Ryou had not expected someone to actually bring Kuki Shinobu back to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
He set down his bottle, just about to say something.
[Ding! Congratulations, you received a Fruit Seed Pack!]
Ryou froze when he heard the prompt.
What was going on?
Why had he suddenly gotten a reward?
A moment later, he figured it out. Shinobu must have been logged as having been caught when she was first taken to the Ministry. Even though she later escaped, the system had already counted it as a successful capture.
That was why seeing her now had triggered the reward.
Ryou rose to his feet and said, "Yanfei asked me to help find Shinobu, but searching for someone inside the city is difficult. And after you left Liyue Harbor, it became even harder, so I resorted to a rougher method."
He looked at Shinobu and added, "Still, thank you for understanding."
"Boss," Shinobu called out to Itto first, then turned back to Ryou. "There's no need for that, Ryou-san. As long as the misunderstanding is cleared up, that's enough."
She smiled faintly.
"I admire a hero like you. I believe you're not that kind of person."
"Thank you." Ryou nodded. "Since you're here already, sit down and eat something. I'll have the butler prepare a few rooms later. You can all stay the night."
"Fine, then we'll trouble you for one night," Shinobu said.
At that point, Itto could hardly keep arguing.
After another half hour, Ryou had everyone settled in one after another.
He sat in the hall, sipping tea, while Keqing sat beside him with a very complicated look on her face. Every so often, she glanced at him, clearly wanting to say something, only to swallow it again.
"Keqing, what is it you want to tell me?" Ryou asked with a smile.
"Ryou... I was wrong. Please let me off this time, okay?" Keqing clutched his arm and lightly traced the back of his neck with trembling fingers.
Those wines had been too strange.
No matter how much anyone drank, they simply would not get drunk. Ryou had downed five whole bottles and still looked as lively as ever.
Even Beidou, who loved her drink, had been left speechless. The wine itself had tasted dry and strong, without any mellow sweetness to soften it, yet somehow it refused to intoxicate anyone.
Ryou set down his teacup.
"I didn't want to drink in the first place. You were the one who kept urging me on and even poured me a huge full cup."
He looked at her calmly.
"So let's not twist the facts."
Then his tone softened.
"Relax. You're my wife. What bad things could I possibly do to you?"
He pulled her into his arms.
"I may not be drunk after all that wine, but the smell is still all over me. Come on. Let's go soak in the hot spring and wash it off."
The moment Keqing met the look in his eyes, her whole body started heating up again, and a little fear crept into her heart.
Every time he looked at her like that, she knew trouble was coming.
[Ding! Keqing obtained the skill [Liyue Qixing Authority]!]
[Liyue Qixing Authority]
[Effect: When issuing orders to the people of Liyue, command authority increases by 65%, and the target's execution ability rises by 75%!]
Since Keqing was one of the Liyue Qixing, Ryou did not think much of it. He simply reached out and tapped the mole on her shoulder.
By noon the next day, Keqing opened her eyes and found herself still wrapped in Ryou's arms.
The moment she moved, her whole body felt like it was about to come apart.
Last night, she had originally planned to drag Ganyu into it and let Ganyu take the full force of Ryou's pent-up anger instead.
Who would have thought those wines simply could not get anyone drunk?
In the end, she had taken all of it herself.
"Mmph... I have to pull Ganyu into this soon, or things are going to get really bad for me."
Keqing cried out desperately inside her heart.
Ganyu, save me already!
Especially when she saw the torn clothes scattered all over the floor, her whole face burned.
What a bad man. He doesn't know the first thing about being gentle.
"Keqing, who told you to provoke me first yesterday?" Ryou opened his eyes and rubbed lightly against her.
"I..." Keqing could not say a word.
Ryou laughed when he saw her like this.
Last night, Critical State had triggered and lasted a long time. In that crazed state, one Keqing had never stood a chance against him to begin with.
And with the damage doubled on top of that, she had even less of one.
Then Ryou remembered that he could now channel spiritual energy through kisses.
So he leaned down and kissed Keqing to help her recover.
"No more..." Keqing quickly pushed at him. "Don't."
She knew exactly what happened every time he started kissing her like this, and she was still aching all over.
"Be good."
Ryou gave her a light smack behind.
"Mmm..." Keqing blinked at him pitifully. "It hurts."
"Then listen to me."
The next second, Ryou kissed her again and slowly fed spiritual energy into her through the kiss.
Under that steady nourishment, Keqing's body gradually recovered.
After a long while, the broken, falling-apart feeling had faded by seven or eight tenths. She was almost back to normal.
She hugged him tightly, a silly little smile spreading across her face.
"Ryou, you're amazing."
"Of course I am." Ryou kissed her lips again, then glanced toward the window. "If I didn't have things to handle today, I'd definitely deal with you properly. First thing in the morning, and you're already tempting me."
"I-I wasn't!" Keqing's face flushed bright red and she puffed up slightly. "You were the one kissing me and messing arou—mmph! Fine, I'm not saying anything."
"Bad man."
"You're still saying it?" Ryou raised a brow.
