According to Freudian theory, the unconscious is a reservoir of repressed emotions and impulses, and dreams are the stage upon which those thoughts, stripped of their daytime inhibitions, finally find expression.
The ideas buried deepest in the heart get to perform on that stage, where the mind's usual shackles are loosened.
And so, within the mental illusory realm — in that 999th secret room — the Strip Celestial Jade mahjong had naturally, seamlessly transformed into ■■.
The gas that had suffused the air worked on President Qing at one hundred percent efficiency. Her consciousness didn't resist in the slightest. On the contrary, the President Qing who was, in essence, Qingque's own subconscious took the opportunity to vent the side of herself she had always kept hidden.
When the real Fu Xuan replaced Dream-Fu Xuan and further immersed herself in the dream-world, she was affected not only by the objective pharmaceutical properties of the substance in the air, but also, to a certain degree, by the 'character setting' of Sister Xuan.
The drug's interference, President Qing's iron-fisted assertiveness — and the end result was that Master Diviner had deigned to let a lowly little Diviner under her command ■■■, and was then strung up by both President Qing and Caelus for a spanking.
Stelle had tagged along for the group tour. March 7th had not escaped unscathed.
But when all was said and done, everything had taken place inside Qingque's mental illusory realm. For everyone involved, it had been like living through a lucid spring dream while retaining full self-awareness — no real-world physical contact had occurred...
That said — matter shapes consciousness, and consciousness in turn acts upon matter. And so it follows that spring dreams are often accompanied by genuine physiological arousal, with the emotional aftertaste lingering long after waking.
Which was precisely one of the reasons the girls had all fallen into silence after escaping Qingque's mental illusory dreamscape, the atmosphere turning inexplicably, indefinably strange.
Not that you'd know it from looking at Qingque — she had stepped out of the Shadow of the Silver Screen two days ago putting on a performance of dazed, confused innocence so convincing it was practically an art form, as if she had no idea whatsoever what had happened inside the dream.
In reality, her panties were soaked through.
So when Master Diviner had shooed Little Sparrow off to work, Qingque had bolted without a second word, her little legs churning like pistons, vanishing in the blink of an eye at a speed that could only be described as lightning on legs.
Before she fled, she had silently and methodically scraped her feet across the cobblestones, destroying every last droplet of evidence that had fallen to the ground.
Fu Xuan had turned and left without a word for exactly the same reason. As Master Diviner of the Divination Commission, if anyone discovered she had sprung a leak, she would probably have no face left to go on living aboard the Xianzhou — she would simply die of shame on the spot.
"Hah — you can only dream about it. How would I ever dare actually ride Master Diviner in real life~!"
Qingque bit down on her bubble tea straw with her pearly teeth, reached out and hooked an arm around Caelus's neck, draping herself over his shoulder like a bosom buddy, and giggled:
"If it had been real, maybe I could have used it as leverage over Master Diviner — gotten her to pile a little less work on me?"
Caelus shook his head, half amused, half resigned:
"You really have nerves of steel, don't you!"
"Fu Xuan is still avoiding us to this day — she's probably dying of embarrassment — and here you are, not only wishing the dream had been real, but plotting to use it as blackmail to get out of work?"
He was typing on his phone using telekinesis as he spoke.
"Hehe~ It's embarrassing, sure..."
Qingque scratched her cheek, then held up her index finger and thumb with a tiny gap between them: "It's a little bit embarrassing, yeah. First time I've ever had that kind of dream in my whole life."
Caelus glanced away from his phone screen and tilted his head slightly, looking at the sliver of space between her pale, slender fingers. There was no condensed galaxy hiding inside it.
For everyone else who had entered the illusory realm, it had been a lucid spring dream. For Qingque alone, it was something closer to a genuine one — because inside the mental illusory dream, the one who had strung up Sister Xuan and played with her had been President Qing, who was Qingque herself.
