Overprotected By My Tsundere CEO

Chapter 980 - 665: Loulanel Village [01] The Professor Suddenly Realizes the Power of Folk Experts

With her legs crossed, Nora Scott leaned back and said leisurely, "Go ahead."

"Oh."

Jared Oliveira responded and then began telling her the story.

Annabelle Pinto was born in Sand Delta. Orphaned at a young age, she was adopted by her uncle, but he wasn’t willing to take good care of her. With one more mouth to feed, he sent her to a martial arts master as an apprentice to save himself the trouble.

The martial arts master thought Annabelle had potential and wanted to train her, but all his other students were male. Her brothers often bullied her, making life tough for Annabelle.

She did all the chores, from cooking and cleaning to staying in the storage room.

It wasn’t until she could defeat all of her brothers that her hard days under the master’s tutelage came to an end.

Thinking about how Annabelle displayed her skills, Nora Scott propped her chin with one hand and asked thoughtfully, "What was her master’s name?"

Jared thought carefully and gave a name.

Nora chuckled.

No wonder, even as the top of her brothers, Annabelle’s skills were still as they were; her master was just a marginalized loser in the Martial Arts World.

"What’s up?" Jared sensed Nora’s emotions and asked weakly.

"Nothing," Nora said blandly. "Continue."

"Okay."

A few years later, the master died suddenly, and the brothers dispersed.

Annabelle was thirteen then. Not wanting to return to her uncle’s house, she relied on her skills to find work in the northwest, through which she met many people in Sand Delta and made quite a few enemies.

After a few years of drifting, Annabelle got into some trouble and couldn’t stay in Sand Delta any longer, so she left for Fenton City.

Besides her skills and beauty, she had nothing else, so she naturally entered the entertainment industry, smoothly transitioning from a stuntwoman to an actress, and caught Anthony Santos’s eye.

Anthony saw potential in her skills and decided to cultivate her. He told her that to stand firm in this world, one must have education; otherwise, one would ultimately be a mere pawn. So, Anthony had her study while acting, pushing her until she graduated with a master’s degree before promoting her in the entertainment circle.

"She’s had quite a rich life experience."

After hearing her story, Nora sincerely commented.

Anyone who is self-reliant, self-improving, and brave enough to fight is worthy of recognition.

However, that didn’t conflict at all with Nora’s intention to deal with her.

"Yes. I felt like I was listening to someone telling a story," Jared said. "When she started, she probably intended to play the sympathy card, but later, she really couldn’t stop talking."

"You seem quite moved."

"I am," Jared sighed, but then corrected himself, "No..."

Nora didn’t care much and directly asked, "What’s her goal?"

"She spilled everything about the Loulanel Plan to me. She promised many conditions, aiming to have me help her find the location and entrance to Mechanism City," Jared said, captivated, adding weakly at the end, "Not me, but the actual Living Map."

"..."

Nora couldn’t be bothered with him.

She asked, "She decided to come because she heard the Living Map was here?"

"Yes." Jared replied. "Over there... it’s probably Anthony. He’s been following your movements and those of the Durant Sisters. Upon learning you were set to leave with the Living Map, and coincidentally, the research group kept inviting her, Anthony had her join this Loulanel trip."

"Oh."

"Sis, does this count as me making a contribution—"

Jared grinned cheekily, but before he could finish speaking, there was a knock at his car door.

He exchanged a few words with someone.

Suddenly, his tone became urgent, "Sis, they’ve encountered local resistance during the survey. The language barrier is an issue, and they hope I can mediate... the Living Map knows various dialects, but I don’t."

Nora said calmly, "I do."

"What should we do—" midway through his question, Jared paused, "Wait, what did you say?"

"Go on calmly to mediate, and I’ll teach you how to speak."

"...Okay."

Jared couldn’t calm down; his legs were weak. Fortunately, he was quite good at bluffing—despite his inner panic, he wore a composed face, somehow maintaining the aura of the "Living Map."

...

In the car.

With her legs crossed, Nora was eating chips, listening to the locals’ voices, and speaking dialect fluently and effortlessly.

To ensure Jared could hear clearly, Nora spoke slowly, enunciating every word.

Jared’s knack for languages was decent; he managed to get through without too much trouble, persuading the locals to leave.

Nora drank half a bottle of water.

Just as she was about to relax, a professor seized the opportunity to discuss local customs with Jared. Nora had no choice but to continue coaching him.

Professors are truly in a class of their own, using culture as a hook and bombarding Jared with endless questions from various angles. If not for Nora’s help, Jared would have been overwhelmed by the professor long ago.

