pjbooks Chapter 293 Hot Pot!
Chapter 293 Hot Pot!
Nie Xiaorou took selfies in the back seat the whole way while wearing those silver star earrings, and Zhang Yan didn't say a word.
He was thinking about that smile.
Su Wanqing's face, with her lips stretched to the limit, resembled a piece of paper that had been forcibly folded.
That's an expression that humans don't have, yet it's on a human face.
"For every one you kill, a wisp of energy returns to me."
Zhang Yan's fingers gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
From Changbai Mountain to the East China Sea, from the Golden Triangle to the isolated island, and then to Jinghai Port last night—how many have he killed along the way?
Hellhound, Slit-Mouthed One, Abyssal Beast, Abyssal Devouring Toad, that S-class nest core, fourteen B-class pollutants... With each victory, he thought he was weakening the power of the Ruins.
The result was that I was feeding it.
The absorption efficiency of the Heart of Heaven is not 100%.
He absorbed most of it, but there were always some scattered bits of energy that dissipated in the air, soil, and seawater. He also recycled all the scraps that he couldn't reach.
This war was never fair from the start.
The more he wins, the stronger the Ruins become.
"Brother-in-law, have we arrived yet?"
Nie Xiaorou leaned over the back of the front seat and peeked out.
"arrive."
Zhang Yan parked the car in the garage, his expression returning to normal.
Nie Xiaorou jumped out of the car and ran into the house, while Zhang Yan took out a supermarket bag from the trunk.
Beef tripe, duck intestines, beef aorta, freshly sliced beef and mutton, a basket of vegetables, and two bottles of iced Fanta.
He had already made his decision while he was at the supermarket.
It's not that we won't kill them.
It's about changing the method of killing.
……
Nie Qingcheng returned earlier than expected.
When she entered, Zhang Yan was already in the kitchen frying the base ingredients. The Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilies burst in the hot oil, releasing a pungent aroma that made Nie Xiaorou run to the balcony.
"So spicy?"
Nie Qingcheng changed into slippers and walked in, peeking into the pot.
"Didn't you say you wanted it spicy?"
Did I say that?
"Last Tuesday at 9:47 p.m., you were lying on the sofa scrolling through your phone and said, 'I really want to eat a hot pot that's both spicy and numbing.'"
Nie Qingcheng was stunned for a moment, then reached out and pinched his ear.
Why do you remember it so clearly?
"Habit."
Nie Qingcheng snorted, wrapped her arms around his waist from behind, and rested her chin on his shoulder.
"What's wrong today?"
Zhang Yan paused his stir-frying for a fraction of a second.
"Nothing much."
"Who are you kidding?" Nie Qingcheng's voice was very low, only the two of them could hear it. "The lines between your eyebrows haven't relaxed since you came back."
Zhang Yan did not respond.
"We'll talk about it tonight."
He only said those three words.
Nie Qingcheng released her hand and stopped asking questions, then turned to set the table in the dining room.
When the hot pot started cooking, Nie Xiaorou had already forgotten all the unpleasantness. She dipped the tripe into the spicy broth for a full thirty seconds before Zhang Yan tapped her chopsticks—"Seven dips up, eight dips down, you're cooking old leather shoes."
"Tch, I just like it old."
Nie Qingcheng sat to Zhang Yan's right, barely touching her own chopsticks, but instead putting slices of cooked duck intestines into Zhang Yan's bowl.
"You eat yours," Zhang Yan said to her.
You've lost weight.
"You say so too."
"I'm stating a fact." Nie Qingcheng squinted at him. "Your cheekbones are at least two millimeters more prominent than they were a week ago."
"Have you measured it?"
"Measured with the eyes."
Nie Xiaorou rolled her eyes at the person opposite her: "Can you stop showing off? I'm still eating."
"You keep eating your old leather shoes." Nie Qingcheng didn't even glance at her.
Nie Xiaorou angrily stuffed a large piece of beef into her mouth.
Zhang Yan's lips twitched slightly.
This hot pot meal lasted almost two hours.
Nie Xiaorou started yawning in the second half of the story and was told by Nie Qingcheng to go upstairs to sleep.
As she reached the top of the stairs, she turned back and called out, "Brother-in-law, take me to the beach tomorrow."
"Check the weather."
The weather forecast says tomorrow will be sunny.
"I said it depends on my mood."
Nie Xiaorou made a face and ran upstairs.
The door upstairs is closed.
The living room fell silent.
Zhang Yan poured out the hot pot broth, put the bowls and chopsticks into the dishwasher, dried his hands, and sat down on the sofa.
Nie Qingcheng had changed into her light-colored silk pajamas and was sitting cross-legged on the other side of the sofa, holding a glass of red wine in her hand.
She didn't urge her.
Zhang Yan leaned back on the sofa, looked up at the ceiling, and remained silent for about ten seconds.
"This afternoon, Xu came to see me."
Nie Qingcheng paused, her hand holding the wine glass still.
"Clone".
Zhang Yan said.
"Xiao Rou didn't know it was in the top-floor parking lot of the mall."
"When?"
"The ten minutes I went out to 'answer the phone'."
Nie Qingcheng put down the wine glass; the wine swayed slightly but didn't spill.
"What did it say?"
Zhang Yan repeated what Xu had said verbatim.
Not a single word was omitted.
Including the line, "For every one you kill, a wisp of energy returns to me."
The air in the living room has changed.
There was no fear on Nie Qingcheng's face.
It's cold.
That kind of pure coldness that Zhang Yan rarely showed, a coldness that she only revealed when facing business rivals.
"It's provoking you."
Zhang Yan shook his head.
"This is not a provocation, it's a fact."
"The absorption rate of the Heart of Heaven cannot be 100%; there will always be some energy dissipation."
"I used to think that the energy would dissipate naturally, but now it seems that the Ruins have a way to remotely recover it."
Nie Qingcheng thought for a moment: "Could we increase the absorption rate?"
"Yes, but it requires a higher degree of perfection from the Heart of Heaven."
Zhang Yan stretched out his hand, and the system panel unfolded in the void.
The blue interface that only he could see floated in the dark living room.
"Currently, it's 71%, and the absorption rate is around 85%."
"To achieve 100% absorption, the completeness must be at least 90% or more."
"How to improve?"
"Create the Azure Dragon."
Nie Qingcheng frowned: "Don't you already have the blueprints for the Azure Dragon?"
"We have the blueprints, but the materials are the same."
Zhang Yan swiped the panel and brought up the Azure Dragon's manufacturing list.
The last line is highlighted in red: "Spatial Folding Module - Core Medium: Void Crystal".
I don't have access to this product.
Zhang Yan stared at the line of red text.
"The information in the system is also incomplete; it only has a description, but no place of origin coordinates."
Nie Qingcheng looked at his profile and lowered her voice: "Were you planning to attack me in the parking lot this afternoon?"
Zhang Yan paused for a moment.
"I thought about it, but it was no use."
"Killing the clone is pointless; the energy will still flow back."
"And...it's right."
"Thirty thousand years ago, the Mo family's mechanical array stretched from the horizon to the other side, and it was crushed just like that."
"so?"
"Therefore, we cannot rely solely on brute force."
Zhang Yan turned off the panel and turned to look at Nie Qingcheng.
"I need a way to seal off all of the Void's energy at once when it descends—not kill it, but seal it. So that it doesn't even have a chance to dissipate."