Chapter 71

It was the second day the base was open. What had been a nearly month-long lethargy suddenly came alive again, especially after the mutated chickens and sheep appeared and were confirmed edible. Many people found a new direction.
No more scavenging for supplies, go hunting!
That night many people prepared for tomorrow's hunt. It was still early, and walking through the streets and alleys you could hear people talking and bustling about their plans.
Ye Xiao followed those sounds out of the dense residential area and moved through the dark. Occasionally someone passed by and didn't notice there was a person beside them.
He made his way back to the villa without calling for help. Everyone inside had already gone to bed; they trusted Ye Xiao's abilities so much that nobody worried even if he stayed out all night.
He crept up the stairs, returned to his room, shut the door, leaned against the wall, and let out a long breath.
Then he inspected his wound. The left side of his chest had been burned; his clothes were completely charred and fused to the skin. The fabric, once black, now matched the scorched flesh. Very little blood flowed, his vessels had been seared shut, so the wound wouldn't bleed freely.
He used his power to cut away the scorched fabric at the wound's edge, then stripped off the rest of his clothes. As he considered how to treat the injury, there was a cautious knock at the door and a small voice: "Ye Xiao? Are you there?"
He hesitated, opened the door a crack, and found Lin Tantan standing there, hair a mess from sleep, worry written across her face. "I smelled burning and blood, seems to be coming from here."
She stepped up, sniffed the air around him, then shoved the door wide and saw his body in full.
He was tall and lean, not heavily muscled, every line of muscle was just right, not only handsome but hiding an almost unimaginable strength.
But on his left chest the skin was a blackened ruin.
Lin Tantan's heart seemed to stop. "You, you..."
She moved too quickly; Ye Xiao hadn't been able to stop her from pushing in. Worried she'd wake the others, he pulled her inside and shut the door.
Lin Tantan nearly lost her mind. "How did you get hurt like this? A fire-type ability user did this, didn't they? Who was it? Oh, lie down on the bed now, I'll treat you."
Ye Xiao lifted a hand to hold her back. "Don't get hysterical. It only looks severe."
"What do you mean it only looks severe? There's a dent, have some ribs broken? Stop talking and lie down!" Lin Tantan suddenly got sharp. "Or I'll call for help!"
Ye Xiao had no choice but to move to the bed. He asked, "Is your hand okay?"
"After a sleep it's much better. No more nonsense!"
He obediently lay down. Sitting up or leaning would interfere with her examination of the ribs, she warned.
A few hours earlier he had been the one pinning her down to make her behave; now their roles were completely reversed. Ye Xiao felt partly helpless, partly amused.
Lin Tantan showed no sign of relaxation. She inspected the wound carefully: it covered an area about the size of both her palms, black and red, the fabric fused to the flesh. Worse, at least three or four ribs were broken and terribly caved in, pressing on the heart. If the injury had been even slightly worse, the heart could have been crushed.
She was furious. "That's 'only looks severe'?"
She couldn't fathom how he could act so nonchalant and try to hide it. Were it not inappropriate, she'd have liked to jump up and beat him.
She glared at him. "You may lose a lot of flesh from this. Never mind, I'll set your ribs first. Brace yourself; it will hurt." Her ability probed and found the ribs broken but not completely severed, and no bone tips had pierced heart or lungs.
She produced a wooden-like tether with her power and drew the ribs back into place. The grinding of bone on bone sent a sour ache through the teeth, and blood began to well from Ye Xiao's wound.
Lin Tantan immediately poured more power into promoting the fusion of the fractured bone edges and accelerating the regrowth and healing of the attached muscles to hold the shape. She worked in a sweat, utterly focused.
Ye Xiao clenched his teeth against the pain; his breathing grew heavy but he kept his expression steady, trying to maintain an even rhythm so the treatment wouldn't be disturbed. He watched her with a faint smile. "Don't rush. Take your time."
"Ye Xiao, keep that up and I'll smack you," Lin Tantan snapped. "You always tell me to take care of myself, what about you? I really will hit you!"
Ye Xiao promptly shut his mouth.
She glared so hard it looked like she wanted to bite him, and then continued setting the remaining ribs.
Blood kept flowing, dripping from his body and staining the bed red.
Lin Tantan sped up, her power flowing freely. In a little over twenty minutes she had set all four broken ribs. She checked left and right, crouched to inspect the chest from different angles to ensure the heights matched.
