Chapter 69

"I, I, I can feed myself!" After a moment’s intense embarrassment, Lin Tantan hurriedly protested, but Ye Xiao didn’t let her reach for the food. "Open your mouth."
She was so mortified she didn’t know what to do; eating seemed impossible and refusing was no better.
In the end she looked up pitifully. "Ye Xiao, I was wrong."
Ye Xiao lowered his eyes to her. "Wrong about what?"
"I should have listened and gone back to the villa to rest right away. Even if I hadn’t gone back, I shouldn’t have shown off like that." She blinked rapidly, pleading with her big, earnest eyes. "But I promise, by tomorrow, at the latest in two days, my hand will be fine. Really!"
He studied her for a moment and said, "You’re not allowed to go out until your hand’s healed."
"Huh? But..." What about all those patients?
Ye Xiao said, "Saving people is a good thing, but you must know your limits. You’re injured now, you need to rest. And didn’t you say there aren’t many critical patients left?"
She thought about it and agreed, mainly because refusing him now would be impossible.
She looked up with pleading eyes. "So, can I feed myself now?"
Ye Xiao sighed and ladled chicken broth and shredded chicken into her bowl, adding some lamb and vegetables. He swapped the chopsticks for a spoon and placed it in front of her. "Eat."
Lin Tantan let out a huge sigh of relief, grabbed the spoon, and ate obediently, concentrating so hard she wouldn’t shake and provoke the nearby big tyrant again.
With her head bowed and all her attention on the food, she looked like a little cat intent on its meal. Ye Xiao’s gaze softened and he couldn’t help reaching out to ruffle her soft hair.
"Mm?" Lin Tantan glanced up with her mouth still full, eyes questioning.
"Nothing."
At first she felt a lot of pressure, but tonight’s food was so good and she was so hungry that she ate with real pleasure, and Ye Xiao drifted out of her thoughts.
After finishing a bowl, she sighed contentedly. Ye Xiao asked if she wanted more; she shook her head. "Just some more soup." She began sipping the broth spoonful by spoonful.
This mutated chicken had firmer meat than ordinary chicken, and the broth was wonderfully savory. While she drank, she asked Ye Xiao, "Have you eaten?"
"I’ll go in a bit."
"Oh." She finished the soup in a few gulps. "I’m full."
Ye Xiao stood up to clear the dishes. Lin Tantan tried to help but was waved off. She peered at him anxiously. "Are you still mad?"
He paused with a dish in his hand and sighed as he looked at her. "I’m not angry."
Of course she didn’t believe him, he was clearly irritated.
"But, " and here came the turn she’d been waiting for. Lin Tantan pricked up her ears as Ye Xiao continued, "You have to promise me you’ll take care of yourself. One hand is already injured; if the other is hurt too, you should treat it more seriously. Don’t take your health for granted."
Lin Tantan blushed, scratched her head. "I’m not careless, I, okay, I understand. I’ll remember."
Ye Xiao could tell she was being perfunctory. He said helplessly, "Don’t just say it. If there’s a next time, I’m afraid I won’t be able to, " He looked at her flushed face in the lamplight and lowered his voice, swallowing the rest of the sentence.
Lin Tantan widened her eyes in surprise and asked cautiously, "Won’t be able to…?"
Ye Xiao: "..."
Unable to resist the urge to hold you; unable to help but take care of and decide everything for you; unable to stop himself from wanting to keep you by his side at every moment.
Ye Xiao, flustered, rubbed her head hard until her hair was a mess, then picked up the tray and went out. "Sleep."
"Hey!" Lin Tantan opened her mouth and held her head for a moment. What did he mean? Never mind, sleep.
She released a faint, warm flame to dry and warm her bedding, making it toasty. She crawled in and sighed with comfort, and before long she fell asleep.
After Ye Xiao went downstairs, the others had already finished eating and tactfully said nothing. Ye Xiao didn’t tell them anything either; he sat down and finished the rest of Lin Tantan’s food himself.
Night fell, and someone came to the villa.
It was Xu Tianji and Jiang Zhongyi. Jiang Zhongyi had accompanied Xu Tianji, they paced back and forth outside, were spotted by the mutated plants, and soon the mutated rats noticed them too, treating them like suspicious intruders with frantic squeaks and constant scratching.
Xu Tianji was terrified as a horde of rats scrambled up and down, clawing at his pant legs; his face went pale. Fortunately, the people in the villa heard the commotion and came out. He hurriedly said, “I’m here to see Dr. Lin.”
“Come down.” Ye Xiao ordered the excited mutated plants and rats to stand down, then said to Xu Tianji, “Talk to Tantan, if there’s something you need, tell me.”
Facing this legendary figure up close for the first time, Xu Tianji grew nervous. “Ah, well…”
Ye Xiao frowned. “Is it urgent? If not, find her tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure.” Xu Tianji thought for a moment. “This is what happened: after Dr. Lin was taken this afternoon, Wenzi came to see me, he was the closest person to me back when I was at Zhou Yan’s place. He wanted to talk, so I went along, but he didn’t come alone; he brought Zhou Yan. Zhou Yan asked me one question, and then my consciousness went fuzzy. When I came to, he was already asking a second question, but I don’t remember whether I answered the first one. From Zhou Yan’s reaction it looked like I did answer, but I have no memory of it.”
