Chapter 51: I’m a Vibe of Delicate Weakness (20)
The others in the car were still chatting and laughing, but this little corner was exceptionally quiet.
Jiang Zhiyan looked at Si Xu, who remained frozen in place, seemingly in a state of shock.
“Senior?” Jiang Zhiyan called softly.
“Stop it.” Si Xu came back to her senses and whispered. “Do you want to practice more?”
She seemed to have regained her composure, but she didn’t dare look at Jiang Zhiyan, her head barely moving.
“How is she even shyer than a high school student?” The system, observing Si Xu’s state, said, “I feel like if she weren’t trapped in the car, she would have already run away.”
“Adults should be more reserved.” Jiang Zhiyan found a comfortable position in Si Xu’s arms, Si Xu’s body stiffening even more, like a frame supporting Jiang Zhiyan.
“I want to practice more.” Jiang Zhiyan said.
“Okay.”
“I think your conversation is very strange.” The system decided to ignore these two, the bickering at the back was more interesting.
Worried about actually driving Si Xu to jump out of the car, Jiang Zhiyan restrained herself a bit.
She had to take it slow. Expecting someone with Si Xu’s personality to suddenly become passionate was unrealistic. Si Xu’s bottom line was getting lower and lower, Jiang Zhiyan could feel it. They had already kissed, could anything else be far behind?
“My hand is sore, Senior, can you massage it for me?” Jiang Zhiyan held out her hand, acting spoiled.
Although it had been ten minutes since their last kiss, Si Xu’s ears were still red. She lowered her head and focused on massaging Jiang Zhiyan’s hand as if it were a serious and important task.
Jiang Zhiyan looked at Si Xu’s profile, wiggled her fingers, tickled Si Xu’s index finger, and then grabbed her hand.
Si Xu reacted as if she had been burned, instinctively trying to pull her hand back, but she couldn’t. Jiang Zhiyan’s grip was much stronger than she expected. She looked up at Jiang Zhiyan.
“Senior, why are you so cold?” Jiang Zhiyan murmured.
“I’m not…” Si Xu’s gaze darted about.
Jiang Zhiyan leaned closer to Si Xu: “But your heart is beating very fast.”
“Stop it.” Si Xu put her hand on Jiang Zhiyan’s shoulder, preventing her from getting any closer.
“Senior, you…”
“Found it, found it! A3!” Qian Rongrong shouted.
The smile on Jiang Zhiyan’s face didn’t change, she wanted to continue speaking, but Qian Rongrong’s voice was really too loud.
“Oh my god, I’m drooling, who knew I would drool one day seeing such a monster. Get out, get out! Jiang Zhiyan, which part of its meat is the tastiest?”
Jiang Zhiyan deactivated her ability and looked at Qian Rongrong expressionlessly.
Qian Rongrong blinked, not understanding what she had done to offend her: ?
Si Xu chuckled.
Jiang Zhiyan looked at Si Xu, who immediately stopped laughing and sat up straight.
“What were you two doing secretly in the car?” Qian Rongrong asked suspiciously.
“How can you do things secretly in a car?” Jiang Zhiyan retorted. “The A3 is getting away, hurry up and get out.”
“Changing the subject, suspicious.” Qian Rongrong looked at the two suspiciously, but thinking of her hot pot, she didn’t dwell on it.
The ten of them split into two groups. Three went to kill the A3, the remaining seven were responsible for eliminating any approaching aliens.
Jiang Zhiyan’s weapon had been upgraded from the ancestral crowbar to a weapon Si Xu specially made for her, light, handy, and durable.
She called it the Love Stick, but Qian Rongrong called it the Ugly Thing, later changing it to the Strange Stick, grudgingly acknowledging its power.
She could now kill an alien with one swing, silent but deadly.
She glanced at Xue Lin, who was struggling with an alien: “How can someone train for so long and still be so useless?”
Xue Lin glared at Jiang Zhiyan, not saying anything, but because of that glance, he was almost hit by the alien. He stumbled back several steps, fell, and rolled twice on the ground. Jiang Zhiyan blocked an attack for him: “Why did you even come out here?”
Xue Lin scrambled up from the ground: “I want to eat hot pot.”
“He’s been so well-behaved lately it’s scary.” Jiang Zhiyan looked away.
Someone who was always making a fuss suddenly becoming quiet, there must be something wrong.
“Si Xu talked to him before.” The system said.
“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” Jiang Zhiyan swung her stick again, piercing through an alien’s heart.
“Huh? I didn’t? I forgot. I thought you knew. Anyway, I don’t know what they talked about, I just took a couple of glances.”
Xue Lin, standing nearby, felt his temples throb.
He didn’t understand, didn’t anyone notice that Jiang Zhiyan’s progress was also incredibly fast? Why hadn’t anyone noticed? They were still treating her like a glass doll, couldn’t they see? This person was killing aliens with one hit!
