She had just used a massive amount of her purification ability.
Jiang Nuan pulled an ability stabilizer from the inner pocket of her clothes and expertly jabbed it into the side of her neck.
The instant the needle pierced her skin, Jiang Nuan suddenly remembered something rather amusing.
The original source for developing this ability stabilizer had been her own blood.
After going around in one enormous circle, the medicine had ended up back in her own body.
The post-apocalyptic version of producing and consuming her own goods.
…Well, as long as it worked.
The medicine slowly seeped in. Jiang Nuan sat down against the wall and closed her eyes.
Her ability was no longer running wild, and the dizziness brought on by overexertion had eased somewhat. But that unreal feeling in her mind still hadn’t gone away.
She had thought she would be afraid.
After all, she had just been controlled by a psychic ability and forced to endure a kiss she hadn’t had time to react to at all.
Kissed by Bai Siyuan…
Only now did the warmth lingering on her lips belatedly begin to burn.
She instinctively wanted to brush the corner of her mouth with her finger, but then felt the gesture would seem too deliberate under the circumstances. Her hand froze halfway, then withdrew.
The images in her mind began to clash.
One moment, she saw his breath as he leaned down in the darkness. The next, she saw the boy from the refugee district who had carried her two blocks to get medical treatment. Then came the image of the young Bai Siyuan sneaking into the side courtyard late at night, a red-bean pastry tucked in his arms.
The images piled up in a chaotic mess. No matter how she looked at them, they didn’t seem to belong to the same person.
And yet they did.
Strangely, after turning the matter over and over in her mind for a long while, she felt panic, along with the dizzying sensation of looking down from the edge of a cliff.
But she felt no disgust.
Jiang Nuan turned her head to look at Bai Siyuan beside her.
He was still leaning against the wall, one hand loosely covering his chest. His whole body had withdrawn into a corner barely touched by the moonlight.
Only a small patch of moonlight reached his face, making it seem especially pale. His long lashes drooped, casting a small shadow beneath them.
He was so quiet he could almost be called obedient.
For some inexplicable reason, Jiang Nuan grew even more nervous.
A moment ago, his eyes had been filled with reckless madness in the darkness.
She could understand that an excessively high mutation level would make someone lose control. When a person’s reason was invaded and corrupted, anyone might become unlike themselves.
But now, that madness had withdrawn without a trace.
Then he lifted his eyes to look at her.
His gaze was quiet and focused, without the slightest hint of avoidance.
Only then did Jiang Nuan realize what was truly making her uneasy.
She could say of the Bai Siyuan from before, “He didn’t do it on purpose.”
She could blame everything—the body she had been unable to control, the kiss she had been powerless to resist, and all the things he had said—on the restricted zone, on the contamination, on his mutation level.
But this Bai Siyuan was conscious and knew exactly what he had said.
He didn’t regret any of it.
[A Nuan, I would have said all those things even if I’d been completely clear-headed.]
…
Jiang Nuan closed her eyes again. The stabilizer was taking effect, and the ability within her body was slowly recovering. Much of her fatigue had receded.
She glanced at the clock on the table by the light of the moon. Ten forty.
There was still some time until midnight.
Her gaze shifted back to Bai Siyuan. The blood across the front of his shirt gleamed black in the moonlight, looking even worse than before.
If she left him alone like this, in his current state, any monster that happened to come by could finish him off.
Jiang Nuan sighed and resigned herself to moving closer to him.
Bai Siyuan’s gaze followed her.
“Stop looking at me like that.” Jiang Nuan’s tone was a little sharp. “I’m only worried you’ll die here and the Bai family will come after me once we get out.”
Although there wasn’t much left of the Bai family now.
Although, in fact, there was even a document stating that all his inheritance would go to Jiang Nuan after his death.
Bai Siyuan was silent for several seconds. “A Nuan.”
“Shut up.”
“Okay.”
He agreed so quickly that Jiang Nuan frowned, the irritation in her heart growing heavier.
