What are you doing, Mr. President? I'm just an extra!

Two days later.

Wednesday at 2 PM.

Meeting room for acceptance of the Chengxi project at the Jianghai Municipal Building.

Lu Li sat on the left side of the mahogany table.

Today, he strictly followed the minute-by-minute schedule from the Su Group's president's office and arrived at the city government office right on time.

Across the long table, Yang Ningbing wore a well-tailored dark gray suit skirt and her signature gold-rimmed glasses perched on her nose.

Her gaze was completely formulaic and cold, as if she were handling an ordinary government document.

Liu Qingyu, the city government's first secretary, sat to her side and behind her, her hands rapidly typing on her laptop keyboard, taking meeting minutes.

The first forty minutes of the verification process were completed efficiently and smoothly.

There was no wrangling or shirking of responsibility.

All data for the fire safety inspection of Phase I of the Chengxi Hot Spring Project have passed the standards.

Lu Li and Yang Ningbing each signed their names and affixed their official seals to the red-headed document.

"Acceptance process complete."

Yang Ningbing closed the pen cap, making a crisp click.

Liu Qingyu immediately closed the black hard-shell folder and prepared to get up to proceed with the next archiving process.

"Qingyu" (清语)

Yang Ningbing suddenly spoke up, "Pour me a glass of water."

Liu Qingyu's buttocks, which had just been halfway raised, froze in mid-air.

She froze for a moment.

Having been by Yang Ningbing's side for so long, she knew better than anyone that the mayor never drank water during meetings in order to stay focused, and it was even less likely that he would ask for more water right after the meeting ended.

Liu Qingyu's gaze lingered for a second on her boss's icy face before quickly sliding to Lu Li across from her.

As a seasoned surfing enthusiast and key advisor, she keenly sensed the unusually low pressure in the air.

"I'm going to the tea room at the end of the corridor outside."

Liu Qingyu picked up the empty water glass without changing her expression, her tone so natural it was impeccable, "The water temperature over there is more suitable; it might take a few minutes."

After saying that, she turned around and walked quickly out of the conference room, closing the heavy soundproof door tightly behind her.

In the huge conference room, only Lu Li and Yang Ningbing remained.

The central air conditioning system emitted a constant hum.

Yang Ningbing did not look at Lu Li.

She lowered her eyes and remained silent for a good ten seconds before reaching out to open the black briefcase beside her.

She took out an unsigned brown paper envelope, placed it against the table, and slowly pushed it to the center.

The envelope was sealed with a dark red wax seal.

The specifications were exactly the same as the one that Old Chen took out at the sanatorium last time.

Lu Li's eyelids twitched.

[Is it sealing wax again? Is this stuff sold wholesale by weight within the system?]

These words exploded silently in the conference room.

Just as Yang Ningbing was about to speak, the muscles in her cheek suddenly twitched uncontrollably.

She clenched her teeth and swallowed the words that were about to come out, taking two seconds to regain her mayoral tone.

"This was given to me by Old Chen."

Yang Ningbing tapped the edge of the envelope with her fingertip. "Letter of recommendation for a specially appointed consultant in the provincial emergency management expert pool."

Lu Li didn't answer, and instinctively leaned back.

Yang Ningbing continued, "There is no administrative position, and it does not occupy a quota in the municipal government. But this status means that when facing emergencies of a similar magnitude as the explosion at the neighboring city's theater, you can legally call upon provincial emergency resources across levels without having to bear the risk of violating regulations."

Lu Li stared at the envelope, his thoughts churning wildly in his mind.

[Old Chen is trying to kill me already, he's determined to tie me to the system's chariot!]

With this consultant's backing, I'll have to take the fall for any potential problems. Even worse, my professional interactions with Yang Ningbing have gone from "occasional cooperation" to "long-term collaboration"!

If that female CEO, Fei Yan, knew I accepted this, she could have an iron frame welded onto the roof of the Su Group building overnight and hang me there to dry like a salted fish!

The words "long-term collaboration" entered Yang Ningbing's mind with crystal clarity.

She took a deep breath without making a sound, and her left hand, which was hanging on her knee, tightened its grip little by little, creating a wrinkle in the smooth hem of her suit skirt.

"Mayor Yang, I appreciate Mr. Chen's kindness."

Lu Li pushed the envelope back half an inch, using it as a shield, "But this matter involves the external identity reporting of the Su family, I need to discuss it with Fei Yan..."

Lu Li's voice stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence.

His gaze fell on Yang Ningbing's left hand, which was resting on the table.

The hand was in an unnatural supporting position, and the tips of the middle and ring fingers were trembling slightly out of control.

[God-level five senses harmony] automatically reached its peak at this moment.

Lu Li's senses were instantly amplified.

He caught Yang Ningbing's breathing rhythm—it was 15 percent faster than usual.

He saw behind the gold-rimmed glasses—the edges of those pupils were slightly dilated.

He could even see clearly that the pulsation frequency of the carotid artery on the left side of Yang Ningbing's fair neck was significantly higher than the healthy threshold.

