The Celestial Jade Tower pierced the sea of clouds at floor 999. Stepping into Qingque's office, they were met with a holographic cascade of light — a galaxy of stars pouring down in reverse from a star-chart dome overhead.
The long conference table gleamed with a warm, lustrous radiance. Holographic business proposals floated in the form of jade silk scrolls, data runes flowing across their surfaces in glittering crimson-gold script.
A young woman in magnificent blue robes sat in the carved nephrite master's chair, her soft pale fingers idly toying with a Celestial Jade tile engraved with the character '福'.
Along both sides of the table, her subordinates held holographic Jade Abacuses and were each pitching their ideas.
"Our operations department is planning to introduce more monetization dimensions for Celestial Jade! We intend to create customizable paid content for the card backs, the tables, and the players themselves! The current payment model is far too one-dimensional—"
Jing Yuan in a business suit, rapping his knuckles against the table, was pitching hard.
"President Qing, take a look! The R&D department fully understands that players dislike the back-and-forth turn-based format, so this old man has designed a real-time tile-throwing combat mode — I call it: Celestial Jade Conquest!"
A white-bearded old man tapped at the projection — the former general of the Zhuming Xianzhou, now Creative Vice Director of the R&D Department, Huaiyan — presenting his department's concept.
"I keep telling you to look at the feedback! Last week's test server retention rates——"
Phantylia, flipping through reports.
Like a mahjong table boiling over with argument, the clatter of jade tokens and the click of counting rods filled the air. The young woman in magnificent blue showed the faintest trace of impatience.
The elevator chimed softly and slid open.
"Damn, President Qing's morning meeting is really popping off."
Stelle hugged her snack bag, scooped out a handful and stuffed it in her mouth, crunching away contentedly.
"She's even got a Lord Ravager on the payroll?"
The snacks had been swiped from a passing employee on the way up. But this was a mental illusory realm anyway — how was that any different from being back in a wholesome, law-abiding Luofu neighborhood? Stelle made herself right at home, the picture of a model citizen.
"This place looks really familiar somehow."
Caelus scanned the room with curious eyes.
"A bit like the Seat of Divine Foresight. Also a bit like the Divination Commission. And that layout over there feels a bit like the Hall of Timekeeping."
March 7th scratched her head.
Fu Xuan's real self had been black-faced this entire time, clearly grinding her teeth.
After Dream-Fu Xuan had asked Caelus whether he required bedside attendance, Fu Xuan had curiously inquired about the current state of the Divination Commission. Dream-Fu Xuan had answered as follows:
"The Divination Commission… has been renamed the Celestial Jade Commission. Everyone is using Celestial Jade tiles for divination now — far more accurate than the Matrix of Prescience."
"I was laid off as a result. Fortunately, Lady Qingque is magnanimous and holds no grudges — she gave me a sinecure so I can just barely scrape by. Bless President Qing!"
Hearing this, Fu Xuan's lungs nearly exploded — again.
However, when she saw Jing Yuan, Phantylia, and the other department managers swiping through reports on data terminals to present to President Qing — something about the smoldering anger that had been building inside her all this time inexplicably dimmed.
In a corporation, doesn't the president's personal secretary generally have closer access than any department manager…?
Pfft!
Why on earth was she making that comparison?!
Fu Xuan pressed both hands to her temples and looked at Dream-Fu Xuan with a question: "Jing Yuan? General Huaiyan? And why is Phantylia here too?!"
"Manager Jing Yuan spotted the potential of the Celestial Jade Group early on — he resigned his general's post in President Qing's first month of operations and became the Group's great champion in the Operations Department! General Huaiyan's situation is similar."
Dream-Fu Xuan then pointed to Phantylia:
"As for Lord Ravager… ah, Manager Phantylia — moved by President Qing's personal charisma, she led the Antimatter Legion to leave the dark side and join the light. She's director of the Creative Content Department. President Qing originally considered putting her in charge of Logistics and Transport, but after thinking it over decided Feixiao would be a better fit for that."