Whenever she had been unhappy in the past, Bai Siyuan had always been like this.
He never argued with her. He would simply sit quietly, watching her and keeping her company. No matter how many times she told him to leave, he refused to go, waiting for her to soften first.
That trick had worked very well before.
Even now…it wasn’t completely ineffective.
Jiang Nuan pressed her lips together and forced herself to focus on his wound.
“Where’s that bottle of medicine from earlier?” She turned on the flashlight on her terminal and swept it around the area.
Leaning against the wall, Bai Siyuan’s voice was faint.
“In…the inner pocket of my clothes.”
Jiang Nuan bent down and reached her hand inside his clothing.
The fabric was damp from the blood and clung unpleasantly to her palm.
She had only meant to find the bottle as quickly as possible, but Bai Siyuan’s breathing suddenly grew uneven.
Jiang Nuan noticed at once and stopped moving. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” Bai Siyuan shook his head lightly.
“Then why are you holding your breath?” She gentled her movements and continued searching.
Bai Siyuan simply looked at her.
Jiang Nuan had the strange feeling that the places he was watching were growing hot.
“You’re too close.”
Her fingers finally found the small bottle. At his words, she nearly crushed it in her hand.
…Her older brother had clearly been a perfectly proper person before.
How was it that once he stopped being proper, he became more practiced every time?
“Bai Siyuan!” Jiang Nuan glared at him. “If you keep talking nonsense, I’m leaving right now.”
“Okay. I won’t say anything else.”
He answered quickly, then paused before adding in a low voice, “Don’t go.”
Jiang Nuan ignored him and lowered her head to examine the wound.
The injury was on the front of his body.
If not for the chaos just now, if not for those overly direct words, she wouldn’t have thought anything of it.
Jiang Nuan ground her back teeth together. Treating his wound was the important thing.
She reached out to undo the buttons of his shirt. As the collar loosened, the lines of his collarbone were revealed. Beneath the moonlight, his skin was almost unnaturally pale.
This wasn’t the first time she had seen it. But today, no matter how she looked at it, she found it irritating.
She continued downward.
The blood-soaked fabric clung to his skin, and she had to use her fingers to peel it away bit by bit from around the wound. The blood had already begun to coagulate. When she pulled the shirt free, it brought up a layer of sticky adhesion, and the muscles of Bai Siyuan’s abdomen suddenly tensed.
Aside from that abrupt tightening, however, he remained as still as a doll for someone else to arrange as they pleased.
The wound began just to the left of his sternum and slanted all the way down to his ribs. The flesh was torn open, and a large area around it had turned blue and purple.
He had clearly suffered an impact of tremendous force.
…Why was this man so ruthless when it came to hurting himself?
“Is it really this bad?” she murmured, frowning as she pulled the blood-soaked shirt open on both sides.
Bai Siyuan cooperatively leaned back, making it easier for her to see.
The muscles of his abdomen tightened instinctively, their lines…
—Stop.
That wasn’t the point.
He was her older brother.
…No.
He had treated her like that just now.
What was wrong with looking for a couple of seconds?
She was only examining his wound, after all. If she didn’t look, she’d be missing out.
Jiang Nuan twisted open the cap of the medicine bottle and poured the liquid onto a cotton pad.
When the pad touched the edge of the wound, Bai Siyuan’s body tensed slightly.
She immediately softened her movements. “Does it hurt badly?”
Bai Siyuan’s Adam’s apple rolled slowly.
Several seconds passed before he answered in a low voice, “It’s all right.”
Jiang Nuan had just let out a breath of relief when he continued.
“The wound hurt a lot at first. But when you touch it, it doesn’t hurt as much.”
“Bai Siyuan!”
Jiang Nuan was so furious that she nearly pressed the cotton pad straight into his wound.
“Shut up!”
“Okay.”
He obediently agreed once again.
Jiang Nuan took a deep breath. “And stop looking at me all the time.”
Bai Siyuan was quiet for several seconds.
“…I’ll try.”
