45 Trust

◎Who do you take me for? ◎

The first thing I heard when I opened my eyes was, "Fuck, you're finally awake."

It's so bright. Yan Xun unconsciously frowned and squinted, her vision blurring for a moment. She heard a rustling noise in the room. It seemed that the medical staff who had just sighed that she had finally woken up put something down and went out.

The drug was still working; it must be a repair and growth agent, or something more advanced. She was barely feeling anything in her body, save for a slight tugging sensation on her eyelids when she blinked.

After a while, the door opened, Sang Wanyin kicked the door, and slid in sideways like a loach.

Her arm was in a sling, and her head was wrapped in gauze. The gauze was tilted over one eye, and there was a faint trace of blood.

Yan Xunzhi was lying on the bed, and his eyes couldn't help but follow the injured eye for two steps, but then he remembered that this was not polite, so he quickly withdrew his eyes.

Sang Wanyin saw it, but didn't think anything of it. She pointed at her eye with her uninjured left hand and said in an exaggerated tone, "Can you believe it? A bloody thorn suddenly appeared out of nowhere and blinded me! If I hadn't dodged quickly, I would have almost been lying outside. It was clearly dead with only its last breath left!"

Yan Xunzhi had just woken up and was a little dizzy. His mind was not quite following. "...It was almost dead and holding a weapon. Didn't you notice?"

"It's not a weapon, it's an ice spike made of its blood!" Seeing her response, Sang Wanyin excitedly explained the entire incident in detail. Finally, she sighed, "The southern land is growing too fast. This wound hasn't scabbed yet. I'm afraid the window of opportunity will be over in a few years."

"...What window period?"

Sang Wanyin didn't understand. "Maybe the foreign matter is weaker during this period, so we can still move around on the ground. Hey, this is what Kong Wei told me. I wasn't paying attention. You can ask her."

"Oh." Yan Xunzhi rolled his eyes, "Where is she?"

Sang Wanyin raised her thumb and looked behind her, "He's lying in the next room. His mental strength has been severely damaged. He hasn't woken up in over a week."

Yan Xunzhi remained silent.

After a moment, I felt like I should say something, and replied dryly, "It's so heavy."

"That's good." Sang Wanyin ignored her lengthy pause and continued on as if it were a normal conversation. "Over twenty people died on the ground alone this time, and the emergency room is full. At least Kong Wei's life is not in danger."

"hole……"

As soon as she opened her mouth, I realized that she called him "Kong Wei" instead of "Officer Kong". It turned out that she was also pretending to be good in front of Kong Wei.

Yan Xunzhi paused, "...Where is Officer Ning?"

Sang Wanyin waved her hand. "She's a defensive sentry. Even if the whole army was wiped out, she might still be alive and kicking. She got burned a little just trying to save you. I guess her new skin has almost grown back in the past few days. I don't know what she'd be busy with if she was captured long ago."

Ning Yue saved her.

The drug was very effective. Yan Xunzhi tried hard to pull at the corners of his still numb mouth, not knowing if his smile would be very strange. "I can't move now. If you see Officer Ning, please thank her for me."

Sang Wanyin said, "Ning Yue asked you to go back and use your identity to buy two packs of special cigarettes to repay her. There's a limit on that, and she's borrowed from everyone around her. Your compensation package for coming to the South District just happened to have a limit."

It was such a big favor, and she was thoughtful enough to figure out how to repay it for her long ago.

Yan Xunzhi laughed and said, "Okay, I'll buy it when I'm better."

Ning Yue didn't want to burden her, but since she saved her life, she wouldn't just settle the favor with two cigarettes.

Before leaving, remembering that she couldn't move yet, Sang Wanyin carefully checked whether the instruments hanging on her body were functioning normally.

Yan Xunzhi looked at her face, which was close to him, bending over with her head down and looking serious and solemn. A feeling of entanglement sprouted in his heart, and he couldn't help cursing at her: How dare he think of such nonsense at this time!

She is definitely regressing as she grows older. Sang Wanyin is concerned about her, what is she doing?

She is sick!

If you know, you will care. Even if you pretend not to care, you can't help but think about it. She would rather never know about beauty and ugliness in her life!

But his mouth was even better in the entanglement, "...Am I seriously burned?"

"Hmm?" Sang Wanyin hesitated for a moment, then said sincerely, "It's quite severe. The sudden change in temperature is huge. It's a blessing to be alive."

It was so serious. Yan Xunzhi felt that there was no need to ask the second half of the question. His whole body was numb and he had no sensation. It was most likely that he had undergone skin grafting.

She closed her eyes slightly, feeling a little drowsy, but another thought popped into her mind, "Then... can the experiment still be done?"

Sang Wanyin was surprised. "Oh my god! As the saying goes, bad company breeds badness. Are you really going to become an experimental geek like Kong Wei?"

Yan Xunzhi pursed his lips a little awkwardly and listened to her, "It should be normal. Zeng An is also among the personnel being transferred. He asked me to draw blood yesterday. But you're not in a good condition right now. You still have medication in your system, so it will probably take a while."

As long as she can still experiment, it's fine. Yan Xunzhi remembered that when she was on the ground, Kong Wei was very interested in her obvious increase in speed.

In the experiment, she should still be the useful one.

Kong Wei didn't wake up until the afternoon of the fifth day. By then, the numbness from Yan Xunzhi's medication had worn off, and he could get out of bed and move around, but when he did, his entire body felt itchy, painful, and tense.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I saw that I had no hair at all and the skin graft had not healed yet. I looked like a skin-covered man that was hard to describe.

Now there is no need to know what is beautiful or ugly.

Even before, she knew very well that this look was scary.

