69: Chapter 68 A Leisurely Moment in Frankfurt: A Stolen Moment for Two

Casting aside the message from Yorinobu Arasaka, which was filled with contradictory implications, the NCX Orbital Air flight they were on touched down smoothly on the runway of Frankfurt Airport with a slight vibration.

As the cabin door opened, the air that flooded in carried a texture completely different from that of Night City.

There, it was a sweltering mix of exhaust fumes, sweat, cheap synthetic fragrances, and endless desire; here, it was a cool scent, carrying the moisture of the Rhine and a faint, elusive hint of rigorous industrial precision, as if derived from complex machinery.

V stood on the gangway, took a deep breath, and a bright joy bloomed on her face—the joy of being free from all missions and living purely for herself.

She naturally took Lin Yi's hand and stepped lightly into the flow of people, passing through the brightly lit, high-tech airport terminal.

However, this sense of high technology was quickly overshadowed by a unique "sense of order."

The ubiquitous standardized signs, the strictly divided walkways, and the staff whose facial expressions seemed programmed all exuded an unquestionable sense of regulation.

The entry inspection process was so meticulous it bordered on tedious, with every step requiring precise correspondence, as if they were not visiting travelers, but data packets that needed to be strictly archived.

"Last time I was here," V said, looking through the massive glass curtain wall at the neatly planned, tree-lined roads outside the airport, her tone filled with a nostalgia that felt like a lifetime ago and a fresh sense of excitement, "my eyes were only on the target's head and all possible escape routes. This time, we have to explore properly; you promised me." She squeezed Lin Yi's hand, emphasizing this expectation.

Lin Yi looked at her glowing side profile and pushed Arasaka's message to the back of his mind for now. At this moment, he only wanted to fulfill her small wish.

He squeezed her hand back, smiling in response, his tone full of doting affection: "Of course, I said I'm here to accompany you on vacation, so everything is up to you, Lily."

They did not stay at a run-of-the-mill chain hotel, but rather at a boutique hotel in the old town that V had carefully selected in advance.

The building's exterior was a weathered timber-framed structure, but the interior was warm and elegant, filled with the charm of history.

The room was not large, but pushing open the heavy wooden windows allowed them to see the winding cobblestone streets below, as well as the spires of the ancient buildings in the distant Römerberg square, shimmering with gold in the setting sun.

As soon as they put down their luggage, V couldn't wait to drag Lin Yi into the pulse of the city.

Like any ordinary couple in the world, they walked hand in hand along the banks of the Main River, watching the holographic swans elegantly glide across the dark green water. On the famous Iron Bridge, V insisted on hanging a lock symbolizing their love and mischievously engraved "V & Lin Yi, Locked for Life!" on it, before giggling and tossing the key into the churning river. They sat down outside a café in Römerberg square, sharing a sweet and satisfying Black Forest cake, watching the sunset like a skilled painter, slowly dyeing those ancient timber-framed houses a warm honey-gold.

Of course, they also experienced the local "specialty" for which the place was famous.

Just to rent a vehicle with cross-border authorization and performance sufficient to handle any potential "minor accidents," they had to face a dauntingly thick stack of forms, visit three different offices with overlapping yet distinct functions, and repeat their basic information countless times to those expressionless civil servants who seemed to need to file a report for every smile.

"Good god..." When she finally received that thin electronic key card, V dramatically rubbed her temples, feeling more exhausted than if she had gone through a high-intensity firefight, "I'd rather go back and have a shootout with Maelstrom; this was more mentally draining than cracking mid-level Arasaka ICE!"

Lin Yi was also feeling rather helpless due to the long and inefficient process, but seeing V pouting, looking as if she had suffered a great injustice, he suddenly found it extremely amusing.

He reached out, gently pinched her smooth cheek, and comforted her: "Look on the bright side, at least here, we don't have to worry about bullets flying in from inexplicable angles at any moment, do we? Is this... the other side of order?"

For dinner, they chose a traditional restaurant hidden deep in an alleyway, featuring an arched stone cellar.

Candlelight danced on the ancient stone walls, creating an incredibly romantic and private atmosphere.

The local specialty apple wine tasted crisp, with a slightly tart fruity aroma and just the right amount of fizz.

