Chen Ping’an swallowed the pancake in his mouth and stared at the television screen, utterly dumbfounded.
“Holy shit… isn’t that Chief Sun?”
Jiang Nuan turned her head, curious. “Chief Sun? Is he one of the leaders in your department?”
Chen Ping’an waved his hands repeatedly.
“How could he be? I’m just a bottom-level nobody. I can’t even touch the threshold of his office.”
As he said this, he lowered his voice another notch. “He’s one of the five chiefs of the Federal Privy Council!”
The Federal Privy Council was the center of power for the entire Federation.
In other words, the Privy Council’s five chiefs were the five people standing at the very top of the pyramid in the apocalypse of the original world.
The image on the television had already switched away, but Jiang Nuan’s mind still held on to that face.
So in this timeline, Sun Mingrui was still just a minister.
More than ten years later—in other words, in the reality she had come from—he had already risen to become one of the five chiefs of the Privy Council.
He’d had a pretty smooth ascent.
Not only had he survived the apocalypse, he had also risen steadily through the ranks.
As she was thinking this, she noticed that although Shen Wu’s expression hadn’t changed much, the hand gripping the side of his cup had tightened.
Sun Mingrui…
The Sun family.
She suddenly remembered.
Shen Wu’s biological father—the man who had abandoned Shen Tang—had been engaged to marry into the Sun family.
On the eve of the wedding, Shen Tang had dressed herself in full finery and taken her own life with drugs.
Afterward, the Sun family and the Li family had joined forces. Over the next ten-odd years, one had risen to become one of the five chiefs of the Privy Council, while the other had become one of the three great families of the Qiming Foundation.
Both families had lived quite well, all while standing on Shen Tang’s grave.
Jiang Nuan withdrew her gaze and stared at the pancake on her plate.
There was nothing suitable she could say to comfort him. Besides, Chen Ping’an was still there.
Her hand moved beneath the table and brushed against the back of his hand where it rested beside his thigh.
It was probably some form of silent consolation.
Almost immediately, that hand turned over, gathered her fingers into its palm, and held on.
His fingers brushed against her palm.
It tickled a little.
She stiffened.
No, seriously, you’ve touched enough. Let go already!
She tried to pull her hand back, but it didn’t budge.
Shen Wu’s slightly cool fingers continued to hold hers. His posture was relaxed, yet he refused to loosen his grip in the slightest.
Jiang Nuan glared at him from the corner of her eye.
Chen Ping’an was still right there! What was he doing?
His face remained as cool and composed as ever, as though nothing had happened.
He moved his lips soundlessly.
“Eat.”
You could at least let go so I can eat properly!
Grinding her back teeth, Jiang Nuan kept her expression perfectly normal. She picked up her chopsticks with her right hand and pretended her left hand didn’t exist.
But… how was she supposed to roll up a pancake with only one hand?
With her right hand, she placed shredded meat onto the pancake wrapper and tried to use her chopsticks to fold the edges over and roll it up. After a couple of attempts, the limp wrapper flopped back down, refusing to hold its shape.
Then Shen Wu’s plate was silently pushed over.
Two perfectly rolled pancakes sat neatly arranged on it.
He picked up one of them with his chopsticks in his left hand and began to eat.
So he had rolled two pancakes in advance just for this moment?
The corner of Jiang Nuan’s mouth twitched as she took a bite.
It was rolled just right—perfect for eating one bite at a time without falling apart.
Under the table, their fingers remained interlocked, utterly unmoving.
Across from them, Chen Ping’an silently stuffed a huge mouthful of pancake into his mouth.
His cheeks bulged as his eyes drifted toward the ceiling.
His expression seemed to say, “I didn’t see anything. I’m just an ordinary coworker who’s focusing on eating breakfast.”
After a while, he simply picked up his plate and stood.
“I… I’m going to eat over by the sofa. The television’s easier to see from there.”
With that, he left without looking back.
He walked quickly—almost as if he were fleeing.
Jiang Nuan watched his escaping back and silently said:
Chen Ping’an, you’ve worked hard.
She turned her head and gritted her teeth as she whispered, “You can let go now!”
But Shen Wu simply shook his head and added, “He didn’t see anything.”
“You’re sure? He ran like he’d seen a ghost.”
“That’s basic awareness for an adult man,” Shen Wu said calmly. “It has nothing to do with whether he saw anything.”
Fine. He had the Eye of True Sight, so he was probably right.
