Minister Vill-V is Truly Astonishing!

Lin Li's hand hovered over the keyboard for a long time before she finally decided to reply one by one.

"Thinking of you."

"I got my blood drawn."

"I don't not want to talk to you."

However, Elysia seemed to have only seen the second reply.

"What? You got your blood drawn? Are you okay? Does it hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt. Cang Xuan drew it." Lin Li typed, looking at the two sisters in front of the operating table, and added, "Danzhu and Cang Xuan also got their blood drawn, but Dr. Mobius did it. Danzhu looked like she was about to die."

"Ah... That, that's too serious." Elysia, who had just walked out of the conference room, was shocked when she saw this message.

Beside her, Heng leaned in curiously. Elysia didn't hide anything and let her look at the chat log on her phone.

Then she heard Heng say with deep empathy, "Seriously, getting blood drawn by the Doctor really can be life-threatening. The last time I went, the Doctor directly stuck a needle twice the normal size into my arm and drew several hundred milliliters. I still feel weak."

"..." Hearing this, Elysia suddenly started to worry about Lin Li's situation at the institute.

"Do you want me to come over and see you now?" Elysia sent another message.

"No need. Dr. Mobius and Cang Xuan are researching something. It's fine for me to be here alone with nothing to do."

"Hmm... Alright then. What do you want for lunch? I'll bring it to you."

"The same as last time is fine. Thank you."

"Oh, no need to say thank you. How about you give me a kiss when we meet later? I'll be very happy."

"...Dr. Mobius is here. I have to go."

"Mhm, bye~"

Before Elysia could even send her message, Lin Li had already gone offline.

She didn't know if the other party was shy or if Dr. Mobius had really arrived.

She hoped it was shyness, so she could tease Xiao Li when they met at noon... No, it seemed she could tease her even if she wasn't shy...

But the truth was, Mobius had indeed come to Lin Li's side.

"Who are you chatting with? You're smiling so happily. Could it be Elysia?" she asked with a smile, but Lin Li had already turned off her phone, so she couldn't see.

It was an obvious question, though.

"Uh... no," Lin Li shook her head.

"Heh, it's not like anything will happen if you tell me. As if I could do anything to you," the Doctor adjusted her glasses. "Those people just had a meeting. Vill-V said she needs a little help from you right now."

"Me? What can I do?" Lin Li pointed to herself. "I don't know anything."

"You don't need to know anything."

"It's not like I'll be doing manual labor, right..."

"I don't know. You can ask Vill-V for the specifics."

"Then why didn't she contact me directly?"

"..." Mobius rolled her eyes. "If she contacted you directly, wouldn't you still have to tell me? That would be too troublesome, so it's more convenient to contact me directly."

"Besides, you might not listen to her if she spoke to you directly, but I'm your boss now. You have to listen to me, understand?"

"Uh... I understand." Lin Li nodded blankly, looking like she didn't understand at all.

"Tsk, why are you so stupid?"

Mobius placed her hand on Lin Li's head and began to rub it.

It seemed like this was the first time she had done something like this, and she didn't know why she suddenly wanted to.

The texture felt quite good. Elysia probably did this often, right?

Because Lin Li was sitting in a chair and Mobius was standing, Lin Li, who was being petted, looked very well-behaved.

She was indeed very well-behaved, and Mobius kept rubbing her head for a while.

Danzhu and Cang Xuan couldn't help but turn their heads to look at the two of them, their eyes sparkling with gossip.

"Alright, let's go," Mobius withdrew her hand and said.

"Mm..."

Lin Li's pretty face flushed slightly as she walked out of the laboratory.

Lin Li walked all the way to the engineering department, the corner where the building was being constructed when she had looked for Vill-V before.

At the entrance of a square building, she saw Vill-V, who was looking at her and waving.

Lin Li walked over, and Vill-V quickly grabbed her hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Cough, nothing. I'm a little excited to see the famous Lin Li," Vill-V said.

