☆, Acquaintances, a difficult choice

Attracting attention is actually quite simple. Ye Xi is confident that if she just swaggered out, within two minutes, a bunch of people would surround her or even cause some trouble. After thinking about it, Ye Xi decided to choose the first option in order to make the story more convincing later.

Ye Xi took a deep breath, silently encouraging herself, before choosing the opposite direction from where Wesker had left and striding away.

Nikolai felt so bored that he was going crazy with nothing to do.

He reluctantly disembarked, and before he even reached the shore, the giant ship behind him suddenly split in two with a loud "boom." Staring at the flash of fire, he froze for a few seconds before reacting, but he wasn't too worried—that little girl Ye Xi's vitality was so strong that even Death had to admire her.

Carlos clearly thought so too.

Several hours after they reached the shore, the Redfield family's little sister finally woke up. Perhaps due to the effects of the experimental glass jar, her memory was somewhat confused, and she couldn't remember many things. Even now, Chris, who was suspected of having a sister complex, was still frowning over this matter.

There's not much to say about what happened after that. Alice had practically destroyed all of Umbrella's bases around the world and now had nowhere to go. Plus, Carlos persuaded her to stay (who knows when those two got together; Carlos is such a cunning guy).

Their lives continued smoothly until a few days later when they met a government official. Nikolai vaguely remembered the handsome young man; he and Ye Xi had tricked him before, and his name was something like Leon. He indeed recognized Claire, and his eyes changed when he saw her. This put immense pressure on Nikolai, the old bachelor. Was this for real? Everyone was in pairs; when did so many romantic opportunities appear in this apocalypse?

This resentment intensified after they were half-willingly, half-forced to come to this dilapidated base, and then gradually turned into boredom. Carlos officially got together with Alice, the handsome Leon was busy taking care of Claire, and Chris, worried about his sister's health, spent every day with her telling her stories from the past, leaving him all alone.

Nikolai looked at the room in front of him, decorated like a residence, and at the blue sky and white clouds pasted on the window. A thought suddenly popped into his mind—living like this, deceiving himself, was worse than going out and living a life of fear and danger; rather than dying of old age here, he would rather go out and be bitten to death by zombies…

"Yes, Nikolai, this isn't the life you want." Nikolai looked at the wall behind the sofa with mixed feelings. On the other side of the wall was the home of his comrade and Alice. He wasn't sure if Carlos felt the same way, but he understood his own thoughts. He had never been a settled person; otherwise, he wouldn't have joined the army and become a mercenary. He couldn't give up that thrill.

Of course, this doesn't mean that Nikolai doesn't want the end of the apocalypse. He misses the previous human civilization, but not the current one, where people live a self-deceiving peaceful life underground, foolishly waiting for all the mad dogs above to starve to death.

Nikolai sighed, flopped onto the sofa, and was about to continue his listless nap when he heard the once-in-a-century alarm. He immediately jumped up. The base's security was beyond question; even a mosquito would have a hard time getting in. Now that the alarm was suddenly going off, he wanted to see what "danger" could make these guys tense.

He kicked the door open and saw his good neighbor opening his door just as well. Nicola saw Carlos and Alice smile at him, and he immediately realized they were thinking the same thing. That was good; after all, he would be quite reluctant to leave his comrade-in-arms if he had to leave.

Ye Xi hadn't walked far when she was surrounded by a group of fully armed men, led by the handsome young man from Lyon as always. Looking at the two-meter gap between herself and them, Ye Xi blinked, suppressed her feigned surprise, crossed her arms, and pouted resentfully, "Holy crap, how did I end up here again?"

Lyon was also surprised to see Ye Xi. He pondered carefully for a moment before whispering a few instructions to someone beside him, and then signaling the others to put away their weapons.

"What's your purpose in coming here?" Leon asked almost certainly, staring intently into Ye Xi's eyes, trying to glean something from them, but he only received a glare from her. "Could you guys be any more narcissistic? Do you think I wanted to come here? Didn't that previous mess teach you a lesson? The security system is still so lax; they didn't even detect the loophole under the quicksand."

After Ye Xi finished speaking, she noticed that he was still staring at her, so she continued, "Don't believe me? Go and see for yourself. Go to the end of this road behind me, turn left, then turn right at the first intersection and go to the end. There seem to be a few rooms there, but I don't remember which ones. Open them one by one and take a look."

Leon glanced at Ye Xi suspiciously, then instructed the two men to go and check as Ye Xi had said before speaking, "I can't be sure if what you're saying is true, or if this is a trap you and Wesker have set together. But I can tell from your complexion that you're very weak. So don't resist; perhaps we can help you."

"Help? How?" Ye Xi gave a mocking smile. "By conducting experiments?"

Upon hearing this, Leon's expression changed slightly. After a long silence, he shook his head, walked up to Ye Xi, who was tense all over, put his hands on her shoulders, looked at her seriously, and said, "I'm sorry about what happened before, but I can assure you now that there will be no more experiments."

No experiments? Ye Xi was genuinely surprised this time. She had made a huge decision back then, and was even prepared to be dragged into countless tests. Now he was telling her there were no experiments?

