Chen Gu smiled at Man Suling, then began searching the room for the good wine hidden by the gorilla. Seeing his behavior, the gorilla knew exactly what the bastard wanted to do and said with smug satisfaction, "I've hidden it well, if you can find it, I lose!"

Man Suling held up the hem of her dress and, with ladylike poise, walked over to Chen Gu's side, sniffed with her nose, and pointed in a specific direction.

Chen Gu immediately rushed over, "Thanks a lot!"

The gorilla gritted his teeth, "Such a backstabber, truly a wolf that can't be domesticated!"

Chen Gu happily left the gorilla's house with a bag full of vintage wines. On the way, he made a phone call to Qing Ruyan, "What are you up to? I have some ideas about the Atomic Holy Church mission to discuss with you."

Qing Ruyan lived in an apartment arranged by the subdivision, located near the subdivision office. From the outside, it appeared to be an unimposing old building with a secret passageway underneath that led directly to the subdivision.

Chen Gu picked a bottle of fine vintage wine from his spoils and knocked on Qing Ruyan's door.

She opened the door and was clearly taken aback by the wine in his hand, her face showing a flicker of feigned shyness, "Oh my goodness, coming so late, and with good wine too, you, you, you must be up to something! If you confess, maybe I'll go along with it."

Chen Gu gave her a glare, "In your dreams!"

"Hmph," Qing Ruyan found it dull immediately, pulled him in, and said, "Talk, what's the matter?"

Chen Gu laid out his plan and took out every freelance woman's must-have: the Secret Wand.

Qing Ruyan, of course, knew what a Secret Wand was, having a few herself. She didn't even glance at it. Instead, her eyes kept sizing up Chen Gu, as if looking for something hidden on him.

"How did you get your hands on this stick?"

Chen Gu had already prepared his story, "Before I joined the Bureau of Mystic Security, I inadvertently witnessed a fight between two professionals. One of them was the owner of this stick, and the other was incredibly powerful, about one zhang and six chi tall, with formidable combat abilities. He easily killed the owner of the stick and then left.

I didn't dare come out until a while later. That's when I found this…"

Qing Ruyan asked, "Where was this fight? And why didn't you report it to the Bureau of Mystic Security afterward?"

Chen Gu truthfully mentioned the courtyard, but he believed that with the gorilla's skills, the Bureau of Mystic Security wouldn't find anything if they went now.

"After I joined the Bureau of Mystic Security, I thought about reporting it, but I had some reservations... There are some people in the Bureau who hold prejudices against me, you probably know who they are. I was worried it would cause trouble for nothing—since this wasn't a crucial clue, I kept quiet about it."

To Chen Gu's surprise, Qing Ruyan only asked briefly and didn't press further. Instead, she switched to discussing the Atomic Holy Church mission, "So you want me to pretend to be the President and join you on this... Big Rabbit mission?"

Chen Gu nodded, "The issue now is, can you imitate the Psychological Spy's abilities?"

Qing Ruyan waved her hand dismissively, "No need to imitate. Big Rabbit and his group certainly don't know the President's profession. For freelancers, their own profession and abilities are among their most guarded secrets. Big Rabbit has never met the President and couldn't possibly know her occupation.

Knowing the President is of the Second Energy Level is already quite remarkable."

As she raised her hand, Chen Gu instinctively dodged away from his face.

Then he realized that Qing Ruyan hadn't used the legendary "Scumbag Slap" skill and awkwardly resumed his stance. He thought about it, and it indeed made sense. Man Suling was able to counter-kill the ambushing President by leveraging her clandestine profession and skills.

Qing Ruyan then said, "This plan sounds good, I'll find out the real identity of this 'President' and try to play the part as accurately as possible."

"Alright." Chen Gu nodded, unable to help himself, he asked again, "And you, what is your profession?"

Qing Ruyan flashed an exaggeratedly coy shyness, "Our relationship isn't close enough yet for me to tell you that, I'm not going to say just yet. You men, always in such a hurry."

Chen Gu silently retched: Please, I'm aiming to become a Best Actor, could you not keep embarrassing yourself with this amateurish performance?

When he left Qing Ruyan's place, Chen Gu even thought about taking the bottle of red wine with him, but Qing Ruyan authoritatively confiscated it.

As he walked out of the apartment, a sense of crisis vaguely arose in his heart: Qing Ruyan seemed infatuated, superficial, brainless... which made her all the more enigmatic! She was Aviloya's assistant, the right-hand person of the Director-General, the Valkyrie herself. Why would she be sent to a backwater like Empire River Star for some "support" mission? In his mission for the Atomic Holy Church, did he "coincidentally" meet her... or was she actually there to secretly monitor him? What the hell was her purpose? Or rather... what mission was she really carrying out?! Chen Gu wouldn't overestimate himself, but the "entanglement" between him and Aviloya kept him feeling rather uneasy...

He started his car and sped away, but couldn't resist looking back at the apartment building one more time, muttering to himself, "I'm afraid... things are going to get troublesome..."

...

The next day Chen Gu received a notice from the Bureau to come over after school. He thought Qing Ruyan wanted to discuss mission details with him, but when he got there, an admin staff curtly informed him: "The division chief wants to see you."

With trepidation, Chen Gu entered Mei Lixue's office. His old classmate looked at him with a mock-smile that made Chen Gu's skin crawl, only to outstretch her hand: "Where's my stuff?"

Chen Gu suddenly realized, Damn, this old woman's scheme was buried right here! She lent me the Flame Banner, did she calculate that I would definitely break it?

"That... You've seen the combat video from the mission," Chen Gu sheepishly said, "The Flame Banner was destroyed... one of them."

Mei Lixue raised her eyebrows. "I don't care, when I lent it to you, it was a complete set of three. Please return them exactly as they were!"

Chen Gu knew he would definitely have to pay dearly again and said with a distressed look, "Alright, I admit defeat, okay? But I'm out of money; I've just spent all my merit points. After the next mission, I'll buy you a new set."

Mei Lixue asked coldly, "The new one you buy, will it be the same as the old set?"

Chen Gu hesitated, unsure of how to answer. "No, it won't be... "

"Hmph!" Mei Lixue said, "I only want the exact set I had before!"

Chen Gu got agitated. "You're being unreasonable, aren't you?"

Mei Lixue stared at him with that same mock-smile. For the third time, Chen Gu got that creepy feeling, always suspecting that this old woman had some terrifying scheme waiting for him. Just look at how pitifully she handled those three idiots from Ossosa!

"Fine then, what exactly do you want?"

Mei Lixue opened a file in front of her and started working, not even glancing at Chen Gu. She simply pointed to the office door and said, "Remember, you owe me one."

Chen Gu left helplessly. Inside the office, Mei Lixue's lips curved into a sly, fox-like grin. "How interesting," she murmured.

It was unclear whether she was commenting on the documents in her hands or on Chen Gu.

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