The hallway of Base Zero Squad.
Jiang Nuan walked alone through the empty corridor, her footsteps swallowed by the floor.
Outside the window, dusk was falling, the last light of day hanging on, painting the window at the end of the hall a dense, viscous orange.
Lu Shiyan and Shen Wu and their group had gone to command and hadn't returned yet. The Qinian brothers had been left behind to guard the base—and to guard her.
She stopped in front of Qi Sui's door. Warm yellow light leaked through the crack beneath it.
How should she even begin?
"Qi Sui, what exactly is hidden in that record of yours from the old era?"
Too direct. Too transparent.
Qi Sui was the kind of person who, the more directly you came at him, the more easily he'd deflect you with grace.
"I heard from Qinian that you documented things from before the apocalypse?"
No buildup at all—too deliberate.
With Qi Sui's level of perceptiveness, he'd definitely suspect her motives.
Jiang Nuan took a deep breath.
The empty hallway made her feel strangely uneasy, as if she were the only person left in the world, standing alone in front of a door with unknown answers behind it.
What was written in that record? Why did those descriptions match her memories from before she time-traveled?
Was her past life even real?
Don't trust anyone… did that include herself?
A chill ran down Jiang Nuan's spine. She clenched her fist, then raised her hand to knock.
But the door opened on its own.
It wasn't locked.
From inside came the soft clink of glass and Qinian's lazy, careless laughter.
Jiang Nuan pushed the door open.
Qinian was half-leaning against the windowsill, wearing only a black tank top. The old and new scars crisscrossing his arms were exposed under the warm yellow light, and in his hand, he swirled a bottle of some kind of hard liquor he'd dug up from who knows where.
Qi Sui sat on the sofa against the wall, two glass cups on the table in front of him, his jacket folded neatly on a chair beside him, shirt sleeves rolled up to the forearm, revealing a line of clean, smooth wrist.
He was pouring wine into a glass, his movements as gentle as if he were brewing tea.
The atmosphere in the room was a kind of… overly quiet relaxation.
Two beasts who'd finally sheathed their claws, dropping every pretense in this closed space.
No missions. No forbidden zones. Just two brothers, hard liquor, and the dusk.
Jiang Nuan froze for a moment, instinctively stepping back.
"You're resting. I'll come back another—"
"Oh, look who's here? Just in time, we're one short." Qinian's slightly upturned eyes were flushed red from the alcohol. He curved his lips in that signature infuriating grin.
"Don't leave." Qi Sui's voice was gentle as he pulled out another cup from under the table, the glass base tapping against the wood with a crisp clink. "Three's a crowd—but four makes it a proper celebration."
Qinian had already stepped forward, blocking the door, one long leg planted, one hand braced against the frame as he looked down at her, the smell of alcohol mixed with his elevated body heat washing over her face.
"On the White Whale, the three of us died together once." Qinian leaned down slightly, voice lowered. "You can't refuse a drink after that, can you?"
Jiang Nuan's breath caught for a beat.
In the reset timeline from the last round, Qi Sui had burned through his life force to hold back the monsters for her and Qinian, and Qinian had burned the last of his flames to clear the deck for her.
"Don't look back."
They had really died.
But now, they were all alive.
Jiang Nuan walked inside.
The door closed behind her. She heard the soft click of the lock as Qinian casually locked it from the inside.
Qi Sui slid the filled glass in front of Jiang Nuan, the amber liquid swaying slightly under the light. Jiang Nuan sat down beside him, picked up the glass, and took a sip.
"Koff—"
She choked. The burn shot from her throat to her nose, her eyes immediately watering.
Qinian leaned back against the window and laughed, his eyes curving with a slightly wicked delight.
"You drink like a little animal."
"Shut up." Jiang Nuan shot him a glare.
Qi Sui raised his glass and lightly clinked it against hers, eyes curved in a smile.
"To being alive."
Just a few words, light as air, yet they weighed heavy on the chest.
Qinian didn't bother with a glass. He swung the bottle up to clink against both of theirs and took a long, deep swig.
Several rounds in, the atmosphere started to relax.
Alcohol was a wonderful thing. It soaked and softened all the tension and dread of the day, letting people forget, if only for a moment, that they were living in a world that ate people alive.
"You should've seen yourself running on that deck," Qinian gestured with the bottle, nearly sloshing it. "Like a rabbit being chased—your legs were going a mile a minute."