“So, now, can you come with us? There have already been too many casualties in this world. We don’t want to wipe them all out by killing each other before the zombies disappear.” Leon threw his gun on the ground and made way for Ye Xi. “I roughly know about your situation from your old friend. Your poor condition is probably Wesker’s doing. Don’t worry, as long as we don’t find any intruders besides you, or if you have any difficulties, such as being threatened, just tell us, and we will make sure you recover.”

Is this what they call "once bitten, twice shy"? This level of vigilance is extraordinary. If they investigate thoroughly, Wesker will definitely be found out, and Ye Xi can be sure of what will happen next. He will definitely use force to take the formula back... or abandon her if things get bad? And the latter is more likely... No matter how important she is, she can't be more important than his own career.

No matter what, this must not be allowed to happen. Ye Xi lowered her head slightly, concealing the expression in her eyes. Thinking of the consequences, a bitter feeling welled up in her heart. Very well, the emotions had been brewing enough, she thought to herself with a self-deprecating smile, shrugged, and said in a nonchalant tone, "Do as you please, anyway, I won't live much longer."

"Not long to live?! What's going on here?" Ye Xi had barely finished speaking when a familiar voice came from ahead. She looked up and saw several old acquaintances being stopped not far away. Ye Xi laughed, raising her paw in a carefree greeting: "Yo, long time no see, Nikolai, and Carlos and Alice. I didn't expect you two to actually be together. I knew something didn't seem right in the desert. When are you going to have a few kids for me to play with? Oh wait, I guess I can't wait that long."

“This isn’t the time for jokes,” Carlos frowned. “What you just said…”

“This isn’t exactly a place to chat,” Ye Xi interrupted Carlos, yawning lazily. “Actually, it doesn’t matter to me where we go now. By the way, Lyon, don’t you guys have anywhere to rest? Escaping from Wesker took a lot of my energy.”

Lyon remained silent for a moment before nodding, confiscating Ye Xi's Miao sword and pistol, and having a soldier lead her to the infirmary. Ye Xi was already a little sleepy. She had prepared a speech beforehand, concisely telling Carlos and the others about her ordeal, and then dismissed them, telling them they could discuss it another day.

Yes, a day later, Ye Xi dared not forget what Wesker had said. Now the enemy was in the shadows while she was in the open; what if she accidentally overslept and Wesker suddenly appeared out of nowhere and slit her throat? Hopefully, she would wake up… Ye Xi rubbed her eyes, yawned again, and finally succumbed to sleepiness…

Ye Xi didn't know how long she had been unconscious until she heard a familiar voice that reminded her of the demand: "You can only sleep for one day." She forced herself to open her eyes and vaguely saw a familiar face, but it wasn't the person she was thinking of.

“You’re finally awake,” Nicola laughed. “You’ve slept for a whole day. Carlos Alice, the Redfield siblings, and even young Lyon came by, but you wouldn’t wake up no matter how I called you. Want some water? It’s not easy for me to serve you, it’s priceless.”

Ye Xi frowned, rubbing her throbbing head, and struggled to sit up. She nodded, hesitated for a long time before taking the water glass and asking, "You...were you here the whole time?" Seeing Nikolai nod, looking as if he should be thanking her for her great kindness, her frown deepened—could that voice have been Nikolai's? No, she definitely heard it...

Ye Xi unconsciously glanced towards the door. The door wasn't closed tightly, leaving a crack, and Ye Xi could clearly see someone hiding there. She immediately looked away and back at the cup in her hand.

"What's wrong?" Nikolai noticed something was off with Ye Xi and was about to turn around when Ye Xi grabbed his arm. "Nikolai, how much longer do you think I have?"

Nikolai looked at Ye Xi, who had her head down, and quickly touched her forehead. Sure enough, it was even hotter. Ye Xi had told them everything truthfully, so he knew that this was less like sleeping and more like a coma. The longer the coma lasted, the weaker her strength became, and the more her bodily functions declined. In the end, she would either die in her coma or from the pain.

“Hey, Ye Xi, look at me, look at me,” Nikolai gently patted Ye Xi’s cheek, drawing her attention to himself. “You’ll get better, you know? You’ll get better. You’ve made it through more than three years, are you going to be afraid of this little bit? My friend Nikolai isn’t that fragile. I’m waiting to see you, the queen, rise up.”

Ye Xi was slightly taken aback. The warmth and self-reproach in her heart almost made her cry. She glanced at the figure that had disappeared by the door, gritted her teeth, looked seriously into Nikolai's eyes, and tried to make her voice sound less weak: "Nikolai, leave here with Carlos. I think you have already realized that this is not a place where people can stay for long."

“…What do you mean? Ye Xi, you…” Nikolai frowned, but before he could finish speaking, an explosion rang out, and the violent aftershocks shook the entire room.

Facing Nikolai's incredulous gaze, Ye Xi gave a wry smile, got out of bed, and took out a Miao knife and a pistol that had been placed under the bed at some point. She said sincerely, "I'm sorry, my friend, but I have to do this because I'm selfish."

Author's Note: I've indeed become a weekly updater, hehehe ╮(╯▽╰)╭ The dust is lying on the ground, ready for you to knead it _(:3」L)_ Recently, I've become so obsessed with Doctor that I'm completely hooked, a total Doctor fanatic. Could it be that this unpopular favorite and unfinished story king is going to dig a Doctor Who pit? OJZ