Task Assignments

Since all the clues point to the City Lord's Mansion, we have no choice but to go find Dales.

"Me? Hold off Dales?"

You Hui was extremely nervous, fidgeting with her fingers. "Well, actually, I've never formally visited Dales. And I heard that he's very lecherous and likes petite but voluptuous young girls the most."

"... Romantina, you come along, just in case." Zhou Qing was silent for a moment before deciding to have Romantina accompany You Hui to visit Dales.

"What?! You actually want me to go with You Hui to serve that fat, big-eared pig?" Romantina suddenly blurted out something shocking.

But Zhou Qing was already used to it. He casually waved his hand and said, "If that's how you think, it's fine. Just don't bring You Hui along. I'm really afraid you'll lead her astray."

"You despicable bastard!" Romantina, her face flushed, grabbed Zhou Qing 'Zhou Qing shoulders and shook him violently, even spitting a Sisi saliva onto his face. "You must be fantasizing about me being humiliated, and then, in your excitement, Taunt me mercilessly, right? You're so shameless!"

"Hey! Don't try to force your own imagined scenario onto me!"

Zhou Qing, feeling dizzy from being shaken, couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed Romantina's shoulders and shook her head violently. "Get rid of those weird thoughts in your head! You bastard! Your Brain Martial Soul isn't for this kind of thing!"

Watching the two playfully bickering, a hint of envy flickered in You Hui—

Romantina has found new friends, but when will I be able to find new friends?

"Alright, you two stop flirting."

Xiao Wu interjected.

"Flirting?" Zhou Qing's expression changed, his lips twitched, and he looked at Xiao Wu seriously. "I hope you can use more precise words. I'm educating Romantina!"

"Flirting!"

Romantina's reaction was quite different from Zhou Qing's. Her face was flushed red, almost steaming, but she still vehemently denied it, saying, "What nonsense are you talking about!"

Xiao Wu's expression was mocking.

You Hui smiled like an aunt.

Ning Rongrong said, "Shame on you."

Only Tang San, who was in silence, suddenly realized that he often felt out of place with these guys because he was too serious and not weird enough!

"Ahem, let's get down to business!"

Apart from Tang San, who remained an outsider and didn't get involved, the others chatted for a long time before being interrupted by Zhou Qing's two coughs.

However, the whole process wasn't entirely without any gains.

At least, You Hui and Ning Rongrong's relationship within the small team is much closer than before.

"You Hui, now that you have a reason to investigate the truth, visiting Dales is imperative. Our goals are aligned."

"You should know Romantina's personality better than we do. She's only bold in words; when it comes to action, she's nothing but a coward..."

Upon hearing this, You Hui nodded, but Romantina objected. "What do you mean I'm just bold in words? I'm bold in person, okay? And You Hui, why are you nodding?"

"Putting everything else aside, you would never dare to show your abnormality in front of someone who is also of noble birth!"

Zhou Qing fired an arrow, instantly striking Romantina's heart and petrifying her. ━━∑(￣□￣*|||━━

Seeing that she had finally calmed down, Zhou Qing secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After secretly marveling at how talented the team was, he continued, "So, You Hui, you don't need to worry. If Dales really dares to make a move, we can just have Romantina fight back."

"Um... isn't that a bit much?" You Hui poked her finger. After all, the truth of the matter was not yet fully understood, and it seemed, probably, possibly, perhaps a bit too much to directly hit the person being visited during a visit.

"There's nothing wrong with that. If the other party is truly a lecherous devil and wants to take real action, you'll really suffer if you don't make a move."

As he spoke, Zhou Qing took the Gray Pouch from his waist and tossed it to Romantina, "You can use this Storage Soul Tool first, mainly to temporarily store the Phoenix Wutong Staff. Carrying such a big black stick, the guards at the gate probably won't let you in."

Romantina chuckled, "As expected, you still trust me the most, you actually let me manage the money."

"Just a heads up, even if you're missing a single Copper Soul Coin, you'll have to make up for it yourself," Zhou Qing added, ignoring Romantina's stiff expression, and continued assigning tasks to the others.

Zhou Qing's neglect, on the contrary, made Romantina excited again—the feeling of being ignored wasn't so bad.

"You Hui, if Dales asks why you are visiting, don't talk about your parents. Instead, put all the blame on Romantina."

There's nothing we can do about it. After all, You Hui is too introverted, and when she's nervous, she might not even be able to speak clearly. It's better to let Romantina answer.

Romantina is the daughter of Romanyac, the deputy city lord of Nuoding City. Dales knows her and will definitely give her face.

"Then how should I answer?" Romantina, now "calm," asked curiously.

"To tell the truth."

Zhou Qing said, "The current clues can all be connected based on my hypotheses, but to find further conclusive evidence, we need to 'stir up trouble'..."

I believe that all conspiracies and intrigues share the following two common characteristics:

First, the fewer people who know about it, the better;

Second, the faster it is completed, the better.

The logic is simple: the more people who know, the longer it takes to complete, and various other factors will become involved, especially people's thoughts, emotions, and personalities, which will change to some extent with life experiences... Simply put, the more people know, the more differing their opinions on the conspiracy will be, and these opinions will not be completely unified. As time goes by, these differences will be amplified, resulting in significant differences in individual initiative, and consequently making the conspirators' process of achieving their goal extremely convoluted.

Tang San strongly agreed with this, after all, he had read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in his previous life. The various strategies in it were well-known, but they did indeed have the two characteristics that Zhou Qing mentioned.

If many people know the plan and it takes more than half a month to complete, then the probability of the plan achieving its intended purpose will drop sharply.

The schemes of the people and families behind Falling Star City have been going on for over two hundred years!

This violates the two points raised by Zhou Qing.

Actually, no.

Seeing that Tang San had brought this up, Zhou Qing explained, "First of all, considering that all the city lords in the past died of illness, the only people who knew about this conspiracy were probably that person himself, or rather, those individuals with a single, inherited martial Martial Soul..."