"Ryou, I'm not saying it anymore." Keqing quickly kissed him on the cheek, then hurriedly changed the subject. "What do you need to handle today?"
"Keqing, did you forget I put out a wanted notice yesterday?"
He pinched her cheek and continued, "I still need to deal with the Mora issue. And there's also the matter involving Kuki Shinobu and the others. That whole mess nearly turned Liyue Harbor upside down."
Then he looked at her seriously.
"You should get moving too. Stop staying at home all day."
"The cemetery and construction layout are your area of expertise. I want you to handle the site planning and memorial grounds properly. You need to take this seriously."
"Got it, Ryou." Keqing clung to him and nodded.
"Also, you still haven't dealt with what you owe me." Ryou stroked her hair and then let his gaze fall to her lips, his eyes heating up again. "Look at the state I'm in. Before I go to the Ministry, help me out a little."
"Mmph... I-I thought you were serious before," Keqing said shyly, tilting her head.
"Refusal denied." Ryou pinched her cheek and pressed her down.
"Mmph!" Keqing rolled her eyes at him.
...
By the time Ryou and Keqing stepped out of the pocket world, the sun was already blazing overhead.
Golden light spilled across the courtyard stones. The pillars and walls shimmered faintly in the heat, and the whole yard looked slightly warped beneath the scorching sunlight.
Ryou glanced up, then turned to Keqing.
"It's been getting a lot hotter in Liyue Harbor lately. Be careful when you're outside. Don't let yourself get sunburned."
"Mm." Keqing's heart warmed. "I spend most of my time outside handling official work anyway, so I'm very careful about protecting myself."
Then she looked at him and asked, "Do I look sunburned anywhere to you?"
"Anywhere?" Ryou looked her over once, then reached out and tapped lightly at her chest. "Right here. There's a spot that looks sunburned. Pretty obvious too. A little raised when you touch it."
"That's not sunburn."
Keqing's whole face reddened again as she turned her head away.
"I'm not talking to you anymore."
"Haha, I'm just teasing you." Ryou pulled her into his arms.
After eating together, the two of them headed for Yujing Terrace.
Ryou went to the temporary office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, while Keqing went off to deal with the cemetery arrangements, so they quickly split up.
When Ryou sat down in his office, the fierce sunlight was pouring straight through the window. The entire room had heated up badly from the direct sun.
He rubbed the sweat from his face and glanced over at the window.
"I really miss air conditioning. Teyvat has nothing like it. Unless you've got a Cryo Vision or something, ordinary people can barely stand this."
Then his eyes lit up.
He had an idea.
He spat out a third stream of qi.
[Qi! – Rapid Cooling]
[Effect: Lowers the temperature within range and keeps the indoor temperature at a comfortable level.]
[Duration: 1 day!]
Ryou stored the qi for the moment, picked up an official file as cover, and walked into the main working area.
"Ryou-sama!"
One of the Ministry workers hurriedly stood up.
Ryou looked over the room, then said to Zhongli, "Close the doors and windows."
Zhongli looked a little stunned.
Everyone was already sweating. If they shut everything up and stopped the airflow, it would only get worse.
The room was already unbearably hot.
"Go on," Ryou said.
So Zhongli reluctantly went and shut everything.
Once the doors and windows were closed, Ryou could clearly see the sweat on everyone's foreheads. Even their breathing had turned heavy from the heat.
"Hot?" Ryou asked.
"Very hot!" several of them answered at once.
Ryou stared at them for a moment, then casually set the official file on the desk.
"This file can solve that problem for you. Believe it or not, in a moment this office won't feel hot at all."
Everyone looked at each other in confusion.
Then Ryou quietly spread the qi across the entire office.
In an instant, the stifling heat vanished.
A coolness spread through the room—not the biting chill of winter wind, but the perfect kind of cool, just enough to make the body relax.
Ryou looked at them and asked, "Tell me. Doesn't it feel better now?"
"It does!"
"This feels amazing!"
...
Zhongli stood there staring at the file on the desk, puzzled.
It looked completely ordinary.
Nothing about it had changed.
So how had the entire office cooled down in an instant?
No matter how much he thought about it, he could not figure out how Ryou had done it.
Ryou glanced at everyone again, then took out a huge bottle of fruit juice and placed it on the table.
"This is fruit juice. A summer special."
Then he added, "If you still can't work properly after being treated this well, then you really don't deserve this kind of benefit. Understood?"
"Understood!"
"Ryou-sama, don't worry, we'll work hard!"
...
Seeing how fired up they were, Ryou nodded and returned to his office.
Only after sitting back down did he open the door again.
These effects really are useful, he thought. At key moments, they can do a lot.
Once seated, Ryou remembered the Fruit Seed Pack he had gotten from Shinobu and thought about opening it to see what kind of seeds were inside.
Just as he was about to check it, the office door opened.
Ningguang walked in alone from outside.
Before Ryou could say anything, she closed the door behind her.
Ryou's brows lifted.
This woman really doesn't learn, does she?
Coming into my office alone is one thing, but locking the door behind her?
What is she even planning now?
[End of chapter]
[200 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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