The man was suddenly taken aback.
In the depth of his ink-dark eyes reflected the dazzling smile of the young girl, it was breathtaking.
He stood quietly, anticipating that she would say "Don’t leave" with overwhelming emotional intelligence.
And this time, Lu Mian seemed to be especially cooperative, her delicate fingers pointing to the room, "Maybe..."
The man agreed while hurriedly reentering the room, fearing that Lu Mian would change her mind.
The girl closed the door, not quite understanding his eagerness.
One arm casually slung behind her head, she spoke with sincerity and without any distraction: "I’ve thought of a new algorithm for exploiting vulnerabilities, Director Qi, accompany me in practicing it."
The genteel man who had been striding toward the bed came to an abrupt halt.
You’re asking me to stay just to, to practice?
Xiao Qimo turned around, silently glancing at the girl who was seriously making her way to the desk, feeling a pang of bitterness.
Great, today, as usual, Lu Mian was full-on with her maverick ways.
He had no choice but to weakly retract his steps toward the big bed and followed her instead.
The man sat down, his gaze falling deeply and darkly on Lu Mian, "Did you ask me in here just to practice?"
Busy typing on the keyboard, Lu Mian took a moment to look up, blinking blankly, "Yes."
Not understanding his frustration, she added, "Because you’re good at it."
"I am quite good at other things, too..." the man murmured.
Lu Mian didn’t catch that, "What?"
"Nothing," Xiao Qimo replied as he typed, "You’ll find out later."
The next day was the final day of the Penguin Wildcard Competition in the Z Country region.
Lu Mian and her group had prepared early, waiting to head to the competition venue together.
Downstairs in the hotel, Mo Nie and Mo Si were switching shifts at the door.
Mo Nie with dark circles under his eyes, was still pinching a deck of playing cards.
"What’s up, Nie? Doubting life?"
Mo Nie nodded, "How did Miss Lu manage the card control?"
Mo Si understood; Nie had been shaken. After all, following Miss Lu, isn’t this all normal? Doubt as you may, you get used to it.
Mo Si didn’t offer any comforting words, just patted Mo Nie heavily on the shoulder.
"Nie, take it easy. There’ll be plenty of days to doubt life!"
Mo Nie wanted to ask more questions, but Mo Si was already running out of patience, "Nie, I’m busy, haven’t clocked in yet today!"
"...Since when do we at Shadow Hunting Team need to clock in?"
Without explanation, Mo Si’s peripheral vision caught sight of Lu Mian exiting the hotel entrance and quickly rushed to her side like lightning.
"Miss Lu, good morning! Let me carry your bag for you!"
Mo Nie, left behind: ...Mo Si is getting more and more like a brown-noser.
He followed slowly behind, joining Lu Mian and Xiao Qimo, saying hello and noticing the red veins in Mr. Mo’s eyes.
"Sir, did you not rest well last night?"
"Busy," Xiao Qimo turned his eyes to Lu Mian.
Mo Nie thought to himself that Mr. Mo had not forgotten his primary job; accompanying Miss Lu during the day, he must have worked on business matters at night. It was quite strenuous.
He took a step closer, earnestly saying: "Mr. Mo, about that business center..."
Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Qimo waved his hand dismissively.
"Just do as you see fit," the lackluster and completely non-ambitious Ah Zi.
When Lu Mian overheard their conversation, she put on her cap and glanced back, as if pondering something, "Does the Xiao Family place great importance on the Jinjing Center business district?"
"Absolutely!" Mo Nie responded eagerly, "It’s just that..." His action wasn’t quick enough, having been preempted.
Especially since it triggered some subtle changes in the entire Jinjing situation.
Thinking small of big, several foreign conglomerate families also began to stir...
Of course, Miss Lu wouldn’t understand these details about the commercial areas even if they were explained to her.
Mo Nie summed it up succinctly, "Missed the right opportunity."
Lu Mian responded thoughtfully with an "Oh," and looked at her watch before bidding farewell to Xiao Qimo.
"Director Xiao, I’m off to the competition," she said.
"Mm, don’t get too wild," Xiao Qimo had to visit the old mansion today for a family matter he couldn’t neglect, so he couldn’t accompany Lu Mian to watch the competition.
Mo Si drove the business vehicle, carrying Lu Mian, Sui Yuan, and five others to the competition venue.
As the largest official CTF competition in the country, it had all the prestige it needed.
The venue was large enough, the equipment sufficiently advanced, and the atmosphere was quite lively.
An hour before the competition was set to start, fans were already queuing up in a long line, waiting to enter.
"Wow, there are so many people... Good thing we came early, otherwise who knows how long we’d have to queue..." Fat Hao sighed.
Wei Qi nodded, "Quick, quick, quick, entrance C has fewer people, let’s line up there!"
Just as Wei Qi was about to lead everyone to checkpoint C, he saw Lu Mian leisurely walking towards the special entryway with not a single fan in sight, just one staff member standing there.
"Lu Mian, not that way—" Wei Qi shouted.
However, after Lu Mian exchanged a few words with the person, she waved at Sui Yuan and the others.
Wei Qi was taken aback, looking back at the long queue forming, then at their own group, he gleefully followed along.
The fans lined up like a giant dragon all showed expressions of immense envy.
"Lu Mian big bro, what’s your relationship with S God? Can you enter without queuing?"
Fat Hao felt that Wei Qi was still naive, "Typical operation, stay calm."
"Yeah, our Bro Mian can manage this just by showing his face, no need to be so surprised!" Shouhao chimed in as well.
The brothers had long developed strong hearts, and even prepared cameras to capture Lu Mian’s highlights at any time.
Showing these photos and videos to Teacher Ding would surely make him happy.
"Oh, oh," Wei Qi nodded, but he was still very curious.
"Big bro, big bro, you’re so familiar with the Shadow Hunting Team, do you know who their female member is? I’ve seen news recently, a reporter mentioned it might be S God’s sister, is that true? It seems her name is something like Lu..."
Wei Qi paused, "Lu Yutian... right, that’s the name I think."
Thus, when he heard Yun Sang calling Lu Mian "sister" last night, he was quite mystified.
Lu Mian’s gaze flickered slightly.
Had Yun Sang found his biological sister?
As Wei Qi prattled on, Lu Mian pursed her lips and remained silent until they reached their viewing area.
The tickets Yun Sang left for her were naturally the best positioned inner field VIP tickets.
The group of six sat down in a rather impressive manner, drawing another wave of envy.
VIP tickets offered close proximity, advantageous viewing positions, and even the chance to interact with team members—it was no wonder they were covetable.
After Lu Mian settled everyone in, she checked the time and saw there was still plenty, "I’ll go to the restroom."