"But it was just a dream, after all~"
Qingque narrowed her eyes, waved a hand, and gave a breezy shrug: "Even if it had been real, it's not like I'd have come out the loser!"
Emotionally speaking, Caelus was probably one of the most naturally comfortable and easygoing people Qingque had ever been around in her entire life. The other party being Caelus — if something really had happened, she honestly wouldn't have minded all that much.
From a more practical standpoint: she was just an ordinary girl from an ordinary family. Caelus, meanwhile, could shoot the breeze with General Jing Yuan as an equal, and his seniority might even rank higher than the General's.
In that case, Little Sparrow's own generational rank would skyrocket right along with his!
Caelus watched the girl draped across the rocking armchair, swaying lazily back and forth, radiating an aura of utter languor, contentment, and absolute zero fucks given — she was basically a living, breathing Ge You slump meme — and clicked his tongue.
Qingque really was just... Qingque.
"Rather than waste any brain cells thinking about something that's not really worth thinking about, I'd rather dig up some evidence. Next time Master Diviner piles on the assignments, I'll just pull it out and tell her..."
She paused. Qingque broke into the kind of villainous grin that belonged on a Soul Palace elder:
"Keh~ Kehkehkeh~! Master Diviner, you wouldn't want anyone finding out about what you and Old Caelus got up to in my dream-realm, now would you? I'm sure you know what needs to be done~"
"And then I can... heheheh!"
The villainous grin gradually melted into the blissfully dreamy smile of a woman lost in beautiful fantasies about the future. Caelus couldn't help himself — he dumped a bucket of cold water on her:
"Even if it had all been real and you had the evidence in hand — don't forget Fu Xuan's Matrix of Prescience Eye. You really think she couldn't see right through your little schemes? She's had you completely figured out for ages."
"Mm, mm, you make a fair point."
Qingque shifted position, considered this for a moment, and nodded.
"You're right that Master Diviner would definitely have ways to deal with me — my slacking plans would fall apart instantly... But."
Qingque propped her chin in her hand and adopted a pensive expression, eyeing Caelus with a look of profound consideration. Her gaze drifted southward and lingered for a few seconds.
"But what? And — hey — what kind of look is that?"
Caelus tilted his head, caught Qingque's 'subtle' gaze, and shifted slightly in the recliner.
The chat window on his phone screen was still occasionally popping up with new messages. Multitasking was a passive skill for Caelus at this point.
Qingque "whooshed" upright from the rocking armchair, her cloud-patterned skirt hem brushing across the seat cushion. She leaned sideways against the armrest, and her soft, slender snow-jade legs slipped through the gap between armrest and seat, dangling and swinging like a little pendulum.
Moonlight fell across her legs at a slant, making her skin glow luminous as white nephrite.
"There's always a way where there's a will~"
The corners of her eyes curved up like a crescent moon, her fingertip still toying with the tassel fringe on the armrest.
"If everything that happened in the dream had been real — given your method and your... volume — I might have gotten pregnant, you know!"
Qingque had lost count of how many times it had been inside the dream. She only remembered that Caelus had spent plenty of time at point-blank range, trigger-finger steady on the bullseye.
The whole target had been packed full.
"?"
Caelus put down his phone chat, staring at Qingque — who had delivered this bombshell with the casual cheerfulness of someone commenting on the weather — and mentally put a big question mark over her head.
"Think about it — what does being pregnant mean?"
Qingque deployed her world-shaking intellect and raised one finger with great solemnity.
"Being pregnant... means being pregnant?"
Caelus's earnest non-answer made Qingque do an adorable eye-roll, and then she became insufferably smug:
"Old Caelus, your consciousness needs a little more elevation."
"Being pregnant means maternity leave!"
Her eyes sparkled like stars. Qingque pumped her fist, face glowing with visions of a beautiful future:
"I'd be able to take paid maternity leave! No work, still getting paid — that's the one great perk of being a civil servant! I'd lie at home playing Celestial Jade every single day!"
