“Were you just… using the bathroom?”
Ling Xiaoyou looked at the young woman slowly walking out of the restroom with a strange expression.
She asked.
“…. How could that be!”
The young woman’s steps faltered.
If she weren’t a ghost instead of a human, she probably would have fallen straight to the ground.
But even so, the aura she had built up was completely shattered by Ling Xiaoyou’s words.
“I was just waiting for you all to arrive so I could make my entrance! When did I ever say I was using the bathroom!”
The young woman covered her face, speaking a bit speechlessly.
Hearing this, Ling Xiaoyou didn’t react as the young woman expected, but her expression grew even stranger.
She said, “But you stayed in the bathroom the whole time.”
The implication was clear: If you weren’t using the bathroom, then what were you doing in there?
“I’m a ghost!”
The woman obviously caught the meaning in Ling Xiaoyou’s words and spoke with a bit of embarrassment and annoyance.
“I don’t need to use the bathroom like humans!”
“Oh.”
Ling Xiaoyou nodded her little head in understanding.
Just when the young woman thought the girl finally understood, she asked again,
“Then why were you in the bathroom?”
The young woman: “….”
She was silent for a moment, then helplessly covered her face and said,
“Fine, fine. I admit it, okay? I just wanted to make a cool entrance when you brought me up. Is that enough?”
“Can we stop dragging out this bathroom topic?”
“Humph!”
Ling Xiaoyou snorted triumphantly, finally satisfied with the young woman’s words.
She had asked those questions on purpose, just to deflate her aura a bit.
After all, these Regulatory Division people always acted all mysterious, never did proper work, and still wanted to act cool in front of them?
No way! Ling Xiaoyou would never agree!
“So….”
Bai Shuanglian looked at the young woman holding her forehead helplessly, not seeming too surprised, and asked thoughtfully,
“The person who appeared at the dock earlier was you, wasn’t it?”
“And that faint gaze outside the dock—it was you Regulatory Division people, right?”
“Hmm…?
You noticed?”
The young woman first nodded subconsciously, then suddenly reacted, looking at Bai Shuanglian in disbelief, with a hint of undisguised surprise in her voice.
“We used special means to conceal ourselves.
You shouldn’t have been able to detect us.”
“I did notice something.”
Bai Shuanglian nodded, but didn’t answer the latter half of the young woman’s words.
“…Hoo, as expected of the Heaven’s Chosen of the Bai Family. Your reputation is well-deserved.”
The young woman was silent for a while, then let out a long breath and spoke somewhat relieved.
“Eh?”
Ling Xiaoyou looked confused, glancing at Bai Shuanglian, then at the young woman, then back at Bai Shuanglian, repeating this several times before finally leaning over to Bai Shuanglian and whispering,
“When did you notice, Bai Shuanglian? Why didn’t you tell us?”
As she spoke, Ling Xiaoyou looked at Su Lihua, who was trying hard to lower her presence for some reason, and asked,
“By the way, did Su Lihua notice?”
Su Lihua shrank her neck, glanced at the young woman, and seeing her attention wasn’t on herself, let out a sigh of relief and whispered to Ling Xiaoyou,
“If even you didn’t notice, how could I have? My cultivation is weaker than yours!”
“I thought those Artifacts of yours would let you sense it.”
Ling Xiaoyou muttered, then looked curiously at Su Lihua.
“By the way, why does it feel like you’re getting smaller and smaller?”
“Ahaha… No way! You must be imagining things!”
Su Lihua froze, then forced a laugh, continuing to minimize her presence.
“?”
Ling Xiaoyou looked at her for a while, then at the young woman, seeming to understand something, and didn’t ask further.
“At the time, I wasn’t completely sure either.
It was just a faint feeling, so I didn’t tell you to avoid worrying you.”
When Ling Xiaoyou’s gaze returned, Bai Shuanglian explained to her.
Ling Xiaoyou nodded her little head in understanding, then looked at the young woman and asked,
“Since you all have been monitoring these things, why didn’t you stop us when we went to eliminate the Devils?”
The young woman gave her a strange look and asked,
“Why would we stop you?”
Ling Xiaoyou was also puzzled.
She tilted her head and asked,
“Aren’t you monitoring the Devils? Wouldn’t our actions disrupt your plans?”
“Or did you not need to obtain information from those Devils?”
Facing Ling Xiaoyou’s confusion, the young woman shrugged indifferently.
“No, any information we needed was already collected.”
“Besides, we should be thanking you for helping handle those Devils.
We were planning to deal with them ourselves, but before we had the chance, you all rushed in and wiped them out on your own.”
“Ah, this…”
Ling Xiaoyou was at a loss for words.
So they were basically working for free for someone else!
But even so, they couldn’t complain, since they had volunteered to do it in the first place and couldn’t blame the Regulatory Division.
“Then….”
Ling Xiaoyou was silent for a moment, then looked pitifully at the young woman, making a pitiful face.
“Is there any reward for us?”
Even if it was a voluntary act, she still wanted some compensation!
She didn’t want to work for free!
“Um, cough… About that.”
The young woman originally wanted to say there was none.
After all, being a helpful citizen usually didn’t come with rewards.
Normally, no one would ask for compensation in this situation.
But seeing Ling Xiaoyou’s pitiful expression, she just couldn’t bring herself to say no.
Unable to meet Ling Xiaoyou’s eyes, she hesitated for a long time, then finally surrendered under Ling Xiaoyou’s pleading gaze, sighed lightly, and said,
“I’ll apply for it for you.
With my guarantee, you should be able to get a decent reward.”
“Great! Thank you, big sister!”
Ling Xiaoyou cheered, quickly thanking the young woman.
At the same time, her impression of the young woman improved greatly.
She had originally thought the Regulatory Division people were just salary thieves who talked about monitoring targets all day but never actually did anything.
But now, it seemed at least this person was pretty nice.