pjbooks Chapter 323: The Result Is Different!
Chapter 323: The Result Is Different!
The noodles were ready at 1:40 a.m.
Zhang Yan came out of the kitchen carrying two bowls of noodles—one bowl of clear broth dragon beard noodles with two poached eggs, and the other bowl of hot and sour beef noodles.
Nie Qingcheng was already leaning against the dining table waiting. He had taken off his coat and was wearing his gray hoodie underneath, with the sleeves extending a bit and half of his fingers sticking out from the cuffs.
She paused for a moment when she took the bowl.
"When did you buy the spicy and sour beef sauce?"
"Last week, it was placed on the third shelf of the refrigerator, on the left."
"How come I didn't see it?"
"You never look at the left side of the third floor."
Nie Qingcheng wanted to retort, but opened her mouth briefly and then closed it.
It seems so.
She lowered her head and ate her noodles.
Zhang Yan sat opposite her, eating while watching her.
Her hair was casually tied into a low ponytail, and she wasn't wearing makeup. The beauty mark under her eye was very noticeable under the warm kitchen light.
My lips are a little dry, probably from being in the wind at the dock for too long.
"What are you looking at?" Nie Qingcheng asked without looking up.
"Look, you've lost weight again."
Nie Qingcheng swallowed a mouthful of noodles and stirred the contents of the bowl with her chopsticks. "I haven't lost weight."
"You can even put a coin on your collarbone now."
"That's because I was born with a good bone structure."
Zhang Yan didn't say anything, put down his chopsticks, got up and went to the kitchen to cut another half of an apple.
Push it in front of her.
Nie Qingcheng glanced at the apple, then at Zhang Yan.
He put down his chopsticks, picked up a piece, and took a bite.
"The noodles are delicious."
"Um."
"Add more spice next time if you want it spicy and sour."
"You have a bad stomach."
"Mind your own business."
She said those words three times tonight.
Zhang Yan no longer responds to such remarks.
After finishing her noodles, Nie Qingcheng pushed the bowl aside, crossed her legs on the chair, and curled up into a ball.
"Speak."
"What did you say?"
"What did you see at the bottom of the sea?"
Zhang Yan looked at her.
"You've said twenty-three sentences since you boarded the car at the dock, nineteen of which were roundabout." Nie Qingcheng rested her chin on her knees. "Aren't you going to tell me the final thing?"
Zhang Yan thought for a moment.
"I witnessed the process of the Mo family sealing the Ruins 30,000 years ago."
Nie Qingcheng didn't move.
"The four spirits unleashed their power simultaneously, and the Heavenly Craftsmanship was fully activated, tearing through dimensions to stuff the Void inside." Zhang Yan's tone was calm. "The price was the complete destruction of the Mohist civilization on the spot."
Nie Qingcheng's eyelashes trembled slightly.
"So you're planning to do the same thing now."
It is not a question.
"The outcome will be different," Zhang Yan said.
"Why is it different?"
"Back then, the four spirits were fixed at the four corners of the city and couldn't move."
"The one who operates the Heart of Heaven must stand on the high tower in the center of the city, completely exposed."
"There is also no neural synchronization or multi-body coordinated command."
He counted them off one by one on his fingers.
"Now my four spirits can move and can be remotely controlled in real time."
"The precision of the dimensional rift opening is at least two orders of magnitude higher than it was 30,000 years ago—Qinglong's spatial folding module was assembled by me according to the latest parameters, not an antique."
"The energy output method of the Heart of Heaven is also different. I have a purification pulse, which can directly weaken the energy concentration of the Ruins at close range."
Nie Qingcheng listened quietly.
"The most important point," Zhang Yan said, "is that the Mohists 30,000 years ago were on the defensive. The Ruins suddenly descended, and they had no time to prepare."
"I had more than seven months to prepare."
The living room was quiet.
The sound of airflow from the heating system.
The refrigerator compressor makes a low-frequency humming sound.
Then Nie Qingcheng said something.
What you're saying are all technical matters.
Zhang Yan stopped.
"Those people from 30,000 years ago also had technology," Nie Qingcheng said softly. "They had a complete Heavenly Craftsmanship Heart, a complete civilization system, and countless craftsmen and soldiers. They had everything, yet in the end, they all died."
She looked up at Zhang Yan.
Under the lights, her eyes were bright, not the sharp brightness she usually displayed at board meetings, but a different kind of brightness.
You are all alone.