"Our Celestial Jade Group has its own manufacturing plants and courier service. The Voidrangers have been assigned to the assembly lines, manufacturing Celestial Jade tiles in the factory, while the Tramplers handle delivery — ensuring tiles are safely dispatched to customers the moment an order is placed."
Listening to Dream-Fu Xuan's explanation, not only did the real Fu Xuan stand there completely stunned — March 7th wore the exact same blank, slack-jawed expression.
Stelle's hand froze mid-reach into her snack bag. Potato chip crumbs scattered to the floor.
"My absolute Queen, President Qing!"
"She's really made it big, hasn't she!"
"How come she never kicked Nanook off his throne?"
Dream-Fu Xuan answered earnestly: "President Qing made her decision after the last meeting. She has already issued an order directing the Group's affiliated members of the Genius Society to contact the Aeons and discuss a promotional partnership for Celestial Jade."
March 7th: "..."
Fu Xuan: "..."
Caelus's expression became rather complicated. "May I ask what kind of partnership arrangement we're talking about?"
"When an Aeon delivers their gaze of guidance to a Path's Pathstrider, they will incorporate Celestial Jade advertisements into the vision itself — and their divine forms will also be fitted with Celestial Jade signage."
Dream-Fu Xuan answered obediently.
Stelle: "6."
Caelus: "6."
Fu Xuan, at this moment, returned to a kind of primal calm. All happiness is relative. She found she no longer had any complaints whatsoever about being reduced to a little secretary in Qingque's mental illusion.
Even the Aeons had to run ads. What could she possibly say?
Why not ride the wind when it rises, and soar a full ninety thousand li?
She had already soared. Relatively speaking.
March 7th quipped: "I have never been so vividly aware that I'm inside a dream."
The group walked toward the work area, stepping through the cascade of star-chart light.
Caelus stopped Dream-Fu Xuan before she could go file a report, and stepped forward: "Am I interrupting at a bad time?"
"No — you've come at exactly the right time!"
Qingque's eyes lit up the instant she heard his voice. She snapped her head up, rose from the master's chair, spread her arms wide open toward Caelus, and made an unmistakable come-hug-me gesture.
Jing Yuan, Huaiyan, Phantylia, and the others on both sides of the long table went instantly quiet, each one dutifully dropping their gaze to their reports. The scene made Fu Xuan's eye twitch violently.
Caelus strode forward. Qingque's words made Stelle's DNA vibrate at full resonance — she spread her arms wide in the exact same fashion.
Qingque's hair grazed against Caelus's chest. Stelle buried her head between the shoulders of the two of them. Caelus slung an arm around both their shoulders.
All three were holding each other at the same time, and for a moment it was impossible to tell who exactly was holding whom.
It was, at first glance, a heartwarming scene — one that caused March 7th's expression to gradually shift into the classic Uncle Yang / Express / smartphone face.
Suddenly, the girl in blue lifted her head from the embrace and blinked her jade-green eyes as though a thought had just occurred to her: "We need a fourth~"
"Sister Xuan, come here."
Qingque beckoned with a wave.
"Huh?"
March 7th's mouth formed a perfect O, her voice a breathless, disbelieving squeak.
Three players, one short — she actually said three players, one short?!
Is that even the right expression for this kind of situation?!
Fu Xuan's expression went rigid at the exact same moment. Just as she was drawing breath to deliver a sharp reprimand—
"Yes, Qingque."
Dream-Fu Xuan gave a meek little nod like an obedient secretary, her white cloud-patterned silk robes carrying her in small, bashful steps toward Qingque and Caelus, where she extended her slender pale hands — smooth as finest jade — and joined the group hug.
As if to prove that the most stable shape was not the triangle, but the four sides of a Celestial Jade mahjong table.
Watching this, Fu Xuan's expression began to develop a mild but unmistakable twitch. She simply could not comprehend it!
This must be a dream!
Oh — it is, in fact, a dream.
