Can't afford to pay for the takeout? Stunning CEO: Then pay with your body!

Chapter 305 Two Things!

When Zhang Yan emerged from the third basement level of Tianji Security, it was still dark.

Qin Xiao was waiting at the second-floor entrance, and frowned the moment he saw him. "You don't look well."

"Having not closed his eyes for twenty-one hours, how good can his complexion be?" Zhang Yan retracted the Thousand Machine Arm into the system space and stretched his stiff fingers.

"Azure Dragon—"

"It's finished."

Qin Xiao opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't ask for details.

Having spent so much time with Zhang Yan, he had long been used to this kind of information that was "finished in a flash."

Zhang Yan didn't stay at the base for long; he called a car and went straight back to the villa.

The living room lights were on when I pushed the door open.

Nie Qingcheng was nestled on the sofa, her laptop still on, displaying Qingcheng International's internal OA system on the screen.

The person was leaning back against the pillows, eyes closed, breathing shallowly.

The champagne-colored silk nightgown slipped down one shoulder again.

Zhang Yan walked over, gently closed the laptop and placed it on the coffee table, then pulled the blanket up a bit.

Nie Qingcheng woke up the moment her fingers touched the skin near her collarbone.

"...What time is it?"

It's almost five o'clock.

"Is it finished?"

"Um."

Nie Qingcheng's eyes were not fully focused yet. She vaguely reached out and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him towards her.

"You feel so cold."

"There's no heating in the basement."

"come over."

Zhang Yan was pulled by her to sit down on the sofa.

Nie Qingcheng turned over, buried her face in his waist, and mumbled a sentence.

"What did you say?"

"Remember what you promised me."

Zhang Yan looked down at her; the tips of her exposed ears were slightly red.

He didn't say anything, but reached out and tucked her loose hair behind her ear.

Nie Qingcheng was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly spoke again: "Are you really done?"

"Um."

"So... what are your plans now?"

Zhang Yan leaned back on the sofa and stared at the ceiling.

"Take a nap first."

Nie Qingcheng chuckled softly beside his waist.

"and then?"

"Then I'll go buy something."

She didn't ask any further questions.

Her fingers unconsciously curled around the hem of his clothes.

There was silence for about thirty seconds.

"...Where can I buy it?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"Um."

There was another ten seconds of silence.

"Don't buy one that's too small."

Zhang Yan's lips twitched slightly.

"understood."

Nie Qingcheng buried her face closer to his waist, her voice very soft. "Go to sleep first."

Zhang Yan closed his eyes.

The image of the air distortion when the Void Crystal was embedded in the Azure Dragon's chest cavity still lingered in his mind, but the body heat coming from beside him was gradually pushing those things away.

He fell asleep.

……

When I woke up at noon, Nie Qingcheng was gone.

There was a sticky note on the coffee table:

"There's an urgent meeting at the company. There's some leftover pork rib soup in the fridge from last night. Heat it up in the microwave for two minutes, and lock the door when you leave."

"Also... regarding that thing you mentioned, the circumference of my ring finger is 52mm."

Zhang Yan stared at the last line of text for two seconds, then burst out laughing.

He folded the note and put it in his pocket, placing it next to the A4 paper with a simple line drawing of a ring.

I heated up some pork rib soup and ate two bowls of rice.

My phone rang while I was washing the dishes.

Qin Xiao.

"Boss, two things."

Zhang Yan dried his hands. "Speak."

"First, news came from Ang Tun."

"In a village about 40 kilometers south of his jurisdiction, the entire village went missing early yesterday morning."

"He sent people to check, and all the livestock in the village were dead, their eye sockets black."

"There are large areas of black corrosion marks on the ground, shaped like something crawled over and left them."

Zhang Yan stopped what he was doing.

"Have you sent the photos yet?"

"It's out. I had the system run an energy residue analysis—the feature matching rate of the Ruins is 67%."

It's almost double the amount of the last cargo ship from Jinghai Port.

"The second thing," Qin Xiao paused, "is information that the intelligence team just intercepted."

"The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force has conducted three unconventional deployments in the past 48 hours."

"Two Kongo-class destroyers were transferred from Sasebo to Yokosuka, and a Soryu-class submarine left port with an unknown destination."

Zhang Yan frowned. "The scale of the relocation isn't large."

"It's not a big deal, but the timing is perfect."

"And right after you returned from Siberia, something even more outrageous happened."

"explain."

"Takehiko Ito, the deputy chief of staff of Yokosuka Air Base, was promoted to interim operations commander at an internal meeting last week, skipping two levels."

The official reason given was "emergency authorization to address emerging underwater threats."

Zhang Yan narrowed his eyes.

Takehiko Ito.

He remembered the name.

The commander-in-chief on the other side when we sank three warships in the South China Sea last time was this man.

Later, the Soryu submarine was sent to track him, but he cut off the towing sound.

Later, he was also the one who sent warriors to China.

A person who had been repeatedly humiliated by him suddenly gained authority far exceeding his qualifications.

unusual.

Was his promotion processed through the normal procedure?

"The information we can find is limited."

"But Qingcheng's people have a few undercover contacts in Tokyo, and they've reported that Ito's behavior has changed drastically in the last two weeks."

"He used to be an old-fashioned soldier, steady and conservative."

"It is now said that he is so tough in meetings that he is almost autocratic, and several mid-level officers who opposed him were all transferred from their core positions within a week."

Zhang Yan put the bowl into the sink.

Fragments of previous intelligence flashed through my mind.

The system had intercepted a faint energy fluctuation during his underwater voyage, originating from the direction of the Sakura Country.

At the time, he didn't pay much attention, thinking it was just pollution spreading from the ruins.

Looking back now, the timeline matches up.

Ito's unusual promotion, military transfers, and sudden change in his style of doing things—if Rumor has already extended his reach into the military system of Japan…