Chapter 73: What Do You Think When Given a Space?
“Okay,” Zhuang Ai Yi obediently got out of bed.
Zhuang Mingxu kept pressing down on the blanket. Lu Weiyi looked at him inexplicably. Only after Zhuang Ai Yi left the room did he breathe a sigh of relief, showing faint signs of loosening his grip. Lu Weiyi thought he was embarrassed about not wearing clothes. “I had to let them check your knees earlier, so I didn’t put clothes on you. I’ll get you a set later.”
Zhuang Mingxu pursed his lips and nodded.
Before he could think anything, he saw Lu Weiyi lean down close to a certain suggestive area. All of Zhuang Mingxu’s thoughts vanished instantly, feeling only a fire burning up from inside his body. Unfortunately, he was too weak, and a certain part actually failed him, only showing a very slight sign of stirring, so subtle that it was almost imperceptible without careful observation.
Zhuang Mingxu’s face darkened a bit. Just as he was thinking about suggesting they postpone it, he saw a dagger appear out of thin air in Lu Weiyi’s hand.
“Li… Little Yi, what are you doing?” Zhuang Mingxu felt himself breaking out in a cold sweat. He even thought back in his mind if he had made some big mistake. Was it because he was late in picking him up?
“Little Yi, calm down… you…” Zhuang Mingxu saw Lu Weiyi holding the tip of the dagger and stabbing towards a certain area. He wanted to dodge, but his legs had no strength, and he called out anxiously.
The dagger in Lu Weiyi’s hand directly stabbed into the grass beside a certain part of him, slightly grazing it. The slight pain wasn’t even felt amidst the shock.
“Almost done,” Lu Weiyi said, taking out the jade pendant he had snatched earlier from his pocket and pressing it against the cut.
“Little Yi, what are you doing?” Zhuang Mingxu now felt like he had misunderstood something.
“Giving you a space,” Lu Weiyi glanced at him, his gaze clearly not the one from just now.
Zhuang Mingxu just watched as the jade pendant instantly disappeared into Lu Weiyi’s fingertip.
“Focus your attention and feel this spot,” Lu Weiyi got up, tucked the blanket around him, and took out a set of Zhuang Mingxu’s clothes from his space, placing them beside the pillow. “Do you feel it?”
“…Mmm,” Zhuang Mingxu replied. He felt an empty space appear there, and his whole person was still a bit dazed. “What… what’s going on?”
When he left Qingyuan, there were only a few ability users there. Later, although he had seen many ability users, he had never heard of space abilities. Seeing Lu Weiyi actually give him one directly, the shock in his heart was unimaginable.
“I don’t know either, but some jade pendants become spaces after being stained with blood,” Lu Weiyi said, lifting his clothes to show him his navel. “Look at mine.”
The white jade wasn’t obvious against his skin. Zhuang Mingxu leaned closer and asked, “Is that the amulet?”
“Mmm,” Lu Weiyi didn’t say much about the jade pendant. Instead, he took out some of Zhuang Mingxu’s clothes and daily necessities from his space, and even more food—instant noodles, bread, self-heating hot pot, rice, and a lot of canned fruit and meat, even candy. He piled them messily on the ground and finally took out two guns and a lot of bullets.
Zhuang Mingxu’s jade pendant space was only about forty square meters. Lu Weiyi wanted to take more things but didn’t have the space, so he only gave him some practical items.
“This belongs to one of the people who was with you that day. It’s full of guns and ammunition. After I accidentally snatched it, I kept it,” Lu Weiyi briefly explained the origin of the jade pendant space, reminding Zhuang Mingxu, “There are two types of spaces: those of space ability users and jade pendant spaces. The time inside a space ability user’s space is frozen, meaning hot things stay hot no matter when you take them out. Jade pendant spaces don’t work like that.”
“And jade pendant spaces can be snatched away. You’d better not let anyone put hot food inside. If you really can’t avoid it, then don’t let anyone know you have a space.” Now that he had no abilities, he wanted to avoid someone with ill intentions trying to steal it and attacking him for such a thing.