“Do you need something?” Jiang Zhiyan frowned and looked at him.
Xue Lin smiled and shook his head, quickly looking away.
The A3 had been killed. They started discussing how to process the ingredients, and Jiang Zhiyan switched places with someone else.
“Don’t eat the head, here, this part is edible.”
“And here.”
Jiang Zhiyan gestured, and Si Xu, following the lines Jiang Zhiyan drew, cut the alien meat, quickly and precisely, not a piece more, not a piece less, without needing a second cut.
“Senior, you’re so amazing.” Jiang Zhiyan looked at Si Xu adoringly.
“I can do that too.” A third person said.
“Oh.” Jiang Zhiyan nodded, her tone instantly cold. “Then you’re also amazing.”
The person wasn’t offended and just looked at Si Xu teasingly.
Si Xu pretended not to hear.
Xue Lin looked back, then at the person beside him: “Don’t you think it’s strange that Jiang Zhiyan knows A3 is edible and even knows which parts are edible?”
“What’s so strange about that? Didn’t she say she’s eaten it before?” The person beside him looked at Xue Lin questioningly.
Xue Lin was speechless. He finally managed to kill the alien in front of him, wiped his hands, took a deep breath, and tried to look profound, but the smell overwhelmed him, and he immediately covered his nose and mouth.
Jiang Zhiyan’s brainwashing, why couldn’t he brainwash himself and leave him alone to stay sane? This feeling was really unpleasant.
He looked at Si Xu, like a foolish ruler bewitched by a demoness. How could such an intelligent person be fooled by Jiang Zhiyan’s low-level deception? Was Jiang Zhiyan’s ability really that powerful?
The ingredient preparation team was done. Si Xu’s knife skills were impressive. She replicated a few plates, placed the sliced meat directly on them, and rinsed the meat with water. The others wrapped it with the cling film she replicated and transported it to the car.
“You also have water abilities?” Someone asked curiously.
“I replicated the water, it’s not my own ability.” Si Xu explained. Although she was indeed using water abilities, she specifically found a few people before leaving and replicated their abilities.
“Oh.” The person nodded. “So convenient, so you can shower every day, and drink as much water as you want?”
“Yes.”
“So lucky.” The person sighed. “I never thought that one day, having water to drink would be considered lucky.”
“We’re eating hot pot today, no more depressing talk!” Qian Rongrong kicked him.
He landed on his butt.
The A3 was really huge. The trunk was filled with meat. They found a hot pot restaurant, pulled down the shutters, and gave the plug to their electricity-based teammates.
“Perfect!”
The electricity-based teammate complained: “Not perfect!”
“Oh, we’ll feed you whatever you want to eat, serving our teammate, you’re a hero in my eyes.” Qian Rongrong gave him a thumbs-up.
“Who wants to be a hero in your eyes? Besides, isn’t the hero in your eyes that…” The teammate trailed off meaningfully.
“Just shut up.”
…
Having hot pot with classmates before the apocalypse was a normal occurrence, but sitting in a hot pot restaurant now felt like a dream. There were still aliens wandering around downstairs, and apart from their private room, the rest of the restaurant was a mess. When they entered, the leftover food on the tables was crawling with maggots, emitting a strange stench. Fortunately, there were no corpses, or maybe there were before and they were gone now.
They put the hot pot base they found in the supermarket into the pot, and Si Xu added water. The broth wasn’t boiling yet, but everyone subconsciously took deep breaths, staring intently at the pot.
“I kind of want to cry.”
“Me too.”
Jiang Zhiyan didn’t want to cry, but she still put on a show of sadness, leaning into Si Xu’s arms.
The system was numb. Jiang Zhiyan was always smarter than others in this regard.
“You guys can be sentimental after you eat.” The electricity-based teammate complained again. “I’m the one who should be crying!”
“I was moved by your spirit, that’s why I cried.” Jiang Zhiyan wiped away a tear weakly.
“No need, thank you.”
“Will we be discovered because of the hot pot smell when we get back?” someone asked worriedly.
“We’ll just air ourselves out, and after being drenched in alien blood, who can still smell hot pot? If anyone asks, we’ll just say we ate the hot pot base raw.”
The broth boiled, and they put in the processed meat.
The A3 didn’t taste as good as the E1, most parts having the same texture as chicken breast, with only a few areas that were more tender, but having something to eat was good enough, and no one complained.
“Surprisingly, there’s no fishy smell.”
“Delicious!”
Jiang Zhiyan put two pieces of tender meat in Si Xu’s bowl: “Senior, why aren’t you eating?”
“I’ll wait, no rush, there’s plenty.” Si Xu said.
“Try it quickly.”
…
“What do aliens usually eat? Do they eat this too? Can they send down more edible things?”
