Modern Teyvat, bound to the Abyss Spiral

"Let's go. The black-hearted capitalist has booked the whole place today. I haven't eaten Xinyuexuan's food in half a year." Ye Lan stretched and walked towards the door of Xinyuexuan.

There were two hostesses standing on both sides of Xinyuexuan. When they saw Ye Lan and Li Qingping, they bowed slightly, informed them that the backstage staff had arrived, and started preparing the dishes.

Under the guidance of the staff, Li Qingping and Ye Lan arrived at the private room.

The door opens to a bright yellow hand-embroidered screen, and after walking around it, you will see the host of this event.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Ningguang."

------

PS

I didn't get to see Gundam, but Ergenmon is even more powerful.

See you tomorrow...

Volume 1: 123. Ye Lan: Beware of Fire, Theft, and Best Friends

Li Qingping actually had a rough portrait of Ningguang in his mind - a woman of similar age to Ye Lan, with outstanding temperament and good looks.

But when he really saw him in person, he was still amazed by his appearance.

Her long, platinum-colored hair was tied up high, pinned only by a black lacquer hairpin. The fine strands fell to her calves, and the carefully styled hair on either side of her head fell naturally in front of her chest. Her scarlet eyes seemed gentle at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they seemed profound, as if she were gazing into a bottomless lake, making her feel unapproachable.

Li Qingping felt that the owner of this pair of eyes should also have such concerns, so he added tassels of the same color as the eyes on his forehead, which added a bit of charm and reduced aloofness.

Ningguang has a delicate face and fair skin. When she saw Li Qingping and Ye Lan, she stood up to greet them. The smile on her face was sincere, making people feel like they were in the spring breeze.

Thanks to Ningguang's courtesy, Li Qingping was able to get a glimpse of the clothing of this wealthy man from Liyue.

She wore a low-cut cheongsam in gold, white and black. She wore flesh-colored stockings on her exposed thighs and a pair of low-heeled shoes. The hem of the cheongsam was shaped like a bird's tail, and there was a golden phoenix pattern on the collar. Her waist was decorated with a dark golden fan-shaped decoration and a rock-attributed divine eye.

A beautiful lady with a classic charm and good taste in her outfit, she is worthy of being his former boss!

"Why are you standing there like an idiot? Don't you always call me Sister Ningguang? Why are you so silent now that we're apart?" Ye Lan walked right past Ningguang and sat down at the dining table. She poured herself a cup of tea without hesitation and began to sip. "Tsk tsk, this is the new tea for the spring. Ningguang, you're a bit too attentive. That handsome guy already has quite a few girlfriends."

"Sister Ningguang looks so young, I'm afraid I'll sound old to her."

"Whenever you come to my house, you don't drink the best tea."

The strangeness between the two when they first met was completely dispelled by Ye Lan's few words, and Ningguang and Li Qingping became part of the same camp.

"Good evening, Sister Ningguang. I'm Li Qingping, a senior at Liyue Second Middle School."

Ningguang was stunned and amused by Li Qingping's self-introduction.

"My family was poor when I was little, and I dropped out of kindergarten." She followed Li Qingping's format and did it again.

The two smiled at each other, shook hands lightly, and each found a seat to sit down.

Ye Lan looked meaningfully at Ningguang, who was covering her mouth with her hands and laughing, then waved to call the waiters from Xinyuexuan and told them to serve the dishes.

I didn’t know you loved to laugh so much before!

The dining table in the private room is not very big, and can seat seven or eight people at most. There are only three people dining there now, so it is quite spacious.

"I'm not used to wasting money, so I asked for a small private room. Please don't mind if the hospitality is not good enough."

Ningguang smiled and looked at Li Qingping with her rosy cheeks, ready to see his reaction.

She collected a lot of information about the boy in front of her, even down to his daily habits.

Judging from the information, Li Qingping is also a frugal person, but I don’t know if he has changed now that he is in a high position.

Money and power are the easiest ways to change a person. No matter how Ye Lan praised Li Qingping's excellence in front of her, she still wanted to try it herself.

"Well, Sister Ningguang and I are very similar. We don't like to waste things either. This table is probably too much for the three of us."

Li Qingping blurted out the answer with a calm expression. At least Ningguang couldn't see anything unusual.

"You are just too suspicious. This guy just likes the money he earns and the group of girls around him!" Ye Lan teased Ningguang without any hesitation.

"Only three or four...how can they be a group!" Li Qingping was not very confident, especially since he had to ask Ningguang if she had a professional lawyer to help him with his lifelong affairs.

