Chapter 22
“Ye Xuan, do we really have to do this?”
Lightning kept condensing at Nan Yunzhou’s fingertips, one bolt after another, and he threw them out. He was very afraid he might accidentally condense too much, or throw too quickly and hurt Ye Xuan.
“Don’t stop. Keep going.”
Nan Yunzhou held the lightning, already throwing it toward Ye Xuan with great caution. But under the siege of multiple lightning balls, Ye Xuan still failed to dodge in time and scraped his arm. Nan Yunzhou immediately stopped what he was doing and went to check Ye Xuan’s wound.
The piece of flesh grazed by the electricity had been burned black, giving off a scorched smell.
“Ye Xuan, my ability is pretty destructive. One careless move and you’ll get hurt. Why don’t I help you another way?”
Ye Xuan did not care about the small wound on his arm. He looked at it. The charred flesh was slowly healing. As long as it could heal, there was no major problem.
“Excluding today, I only have two days left. If I can’t awaken an ability within two days, I’ll be transferred to mine ore. Rather than spend the rest of my life doing nothing but mining, I might as well force myself now.”
“But if I’m not careful, I’ll hurt you.”
Ye Xuan did not understand why a grown man like Nan Yunzhou was being so hesitant. He himself was not even afraid of the pain, yet Nan Yunzhou was already feeling phantom pain for him.
He covered Nan Yunzhou’s mouth. Once his mouth was covered, those affectionate eyes became even more alluring, yet they also carried an innocent, worldly-ignorant look. His hot breath fell against Ye Xuan’s palm. Why did he look so much like a Samoyed trying to please its owner? Ye Xuan moved his hand upward and covered those eyes too.
“Don’t ask. Just listen to me.”
“Mmph.”
The training continued.
After Ye Xuan’s little lecture, Nan Yunzhou no longer held back, but he also found a trick from the earlier training. He compressed the lightning balls even smaller and increased the speed of throwing them. This way, he could largely avoid hurting Ye Xuan while still achieving the training effect Ye Xuan wanted.
A teachable child indeed, Ye Xuan praised Nan Yunzhou in his heart.
Just like that, after training the whole morning, Ye Xuan’s dodging skills were maxed out. He even felt as if he had turned into a tropical rainforest monkey, constantly jumping up and down. Other than that, there was no change.
“When in doubt, eat first. Once we’re full, we’ll continue training.”
There was no use being anxious. He might as well listen to Nan Yunzhou and eat first.
Nan Yunzhou hooked an arm around Ye Xuan’s shoulder, and the two walked toward the cafeteria together.
“Why do you people always like walking with your arms around other people’s shoulders?” Especially Nan Yunzhou. He was so big, and half his weight was pressing onto Ye Xuan, heavy as hell.
The culprit had no self-awareness at all.
“Who else is included in ‘you people’?” Nan Yunzhou’s eyes darkened slightly, quietly hiding that instant of unnaturalness. He smiled and explained to Ye Xuan, “Ye Xuan, you’re a head shorter than me. If I don’t hook my arm around you, I can’t hear you talk at all.”
Ye Xuan wanted to say, If you can’t hear, then go get a hearing aid. Xia Chenxi was about the same height as him, but he never hooked an arm around Ye Xuan’s shoulder when talking to him, except that day when he brought him back to the dorm from the hospital.
Ye Xuan’s distrust was too obvious. Nan Yunzhou deliberately moved his head even closer, forcing Ye Xuan to block his head with his hand.
“You don’t trust me? I really can’t hear. Who is that person who hooked an arm around you? Why can he walk arm in arm with you, but I can’t? Why? Can’t I? Can’t I? Can’t I?”
He was about to start chanting again. Ye Xuan hurriedly said, “Do whatever you want, alright? Whatever you want.”
“Really?” Those pretty puppy eyes narrowed.
A chill ran through Ye Xuan’s heart. This guy was going to mess with him again.
The next second, Nan Yunzhou hung his entire body on Ye Xuan like a sloth.
“Do you really have to walk like this?”
“Aren’t you the one who said I could do whatever I wanted?” Nan Yunzhou’s brows furrowed slightly, and his mouth drooped. Ye Xuan could not refuse at all.
Forget it. As long as it did not cross his bottom line, he could do whatever he wanted.
A triumphant smile flashed through Nan Yunzhou’s eyes, but Ye Xuan did not notice it.
The two arrived at the cafeteria. There were not many people there, only a very small number of official team members and mostly reserve team members.
At this hour, the reserve team members had just finished training.
This was Ye Xuan’s second time coming to the cafeteria. The first time had been during his first training session.
“Ye Xuan, what do you want to eat?”
Ye Xuan glanced over. These dishes were like the ones on the first floor of his university cafeteria, all self-selected dishes. Of course, they looked even worse than the ones at his university cafeteria.
Ye Xuan randomly choose two dishes, while Nan Yunzhou choose four. His entire plate was practically overflowing, and three of them were meat dishes.
“I get especially hungry after training, Ye Xuan. Don’t think of me as a pig.”
He would not. With Nan Yunzhou’s physique, his metabolism was naturally fast to begin with. Now that he had become an ability user, it was normal for him to get hungry easily.
Ye Xuan carried his food over to pay. After scanning his wristband, he checked his virtual funds: -3073.
He had only eaten at the cafeteria twice, and both times he had only chosen vegetarian dishes. Wasn’t the base just openly robbing him?
Before he could even achieve anything, he already owed a mountain of debt.
The two carried their food and sat to the side.
Nan Yunzhou looked extremely hungry and shoveled rice into his mouth in large bites. He stopped talking too.
That suited Ye Xuan perfectly. He also kept quiet and focused on eating.
But Nan Yunzhou not speaking did not mean other people would not speak. It was bad enough that the people talking were seated behind him, but the main subject of their conversation was him. That made Ye Xuan lose even his appetite.
“You’re new here, right? Do you know Ye Xuan?”
“Ye Xuan?”
“Yeah. That guy knows an official team member, and that official team member even helps him train.”
“What? Then does he know how to awaken an ability?”
“Tsk, he’s very petty. He definitely knows something, but he refuses to tell anyone else. Because of that, he even angered another official team member, Quan Guanxi.”
“Quan Guanxi? I know him. He holds grudges over the smallest thing. Then isn’t Ye Xuan dead for sure?”
“Exactly. Ye Xuan was beaten so badly he didn’t come to training for two days. But I heard someone helped him take revenge. Quan Guanxi was beaten into a pig’s head while walking on the road.”
“Pfft.”
“Fuck, can’t you two shut your mouths while eating?” Someone snapped before Ye Xuan could.
Quan Guanxi punched each of the two gossiping guys on the head. After being hit, neither of them dared to make a sound. They immediately picked up their food and left.
Quan Guanxi slammed his fist onto the dining table and directly smashed it apart, causing everyone who was eating to stop and look sideways at him.
But Ye Xuan was unaffected and continued eating the rice in his bowl. Nan Yunzhou was also happily gnawing on a chicken drumstick, ignoring Quan Guanxi completely.
Quan Guanxi had made such a big scene just to attract the attention of these two people, yet the two of them treated him like air.
He still had not avenged himself for being inexplicably beaten on the road last time. Even with his toes, he could figure out that person had been Nan Yunzhou. Why was Nan Yunzhou protecting this brat? This brat had nothing except a face, unlike him, who had always flattered and supported Nan Yunzhou.
What exactly did Nan Yunzhou see in this brat?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Quan Guanxi slapped Ye Xuan’s tray over.
“Brat, did I say you could eat?”