Nora drank another bottle of water.

She reminded him, "Say it’s too hot; let’s talk next time."

This research group had worn down her goodwill with their repeated requests; she had no interest in a free cultural exchange.

Jared didn’t want to stay under the sun either and obediently followed her advice, quickly finding an excuse to bid the professor farewell.

Little did he know, as he left, the entire research group watched his back with eyes full of admiration.

"Professor, how is this Mr. Oliveira’s knowledge?" Felipe Clark walked over and asked the professor.

The professor’s eyes were full of amazement. After a long pause, he solemnly remarked, "His knowledge and experience are not like those of someone in their twenties."

A wealth of knowledge reserves.

Unimaginable practical experience.

As a guide, both of these are indispensable. And, this Living Map has an intimate understanding of the Northwest region—from terrain, climate, environment, routes, dialects... practically every aspect is thoroughly known.

Achieving this with several decades of experience would be difficult; moreover, this young man is only in his twenties.

The professor suddenly felt the terror of hidden experts among the public.

*

Due to this small incident, Jared Oliveira received high praise from the professor and became the idol of the exploration team.

Annabelle Pinto, having slept for two hours, felt she had gone out of her mind the previous night, found it difficult to recall the past, and simply withdrew from it. Her activity level in the following days was not as high as before.

The Durant Sisters focused all their attention on Jared Oliveira and did not bother to find fault with Nora Scott.

Thus——

In the following days, with the misfortune-laden exploration team, under the overt and covert assistance of Nora Scott, the Durant Sisters’ team, and the puppet Jared Oliveira, solved a series of troubles, and finally reached their destination—Loulanel.

By the time they arrived, it was already dark.

They needed to stay in a village.

About ten vehicles grandly arrived at the village. Under this impressive scene, the originally dark and eerie village chased away all the desolation and bleakness.

Because they had informed them in advance, an old man was waiting at the village entrance with a flashlight.

The convoy came to a stop.

"Sis-in-law, we’ve arrived."

Frank Ford, who was driving, reminded Nora Scott.

Their car was at the rear. Waking up, Nora Scott heard the voices, opened the window completely, leaned her elbow on the windowsill, and slightly stuck her head out to look outside. The cold wind hitting her face was quite biting, sweeping away all her drowsiness.

She squinted her eyes.

Under the illumination of a passing car’s headlights, she saw a wobbling wooden sign at the entrance of the village——

Loulanel Village.

Tsk.

Loulanel City, Loulanel Village, Loulanel Plan.

No wonder Annabelle Pinto and the Durant Sisters unanimously decided to set their destination here.

After a while, Felipe’s voice came through the car’s radio: "No parking in the village; all cars must park outside the village. Everyone, take out your luggage."

"Sis-in-law."

Frank Ford turned to look at Nora Scott.

Nora Scott raised her eyebrows, "Let’s get off."

Frank Ford then parked the car, got out, and took their luggage, only leaving a backpack for Nora Scott to carry.

The two leisurely caught up with the main group.

The people gathered at the front were curiously observing the village.

"They’re all single-story mud houses. Quite impressive."

"The architecture is quite unique."

"Is there some kind of pattern to it?"

The head of the village, holding a flashlight, said with a smile, "The village was built forty years ago. At that time, a professional architect designed it; inside is a maze."

"Will we get lost if we go in?"

"It’s quite interesting."

"Why was it made into a maze?"

The village head laughed, "I don’t know why. Getting lost is for sure. The paths inside aren’t suitable for vehicles; generally, once you go in, you can’t come out."

Exploration Team: "What should we do if we get lost?"

Village Head: "You should try not to walk around. I’ve informed your leader already, and if you have to move, take a flare gun."

Exploration Team: "The village looks big; does it house a lot of people?"

"They’ve all moved out," the village head waved his hand, "The young people have all left, leaving only us old folks. It houses about twenty or thirty families now, but it used to be quite grand."

...

Guided by the village head, the group walked as they chatted.

Because the maze-like village was magical, they were quite interested and had many questions. The village head was patient and was also pleased to see so many young people, happy to answer their questions.

Frank Ford was also excited. After listening for a while, he asked Nora Scott, "Sis-in-law, I heard you’ve been to the Northwest and visited many places. Have you been here?"

Nora Scott shrugged, "No."

She had heard of Loulanel Village and knew its general situation, but she had never been there personally.

It’s just destiny, I guess.

She had thought of visiting several times, but either something came up or unexpected situations occurred, so she never came in the end.