Qiu Tu's Green Tea Vibes (20 Hours Left in the Draw)

Qing E swore to heaven that the only reason she had been looking at Qiu Tu like that was because she thought his comeback against the odds today had been incredibly impressive. She had no other thoughts whatsoever.

So, now that Qiu Tu had misunderstood her, her first reaction was to quickly explain herself and prove her innocence.

However, at that moment, she suddenly realized the enormous amount of information hidden in Qiu Tu's words.

Wait! Qiu Tu agreed to spend tonight with Mo Se Your Excellency and Lady Ilena?

So... even Mo Se Your Excellency has had Qiu Tu's chicken soup?

As she thought about it, the image of the Ink God King's holy face as she drank chicken soup and ate chicken involuntarily surfaced in Qing E's mind. For a moment, her thoughts became a mess.

Qiu Tu was far too sharp. Just by seeing Qing E's dumbfounded expression, he guessed that she had definitely gotten the wrong idea.

After silently praying that Qing E would not court death by asking the Ink God King about it, Qiu Tu spoke. "Alright, I'm going to see Mo Se Your Excellency. You get back to work."

With that, Qiu Tu stopped chatting with Qing E, pushed open the door, and left her office.

As he stepped out of Qing E's office, Qiu Tu seemed to remember something. He turned back to look at Qing E and said, "Oh, right. If Lady Ilena comes back, remember to tell her to wait for me at the wine pool."

After saying that, Qiu Tu paid no attention to Qing E's reaction. He strode out of Ilena's temporary palace and headed for the Ink God King's side hall.

Only then did Qing E, standing behind him, slowly come back to her senses.

As she watched Qiu Tu's somewhat dashing retreating figure, Qing E's gaze grew complicated.

He had to keep two big shots company in one night... Qing E felt that Qiu Tu had it pretty hard too. How much nourishment would that take?

At that moment, Qiu Tu had no idea Qing E was worrying that he might become malnourished.

As he walked toward his meeting with the Ink God King, the expression on his face became much more serious.

Compared to his confrontation with Mitchell and the Star Founder God King on the Divine Light Plain earlier, meeting the Ink God King this time was no easy matter either.

After all, just as the Star Founder God King and Ilena had thought, Qiu Tu had acted first and reported afterward tonight, forcibly pressuring the Ink God King into helping him.

Qiu Tu was also someone in a position of power. He knew that what those above hated most was being coerced by those below.

Because that represented them losing control over their subordinates, while those subordinates were also challenging their authority.

Although Qiu Tu had used many methods to lessen the negative effects, the Ink God King might not truly accept it.

Especially since... after going through all this trouble, Qiu Tu was not merely creating problems for himself.

He still had his own plan to carry out!

Therefore, if he wanted to perfectly achieve his goal, he had to get past the Ink God King first!

With that, Qiu Tu pondered how he should perform in front of the Ink God King as he arrived at her side hall.

At that moment, the maid who personally attended to the Ink God King was already waiting at the entrance.

When she saw Qiu Tu, the maid's face immediately soured. She rolled her eyes at him, then turned around and said, "God King Qiu Tu, this way, please."

There seemed to be barbs in her words, and her attitude was rather poor. Maids generally took their cues from their master's emotions, so her bad attitude clearly meant she knew Qiu Tu had angered the Ink God King and was venting on her mistress's behalf.

Qiu Tu did not mind much. He was even a little grateful for the maid's "tip-off."

Thus, when he arrived in the side hall and saw the Ink God King upon her divine throne, Qiu Tu did not offer any excuses at all. He dropped to one knee and immediately apologized, admitting his fault. "Your Excellency, I am guilty!"

Perhaps not expecting Qiu Tu to be so straightforward, the Ink God King paused for a moment. Only then did she look down at Qiu Tu with her pitch-black eyes and ask coldly, "What crime has Lord Qiu Tu committed?"

Hearing the Ink God King's words, Qiu Tu said bluntly, "Without Your Excellency's approval, I made a decision on my own and put Your Excellency in a difficult position."

The Ink God King did not immediately respond. Instead, she remained seated upright upon her divine throne.

Today, she wore a white gauze dress. Black patterns wound across the white fabric like rivers, making it look like an ink-wash painting.

She quietly watched Qiu Tu. She simply watched him.

After a moment, she spoke.

But unlike what Qiu Tu had imagined, she did not seem particularly concerned about his acting first and reporting afterward. Instead, she was more curious about something else.