“Okay, I understand,” Zhuang Mingxu said, having calmed down after listening to him.
“Try putting these away, I’ll go get you something to eat,” Lu Weiyi said, leaving the room.
Most of the group were on the sofa. As soon as they saw him come out, they instantly quieted down and looked over, their various gazes making Lu Weiyi feel a bit inexplicable.
He looked down at himself, finding nothing wrong. “What are you all staring at me for?”
“Nothing, nothing…” “Nothing…” “Ah, where were we just talking?”
The noisy voices shifted the topic unusually obviously. Lu Weiyi looked expressionlessly at Xu Sa, who was holding Zhuang Ai Yi. Xu Sa coughed twice to clear his throat, looking a bit embarrassed for once. “Brother Mingxu is so fast… ah spit, I mean, you’re so fast… no, what I wanted to say was…”
Seeing Lu Weiyi look at him like he was an idiot, Xu Sa blurted out, “Ai Yi said you were in a hurry to lift Brother Mingxu’s blanket, so Brother Mingxu told him to come out.” His eyes clearly said, “I didn’t expect you to be this kind of Lu Weiyi.”
“Oh,” Lu Weiyi replied, asking Xi Shi, “Brother Xi, is there anything to eat? I’m hungry.” He had gone to sleep after Zhuang Mingxu’s IV drip finished in the morning and hadn’t gotten up all noon.
“Yes, we had noodles for lunch, stir-fried potatoes and green beans with stewed vermicelli, and stir-fried tomatoes with eggplant. The noodles might be a bit sticky now, so I saved some of the dishes for you. Do you want me to cook some noodles for you, or would you like something else? We have rice and porridge, both are hot,” Xi Shi said with a smile, going to the kitchen to get him food.
“I’ll have rice,” Lu Weiyi said. “I can get it myself.”
“It’s no trouble, just something I can do for you,” Xi Shi said.
“Lu Xiaoyi, you still haven’t said what you were doing?” Xu Sa’s eyes gleamed with gossip.
“Looked at the injury, what else?” Lu Weiyi said, holding a wooden board as a temporary tray, rolling his eyes at him. Behind him, Xi Shi looked amused at Xu Sa’s instantly disappointed expression.
“Ai Yi, have you had lunch? Do you want to eat something with us?” Lu Weiyi thought of the little brat.
“Okay,” Zhuang Ai Yi, who had already drunk milk, immediately got down from Xu Sa and toddled over to Lu Weiyi, taking the initiative to open the door.
As soon as the door opened, the things they had put down were still piled on the floor. Zhuang Mingxu, who had already put on a shirt, probably wanted to say something, but seeing a stranger behind Lu Weiyi, he changed his words and took the initiative to greet him. “My name is Zhuang Mingxu, you can just call me Mingxu. Thank you for your trouble.”
“My name is Xi Shi. Weiyi saved our lives, so don’t be polite with us. Try the food, does it suit your taste? You can tell me if there’s anything else you want to eat,” Xi Shi, having found something he could do, was clearly quite happy.
“Okay, thank you,” Zhuang Mingxu raised an eyebrow at Lu Weiyi, thinking that he must ask Lu Weiyi specifically about what had happened these past few days later.
“Are these things to be put away? Do you need my help?” Xi Shi saw the pile on the ground and didn’t ask much.
“No need, Brother Xi, I still need to find some things later,” Lu Weiyi covered up for Zhuang Mingxu.
“Okay, then you eat slowly,” Xi Shi closed the door and left the room.
“I can’t put them away,” Zhuang Mingxu said before Lu Weiyi could ask.
As soon as Lu Weiyi entered the room and saw the things, he realized. Apart from him as an exception, both jade pendant spaces and space ability users needed to touch things to put them into the space.
“I forgot,” Lu Weiyi said, directly carrying a box of self-heating rice to the bedside, grabbing Zhuang Mingxu’s hand and pressing it onto the box. “Try it.”
