Catch That Wancang

"Ha?"

"Nata, think about it. With... well, Hipa's usual thick skin, let alone taking a shower in your room, she could even stay in your room for a night without any problem. But she just cleaned herself up briefly, changed her clothes, and left."

"... That's really true."

Natasha's expression was subtle. Wouldn't saying that make her seem like she had no girlish heart, since she was just casually wearing a top and wandering around in front of the boss?

Having lost to Clio in matters of the heart, Natasha couldn't tell whether it was a lame joke or a nightmare.

"However, it's also possible that Sipa is just preparing to re-plan her life."

Liu Bai could tell from Natasha's retreating figure that she seemed to have suffered a blow.

"After all, Sipa has been in a period of confusion these days."

"Then, after sleeping together, he had a new life plan..."

Natasha muttered something, then sighed silently.

Okay, she has no right to judge others.

She has actually started to re-plan her life.

For example, we could find a more reliable love nest, squeeze in a honeymoon trip when we have the chance, and have another child if we have the opportunity... well, it doesn't matter if the child takes her surname.

It has to be said that when it comes to being a good wife, Natasha ranks among the top in this group.

Natasha is now even able to understand the hostility she occasionally feels.

One of the things in human nature is to take an inch and then a mile... They say it ends with a mistress, but once that line is crossed...

Natasha took a deep breath and straightened her clothes.

"By the way, boss, what's your relationship with Rita like?"

"What is it and how is it? Your question is a bit hard to understand."

"So... uh, your romantic history? Something like that?" Natasha herself didn't know what she wanted to ask. "For example, how did you fall for the emotionally barren Ms. Rita?"

"Hey, you have to take the opportunity to tease Rita."

Liu Bai first complained about the relationship between these two best friends, and then thought about it carefully.

"Hmm... the initial reason... Rita is a beautiful girl?"

"So direct..."

"It's not some shameful reason." Liu Bai rolled over on the sofa and looked up at the ceiling. "Beautiful girls, maids, good figures, good personalities, and a touch of harmless badness, um, or rather, cunning, are my favorites... But then again, for me back then, beautiful girls were probably the biggest favorites."

"Cunning? I think that guy is sly and wicked."

Natasha casually made a sarcastic remark about Rita.

"So the most important thing is a beautiful girl? But that guy isn't even a girl, he's over twenty."

"Well, as long as someone is pretty and looks young, they can be called a beautiful girl in the eyes of an otaku— Danzhu should understand." Liu Bai stretched. "But how should I put it, Rita was actually quite wary of me at first."

"I understand, that guy is a smiling tiger to outsiders... Oh, I think I know why Rita let her guard down. Tsk, I hope Dr. Mobius doesn't find out about this, otherwise the whole World Serpent will be in trouble because of this..." Natasha frowned, thinking of the biggest dark history of her life.

"Hey, have some confidence in my charm, okay... Well, back then I wasn't really confident in my own charm either."

Thinking about it carefully, my charm is a bit strange, and it's probably all because of my persuasion skills, right?

The word "persuasion" seems small at first glance, but upon closer examination, it encompasses a shameless range of meanings...

The essence of persuasion is not "speaking" and then "accepting," but rather "the effort made to change other people's attitudes by using various kinds of information."

"But at that time, Rita and I were actually... well, we can't say there was no distance between us, we were just friends—although according to your timeline... never mind, there's nothing to say about that."

"You'd better not say anything. The more you talk, the more I feel like Rita's ancestors were blessed with good fortune."

Natasha sighed as she removed all the cumbersome ornaments from Clio's clothes.

"I seriously doubt that Rita is some kind of sci-fi movie protagonist... But, well, Rita is definitely a perfect woman. Well, nowadays, Schicksal probably doesn't lack so-called 'perfect women'."

"That's my problem. When I was still quite naive, sometimes when I didn't want to leave a certain place... Occasionally, I would think of someone waiting for me in another place. Even though I had to leave, the thought of this and being able to see them in the blink of an eye... that feeling was still quite subtle. Of course, meeting those people I had parted ways with again was also a reason."

