93: Chapter 93 Jiang Jiuyou's face and figure!

"Boss."

The silver-haired woman spoke.

Her voice was low, revealing the indifference characteristic of someone who had long held a position of authority.

It wasn't deliberately imposing, but every word landed with weight.

"Hot water, six rations, and let's see what valuable intelligence you have."

The proprietress's fox ears twitched twice.

She recognized the newcomer.

"Ms. Jiang, welcome. It's the early morning hours, so there's a ten percent service charge."

Jiang Jiuyou.

The controller of the Jiang Consortium's Shadow Department.

Chen Chen leaned behind a load-bearing pillar, his gaze passing through the gaps in the liquor shelf and landing on the silver-haired woman's profile.

This was his first time seeing Jiang Jiuyou in person.

He had seen her once before in a holographic projection on Su Xiaoqi's communicator, but the difference between the projection and the real person was absurdly large.

She was thinner than in the projection, her jawline as sharp as if carved by a knife.

Her coat was unbuttoned, its hem swaying slightly as she walked. The inner lining clung to her body, revealing a flat abdomen, yet the curve of her chest was distinct—not the exaggerated kind of voluptuousness, but a sharp, fitting intensity that blended seamlessly with her entire demeanor.

Beautiful.

Beautiful enough to make one feel the urge to "grab her and take a bite."

Chen Chen suppressed this thought.

His current situation was delicate.

Su Xiaoqi had been snatched from the hands of the Jiang Consortium. In their last communication, he had even brazenly blackmailed Jiang Jiuyou for three scarce A-grade materials.

Adding these two accounts together, the relationship between the two parties couldn't be called friendly.

Moreover, he was currently alone, and the Ghost Fortress was still over three hundred kilometers away.

He wasn't afraid of her, but there was no need to invite unnecessary trouble in a place like this.

The proprietress professionally guided Jiang Jiuyou and her group toward the counter, never once glancing in the direction where Chen Chen was hiding.

Professional.

Jiang Jiuyou sat down on a high stool opposite the bar, undid her coat's belt, and leaned back.

The moment her coat opened, the lines of her figure outlined by the inner lining became even clearer—narrow shoulders, a slender waist, and long legs.

Her military boots rested on the stool's crossbar, one leg crossed over the other.

"How long can one stay in this place?" Jiang Jiuyou asked the proprietress.

"The tavern's protective field covers a radius of thirty meters, and within this range, there will be no attacks from aberrants. But I have to teleport to the next node in twenty hours, at which point you all will need to leave on your own."

Jiang Jiuyou nodded slightly, then turned her head to whisper a few instructions to the middle-aged female adjutant behind her.

The adjutant immediately opened a metal case, took out a stack of documents, and began bargaining with the proprietress.

Jiang Jiuyou leaned against the bar, picked up the hot water the proprietress had poured, and didn't drink it immediately, instead warming her hands against the cup's wall.

Her ice-blue pupils swept across the interior of the tavern.

Old-fashioned tables, animal furs hanging on the walls, booths in the corners—

Her gaze paused in the direction of the booths for a fraction of a second, then retracted.

Chen Chen, behind the load-bearing pillar, suppressed his breathing to the absolute minimum.

Absolute Stealth was not activated.

He was currently hiding relying purely on physical cover.

At this distance and angle, a normal person couldn't see him.

But Jiang Jiuyou was not a normal person.

Chen Chen couldn't be sure if she had noticed anything unusual during that sweep earlier.

A few seconds passed.

Jiang Jiuyou withdrew her hand and lowered her head to take a sip of water.

There was no further action.

Chen Chen breathed a slight sigh of relief.

But the next second, Jiang Jiuyou set down her cup and looked at the proprietress, her tone as casual as ordering a dish:

"Has an eighteen-ton or heavier floating heavy RV been active in the vicinity recently? The person on board—is in all likelihood the number one on the District 069 combat power ranking."

The proprietress didn't stop wiping the glass, her tail flicking.

"I'm not at liberty to disclose a guest's privacy."

"I'll pay double."

"That still won't do."

The proprietress smiled, her fangs slightly visible.

"I'm in the long-term business; if I sell a guest's information, who would dare come here in the future? Ms. Jiang understands, right?"

Jiang Jiuyou's finger traced a circle on the rim of the cup, a faint light flashing in her ice-blue pupils.

"Fair enough. She'll come looking for me sooner or later anyway."

When she finished speaking, her voice was raised slightly higher than before—just enough for every corner of the tavern to hear it clearly.

Behind the bar, the proprietress's tail flicked almost imperceptibly toward the load-bearing pillar.

Chen Chen leaned against the pillar and raised an eyebrow.

This woman's intuition was sharper than he had estimated.

Jiang Jiuyou's adjutant was still bargaining with the proprietress, but Jiang Jiuyou herself was no longer paying attention to that. She held her cup and drank water slowly, her posture relaxed.

Her coat slid down to her elbows, revealing the lines of her arms wrapped in the inner lining.

Her fingers were long and fair, her nails trimmed extremely short, without any decoration—it was clear these were hands that frequently held guns or knives.

"Report."

The adjutant leaned in and reported in a low voice, "Su Xiaoqi's signal has experienced brief fluctuations in the past hour, in the east-northeast direction, at a distance of over three hundred kilometers. But the signal is too weak to pinpoint her exact location."

Jiang Jiuyou set down her cup.

"That means she is still alive. And—"

She paused, her thin lips curving slightly into an ambiguous arc.

"Living quite well, at that."

Listening to this conversation from the shadows, Chen Chen tapped his fingers unconsciously against the pillar twice.

Jiang Jiuyou was tracking Su Xiaoqi's signal. This meant the Jiang Consortium had never given up on the plan to take Su Xiaoqi back.

Interesting.

He lowered his head to look at the orange-red contract light pattern the proprietress had left on the back of his hand, then looked up through the gaps in the liquor shelf, studying Jiang Jiuyou's face that was cold to the bone.

The mission in the Rusted Waste City wasn't finished yet. Su Xiaoqi and Shen Wanbing were rushing over at full speed. Jiang Jiuyou was just a few meters away.

Three threads—were about to get tangled together.

Chen Chen leaned against the pillar, the corners of his mouth twitching.

No rush.

Let the bullets fly for a while.

Just at this moment, the hand with which Jiang Jiuyou was holding the cup suddenly stopped.

She turned her head, her gaze fixed on the direction of the corner booth.

From behind the high back of the booth, there came a very faint—

Chewing sound.

Blood Rose still had half an unchewed energy bar in her mouth.