Lu Shiyan pulled something out of the drawer.
A bottle.
A dark brown glass bottle, shaped and packaged like liquor.
“If you’re nervous, you can have a little first.” Lu Shiyan pushed the bottle to the center of the table, his tone almost gentle.
Jiang Nuan stared at the bottle.
“Whisky,” he added at the right moment. “On the black market right now, one bottle can probably fetch a high-explosive round.”
Something so expensive…
She stared at the bottle for a long time, then reached out and took it.
The sound of the cap twisting open was especially clear in the quiet room.
She tilted her head back and took a gulp.
It burned all the way from her throat down to her stomach, then sent a wave of heat back up, stinging her eyes until they ached.
But after that fiery kick passed, a delayed warmth spread from her stomach out to her limbs, as if she were slowly being wrapped in a cozy embrace.
The world began to feel unsteady. The corner of the table swayed, the lights flickered, and even Lu Shiyan’s absurdly handsome face seemed to waver.
Later, Meng Lan found her a pair of slippers.
Soft, warm ones.
Finally, she didn’t have to step barefoot on the cold floor.
Lu Shiyan led her away from that medical pod.
In the corridor, only the sound of their footsteps echoed. He walked ahead, his stride a little slower than usual.
Dazed, she followed behind him.
A door at the end of the hallway swung open: B3-07.
Inside was a suite—larger than she had expected, and the bedroom was softer than she had imagined.
The lights were dimmed to a warm, low hue. The dark gray bed linens were smoothed flat, as if deliberately arranged.
She stumbled groggily to the bed and sank into the overly comfortable mattress.
The next second, the alcohol—along with the fear it had dulled—pulled her into sleep.
……
She felt her chin lifted by a hand.
She flinched, but was pulled back.
It was Lu Shiyan.
As he leaned in, Jiang Nuan caught his scent.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said, then bent down and kissed her.
She remembered his body temperature being higher than she had expected.
That unfamiliar, overwhelming sensation left her at a loss—unsure how to breathe, where to look.
Her ability was working; she could feel it.
Like a transparent river flowing out of her, spreading silently and seeping into his bones and blood.
The abnormally high heat in his body, within the range of her perception, slowly decreased bit by bit.
The mutation value was falling.
This sensation was bizarre.
She couldn’t see the numbers, but she could “taste” them.
When the mutation value was high, she tasted salt—like seawater flooding her mouth. As the purification progressed, the saltiness faded.
Vaguely, she felt as if the returning current carried something back, but when she tried to focus, there was only the clear stream, and she couldn’t detect a thing.
She turned her head and saw the veins bulging on his forearm.
Then he whispered something in her ear, but she didn’t catch it—though the last syllable of those two words was drawn out.
……
When she struggled awake, Jiang Nuan thought she was still dreaming.
A small nightlight turned on as she regained consciousness.
She turned her head to look at the digital clock on the cabinet.
10:35.
Her body was clean.
Someone had cleaned her up and changed her into fresh clothes.
Don’t think about it.
Just stay alive.
Qi Sui wasn’t wearing his white lab coat today. Instead, he had on a loose white sweater, which made him look clean and harmless, like the older boy next door.
A huge glass greenhouse filled with plants she couldn’t name—thick green leaves, vines climbing densely along steel frames. In the corner, there was a small tomato trellis, red and green fruit hanging from the branches.
The air carried the mingled scents of soil and moisture—damp and full of life.
Jiang Nuan stared at that patch of green for several seconds.
“That containment zone, the one you guys just dealt with,” Jiang Nuan began, “what exactly was it?”
Qi Sui didn’t answer right away. Instead, he looked up at the light filtering through the glass ceiling.
“Its physical lethality was actually average,” he said. “Compared to the S-class zones we’ve encountered before, this SS-class one was even weaker on the physical side.”
“Then how did it swallow an entire city?”
As Jiang Nuan asked this, she shuddered.
