Dragon Clan: I'm too lazy to talk to you, you're not worthy to listen!

It was 4:30 a.m., and lasted for five or six hours.

Ye Jingchen picked up Chen Motong, who had already fallen into a deep sleep, and turned to walk downstairs.

As I passed by the door, I peeked through the crack in the door.

Director Chen Xiaoxiao was leaning against the wall, her legs slightly bent, barely daring to breathe. Her gaze met Ye Jingchen's for less than a second before she quickly turned her head away, unable to look him in the eye.

After all, she had been secretly watching from there all night.

Ye Jingchen walked away, deliberately making loud footsteps so that Chen Xiaoxiao could hear him clearly.

Only when she could no longer hear footsteps did Chen Xiaoxiao gradually loosen her grip. She covered her mouth with her hands and gasped for breath. Although she was inexperienced, she still had a general understanding of sex, and this kind of intense... had overturned her understanding.

She gently pushed the door, and the hinges turned slightly and slowly without making a sound.

She lowered her head slightly.

Just then, a pair of feet wearing black leather shoes suddenly appeared in front of Chen Xiaoxiao's toes, and her eyes widened instantly!

Too frightened to lift his head, he managed to squeeze out a hoarse, choked voice: "I'm sorry, Mr. Ye..."

Ye Jingchen threw Chen Motong back onto the bed and rushed back without pausing. He knew Chen Xiaoxiao would be suspicious, so he didn't dare to go too fast.

With his arms crossed, Ye Jingchen glanced at Chen Xiaoxiao and said, "There's nothing to apologize for. You should know perfectly well what you should and shouldn't see, what you should and shouldn't say, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Chen Xiaoxiao nodded repeatedly. Chen Motong had repeatedly told her that she would rather go against Chen Motong's wishes than disobey Ye Jingchen.

"Go down, you've been standing all night, you must be tired," Ye Jingchen said.

"Thank you!" Chen Xiaoxiao blushed and quickly ran away.

Until I heard a loud thud as the door slammed shut.

Ye Jingchen nodded and turned to walk towards Jormungandr's room.

"Word of Power: Sword Control." He reached for the door lock; it was the same familiar formula.

Ye Jingchen gently pushed the door open.

Jormungandr was still wearing the same Lolita outfit and hadn't changed it.

Her eyes were closed, her hands crossed over her lower abdomen, her legs straight, and beneath the hem of her Jormungandr Lolita dress, Byzantine-style gilded anklets adorned her ankles. When she bent her knees, the folds of her skirt piled up like the columns of the Parthenon, and the way her toes touched the ground echoed the rhythm of the Dunhuang flying apsara murals, her fingertips round and full.

With a "bang," Ye Jingchen gently closed the door, glancing at Jormungandr. "Alright, stop pretending to be asleep."

Jormungandr sat up quickly, swaying her hips like a willow branch swaying in the wind, her body trembling. She raised her hand to cover her slightly flushed face and looked at Ye Jingchen through the gaps between her fingers. "Boss, how did you know I wasn't asleep?"

"The experience I gained from Li Wuyue," Ye Jingchen said, naturally sitting down next to Jormungandr. "You, you listened to it all night too?"

“I was just a little curious, I didn’t mean to…” Jormungandr said, lowering his head slightly.

Ye Jingchen reached out with his left hand and pinched Jormungandr's foot. His fingertips touched the bronze chain ornament on Jormungandr's ankle, and the ornament, which was engraved with Sumerian cuneiform script, suddenly shone with iridescence.

With his other hand, he lifted Jormungandr's chin, and the residual static electricity from the dragons in the air outlined the shape of Hadrian's Wall on Jormungandr's jawline.

His eyes narrowed slightly. "Jormungandr, are you afraid?"

“I’m not afraid of being scared, but…” Jormungandr lowered his head slightly.

"But what?" Ye Jingchen asked.

Jormungandr raised his head. "Boss, can you call me Xia Mi?"