"?" Lin Li frowned. "What do you need me for?"

"Nothing major, just need you to protect me."

"Protect? What do you mean?" Lin Li looked around, seeing nothing immediately dangerous.

"Oh, just follow me."

With that, Vill-V took Lin Li's hand and led her into the square building.

It was a large space filled with machinery, seemingly designed for research and production, but all of it was currently shut down.

In front of them stood many people, all looking at Vill-V with displeasure.

"Vill-V, what do you mean by this?"

"What do I mean? You're not producing anything, so what are you standing around for?" Vill-V feigned ignorance.

Lin Li could tell she was pretending, but she herself didn't understand the current situation.

"Producing? Do you think we're in the mood for that?" A man with a mustache stood before the crowd, pointing at Vill-V indignantly. "Do you see us as cattle in your eyes? To be ordered around by you?"

"The Deepest Place? Ridiculous. Go back to your home. Flame-Moth doesn't welcome people like you."

"..."

Vill-V seemed unfazed by the outburst. She glanced at Lin Li and put on a helpless expression.

"See? If you weren't here, with them acting like this, they probably would have torn me limb from limb before I could even say anything."

"Uh, so what exactly happened? What did you do? Why are they so angry?" Lin Li asked.

"I didn't do anything, really. I just proposed a new project during a meeting, and this is how they reacted." Vill-V shrugged.

"What project?"

"..."

"What are you two whispering about?" The man couldn't stand it any longer and spoke up. "Vill-V, we are all top architects and engineers from around the world. The structure you want to build is, in our opinion, impossible."

"Furthermore, you want to use a nuclear weapon for a prison? What are you thinking?"

"What? Is there a problem? I think it's perfectly normal?" Vill-V said nonchalantly.

Honestly, if she were confronting these people alone, she wouldn't dare speak with such a tone. But with Lin Li here, it was different. She didn't believe these people would dare lay a hand on her.

"Normal? Heh." The crowd was angered to the point of laughter. "As expected of someone from the fringes, with no substance. We don't know what connections you pulled to get here."

"Stop, stop, stop, don't curse anymore. I've heard enough curses, both open and hidden, these past few days. My ears are about to fall off." Vill-V stretched and said, "Alright, tell me, what do you actually want?"

"..."

The crowd exchanged glances and whispered amongst themselves for a moment before speaking. "If you want our cooperation on your project, show us something substantial, not just empty, nonsensical theories."

"Substantial? Wasn't that adaptive detector you just made enough?" Vill-V retorted.

"That was with data and materials provided by Dr. Mobius. Otherwise, how could you have created that thing?"

"...Tsk, it's as if I'm useless without the Doctor." Vill-V muttered softly, only loud enough for Lin Li to hear.

How could she be useless? Vill-V looks very capable. Lin Li thought to herself, curious to see how the other party would handle the situation. According to the normal procedure... Vill-V will definitely pull out something amazing and blind these people with it, right?

However, Vill-V produced nothing. She simply pointed to a small compartment on the crowd's left, the door of which was locked.

"Here, take the key and go take a look." Vill-V tossed a set of keys and then pulled Lin Li along, wandering randomly through the building.

The crowd looked at the keys suspiciously, unsure of Vill-V's intentions, and could only go to open the door.

But when the door opened, what greeted everyone's eyes wasn't some impressive machinery, but... a massive blueprint that filled the entire room?

Vill-V sat on the edge of a giant gear.

"Sit down, let's chat."

"..."

"Don't worry, it's clean. See? I'm not dirty either." Vill-V traced the surface of the gear with her finger; it was still pristine white.

"It's not that I'm afraid of getting dirty." Lin Li saw this and also sat down.

Although, she had indeed hesitated to sit because she thought it might be dirty.

"What is The Deepest Place?"

"Hmm... it's the name of a prison, my next project." Vill-V replied. "Er asked me to build it, so I have no choice."

