knows, from the beginning, he intended to hand over all industries to the union led by White Night. His trust in White Night made Qing Lan even wonder if he secretly beca a White Night Walker.
Thus, Qing Lan also subconsciously regarded this letter as a prank, but at least a clever one—if it were a foolish prank, it would've been filtered by Mu Qingi long ago and never reached her eyes.
Until she extracted the letter.
"You can't understand it either, right?" Mu Qingi spread her hands, "I recognize every word on it, but together I can't comprehend it—there's no syntax at all!"
Indeed.
This was a garbled letter.
For example, the first line was 'dog listening to sun playing dota 2 no updates'—what a ss.
Even more frightening was that the entire letter had no spacing, no paragraphs, packed full on a whole page with 20*40 text, making anyone dizzy just looking at it.
But Qing Lan noticed that the letter had many black dots distributed on it. The dots were arranged regularly, not ink accidentally dripping; it seed to be deliberate by the letter writer.
She looked at the envelope again and noticed strange doodles on it. Several square grids were displayed on the back of the envelope, spaced far apart from each other, with two black dots not far away.
A torrent of mories surged to her mind like a flood, and Qing Lan subconsciously murmured, "Super Adventure Little Tiger Team..."
"What?" Mu Qingi blinked.
Qing Lan didn't speak. She took out a pair of scissors, cut off the back of the envelope, and then cut out the square grids and black dots to make a card with square holes and black circular holes.
Just like in her mory.
...
It was a boring evening, and Qing Lan was in a bad mood—she forgot why she was in a bad mood; she just was. She played ten rounds of Battle Card and didn't hold back, winning ten consecutive gas and shutting him out.
But he didn't get angry, or rather, Qing Lan had never seen him angry.
He didn't say anything and climbed up to the desk to work. This made Qing Lan even angrier, thinking bitterly, why haven't you co to hug when I'm like this—surely you don't love anymore and such...
Soon, he brought over a piece of paper full of gibberish and a card with holes, but Qing Lan turned her head, ignoring him. He signaled Qing Lan to align the card with the two black dots on the paper.
With a hint of curiosity, Qing Lan aligned the card with the black dots and found that the words revealed through the card holes ford a new sentence.
"Congratulations on achieving divine slaughter / Rewarding you with a "
About an hour later, during the break, Qing Lan curiously asked him how he knew such a secret communication trick, and he said he had read it in a book when he was a child, where the protagonists were called the Super Adventure Little Tiger Team... Afterwards, Qing Lan listened to him talk about the wonderful stories of the Adventure Little Tiger Team all night.
...
The paper and card had long turned to ashes in a great fire. But the shared mories, and the countless days and nights spent together, had beco nutrients for her growth, propelling her to where she is today.
Qing Lan aligned the newly made card with the black dots on the letter, revealing sentences with proper grammar in the blanks.
She read very slowly and carefully.
Mu Qingi watched from the side, her face reflecting expressions of confusion, surprise, joy, and displeasure.
When Qing Lan finally looked up, Mu Qingi cautiously asked, "Is there… news about that person?"
Qing Lan didn't answer but opened a drawer, took out a lighter, and ignited the envelope and letter.
"Qing Lan, sis, do you know where he is!?" Mu Qingi excitedly rolled up her sleeves: "Tell , and I'll find soone to bring him back right away, guaranteed before nightfall he'll be on your bed!"
"No." Qing Lan scolded teasingly: "And your wording is strange, writing stories is one thing, but don't use your storytelling tone in daily speech."
"So what did the letter say? Was it from Mr. Tree-man?"
"What~ did~ it~ say~" Qing Lan swayed in her chair: "Actually, Mr. Tree-man just wrote a story in the letter."
"What story?"
Qing Lan stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the traffic and pedestrians on the street for a long ti before saying, "He said, in this world there is a kind of life where every death is for a reunion."
"What do you an?" Mu Qingi asked in confusion: "Is there so taphor?"
Qing Lan turned her head to look at her with a radiant smile and said, "I'm not telling you!"
A smile that could launch a thousand ships.
Mu Qingi felt as if she was drinking a bowl of plum soup in a white porcelain bowl on a sumr day, with the clinking of ice against the bowl, leaving her slightly dazed.
At this mont, Qing Lan suddenly thought of sothing and touched her lips, saying, "Qingi, you've worked hard these days."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, can you reduce my workload..."
"I'm not talking about work." Qing Lan said embarrassedly: "I've troubled you to sleep with these days… but I can't keep bothering you like this, I'm not a child, I used to sleep alone, I just got used to his spoiling..."
Mu Qingi blinked: "So…you've slept with for a few days and got tired of , and want to dump ?"
Qing Lan chuckled: "But you're always sticking to , I'm afraid I'm delaying you. After all, you're also a young girl in her pri, you should start dating and have a sweet romance. It seems like quite a few people are interested in you..."
"Tch, those people can't even beat and they dare to have eyes on ," Mu Qingi complained, venting: "Actually, I have nothing to do at ho at night, it's better to accompany Sister Qing Lan in work, reading, and chatting, and Sister Qing Lan, your bed is much more comfortable than mine, I prefer being with you..."
"If you don't mind, then move in with ." Qing Lan blinked: "Feels like having a cute and capable little sister, and I'll rely on you to protect from now on."
"You can always trust White Night Mu Qingi!" Mu Qingi solemnly clasped her fists, then burst into laughter: "From now on, I will protect Sister Qing Lan!"
Even if only as a temporary substitute for him.
Even if just a match lit by a little girl for warmth.
Even if only a secret destined to be carried to the grave.
But if it ans protecting that breathtakingly beautiful smile, it would be worth it.
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