Chapter 95 Little Helper
"How are we supposed to compete?" Xie Mengyao asked through gritted teeth.
Bai Chenzhu thought for a moment, "Since your ability is hypnosis, and those people can't last more than half an hour, then you try to hypnotize me. If I fall asleep within half an hour, I'll admit defeat."
"That's easy? Who are you underestimating!" Xie Mengyao was full of confidence. He looked around and pointed to the chair next to him, "This is it. You sit here. Bai Tao, you keep time."
"I'll do it." Jiang Ye took over Bai Tao's task, took out a watch from his pocket and looked at it. "Just let me know when you're ready."
Bai Chenzhu walked over and sat down, looking at Xie Mengyao curiously. "I'm ready now."
"Let's begin." Xie Mengyao proudly took out an exquisite harmonica from her bosom.
Bai Chenzhu tensed up, looking at the person standing in front of him as if facing a formidable enemy.
The young man stood upright, his ten fingers holding the harmonica.
The music drifted slowly through the room, its melody long and clear, its low notes crisp and its high notes bright, like doves flying over the sea at sunset. The cheerful tunes danced up and down, weaving together to form a graceful dance floor.
Bai Chenzhu listened for a while and didn't feel any aggression; in fact, she felt happy and relaxed.
He stared at Xie Mengyao, who was playing the harmonica with her eyes closed, and suddenly it was as if he saw countless threads coming out of her harmonica and brushing towards him.
What was that? He instinctively stared intently at the threads and could see countless threads blocked by a rising transparent dome, with only harmless music drifting in.
He looked at Bai Tao, who yawned and craned her neck to check the time. Jiang Ye, leaning against the wall, looked at his watch impatiently, flicked Bai Tao's forehead with his finger, and seemed unaffected.
Bai Chenzhu looked at Xie Mengyao again and could still see countless transparent threads continuously blowing from his harmonica, relentlessly heading towards him.
Interesting. Bai Chenzhu thought for a moment and then used his usual trick.
Xie Mengyao was completely absorbed in his own music when a sudden gust of cold wind hit his face. He opened his eyes in astonishment, tried to speak, but couldn't utter a word no matter what he did.
His body and mind seemed to exist in two different worlds. No matter how much he struggled, the tune on the harmonica was like a river that had been cut off, and suddenly it could not be continued.
In Bai Tao and Jiang Ye's eyes, he suddenly stopped blowing and stared straight at Bai Chenzhu.
Bai Chenzhu got up and walked over, raised her finger and flicked the harmonica at his lips, and the harmonica flew into the air, spun and landed in his palm.
"Disarm." Bai Chenzhu blinked. "I won."
"Uh...you!" Xie Mengyao was finally able to speak. He was so anxious that his face turned red, but he couldn't explain what had just happened. "What did you do!"
Jiang Ye timed it, "This time it lasted for more than forty seconds, which is a huge improvement over before."
Bai Chenzhu glanced at him upon hearing this, "I knew this move before?"
Jiang Ye and Bai Tao nodded in unison, Jiang Ye's eyes smiling, "You've used this trick on me before."
Bai Tao gave him a thumbs up and said, "Brother Bai is awesome!"
Bai Chenzhu returned the harmonica to its owner. Xie Mengyao, like a defeated rooster, felt utterly dejected. He glared fiercely at Bai Tao, "If I had known his abilities were like this, I definitely wouldn't have lost!"
"If the other side knows in advance, they can guard against me?" Bai Chenzhu's interest was piqued again. "Then let's try again?"
Jiang Ye pinched his watch.
Seagulls once again swirled across the sea, performing a light and romantic melody. However, the sea was calm and still, and at one moment it suddenly surged up, swallowing the sea's singers whole!
The melody stopped again, and Bai Tao couldn't help but clap her hands. Jiang Ye, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief. He was always worried that Xie Mengyao might hurt the already injured person without restraint, but now it seemed that his worries were unnecessary.
"Don't worry, you'll still be the vice-captain. I can't possibly take on multiple roles." Bai Chenzhu patted the young man's flushed shoulder.
Xie Mengyao was clearly happy, but she looked at Bai Chenzhu awkwardly and raised her chin, "Are you really not coming to our team?"
Bai Chenzhu turned to Jiang Ye and asked with a half-smile, "Commander Jiang, shall we release them?"
"No, I won't let you go," Jiang Ye said firmly. "No one can take my assistant away."
