The Next Step
Bai Luoming and March 7th walked side by side to the door of Welt's room, the light in the corridor casting long shadows of the two.
He raised his hand slightly, about to knock, but the door creaked open from the inside.
As soon as the door opened, Bai Luoming and March 7th felt a bright light shine directly on their faces, accompanied by several crisp sound effects of camera shutters.
Xing was holding up her new Jade Abacus, facing the two people at the door, and kept pressing the shutter.
After quickly snapping a few photos, Xing seemed to notice a blind spot and stopped taking pictures.
Instead of walking hand in hand as she had expected, Bai Luoming and March 7th stood about half a step apart. Seeing this, she sighed deeply, her tone full of regret.
"Oh, I thought you two would come in hand in hand."
Bai Luoming squinted slightly from the flash of the camera, but he wasn't surprised at all by Xing's words. He raised an eyebrow, his gaze falling on Xing's slightly regretful face.
"You seem to know quite a lot?"
"Of course!" Xing put away the Jade Abacus, puffed out his chest, and said confidently, "When you two entered the hotel, Uncle Yang and I were sitting in the lobby. It's a pity you two walked away too quickly, I didn't even have time to take a picture."
As soon as she finished speaking, Bai Luoming felt the temperature of the air around him suddenly rise.
March 7th's cheeks flushed red at a visible speed, and Bai Luoming could even faintly see steam rising from her head.
Her lips moved, and she stammered out a few words from her throat.
"Then you... you were just here..."
"Yes." Xing nodded emphatically before March 7th could finish speaking.
"We've been watching you two as you came in through the door, but neither of you even glanced to the side. Whose fault is that?"
After hearing Xing's explanation, March 7th was completely speechless.
Her head buzzed, and all the surrounding sounds seemed to drift away, leaving only Xing's incessant chatter.
On March 7th, she instinctively took half a step back, wishing she could dig a hole in the ground and bury herself in it.
She didn't mind being seen being intimate with Bai Luoming by strangers. But if it were seen by someone she knew, she'd rather be killed.
Seeing March 7th's extremely embarrassed and angry appearance, Bai Luoming subconsciously took half a step forward, firmly blocking March 7th's body, and changed the subject, saying, "Hey, it's enough to know about this kind of thing, no need to go into so much detail. By the way, what's the matter that Old Yang called us here so late at night?"
Upon hearing Bai Luoming's words, Welt seemed to remember that he still had important matters to attend to, and he adopted the authority of a patriarch, speaking up.
"Alright, Xing, stop fooling around."
The voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable weight.
"It's getting late, everyone come sit down and let's get down to business."
Upon hearing Welt speak, Xing stopped her playful antics, stuck out her tongue, and obediently sat back down on the sofa.
Seeing March 7th's embarrassed state, Bai Luoming found it amusing but didn't add fuel to the fire. He gently touched her arm, gesturing for her to come over.
The two walked to the sofa. As if to hide something, March 7th deliberately chose a seat half a body length away from Bai Luoming, lowered her head, and pretended to be studying the pattern on the carpet.
Welt adjusted his glasses and his gaze swept across the faces of the group.
"Alright, everyone's here. Let me first talk about the intelligence we gathered at the Seat of Divine Foresight today."
The moment he spoke, the relaxed atmosphere in the room was replaced by solemnity.
"My negotiations with General Jing Yuan did not go smoothly. He did not take immediate action, citing the unknown location of the Stellaron and the need for further verification of the intelligence."
Welt's voice was calm, as if he were repeating something that had nothing to do with him.
Simply put, he's practicing Tai Chi.
Upon hearing this, Xing raised her hand, like a primary school student asking a question in class, "So what does he want? Is he just going to keep dragging this on?"
"No." Welt shook his head. "He offered a solution, or rather, a task."
He paused, as if organizing his thoughts.
Jing Yuan stated that to verify the authenticity of the Stellaron Hunters' intelligence and locate the Stellaron, they must first capture another core member of the Stellaron Hunters — Kafka.
