The touch of the girl's smooth black stockings between his fingers made Zane's heart sway. The hand holding those long legs subconsciously gave them a squeeze…
"Doctor, how's your code coming along? You've been coding non-stop for three days now, it should be almost done, right?"
"Almost… almost done. Just one more line of code. As soon as this program is finished, my newly invented Moon Chasing Festival self-service tea-serving flying camera robot will be able to run. As long as I press this save and start button…"
The next second, the staff in Bianting felt a piercing cold wind suddenly surge out from deep within the compound.
In an instant, the entire Bianting was engulfed by the chill, and the internal power system collapsed immediately under the sudden assault.
Fortunately, because of a certain someone, things like power outages had long become routine for the veterans who had worked in Bianting for over a decade.
Even if an explosion occurred, Bianting's emergency plan was enough to restore operations within dozens of seconds. Just a few seconds later, the backup power kicked in, and light returned once again.
A staff member wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said to Doctor, "Whew… good thing the lights came back on, or these old bones of mine would've tripped… Wait, why have you turned gray and pale? …Someone come quick! Doctor's soul has flown away!"
———
On the other side, the guards followed the direction the cold wave had come from and quickly arrived at the Magistrate's office. The one in front stepped forward and knocked on the door.
"Lady Sanhua, what happened?"
After two or three breaths, Sanhua's voice came from the other side of the closed door.
"N… nothing… Have the preparations for the Moon Chasing Festival been completed…"
But compared to her usual distant coldness, her voice now carried a hint of softness, and also a trace of weakness, as if she had just gone through intense physical exertion.
Hearing her voice, the guards exchanged looks, all seeing the same confusion in each other's eyes.
"Hey… doesn't this feel like a plot we've seen somewhere?"
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Feels just like that .avi we watched together last night…"
"Beautiful wife, husband away on a business trip, strong neighbor…"
"Hey! Don't be stupid. That's Lady Sanhua. Who would dare mess with her? Besides, not to single you out, but everyone here is trash. Every single one of you. Who among you is worthy of Lady Sanhua?"
"That's the first time I've heard someone insult themselves."
"What are you… talking about?"
The voice from inside the room made the whispering guards instantly stiffen.
"Lady Sanhua, did something happen here?"
In truth, compared to some movie-like .avi plot, what they feared more was that Lady Sanhua had overclocked.
According to records, Sanhua had a history of overclocking, and during those times had caused several Level Two Orange Alert violent weather incidents.
"I'm fine… no need to worry."
The guards looked at each other. Since Lady Sanhua had said so, there was no reason to stay. They turned and returned to their posts.
Hearing the footsteps outside gradually fade away, Sanhua finally let out a small sigh of relief. She then brushed the dust off her skirt and stood up from Zane. Lowering her head, she glared at the culprit of her loss of composure.
Thinking back to what had just happened a few seconds ago, even her ever-frozen expression couldn't stop a blush from spreading across her face.
When Zane suddenly grabbed her thigh, Sanhua instinctively released her resonance ability. Being the closest, Zane bore the brunt of it and was almost frozen stiff on the spot. His arms, which had been holding her, loosened because of it.
Caught off guard, Sanhua had almost fallen straight to the ground.
But at the critical moment, Zane reacted. Since his hands were frozen and useless, he simply used his own body as a cushion to prevent her from getting hurt.
Sanhua had wanted to scold him, but seeing the grin on his face, she couldn't bring herself to vent her anger.
After a long while, only a soft sigh escaped her lips. Only he wouldn't mind the trouble caused by her cold aura, and that stirred something in her heart.
"You're always this reckless. Aren't you afraid of getting hurt?"
"Hurt?" Zane chuckled, climbing up from the ground. He raised his arm toward the worried Sanhua, rolled up his sleeve, and showed off his bicep.
"Look at me, I'm tough. It's not that easy for me to get hurt. Compared to me, if a beautiful lady like you got hurt, I'd really feel bad~"
As he spoke, Zane deliberately glanced at her and raised an eyebrow in a teasing way.
"You… who needs you to feel bad… I…"
Sanhua, who was usually so cold, had never dealt with something like this before. She pointed at Zane, her lips trembling slightly, unable to form a complete sentence. Instead, it only made Zane laugh even more.
Seeing him laugh at her, Sanhua immediately felt annoyed. She raised her swift blade, about to strike at him.
But Zane reacted faster. With a quick movement, he appeared behind her again, wrapped an arm around her soft waist, and despite her struggle, pressed her down into a chair.
"You too, Master too, Sister Jinhsi too. Every one of you is a workaholic. Is there nothing in your dictionaries except work?"
As Zane spoke, he casually picked up Sanhua's beret from the ground, twirling it in his hand without any intention of giving it back.
"Sanhua, you're clearly so pretty. Why do you still wear a hat? Although you're cute with it too… but since the Moon Chasing Festival is coming, don't you want to try a different style of clothes?"
Sanhua hesitated, then lowered her head. Her silver bangs fell, covering her face so her expression couldn't be seen. A faint blush quietly crept up to her ears.
"I don't know…"
In Sanhua's past life, the curse had always lingered in her eyes. It twisted all the beautiful scenery in the world into grotesque, terrifying, noisy apparitions, disrupting her senses and crushing her understanding of everything.
Because of that, beauty always felt far away from her…
"It's fine. I can take you to buy some. With your looks, you'll look good in anything."
"Look good… me?" For a moment, Sanhua seemed to hear again the words of the temple abbot who had taken her in when she was young,
"Fate connects cause and effect."
The bond formed decades ago when she first met that boy and girl… perhaps now, it had already begun to bear fruit.
"Okay… I'll listen to you…"
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