Infrastructure Throne

While everyone was drinking, the officiant and the city lord sneaked away.

Today's City Lord's Mansion rested early, and most of the attendants went home except for those who helped in the banquet hall and the back kitchen.The corridor on the third floor was empty.

As the new year of the dawn calendar approaches, the cold evening wind blows over the carved and hollowed-out railings, and the branches of Zhidie flowers hanging on the window sills are gently swaying.

Footsteps sounded in the quiet corridor, and Shen Qingze walked all the way to his bedroom with Yan Zui.

Shen Qingze opened the door and stepped into the room first.

Yan Zui leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, long soft hair hanging from his shoulders, half of his face was illuminated by the snowy moonlight, and the wine red at the end of his eyes was diluted into a faint pink.

He looked at Shen Qingze with a half-smile: "Master Officiant, you secretly brought me to your room at night, you are in a dark place, what kind of bad idea are you planning?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Qingze turned his head and glanced at him: "Wait for me at the door."

After all, he slammed the door shut.

Yan Zui: "..."

The city lord, who was shut outside the door and blown by the cold wind, had to have deep doubts about his own charm again.

No, this must be Shen Qingze's problem!

Yan Zui leaned against the door, squinted his drunken eyes, looked up at the bright moon in the sky, gently rubbed the uneven pattern of the floor tiles with his toes, as if this could loosen a crack in the cold stone for him to sneak in.

Just when he was getting impatient and about to break in, the bedroom door suddenly opened from the inside.

Yan Zui was caught off guard, and fell into a warm embrace. Shen Qingze embraced him with one hand, lowered his head and lowered his eyes, and raised his eyebrows lightly: "City Lord, can't you be a little more reserved?"

Their gazes meet under the moonlight, Yan Zui blinks, grabs the other's arm and straightens up, but doesn't rush to let go, his eyes turn up and down on him: "Where's the gift?"

Shen Qingze carried a small wooden box in his right hand, felt the candlelight, and led Yan Zui up to the empty platform on the roof.

The square bazaar was bustling, and the noisy voices came from afar.

All around is the silent night, only the two lamps on the porch faintly illuminate two pieces of warm yellow circular light and shadow.

The bitter evening wind surrounded the two of them, Yan Zui wrapped himself in a sable fur cloak, and the white smoke breathed in and out along with his mouth and nose, but staying by Shen Qingze's side, the cold seemed to be negligible of.

All his attention was focused on that mysterious little square box, his eyes were clear: "What's in it?"

Shen Qingze didn't make a sound, just took out a cylindrical cardboard tube with the mouth of a bowl from the box, Yan Zui curiously poked his head out from behind him, and saw a thick rope leading in the center of the tube.

Yan Zui was taken aback: "What is this?"

Shen Qingze motioned him to step back, took out the torch and lit the fuse, then stepped back quickly, standing side by side with Yan Zui.

Yan Zui didn't know why, so he wanted to ask again, when he suddenly heard a slight burning sound, he turned his head, and suddenly the brilliance in front of him——

With a sound of "咻", a golden spark burst out.

Sparks scattered in mid-air into countless tiny light spots, with long smoke tails, depicting the trajectory of branch branches.

The gorgeous colors are in full bloom in the dark night, and the shining stars are blown by the wind, like a grand meteor shower falling in front of your eyes.

Yan Zui's eyes were wide open, and his pupils were shining brightly, reflecting a dazzling golden fire tree, which was so beautiful that it made one's heart intoxicated.

After a while, the fireworks burned to the end and the embers were extinguished, Yan Zui looked deeply at Shen Qingze: "How did you do it, to pick off the stars from the sky?"

Shen Qingze laughed: "It's not a star. It's fireworks. This kind of floor-standing one is called Fire Tree Silver Flower."

Yan Zui's gaze was too bright, and Shen Qingze couldn't help it, and couldn't help emphasizing: "It's just made with leftover materials when developing black powder. It's just a fresh look."

Yan Zui let out a long "Oh": "How long have you been preparing for this?"

Shen Qingze staggered the other party's gaze: "It hasn't been long, I just made it casually, I wanted to wait until the New Year to take it out to make the city lively, but it's okay to show you first."

"I still want to see, is there any more?" Yan Zui propped his elbows on the railing, propped his cheeks, turned his head to look at him, pressed the tip of his tongue against his lower teeth, and licked it lightly, looking like he still couldn't finish it.

Shen Qingze seemed to have expected that he would say this, and silently took one out of the wooden box and put it on the ground, and lit it.

"This is the last one."

He retreated to Yan Zui's side, and together with him, quietly enjoyed a new round of meteor shower.

At that time, the moonlight was clear, Yan Zui approached at some point, there was a faint noise from the square market in the distance, fireworks were in full bloom nearby, and sparks were burning.

However, Shen Qingze felt extremely peaceful, and all the sounds near her ears faded away in the haze.

"Qingze." Yan Zui called him softly.

Shen Qingze turned her head subconsciously, a bit of cool softness flashed across the corners of her lips, in the vast night, beside the brilliant fireworks, under the dim lights, in a secluded place with no one.

"Your gift, I like it very much." Yan Zui's deep voice rang in his ears.

Shen Qingze opened his eyes slightly, the touch disappeared as soon as he touched it, and in a blink of an eye there was only an empty breeze, as if everything was just his own illusion, even the mysterious increase in favorability prompted by the system was ignored by him.

"Yan Zui..." He stared at the other party with his dark eyes, touched his lips with his fingertips, then moved his gaze away, landed somewhere in nothingness, and said slowly, "You drank too much tonight."

