My game, Orange Flavor, is great!

Shortly after the two entered the lobby and were still waiting for the elevator, they heard a cheerful voice coming from the doorway.

You don't even need to turn around to know who it is.

Lu Zhao pinched his brow helplessly, then turned to look at the older child who was still gloating: "Messiah, you've arrived just in time."

Messiah, who had been all smiles just moments before, suddenly fell silent upon seeing Lu Zhao. She walked up to her, sobbing, and before Lu Zhao could even speak, she suddenly hugged her tightly.

"Waaaa, Captain, I really didn't come here on purpose! You know my rented place is really far from here! I had no choice, please don't deduct my bonus, waaaaa!"

Lu Zhao was speechless, feeling that this scene seemed familiar.

Xia Zhifei, who was standing to the side, asked with amusement, "Hey, I remember you're not from this city, are you? Why do you need to rent a place?"

The exaggerated crying of the older child stopped abruptly. He wiped away non-existent tears, then looked up and said, "My family is poor. We can't afford to buy a house. Even after I start working, I can only live in a shared room..."

"Alright, alright," Lu Zhao couldn't stand her pitiful wailing any longer and interrupted her helplessly, "You weren't late, why would I deduct your bonus?"

Messiah's eyes lit up. "Really? Bonuses, performance-based pay, base salary, and benefits won't be deducted?"

Lu Zhao: ...To be honest, she's starting to think about cutting back now.

This guy's expression is just too irritating.

"Don't worry," the young lady said with a smile, pulling the grown-up child away from Lu Zhao. "Zhao said he wouldn't deduct it, and he really won't. Why would she be eyeing your meager salary?"

No, she's poor, she's extremely poor.

Thinking of his remaining balance, Lu Zhao was overcome with sorrow and even thought of grabbing the young lady and yelling "rich woman, please take care of me!"

Sigh, just think about it.

"By the way, has Sister Song arrived?" Xia Zhifei stepped into the elevator first and asked her curiously, "Haven't you been doing missions with Sister Song these past few days?"

Messiah blinked. "I don't know, she's probably here by now. She always arrives early."

Indeed, they are completely different from those who frequently scout out the location.

Lu Zhao raised an eyebrow. Their team was really slacking off from the captain to the members. Song Lingge was really working hard to carry most of the team by herself.

Why not wait until after the annual meeting and give them a few more days of annual leave?

As she was considering the feasibility of this idea, the elevator doors slowly opened. She subconsciously stepped out, but only felt a sharp gust of sword wind rushing towards her!

Lu Zhao was startled. Her heightened agility, enhanced by training at the martial arts school, allowed her to retreat in time. At the same time, white flames erupted from her body, transforming into a leopard that swiftly pounced on the attacker.

"White Flame, come back!" she shouted, stopping the white leopard from biting down on the other's neck.

But then they saw the young girl who had been pinned underneath struggle to crawl out from under its claws, and get up to look at them warily: "Who are you!"

Isn't this girl an employee here?

Lu Zhao carefully examined the other person and saw that she was a pretty girl about the same height as Wen Ruo, and looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old. He immediately understood.

Even if the Superintendent's Office is unreliable, it wouldn't hire minors to work.

“Little sister,” Messiah jumped out impatiently after witnessing the dangerous scene, following behind her, “Do you know that you can’t use this simulated environment near elevators? What if someone gets hurt!”

The girl looked at her with displeasure, and suddenly raised the longsword, which was two-thirds the height of her, and pointed it at Messiah. "And who are you? An employee here? I don't remember you being in my brother's team."

As she spoke, she scrutinized Lu Zhao and his group again, her brows furrowing in suspicion. "This is the Operations Department's territory. Are you from another department?"

Lu Zhao raised an eyebrow and asked her in return, "Little sister, what's your name? And who's your brother?"

The other person gave her a wary look before speaking: "My name is Ding Ning, and my brother is Ding Bo from the Action Department!"

Oh, I think I saw him once during the bus robbery.

She nodded knowingly. "So, your brother brought you here to use the simulated environment, right?"

"You still haven't told me who you are!" Ding Ning emphasized, dissatisfied.

“First of all, what this lady said earlier is right. You shouldn’t have activated your mimicry near the elevator. It’s too dangerous.” Lu Zhao leaned down and pressed down on the longsword that was pointing at him. “Secondly, don’t point your weapon at us before you know whether we are friends or foes and what our strength is.”

Her habitual lecturing only made Ding Ning more displeased. "Who asked you to say these things! If you don't state your identity, I'll call my men!"

Tsk, should we praise her for her fearlessness or scold her for her lack of manners?

Lu Zhao scratched his head before saying, "Alright, I'm Lu Zhao, the captain of the first team of the Action Department. Could you please let us through?"

She didn't have as much patience with this child as she did with Duan Yue, and she didn't have the energy to spend too much time educating him.

Ding Ning frowned even more: "How come I've never heard of any 'Team One' in the Operations Department? You guys aren't some bad guys who infiltrated with malicious intent, are you?!"

Well… okay, this is all thanks to her brother's explanation.

Given the second team's hostility towards her, it seems reasonable that Ding Bo didn't tell his sister that there was another team.

Just as Lu Zhao was considering how to get around this annoying kid, the other person shouted at the top of their lungs, "Brother! Someone's trying to sneak in! Come out now!"

Goodness, this brat actually knows how to address people.

Lu Zhao sighed helplessly.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Song Lingge, the Absentee

To be honest, Lu Zhao wasn't really into most children. The only ones she found cute were those with well-behaved personalities, like Duan Yue.

Ideally, she should be a sensible child who is close to her, knows how to maintain boundaries, and won't make things too difficult for her, like Duan Yue.