Bai Tao and Xie Mengyao still wanted to try, but Jiang Ye glanced at the time and said, "Azhu, I have to go to a meeting next. Are you coming?"
A meeting? Bai Chenzhu nodded. "I'd like to go take a look."
Bai Chenzhu lifted his foot to leave, but Xie Mengyao blocked his way, relentlessly bombarding him with endless questions.
"Hey!" he asked again and again, "Is your superpower really control magic?"
Bai Chenzhu saw through his unwillingness, "It should be."
Xie Mengyao gritted her teeth, "You must have known about my ability beforehand to react so quickly, right?"
If knowing the name of a superpower counts as knowing it, Bai Chenzhu said uncertainly, "Perhaps."
"Heh, I knew it. Just you wait, it won't be long before I beat you," Xie Mengyao said arrogantly.
Bai Chenzhu's expression was indifferent. "I wish you success."
Xie Mengyao was so angry by his two sentences that she jumped up and down. Bai Tao, with a face full of admiration, added fuel to the fire. Jiang Ye, on the other hand, seemed to have seen something new and looked at Bai Chenzhu several times.
Bai Chenzhu glanced at Jiang Ye following his gaze, and couldn't help but smile slightly.
The two walked out side by side, and Jiang Ye suddenly asked, "Was it fun?"
Bai Chenzhu nodded readily in agreement, "Teasing children is quite fun."
"Ah Zhu, even if you take it a step further, you're not even thirty yet. Don't always act so old-fashioned." Jiang Ye reached out and poked Bai Chenzhu's face. Unexpectedly, Bai Chenzhu didn't dodge, but just frowned slightly and nodded.
Jiang Ye withdrew his hand, overjoyed.
——
Indeed, the world is just a makeshift operation.
Bai Chenzhu expected to see the conference room full of people solemnly discussing world affairs.
However, all he saw was a group of deputies and their cell phones.
Due to inconvenient transportation and damaged signals, it's difficult to even make a video call, let alone get to the scene. It would be good enough if we could make a phone call to discuss things.
Kangcheng City Lord Xie Quan sat in the head seat. Jiang Ye casually pulled up a chair and sat down. Bai Chenzhu stood behind Jiang Ye. When he saw Xie Quan smiling and nodding at him, he was genuinely stunned for a moment, and then nodded.
"Sit down." Jiang Ye tugged at his arm. "It's okay, this seat is empty."
Since Jiang Ye said so, Bai Chenzhu pulled out a chair and sat down.
The first to speak was an aged male voice. Bai Chenzhu glanced at the 'Luozhou' sign hanging in front of the phone and the deputy's name recorded on the back of the phone, and felt a sense of familiarity.
"There's something I need to tell everyone. Recently, the zombies have been acting strangely. They've gathered together to form small groups and are targeting the base with a specific purpose, which is very similar to the rumored zombie horde..."
Following his account, a series of echoes followed, suggesting that this was not an isolated incident at any single base, and they offered various hypotheses and solutions for dealing with the zombie horde.
However, Jiang Ye tapped on the table and proposed a completely different approach, "Gentlemen, I am Jiang Ye. Regarding the zombie horde you mentioned, I would like to suggest that we first check whether everyone in your base is actually human."
Upon hearing this, even Xie Quan was surprised. "You mean other races?"
"I don't think I need to emphasize the different abilities they have due to their different sexes, right? You always need bait to lure the snake out of its hole," Jiang Ye said. "I propose that you all help spread the word about a lost and found notice."
Bai Chenzhu was drinking water when he inexplicably remembered his "missing person notice," coughed a few times, covered his mouth, and turned his head away.
Did Jiang Ye bring that up back then?
Jiang Ye was taken aback, then remembered the matter. The corners of his lips curved upwards as he continued, "Regarding the matter of gathering ability users to find the fragments of the communicator, please spread this news as widely as possible."
After the meeting ended, Bai Chenzhu saw Jiang Ye and Xie Quan talking, so he slumped in his office chair and stared blankly at the wall.
He seemed to hear a lot, yet he also felt as if he hadn't heard anything at all; everything before him was both familiar and strange.
"Is this the family member you've been looking for?" A smiling middle-aged man's voice came from behind Bai Chenzhu. Bai Chenzhu came back to her senses and looked at Xie Quan, who was speaking. "I see you're much more lively today with him here."
Upon hearing the word "family member," Jiang Ye was overjoyed. "Isn't it beautiful? My judgment was spot on."
