Night fell once more, and the city lights bloomed again in the darkness.
At the top of Qianchi Tower, in the vice president's office.
The first time Lin Mo had come to his sister's office, he'd been genuinely stunned.
Judging by sheer floor space, this "office" could easily be converted into a normal full-sized apartment.
On area alone, it was already twice the size of the apartments where David and Hiro Kitagawa lived, and the interior was remarkably open.
Just to create that sense of spaciousness, most of the floor had been deliberately left empty.
Furniture was sparse: a bookshelf, a desk, a counter along the wall—
and in the center, a sofa and a glass coffee table.
Now, Lin Mo was sitting quietly on that sofa.
In front of him, on the delicate glass tabletop, several plates of food had been laid out.
Steam still curled faintly off the dishes—they'd clearly just come out of the microwave.
Across from him, in home clothes, Xu Wanxue and Liu Ruoying watched him with eager eyes—
like parents staring at a piglet they desperately hoped would grow into a dragon.
And yes, right now, Lin Mo really did feel like a pampered pet pig.
The two seemed terrified he might starve, so they'd gone to great lengths to pile up food and urge him to finish it.
"Tonight's late-night snack is just this," Xu said gently.
"You just had cyberware surgery today. You need to make up for what your body used up."
She ladled him a bowl of soup with careful grace and passed the porcelain bowl to him.
It was hard to imagine that he was still in a corporate office—
the atmosphere felt more like dinner at home.
Seeing the spread on the table, Lin Mo couldn't help thinking that the internal perks at this company were a bit too good.
But he knew this kind of benefit existed only because his sister wore the title Vice President.
"We just finished dinner not long ago, though…" Lin Mo muttered in defeat.
Today, from morning until noon, then from noon until now, after he'd gone out to deal with that assassin squad,
he hadn't left Qianchi once.
The whole day had given him the faint illusion of being under house arrest—
but, in fairness, his gains for the day were massive.
[System notice: among current reading apps, "huanyuanapp" has the most complete TTS voices, integrates four major synthesis engines, over 100 voices, and supports offline reading.]
He hadn't just installed the Qianchi Mk.4 Sandevistan—
he'd also slotted in three top-grade cooling modules.
From here on out, he basically never needed to worry about his speedware again.
Of course, getting the Mk.4 was something to be happy about.
But for a variety of reasons, Xu had also used him as a guinea pig.
From noon until evening, he'd gone almost nonstop through one test battery after another.
He was exhausted.
Still, it was his sister asking, so Lin Mo hadn't dared refuse.
And honestly, getting a top-tier Sandevistan for free was a massive win.
In game terms, just buying this implant alone would've required the player character to grind who knows how many gigs—
jobs, clean-up work, toilet runs—just to scrape together the eddies.
That was why, even though the process had been grueling, Lin Mo had pushed through to the end.
To reward his hard work, the two women had personally cooked a whole array of nutritious "body-recovery" food for him—
they were one step short of just feeding him by hand.
Ingredients and cooking equipment weren't a problem; Qianchi had its own cafeteria and chefs.
The tricky part had been how to cook dinner without drawing attention.
After all, as vice president, Xu had to consider her dignity.
So the job fell to Liu Ruoying.
Since she worked at Kang Tao's building and barely knew anyone inside Qianchi, she didn't care about her image here.
So, resigning herself to her fate, she'd gone down to the cafeteria, borrowed some kitchenware, and set up a private little cooking station in the VP office just for Lin Mo.
Since it was something they'd done with good intentions,
even though he didn't fully understand why,
Lin Mo had tried his best not to waste anything and forced down the entire meal.
The taste was… passable.
The ingredients were expensive and nourishing, sure,
but the cooking itself left much to be desired.
Lin Mo once again savored that familiar charm of scorched charcoal.
He'd thought the nightmare was over.
But he'd never imagined there would still be a late-night supper waiting for him.
"Sure, we ate dinner," Xu said patiently.
"But you've done so much today. Eating four times in one day is fine once in a while—
consider it compensation for all the energy you spent."
She lifted a pair of chopsticks, picked up a large drumstick, and dropped it onto his plate.
"I really do feel like a pig being fattened," Lin Mo finally said out loud.
But his body was honest—he still ate the chicken.
"Then just suffer and be a pig for a bit," Liu said cheerfully.
"Come on, try my tonic soup. I put in a lot of stamina tonics—
wait, no, I mean a lot of kidney-nourishing herbal medicine.
It'll keep you vigorous all night."
Lin Mo's hand froze mid-motion.
For a moment, he felt an overwhelming urge to escape via bathroom break.
Just then, a call came through—
saving him like a divine intervention.
"I've got a call. I'll take it in the bathroom. You two eat first."
Before either woman could react, Lin Mo pointed at his own eyes, the orange glow in his irises flaring up to show he wasn't lying,
then bolted from the office, leaving them staring at each other.
In the restroom, Lin Mo quietly exhaled and accepted the call.
["Moshi moshi, Lin-kun?"]
The voice on the other end carried a heavy Japanese flavor.
"Yeah, it's me. What's up, Hiro?"
Lin Mo leaned back against the wall, looking at the brightly lit restroom.
The mirror on the wall reflected half his profile.
["Nothing urgent," Hiro Kitagawa said sincerely.
"It's just… yesterday, Lin-kun brought me to the company plaza and then sent me back alone in the car.
I knew you must've had a reason for it, but I'm too dull to figure out what you were planning.
So I thought I'd call and ask."]
"Ah, that's on me. I've been too busy and forgot to call you back," Lin Mo said, a hint of embarrassment on his face.
"Yeah, it was something urgent I had to deal with, but it's all resolved now. Nothing for you to worry about.
Anyway, how are things on your side? Maine and Jackie—are they enjoying themselves?"
He shifted the topic smoothly.
Last night, when he'd rushed to the plaza, he'd realized it still wasn't the right time for Hiro to find out about his real identity.
So after they'd arrived, he'd had Hiro drive the Excalibur back alone.
Poor wage slave—
seeing his boss that worked up, he'd been ready to go all-out in some huge job…
And in the end, what did he do?
Played chauffeur and drove the car home.
But it couldn't be helped.
What happened today wasn't something an outsider like Hiro could get involved in.
["Maine and Jackie had a great time last night," Hiro said.
"Today they stayed at the workshop and helped out a lot. In the evening we all had dinner together again, then everyone went home.
But with you being out of contact all day, everyone was worried.
Miss Sasha, little Rebecca, and Miss Lucy all asked me about you."]
"Huh? Why are they all women? Maine and Jackie didn't ask about me?" Lin Mo asked, baffled.
["Uh… they did," Hiro replied, a bit stunned Lin Mo had picked up on that. ]**
"That's more like it.
I'd hate to think my relationship with them is worse than with a few girls," Lin Mo said with a relaxed smile.
Hiro sighed silently to himself and didn't argue.
["Since you're fine, I can report back and set their minds at ease.
In that case, I won't bother you anymore, Lin-kun.
If anything comes up, you can call me anytime."]
"Bye."
Lin Mo hung up cleanly.
The call ended, but he still didn't feel like going back out just yet.
After thinking for a moment, he decided to make use of the time in the washroom to burn today's Simulator run.
Thanks to how conveniently the Simulator could be summoned, he casually opened the cabinet where the towels were kept, took the device out, and was just about to put it on—
When a notification flashed across his agent.
He opened it, and his gaze sharpened slightly.
[Regina: I think I've found who was pulling the strings behind that other armed crew from the other night.
If you're interested, give me a call—we can talk details.]
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