Don't You Get Reimbursed?

Less than three minutes after they placed their order, the servers came streaming over with trays.

One steaming dish after another filled the table.

"Cousin, are the chefs at the Destiny Bureau always this fast?"

He poked at a piece of meat with his chopsticks, looking disgusted.

"Don't tell me this is all premade. This is the Destiny Bureau—how can they pull the same stunt as everyone else?" It was one thing for fast-food places to serve premade meals, but for a mighty government agency to cut corners like this?

Shen Tingxue rolled her eyes and picked up some greens.

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

She looked at the table full of food, her heart aching.

"Of course it was prepared in advance. This is all meat from rank-entry ferocious beasts."

"If they cooked it to order, the meat would be so tough it'd knock your teeth out. You might as well wait until tonight to eat."

Gu Yuan thought it over. She did have a point.

Ferocious beasts were brimming with vital energy, and their meat was incredibly tough. Without a long pressure-cooking session, ordinary people couldn't even bite through it.

He stopped talking and reached out to tear off a Wind-Runner Chicken leg. He took a bite, and juices burst across his tongue. A rich surge of vital energy slid down his throat and into his stomach, spreading a pleasant warmth through him.

Now that was good stuff.

Gu Yuan's eyes lit up. This would definitely cost a pretty penny if you bought it outside.

In just a few bites, he stripped the leg clean.

He tossed the bare bone onto the table.

Across from him, Sun Miaomiao was eating just as fast as Gu Yuan.

The girl looked so petite and delicate. Could she have a black hole for a stomach?

She held two roasted ribs in her hands, her cheeks puffed out as she chewed at a furious pace. Sauce smeared the corners of her mouth, but she didn't care in the slightest.

The two of them had become merciless eating machines.

They devoured everything in sight.

The food on the table disappeared before their eyes.

The scraps piled up into a small mountain.

Half an hour later.

Sun Miaomiao leaned back in her chair, contentedly rubbing her slightly bulging belly with both hands.

"That was so good, Captain! Could you treat us again next time?"

She burped.

"I haven't eaten this well in ages. I'm just a little sleepy now that I'm so full. I feel like taking a nap."

Shen Tingxue glanced down at her. I think you've got a food coma. Eat until you're stuffed and then go to sleep—did I recruit a team member or a pet pig?

"Once you solve the case, I'll treat you to another lavish meal."

At Shen Tingxue's words, the dazed look on Sun Miaomiao's face vanished.

She sprang to her feet, one hand still covering her stomach.

"Don't worry, Captain! I'm heading to the crime scene right now! I promise I'll get the job done!"

Shen Tingxue nodded with satisfaction.

Newcomers this motivated were always a pleasure to work with.

They were much better than the few old hands on the team who were always shirking responsibility and passing the buck.

Gu Yuan pulled out a napkin and wiped his mouth.

"Hey, sis, could I come along to look into that missing-person case later?"

Shen Tingxue turned and looked him up and down.

"You?"

"What would you come for? To make an already messy situation worse?"

Gu Yuan leaned a little closer.

"Since it happened at my school, it's only natural for me, as a student at First High School, to care about my classmates' safety."

He lowered his voice.

"Besides, if you don't let me go, Uncle might..."

Shen Tingxue shot to her feet and jabbed a finger at the tip of Gu Yuan's nose.

"Stop."

"I'm warning you: this is the last time."

"If you ever use that to threaten me again, just see if I don't crack your skull open."

She picked up the teacup on the table and drained it in one go.

She couldn't be bothered to waste any more words on her shameless cousin.

She turned and gave Sun Miaomiao a look.

Sun Miaomiao immediately understood and grabbed her backpack.

"Then let's head out..."

She held on to the backpack strap and scratched her head awkwardly.

She stared at Gu Yuan for a full five seconds.

"Um... what was your name again?"

Gu Yuan held out his hand.

"Hi, Sister Miaomiao. I'm Gu Yuan."

Sun Miaomiao shook his hand, then quickly let go.

"Okay, let's go!"

Outside the Destiny Bureau building.

Gu Yuan stood by the roadside, watching Sun Miaomiao pull out her phone and scan the code on a blue rental bike.

"Wait, Sister Miaomiao, we're going there on these?"

Gu Yuan pointed to the line of battered shared bikes along the roadside.

Sun Miaomiao patted her chest.

"You don't understand."

"Your school is pretty far from here. Riding bikes will save us a lot of money. Every little bit counts."

Gu Yuan folded his arms and asked, "Doesn't the Destiny Bureau reimburse you for fieldwork?"

Sun Miaomiao froze with her phone poised to scan.

She stood there, dumbfounded.

She quickly backed out of the scanning app and opened the Destiny Bureau's internal messaging app.

Her fingers flew across the screen as she searched for the fieldwork reimbursement rules.

A minute later.

Sun Miaomiao suddenly looked up.

She got a three-thousand-yuan allowance for a day on official business. And she'd been paying for all her previous fieldwork out of her own pocket!

What a huge loss.

She shoved her phone back into her pocket and waved her hand.

"Let's go!"

"We're taking a car! We need the fastest one-on-one express ride!"

Thirty minutes later.

A black car pulled up outside the gates of Haicheng No. 1 High School.

The two of them got out.

Sun Miaomiao had her bulging backpack on her back and a big bag of snacks in her arms, freshly bought from the convenience store.

Following the principle that unused reimbursement money was money wasted, she'd tossed anything that caught her eye into her basket at the convenience store. She was determined to make up for the money she'd lost before.

They made their way to the cultivation hall at the center of the school.

Sun Miaomiao shoved a milk tea with double pearls into Gu Yuan's hand.

"Hold this for me."

She walked to an open space in the middle of the training hall and set down the bag of snacks.

She unzipped her backpack and rummaged around for a while before finally pulling out a bright-yellow talisman.

Dense red patterns were drawn across its surface.

She laid the talisman flat on the ground.

Her fingers moved swiftly through the air as she muttered an incantation.

The patterns on the talisman flickered faintly, giving off a dim blue glow.

Then the blue light went out completely.

Nothing happened.

Sun Miaomiao crouched down and poked the talisman.

"That's strange. Why isn't the Tracking Talisman reacting at all?"

Gu Yuan took a big sip of tapioca pearls through his straw.

"Could it be expired?"

Sun Miaomiao ignored him.

She stood up and reached for her waist, unfastening the compass she always wore there.

Its surface was covered in intricate markings and runes.

She held the compass in one hand and pressed the index and middle fingers of her other hand together, touching them to the needle at its center.

A blue glow flowed from her fingertips into the compass.

The compass gave a low, vibrating hum.

The needle at its center began to spin wildly.

It spun faster and faster until it blurred into a hazy shadow.

Then a dazzling blue light burst from the surface of the compass.

The blue light quickly spread in every direction, sweeping across the floor and walls of the training hall.

The empty air began to twist violently.

One translucent phantom after another spread through every corner of the training hall.