Zhang Yan did not answer immediately.
He stood up, walked to Nie Qingcheng, squatted down, and looked her straight in the eye.
"I said I would come back."
"You said the same thing last time. And the time before that."
"When have you ever not come back?"
Nie Qingcheng bit her lip.
"It's not that I don't believe you." Her voice finally showed a slight inflection, not much, but it was noticeable. "I just—"
She didn't finish speaking.
Zhang Yan reached out and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.
My fingers slid down my earlobe to my chin and lifted it slightly.
"Wait until I buy the ring."
Nie Qingcheng blinked.
"What?"
"52 millimeters, I haven't forgotten."
Nie Qingcheng stared at him for three seconds.
He chuckled.
It wasn't her usual elegant and restrained smile; it was a smile she couldn't quite hold back.
Her nose wrinkled, her eyes curved upwards, and the beauty mark under her eye twitched.
"Are you telling me about the end of the world 30,000 years ago, and then suddenly you switch to a ring?"
"Um."
"Are you out of your mind?"
"That's a possibility."
Nie Qingcheng laughed for a few seconds, then stopped and flicked his forehead.
"Go take a shower. The rusty smell is awful."
Zhang Yan stood up and walked towards the bathroom.
"Zhang Yan." Her voice came from behind.
He turned around.
Nie Qingcheng was still sitting cross-legged on the chair. Her gray hoodie was two sizes too big, and the collar was askew, revealing a small part of her shoulder.
"52 millimeters. Not a millimeter off."
"it is good."
"I'll go tomorrow."
Zhang Yan looked at her earnest, hoarse face with slightly reddened eyes and nodded.
The bathroom door was closed.
He stood against the wall for a while as the hot water was poured down.
The image in my mind was of Tiangong City crashing 30,000 years ago.
The city was falling, its fragments scattering in all directions, and the dark red crack in the sky was slowly healing.
Then the screen changes.
It turned into the face that Nie Qingcheng had just burst out laughing.
His nose wrinkled slightly.
Zhang Yan turned the hot water down a bit and rubbed his face with the shower gel.
The rusty smell is indeed quite strong.
When she came out, Nie Qingcheng was already in bed, the blanket pulled up to her chin, only her eyes and forehead were showing.
Zhang Yan lifted a corner of the blanket and lay down, and she immediately rolled over and pressed her whole body against him.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest.
He didn't say anything.
Zhang Yan put his arm around her and gently patted her back with one hand.
"Do you have to go to work tomorrow?" he asked.
"I've taken leave." A muffled voice came from his chest.
"When did you invite him?"
"When you sent the message saying it was time."
Zhang Yan paused for a moment.
She had already decided not to go to the company the next day while she was waiting for him at the dock.
He didn't say anything more, but gently patted her back.
Nie Qingcheng's breathing gradually became even.
Before falling asleep, she mumbled something.
"Your palms are so hot..."
The sound grew fainter and fainter, and then it disappeared.
Zhang Yan looked down at her.
When he's asleep, his brows are relaxed, unlike when he's awake and always has a sharp look on them.
Lips slightly parted, breathing evenly.
I'm going to be late again this morning.
It doesn't matter if I take leave.
Zhang Yan closed his eyes. The system panel was still quietly lit up in the corner of his field of vision.
Countdown: Seven months and twenty-three days.
Completeness of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart: 93%.
The Four Symbols—White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Azure Dragon—are waiting in the storage space.
Xuanwu is on standby at low power in the East Sea ruins, ready to be summoned at any time.
Next step: Takehiko Ito.
The next step—
He looked down at the person in his arms.
—Buy a ring.
The phone screen lit up briefly on the bedside table, then went dark again.
It was an encrypted message sent by Qin Xiao.
"The analysis of the 1200-degree heat source data from Yokosuka is in—the spectral characteristics match the peak body temperature of the Ruins' Familiar by 83%. Itoh's two 'non-human' subordinates might not be two. There might be three."
Zhang Yan didn't move.
He saw it, but now is not the time to deal with it.
Nie Qingcheng turned over in his arms, her fingers unconsciously gripping the hem of his clothes.
It was gripped quite tightly.
Zhang Yan flipped his phone over so the screen was facing down.
He closed his eyes.
Thirty thousand years ago, those craftsmen risked their lives to seal the Ruins into a dimensional rift.
They knew they wouldn't be coming back, but they did it anyway.
He would do the same thing.
But he plans to come back.