Ye Jingchen: "Okay, Xia Mi."

"A true man knows when to yield and when to stand firm," Jormungandr thought to herself. She felt Ye Jingchen's hand on her head, and slowly opened her mouth to reveal her little tiger teeth before lowering her head.

She suddenly raised her head and looked at Ye Jingchen.

Ye Jingchen: "What's wrong?"

"Boss, I still have my first kiss... Could I..." Jormungandr blushed and looked shy.

Before she could finish speaking, Ye Jingchen pressed his lips to Jormungandr's, a French kiss that left her mesmerized. Ye Jingchen's rapid breaths brushed past Jormungandr's ear.

A moment later, Ye Jingchen reached out and gently slapped Jormungandr's face. "Are you satisfied now?"

Jormungandr smiled and tucked his hair behind his ears...

A giant python of the mortal world, a serpent of the courtyard, a python coiled around...

At ten o'clock in the morning, there was a knock on the door.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Who?" Upon hearing the voice, Ye Jingchen suddenly thrust his hips forward, his whole body trembling... He blew on the stray hairs on his forehead.

She casually let go of Jormungandr's brown twin tails.

Jormungandr hugged the white pillow, turned to look at Ye Jingchen, trembled, and blushed with satisfaction.

Suddenly, the reverse scale on the back of Ye Jingchen's neck emitted a chime-like hum, and this dragon-like energy resonance caused the irises on the windowsill to instantly complete their cycle of blooming and withering.

The feather pillow in Jormungandr's arms burst open, releasing a shower of fluffy down, each feather floating in the air and slowly falling through the room.

Chen Xiaoxiao's voice came from the doorway. She knew Ye Jingchen had entered Xia Mi's room, but she wasn't sure what the specific relationship was between Ye Jingchen and Jormungandr, so she wisely refrained from calling Ye Jingchen by name. "Xia Mi, would you like to get up for breakfast?"

Jormungandr turned his head and glanced at Ye Jingchen, as if seeking Ye Jingchen's advice.

Ye Jingchen nodded.

Jormungandr understood, looked towards the door, and said, "Okay, Director Chen, I'm coming right away!"

"Okay, Xia Mi, I'll be right downstairs now." Chen Xiaoxiao said, and quietly went downstairs.

After Jormungandr dressed herself in Lolita fashion, she took a white shirt from the bedside table and buttoned it up for Ye Jingchen...

The restaurant on the first floor.

Morning light, filtering through the gaps in the lace curtains, cast dappled patterns of light onto Jormungandr's bow hair ornament.

She was standing on tiptoe, squeezing cream onto the muffins, the ribbons of her Lolita apron tied in a crooked knot at her waist.

Chen Xiaoxiao squatted in front of the oven for a few seconds, her slender fingers leaving misty fingerprints on the glass surface.

"Is the cake almost done? Director Chen?" Jormungandr suddenly turned around, the butter gun drawing a perfect spiral in the air.

"Almost done!" Chen Xiaoxiao replied, while hurriedly leaning back, her head hitting the refrigerator door and knocking three cartons of yogurt off.

Chen Motong, wrapped in a silk bathrobe, leaned against the doorframe, looking at the mountain of strawberry pancakes piled on the dining table: "You dragons... are all so... energetic?"

“This is the boss’s recipe,” Jormungandr said, placing the last mint leaf on top of the muffin cone. “He says humans need to replenish carbohydrates to combat morning low blood sugar.”

As she spoke, she secretly stuffed a piece of burnt scrap into her mouth, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster hoarding food.

The sound of a fountain could be heard coming from the courtyard.

After finishing his meal, Ye Jingchen sat under the wisteria trellis and read the morning paper. He rolled up the cuffs of his white shirt to his elbows, revealing the bronze bracelet on his wrist.

Chen Xiaoxiao's hand holding the coffee pot trembled slightly, and the brown liquid rippled on the rim of the bone china cup. The scene of the accident last night seemed to still be burning on her retina.