"Mayor Yang."

Lu Li withdrew his hand, his voice turning serious, "You didn't sleep again last night?"

Yang Ningbing's back stiffened abruptly.

She definitely didn't sleep.

To be precise, she had been suffering from insomnia for three consecutive days since returning from the bombing in the neighboring city.

As soon as I close my eyes, all I can see in my mind is Lu Li standing on an eight-meter-high platform, holding a high-energy-gathering drug module in his hand, and the suffocating silence of the last three seconds of the countdown.

But as the acting mayor of Jianghai City, she absolutely could not allow herself to expose her weaknesses in front of a business assistant.

"My sleep patterns are outside the scope of your duties as a special assistant."

Yang Ningbing slightly raised her chin, her voice three degrees colder than before, attempting to use her official authority to suppress the situation.

Lu Li wasn't buying it at all.

[You've applied at least three layers of concealer under your left eye; your dark circles are almost showing through. And you're telling me it's okay?]

This woman's tongue is even harder than the official documents she approves every day.

Upon hearing this internal monologue, Yang Ningbing's tense expression instantly changed.

She subconsciously raised her right hand, which was resting on the table, and quickly touched the area below her left eye with her fingertips.

By the time she realized how obvious her action was, she couldn't put her hand back down.

Looking at her forced composure, Lu Li recalled Su Feiyan's work schedule that read "No leave allowed."

He hesitated for a second.

Subsequently, Lu Li did something that, if Su Feiyan had seen it, would have resulted in him being immediately submerged in the moat of Jianghai.

He pulled out a chair, stood up, walked around the large mahogany conference table, and went straight to the back of Yang Ningbing's chair.

Yang Ningbing's muscles tensed up instantly, becoming as rigid as an iron plate.

Give me thirty seconds.

The next second, a pair of warm fingers brushed through the stray hairs by her ears and pressed directly onto the acupoints on both sides of her temples.

Yang Ningbing almost jumped up from her chair.

Before she could even make a move to resist, the impeccable finger techniques of the [Grandmaster Massage Technique] had already entered the acupoints that calmed her mind and soothed her meridians.

With the real-time feedback from the [God-level Five Senses Harmony], Lu Li's pressure on each press was precisely timed to hit the most painful spot on Yang Ningbing's nerves.

The remaining pure yang energy and blood of the Ancient Sacred Body seeped into her skin through her fingertips, like a gentle warm current, easing the tension that had been building in her mind for three whole days.

The instinct to resist crumbled within three seconds of contact.

Yang Ningbing leaned back in her chair, her breathing changing from rapid to long and even.

Thirty seconds.

When the time came, Lu Li promptly withdrew his hands and stepped back half a step.

Yang Ningbing slowly opened her eyes.

Those eyes, usually sealed by gold-rimmed glasses and a cold mask, were now shimmering with tears, revealing for the first time a fragile luster, like that of a defense line collapsing.

She raised her hand, took off her gold-rimmed glasses, and placed them on the table.

Without the obstruction of the glasses, the bright red beauty mark under her left eye was exposed to the air without reservation, adding a touch of breathtaking tenderness.

She didn't turn around, but quietly watched the figure reflected in the floor-to-ceiling window in front of her.

The conference room was deathly silent.

Yang Ningbing moved her lips and uttered two words in a very soft and gentle voice that Lu Li had never heard before.

"Thanks."

Click.

Suddenly, the crisp sound of high heels clicking on the floor tiles came from the corridor outside the door.

Yang Ningbing sat up abruptly as if she had been electrocuted.

She swiftly grabbed the gold-rimmed glasses from the table and put them back on, her back instantly straightening. All traces of fragility vanished, and in the blink of an eye, she was back to the stern and impartial acting mayor of Jianghai City.

Lu Li slipped away as fast as he could, quickly circling back to the other side of the long table and plopping down in his seat.

His heart was pounding like a drum.

The soundproof door was pushed open.

Liu Qingyu walked in carrying a steaming disposable paper cup.

Without looking to the side, she steadily placed the water glass in front of Yang Ningbing.

But in the fraction of a second after putting down the water glass, Liu Qingyu's gaze swept back and forth between Yang Ningbing and Lu Li, catching the faint, indescribable warmth remaining in the air.

hum.

In the center of the conference table, Yang Ningbing's phone screen suddenly lit up.

A notification pops up on the lock screen with a new text message.

From: President's Office, Su Group.

The message contained only a single sentence, yet it exuded a chilling pressure that could freeze the entire conference room:

"When will Mayor Yang's meeting with Assistant Lu end? President Su is waiting for him to return to the company."

As Liu Qingyu straightened up, she caught a glimpse of the text message out of the corner of her eye.

She didn't say anything, but silently looked away and glanced at her boss.

The acting mayor of Jianghai City, who was always unfazed even by the collapse of Mount Tai, was now staring at his phone screen.

On her profile, partially obscured by her long black hair, her fair earlobes were flushed with a blush that no amount of concealer could hide.