But he looked at his phone, scrolling through the distinct profile pictures of the Sons of Calydon he had just added to his contacts.
Caesar? Ask her directly? If she really meant that, how would it be any different from a direct confrontation?
Hard pass.
Big Boss? Caesar was like a daughter to him. Asking him would be like walking straight into the line of fire.
Pass.
Burnice? No need to even consider it. Skip.
And as for Piper...
Knowing her personality... she was probably curled up sleeping in a pile of tires, or fussing over her beloved Big Chomper.
She'd mentioned during a chat before that she was going to use her share of the rent money to get Big Chomper a new engine.
By the time she replied, it would be way too late.
In the end, that only left Lighter, who seemed the most reliable.
MeowscularAreCutestInTheWorld: Lighter, you there?
JustPlayin: I'm here. What's up?
MeowscularAreCutestInTheWorld: I need to ask you something. Does Caesar... hate me?
Lighter's reply had been quick, but after Andrew sent his question, he could clearly feel the other end go silent.
The status indicator at the top of the chat kept flickering between "typing..." and "online." He waited for a while, but in the end, Lighter only sent a single sentence.
JustPlayin: Why would you think that?
MeowscularAreCutestInTheWorld: Because Caesar gave me a clock...
JustPlayin: Huh?
But this time, Lighter's response came much faster than his previous hesitation.
JustPlayin: Probably not. With the Boss's level of cultural knowledge and brainpower, I doubt she'd do something like that.
MeowscularAreCutestInTheWorld: I thought so too. Could you help me ask if she gave me the wrong thing by mistake?
JustPlayin: Sure, I'll go ask.
MeowscularAreCutestInTheWorld: Thanks, I'm counting on you.
As soon as the message was sent, Lighter's status immediately changed to "busy." It seemed he had run off to ask Caesar what was going on.
Right after messaging Andrew, Lighter hurriedly sent a message to his boss, moving with all the speed of his favored general in a game.
JustPlayin: Boss, did you give Andrew a clock?
It didn't take long for the message status to change to "read," and Caesar's reply popped up quickly.
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: Yeah, a white alarm clock.
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: Hey? Did that ghost Andrew tell you?
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: How embarrassing :D
The three consecutive replies left Lighter a bit stunned. The first message made his jaw drop, and his brain was already scrambling for a way to help Caesar explain it away.
But her subsequent reaction made Lighter's eyes narrow slightly. He immediately sensed there was more to this than met the eye.
After a brief hesitation, Lighter chose to press on.
JustPlayin: So, Boss, why did you give him that?
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: I wanted to express how I felt about Andrew when I first met him! It was love at first sight! I thought about it all last night before coming up with it!
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: Andrew's so smart, he'll definitely understand what I mean!
JustPlayin: ...
Seeing no reply from Lighter, Caesar assumed he was just stunned by her genius idea.
After all, Caesar had read so many comics and had never seen this method used before. It was absolutely one-of-a-kind!
After a long silence, Lighter finally chose to burst his boss's bubble and make her face reality.
JustPlayin: Boss, generally speaking, giving a clock—'sòng zhōng'—sounds the same as 'sòng zhōng,' which means attending someone's funeral...
JustPlayin: Boss, have you ever considered that there might be a unique reason why you've never seen these methods you come up with?
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: Huh?
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: HUH???
There was a short pause. Caesar was in disbelief.
She quickly confirmed what Lighter said with a search engine, and then, she was utterly dumbfounded.
Instantly, Caesar's brain froze. The meaning she wanted to convey and the meaning her actions actually conveyed...
To say they were different would be an understatement; they were worlds apart.
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: Wh-what do I do! Andrew must have misunderstood!
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: I... I need to go explain it to him!
Hearing this, Lighter quickly tried to stop her.
JustPlayin: No no no, Boss. With your level of... knowledge, you'll only make things more confusing.
JustPlayin: Are you planning to just tell him what you really meant?
Outer Ring's Unbeatable Legend: I can't do that either! Saying it directly is way too embarrassing!
Seeing this message, Lighter couldn't help but facepalm.
No matter what, she was still his boss.
It looked like he'd have to step in himself.
Otherwise, if he let the boss handle it, she would definitely make a bigger mess.
After listening to Lighter's explanation, with a miserable-looking Caesar corroborating his story on the side, Andrew and Belle finally understood that Caesar only gave him the gift because she noticed he didn't have a clock last time she visited. They both breathed a sigh of relief.
"See? I knew Caesar didn't know what that gift meant. I told you I didn't do anything wrong!"
During the wait, after constant questioning from Belle that nearly had him writing a formal confession of his crimes, Andrew could finally stand up straight again.
And as Andrew's posture straightened, Caesar's determination to express her feelings, which she had wracked her brain for, finally and quietly shattered.
And although Belle was relieved, her sharp girlish intuition still caught a hint of insincerity in Caesar's confirmation.
But her firm and anxious denial of the original meaning made it clear that it wasn't Caesar's true intention. However, the gift probably wasn't as meaningless as Lighter claimed it to be.
"But a clock... what other meaning could it possibly have?"
For a normal person without a god's-eye view, this puzzle was just too difficult to solve.
Putting away the gift from Caesar, Andrew planned to take it to the blacksmith for safekeeping. The most important thing now was to deal with the Vicious Claw Wyvern's corpse.
After letting the Vicious Claw Wyvern's body sit for a day, it was the perfect time to bury it in the soil as fertilizer!
He loaded the rest of the wyvern's corpse onto a flatbed cart and dragged it into the greenhouse where the plants were growing.
In the span of nearly two days, the growth of the plants in the greenhouse was incredibly delightful.
The Draconic Energy in the air was visibly much richer. The fastest-growing and most vigorous herbs were already more than halfway grown. At this rate, they wouldn't need the week Andrew had estimated; this batch of herbs would be fully mature by tomorrow.
The Antidote Herb, also a medicinal plant, was doing just as well.
As for the other plants, their growth times were also reduced to varying degrees.
The seed and fruit-bearing plants were basically mature and just needed to bear fruit, while the blueberries and mushrooms were also more than halfway grown.
Stimulated by the now-abundant Draconic Energy, they had finally resumed their normal growth speed.
____
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