“Mental contamination.”
“Its core ability was spiritual erosion. Once you enter the zone, it attacks your consciousness directly. You can’t tell what’s real and what it’s feeding you. It traps you inside your own mental world, then slowly devours you.”
A chill ran down Jiang Nuan’s spine.
“That’s how the Seventh Squad was wiped out. They weren’t killed in combat—they broke down under the mental contamination, then mutated. After mutation, they became part of the zone.”
Jiang Nuan remembered.
That vice-captain killed by the mutated captain from C District’s Seventh Squad—all nine of them were…
Jiang Nuan’s fingers clenched under the blanket.
“The captain and Shen Wu.”
Qi Sui’s tone grew serious.
“Both of them have mental-type abilities. The captain could maintain clear judgment under mental contamination, and Shen Wu could tell illusion from reality. With the two of them anchoring the direction, we managed to find the core of the zone.”
The wheelchair stopped in front of a huge floor-to-ceiling window.
Sunlight poured through the glass ceiling, falling onto a cluster of plants so green they didn’t look real.
“But…” Qi Sui paused, his voice as light as a sigh.
“The cost was also huge.”
“After being exposed to that concentration of mental contamination for so long, everyone’s mutation value—all of them—crossed the Judgment Line directly.”
“Qinian charged way too hard; we almost couldn’t pull him back. At that moment, I was really afraid he might…”
Wind blew down from the overhead filtration system, rustling through the leaves with a faint whispering sound.
The Judgment Line.
Locked up, or disposed of.
No wonder they had snuck back to camp late last night—they were probably afraid the command center would get the news ahead of time.
All six of them were on the verge of being dealt with.
Her emotions were complicated.
Did a top-tier combat squad capable of eliminating a zone that could devour an entire city really deserve such treatment?
But it also seemed that if they didn’t get treated, once their mutation value maxed out and they turned into monsters, the damage they could cause might be even worse than the zone itself.
“Thankfully…”
Qi Sui placed his hands on her shoulders. Through the thin fabric, the warmth of his palms was still cool, tightening with a pressure she couldn’t escape.
He leaned down from behind her, resting his chin lightly on top of her head.
This posture resembled an intimate embrace.
“Thankfully, we have you, Nuan Nuan.”
His voice was right by her ear, his warm breath mixed with the clean scent of soap, enveloping her entirely.
“Thankfully, we have you.”
Jiang Nuan’s body instantly stiffened.
Those words struck heavily on her nerves.
They were a survivor’s gratitude, filled with extreme relief.
But behind that gratitude lay the almost shattered night she had endured.
Her nose stung sharply, and her eyes burned with heat.
What was she to them?
Their savior, who pulled them back from the Judgment Line?
Was she nothing more than a walking power bank, destined to supply them with energy as long as she was alive, never allowed to die?
She found herself both pitiable and laughable.
Just as she was drowning in this overwhelming and suffocating flood of emotions—
"Boom—"
A low engine roar suddenly echoed from the base entrance.
Jiang Nuan's heart jolted. She followed the sound with her eyes.
The heavy outer gate of the base slowly lifted, and a pitch-black armored vehicle rumbled across the ground, coming to a stop in the square before the main building.
The door swung open, and boots hit the ground.
The newcomers were dressed in matching dark gray combat uniforms, each bearing a badge composed of a sword and a scale on the left chest.
The leader stood in front of the armored vehicle, lifting his head to scan the base.
Jiang Nuan felt the hands on her shoulders tighten.
The weight on her head vanished as well.
Qi Sui straightened up.
Jiang Nuan couldn't see his expression, but she could sense that the gentle, harmless aura around him had vanished in an instant, replaced by a state of highly aggressive alertness.
Without a sound, he pulled her wheelchair half an inch behind him.
A tiny, protective gesture.
Jiang Nuan heard his voice above her, ice-cold:
"Command headquarters personnel."