"Not bad, actually," he added, a hint of genuine praise sneaking into his tone. "Pretty natural talent."
"…Do you want to hear what you said right before you died?" Jiang Nuan set down her glass and stared at him flatly.
Qinian froze.
"You said you wanted braised chicken and rice."
The air went silent for exactly one second.
The tips of Qinian's ears turned visibly red, spreading from his earlobes to the rest of his ear.
Qi Sui laughed out loud, shoulders shaking slightly, the hand holding his glass wobbling just a little.
"I was—" Qinian stuck his neck out, his voice cracking half an octave higher. "That was a dying cultural transmission! Passing down civilization, you know!"
"Oh," Jiang Nuan nodded with a perfectly serious expression. "So your last words were a dish."
"…"
Qinian's mouth opened, then closed. His expression flickered between indignation and embarrassment before finally settling on a grumbled "tch."
Qi Sui chuckled, pouring Jiang Nuan another half glass, the liquid slowly sliding down the side. "Stop bullying him. He holds grudges."
And Qinian did hold grudges.
He hopped down from the windowsill and walked over to Jiang Nuan in a few strides, one hand bracing against the back of the sofa behind her, leaning down to get close—the scent of alcohol and heat crashing over her all at once.
His flushed eyes were very, very close now, warm lamplight reflected in his pupils like two dimmed embers.
Jiang Nuan leaned back, her head bumping against the sofa's backrest, no further room to retreat.
"…Get away from me, you reek of alcohol."
"Scared?" Qinian didn't pull back. Instead, he tilted his head, that smirk on his lips carrying an unmistakable challenge. "We've been closer than this before."
The temperature in the room shot up a few degrees.
Jiang Nuan's face flamed red, spreading from her cheeks to her ears, burning hot.
She hastily took another sip of wine to cover it up, which only made her choke even worse, her eyes going red.
Qinian watched her struggle, his smile deepening as the embers in his eyes flickered.
"Alright, don't scare her off." Qi Sui's voice came, calm and warm.
Qinian finally straightened up and circled around to sit on Jiang Nuan's other side.
The sofa was small, the three of them squeezed together, Jiang Nuan wedged in the middle.
On her left, Qi Sui's cool body temperature. On her right, Qinian's higher warmth. Two entirely different temperatures seeped in from both sides.
Another round passed.
Jiang Nuan figured the timing was about right now.
The alcohol had painted her cheeks a soft flush, her gaze drifting occasionally, but her mind was still sharp.
At least, that's what she told herself.
"Hey, Qi Sui."
She tried to sound casual, like something that just popped into her head during drunk chatter.
"Qinian mentioned on the White Whale that you once found a record from the old era?"
Jiang Nuan's fingers unconsciously traced the rim of her glass.
"The kind that documented life before the apocalypse."
Qi Sui raised an eyebrow slightly, his gaze sweeping across Jiang Nuan's face with a hint of puzzlement.
"Why the sudden interest in that?"
"He's the one who brought it up." Jiang Nuan tilted her chin toward Qinian. "He told me on the ship—stuff about college life, eating in the cafeteria, that kind of thing. I was just curious what life was like for people before the apocalypse."
Qinian had been tilting his head back to take a drink. At her words, he paused mid-swig, bottle hovering, and turned to look at her.
In those slightly drunk eyes, a flicker of—what, emotion?—passed through.
He threw an arm around Jiang Nuan's shoulders, pulling her close against his side.
"So you kept thinking about what I told you before I died?"
There was a softness in his voice, barely perceptible.
Then he slipped right back into his usual sloppy, cheeky demeanor, clearing his throat.
"You must be pretty nostalgic about our time together on the White Whale, huh?"
"..."
Jiang Nuan was nearly squeezed breathless. She rolled her eyes in exasperation—the mood she'd carefully tried to set was thoroughly ruined by this smart-mouthed idiot.
"Let go. You're strangling me."
"Nope." Qinian tightened his grip, tucking his chin on top of her head. "Keep talking. I'm listening."
Jiang Nuan elbowed him.
Qi Sui watched the two of them bicker, a smile tugging at his lips.
Then he set down his glass, ran a slender finger along the rim in a slow circle, and spoke in the same gentle tone as always.
"That notebook..."