"Mr. Ye, here is the 'Dragon Kingdom Alchemy Weekly' you requested. It's a newspaper used worldwide by hybrid races."

She placed the coffee on the table first, then put the magazine with the gold-embossed cover on the stone table, avoiding her gaze from the faint scratch marks on the other person's collar.

Jormungandr suddenly poked his head out of the second-floor window: "Boss! Your tie clip fell into my hands..."

As she spoke, she scooped up a spoonful of maple syrup. The amber-colored sugar strands reflected an ambiguous halo in the sunlight. Upon seeing Chen Xiaoxiao, her voice abruptly stopped, and she closed the window.

At noon, the hum of machinery could be heard coming from the basement of the villa.

Jormungandr sat cross-legged in the bedroom converted from a cold storage room, with an alchemical matrix made of twelve ice crystals floating in front of him.

She chewed on a lollipop, tapping on the keyboard. The blue light from the screen illuminated the anime posters plastered on the wall, all of which Chen Xiaoxiao had personally bought and put up.

"So this is the analytical diagram of Norns' mechanical heart that Old Tang deduced?"

Chen Motong appeared at the door at some point, her fingertips brushing against the frosty doorknob.

Jormungandr quickly switched the screen:

"Senior Mo Tong, when did you arrive?"

"I just got here," Chen Motong said, leaning against the doorframe. Her gaze swept over the mountain of snack wrappers in the corner, and she asked casually, "Do you and him... often do this?"

"The boss said it's an employee benefit."

Jormungandr suddenly raised the plush toy to cover his flushed cheeks. "Besides," he said, "I also have hormonal regulation needs in human form..."

Suddenly, a dull thud came from the courtyard as something heavy fell to the ground.

As the two rushed out, they saw Chen Xiaoxiao trying to remove the drone that was stuck in the branches of the ginkgo tree.

"Word of Power: Sword Control." Ye Jingchen stood on the terrace and tossed the bronze compass. The compass needle always pointed to the southeast sea area, and the drone instantly landed from the tree branches.

"Xia Mi, it's nothing. You can continue your conversation with Norton about the Norns Heart," Ye Jingchen said.

Jormungandr nodded with a smile, "Yes, boss."

He glanced at Chen Motong as he left.

The lollipop in Jormungandr's hand snapped in two with a "crack".

Chen Motong noticed that the scales on the girl's neck appeared in response to stress, and then slowly faded away under Ye Jingchen's gaze.

On the branch Chen Xiaoxiao broke off, a drop of resin was slowly falling, reflecting the faces of everyone with their own thoughts.

In the basement, an ice crystal matrix refracted blue light, weaving a star map on the ceiling. Jormungandr walked barefoot on the temperature-controlled floor, his anklets making a crisp, chiming sound with each step.

She suddenly grabbed a donut from the table, biting off a crescent-shaped piece, and frosting stuck to the tip of her nose.

"Old Tang said this mechanical heart has seventy-two layers of encryption, even more complex than the spiral cipher of the Tower of Babylon..."

"You have alchemical mercury on your lips." Chen Motong pulled out a wet wipe, pausing abruptly the moment it touched the girl's skin, where the fine dragon scales were faintly visible on Jormungandr's neck.

However, Chen Motong was not afraid. He continued to wipe Jormungandr's face, looking directly into Jormungandr's eyes...

The ginkgo leaves in the courtyard fluttered down.

Ye Jingchen's fingertips caressed the bronze compass, and the fragments of "The Influence of Sea Power" etched on the back of the dial were seeping out a pale golden liquid.

As Chen Xiaoxiao walked by carrying the drone, he suddenly spoke up: "Could you please pull up the sonar map from the lab for me?"

"Huh? Now?" Chen Xiaoxiao hurriedly pulled out her tablet, the lock screen wallpaper was a candid photo of Chen Motong's profile.

"Iris recognition in your pupils is three seconds faster than fingerprint recognition." As Ye Jingchen took the device, his sleeve brushed against the other person's wrist.

