Chapter 25
After dragging Nan Yunzhou through training for an entire day, Ye Xuan felt that, in a way, he had one-sidedly exploited him. He was more or less a little embarrassed, so he asked Nan Yunzhou whether he wanted to go eat at the cafeteria with him. His treat—even if it meant two more entries would be added to his already heavily indebted virtual funds.
But unexpectedly, Nan Yunzhou refused him.
Nan Yunzhou glanced at his wristband and said to Ye Xuan, “I have plans today. Tomorrow, then. Ye Xuan, see you tomorrow.”
Ye Xuan waved goodbye to Nan Yunzhou. Being rejected was a perfectly normal thing. Nan Yunzhou had his own social circle and his own friends. He was always so cheerfully silly too, so his teammates in Team One probably liked him a lot.
Ye Xuan packed a meal from the cafeteria and returned to the dorm. He had another thirty yuan added to his expenses. So expensive. He had been eating and drinking at Xia Chenxi’s place for free. How much extra money had Xia Chenxi spent? In the future, he had to return everything he owed to Xia Chenxi.
When he returned to the dorm and turned on the lights, the room was empty. It was clearly exactly the same as when he had left in the morning, yet something was different.
Xia Chenxi was missing.
At this hour, Xia Chenxi would usually be in the kitchen, wearing that blue-and-white apron of his, cooking dinner, giving off a full-on househusband vibe.
Ye Xuan placed the meal on the dining table, pulled out a chair, sat down, and opened the packaging. Tonight, he could only eat alone.
Speaking of which, back in university, he rarely ate alone. He was always with Jiang Dong and Li Wen. The three of them were not exactly very close, but everyone tacitly treated each other as university companions.
In university, completely breaking away from a group was actually quite terrifying, especially when it came to group projects. Those were probably invented by some ancient punishment official reincarnated into modern times to deliberately torture students.
But now, those worries were gone. There was no need to desperately blend into a group, and there were no messy PPT assignments either.
Yet Ye Xuan unconsciously began to miss the past. At least the past had not been as precarious as the present, where he was standing at the edge of a cliff with a bottomless abyss behind him.
Only a little over a week had passed, yet Ye Xuan felt as if everything had changed. Campus life seemed like something from a previous lifetime. It was as if he had now found some unlucky job as a reserve combat team member working for the base.
After finishing dinner while lost in random thoughts, Ye Xuan washed up and lay down on the bed.
The soft bed made Ye Xuan feel slightly alive again. He liked the feeling of sinking into it from every direction.
Ye Xuan opened his wristband and checked his message list. There were only two people on it: Xia Chenxi and Nan Yunzhou. At this moment, neither had sent any new messages.
Nan Yunzhou had said that sending messages to someone on a mission would not disturb them. Then should he send Xia Chenxi a message?
Today was Xia Chenxi’s first day out on a mission. Logically and emotionally, he should ask whether Xia Chenxi was safe.
Ye Xuan did not send Xia Chenxi a voice message. Instead, he pulled up the list and chose to type.
Are you okay right now?
Is it dangerous?
Wishing you safety.
After tapping back and forth, Ye Xuan kept feeling that none of it was suitable. He deleted and edited repeatedly, then began complaining in the chat box about what had happened today.
Quan Guanxi came to trouble me again. Today wasn’t like before. I beat him.
Delete.
Of course, it was with someone else’s help, but I think I contributed too. The one who really knocked him down was me.
Delete.
Training is so tiring. If you were in the reserve team, you’d definitely think this bit of tiredness was nothing, not even half as tiring as studying, right?
Delete.
The base cafeteria is so expensive. I’ve been eating and drinking at your place for free for so long. I’ll definitely pay you back later.
His hand slipped, and Ye Xuan sent that sentence out.
In a panic, he hurriedly searched for a recall button, but there was none.
None!
Would Xia Chenxi think there was something wrong with his brain after seeing this sentence? Xia Chenxi was out there on a mission, yet Ye Xuan had not asked whether he was safe, and instead was talking to him about paying back money.
Xia Chenxi would definitely think there was something wrong with his brain!
Ye Xuan yanked the quilt up and covered his face. Doing this could not change anything, but it could give him a little psychological comfort, as if Xia Chenxi on the other side would not see that embarrassing message.
Under the quilt, Ye Xuan prayed that Xia Chenxi would not see the message. Or that he would see it later. Preferably after the mission was over.
Wait.
Ye Xuan sprang up from the bed. Had Nan Yunzhou not said that ability users would not look at other people’s messages while on missions? What was he panicking for? Maybe Xia Chenxi would not open the list at all, much less open his message.
It was an extremely low-probability event. Before receiving a reply, that was how Ye Xuan deceived himself.
Outside the base, after a certain person opened that message, waves gradually surged in his eyes. He had expected to receive a greeting. The worst-case scenario had been facing a dead-silent screen, not seeing a sentence like this that seemed to draw a boundary between them.
The anger burning in his chest urgently needed to be vented. Xia Chenxi picked up a stone from beside him and threw it hard, piercing straight through the skull of a zombie that had suddenly entered his line of sight.
The zombie twitched a few times, then collapsed.
The noise attracted Xia Chenxi’s teammate over. Lowering his voice, the teammate said, “Keep it down. Otherwise, you’ll attract more zombies. It’s dangerous.”
Xia Chenxi was so calm he could not have been calmer. He said to his teammate, “Right now, I’m more dangerous than they are.”
Ye Xuan silently recited “spirits above, spirits below” three times in his heart, covered his eyes, and opened the screen. Then he gathered his courage and suddenly moved his hand away.
Xia Chenxi’s message slammed into his eyes.
Xia Chenxi: Do you think I can’t afford to keep you?
This sounded a little strange. It made it seem as if he were being kept by Xia Chenxi.
He did not dare send that to Xia Chenxi. He had already interpreted anger from this sentence.
Why was Xia Chenxi angry? Even if Ye Xuan had sent something like that at this time, there was no need for him to be angry. Shouldn’t receiving someone else’s promise to repay money be something worth feeling happy about?
Ye Xuan tapped his fingers.
You can afford it, but I feel embarrassed eating and drinking for free.
When Xia Chenxi saw that sentence, he let out a cold laugh and said to his teammate, who was forcing himself to stay alert, “There are always zombies coming this way. I suspect there’s a nest.”
And so, he single-handedly wiped out a small zombie nest not far away.
It still did not feel like enough, but there were no more zombies nearby for him to deal with.
Carrying a belly full of anger, Xia Chenxi kicked the large tree beside him. With a faint cracking sound, the tree crashed to the ground.
In Xia Chenxi’s eyes, Ye Xuan’s words were a naked declaration: You can keep me, but I don’t want you to. Please stay away from me.
You were the one who took the initiative to apply to live together. You were also the one who wanted to draw a clear line between us. Ye Xuan, what exactly is going on inside your head? Why do your thoughts keep changing again and again?
Xia Chenxi half-crouched down and clenched his fist.
Ye Xuan’s heart beat very fast as he stared fixedly at the screen. Unfortunately, no more messages came from the other side.
Xia Chenxi should have understood what he meant, right? Or did he think empty words were laughable?
Irritated but not daring to disturb him again, Ye Xuan turned off his wristband and emptied his mind as he stared at the ceiling. He still had training tomorrow. He should sleep.
One sheep…
Two sheep…
Three sheep…
