The atmosphere in Yuan Chunhua's office was completely silent as she had her butt sitting on Jiang Ming's lap.
It had been like that for the past 5 minutes, and Yuan Chunhua could feel her cheek burning up rapidly.
Such an ambiguous position, if others were to accidentally barge in and saw her like this, then she would truly have no face to remain in the academy any longer.
"Jiang Ming, just release me already. I promise I won't run away, so let's just chat on the couch." Yuan Chunhua pleaded.
Although she could unleash her cultivation base and get off him, she didn't dare to do so in case she would accidentally harm him in the meantime.
After all, Jiang Ming might occasionally touch some of her sensitive parts, but she could tell he did not mean to do anything hideous to her. Of course, if it were any other students or men that tried to do this to her, then she would thoroughly thrash them into a pulp.
"Instructor Yuan Chunhua, can I just call you by your name directly?" Jiang Ming ignored her pleas and asked another question instead.
"With your close connection with my aunt, I believe it's only right for me to call your name directly to showcase our relationship." He added, using his aunt's name as a bargaining chip. Though it might sound immoral, a man's gotta do what he needs to do.
Yuan Chunhua was rendered speechless when he suddenly brought up Yang Liqin's name on the table.
How could he be so shameless as to use his aunt's name?
But then again, when she recalled the pungent smell at his house and Yang Liqin's shaky legs, she knew what their actual relationship was like. It's just that she didn't dare to say it aloud and kept it to mind.
"Ugh, do whatever you want," She said exhaustedly. At this point, what was the meaning of having seniority when it's all messed up?
"Then Xiao Chunhua it is."
"What Xiao Chunhua??!" Yuan Chunhua instantly became agitated as she glared at him. "You can either call me Chunhua or Yuan Chunhua, but definitely not Xiao Chunhua!"
"Alright then, calm down." Jiang Ming laughed awkwardly as he decided to not push his limit.
"Yuan Chunhua it is," he added. Despite wanting to call her given name directly, he was sure Yang Liqin would have a lot to say if he really did so.
After all, he still referred to her as his aunt and rarely called her given name.
Sometime later, Jiang Ming reluctantly released his grasp on the soft and smooth waist of Yuan Chunhua as they headed toward the couch.
"Anyway, I have heard from my master already that the emperor wanted us to head toward the Haze Forest and sabotage the meeting of the 6 powerful clans and the sect that Chen Yanmu had brought along." Yuan Chunhua said.
And she continued, "Although the Tian Shuai Sect doesn't have a high number of disciples in them, their techniques and formation alone would be a headache for the royal family to deal with."
The Tian Shuai Sect was naturally the sect that Chen Yanmu became a disciple of and earned a lot of favor from the elders there. Otherwise, a collaboration between the sect and the 6 powerful clans was impossible to conduct, to begin with.
Chen Yanmu was the bridge of this connection and Jiang Ming knew he was the instigator of this outcome.
"Sigh, I should have killed her from the start if I decided to kill Chen Peizhu." Jiang Ming lamented his indecisive mind to not kill the complete root of the problem.
Meanwhile, Yuan Chunhua glared at him and wondered if all he could think of was killing people.
"Seriously, why are you so impulsive?" Yuan Chunhua rubbed the temples on her forehead.
"If you had decided to kill Chen Peizhu, then why must you make it a public execution? Do you think you're above heaven and think you can overthrow the sky? You could have simply killed Chen Peizhu in secret, and this whole mess wouldn't even have started."
Jiang Ming was completely silent as he was getting reprimanded by Yuan Chunhua for his rash action. There was nothing he could say to rebuke her since every word coming out of her mouth was indeed the concrete truth.
Although her words were harsh, Jiang Ming could tell she was merely trying to warn him and possibly tell him to do things more cleanly next time.
Thankfully, Yuan Chunhua didn't brood over the incident much considering how it had already been done and there was nothing she could do to rewind time.
Instead, she proceeded to talk about their plan on venturing into the Haze Forest and determining their meeting location.
Meanwhile, Jiang Ming finally voiced his doubt to her.
"I've been wanting to ask this for a while, but how did we obtain intel that they are going to meet in the Haze Forest?" Jiang Ming asked calmly.
And he continued, "Everything seemed too much of a coincidence and was handed to us for free at the perfect time."
Jiang Ming's doubts weren't a surprise since it was supposedly a secret meeting conducted between the sect and the 6 powerful clans. Yet the secret meeting was instantly exposed to them and allowed them to even prepare ahead of time.
If one stops for a second and thinks about it, everything seems too good to be true. And it was almost like the meeting was a ready-made trap, waiting for them to fall into it.
Yuan Chunhua on the other hand merely flashed a smile. "Heh, at least you are using your brain properly this time."
"Huh? Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?"
"Technically both if I have to answer honestly." Yuan Chunhua smirked and crossed her legs together.
Her seemingly casual action had however caused Jiang Ming to secretly glanced at her middle part, hoping to see some delicious content.
Yuan Chunhua also realized Jiang Ming had turned into a lecherous brat again and sighed softly.
When would he stay serious for more than a few minutes?
"Cough, as you should know, our Northern Continent controls a large part of this world and if chaos were to erupt here, the livelihood and most specifically, the economic part would be affected the most. What do you think would happen if the economy becomes destroyed?" She asked him.
Jiang Ming pondered for a moment before replying, "If the economy is destroyed, then people's lives would have obviously become harsher. And the resources would become scarce."
Right when he finished his sentence, Jiang Ming's face froze as he realized the crux of the matter.
If the resources become scarce, then that would mean those who relied on resources to cultivate would become frustrated. In addition, some sects that occasionally accept donations from the wealthy to train their descendants in exchange would drop.
Hence, no one would want to see a coup de grace happen if everything was already peaceful and beneficial for everyone. Doing such a thing when the world was going great would naturally displease a lot of parties.
"So I'm guessing that the information should have been given to us by a competitor of the Tian Shuai Sect, right?" Jiang Ming enquired.
Since a sect was willing to cooperate with someone in the mundane world to interfere politically, then the other sects would definitely not allow that to happen.
After all, they can't allow Tian Shuai Sect to gain a foothold in the mundane world since resources would be going their way even if they don't do anything. That would be detrimental for the other sects that had been scurrying for resources elsewhere.
Yuan Chunhua clapped her hand to praise Jiang Ming. She smiled and said, "Well, there you have it, Jiang Ming. Not everything can be deciphered from the surface alone. Most of the time, things are usually done behind the scenes and would only be revealed to the surface when everything is set in stone."
Jiang Ming nodded his head.
"So does that mean our relationship is still behind the scenes until we become closer enough to be intimate?" He asked cheekily.
At this moment, Yuan Chunhua was already tired from dealing with his shameless behavior as she stood up and grabbed her cloak.
"We should leave right now and set up an ambush soon in the Haze Forest. By now, Chen Yanmu should already be halfway here alongside the elders of her sect. The departure time must not be delayed any further." She said and swiftly left the office, not bothering to wait for him.
Jiang Ming could only smile helplessly as he was simply trying to test the waters.
"Oh well, if it was that easy to obtain the heart of Yuan Chunhua, then she would have been dating by now or even married to someone else. I just need to work harder and achieve my ultimate goal." Jiang Ming stretched his hand and followed after her.
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