After a brief hug, Qingque suddenly turned her head: "The ideas Manager Jing Yuan put forward just now were all excellent! Absolutely perfect — I believe it won't be long before even the Baviluans fall in love with Celestial Jade."
"Manager Huaiyan, Phantylia — coordinate with Jing Yuan and carry out the next phase of rollout as planned. You're all dismissed."
"Yes, President Qing!"
Jing Yuan and Phantylia rose, bowed in unison to Qingque, then left the office without looking sideways.
"Caelus, what brought you all to the office so suddenly? Did you miss me?"
Once the last employee had gone, Qingque's voice — that crisp and brisk entrepreneurial CEO register — shifted back toward the languid and adorable tone Caelus remembered.
"Of course. Felt like playing cards with you."
Caelus played along smoothly.
"Hehe~ My hands were getting itchy too, as it happens — let's go!"
The magnificent girl in blue smiled brightly. She took Stelle and Caelus by the hand and, with Sister Xuan fussing around them, walked through the hundreds of square meters of the open office floor.
Qingque hooked her arm through Caelus's:
"Old Caelus — if it weren't for you, the Celestial Jade Group could never have grown this fast. Everything the Group has achieved today is the fruit of our collective effort."
"You're too lazy to work anyway, so just stay home playing games and let Sister Xuan wait on you. Leave the Group to me… oh, right — how did you like the game the Gaming Division specially designed for you last month? If you're not satisfied, fire the whole team and hire new people to redo it."
She tapped lightly at a section of wall that looked no different from any other. Her jade-green manicured nail caught the light of the star-cascade, gleaming emerald. The smooth, mirror-like wall surface rippled, a visible hairline crack appearing — then, with a low hum, it split open.
"Where does this go? There's a secret room inside the office — wha?!"
March 7th hurried along behind Qingque and the others. When Qingque triggered the concealed mechanism in the wall and the secret room began to open, March 7th let out a startled cry.
But when the ambiguous lighting seeped through pink gauze curtains, spilling out from the slowly opening door — carrying with it a certain very particular fragrance —
March 7th's voice cut off abruptly. Her eyes went wide.
She saw a familiar enormous golden bird — like a gilded cage designed to keep a person-sized canary. A water bed adorned with all manner of visually stimulating toys. Rows upon rows of outfits — lace, bunny ears, fluffy things, cheongsamlets — the kind that made anyone's face flush just to glance at them.
March 7th's mind instantly flashed back to the strip mahjong at the love hotel. Her cheeks went scarlet.
"What — what is all this stuff?"
Fu Xuan at first stared with vague confusion at the chairs of peculiar design — strange protrusions and hollows, miniature mechanical arms, handcuffs, vibrating elements — and then her gaze moved to the rows of lingerie and costumes, and to the wall displays that lit up cycling through erotic artwork backgrounds. She went rigid, like a chick caught by the scruff of the neck.
The Master Diviner, unexpectedly pure in this particular domain, did not understand what any of these things were — but instinct told her this was very, very bad.
"Hehe~"
Qingque smiled cheerfully and opened a drawer, withdrawing various elegantly named perfumes, aromatic pellets, and sprays whose real function was decidedly less elegant — scattering and positioning them around the room, letting them bloom into the air.
"Wait wait wait! You — what are you all planning to do?!"
March 7th flushed crimson, voice rising with rising agitation.
"Same as always, obviously — 2,000 points, one piece of clothing."
Qingque surveyed the room, and her gaze landed on Fu Xuan's frozen, dazed expression. She pointed at Dream-Fu Xuan and instructed:
"Sister Xuan — go change into the special maid outfit. When Lord Caelus gets tired later, help push the tiles for me."
Caelus drew a quiet, sharp breath.
He was becoming more and more convinced that Stelle's Heliobus Succubus Transformation Plan had genuine merit.
"Yes, President Qing."
Like a handmaiden presented as part of a dowry, Dream-Fu Xuan took the maid outfit — its triangular front and chest panels sheer translucent lace — and stepped into the changing room.
"QING — QUE——!"
The Master Diviner's composure finally shattered.
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