Mu Qingqing covered her eyes, but her middle and ring fingers were spread apart.
She was done. Completely done. A sudden thought struck her—this guy named Lin Yu must be her personal jinx.
The first time was hearing the Section Chief call his name, followed by the finger joint exercise.
The second time was seeing Qin Wuyue doing push-ups with him.
The third time… This time was also push-ups, but with a different person.
Based on general patterns, this kid was probably into older women, because the last two were genuinely mature women.
He wasn’t very big, but his ambitions sure were. Could he even handle it?
Don’t get drained dry.
All she could say was the scene was truly impactful, to the point where her mind had already started spiraling into illogical, chaotic thoughts.
From fortune-telling and gossip, to theories about fields and oxen, all the way to them fighting…
This was probably a side effect of completely letting herself go these past few days.
Of the two people on the floor, Xin Yao was the first to snap out of it.
Suppressing the strange feeling in her chest, she didn’t even care about Mu Qingqing beside her, reaching out to grope Lin Yu’s pants pocket.
Before Lin Yu could react, Mu Qingqing beside him bristled first.
‘Oh my god, sister! Are you that desperate? I’m still right here!’
Just as Xin Yao’s fingers brushed the edge of the phone, an arm reached from behind and hauled her up.
Her hand stretched out, she could only watch helplessly as she was dragged bit by bit away from that spot.
“Let me go! Let me go!”
“Calm down, Captain Xin Yao! If you two really want to do… that, don’t do it here! The conditions are terrible! There’s a resort right next door! I’ll approve your leave! Just make sure you dodge the Section Chief and Doctor Qin!”
In her panic, the words tumbled out of her mouth completely unfiltered. Only after speaking did she hurriedly clamp her mouth shut.
‘What am I saying?! It’s over. Captain Xin Yao is probably the tight-lipped type, right?’
Xin Yao, whose mind was wholly fixated on the phone, also froze upon hearing such explosive words.
She glanced back at Mu Qingqing, then glared at Lin Yu with wide eyes.
‘And you still say you don’t have ulterior motives?’
‘Just listen to what those two are like! And isn’t Mowei your sister? You beast…’
The heavy weight on top of him was moved away. Lin Yu sat up, holding his head.
“What are you all muttering about? What about my sister and Aunt Qin?”
In his daze, he thought he heard those two names, but his head was still buzzing and he hadn’t caught what was said.
Just as Xin Yao was about to point at him and give him a piece of her mind, Mu Qingqing covered her mouth.
“I’m begging you, sister! Stop talking, okay? Let’s get dressed first, please!”
Mu Qingqing was utterly exasperated. What kind of chaotic mess was this? Fighting Rift Beasts felt less exhausting than this.
Lin Yu glanced over, then immediately turned his head away. “Hmm, Acting Section Chief Mu is right. You should put your clothes on first.”
Hearing this, Xin Yao, who had just calmed down a little, nearly exploded with anger again, shooting frequent looks at Mu Qingqing.
The meaning was probably, ‘Are you hearing the words coming out of his mouth?’
But thankfully, the current Xin Yao was no match for Mu Qingqing at all. In the end, she got dressed.
Before leaving, she shot Lin Yu a vicious glare. This wasn’t over!
Lin Yu scratched his head, only able to sigh at the unpredictability of life. What was all this?
—
On the way to the conference room.
Xin Yao, now completely calm, looked at the hesitant Mu Qingqing beside her and said irritably,
“Acting Section Chief Mu, is there something you want to tell me?”
In her view, these two were completely in cahoots!
Mu Qingqing was Lin Mowei’s subordinate and knew about such secretive matters. She was probably the backup that kid arranged for emergencies.
Or maybe she herself was involved with that cunning, shameless little brat!
Naturally, Xin Yao’s expression wasn’t friendly.
Mu Qingqing probably thought of this too, and she had other grievances.
Technically, while Mu Qingqing had a formal position, Xin Yao was strictly speaking just contracted personnel.
But in their circle, what mattered was who was stronger, who killed more Rift Beasts. Seniority-based ranking, things detrimental to survival, had long been tossed into the dustbin of history.
So, with all these factors stacked against her, her tone couldn’t help but weaken.
“Um, Captain Xin Yao, could you… maybe forget what I said earlier?”
Xin Yao snorted coldly. “Forget? The events of today will be etched in my memory forever.”
The sarcasm in her tone was palpable even without hearing it.
At this moment, Mu Qingqing looked left and right, then pulled Xin Yao into an empty corner.
“I’m begging you, Captain Xin Yao, listen to me…”
Seizing the opportunity, she told Xin Yao everything she had seen and heard before, thoroughly venting, then looked at her expectantly.
She hoped for some sympathy. She was just a poor office worker who couldn’t figure out how she got dragged into this mess.
Xin Yao stroked her chin, scrutinizing the other woman carefully. She didn’t detect any flaws; she seemed genuinely like an unlucky bystander who stumbled into this.
“So, Mowei is probably harboring an unrequited crush on that kid. What about Doctor Qin… and Liuli?”
Things involving Qin Wuyue were different.
Forget about not wanting to develop any relationship with Lin Yu. If the opponent was Doctor Qin, she doubted she’d survive long without mysteriously dropping dead in her apartment one day.
That “Witch,” whose all records were destroyed, with only fragments of rumors remaining.
Very scary…
Seems she needed to find a chance to remind Liuli to stay away from that kid.
She raised her hand and patted Mu Qingqing’s shoulder, giving her a smile. “Alright then, I’ll pretend you never said anything. But!”
Her expression immediately turned serious. “What happened earlier, you’re not allowed to speak of it either, understand?”
Mu Qingqing nodded immediately, like a chick pecking at rice.
She had originally wanted to gossip a bit, to find out how the two of them ended up rolling around together. Now, she gave up completely.
Neither of them noticed the other secretly sighing in relief.
“Let’s go. What’s the meeting about?”
“Oh, it’s the operational meeting for the assault on the Black Tower in three days.”
“Alright, let me see the report.”
“Here.”
The two very默契ly switched to their professional work attitudes and tones, looking utterly businesslike.
—
Elsewhere.
Lin Yu walked towards his sister’s hospital room, feeling the phone in his pocket, his mind replaying the earlier events.
What should he do? That woman seemed to have been provoked into a rebellious mood now.
Of course, he hadn’t taken any photos. That would be too beastly.
As for the clothes… he was the one who took them off.
So, this kind of experienced woman was hard to fool. If it were Xia Moran, he had a hundred ways to bamboozle that girl.
If it were Mu Liuli… he still had about fifty.
It seemed she probably wouldn’t talk for now, at least not while this non-existent photo supposedly existed. Probably…
“This is tricky…”
He let out a long sigh and casually pushed open the hospital room door. Inside stood Qin Wuyue and her daughter, while his sister Lin Mowei still lay in the medical pod.
But the scene inside made the corner of his eye twitch, giving him the distinct feeling of one wave not yet settling before another rises.
“Yanran, that outfit of yours… what are you planning? To be a nurse?”