When she was satisfied she exhaled, wiped the sweat from her brow, and said, "That should do it. I don't do this often, so I hope I didn't mess up. If your chest shape looks off later, I'll fix it again."
She felt a little embarrassed saying it, but Ye Xiao didn't mind; he smiled, "Alright."
Lin Tantan placed her entire right hand five centimeters above the wound and kept releasing her power. Bright red muscle fibers began to grow and multiply visibly. She said, "I'll have to go back and get a crystal core in a bit."
The wound was too severe; even the full reserve of energy in her body wouldn't be enough.
Ye Xiao said, "There are crystal cores in the bedside table, wood-type."
"Hm?" Lin Tantan stopped treating him and opened the bedside table. Sure enough, several green crystal cores.
The cores were excellent quality, deep green, clear and pure. A glance told Lin Tantan they were level-two cores, with a few level-three. She immediately took a level-three and absorbed it. "Why do you keep so many wood cores?"
"I just brought them back because they looked good. I was actually going to give them to you."
Lin Tantan blinked and looked at Ye Xiao. If his tone and expression hadn't been so straightforward, she would have overthought it.
Ye Xiao glanced at his wound. It had been charred black a moment ago; now it was bright red.
He propped himself up against the headboard. Lin Tantan hurriedly said, "Be careful."
Ye Xiao settled carefully against the headboard and smiled, "I feel a lot better."
"Of course, without the bone pressing on your heart you'll feel better." Lin Tantan examined the wound. "The ribs have been reattached, but they're still bone; they don't heal that quickly. Even if I treat you every day it'll take many days. Now I'll start promoting muscle growth around the ribs; that also takes time. We'll take it slowly."
Ye Xiao said to Lin Tantan, "Tantan, thank you."
"For what? But how exactly did you get hurt?"
Ye Xiao squinted slightly. "The other party is already dead. Better not to say."
Lin Tantan wanted to hit him, but since he didn't want to talk she didn't press. He'd taken such a serious wound and was hiding it and handling it himself, clearly he didn't want anyone to know.
"By the way, with a wound like this you can't go out tomorrow." She returned to him the words he'd said to her earlier.
Before Ye Xiao could answer she added, "As for me, my hand still shakes a little. If you don't stay home to recover tomorrow, I will go out, and I won't listen to you from then on."
It was a serious threat. Ye Xiao laughed, "Fine."
Suddenly Ye Xiao heard something and made a 'don't speak' gesture to her. Then someone knocked again; this time it was the neighbor, Bai Cheng. "A Xiao, are you hurt? I smelled blood."
Lin Tantan glanced at the blood on the sheets and turned her face away with an innocent expression. Ye Xiao said, "Yeah, I cut my hand practicing my ability. It's nothing."
Lin Tantan thought: what kind of excuse is that, cutting your hand practicing powers? Would anyone believe that?
Yet Bai Cheng actually believed him. He stood outside for a moment and said, "Alright, be careful," and then left.
Lin Tantan was astonished. Ye Xiao, however, knew Bai Cheng hadn't been convinced so much as he'd understood Ye Xiao didn't want to tell the truth and didn't want him to come in, so he didn't press.
Each of them had their own space. They could entrust their lives to one another, but in daily life they kept a boundary, maintaining a comfortable distance.
Only Lin Tantan would barrel in like this, pressing him down to treat him and threatening to hit him... well, he seemed to do the same to her.
Ye Xiao couldn't help the corner of his mouth twitching. Lin Tantan looked at him curiously, why was he suddenly smiling?
...
Over with Zhou Li, his arm had already been bandaged. A wood-type power user had treated him, but it wasn't Lin Tantan. There wasn't much that could be done for such severe damage, so whether the hand would fully heal remained uncertain, it would be best to reattach it surgically.
Zhou Li was deathly pale from blood loss. He looked at Zhou Yan's corpse; nearly half his head had been chopped off. Yet there was no grief on his face, first because he knew who had done it, and second because he'd only just discovered that Zhou Yan actually had powers.
To hide the fact he had fire powers, what was he trying to do? His younger brother was far from trustworthy.
He said expressionlessly, "Wrap him up. Take him out of the base when we go tomorrow."
The body was soon bagged, but unseen by anyone, the corpse's hand twitched.