There was no way Ryou could explain this.
What was he supposed to say? That he'd bolted because he was afraid Yanfei would bring up the whole [Eyes] incident?
Seeing Ganyu and Xiangling both looking at him, Ryou grew even more annoyed with Yanfei.
This woman just keeps glaring at me. Fine. Just don't fall into my hands next time, or I'll show you what happens.
"Enough," Ganyu said, stepping in before the two of them could really start fighting. "Stop talking about that."
"I heard the Sakoku Decree in Inazuma has been in effect for quite a while now, and there's also that thunder barrier above the surrounding sea," Xiangling said curiously. "By all rights, it should be very difficult for anyone from Inazuma to make it to Liyue."
Yanfei explained, "Shinobu came to Liyue Harbor to collect her legal advisor certificate, so she paid quite a price just to get here."
Then her tone turned colder.
"But because of a certain someone, she now has to retake the exam. I heard the difficulty's gone up by forty to fifty percent. Shinobu's smart, but so much time has passed that this trip may have been for nothing."
"Wait, it got that much harder?" Xiangling asked, startled.
"That's right. Because of certain people meddling behind the scenes and forcing the standards higher," Yanfei said. "Some people are just desperate to drag more staff into the Ministry of Civil Affairs."
She was speaking to Xiangling, but her eyes stayed fixed on Ryou the entire time.
Ryou's face darkened. He coughed once, then said, "Miss Yanfei, that's not fair. The legal advisor examination isn't handled by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Or is this really just personal dissatisfaction with me?"
He looked at her calmly.
"If you have complaints, you can say them to my face. I'll listen with an open mind."
"With an open mind?" Yanfei looked at him. "And after listening, would you actually change anything?"
Yes, Ryou was capable. Yes, he had saved Liyue Harbor.
But that didn't change what he had done.
He had seen everything.
Yanfei still had a fire burning in her chest over that, and she had no intention of just swallowing it.
If he could at least change the exam back, maybe she could count that as a little compensation.
Ryou glanced at her and said, "You can file a complaint with the Ministry if you want. As for changing the rules... in broad daylight, and you're already dreaming?"
"You—!"
Yanfei gritted her teeth, grabbed her law codex, and hurled it straight at him.
Bang!
Ryou dodged instantly.
A second later, the codex slammed into the wall and punched a hole right through it.
Cold sweat broke out on Ryou's back.
If that thing had actually hit him, even he might not have walked it off cleanly.
"Yanfei, calm down!" Xiangling rushed over and wrapped her arms around Yanfei. Then she turned to Ryou and said, "Ryou, could both of you stop for a second? The most important thing right now is finding Shinobu!"
Ryou opened his mouth, half ready to fire back—or even have the Millelith drag Yanfei off.
But the moment he met her eyes, he had the distinct feeling that if he pushed it any further, she really might pull a knife on him.
"I'll arrange for people to investigate right away," he said at last, looking at Xiangling. "The moment I get any news, I'll tell you."
"Alright. Then sorry to trouble you," Xiangling said quickly. "Yanfei, let's go first."
She hurriedly tugged Yanfei toward the door, afraid the two of them might actually start fighting if they stayed any longer.
"Xiangling, stop pulling me! I'm not done with him yet!" Yanfei shouted, waving her fists.
"Senior Sister, let's go first!"
Xiangling dragged her out in a hurry.
If this really turned into a bigger scene, it would be a disaster.
Once the two of them were finally gone, Ganyu let out a breath and said, "You really had to provoke Yanfei, didn't you? Look at my office now."
She bent down, picked up the law codex, and glanced at the hole in the wall.
"Now what am I supposed to do?"
Just as she was about to put the codex on the table, Ryou snatched it out of her hand.
"What are you doing?" Ganyu glared at him.
"She threw this at me and still wants it back? Dream on."
Ryou tossed the codex into his pocket world.
"If she wants it, she can come ask me herself. She nearly smashed my head open just now."
He crossed his arms.
"If she wants it back, it won't be that easy."
"You're unbelievably petty," Ganyu said, shaking her head.
A moment later, Ganyu saw Ryou walk over and shut the office door. Her heart immediately skipped a beat.
"Y-You... what are you doing?"
You can talk if you want, but why are you closing the door?
She instantly remembered what had happened the last time he'd taken advantage of an empty office like this.
He wasn't about to pull the same trick again, was he?
Ryou crossed the room in a few steps and pulled Ganyu straight into his arms.