At the very least, it has to be someone with a tragic past that makes her feel sorry for them, like Duan Yue.

The longer she stayed in this world, the more she felt that meeting Duan Yue on the very first day after her transmigration was the best thing ever. That child successfully resolved much of the distress she had experienced because of the transmigration.

Furthermore, she became the only one who fell in love with her, despite having no connection to the original owner of the body, simply because of her.

Now, seeing Ding Ning in front of her, she began to miss Duan Yue again.

As the scream for help rang out, a familiar young man rushed out from the innermost part of the second floor. It was Ding Bo, whom she had seen during the bus robbery.

The other person's gaze still held that same disgust when it met his, but he hid it well. He quickly walked to his sister and shielded her behind him.

"Ding Bo, right?" Lu Zhao found the defensiveness in the man's eyes utterly boring. If he wanted to make a move against either of them, the brother and sister probably wouldn't even be able to defend themselves.

She could already sense the psionic fluctuations of the two people.

Ding Bo's ability is probably at level B, and it's not an offensive ability. As for his sister Ding Ning, her ability seems to have some offensive characteristics, but the level is too low, currently probably between D and C.

No matter how much she grows in the future, she will never surpass her daughter, Xiaoyue.

“Yes,” Ding Bo was facing three unfriendly women alone, especially one of whom was a source of psychological trauma for everyone in their team, so he couldn’t help but feel nervous. “Captain Lu, you’re an adult, why are you getting angry with a child?”

Xia Zhifei was displeased upon hearing this: "We've been speaking politely the whole time. It was your sister who was rude to us, and now she's called you out here. What? Are you going to stand up for her?"

How could he possibly beat those guys!

Ding Bo felt bitter inside, but with his younger sister behind him, he could only straighten his chest slightly and say, "Captain Lu, my sister is still young. If she has offended you in any way, please be magnanimous and forgive her."

"Oh, so if I don't forgive her, then I'm being petty?" Lu Zhao hated this kind of excuse the most. They could use the excuse that the child was still young to cover up everything. Her Xiaoyue was also young, but she was more sensible than the two people in front of her combined.

"Brother, aren't these people... bad guys?" Ding Ning asked belatedly after listening to their conversation from behind him.

Lu Zhao raised an eyebrow and smiled, "I already told you my identity, little sister, do you believe me now?"

Ding Ning shrank back, completely losing her previous imposing manner. "I... I've never heard my brother mention you, so I don't know who you are."

"Then what should you do?" she asked gently, seeing that the girl's attitude had softened.

"Then...then I'll apologize to you?" Ding Ning swallowed hard, glanced at his brother with pleading eyes, and when he saw that the other brother was also clenching his teeth and not saying a word, he came out from behind him with his head down and reluctantly said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just now."

He's a decent kid; when he saw his older brother get the short end of the stick, he took the initiative to stand up and admit his mistake, which is better than some bratty kids who refuse to admit it no matter what.

Lu Zhao remained silent and led Xia Zhifei and Messiah past the brother and sister, heading towards the innermost part of the house.

After they had walked away, Ding Ning cautiously tugged at her brother's sleeve, "Brother, are you alright?"

Ding Bo stood there in silence for a long time, then suddenly squatted down and hugged her. "Xiao Ning, it's my fault for being useless."

If he were any stronger, his younger sister wouldn't have to suffer such injustice.

"Ah... I'm actually fine," Ding Ning replied nonchalantly, not feeling humiliated at all.

She brought her brother along so that someone could back her up, but when she found that her brother couldn't support her either, she honestly admitted her mistake. This is the best way to avoid risks.

Bowing to the strong is a normal thing.

Confused, she hugged her brother back and whispered comfortingly, "At least we didn't fight. There were three of them; you would have been at a disadvantage, brother..."

Feeling his brother's grip tighten a little more, Ding Ning wisely chose to keep quiet.

……

"That kid is really strange. He was so arrogant just a moment ago, but his attitude has changed so drastically." Messiah muttered softly as she followed behind Lu Zhao.

Xia Zhifei glanced at her, chuckled, and said, "On the contrary, she's better at assessing the situation than her idiot brother. Ding Bo just stubbornly holds on, even though he can't even beat you..."

"I'm very strong too, okay!" Messiah blushed and couldn't help but shout in protest, "My martial arts skills are all family heirlooms!"

"Oh, then your family must have had a very tough time teaching you." The young lady retorted scathingly.

Messiah was about to argue when he heard Captain Lu say in a low voice, "Alright, there's no point in arguing. Why don't you two go outside and have a fight?"

The two immediately shut their mouths.

They're such a pair of clowns.

Lu Zhao felt his trigeminal nerve start to hurt again. He pushed open the door to the conference room, only to find it empty. He couldn't help but exclaim "Huh?"

"Hasn't Sister Song arrived yet?" Xia Zhifei glanced at her watch in surprise. "It's already fifteen minutes past the start time for work. She's usually not late."

"Could there be some mission delays?" Messiah muttered, taking out his phone to check. "Uh... Team One doesn't have any missions in progress today."

Song Lingge was late?

Lu Zhao felt there was something wrong with this, and immediately said, "Messiah, why don't you make a call and ask?"

"okay!"

The three of them casually found a seat and sat down. Seeing that several calls Messiah made were automatically disconnected because no one answered, the previously calm atmosphere suddenly became tense.

“Sister Song was never late before, nor would she skip work without a reason…” Xia Zhifei murmured, then suddenly stood up. “Ah Zhao, could something have happened to Sister Song? We have to go check on her!”

Lu Zhao nodded, "Okay, let's not take on any missions today. Let's go to her house together first."

From the moment her first call to Song Lingge was disconnected due to lack of answer, her heart inexplicably began to pound.