Hearing that Griseo had treated all the Flame-Chasers equally, calling the other Flame-Chasers uncles and aunts, Mobius admitted that the gloom she had felt from originally being called an aunt had lifted considerably.
Especially when she saw the frozen look on Elysia's face.
Her mood improved even more.
"Mm, thank you for your concern."
Mobius honestly expressed her gratitude to the others.
"Klein, see our guests out."
Then she turned around, sat on a floating instrument, and drifted toward the depths of the laboratory.
Watching Mobius's retreating figure, it was obvious that she had no intention of telling anyone what her current 'experiment' actually was.
Before leaving, Kevin spoke to Klein. "Keep a closer eye on Mobius's activities over the next few days."
No matter how recklessly Mobius endangered herself, Kevin wouldn't care. After all, she was Mobius, the one known as the 'Undying.'
However, if her reckless behavior caused problems in the Elysian Realm, which then led to problems for the other Flame-Chasers, that was something Kevin couldn't tolerate.
"If anything goes wrong..." Kevin paused. "Contact me immediately."
"Me, me, me! Don't forget me, either!"
Elysia, who had been eavesdropping nearby, raised her arm high, indicating that she also needed to be notified. Klein nodded at Kevin.
After thinking for a moment, she also nodded at Elysia, who was still waving her arm.
After closing the laboratory door, Klein glanced toward the depths of the laboratory where Mobius had disappeared, then silently went back to her own work.
'I have a feeling the Doctor is in a pretty good mood... Is it just my imagination...'
———
Night passed quickly. Levi still hadn't found a suitable building to use as a laboratory, so he had no choice but to seek help from Qingque, a local born and raised here.
Following his hazy memories, he found Qingque grinning foolishly inside a mahjong parlor. Without saying a word, Levi went straight up to her and slapped her twice.
Smack! Smack!
"[Xianzhou profanity]!"
Qingque's eyes immediately cleared up quite a bit. She widened them and glared at Levi, berating him, "You little secretary! How dare you hit your own boss!"
"Don't you want to keep your job?! Don't you want your salary?!"
"?"
Levi tilted his head and looked at the furious Qingque. He rubbed his fists together.
"Your butt itching?"
"No, it isn't."
Looking at the red-eyed Wisp beside Levi, Qingque immediately realized something. With an utterly sincere expression, she declared that her butt wasn't itchy in the slightest.
"When did you get possessed?"
"I don't remember."
Qingque scratched her head. All she remembered was getting so frustrated after losing at mahjong that she wanted to call Levi over so they could lose together.
She couldn't remember anything that had happened after that.
Levi played with the Wisp in his hand as if it were a ball. If he remembered correctly, Qingque had been possessed by the Wisp several days ago. In other words, she'd spent all those days inside the mahjong parlor.
"And they actually didn't kick you out?"
"They wouldn't dare!"
For once, Qingque was surprisingly assertive about this matter.
As the person who had recreated the Celestial Jade mahjong tiles, even if she treated this place as her home and lived here, the people managing the mahjong parlor wouldn't dare do anything to her.
Grrr...
Qingque's expression changed. She clutched her stomach, her face scrunching up.
"I'm so hungry..."
After breaking free from the hallucinations, the effects of going several days without food immediately caught up with her body.
Qingque was now exhausted, hungry, and thirsty.
Seeing that she looked as though she were about to die, Levi found some food for her right there in the mahjong parlor.
After licking the bowl clean, she used her small, pink tongue to lick both corners of her mouth.
Then she looked at Levi.
"You want to buy a high-rise building in the Sky-Faring Commission's Changletian?"
"What for?"
'To raise pigs?'
Qingque blinked. Why was Levi suddenly thinking about starting another business?
She knew that the business he'd previously set up, the agency, hadn't made any progress, even though the Divination Commission hadn't held him accountable for the break-in.
He hadn't completed a single decent commission.
On this point, Levi had something to say, too.
"They all want Jing Yuan's stinky boots! Even if I emptied Jing Yuan's entire house, I still wouldn't be able to satisfy them all!", Levi complained.
The commissions had been weird before, but not this weird.
Most of them had been requests from women, such as wanting the stinky boots of that general from the Xianzhou Yaoqing, or even the fur from someone's tail.
Now, however, every single request was for Jing Yuan.
And every account had been verified as belonging to a man.
If they were women, Levi wouldn't have reacted so strongly. After all, women made up no small proportion of the pervert population, either.
But they were all men...
'Bro... Are you serious?'
'Jing Yuan, the number one pick on must-eat list, huh?'
"Listen here."
The diviner Qingque put her genius brain to work and started giving Levi advice.
"Since they want them, just give them what they want. But only put one pair up for sale every so often. List it online and let them bid for it."
Whoever offered the highest commission would get Jing Yuan's stinky boots.
"That's illegal!"
'Girl, are you trying to get me thrown in jail?'
"If it weren't illegal, would you do it?"
Qingque looked at him in confusion.
'For f*ck's sake, how many illegal things had Levi done already?'
Strictly speaking, the commotion he'd caused among the Vidyadhara last time had also been illegal. Yet Levi hadn't gone to jail over it.
The only time he'd actually been locked up was when he'd performed street acrobatics with Guinaifen.
"..."
Levi fell silent, then gave Qingque a thumbs-up.
That hit right where it hurt.
'F*ck Jing Yuan! F*ck the Luofu General!'
'I'll do it tonight!'
'By tomorrow morning, not a single pair of his stinky boots will be left!'
'He'll have to go to work barefoot!'
Levi said so himself.
"Just don't steal all of them. Take one or two pairs."
If only one or two pairs went missing, Jing Yuan would just assume he'd forgotten where he'd put them. Given enough time, he'd gradually forget about it.
There wouldn't be any suspicion at all.
"If you're still worried about getting caught, you can get an identical pair of shoes and swap them out."
After all, the commission specifically asked for 'Jing Yuan's stinky boots.' Just replace them with a new pair, and wouldn't that solve the problem?
That way, there'd be no need to worry about getting caught, either.
Levi gave the wise Qingque an OK sign, indicating that he'd understood. He was planning to replace Jing Yuan's stinky boots with the PROMAX Ultimate Upgrade Edition.
He'd let Jing Yuan experience what it meant to feel like he was stepping in shit.
Looking at Levi's incredibly wise expression, Kiana would have thought that he'd been possessed by Theresa in reverse if she'd seen him.
Qingque waved her hand in front of his face.
"Have you lost your mind?"
"You're the one who's lost your mind."
Hearing Qingque's words, Levi rolled his eyes at her.
"Back to the point. Do you have any recommendations for where I should buy a building?"
"You're still not giving up on your pig-raising plan?"
Qingque earnestly advised him, "Listen to me. The pork market hasn't been looking very promising lately. If you want to raise something, I'd recommend raising something else."
"Then what do you think I should raise?"
"Me."
"..."
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
"I'm looking for the air conditioner switch in this mahjong parlor. The temperature seems a little too low."
Their long-awaited bickering finally came to an end.
Levi tapped Qingque on the forehead.
"Seriously, I want a building for something other than raising pigs... Anyway, you'll understand when the time comes."
He then told Qingque what he needed from the building.
Qingque tilted her head.
Levi's requirements were simple. There was only one: it had to be secluded.
However, in a technologically advanced civilization like the Luofu, every single place was put to full use. There were almost no secluded places left.
But...
"Why do you need somewhere so secluded?"
'Are you planning to hold a ******** behind my back?'
Speaking of which, Qingque had always felt that Levi smelled a little strange.
'The scent of a woman.'
"..."