"The person is more beautiful than the painting," Xie Quan complimented, "but have you forgotten to formally introduce me?"
Before Jiang Ye could speak, Bai Chenzhu took the initiative to say, "I've often heard Jiang Ye mention you, Mr. Xie. I am Bai Chenzhu."
He thought of the missing person poster again, and suddenly felt that he didn't even need to mention which word it was, so he hesitated to speak.
Xie Quan said, "I have long heard of his name."
Having completely lost face, Bai Chenzhu glanced at Jiang Ye and sighed.
Xie Quanle didn't open his mouth, but patted Jiang Ye on the shoulder meaningfully, "Alright, you can go back now. Don't get carried away and forget about your work just because you have an assistant."
"It's hard to say." Jiang Ye shrugged and left with Bai Chenzhu.
——
After leaving the conference room, on the same floor, Jiang Ye led Bai Chenzhu into a room with a table and chairs and a sofa, a typical office setup.
Bai Chenzhu thought she could go back, but was instead pulled to sit on the sofa by the shoulders, followed by a concerned voice in her ear, "How are you? Tired?"
"I don't think I did anything, did I?" Bai Chenzhu asked. He had simply followed Jiang Ye around and, apart from the competition, he hadn't done anything else.
“Mental work can be tiring too. You really should look in the mirror; your face is so pale.” Jiang Ye poured two glasses of water over. “I’m showing you around so you can get used to your new environment and also so you can recover your memories as you listen. But too much of a good thing can be bad. If you feel uncomfortable, just say so.”
"Was I that delicate before?" Bai Chenzhu asked sincerely.
"You're not delicate at all," Jiang Ye shook his head.
"Then why are you always afraid of this and that?" Bai Chenzhu didn't understand.
Jiang Ye pondered for a moment, then placed a glass of water in front of him. "Because you care, you're different now than before."
The office fell silent for a moment. Bai Chenzhu glanced at Jiang Ye and tentatively asked, "What will you do if I never regain my memories?"
After a few breaths, Jiang Ye replied, "Anyway, you're the one I've chosen. If I don't remember... it's not a big problem. I can win you back."
He said the same thing, but his smile was actually very forced.
Even Bai Chenzhu couldn't bear to watch.
He looked at his reflection in the glass, hesitated again and again. He didn't want to give the man in front of him hope, but he was also afraid that the other man would be too heartbroken. So he could only tell the truth: "Actually, I do remember things. It's just that a few fragments flash by occasionally, but they are too blurry and too fast for me to grasp."
"Really!" Jiang Ye was too fast. He knelt down and came closer. Bai Chenzhu, who was sitting on the sofa, didn't react in time before Jiang Ye grabbed his shoulder and turned him to the newcomer. "You will recover, right!"
His eyes shone like stars in the sky, full of joy.
"I think so," Bai Chenzhu said, avoiding eye contact, unsure of what to say.
The next second, he was embraced by a broad chest, the warmth of the body penetrating through the thin clothes, so intimate that Bai Chenzhu's heart skipped a beat.
Even with his parents, he rarely gets this close to anyone.
Bai Chenzhu shoved Jiang Ye away with a swift motion, like pushing away a piece of hot tofu that was desperately trying to stick to him, making Jiang Ye unsure of what to do with his hands. "Wait! I'm not done yet!"
Jiang Ye noticed his awkwardness and unease, so instead of pressing closer, he stepped back and said, "Okay."
But the gaze remained fixed on him.
The gaze seemed to carry a temperature, and Bai Chenzhu felt a heat rise in his body, his scalp tingling. It was the first time he had been stared at so intently, like meat being tempted by a hungry wolfhound.
Bai Chenzhu looked around, his seemingly calm words masking his desire to escape. "Since there's nothing else, I'll head back now?"
"What are you thinking about?" Jiang Ye teased. "Since you're an assistant, of course you're supposed to serve the boss personally. If you leave, who's going to do the work?"
"They all have deputies." Bai Chenzhu asked, puzzled. "Don't you have an adjutant?"
“Of course there is.” Jiang Ye touched his cheek. “But your jobs are different, A-Zhu. What you’re responsible for is my daily life, including my emotional needs.”
Bai Chenzhu regretted agreeing so readily at noon. "The assistant you mentioned... is it the proper kind?"
Jiang Ye shook his head solemnly, "It has to be the kind where you wear a bunny boy outfit."
Bai Chenzhu: ...
It's hard.
The fist hardened.
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