"Ah—"
Before she even had time to react, she ended up sitting in his lap.
By the time she realized what had happened, her whole face was already burning, and she couldn't even bring herself to look at him.
"Were you doing something behind my back just now?" Ryou lifted her chin and looked into her eyes.
Those eyes were beautiful—wet, bright, and faintly pitiful in a way that made his heart heat up all over again.
"D-Don't talk nonsense. When did I ever do anything behind your back?" Ganyu shot him a look. "Besides... Yanfei's a girl. What could we even have done?"
Then she lowered her voice.
"And don't mess around. Yujing Terrace has too much work these days. If someone finds out, it'll be bad."
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."
Ryou tightened his arms around her and kissed her on the lips.
"I have to go investigate soon. Before that, I need your help with something."
"With what?" Ganyu looked up at him.
Ryou took her hand and guided it lower, murmuring for her to think of Jueyun Karst—its forests, its mountains, and especially those towering peaks standing high among the clouds.
Ganyu froze.
Her entire mind went blank.
"You... bad man."
Face red to the roots, she still gritted her teeth and agreed.
...
Some time later, Ryou arrived at Third-Round Knockout.
Finding Kuki Shinobu was hard, but also simple.
Liyue Harbor was busy and crowded, with people coming and going every day. But people from Inazuma were rare. The Sakoku Decree made it difficult for them to leave in the first place, and Liyue was separated from Inazuma by sea.
That meant an Inazuman face would stand out.
"Ryou-sama, I did see that girl before," one of the Millelith reported. "She was with someone else at the time. I saw them leave the city, but I never saw them come back."
"She left the city and never returned?" Ryou frowned.
If she was still in Liyue Harbor, she would be much easier to find.
But once she was outside the city, it became troublesome.
Liyue was huge. Looking for one person out there was like searching for a needle in the sea.
After thinking it over, Ryou headed back to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
By then, the two streams of qi had already worn off, so everyone had gone back to normal. To keep their work pace from dropping too sharply, Ryou gave them another small boost.
Still, they had worked so quickly earlier that there was barely anything left by this point, so he did not mind letting them rest and chat for a while.
Those earlier buffs had only been for stamina and energy, after all.
A little squeezing was fine, but there was no need to work people to death.
Back in his office, Ryou sat down and casually wrote up a wanted notice.
The target was Kuki Shinobu.
A missing-person notice would barely get any real results. But a bounty was different. Once Mora was involved, people would search like mad.
Money really could make the world turn.
Ryou used [Hand] to add an effect to the notice.
[Wanted Notice – Kuki Shinobu!]
[Effect: Everyone in Liyue will receive news of this wanted notice. Capture efficiency increased by 40%!]
[Special Effect: Anyone who helps capture the wanted target will receive a reward!]
Ryou looked at the notice and smiled.
A forty percent boost to capture efficiency.
At this rate, they should "find" Kuki very soon.
He rose from his chair, stepped out of the office, and glanced at the others.
"Zhongli, come with me."
"Alright."
Zhongli followed beside him, but after a while, he noticed that Ryou had circled back to the original notice area outside the Ministry.
Then he looked up.
"A wanted notice?"
He read the contents, then asked, "What exactly did Kuki Shinobu do?"
Ryou glanced at him and said casually, "Yanfei came to me for help today. You saw that, didn't you? She wanted me to find her junior sister. And that junior sister vanished."
Zhongli blinked.
"She asked you to find someone... and your answer was to issue a wanted notice?"
"Now you don't get it," Ryou said with a grin. "Liyue Harbor is huge. Looking for one person normally is like searching for a needle in the sea. But a wanted notice is different."
He spread his hands.
"Put enough Mora on the line, and people will move. If they all go out trying to catch her, won't that make her easier to find?"
"This..." Zhongli's expression turned strange. "I suppose that does make a certain kind of sense."
Once the notice was posted, people quickly began crowding around it.
At some point, one more person slipped into the gathering.
It was Yanfei.
She had just come down from Yujing Terrace. She already knew Ryou had taken her law codex, so when she saw him putting something up, she walked over to see what he was doing.
Then she saw it.
A wanted notice.
And the person being hunted was Kuki Shinobu.
Yanfei clenched her fists and roared, "Ryou! I told you to help me find someone, and you put up a wanted notice instead?! And you stole my law codex too! Get back here—"
"I'm going to kill you!!!"
[End of chapter]
[200 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]
[Thanks for your support!]