In the blink of an eye, the things were put away. Zhuang Mingxu raised an eyebrow, concentrated, and saw the box in his own space.
“It needs to be touched,” he said with certainty.
“Mmm,” Lu Weiyi replied. “Let’s eat first, we’ll put them away later.”
“Ai Yi, take whatever you want to eat,” Lu Weiyi said, seeing Zhuang Ai Yi staring at a box of chocolates on the side.
Zhuang Ai Yi replied, but didn’t go over to take it. Instead, he stood beside Lu Weiyi, looking like he was waiting for food.
Lu Weiyi moved the bedside table over and stacked two boxes on top to make a table. He brought over the rice bowl, ladled a bowl of porridge, and handed it to Zhuang Mingxu. “You have to drink porridge.”
“Mmm,” Zhuang Mingxu was so hungry at this moment that he could eat a whole cow. He didn’t care about anything else and slurped down a bowl. Luckily, Xi Shi was thoughtful, and the porridge was only heated to lukewarm.
Lu Weiyi didn’t know what Zhuang Ai Yi ate, so he served him some rice and picked out some vegetables for him.
“Little Papa, this is too much, Ai Yi can’t finish it,” Zhuang Ai Yi just wanted to stay with Lu Weiyi more and wasn’t hungry.
“Then put it in my bowl,” Lu Weiyi pushed his bowl over.
Zhuang Ai Yi clumsily scooped out a lot with his spoon, leaving only a little bit, and said softly, “I drank milk, I only need to eat a little bit.”
“Mmm,” Lu Weiyi replied without saying anything.
After three bowls of porridge, Zhuang Mingxu didn’t continue. Firstly, he wasn’t sure if supplies were scarce, and secondly, he hadn’t eaten for too long, so eating too much wouldn’t be good.
Lu Weiyi didn’t persuade him. Of course, he didn’t have the awareness to persuade him. In his opinion, if he didn’t eat anymore, he must be full.
After the three of them finished eating, Lu Weiyi helped Zhuang Mingxu put the things on the floor into his space. Someone knocked on the door outside.
“Come in,” Lu Weiyi tucked the blanket around Zhuang Mingxu.
“Mingxu,” Lin Yimu stood there with a folded wheelchair in his hand, not sure whether to bring it over or not.
“Brother Mu, is that for me? I was just worried about how to get out. I can’t stay in the room all the time,” Zhuang Mingxu said with a smile, his expression calm and indifferent, as if he really didn’t care. But Ning Yuan’s eyes turned red again upon hearing this.
“There’s a trading market in the base. Ning Yuan and I went out just now and saw this… so we exchanged for one…” Lin Yimu knew this was reality, and there was no way to escape it. He stepped forward and placed the wheelchair aside.
“It’s useful. I’ll try it later,” Zhuang Mingxu said, calling out to Ning Yuan at the door, “Why are you hiding? The room is only so big.”
“Mingxu…” Ning Yuan’s voice choked as soon as he spoke.
“It’s not your fault, it has nothing to do with you,” Zhuang Mingxu pointed to the space beside him. “Come sit down.”
“When we find Li Ji, I will definitely kill him,” Ning Yuan said through gritted teeth, then noticed Zhuang Ai Yi beside the bed looking at him with wide eyes. He wanted to explain, but he really wasn’t in the mood, so he lowered his head and remained silent.
“Okay, when we find him, we’ll see what you do,” Zhuang Mingxu said, then to Lu Weiyi, who was clearing away the dishes, “Little Yi, take Ai Yi out, I want to chat with Brother Mu for a while.”
“Oh,” Lu Weiyi reached out to Zhuang Ai Yi, who immediately trotted over.
As the soft little hand pulled him, Lu Weiyi looked at Zhuang Ai Yi again. Hmm, he was quite pleasing to the eye. He took a bottle of yogurt from his space and gave it to him. “Here, drink this.”
“Thank you, Little Papa,” Zhuang Ai Yi was sweet-mouthed and well-behaved.
