The news from the Jurisdiction Bureau’s higher-ups confirmed her suspicions and cemented this bad news.
"Yes, I know, I’m looking for clues. Yes, we’ll hurry, please rest assured. I understand, I won’t let the resources of the empty floors be wasted..."
Ai Qing nodded, restraining her anxiety and calmly responding. Only after hanging up the call did she let out a long sigh.
"It seems there’s really not much time left..."
She swiped away unrelated documents on the screen, inspecting the most confidential records at the bottom—the familiar face in the photo displeased her from the bottom of her heart.
——Where the hell has this bastard gone?
Meanwhile, Huai Shi awoke from his dream with a start.
Without any warning, without any reason.
For some reason, a strange sense of tranquility arose in his heart, but after thinking about it for a long time, he couldn’t understand why.
He stared at the yellowing poster on the ceiling, quickly turning over to continue sleeping.
Yes, amid the snores and smelly feet of his roommates.
Tomorrow, at least find a place where I can really live... Anyway, the dirty money has to be handed over, might as well get a better place!
.
Similarly, in the deep night in Kyoto.
Outside the Tanbo District at the fire scene, the sirens of fire trucks faded into the night.
Columns of water shot up into the sky, extinguishing the last flicker of fire in the ruins and pouring onto the young man’s heart.
Chilling.
Yuan Zhao, who had originally jumped out of the car dragging his Trident, was ready for a grand fight, but gradually became disoriented in the wind.
The silent night breeze brought mocking screams from Ravens far away.
No epic three-hundred-round battle with a formidable enemy as imagined, no underlings submitting in worship, not even a thrilling venture into a tiger’s lair, nor dragon-tiger clashes; not to mention a hybrid little sister in fantasy praising Yuan Zhao for being awesome...
His mission objective, along with the entire house, had turned into burnt trash long ago...
"Hey, Sister Ye? Your divination must be problematic..."
Yuan Zhao tearfully called, "It’s not that I’m not doing my job, can’t we get a task in the Yang Realm? Don’t mention the Russian Federation louts, this damn place has burnt to ashes, there’s no clue left!"
"..."
On the other end of the call, Ye Xueya silently observed the star chart before her, her eyebrow slightly raised: the stellar trails over Kyoto suddenly showed a rupture?
Perhaps it was her observational error, but if not? Whatever the method, it indicated that Kyoto was murkier than she had imagined.
The job from Xuan Niao, as expected, wasn’t easy to accept.
She pinched her brows, her mood heavy.
"Come back first, Yuan Zhao, and get a good night’s sleep before dawn—"
Ye Xueya smiled, "Don’t you always complain that you haven’t seen any famous sights in Yingzhou? This time I’ll satisfy you."
"Hey! What are you planning again?" Yuan "Toolman" Zhao suddenly felt a little scared.
"Nothing, tomorrow, we’ll go meet the General..."
Before hanging up, Ye Xueya kindly reminded, "Remember to wear formal attire."
.
.
At eight o’clock the next morning, Huai Shi, woken by the knock on his door, hadn’t yet managed to go out and rent a place when he saw more than forty missed calls on his phone.
All from the higher-ups of the Fujimoto Group, accompanied by a slew of messages and impatient urgings—each demanding he return the call immediately or quickly get in touch.
But he had turned on Do Not Disturb mode before sleeping yesterday, missing all of them.
When the door opened, there stood Yamashita with a grim expression.
"What the heck are you doing? Why didn’t you answer the calls!"
"Uh..." Huai Shi awkwardly looked back at his phone, "It... had a heatstroke, coughing, no battery."
"Damn, you bastard!" Yamashita grabbed his collar and dragged him out, "There’s no time, hurry up! Come on, come on!"
"What’s going on?" Huai Shi looked at him, his face showing a sky-is-falling expression, unable to understand: "Is the police department coming to arrest us?"
Yamashita turned back to glare at him coldly.
He lowered his voice.
"Boss Fujimoto, he’s not going to make it."