"Hush——" Yan Zui raised a finger and pressed it against the bright red lips, with the tails of his long and narrow eyes slightly raised, seven points lazy, three points drunk, "Do you remember those little toys in my room?"

Shen Qingze raised her eyes, waiting for the next sentence.

"When I was young, my father was very strict with me. He hoped that I would become a majestic and iron-blooded city lord. Therefore, he didn't like me indulging in these childish pleasures."

Yan Zui's eyes were far away, falling on the dim lights in the distance.

"But I really like them, because only they will accompany my loneliness, share my joy, share my pain, be loyal to me, and never leave."

"Every time my father smashed one, I tried every means to stick one back. It was impossible to restore it, so I tried my best to ask my grandma to accompany me to make one. I dug countless holes in the room, backyard, and school grounds to collect my treasures. us."

"Whoever dares to snatch it, I will beat him until his teeth are all over the place."

Shen Qingze couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth: "I didn't expect the City Lord to be so naughty in his childhood."

A meaningful smile appeared on Yan Zui's lips: "As long as it's what I like, what I want, no matter what it is, no matter who opposes it, no matter who obstructs it, I will persist until the end."

"If I like someone, I must get him."

His hot, almost paranoid eyes almost cornered Shen Qingze.

Shen Qingze's mouth was dry, he opened his mouth a few times, but he didn't know what to say. After a while, he frowned slightly, and said in a hoarse voice: "Yan Zui, people are not toys."

"Of course not." Yan Zui said regretfully, "My toys never reject me."

Shen Qingze: "..."

"What if," Shen Qingze struggled to choose his words, "some things are destined to have no results?"

"There is nothing destined or not." Yan Zui slightly raised his chin, as if he had absolute confidence in himself, "That's just an excuse for the cowardly to comfort himself."

Shen Qingze was speechless for a moment, and said in a low voice: "But many things in the world are not as expected."

Yan Zui stared at him for a long time, then smiled slightly, his black eyes were filled with starlight, as if filled with a spring reflecting the moon: "So—"

With the tip of his tongue against his teeth, he said slowly: "My liking has nothing to do with anyone, no matter what the result is, it has nothing to do with anyone."

The last bouquet of fireworks burned out when the sparks were the hottest, and there was a lingering smell of gunpowder in the air.

Just like Yan Zui himself, strong and gorgeous, it will last until death.

Through the lingering smoke, Shen Qingze looked at him silently. He was dressed in black and had black hair, and his posture leaning against the railing had a kind of solemn beauty.

A corner of his black cloak was blown by the cold wind, like an eagle that just wanted to ride the wind and spread its wings, ready to blend into the boundless night at any time.

Shen Qingze has never met such a person as Yan Zui, nor can he be classified into any group of people.

But he also felt that such words and such tone of voice were indeed what Yan Zui would say.

※※※

That night, Shen Qingze didn't know how he got back to his bedroom.

When entering the room, the calf-high duck was hugging a huge energy crystal nucleus, gnawing fragrantly, while Ah Bai Tuan was beside him, sleeping soundly. Sleeping like a hibernating white bear.

Shen Qingze checked the pet pen, but found nothing unusual, except that the canine teeth were sharper than before.

He lit the oil lamp, and at the desk read the summary of various data submitted by Fan Mizhou, as well as the tax report submitted by Luo Xin.

The densely packed words on the document seemed to suddenly become unfamiliar, Shen Qingze read a few lines with great difficulty, but couldn't read them anymore.

Calling out the system interface, the mysterious favorability has unknowingly risen to sixty.

Shen Qingze pinched the center of her frowning brows, a little upset, but couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if it continued to rise until it reached seventy or eighty, or even full value...

With the egotistical and strong personality of the city lord, he may not know what he will do.

Is it because I am too indulgent?

Shen Qingze threw away the paperwork, his eyes fell on the two gray woolen gloves on the table, he sighed helplessly, the matter of feelings is as messy and unreasonable as the threads on these gloves.

He changed into his nightgown and lay down under the quilt. Amidst his disturbed thoughts, he gradually fell asleep...

※※※

The fair came to an end, and the foreign businessmen took a large amount of goods and set off on their way home contentedly.

With their word of mouth, the reputation of Abyssal City will quickly spread throughout the surrounding cities and towns in a very short period of time.

The New Year is just around the corner, and the entire City Lord's Mansion is busy.

At noon, Shen Qingze had just returned from inspection of the suburban workshop area, and entered the room dressed in frost.

He hadn't had time to go to the fireplace to enjoy the fire, but as soon as he entered the door, he noticed that the atmosphere was not right.

Yan Zui squinted, and sat on the main seat expressionlessly, with his elbows propped on both sides of the armrests, his fingers crossed on his chest, and he was so focused in his thoughts that he didn't even notice when Shen Qingze came back.

Beside the discussion table, Fan Mizhou, Luo Xin and other people were all present, all with serious faces and frowning.

Xiao Meng held his sword and stood beside Yan Zui, his spine as straight as a gun, full of murderous aura.

Shen Qingze walked to Yan Zui's side calmly, opened the chair and sat down, his eyes slowly swept across everyone's faces, frowned, and asked in a low voice: "What happened?"

Fan Mizhou bowed to him and said in a solemn tone:

"This morning, the police sentry of the guards came to report that they found traces of suspected animal slaves hunting in the foggy forest on the outskirts of the city."

Shen Qingze raised his eyebrows: "Don't the orcs live on nomads and hunting?"

Fan Mizhou's cheeks tightened: "You don't know, they will only hunt north of the Grand Canyon, and they will take high risks to appear on the edge of human cities. According to past experience, there is only one possibility..."

Shen Qingze suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart.

"—Beast slaves can't find enough food in the Grand Canyon!"