"Three or four people like him really aren't too many." Ningguang thought about it. Li Qingping was young and handsome, and she felt that he was to her liking.

Ye Lan didn't say anything. The dishes were basically ready. The chopsticks in her hand were almost gone, and her mouth never stopped eating.

She...seems like she really came here to eat!

Ningguang was used to her best friend's behavior and started chatting with Li Qingping in a low voice.

"You've been a huge help in developing the Mondstadt market. Barbara's temporary agent said she wouldn't accept my endorsement without you."

"The products of Sister Ningguang's company are inexpensive and of excellent quality. They actually have nothing to do with me."

"Your current status is special, so I won't mention money, to avoid getting arrested and taken to the Liyue Police Station." Ningguang glanced at Ye Lan, who was busy eating. "If you need any help in the future, just ask me directly."

"Sister Ningguang, you're too polite. Maybe you'll still be my leader from now on."

It was a foregone conclusion that Ningguang would take over Tianquan Star. Secretary-General Yue Haiting had told Li Qingping this in person.

"It's just a piece of cake for you. Let's not talk about this anymore. Let's eat."

The dinner officially started at this point. Ye Lan and Ning Guang had a few drinks, and Li Qingping, who was only drinking beverages, naturally did not join in.

Xinyuexuan is worthy of its reputation as the leader of "moon dishes". The chef's skills are superb, and the seafood fished from Yunlai Sea today made Li Qingping enjoy the meal.

The three of them ate for almost an hour and barely finished all the food on the table.

Ding ding ding.

Ye Lan picked up the phone, frowned and replied that she would be there soon.

"What happened, Sister Lan?" Li Qingping asked after wiping his mouth.

"It's just a minor issue. I can handle it by myself." Ye Lan picked up her bag, walked to the door of the private room, turned around and said to Li Qingping, "I won't take you home today. Find a way out yourself."

Without waiting for Li Qingping's response, she walked out the door.

Only after the rhythmic footsteps completely disappeared around the corner did the two people in the private room speak again.

"She's busier than I am. Luckily, I recruited you over a while ago. Otherwise, I wouldn't have seen her for half a month." Ningguang raised her glass to Li Qingping and drank it all in one gulp. "Thank you."

Some best friends are very close to each other on a daily basis, but they don’t know what bad things they say about each other in private in front of others.

But Ye Lan and Ning Guang are different. They insult each other openly, but speak well of each other secretly.

"I'm not working for Sister Lan anymore, so I can only help her as much as I can. Before, the price was clearly stated, so there was no question of thanking her or not." Li Qingping said frankly, "Sister Lan is also a good friend of mine."

"But I have a small matter to ask Sister Ningguang." Li Qingping said again.

"You have far more power in Liyue than I do. Tell me what's going on. I may not be able to help you."

"Can anyone recommend me a professional lawyer who specializes in criminal law?"

Looking at Li Qingping's somewhat vague eyes, Ningguang's expression became strange.

"I know someone. She's my company's legal advisor. She's well-versed in criminal and civil law and has won many cases for me."

"Do you have a history of exploiting legal loopholes... ahem, I mean experience."

"Does defending a death-row defendant who was ultimately acquitted and then sending the judge who presided over the case to prison count as experience?"

"Great, this is the person I'm looking for!"

Li Qingping's eyes lit up, and he saw a happy life beckoning him.

"This is her business card, the same number as her Fetion number. Tell her I recommended her, and she'll definitely take it to heart."

Li Qingping took the business card Ningguang handed over and took a look at it.

In the center of the business card it says - Yan Fei, a righteous lawyer.

I want a lawyer with a strong sense of justice!

This concerns the marriage of several young girls. Could there be anything more just than this?

"I'll ask about it later. There's no rush for this." Li Qingping quickly put the business card away. "Sister Ningguang, how much do you know about Team Qiongyu?"

Ningguang looked up at Li Qingping with surprise, then calmed down.

"How did you know that? Ye Lan won't mention this to outsiders."

"Back when we were at Zhudian Fang, Ye Lan mentioned a few teammates she had. Although it ended abruptly, she wasn't in the right state that night. I took note of it and only found out about it today after looking through her file."

Ningguang nodded slightly, opened the handbag on the table, and took out a pack of women's cigarettes and a lighter from it. The cigarettes were the same type as Ye Lan's.

"Do you mind if I have one?"

Ningguang also spoke without waiting for Li Qingping's response and lit it directly, just like Ye Lan.

These two are really best friends, even their habits are the same!

