Chapter 38: Director Fei, Don’t Be So Formal

Ji Mingchen said he’d be gone for two days, and he truly disappeared for two days, not even in the ancient castle villa area.

Wen Yao learned from Butler Zhou that Ji Mingchen actually couldn’t stay in the ancient castle villa for more than a few days a month.

The Dongzhou’s fourteen districts, with Gangqiao City as its main base, covered a vast area, even larger than the Beizhou’s thirteen districts by several times.

In this current world, every human survival zone was equivalent to an ecosystem. As the ruler of this large survival zone, maintaining the normal operation of this ecosystem was actually quite busy.

Not only did he need to formulate combat plans to deal with the hordes of zombies and mutated creatures outside the city, but he also had to care about the survival construction within the city and the research progress of various scientific research projects…

He had a pile of big and small matters that required his supervision and decision-making.

This was quite unexpected for Wen Yao.

Thinking back to their encounter on the border of the Beizhou, Ji Mingchen always had the appearance of a carefree, neurotic guy. He dealt with zombies haphazardly, and he didn’t care much about competing for resources in the borderlands, leading to her and Shen Yichuan often snatching the majority of resources.

This led her to believe that, as the son of the Dongzhou’s leader, he was a second-generation heir who didn’t care much about his territory and wasn’t very dedicated, simply playing around.

She never expected that the survival zone he governed was not only technologically advanced but also so orderly…

…

In the two days that Ji Mingchen was away, Wen Yao didn’t idle. Besides recuperating, she reviewed the dream memories she had written down, and then went downstairs to the restaurant to learn about the energy awakening agent from the commanders.

She didn’t dare to ask directly about this classified information, so she could only discreetly inquire.

Through bits and pieces of conversations, she learned that the energy awakening agent was still in its initial research stage, with limited production and not available on the market. It was currently stored in the biological research building of the Dongzhou’s fourteen districts, and only distributed to top-tier, outstanding team commanders.

Simply put, this thing was difficult to research and the finished product was precious. Out of hundreds of outstanding commanders and hundreds of thousands of team members, only a handful of dozens were lucky enough to receive it.

Everyone was desperate to get this qualification, it was like a million horses trying to cross a single-plank bridge.

In this harsh and resource-scarce apocalypse, awakening energy was naturally the sooner the better. Energy could be upgraded, and the earlier it awakened, the more advantages it had, and the more chances of survival in the end…

After figuring this out, Wen Yao felt that she should return to the training camp.

After all, given the rarity of this thing, she didn’t think Ji Mingchen could just casually give it to her with a wave of his hand.

He was in a high position, and his power was great, but in the face of key decisions, he would still prioritize the overall situation.

Her legs, which had lost feeling, had been recovering for two days, and as Ji Mingchen had said, they were fine, and walking wasn’t a problem, just a bit numb.

After breakfast that day, Wen Yao decided to go for a walk. Unexpectedly, as she stepped out of the second-floor elevator, she bumped into Ji Mingchen.

The man was tall and slender, still in his white shirt and black trousers, dressed no differently than usual. The only difference was that he was holding a rose in his hand today.

The leaves were emerald green, the flowers were vibrant, making his fair skin even more pale, and even his already handsome face was even more stunning because of it.

Wen Yao had never thought that words like “beautiful”, “stunning”, and “exquisite” could be used to describe a man, until she met Ji Mingchen.

Moreover, the stunning aura around him didn’t clash with the inherent masculinity of the man at all. His face, so perfect that there was no flaw to be found, would still be exceptionally rare even if his gender was changed. He was simply so beautiful that he defied gender.

The moment she stepped out of the elevator, she was stunned by the man holding the rose.

Ji Mingchen was also slightly surprised to see Wen Yao, the corners of his lips curled up slightly as he bent down slightly and handed her the rose in his hand: “Where are you going?”

Wen Yao didn’t dare to look at him, her hand subconsciously reached for the flower he handed her: “Just going for a walk.”

Ji Mingchen raised an eyebrow, his gaze swept over her new dress and landed on the girl’s calf: “Is your leg better?”

Wen Yao happened to be wearing a white, cinched-waist dress today, exquisite and beautiful, with a fluffy white lace skirt.

She was actually quite uncomfortable with the man’s casual gaze, mainly because she didn’t want to dress like this. There were simply no unrefined dresses in that closet, and the two maids urged her early in the morning, so she put it on.

Now, she was dressed in matching outfits, inexplicably looking good together.

“…”

“It’s almost better.” Wen Yao lowered her head and nodded.

Ji Mingchen’s gaze slowly moved upwards again. The girl in the white dress was gentle and quiet, her brows lowered, and she was also holding a rose, beautiful beyond words, as if she were truly a little princess living in an ancient castle.

“Why didn’t you have someone accompany you?” He asked.

Wen Yao: “…I don’t need anyone to accompany me.”

She had fought zombies alone in the icy wasteland before, so how could she need someone to accompany her just for a walk.

But the man reached out and took her wrist: “Let’s go then.”

Feeling the scorching temperature on her wrist, Wen Yao was slightly stunned, instinctively retracting her hand: “Where are we going?”

However, Ji Mingchen not only didn’t let go, but also gently rubbed her delicate and tender wrist with his fingertips, smiling down at her: “Aren’t you bored and want to go out for a walk? I’ll accompany you.”

As he got closer, the refreshing scent enveloped her nose again. This time, it wasn’t just the fragrance of herbs and trees, but also the rich fragrance of roses, the two scents mixed, unexpectedly captivating.

“I…” Wen Yao was inexplicably nervous, as if she was bewitched, and the words she wanted to say stopped abruptly.

Ji Mingchen led Wen Yao along the red-carpeted villa corridor, and when they reached the bottom of the marble spiral staircase, the hand that had been holding her wrist unconsciously slid down her fingers, turning into hand-in-hand.

Palm against palm, their temperatures transferred to each other.

The slight roughness of the man’s palm made Wen Yao blush secretly, and she couldn’t help but think, even if Ji Mingchen didn’t do anything to her, she would eventually be captivated by this man’s beauty and be unable to extricate herself.

To divert her attention from the hand-holding, she mumbled, “Aren’t you very busy? Why are you free today…”

How come she had just thought he was dedicated and now he was so free again?

Ji Mingchen gently squeezed her small hand, his smile gentle: “It’s a coincidence, I just happen to be free today.”

“…”

Now, not only was her attention not diverted from the hand-holding, but he had also emphasized it ambiguously like this.

Leaving the grand ancient castle villa hall, Ji Mingchen led Wen Yao to a black sedan.

He Fengyan, who was standing next to the car, glanced at his watch and then met the man’s gaze: “Captain Ming, did you get the research data…”

Before he could finish his question, Ji Mingchen winked at him: “Captain He, the weather is nice today, would you like to go out for a walk?”