During the night, Lemuen watched Jeanne, who had been sitting in her chair in silence since her return, seemingly lost in deep thought. Lemuen's curiosity was becoming impossible to suppress.
Ever since she got back, this "big sister" had been pondering something, and a faint, strange smile would occasionally flicker across the corners of her mouth.
Lemuen knew that expression all too well! Every time her own unfortunate younger sister was planning to blow up a school, she would drift off to sleep the night before with that exact same smile. Given that Exusiai had blown up schools over a dozen times, seeing that expression now made Lemuen feel as though Jeanne had stumbled into some sort of colossal trouble.
"I say, Jeanne, can you just tell me what happened? You're sitting there without making a sound, and it's making me feel a bit uneasy!" Lemuen said, looking at the girl before her. She was curious about what had transpired; how could a simple meeting with a friend's elders turn a child so peculiar?
It couldn't be one of those melodramatic plots where they didn't approve of Jeanne and told her to stay away from Talulah, right? With that couple's IQ, they wouldn't do something that stupid.
Lemuen immediately scrubbed the soap-opera cliches from her mind, wondering if she had read too many of those novels during her own hospital stay.
"It's not a huge deal, I just feel... rather sorry for Chief Wei. The man cooperated so well with my movements, only for me to cause this kind of mess for him."
Jeanne finally spoke, letting out a long sigh as she looked out the window. Her voice was a mix of genuine apology and suppressed amusement.
"But when I think about the scene he's likely facing at home, I can't help but want to laugh. Yet, I feel a sense of guilt in my heart. My emotions are so complicated; it's truly a sin!"
As she spoke, Jeanne closed her eyes and pressed her hands together in prayer, interceding for the City Executive. She hoped this would alleviate some of the guilt in her heart. After all, if she handed her guilt over to the Lord, she could laugh without a burden. Wait, is that really what prayer is for?
"What happened? What did you do? What makes you think Chief Wei is facing punishment from his wife?"
Hearing that it wasn't a problem for Jeanne herself, Lemuen became intensely curious about this fresh "gossip" regarding the Chief. She was more than ready to dig in. In Lungmen, what gossip could possibly be more enticing than something about Wei Yenwu? The man was the type of figure who could trend on social media just by losing a whisker.
Because Chief Wei was usually so serious and rarely made public appearances, the people in the streets and alleys of Lungmen were filled with curiosity about him. This was a local trait of Lungmen; in the heartlands of the Yan Empire, the commoners' awe of such figures usually outweighed their curiosity, and they rarely discussed high-ranking officials.
As for how she knew Chief Wei was henpecked? She had heard it from a certain penguin during a drinking session when Emperor had gotten a bit too "high" and started blabbing. The penguin had even formally warned her not to let anyone know it came from him, lest Penguin Logistic face a "calamity of blades."
"It's not a big thing, it's just... before I left, I discovered something inappropriate."
Jeanne then recounted the events at Wei Yenwu's residence to Lemuen, placing particular emphasis on the moment she accidentally unearthed the bank card.
"I swear! My hands were just idle and moving around on their own. You know how a square, solid object is just too distracting! I was listening to Madam Fumizuki speak while fidgeting with the thing, and then..."
Jeanne threw her hands up and finished: "A card fell out. Only then did I realize it was a bank card. After that, I found an excuse to slip away."
Jeanne spoke with a look of utter helplessness, while Lemuen was already laughing so hard she could barely breathe, clutching her stomach as she looked at Jeanne. Her eyes were full of admiration; she felt she was looking at someone with Exusiai's talent, but in a "super-buffed" passive version!
To be able to solve a case of marital property concealment for Madam Fumizuki in such a short visit—only the "big sister" in front of her could pull that off.
"Oh... stop... my stomach hurts! Help... no, I really can't stop! Sister, honestly, you are too talented!"
Lemuen clutched her aching stomach; she truly hadn't laughed this hard in a long time.
After a long while, Lemuen finally slumped into her chair, exhausted from laughing, though mirth still danced in her eyes.
"Do you think I won't be allowed back? I feel like after this incident, I don't plan on going there again for a while."
Jeanne looked at the still-giggling Lemuen. She felt like her actions lately were prone to accidents; ever since arriving in Lungmen, no matter what happened, things always veered far off her expected course. She had already used her Noble Phantasm twice!
Even in a dangerous place like the snow plains of Ursus, those Imperial Gendarmerie and soldiers rarely pushed her to the point of needing her Noble Phantasm.
"I think Madam Fumizuki will definitely welcome you back. Ideally, she'd want you to help find a few more of the private stashes Chief Wei has hidden away!"
Lemuen spoke in a half-joking tone, giving the highest possible level of affirmation to Jeanne's "treasure-hunting" talent. Honestly, if Jeanne didn't have her own higher pursuits, she could open a company specializing in finding hidden savings; she'd probably be hailed as a demi-god in that field.
"You're trying to get me to offend Wei Yenwu unto death! If I go back a few more times, I feel like he'll send his men over just to give me a warning."
Jeanne rolled her eyes at Lemuen's nonsense, then sat back and gazed at the peaceful, serene scenery outside the window. All she could do now was pray for Chief Wei. Though as a friend of the younger generation, it was indeed a bit "un-knightly" to pull such a move on her first visit.
However, if Talulah found out, it might actually improve her mood. She might even eat a "Jeanne-sized" portion of food tonight. (Though using herself as a unit of measurement for appetite felt a bit wrong—it made her sound like a glutton, when she usually only ate about 0.8 of a Talulah).
Then again, if she truly let loose... as someone who could rapidly convert food into magical energy, Jeanne could theoretically eat indefinitely. She was the "Terminator" of the buffet world.
Wait, I'm getting off track again. I was thinking about the private stash, so why did I start thinking about food intake? Is my divergent thinking a bit too strong?
Meanwhile, at the Wei residence:
"Madam, look, it's so late and I haven't eaten. Why don't you let me have a bite to eat before we discuss other things?"
What Wei Yenwu hadn't expected was that after her moment of sentimentality, his wife did not let him off the hook. Instead, she carefully put the photo away and turned around to "deal" with him.
Fortunately, she didn't make him kneel on the remote. Instead, she handed him a tablet and told him to use his dragon whiskers to write out the character "Biáng" one thousand times before he was finished. He had been writing for ages and had only finished ten.
"If you want to eat, that's easy. Just tell me where your other little stashes are hidden, and I'll go wrap some dumplings for you right now."
Fumizuki looked at the troubled Old Wei. She didn't believe for a second that the great Chief of Lungmen only had one single hidden stash in the entire house. As the saying goes: if you find one cockroach in the house, it means you have a whole room full of them.
Finding one bank card today meant that in places she didn't know about, this old dragon had hidden away untold amounts of wealth behind her back.
"There really is only this one! And that's only because I forgot about it. If that child hadn't flipped it out today, I wouldn't have even remembered I had this card."
Wei Yenwu hurriedly explained, insisting that he really only had this one card and that Fumizuki wouldn't find a second one even if she tried.
It was unclear if Fumizuki actually believed him, but she did eventually cook for him.
However, served alongside the dumplings was a large plate of durian.
Wei Yenwu felt that he really did need to go to the hospital for an IV drip—if only to treat the blood sugar spike he was anticipating from his own stress.