The familiar mint aroma spread along with the white smoke exhaled from Ningguang's mouth and floated in the air.

"I don't know anything about the Qiongyu team, but Ye Lan came to me three years ago."

"She somehow got the news that I was interested in running for the Liyue Seven Stars."

"That night, after a social event, I returned home and turned on the light to see her sitting on the sofa with her back to me. 'Let's work together. I'll help you clear obstacles and provide you with all the useful information. Once you become a Seven Star, you only need to promise me one thing.'"

Ningguang suddenly smiled, extinguished the half-burned cigarette in her hand, and lit another one.

"I was thinking, 'This person is so arrogant!' I had so much money at the time that I couldn't spend it all in several lifetimes, and she was about the same age as me. What could she possibly give me?"

"Then Ye Lan threw down some documents and said he would come back to see me tomorrow, and then he left."

"I was halfway through calling the police when I saw the contents of those documents."

Li Qingping asked curiously, "What document?"

"Someone couldn't bear to see me, someone without any status or background, rise to power. They colluded with Liyue officials and planned to set me up. If I jumped in, the money I could spend in several lifetimes would probably be wasted." Ningguang took a deep drag on her cigarette and coughed a few times. She didn't usually smoke, so it was a bit uncomfortably. "That night I was thinking about what to do. The next day, all the officials listed in the documents as having set up the trap were sent to the Liyue police station."

"Sister Lan did it." Li Qingping was sure.

"Well, she came again the next night. I asked her what the matter was, considering she could easily have sent several corrupt officials to jail. It was raining that night, dark clouds covered the sky, and there were thunder and lightning, but even that couldn't compare to the chilling coldness of her words—'Reopen the investigation into the destruction of the Qiongyu Squad in the name of the Seven Stars.'"

"I agreed. We gradually became close friends, close friends, even close friends. Becoming a Seven Star has been a successful endeavor, step by step. But that guy still talks in his sleep, and it's always about the team's demise."

"Perhaps when she was sound asleep, the faces of old friends appeared in her dreams. She was trapped in the past and had never actually left it."

Ningguang put out the cigarette in her hand, walked to the side and opened the window to ventilate.

"She's much better now, and I think you have contributed to it."

Li Qingping opened his mouth slightly, not expecting that there was something about him in it.

"After returning from Zhudianfang, her sleep talk changed, and you occupied half of the content."

"Sister Lan, you must be worried about me." Li Qingping said.

"I see." Ningguang smiled. "Something about you having to come back. I'm a light sleeper to begin with, and listening to this so late at night is a bit too much."

"..."

"Has Sister Lan found anything out in these years?"

"Yuntian, a descendant of the first Kaiyang Star. Ye Lan is almost certain that the incident back then was his plan, except for the lack of evidence. The Qiongyu team's discovery in the Layered Abyss threatened Yuntian's plan. He did not hesitate to expose his hidden agents in Liyue and trapped Ye Lan's teammates in the Layered Abyss forever."

Upon hearing this, Li Qingping heaved a long sigh: "So, Yuntian must die."

"Liyue isn't a monolithic entity. The Emperor absorbed many of the Demon God's subjects back then, and they all harbored ulterior motives. You should be familiar with the affairs of the Silver Plains Society, right?"

Li Qingping nodded: "Those are the people of the Salt Demon God."

"That Wanyan is actually connected to Yuntian, but Ye Lan hasn't found any evidence yet, so she can't touch her for now. For example, the Abyss Cult and the Whirlpool Church... Yuntian's influence is all over them." Ningguang sighed with emotion. "This old senior is completely obsessed with crooked ways. He truly disgraces the reputation of our ancestors!"

"Thank you, Sister Ningguang, for clearing up my confusion."

"What are you planning to do?" Ningguang stared at Li Qingping with a hint of curiosity. "The thing Yuntian regrets most now is letting Ye Lan live until now. I wonder how many of his plans have been ruined."

She really wanted to know how far Li Qingping could go for Ye Lan.

"I don't have any special abilities, but if something wants to hurt Sister Lan, a shuriken might be useful."

Clouds began to fall outside the window, and dark clouds were pressing down on the horizon. Time seemed to have reversed. Ningguang seemed to have returned to the night when she first met Ye Lan. The same cold and chilling expression appeared on the face of the young man in front of her.

If a man who saved a boat in the middle of the ocean says he has no ability, it is probably just modesty.

But the murderous intent on his face wouldn't lie, he really could kill.

Ningguang now understood why Li Qingping had a place in Ye Lan's night talk.

If it were her...it would probably be the same.