“I wonder if aliens also have 996 (work schedule).”
“Probably not, they’ve already invaded other worlds, they should have robots to help them, right?”
“How did they even invade? It always feels so sudden, just falling from the sky.”
They chattered among themselves, no one noticing that Jiang Zhiyan and Si Xu were leaning against each other again.
“I found this part of the meat more delicious, but there’s not much left.”
Si Xu looked at the meat in her bowl, then at Jiang Zhiyan, who looked back innocently. Si Xu said helplessly: “You don’t have to do that.”
“Ah! Jiang Zhiyan, you gave all the good meat to Si Xu! Are you even human!” Qian Rongrong immediately noticed Si Xu’s bowl.
“There’s more in the trunk, go get it yourself if you want to eat.” Jiang Zhiyan waved her hand. “First come, first served. This is a dog-eat-dog world now.”
“If you say so, then I won’t hold back.”
The room instantly became chaotic, filled with laughter. Si Xu went down to the trunk and brought back two more plates of tender meat. She looked up at the cloudy sky, frowned, but didn’t pay much attention to it and went back upstairs.
“I think it’s going to rain.” Si Xu said.
“It hasn’t rained in a long time.” Jiang Zhiyan looked out the window, walked over to it, and looked up. The giant shadow in the sky seemed to have gotten closer, as if it would descend at any moment. She frowned. “Let’s eat quickly.”
The others looked at her.
“What’s wrong?” Qian Rongrong asked, her mouth full of bread.
“I have a very bad feeling.” Jiang Zhiyan sat back down. “Eat.”
Although they didn’t understand, they still sped up their eating, not chatting much. Although Jiang Zhiyan wasn’t a decision-maker, they subconsciously listened to her.
Xue Lin looked at Jiang Zhiyan with some confusion, he didn’t sense anything unusual.
Those things would eventually land, landing all over City A. Jiang Zhiyan calculated the time, but no matter how she calculated it, it was too early.
Why was this world so erratic?
Jiang Zhiyan took a sip of water: “System.”
“I’ve already filed a request for inspection. Sigh, I’ve never submitted so many bug reports before.” The system complained. “Increasing my workload, I’m going to see who’s in charge of maintaining this world, I’m going to have a serious talk with them.”
“My good character, my elegant demeanor, my stable emotions, all ruined by this damn world!” The system stormed off angrily.
Jiang Zhiyan figured the system was still arguing about the reimbursement.
They ate until they were 80% full, after all, they still needed to find supplies, being too full would make it difficult to move.
They went downstairs in a line. Passing by a window, the leader stopped.
“Why did we stop?” The speaker quickly understood why.
The outside suddenly darkened, going from day to night instantly, without any transition. Then a beam of light came down from somewhere, and they saw it rapidly approaching, as if scanning something.
Jiang Zhiyan immediately concealed the presence of the ten of them. The person with the shield raised it, and they retreated slightly, away from the window.
The light drew closer and closer.
No one spoke, they couldn’t even see each other’s expressions, only the rapid breathing proved there were others around them, their hearts pounding in their chests.
They all stared out the window.
The light was incredibly bright, blinding, and they all instinctively closed their eyes.
The light swept past the building.
Nothing happened, but still, no one spoke. Some people’s legs went weak, and they sat down on the steps.
The sky only returned to normal after ten minutes.
“What was that?” Someone asked, tears streaming down their face, unable to control themselves.
“Aliens, I think, intelligent beings are coming.” Si Xu leaned against the wall.
“One wave after another, not even giving us time to breathe, not a moment of peace.”
They chuckled wryly.
“Intelligent beings, can we negotiate with them?” Xue Lin frowned.
“The weak have no right to negotiate, they wouldn’t even spare us a glance.” Si Xu looked at Xue Lin. “Go back and train hard.”
They fell silent again.
“Fuck it, whatever, even if I can only kill one intelligent being, it’ll make my life worthwhile! Let’s go, let’s go find supplies, let’s survive first. Mark my words, I’ll definitely kill an intelligent being before I die, those bastards.”
“No ambition at all, you’ll kill one, I’ll kill at least five, to avenge my dead thesis.”
They forced smiles, trying to encourage each other, the target quickly escalating to one hundred.
Jiang Zhiyan held Si Xu’s hand, looked at her focused profile, and wondered what she was thinking.
“By the way, if intelligent beings appear, will that mysterious being also appear?” Someone asked curiously. “I’m really curious, if they fight, who would win?”
Jiang Zhiyan: Another nickname.
“I’m betting on the mysterious being.”
“Is it possible that the mysterious being is the intelligent being?”
“Probably not, I think it’s a human.”
“Who could be that powerful? Weren’t there only evolved humans at that time?”
Xue Lin subconsciously glanced at Jiang Zhiyan, but she was staring at Si Xu, as if she hadn’t heard anything.