If Er were present to hear Vill-V say this, he might have been so angry he'd spit blood.

When had he ever asked Vill-V to build it? He had just made a small joke.

"A prison? What are you building that for?"

"What else? To imprison criminals." Vill-V's eye twitched as she looked at Lin Li. "Don't tell me you don't even know what a prison is."

"Of, of course I know. Uh, then why did you name it The Deepest Place? It doesn't sound like a prison at all." Lin Li asked again.

Her dangling slender white legs in the air seemed to betray her inner thoughts.

She knew about the prison, of course. It was just that her mind had suddenly gone blank, and she'd blurted out what she was thinking without thinking.

"What else? Of course, it's cool?" Vill-V said without thinking. "Anyone normal would definitely have a deep impression upon hearing this name, right? That's the effect we want."

"Of course, the name was originally even cooler, but that dog Er deleted over thirty characters from the beginning for me. Do you want me to tell you now?"

"No, no, no, no need. These four characters are fine. I think they sound pretty good," Lin Li quickly waved her hand.

She had seen Vill-V's note in that small room, and couldn't even stand the chuunibyo-esque wording.

"Tsk, alright, if you think it sounds good, then that's fine," Vill-V shrugged.

"Mm."

"..."

Vill-V watched Lin Li's swinging legs and couldn't help but start swinging her own.

It was a bit childish, but quite fun.

"How are things going with you and Elysia?" she suddenly asked.

Lin Li's expression froze instantly.

"What...? What are you talking about..."

"What's wrong? Can't I ask?" Vill-V brushed a stray strand of hair from her forehead, a hint of mischief in her eyes. "That night, after I left, what happened between you two? I'm so curious."

"..."

"N-nothing happened," Lin Li lowered her head, her cheeks flushing a suspicious red.

But really, nothing had happened. That night, they had just slept normally...

Seeing Lin Li's shy reaction, Vill-V found it even more amusing, so she moved closer and said softly:

"Really? Why don't I believe you?"

"..."

Lin Li's face turned even redder.

"Alright, I won't tease you anymore. It was just a joke," Vill-V said with a smile.

However, what she was thinking was: It seems something really did happen after that. Lin Li is actually this shy.

"..."

Lin Li didn't want to say a word.

Why did people always tease her? First Elysia, then the Doctor, and now even Vill-V, whom she had captured, had started!

Did she look that easy to tease!

(╯▔皿▔)╯

"Aren't you curious about what's inside that little compartment? They haven't come looking for us for so long."

Seeing that Lin Li was a bit unhappy, Vill-V changed the subject.

"Not curious, not curious at all," Lin Li huffed, as if sulking. "Maybe they just can't find us? After all, we're hidden so well."

"Hmm... that's true," Vill-V said thoughtfully. "Then let's go out and find them now."

"Wait."

"What is it?"

"You... you should tell me what's inside first," Lin Li stammered.

"Hmm? Weren't you not curious?"

"What does that have to do with curiosity? If you don't tell me, I'll still be completely clueless when we meet them later. Wouldn't that be awkward?"

"Is it awkward? I think it's quite good," Vill-V said with a wicked grin, jumping off the gear. She patted her clothes and strode away.

"Damn you, Vill-V, wait for me..."

"Keep up, or you'll get lost," Vill-V said without looking back.

"Wait for me!"

Vill-V returned to the workshop entrance. The same people were still standing there, but every single one of them had a changed expression.

"How was it? Did you finish watching?" Vill-V asked.

"Ah... of course, we finished, Minister Vill-V. I must say, your idea is truly..."

"Enough, don't say so much," Vill-V waved her hand, leading Lin Li through the crowd towards the workshop's main entrance. "So, you've made your decision."

"Mm."

"That's good. This project will probably start in a few weeks. I'll work on the detailed plans during this time. As for you all, just find a relatively flat island."

"Are we going to build a prison on the island?" someone asked.

Vill-V stopped upon hearing this and smiled faintly.

"What else?"