Wrapped in the warmth of a slight buzz, V's cheeks flushed with an alluring rosy hue, and her eyes were more dewy and bright than usual. Under the table, her booted foot lifted gently, brushing against Lin Yi's lower leg, almost imperceptibly.

"Yi, do you remember?" She leaned forward slightly, lowering her voice with a hint of lazy, seductive amusement, "Back at the Japantown apartment, when we first officially met... you weren't as... 'obedient' as you are now."

She deliberately drew out her tone, her eyes shimmering, "Taking advantage of when I was troubled, pretending to be some world-weary veteran to 'counsel' me, while hitting on me. Thinking back now, your acting back then was really funny, but somehow, I still fell for you."

Lin Yi accurately caught her restless fingers on the table, gripped them tightly, and mischievously scratched her sensitive palm with his fingertips, responding to her flirting: "How could I have predicted back then that the now-renowned V in Night City would, in private, actually be such a little scatterbrain who could barely handle a few car rental forms?"

"Hmph! You're slandering me again." V gave him a playful glare and tried to pull her hand back, but he held it even tighter. "That was definitely the system's fault! It had nothing to do with my own abilities!" She argued stubbornly, but the smile welling up in her eyes betrayed her true feelings.

When they returned to the hotel room, the night was already deep.

The lights of Frankfurt shone through the wooden window lattices, casting hazy and ambiguous light and shadows into the room.

The moment the door clicked shut, it felt as if all connections to the outside world had been severed.

V paused for barely a second before turning and pushing Lin Yi against the cold door panel. Her warm, soft lips, carrying the sweet scent of apple wine, pressed against his—urgent, passionate, and filled with an undeniable possessiveness.

The relaxation and leisure of the day and the slight intoxication of the night merged perfectly at this moment, turning into the most primal and direct desire, silently spreading and burning between them.

Their clothes had scattered messily onto the soft carpet from the door to the bedside at some point, like ambiguous territory markers left along the way.

When the cool air made contact with their increasingly hot skin, V whispered in his ear with hot, breathless gasps, her voice full of triumphant cunning and expectation: "Right now... there won't be that oblivious guy Jackie to disturb us... and there are no damned missions that require us to risk our lives..."

Lin Yi's answer was a deeper, more lingering kiss, as if he wanted to suck out their very souls and merge them together.

His palms seemed to carry a searing temperature, lingering and exploring the smooth curves of her waist and back, igniting clusters of invisible flames wherever they touched.

Outside the window, the silent night view of Frankfurt had completely become a blurred backdrop. Inside the room, only the symphony composed of their intertwined, increasingly rapid breathing and heartbeats remained, along with the slight, continuous creaking sounds from the antique-style synthetic wooden bed frame, until the night deepened and all fell silent...

The next day, near noon, the two of them woke up lazily from a deep sleep.

Brilliant sunlight stubbornly pierced through the gaps in the heavy curtains, cutting several bright beams of light into the dim room, and the air was still filled with the lingering, romantic, and warm scent of last night.

V, like a cat that had finally been satisfied, curled up in Lin Yi's warm embrace, her fingers unconsciously drawing meaningless circles on his solid chest.

"What's next... where should we go to have fun?" She asked lazily, her voice still carrying a hint of husky sleepiness.

Lin Yi lowered his head, kissed the top of her fragrant hair, and wrapped his arms tighter around her, feeling this incredibly precious peace and warmth stolen from amidst the war and conspiracy.

"Whatever you want." His voice was equally relaxed, "Didn't we agree? This whole week, the time is yours, my Lady Lily."

However, in the deepest part of his perception, a faint, elusive sensation, like a small pebble thrown into water that was enough to ripple outward, gently spread.

That was the feedback from "Baize" after passively sensing the vast, orderly cyberspace deep within this ancient land, which was completely different from Night City.

A certain indescribable sense of being watched, or rather, the cold order of this cyberspace itself—seamless and rejecting all "variables"—made him remain slightly on guard even in this relaxed atmosphere.

Here, danger might only be temporarily distanced, or perhaps it was lurking nearby in another form, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

But this momentary, stolen peace—he was determined, no matter what, to protect the beauty in his arms and the friendship by his side to the very end.