Upon hearing this, Bai Luoming remained outwardly calm, but a knowing glint flashed in his eyes.
As expected, they ended up here again. Jing Yuan's plan was meticulously executed, passing the hot potato of capturing Kafka to the Astral Express Crew.
There were clearly better options, such as using the Matrix of Prescience in conjunction with Yaoguang to directly deduce the Stellaron Spirit. At this moment, Luofu, with the addition of Yaoguang, and the two generals sweeping through, was simply a dimensional reduction attack.
However, he did not go to the Seat of Divine Foresight, nor did he know what Welt and they had talked about, so this thought only passed through his mind and did not show itself.
"So, our core objective now is to capture Kafka?" Xingzhui asked, looking every bit the model student.
Welt listened to Xing's words, a hint of approval flashing in his eyes, confirming her judgment.
"Yes. General Jing Yuan has officially commissioned the Astral Express to assist the Divination Commission of Luofu in capturing the escaped Stellaron Hunters, Kafka. This is our main operation in Luofu going forward."
Assisting the Divination Commission... isn't that Fu Xuan's subordinate? Looks like Qingque will be working overtime again this time.
Bai Luoming thought this to himself, but he didn't show it on his face at all.
As for capturing Kafka? That task was ridiculously easy for him.
Not long ago, he and March 7th had met Firefly, who was also Stellaron Hunters. Based on Firefly's location, even if they were to stake out the spot, they could still catch up with Kafka.
Of course, he wouldn't reveal this information. After all, the Stellaron Hunters weren't doing anything bad in Luofu, so there was no need to disrupt the so-called script. Or perhaps this was part of the script?
After the business was over, the atmosphere in the room relaxed. The group chatted about their experiences in Luofu that day. Xing excitedly recounted her observations of the various trash cans, and March 7th, having finally emerged from the shadow of social death, occasionally chimed in with a few words.
After a while, Welt checked the time and adjourned the meeting.
Everyone said goodnight to each other and returned to their rooms.
Bai Luoming returned to his room, closed the door, shutting out the noise from the outside world. He took off his coat and threw it on a chair, then went into the bathroom for a quick shower.
The warm water washed over my body, taking away the fatigue that had accumulated throughout the day.
He dried his hair, leaned against the soft headboard, and took out the latest Jade Abacus he had just bought that afternoon.
Powering on and connecting to the internet—all in one smooth motion.
The local interstellar network interface of Xianzhou Luofu popped up, and Bai Luoming casually opened Luofu's short video platform.
"The challenge was to drink ten cups of Immortal's Joy Tea in one go at the Sleepless Earl, and the result was that he was carried away on the spot!"
"Shocking! Why is the Divination Commission brightly lit up late at night? Is this a sign of the loss of humanity or the decline of morality?"
"A Roundup of Luofu's Top Ten Eye-Catching Bag-Making Tactics, You'll Never Guess the Number One!"
As Bai Luoming watched these funny videos from Xianzhou, the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up.
The smoothness of this new Jade Abacus is truly exceptional; the screen is large and clear, making browsing a pure pleasure.
Most importantly, there are no restrictions from Herta, and you can occasionally see some scantily clad young ladies making exciting videos, which is quite a feast for Bai Luoming's eyes.
As night deepened, the lights outside the window became sparse.
As Bai Luoming was brushing his fingers, a heavy wave of drowsiness washed over him. His eyelids began to droop uncontrollably, as if engaged in a difficult tug-of-war.
Finally, she loosened her grip, Jade Abacus slipped from her palm, falling onto the soft pillow. The screen was still lit, displaying an exaggerated image of a food blogger from Aurum Alley eating.
His consciousness gradually faded, sinking into a chaotic darkness.
Just moments before he was about to fall into a deep sleep and completely lose consciousness.
Bai Luoming seemed to feel a warm, soft body with a faint fragrance snuggling into his arms.