"You seem very certain that I would help you."

She rested her chin on her hand. Though her expression was gentle, it seemed to carry a faint sense of distance.

Ilena had asked Qiu Tu this question as well. Qiu Tu had not answered her at the time.

But now that the Ink God King had asked, Qiu Tu could no longer play dumb or brush it aside.

So, Qiu Tu nodded honestly and said, "In reply to Your Excellency: yes."

The Ink God King looked at Qiu Tu with interest, then asked, "Why?"

Qiu Tu raised his head and met the Ink God King's holy face directly. "Because... Your Excellency is wise and mighty. You would not abandon such a loyal subordinate as me."

At that, the Ink God King's brows lightly furrowed. She had just been about to tell Qiu Tu to stop making jokes when he spoke again. "And I also know that Your Excellency is wise and mighty."

There was clearly more to Qiu Tu's two sentences than met the eye. The Ink God King silently considered them for a while, and after roughly understanding what he meant, she gave a soft snort and said, "Stop being so glib. I have not seen your loyalty at all. If you were truly loyal, you would not have acted first and reported afterward."

Hearing the Ink God King's words, Qiu Tu did not answer immediately. His thoughts could not help drifting back to the meeting that had just taken place on the Divine Light Plain.

In truth, the decision to act first and report afterward had also been a last-minute decision Qiu Tu made after he could not wait any longer for Ilena.

At first, when he spoke with the Star Founder God King, he really had been teasing him for fun.

He had already noticed that the Star Founder God King was setting a trap for him. How could he possibly jump straight into it?

He was confident, not stupid.

And when he thought, "As long as the resources are enough," it did not mean he was satisfied with the Star Founder God King's offer of resources worth 1.5 times those of the Garrison God King.

Rather, he believed that 1.5 times the Garrison God King's resources was already the Ink God King's limit. There was no point in making outrageous demands of the Star Founder God King—even if the Star Founder God King agreed, the Ink God King might not.

Besides, he had not broken the agreement. He had indeed promised the Star Founder God King that he would accept a mission, but he had never promised that it would be the Star Founder God King's mission.

Since he was going to be an undercover agent anyway, helping his own side Render Meritorious Service was certainly better than helping the enemy.

Still, although he had long decided to break the agreement, Qiu Tu had intended to do so only after securing the Ink God King's support. That would have put him under the least pressure.

That was why he had gone to wait outside Ilena's palace.

But who could have expected the Star Founder God King to pull the firewood from under the cauldron, directly having the Mitchell God King lure Ilena away? Qiu Tu's Plan A was immediately ruined.

Originally, Qiu Tu's plan had been to personally seek out the Ink God King for a talk if Ilena did not return.

But at that moment, Qiu Tu suddenly thought of Plan B: act first and report afterward.

The reason he had this idea was because he had continuously simulated tonight's God King Meeting in his mind, arriving at one conclusion: tonight's God King Meeting would very easily create information gaps, giving him an excellent chance to exploit a loophole.

The most obvious examples were the Ink God King and the Mitchell God King.

After he stepped forward to confront the Mitchell God King head-on, the Mitchell God King could easily misunderstand and assume that the Ink God King was backing him.

Yet the Ink God King had no idea what was happening at all.

Then there were the Star Founder God King and the Ink God King.

During the meeting, the Star Founder God King would not have time to think things through carefully. So it would be especially easy for him to take God's Perspective and assume that, because Qiu Tu had acted first and reported afterward, the Ink God King would reject Qiu Tu.

But he would not realize that the Mitchell God King had been the one to strike first tonight, while Qiu Tu had firmly stood on the Ink God King's side. That would naturally increase her favorable impression of him.

Moreover, through Qiu Tu's deliberate setup, what lay before the Ink God King was actually a "prisoner's dilemma."

After the Mitchell God King made his move, the Ink God King really had only two choices before her:

1. Remain silent and admit defeat, watching helplessly as the Mitchell God King took Qiu Tu away, then slapped her across the face several times and humiliated her.

2. Go along with Qiu Tu's words and slap the Mitchell God King back several times.

With the matter already having happened, and with Qiu Tu destined to carry out the mission regardless of whether she chose option one or option two, the worst outcome of option two was merely that Qiu Tu would be exposed and she would lose face—equal to the best possible outcome of option one.