"It sounds like the life philosophy of some old man," Natasha commented after a brief moment of thought.

(Challenging Rita might be more monstrous than anyone imagines...)

"Ahem, I was just kidding, just take it with a grain of salt." Liu Bai coughed awkwardly twice. "Do you have any more soda?"

"Yes... although I always felt that it was a bit odd for you to ask for a soda in front of me, a fine wine collector and former tavern owner."

Natasha put on an apron and smiled.

"How about I open a bottle of good wine later?"

"... I'm not a big drinker."

"An occasional drink is fine, it's settled then." Natasha smiled as she walked into the kitchen. "I'll make you some side dishes. Do you have any dietary restrictions?"

"No... Ah! Natasha, wait a minute!" Liu Bai quickly called out to Natasha.

"Um?"

"Um... cook... cough, I mean, before you cook, shouldn't you check the kitchen's fire sprinkler system?"

"..."

Chapter 557 Capturing Wan Zang

"I..."

Natasha froze for a moment, then looked up at the showerhead above.

"Hmm... it's very new, there shouldn't be any problems."

"You know that's not what I meant." Liu Bai looked at Natasha was nonchalantly preparing to start cooking, speechless.

"I... I'm actually pretty good at cooking. Xiao Kong and the others used to enjoy the food very much," Natasha said awkwardly.

"I have a feeling I've heard something that could be defined as child abuse." Liu Bai's expression was strange. "By the way, have Xiao Kong and the others been eating in the cafeteria lately? Hmm?"

This "Hmm?" was the deepest question Natasha had ever asked...

"Nata, let's be honest, the kitchen is innocent, the utensils are innocent, the ingredients are innocent, you don't need to destroy all these innocent things—although that seems to fit the villain's behavior."

"What villain would do something like this!" Natasha finally couldn't help but complain. "There are still some cold dishes in the fridge! Is that alright?"

Natasha opened the refrigerator door with a dejected look, took out several dishes of peanuts, dried meat, and dried tofu—snacks to go with drinks—and then took out a bottle of red wine that looked very expensive from the wine cabinet.

"There's a surprisingly large amount of stuff."

"Hmm, the wine was brought out by me when I transferred the tavern to Gray Serpent."

Although the tavern surprisingly didn't lose money back then, now that it's been transferred, how could Natasha possibly leave the tavern's signature drinks, which she had acquired herself, to Gray Serpent?

"As for these side dishes... it's great to get them from the cafeteria. It's free, and they even let me pack them up. When I was at Shencheng Pharmaceuticals, even if I ate something from the cafeteria, Clio would make me pay."

Speaking of this, Natasha looked annoyed. At the time, she was blind to the truth and hadn't considered just how rich that guy Clio really was.

"Don't keep bringing up such trivial things, okay? You're a rich woman after all."

"Money is something that can be spent in a moment of impulsiveness." Natasha took out a wine glass, filled it with wine, and spoke with the air of someone who had been through it all. "Thinking back on it, if I hadn't taken advantage of my wealth to buy a sports car back then, and had just bought a minivan to make do, we wouldn't have been left penniless after the island was gone."

"But sometimes, some people have so much money that they can't even spend it all even if they get carried away." Liu Bai also remembered something, propping his head up with a half-smile on his face.

"Who? There are people like that?" Natasha gritted her teeth instantly.

"Eden," Liu Bai said matter-of-factly. "That guy... well, he's always buying all sorts of gems. Nata, you know, right? Some high-end gems only appear at auctions."

"...I've had the privilege of attending several large auctions as part of a mission." Natasha squeezed out these words through gritted teeth before starting to fidget with her fingers.

Hmm, she needs to recall how many zeros were on the luxury gemstones and jewelry with gemstones at the auctions she attended.

"Don't count it. Back then, I was in charge of the money at home—although it's like I was living off my wife—the money at home circulated like this: Eden would give me all the money, and I would give Eden a certain amount of pocket money... To put it simply, although Eden spent money recklessly when he was young, he still had more and more money in his hands."