Chen Xiaoxiao staggered back half a step as if she had been electrocuted, her lower back colliding with the bronze dolphin in the stone fountain.

"Hey, don't be nervous, I'm not going to eat you."

Ye Jingchen's sigh startled the swifts under the eaves.

As Chen Motong emerged from the underground laboratory, she suddenly noticed that the birds' tail feathers shimmered with a metallic sheen, and the phosphorus powder scattered as they flapped their wings condensed into miniature alchemical arrays in the sunlight. She murmured softly, "Is it Ye Jingchen, or Xia Mi?"

At dinner time, Jormungandr spread strawberry jam on Chen Xiaoxiao's scones:

"Did you know? Three hundred years ago, I... no, there was someone who, when he was a court musician in Vienna, made strawberry tarts for Princess Sissi. The method used back then was just like this."

Ye Jingchen listened to Jormungandr's words and silently tapped the crystal glass with his silver knife.

The vibration caused the rose in the center of the table to bloom instantly, and the dew on the petals condensed into ice crystals and rolled down.

Chen Motong then scooped up a spoonful of cold soup:

"I heard the pressure in the Tyrrhenian Trench is enough to flatten a tank?"

“So we need a Word of Power to act as a pressure relief valve, and I already have an idea.” Jormungandr suddenly plunged his fork into the steak, the dark red juices meandering across the bone china plate in the shape of ocean trenches. “But the boss’s bone density is many times that of refined tungsten steel, I think, he’s not afraid.”

"You don't need to worry about that. Just let Norton figure it out," Ye Jingchen said calmly.

“Oh, okay, boss.” Jormungandr nodded.

The sudden rain after dinner pounded against the bulletproof glass.

Ye Jingchen stood in front of the holographic projection of the deep blue sea map, twelve ring-shaped light screens illuminating the faint dragon pattern on his collarbone.

When Chen Motong pushed the door open, he saw him embedding Norns' mechanical heart into the control panel of the Alchemy Dragon model.

“Leviathan’s cocoon is located in the hydrothermal vent area of ​​the trench.” He traced his fingertip across the luminous, wriggling creatures in the holographic projection. “These thermophilic bacteria are capable of decomposing the Philosopher’s Stone.”

Chen Motong's pendant suddenly levitated, the dragon blood sealed within the emerald resonating with the projection: "So what you need isn't a submersible, but bait?"

“It’s a live bait.” The breeze from Ye Jingchen as he turned lifted a stray strand of hair from her temple. “It’s a Jormungandr ice-type Word of Power; it can freeze a hot spring vent for three minutes.”

The torrential rain washed patterns on the floor-to-ceiling windows, reminiscent of Van Gogh's Starry Night.

"You're not planning to use yourself as bait again, are you?" Chen Motong suddenly grabbed Ye Jingchen's hand, which was adjusting the equipment. "Your back injury hasn't healed yet!"

Ye Jingchen: "I'm almost fully recovered..."

Before he could finish speaking, an explosion suddenly came from the basement!

As the two rushed down, they saw Jormungandr using an ice shield to block the flying gear parts.

The anime poster above her head was half-burnt, revealing a map of Atlantis etched into the concrete wall behind it.

"The 72nd layer of encryption has been decrypted!"

The girl cheered, raising the smoking mechanical heart. Blue light swirled like a binary waterfall in her pupils. "Old Tang said there's a love poem hidden in the core program. What is it? 'To my dear nemesis, you are harder to catch than the aurora borealis of the Arctic Ocean...'"

Ye Jingchen nodded, then suddenly snatched the tattered fragments of alchemical hearts, pressed them into the hydraulic press, and the splashing liquid metal burned star-shaped holes into the wall.

As the alarm sounded, the entire villa's security system automatically activated, and the stone fountain in the courtyard spun, revealing the gun mounts.

Looking at the Heart of Norns in his hand, which had already been deciphered, Ye Jingchen pondered, "Who should become half of the King of the Ocean and Water?"