Qingque spread her arms wide and stretched them open like an accordion:
"That's an ultra-long-term holiday! I'll apply for a full year of official maternity leave, then after the baby's born apply for another year of nursing leave... hmm, though Master Diviner would probably reject that one."
Qingque looked down at her barely-there chest — a gentle curve like the first flush of a lotus bud.
"Anyway, after that I can keep taking legitimate leave on the grounds that the baby is still young — and if that doesn't work, just get pregnant again with the second one!"
"This time I'll apply for a one-year pre-conception preparation leave first, then the official maternity leave and nursing leave after that — pop out a few in a row, string together a few decades of holiday time — just thinking about it makes me giddy!"
Qingque tapped her temple with one pale finger and spun it in frantic circles.
Listening to Qingque describe her magnificent vision for the future with such heartfelt passion, Caelus rolled over in the recliner and delivered his verdict:
"Leaving aside the question of where pre-conception leave and nursing leave and all that nonsense even came from — I'm pretty sure the Xianzhou has family planning regulations, doesn't it? Can you even afford the excess-birth fines? And another thing — are you just going to birth them and dump them?"
"The fines are definitely a problem — but that's what Old Caelus is for, isn't it? As for raising them — of course I'd raise them!"
Qingque set down her bubble tea, picked up three skewers, and nibbled at them in small bites as she spoke.
"Right now I'm short three players. Have three first, then I'll teach the kids to play Celestial Jade — once they're old enough, I'll never be short a mahjong partner again!"
"Short three players, sure."
Caelus put down his phone and sat up in the recliner. He snagged a skewer from Qingque's hand and started gnawing on it:
"I'm short four players over here — how about you add four more to that plan of yours, so those four can join me and we can field a full five-stack?"
"No problem~ That's four times more maternity leave."
Qingque puffed out her barely-there chest with considerable pride, every inch the picture of 'leave it to me.'
"Though with those numbers, it's starting to get a bit excessive — the excess-birth fines scale up exponentially, you know."
Xianzhou law regarding reproduction was strict — harshly so, in fact.
As a general rule, Xianzhou people were not permitted to produce offspring outside the fleet. The reasoning was to prevent Xianzhou genetic contamination from spreading the Mara disaster and the Plagues Author's curse to other planets' gene chains, potentially devastating entire planetary civilizations and their ecosystems.
Under normal circumstances, a couple was permitted only one child. Let Xianzhou people reproduce freely across their unnaturally long lifespans and no amount of resources could keep pace with the explosive, exponential growth in population.
From the third child onward, the fines climbed to absurd levels. The fourth and fifth entered the realm of astronomical figures.
"No worries — I'll find a rich lady patron to help you pay the excess-birth fines!"
Caelus struck the signature Popeye the Sailor pose with full conviction.
"Rich lady patron?"
Qingque blinked, and just at that moment noticed the phone sitting on the round table beside Caelus buzz with a vibration and a message notification sound.
"You've had your phone out this whole time — are you chatting with the rich lady patron?"
"Not just the rich lady patron — her missions too."
Caelus shrugged.
Qingque blinked in disbelief, and after a long moment let out a belated gasp of shock:
"Wow, you're making that kind of sacrifice?"
Qingque had been a working woman for over a hundred years — she was hardly some naive little girl who didn't understand how things worked.
She knew all about the 'Master's Mission Series.' Just recently she'd even seen a news report about a Foxian woman riding a Starskiff in the nude — that had obviously been one of the Master's missions.
"What kind of mission did the rich lady patron give you?"
Qingque asked, looking slightly nervous.
"Here, see for yourself."
Caelus unlocked his phone, switched to a certain chat interface, and handed it to Qingque.
Qingque carefully took the phone, scanned the chat log, her brows slowly climbing upward as her expression shifted into something increasingly hard to read.
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