"Hey, isn't this a bit much?" Natasha was completely baffled. "If I remember correctly, Ms. Eden... is a celebrity, right? Although I know that sometimes it's like picking up money off the ground, but..."

"An idol who can rake in money from half-civilized people, what do you think?" Liu Bai yawned. "And Eden has a habit of giving away jewels when he's drunk. In the past Pardo and Aili would always try to get close to Eden when he was drunk."

Drunk, then presenting jewels?

Natasha glanced at the red wine in her hand and the wine glasses on the table, then suddenly fell silent.

"Um... Boss, if you don't mind, how about calling Lady Eden over?"

Anyway, it seems I can't show off my virtuousness anymore. Eden isn't an outsider, and I've taken so many advantage of her today, so it's not a bad thing to do her a favor.

Liu Bai just smiled. Natasha's thoughts were written all over her face, but Liu Bai didn't intend to stop her. Eden's so-called lack of money was completely different from a normal person's concept of being broke. Maybe Eden could still find a few gems that he had carried with him a long time ago but had forgotten about from his old clothes.

"Whatever, but you'd better get dressed first."

Natasha was currently only wearing a shirt and an apron.

Well... if you look at it from the front, it's actually a nude apron.

Natasha blushed instantly; she had almost forgotten that she wasn't wearing anything!

"By the way, now that Ms. Eden has arrived, do I need to explain why you're here?"

A sense of shyness brought Natasha back to her senses from her money-grubbing state.

"If you ask me, Eden would realize what happened as soon as he sees me here."

"... Then let's forget about it."

Given the choice between jewels and men, Natasha decisively chose men.

"Let's just have a drink, boss and I."

"Master... Master's wife, I've brought what you asked for!"

Kevin happily placed the small golden ball from the box onto Mei's table.

"Oh, by the way, a friend of mine gave me two concert tickets, but I don't have time to go, so I'm giving them to you, my teacher's wife."

"Um...?"

Mei raised an eyebrow expressionlessly.

To be honest, Kevin's combination of punches left Mei a bit stunned.

Her first reaction was actually, "If you don't have time, how do I have time to go?"

However, Mei immediately realized the purpose of the two tickets when she saw the small golden ball on the table.

"Well done, I'll take it." Mei carefully put the concert ticket in her pocket, but then something occurred to her, "It wasn't a concert by Eden, was it?"

"Master... cough, Sister Eden isn't planning to make a comeback in the present civilization, it's just the concert tickets in Vienna below."

Mei raised an eyebrow again. Had she heard something strange?

Fine, I'll spare his life since he did a good job this time—besides, even if I drown him, it won't change the strength of Eden.

Having a date with your teacher wouldn't be so bad...

"Alright, you can get lost now." Mei waved her hand, but her tone was clearly cheerful. Then she opened the box and put it into a small machine next to her.

Seeing this, Kevin's forehead was already breaking out in a cold sweat.

So the machine used for analysis is in the office?!

In other words, if you just stupidly bring your stuff, you'll be... well, directly eliminated?

Su... my godfather!

Having figured everything out, Kevin left without hesitation. Even if Mei didn't care anymore, he didn't need to wait for her to finish reading.

Mei shook her head.

Look how scared that brat is. At most, he'll say something bad about cooking... Okay, Mei admits that's her sore spot, but the extent of her sore spot is completely different from her senior sister's chest.

"Hmm, delete what Mobius and I left behind, and make a separate backup of Kevin's own legacy. Although that kid was courting death, the knowledge stored inside is real... When we have time later, we can modify the legacy mode so that it can be used directly as a simulation training ground."

"Backed up to the database." Prometheus, standing beside Mei, said emotionlessly, removing the data cable from the back of his neck.

Well, Prometheus was too short; he was completely blocked by the table, and Kevin couldn't even see him.

"Next, delete the entire content and rebuild it using the bell as the element. Can you do that, Prometheus?"

"... Trying it now."