Chapter 67: Let Me Give You A Mission

There were a couple of things that happened yesterday that rendered Ying Yue He speechless and nearly in a daze. The foremost was Luo Ju Di and her child, when Ying Yue He's heart was soaring—it ended up dropping and sinking when the two had arrived. She was even the one who had to make on-the-spot arrangements for them, and while she was trying to make peace with the idea...

Her boss brought the tea.

It should have been simple enough—make the man some tea. It was what any secretary would do for their boss, and yet she was also curious. The canister that the CEO handed to her looked traditional and something that might have been available in the past.

Heating water and mixing in some powdered tea was simple enough, and yet she had seen nothing like this. "He wouldn't buy that expensive tea now, would he?" she asked herself with a dubious look. "Or he wouldn't buy anything strange either."

Throughout the years that she worked with him, she could tell that he was mostly practical save for the occasional splurges. His suits were topnotch quality—she had confirmed it with her own hands. Ying Yue He's cheeks turned red but only grew stronger. Why did she think that she would have a chance?

Was it his fault for asking her out to a date?

"Or is it mine for getting the wrong idea?"

Ying Yue He placed the teapot on a tray and picked up a teacup. The man didn't give her the scroll, but only insisted that she prepare it on her own. He had only glanced at the scroll once and told her to make a teapot with six teaspoons at a heat of around 100°C before heading back to his office.

The secretary poured a small amount of the fragrant tea into another spare cup, a dark red hue filled the teacup and she would take a sip. A powerful scent would overcome her senses—

The scroll that came along with the tea had instructions on preparations, not as specific as the instructions that Li Yang gave his secretary, as there was no form of measurement of temperature before. Instead, it only contained how many times one should drink it to take advantage of the benefits of it, so the heat probably didn't matter as much as simply in taking it.

Root Blossoming Tea

Dosage for Mortals

- drink two-three cups every eight hours

- drink with an empty stomach

Dosage for Cultivators

- Cultivators in the lower realms, stages of Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment can take this at a similar rate as mortals '

- Cultivators in higher realms, stages of Core Formation and higher must intake at least twenty pots to benefit to a similar extent as that of mortals

Li Yang considered himself a mortal—well, he was in Qi Condensation at the initial phase, and so there wasn't much trouble. He would drink and benefit, strengthen his roots. He had brought the canister as well for an afternoon drink and he would simply do that.

"Meditation and cultivation at night." he said to himself. Or possibly to the observer floating beside him. The man would stop once he moved away from the parking lot and headed to his office, his suitcase, laptop bag and tea with him.

"Good morning, Mister Li," Ying Yue He greeted him with a smile. The woman had stood up from her seat and bowed slightly, and when she looked up, there was a certain glow to her features.

Compared to the mess of yesterday, things were more or less settled now in the office. It made sense that his secretary would be at more ease today that he thought of it; he had little chance to thank her properly. "Ah, good morning, Miss He. Thank you for your help yesterday,"

She blinked at him, "I only did what you have asked of me. You have nothing to thank for, sir."

Ying Yue He didn't mention anything, and even the look on her face was one that showed some surprise and confusion. It was truly as if things were normal and nothing of note had happened… He didn't think that she would act this way—but the woman could still surprise him.

The Panda reappeared over his shoulder and pushed his face, "She's giving you the cold shoulder if you ask me."

He didn't know her that much outside of their interactions, and yet he would disagree with the creature's assessment. His secretary wouldn't be someone who'd suddenly turn like that. Li Yang cleared his throat, "Very well, please keep up your hard work, Miss He. Is there anything urgent that I need to know right now? Has something come up while I was gone?"

The board meeting was coming up, the reason his brother was here in the first place.

"Nothing of note, sir, and as for your current schedule—I've already emailed the other day regarding it. Would you like me to resend it?"

He shook his head and instead presented her with the tea canister. "No need. I'd like you to brew me another pot of tea around 2pm? I leave this in your care."

"Will do, Mister Li."

And so that would be most of their interaction in the morning. There was no influx of charm points but no deductions either—and so Li Yang dismissed the ideas of the Panda as something that they've concluded incorrectly. Even if the creature would make jabs at him in his office, it was easy enough to tune it out or ask for it to kindly shut up.

"—ah, this is so boring!" the Panda groaned. Its furry head was at the end of the sofa's armrest, and it nearly tipped and leaned back enough that it might have fallen off if it weren't able to balance correctly.

Li Yang looked up from his documents and raised a brow. "Do you not have other people to watch over to?"

"What?"

"Instead of allocating simply one creature like you to someone with a System like me—wouldn't it be better to rotate around many people with similar situations to capture more interesting things?" Li Yang shrugged. "I doubt that discussing KPIs would be of much interest to you or that of the spectators."

"What the heck is a KPI?"

"Key Performance Indicators—I'm rechecking the slides and documents that will be distributed to the board during the meeting." he said. A momentary smile flicked on his face, "There's been a certain increase in revenue again, which is a relief despite some certain lapses in the economy's growth as of late.."

"...and this is the face that the Heavens want to watch." the Panda pressed a paw to its face, "You sound like some kind of nerd? Geek? You're all so happy that I want to puke."

Li Yang shook his head. "You're free to go if you wish and come back around later?"

"I bet when I go away that's the time where exciting things happen." the Panda grumbled. "I was gone for a day and then you got involved with cultivators from this city! Heck, what else did you do during that day?"

"That was also the time I ate dinner with Miss He? The cook was a cultivator who saw my condition and confirmed that it was qi deviation." Li Yang shrugged.

He could remember some interest of the 'Observers' on one of the hires in Shen Society and idly wondered if he could use it for his own benefit. He could at least surmise that most of the Observers were probably close to females more than anything else.

And yet that wasn't in his plans, and neither was talking with the creature right now.

But its complaints were enough to disturb him when it got especially whiny. "Hmm…" he rubbed his chin for a moment. "What if I give you a mission?"

"What the heck did you just say?" the Panda stood up on its feet and jabbed a paw at him. "The System provides you missions, and I'm here as an observer—you can't just order me around!"

"If you're bored and there's nothing to see here," Li Yang shrugged. "Perhaps you could do some recon for me?"

"What do you even want me to check on?"

"I can't be everywhere at once, but it's vital to learn of other events happening in the background—for example, I do not know the whereabouts of my brother, what the shopkeeper at the black market has done to the objects I traded him with and even what the Shen Society are doing?"

"Like I said—I'm not some slave for you to boss around!"

He stared back at the creature. "You'd be a spy crossing through enemy territory?"

"You're making it sound cooler than it's supposed to be."

"It would be much more helpful to me than you disturbing me from work." Li Yang's gaze returned to his documents, "I think that would benefit me more than you doing social commentary of every little interaction that were to happen between me and of other people—speaking of which, I appreciated you pretending to excuse yourself to give me and Miss Lifen time together."

"I wasn't lying at all! I had to rid myself of all that kid's weird psychic energy and then when I came back—you were already in a make-out session with that chick. Heck, I thought you weren't interested, but it seems like I was wrong. Same goes for that woman."

Li Yang raised a brow, "Did you say psychic?"

"You just had to ignore everything else I said, didn't you?"