Xu Tianji stumbled through his words, confused. Ye Xiao listened and then said, “You think he might have some kind of hypnotic ability, something that makes people lose themselves and answer his questions?”
“It felt like that, but history… cough.” Xu Tianji cleared his throat. “I mean, I don’t think he actually has that ability. His past actions don’t match hypnosis at all. I don’t know what’s going on.”
In recorded history, Zhou Yan did possess an ability, fire-based, not very strong, but enough to rank him in the later stages of the apocalypse. It’s possible he altered the record to flatter himself; in any case, there’s no historical mention of him having an ability to hypnotize and interrogate people. Still, Xu Tianji couldn’t shake the strangeness of his own state.
He was terrified that Zhou Yan might get another chance to question him, if he slipped and revealed his secret with Lin Tantan, it would be disastrous. After agonizingly considering it and not being able to wait even a single night, he’d come straight to Lin Tantan to talk about it.
Ye Xiao asked, “Is there an absolute secret you cannot let anyone know?”
Xu Tianji scratched his head. “Yes.”
Ye Xiao: “Does that secret involve Tantan?”
Xu Tianji’s heart tightened and he fell silent.
Ye Xiao asked again, “What did he ask you?”
“The first question was whether Dr. Lin has an earth-type ability. I don’t know what I answered. The second was what my relationship with Dr. Lin actually is. By then I was fully aware, so I didn’t answer, I ran away.”
Ye Xiao nodded. “I understand. I’ll take care of this. I’ll walk you back.” He went inside to change clothes, then genuinely escorted Xu Tianji home.
Xu Tianji dared not breathe deeply the whole walk; Jiang Zhongyi also kept from making any missteps in front of Ye Xiao. The journey felt torturous, but the two residences weren’t far apart. Ye Xiao stopped downstairs after seeing them to the building and had no intention of going up.
The two of them walked the hallway still shaken. Xu Tianji said, “Captain Ye has such a formidable presence.”
“Exactly. When Sister Lin isn’t around, I don’t even dare speak to him.”
Xu Tianji asked curiously, “Is he different when Dr. Lin is present?”
“Of course. It’s hard to say exactly how, but he’s just not as intimidating.”
Xu Tianji pondered that.
…
Meanwhile, after delivering them, Ye Xiao didn’t return to the villa. Instead, he slipped into the night toward another place.
To Zhou Li’s.
When Zhou Li first got into trouble, Li Qun tried to make a show of it, acting overly anxious and concerned, but when that plan failed and it turned out Lin Tantan was a three-element ability user, he deflated. He stopped worrying about Zhou Li and had him carried back to his residence.
Zhou Li woke only at night.
Lin Tantan’s final punch had been brutal, like a hammer of dozens of pounds smashing his skull. Were he not an ability user with a strong tolerance, he might have been knocked senseless or killed outright.
Even so, waking up left him dizzy. When he asked about what happened after he passed out and learned that Lin Tantan had voluntarily announced she had an earth-type ability, he was stunned, then laughed bitterly. Suddenly he felt like a buffoon, thinking he’d caught her in a trap when she clearly didn’t care at all.
She hadn’t been afraid, nor worried.
He sighed and realized how wrong he’d been. He asked the people beside him, “What about Zhou Yan?”
“He hasn’t been in a good mood. He locked himself in his room.”
Zhou Li’s gaze darkened. “Did he come to see me?”
The man stammered, “Yes, he came.”
Just came to see him? Given that younger brother’s attentiveness, shouldn’t he have stayed at his bedside? Zhou Li was unusually sensitive now and couldn’t help wondering whether Zhou Yan thought his previous behavior had been ridiculous, or if all that obedience had been an act.
A gust of wind slid by. At first no one paid it any mind, Zhou Li included, but a few seconds later he seemed to sense something. His expression changed; just as he was about to call out, a chill pressed at his throat, as if someone had set a bone-deep, icy blade against his neck.
At that moment, the two aides in his room collapsed to their knees, pinned as if by some horrifying force, utterly immobilized. They clutched their throats as though a rope had been tightened there, faces flushed, eyes wide with terror, making muffled, inarticulate sounds but unable to speak.
Zhou Li went rigid, his heart sinking to the pit of his stomach. He looked toward the door. The lock clicked and the bolt was forced open with violence; the door was shoved inward and someone stepped through.
Zhou Li looked at the man who had come in; his pupils trembled and he gave a bitter laugh. "So it is you. Only you can arrive so silently." He hadn't noticed even a second earlier. He glanced down at his neck, there was nothing to see, but he knew an invisible blade of condensed air hovered there; if he so much as made a foolish move, it would mercilessly slit his throat.
Ye Xiao waved his hand lightly and the door behind him closed without a sound. He looked at Zhou Li on the bed, a dark purple lump swelling at his temple, expressionless. His voice was colder than his face. "You're not as strong as you think. There are plenty in this world who can take your life without a sound."