Therefore, unless the Ink God King was a fool, she would not choose option one. At most, she would remain silent and tacitly allow Qiu Tu to make up lies.

What was more, when Qiu Tu spoke at the God King Meeting, he had deliberately revealed certain information in an ambiguous manner.

To informed people like the Star Founder God King, that information would seem like nothing more than Qiu Tu's sophistry, and they would not pay much attention to it.

But the Ink God King was different. She did not know the whole story. Hearing only Qiu Tu's side, she would probably think he had suffered a great deal of grievance. Naturally, she would make a move to protect him first and see what happened.

It was precisely because of these information gaps that the Star Founder God King believed there was still room to salvage the situation, while Qiu Tu knew that the overall outcome had long been decided: the Ink God King could not possibly abandon him.

Of course, if that were all, the Ink God King certainly would not forgive Qiu Tu easily once this was over. So the moment Qiu Tu came up with the plan to act first and report afterward, he had already found himself a way out.

He lowered his head and spoke with a sincere expression. "Your Excellency, you have truly misunderstood me. I never intended to act first and report afterward."

"From the very beginning, I intended to tell you everything. But..."

At that, Qiu Tu raised his head, looked at the Ink God King, and said, "But... I am Lady Ilena's subordinate. When something happened, I should have reported it to Lady Ilena immediately, and then she should have reported everything to you."

"But when I went to find her, I discovered that she had gone off on a mission."

"I thought she would return soon, so I kept waiting there. Who knew that I would end up waiting until it was time for the meeting?"

"It was not until I saw Lady Ilena at the God King Meeting that I learned the Mitchell God King had deliberately sent her away."

"This was clearly a chain of schemes."

At that, Qiu Tu paused before continuing, "If Your Excellency does not believe me, you may summon Lady Ilena or the Qing E God King and question them. See whether I truly waited the entire afternoon."

"And after I saw Lady Ilena at the God King Meeting, I immediately reported this matter to her as well."

"Only... who would have thought that the moment I finished reporting it, the Mitchell God King and the others had already made their move?"

Upon hearing Qiu Tu's words, the expression on the Ink God King's face finally began to soften.

The Ink God King was clearly not a harsh person. Thus, although she still had doubts, she nevertheless raised a hand and made a lifting gesture through the air. "All right. Get up first, then speak."

As Qiu Tu knelt on one knee, he felt a gentle force support him. Before he could react, his entire body had already risen to his feet.

Qiu Tu's expression did not change, but inwardly, he was slightly alarmed.

The gap between a High-Level God King and an ordinary God King is actually this great?

After helping Qiu Tu up, the Ink God King spoke again.

She asked, "Tell me. What exactly happened?"

Hearing that, Qiu Tu snapped back to his senses.

He knew that his final chance to seal the deal had arrived.

So he once again told the Ink God King, in exhaustive detail, everything he had experienced that day.

Of course, Qiu Tu couldn't help slipping in quite a bit of self-serving embellishment as he told the story.

For example, he added plenty of threatening remarks allegedly made when the Star Founder God King had met with him alone.

For instance, he claimed he had never agreed to the Star Founder God King's proposal, only saying he would consider it in order to stall for time.

As he had said before, there had only been Qiu Tu and the Star Founder God King at that meeting. Couldn't he make up whatever he wanted?

There was no one to contradict him anyway.

And by the end of it, Qiu Tu made his stance clear.

He said, "Your Excellency. After speaking with the Star Founder God King, I came to understand something."

"I developed too quickly before, and the conflict between us runs too deep. They will never allow me to become Your Excellency's spark."

"Even if they have to drag me there, they will drag me onto the battlefield."

"So... when I refused their offer, yet they still dared to force me to make a choice at the God King Meeting—and even tried to drive a wedge between Your Excellency and me—I understood that there was no escaping this."

"Since I'll have to risk death anyway to carry out the mission of 'rebuilding the intelligence network,' why shouldn't I serve Your Excellency instead?"

As he finished, Qiu Tu bowed once more and declared righteously, "Although the Star Founder God King and the others offered me one and a half times the resources of the Garrison God King, to me, that cannot compare to Your Excellency's faith in me and recognition of my worth."

Ink God King: ...Huh?

Honestly, if Mo Li had been here and listened to the entire conversation between Qiu Tu and the Ink God King, she definitely would have cried out in shock: Wait a second, weren't those fake-sweet, manipulative lines supposed to be my thing? How did Qiu Tu learn them too?

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