Chapter 31
Xia Chenxi sensed the excitement and exhilaration radiating from Ye Xuan, but his own mood was not good.
His gaze fell on the back of Ye Xuan’s head.
The Nan Yunzhou those people were talking about should be the person Ye Xuan had mentioned before, the one who helped him. He was also the person who had once taught Quan Guanxi a lesson for Ye Xuan.
Nan Yunzhou, whose name resounded like thunder among the official teams.
He had once used dual abilities to suppress zombies and rescue five hundred trapped people. He had never lost in the challenge matches, with a highest streak of twenty consecutive wins, because he disdained challenging ordinary ability users. He possessed the most destructive ability in the base and had been awarded the Base High Guard Medal, and so on.
Any one of these achievements alone was enough to make most ability users bow their heads.
Why would an ability user covered in so much honor pay attention to Ye Xuan, a reserve combat team member?
The answer was obvious: he had approached him with ulterior motives.
Xia Chenxi walked beside Ye Xuan with both hands in his pockets and said to him, “Don’t be so grateful just because someone shows you a little kindness.”
Ye Xuan turned his head to look at Xia Chenxi. His whole face was covered tightly, so Ye Xuan could not see his expression.
He misunderstood Xia Chenxi’s meaning, thinking he was joking with him, so he joked back.
“Are you talking about yourself?”
Xia Chenxi fell silent for several seconds before speaking. “After we see Xie Yan, let’s go to neurology and have your brain checked.”
“…”
So he had not been joking. Then who was he talking about?
Nan Yunzhou?
Ye Xuan explained to Xia Chenxi, “Nan Yunzhou can’t be called a good person, but he isn’t a bad person either.”
“Did what I just said slip right out of your smooth, wrinkle-free brain?”
Xia Chenxi glanced sideways at Ye Xuan.
“But the things Nan Yunzhou did for me were real.”
The nurse brought them to the twelfth floor. A strange atmosphere flowed between the two of them, so she did not linger and quickly left.
Xia Chenxi faced Ye Xuan. His tone was no longer calm; it had turned cold and sharp.
“Before achieving a goal, people can use any means necessary.”
“What about you, then? What goal do you have toward me? Why are you so good to me?” Ye Xuan stared straight into Xia Chenxi’s eyes, afraid—afraid that he would see calculation inside them.
Xia Chenxi lowered the brim of his hat. “I’m different from him. I’m doing it because of your mother’s request.”
“Is that so?” Ye Xuan took a step back and turned around, bitterness surging in his heart.
Xia Chenxi’s lie was too obvious. Just because of one sentence from his mother, how could Xia Chenxi possibly do so much for him?
He also had some unspeakable purpose toward him. What right did he have to mock others for doing the same?
“I’ll judge for myself. Thank you for your kind reminder.”
Seeing that Ye Xuan had misunderstood him, Xia Chenxi clenched the hand in his pocket into a fist.
Xie Yan rushed into the research room in a whirlwind, breaking the silent atmosphere between the two.
“Little Xuanxuan, you’re finally here. I wanted to run tests on you the day before yesterday. Do you know how important your experimental data from back then was to me?” Seeing that Ye Xuan looked too lazy to deal with him, Xie Yan smoothed things over for himself. “Coming now is the same.”
Ye Xuan entered the room for testing. Xia Chenxi leaned to the side and waited.
The low pressure around him was too obvious and affected Xie Yan, who was observing the data. He asked Xia Chenxi, “What’s going on? Did you two fight?”
“No.”
Xia Chenxi answered stiffly. They had not even had the chance to argue. Ye Xuan had shut him up with one gentle move.
Xie Yan advised him, “Young people, ah. Just talk things out. I also came from your age.”
“It’s different.”
“What?” Xie Yan was focused on the data panel and did not hear clearly, so he subconsciously asked what Xia Chenxi had said.
“Nothing. Focus on checking him. Just don’t make any mistakes.”
After saying that, Xia Chenxi walked out of the research room. His heart was a complete mess.
When Ye Xuan came out after the examination, the first thing he did was look toward where Xia Chenxi had been standing. Now it was empty. No one was there.
He had probably been angered into leaving first.
“He…” Xie Yan wanted to tell Ye Xuan that Xia Chenxi was waiting at the door.
“Tell me the test results.”
Ye Xuan interrupted him. Xie Yan glanced toward the door and swallowed the rest of his words.
These two were so strange today. They had definitely fought, right?
“Your bodily functions are fine.”
Xie Yan pointed at two curves on the screen. Ye Xuan followed his hand and looked over. One curve remained high, while the other stayed at the bottom, almost flat.
“These are the two kinds of R Virus in your body.” Xie Yan pointed at the upper curve and said to Ye Xuan, “This R Virus was produced after Xia Chenxi bit you. It’s also the R Virus that stimulated your new ability.”
Then Xie Yan moved somewhat regretfully to the lower curve.
“It won’t be long before this virus disappears from your body. I thought you would become a dual-ability user.”
Ye Xuan nodded. If that ability still existed, it would be a life-saving measure.
But in truth, this was also fortunate. If he encountered an extremely dangerous place during a mission and kept “being reborn” again and again, unable to live and unable to die, that would be suffering.
He might as well die.
So Ye Xuan did not feel much regret over the disappearance of that ability.
“Anything else?”
Xie Yan reluctantly pulled his finger away from the screen. “No. This afternoon, you can report to Training Field No. 2. Someone there will take you to do an ability potential assessment, then arrange you into a suitable team.”
“Of course, some abilities grow as the host grows. Once you reach the qualification line, you’ll have the chance to enter a stronger team and take on higher-level missions. The rewards and merits you receive will also be greater.”
A flash of light crossed Ye Xuan’s eyes. He wanted to earn money. A lot of money.
Xie Yan signaled for Ye Xuan to wait there for a moment while he went to make a phone call.
Ye Xuan stayed where he was. After waiting for a while, Xie Yan still had not returned, so he wandered around the laboratory.
Suddenly, something hooked his foot, and he fell into a hidden door. Ye Xuan opened his wristband and had just activated flashlight mode when someone called him from behind.
“Ye Xuan, not every place in my laboratory is somewhere you can enter.”
Ye Xuan turned back. It was the first time he had seen such a look in Xie Yan’s eyes—cold, vicious, like a snake that had crawled up from a well after being suppressed for a hundred years.
That look flashed by so quickly that Ye Xuan almost thought he had seen wrong, but he knew he had not.
Xie Yan walked to Ye Xuan’s side and pulled him up from the ground.
“This place stores very important experimental data of mine. No one is allowed in.”
“Got it.”
Ye Xuan covered his wristband and pretended to turn it off, then followed behind Xie Yan.
Taking advantage of the fact that Xie Yan was not paying attention, he moved the hand covering his wristband slightly away and looked back. The faint light from the wristband was refracted. Behind him, it seemed like there was glass.
What was inside?
Something strangely shaped.
Afraid of being discovered by Xie Yan, Ye Xuan turned back and turned off the wristband.
After going out, the first thing Ye Xuan did was apologize. “Sorry. I went in by accident.”
It sounded like a lie, but he was telling the truth.
Xie Yan stared at him, then suddenly grinned. “It’s fine. It was my oversight. Actually, I originally planned to install a holographic automatic door, but the base has always had limited funds. I heard the exploration team sent out recently found another new mineral vein. I’ll apply again and see.”