The medicine repaired his skin very quickly. After a healing period, he shed his skin twice in two days and grew back again. Yan Xunzhi felt that he looked better and could finally see some human appearance in the mirror.

Expensive things just work, or maybe it's just because they're expensive. Judging from the results of her last broken leg, even if the medication's effectiveness wears off, she'll probably be back to normal in less than six months.

The shedding was gradual, and she was actually a little curious about her current appearance. She studied herself in the mirror from left to right, and the pink flesh inside was slightly itchy.

The door suddenly creaked.

Kong Wei's face was then reflected in the mirror. Yan Xunzhi was startled and subconsciously wanted to hide, but then she felt that this seemed like an opportunity... If Kong Wei mistook her for someone else, then at least they were completely different now.

For the time being, she could let Kong Wei see clearly that she was Yan Xunzhi.

When Kong Wei saw her, he was stunned.

"It's so serious." She frowned. When he came over, Yan Xunzhi saw the stimulating patch on her temples. "Does it hurt?"

Yan Xunzhi shook his head, "I've been injecting painkillers. The pain isn't severe, just a little itchy."

Kong Wei naturally turned the chair around and sat down at the head of her bed, but he was speechless for a moment. His eyes fell on her shoulders and neck, as if he was about to say something but stopped, as if he was thinking about something.

The V-neck, with the collar wide open, revealed the burn scars clearly. Yan Xunzhi couldn't hide, feeling uncomfortable being stared at. "...What's wrong?"

"You..." Kong Wei hesitated, "...how could the chain be broken?"

If it was understandable that she was disconnected when she first came to the ground, it had been so long and it wasn't her first time seeing the ground. What kind of emotional fluctuations could be so great that the connection was directly disconnected and there was no time to reconnect?

Yes... why is that?

Yan Xunzhi was stunned for a moment, his mind blank, as if it had been gouged out, leaving only a gap of emptiness. "...I forgot."

That's not right, how could she forget? Her broken link must have been a very serious matter, and she should have remembered it vividly, so why can't she remember it?

"Just forget it." Kong Wei was not surprised.

Yan Xunzhi intuitively knew that her lightness was the truth, and asked curiously, "Is it because of the influence of the earth?"

Kong Wei speculated, "I placed a rabbit in your image, and it committed suicide. Perhaps your mental fluctuations were too great at the time, and it was directly transferred to my spiritual body. It died, and your memory was naturally gone."

I see. Yan Xunzhi hesitated, asking if she was okay. It seemed like he knew the answer but still wanted to ask. She had been lying in bed for weeks before waking up, so how could she possibly be okay? He asked if she was okay, but how could she be okay?

After a while, he squeezed out an "oh".

Normally, there was only one spirit form. She didn't know why Kong Wei had two rabbits. Perhaps this was the peculiarity of S-class guides? Even so, the death of one rabbit should be fatal. She was actually dragged into the medical room by her.

"sorry."

Kong Wei began to assess her injuries and said calmly, "There's nothing to be sorry about. As your guide, I was unable to save you at the critical moment. Fortunately, Rabbit protected you from the disaster. It can be considered a worthy death."

Yan Xunzhi lowered his eyes, wanting to hide them.

She knew that what she said was too sour, especially when Sang Wanyin often came to visit and take care of her, and Kong Wei died a rabbit for her. It seemed too sentimental and hypocritical.

But perhaps because she had experienced life and death before, she felt a bit indifferent and said, "Sang Wanyin is more important than me. I know it's only natural that you didn't save me."

Kong Wei reported it.

Even explaining the reason was embarrassing, but it was the truth, so he didn't hear her pretense for a moment. "At that time, Sang Wanyin...she was close, and I didn't have time to reach you."

She estimated the speed and thought Yan Xunzhi could dodge it by himself.

Who would believe that? Yan Xunzhi blinked hard, "You..."

It was the first time I realized that even without injecting drugs, the heart could be pierced so painfully and twisted so tightly. It was like an old saw that had been used for a long time, with a blade that had rusted and oxidized. Now I picked it up and slowly sliced her heart thinly.

Yan Xunzhi made up his mind, "...Do you treat me as someone else? Who do you treat me as?"

Kong Wei rarely introduced herself. Apart from working with her, most of the activities were high-level ones, so she didn't know her circle of friends well enough and didn't know who was around her.

——So when you look at me, who do you see in your eyes?

Sang Wanyin? So you want to save her.

Or Ning Yue?

She had seen with her own eyes Ning Yue go to get the information on behalf of Kong Wei. The information clerk complained that the procedures for her to come were complicated, and asked why Kong Wei didn't let the link sentry run errands.

At that time, Ning Yuele smiled, "She trusts me."

“You know what the strongest relationship is?”

"The strongest relationship is when we keep the same secret." She said it with a boastful tone, but without boasting. "Kong Wei can't do anything to me. Even if someone else knows in the future, I'm the only one who's been with her, and I'm the only one who can verify her truth. In this world, I'm the most important person to her."

She had long understood that she was probably not that important in Kong Wei's heart, but this was the first time she realized that Ning Yue was so important to her.

At that time, she told herself that at least Kong Wei treated her well...even if it was just compensation, it was enough. Without her, she would only be able to hope for such a life. She was greedy for too much.

But Yan Xunzhi couldn't help but wonder why he linked her to her? Was he afraid that Ning Yue would die on the ground with her, so he wanted her to be cannon fodder?

Kong Wei was silent for a few seconds, then said, "I don't distrust you, and I can tell you this secret, but you have to promise me one thing."

"What?"

Kong Wei looked at her solemnly, "I'm going to tell you something. After you listen to it, you must continue to go to the ground."

【Author’s words】

Ning Yue: Yes, I am important!

Kong Wei: ...