“Senior.” Jiang Zhiyan wrapped her arms around Si Xu’s neck. “Talk to me if you have anything on your mind, although I might not be able to solve it for you, I can at least share the burden. Why do you always have to endure everything alone?”
“I’m not thinking about anything.” Si Xu looked away. “I was just spacing out, I’m too tired, you’re always overthinking.”
“That’s because you always look so deep in thought.” Jiang Zhiyan snorted softly. “Other people look silly when they space out, you look like you’re pondering something profound. As expected of my Senior. Senior, kiss me, and you won’t be tired anymore.”
She wrapped her arms around Si Xu’s neck and swayed slightly.
“No.” Si Xu said, glancing at the people in front of them.
“They won’t notice.” Jiang Zhiyan said. “Maybe the world will end one day, and Senior hasn’t even kissed me, I’ll die with regrets…”
“We won’t die.” Si Xu interrupted Jiang Zhiyan, looked at her, then pinched her mouth shut. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
They stared at each other for three seconds, then Si Xu let go. Jiang Zhiyan clung to Si Xu, leaning against her as they walked.
They completed their mission as usual. The aliens seemed no different from before, everything was as usual. Before heading back, they roasted some meat, leaving the rest by the roadside.
“My heart aches, how can we waste food like this?”
“Meat, meat, I wish you happiness, meat, meat, I can’t live without you, waaaah.” Qian Rongrong leaned out the window and waved, then was startled back inside by an alien trying to grab her head. Clutching her chest, she fired a few shots at the alien, hitting it once out of five.
…
They drove back to the base before sunset.
“The base should be fine, right?” Someone asked softly.
Everyone was thinking about this, but no one had brought it up. Judging from the previous attacks, the aliens were very interested in the base.
Fortunately, it was fine. The base looked much the same as when they left. Although many people were frightened, there were no casualties. Those who were hit by the light were examined, and there didn’t seem to be any problems, but whether there would be any problems later on was unknown.
But they still hadn’t figured out the purpose of that light, or where it came from.
Jiang Zhiyan knew that the light was actually to see if City A was suitable for landing and to detect where there were still human settlements. Being hit by the light once wouldn’t cause any problems, but the third time would cause mutations.
She took a comfortable shower, then took her pillow and went to Si Xu’s room. Si Xu, as a pillar of the base, had been called to a meeting.
“Host, what are you doing?”
“Offering myself on a silver platter.” Jiang Zhiyan looked at Si Xu’s room, clean and tidy, with a faint fragrance. She lay down on the bed. Si Xu had just changed the sheets today, and she rolled around on them.
She held up her hand towards the light: “So many calluses.”
She remembered that when she first entered the base, she only had a callus on her right middle finger, but now, there were several on each hand.
“So, did your argument succeed?” Jiang Zhiyan asked.
“No!” The system shouted. “I’m so angry, they insisted there’s no problem, what no problem, where! I’m furious.”
“Calm down, my head hurts.” Jiang Zhiyan pulled Si Xu’s blanket over herself, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. “Senior’s scent.”
“You’re really like a pervert.”
Jiang Zhiyan curled her lips: “You don’t understand, you don’t understand anything.”
Si Xu didn’t return until 9:30 pm. The lights were already out, but she saw a light on in her room and didn’t see Jiang Zhiyan in the living room. Actually, she already had a guess.
She opened the door and, in the dim light of the charging nightlight, saw Jiang Zhiyan. She was lying on the bed, and Si Xu could still make out her pale back and the two beautiful dimples on her waist. The blanket was draped over her waist, her feet exposed. She was wearing clothes, but they were strange. Si Xu could only see the red ribbon tied around her neck.
By the time Si Xu realized it, she had already closed the door and locked it.
Her body moved faster than her mind.
“Senior, why did you lock the door?” Jiang Zhiyan turned her head and sat up.
Si Xu instinctively took a step back and swallowed. She still couldn’t figure out Jiang Zhiyan’s clothes, it looked like a single piece of cloth, or rather, an incomplete piece of cloth. The red silk made her skin look even paler.
Jiang Zhiyan looked at Si Xu and smiled: “Senior, you locked the door yourself.”
“I’m getting my clothes to take a shower.” Si Xu said.
“Oh.”
Si Xu pretended to be calm, found her pajamas in the closet, then quickly left.
“Do you think she’ll come back?” The system was curious.
“Of course she will.” Jiang Zhiyan looked at the item Si Xu had brought out while getting her clothes. “Look, she’s already prepared.”
A box of finger cots was on the floor, having fallen out of the lower drawer. The lower drawer also had clothes, so it didn’t make any noise, and the flustered Si Xu didn’t notice it.
“Xie Liaoyi is still Xie Liaoyi.” Jiang Zhiyan muttered to herself.
“I’m already looking forward to her expression when she returns.”
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